From all the highs and lows of yesterday, leave your final thoughts/analysis/discussion/takeaways from yesterday’s victory over the Bengals.
This thread is intended for level-headed, mindful discussion and less knee-jerk reactions. Keep this in mind before commenting.
As always DON’T BE A DAMN JAGOFF.
Follow our rules. We all have different opinions and mindsets, but we’re all here to talk Steelers and see them succeed at the end of the day. Keep it cool.
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We’re 1-0 A.C.
Offense played great*, defense played great, Boswell is great as always. Just need our offense to score more which I’m sure will happen and beat the shit out of the cardinals and patriots to unleash hell in December and get hot for the playoffs. Bad week for special teams though but I’m sure Danny will get them back to shape.
The week 18 game at Baltimore is looking more and more like it’s going to be one of the most important games of the season for both us and the Ratbirds.
Man, after catching 5 hours of unsolicited double birds and rotten tooth breath in the neutered puppy pound last weekend…
Great fucking Monday. We look alive and the Browns literally get thrown off a cliff.
I liked what I saw, but hopefully our guys don’t get content. We gotta keep improving, and if we do, I think we’ve got an actual shot at the division, and maybe even the Superbowl
We fucking owned the ToP. Having that advantage was huge for keeping our elite defense rested. Once we get minkah back, I’m super excited to see what they can do when they don’t spend 45 minutes on the field
I think my big takeaway is that the offense looked so much better but it wasn’t that the players themselves played all that much better, or even that the core philosophy of the offense changed. Canada was just that bad of a play caller
Kenny played well but still made some of the same mistakes he has been making. Missing a couple open dudes, some inaccuracies particularly to GP, some aggravating decisions like throwing a screen pass for a 5 yard loss to Warren, and still not finding the end zone. What’s more is that the line didn’t ever seem to give Kenny a ton of time to work, and only one of our running backs seemed to be able to get anything going. It was honestly a lot of the same shit, right down to a DJ dropped TD
But just changing the play caller and doing things people have been begging them to do all season brought all the life to this offense. Using the middle of the field. Incorporating deep shots here and there to keep defenses honest. Being aggressive on early downs, and avoiding 3rd and long; we had 17 3rd downs (!!) but only 9 of them were >7 yards, and we went 5/8 on the ones that were less than that. It’s common sense football
Whoever is running social media for the Steelers deserves a raise.
Good win. But not great. But good enough. Still need to stop plaxicoing ourselves.
Tomlin needs to seriously evaluate and address his challenges. We shouldn’t be having a conversation every year about it.
Theres a lot to build on from that but also a lot to address. Our receivers need to do a much better job of running through contact and running the correct/complete routes. No more lackadaisical bs. (Looking at you Pickens)
Defense aside from the goofy ass chase tips yesterday they played alright. Thompson looking like he’s here to stay but tackle of the game goes to the little Heyward himself.
Steelers were 8-17 on 3rd down but it felt like they were better than that.
If Kenny can keep being great on 3rd downs and they can extend drives then I can kinda look past his lack of TD passes. But in a perfect world that ramps up too as the season goes on.
My final thought is:
Steelers > everyone else
Offense looked night and day different. The team MOVED THE GODDAMN BALL! Need to work out the kinks though; DJ needs to sell the catch better in the endzone…like I get that it technically was a catch, but it’s hard to get behind that when the ball popped out the second he hit the ground. Warren needs to not fumble. Offense needs to not get pushed out of FG range by sacks/dumb penalties. We had 3 drives that were within FG range that ended in zero points. Fumble and penalties that pushed us out. If we get 9 points from those drives, this game would never have been close. We got the yardage, now we need the points to match it. Hopefully vs. the Cardinals that will be something we can figure out.
Defense looked overall slightly less incompetent in the secondary level…aside from Chase winning every damn tip drill. Watt had 2 sacks and 1 really dump fuckup. Needs to be mindful of that.
Overall I’m honestly a little shocked at how solid the team looked. The offensive production was a breath of fresh air. I expected improvement with Canada’s firing, but not instant gratification. Kenny still had some misses, but not as many. Perhaps that’s because he’s being utilized more in a way that better harmonizes with his strengths and weaknesses. Still needs to stop doing that stupid blind spin move. Middle of the field was open again thanks to Muth. Thank the heavens.
Solid win over a divisional opponent.
