Despite what appeared to be a less than stellar defensive outing on Sunday, the Steelers did precisely what they needed to do. Put Jackson in a position where he had to win the game with his arm. Jackson's completion percentage was *****. His numbers only looked somewhat decent because he had 3 huge gains in the air when the defense failed to cover guys in the deep middle. While Jackson can't necessarily read a defense, he CAN throw a laser to a wide open receiver in the middle of the field.
As somebody mentioned in another thread, if Bud sticks to his assignment faithfully and just goes to cream Jackson every single down, Lamar probably has 3 or 4 fewer big plays. You can't necessarily fault Dupree, as Jackson is elusive and the Rats made some great shifts in the 2nd half to deal with Watt and Dupree crashing on him (options, did ya see em?) Ultimately, the defense produced 4 turnovers, several of them due to pressure or hits. And Jackson dodged 2 more turnovers, one when he fumbled and one when Haden wasn't quite able to make a full squeeze on an int.
No, the defense played a HUGE game, honestly. Can't fault them at all.
The offense was hot garbage in the 1st half and the coaches NEED to figure out how THEY can lead the offense to some success rather than just eventually relying on Ben and saying... well, good luck man. Spread em out and do your thing. If I were the OC and that was the way my team was consistently getting points and wins I'd feel like I may be on the hot seat. I will say Fichtner does seem to get a grip on the game and make some calls eventually that appear to help, but C'mon Randy. Let's see more games like the Cleveland or Titans game where the Steelers just come out of the gate and dominate, putting the other team in a completely unplanned situation. Nobody likes to play from 28 down.
My hope is that the offense finally begins to gel consistently at and beyond Dallas. If those guys can start consistently playing well together... Holy ****.
