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Thoughts on Steelers so far.

H

Hobbster

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I know I don't post often, but since this season is different I thought I would give my 2 cents for the start of this season.

I am looking at these first 4 games as preseason, meaning if individuals look bad or schemes break down ( i.e. the pre-snap motion is still work in progress) I can't see getting to worried about it. Everything that has looked bad is fixable, it would have been great to have preseason to work these things out, but right now they will be no worse than 2 and 2 by the 4th game. Whether they lose next two or somehow can be 3 and 1, or even 4 and 0, they will at least be able to continue to work on any of these fixable items.

Often times even with preseason, the team seems to get better in the second half of the regular season anyway.

Overall I am very happy where the Steelers are, especially considering the start to last season.
 
They have won. That is it. They look good at points and very ordinary against sub par teams. They will have to play much better against good competition and will lose game(s) like this if they keep playing this way.
 
Right now they look like a wild card team to me...

if they stay relatively healthy..
 
We are the wild card team to beat.
 
The combination of Ben and the defense is going to be hard to beat.

I'm a bit concerned about the running game and secondary, but this is one of the most talented Steelers teams of the past 20 years.

Unfortunately, they play in the same conference as the Ravens and Chiefs.
 
They beat 2 teams they should have easily beaten. Now things get a little tougher. The Texans (0-2 or not) and the Titties will test us big time. I can easily see us losing both but never pick against the Steelers. We will know a lot more about this team after these next two games against decent teams.
 
There's positives and negatives.

I think Ben is about as far along as anyone could have hoped, considering the injury, surgery and recovery. His two TD passes were a pretty good indicator that he is well on his way back.

The pass rush is savage. Really don't need to say much else about it.

The running game is hot and cold. I attribute some of the issues to play calling. I hate those runs from the shotgun. Our backs don't have the speed to get to the outside.

The secondary looked pedestrian yesterday. However, the Broncos have decent young WR's, and I think when Driskel came in, they may have gotten caught with their hand in the cookie jar thinking they could play a little more loose. If that is the case, I hope they learned a lesson.

There is a lot to be happy about and some things to be concerned about. But it is game 2 without a pre-season. I would like to think they'll improve.
 
The biggest thing I take away is that the Steelers generally lose games like the one last week to the Broncos.

In this case, they came out with a W.

Charlie Sheen approves.
 
I know Ben has looked good at times, but our offense is stalling too often early on. This run, run throw HAS GOT TO GO...Doesn't Ben have a say?

Our D is strong enough that if we can put together some sustained drives, we should win 12. Ben needs to be smart, but also throw more on 1st & 2nd down get us in the end zone a bit more
 
SteveA said:
I know Ben has looked good at times, but our offense is stalling too often early on. This run, run throw HAS GOT TO GO...Doesn't Ben have a say?

Our D is strong enough that if we can put together some sustained drives, we should win 12. Ben needs to be smart, but also throw more on 1st & 2nd down get us in the end zone a bit more
Click to expand...

the run, run, throw on the first drive every week is a script to see what the defense is doing. It drives me nuts. You can see what the base defense is doing without being that freakin' predictable yourself.
 
they should send Claypool deep on the first play against the Texans.....
 
slashsteel said:
You take the good you take the bad you take them both and there you have.

Sent from my moto g(7) power using Steeler Nation mobile app
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Sarge said:
There's positives and negatives.

I think Ben is about as far along as anyone could have hoped, considering the injury, surgery and recovery. His two TD passes were a pretty good indicator that he is well on his way back.

The pass rush is savage. Really don't need to say much else about it.

The running game is hot and cold. I attribute some of the issues to play calling. I hate those runs from the shotgun. Our backs don't have the speed to get to the outside.

The seczondary looked pedestrian yesterday. However, the Broncos have decent young WR's, and I think when Driskel came in, they may have gotten caught with their hand in the cookie jar thinking they could play a little more loose. If that is the case, I hope they learned a lesson.

There is a lot to be happy about and some things to be concerned about. But it is game 2 without a pre-season. I would like to think they'll improve.
Click to expand...

I remember another time they played a little loose with a Denver QB. It might have been the most embarrassing loss in all the games I have watched.
 
2-0 is definitely good. Overall Ben has looked pretty good especially considering he didnt even have any preseason reps. Comparing to what we had last year we are miles ahead. The running game is iffy at best and Im still not sold on the Oline. The defense is hot and cold. They play lights out then let a journeyman back up QB pick them apart. Houston is a scary team at 0-2 they will certainly be motivated not to go 0-3. Tenn is a tough team, but I feel we match up better with them. I see a win and a loss. Steelers are playoff caliber if healthy. Hard to gauge how good we are at the moment, but next 2 games will help.
 
SteveA said:
I know Ben has looked good at times, but our offense is stalling too often early on. This run, run throw HAS GOT TO GO...Doesn't Ben have a say?

Our D is strong enough that if we can put together some sustained drives, we should win 12. Ben needs to be smart, but also throw more on 1st & 2nd down get us in the end zone a bit more
Click to expand...

Last year we would have creamed our jeans for 26 points a game. 26 PPG (or 25 if you subtract the safety) would have been good enough for 8th in the NFL last season. And comparatively, the Giants only allowed 17 to Chicago, and the Broncos gave up 16 to Tennessee, so the offense is doing well enough.

The defense needs to live up to the hype.
 
And...
There's a time you gotta go and show you're growin' now you know about the facts of life.
 
Turnovers are going to be the key to how far we go. The defense, the pass rush and fitz’ s nose for the ball has great potential for taking us a long way. . Picking up a fumble or picking off a pass backed up by a deep throw from Ben to claypool will really take starch out of a team. On the other hand we have to avoid turning the ball over like ovoiding Covid-19. Ben’s pick and snell’s fumble would have been killers in a closer game and did make ****** game closer than it should have been. Goooo steeeeellllerrrsss!!!
 
I think the Steelers should be 3-0. That is exciting. However we didn't really beat good teams, nor did we put the bad teams away.

Issues with coaching ( Tomlin to picking the best people to play / lousy red flag challenges that cost time outs, and Randys mediocre play calling ) , fumbles, a dialed down offense that doesn't feature Claypool or McFarland enough, and pass coverage issues remain.

If we cut down on fumbles, and play the speedy rookies a bit more the team will be harder to beat. Claypool is too good to limit to 3 targets per game Let's try 5-6. I'm also starting to think Edmunds is such a liability, we might be better off with Sean Davis...under the assumption that Davis hasn't lost a step

2020 is going to be hard to call. Players are getting hurt too fast. Whomever is healthy by the playoffs might have bigger advantage than usual as other teams might have too many key players hurt.

What's improved since 2019? Our return game. I wish I could say punting but so far that hasn't happened. Maybe KC knew something we did not.
 
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