Pro Football Focus: ARI-PITT Grades

[hawaiiansteeler]

ARI-PIT GRADES: BRYANT IGNITES STEELERS, JONES RELIEVES VICK IN VICTORY

BRYSON VESNAVER

Here are the top takeaways and highest-graded players from the Steelers’ 25-13 win over the Cardinals.

Pittsburgh Steelers

– QB Michael Vick (-0.9) threw only eight passes, but that’s all it took for him to finish with a -2.8 passing grade before he went down with an injury. Vick threw two terrible passes that could have easily been intercepted (one of them was dropped by the defender) and was unable to do anything else. His three completions were all thrown behind the line of scrimmage, for a total of -12 yards in the air. The only reason his grade ended up near average was because of his +1.9 rushing grade, thanks to some excellent scrambles. QB Landry Jones (-0.5) played as well as anyone could have asked, completing safe throws and not forcing anything. His numbers were boosted by an amazing catch-and-run by WR Martavis Bryant (+2.1), but of his 12 passes, all of them were aimed beyond the line of scrimmage.

– The Steelers defense came up big when they needed to, specifically the pass rush duo of DE Cameron Heyward (+2.7) and OLB James Harrison (+4.6). The two combined for a sack, three QB hits and four hurries, and were frequently beating Cardinals’ offensive linemen off the snap. They played well against the run too, contributing to a unit that held the Cardinals to a mere 56 yards on 18 attempts. As a whole, the Steelers defense missed only two tackles all game, on 72 total plays.

– The Cardinals picked out CB Antwon Blake (-3.4) as the man they wanted to pick on in the passing game for this one, and evidently they chose correctly. Blake was targeted 13 times, and allowed nine of those to be caught for 163 yards and a touchdown. Every reception he allowed was for a first down, and on two of the incompletions Blake was beaten and Carson Palmer just missed his receiver. If you take away Blake’s rough game, the rest of the Steelers’ secondary actually didn’t play that poorly, allowing 20 receptions on 31 targets for 258 yards and 0 touchdowns.

Top performers:

OLB James Harrison (+4.6)
DE Cameron Heyward (+2.7)
WR Martavis Bryant (+2.1)
ILB Vince Williams (+2.0)
G David DeCastro (+1.8)

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https://www.profootballfocus.com/blo...ck-in-victory/

[ALLD]

Vick was so bad that the Steelers nor the Cards could catch his passes.

[Steelman]

As a whole, the Steelers defense missed only two tackles all game, on 72 total plays.

This right here is the best part of that whole grading system from this game. VAST improvement from recent weeks and Antwon Blake aside, it paid major dividends.

Props to the coaches (I'm assuming Butler) and the players for working on this.

[hawaiiansteeler]

here are some more PFF grades for the season...

out of 109 total CBs ranked:

Ross Cockrell is 50th
Willie Gay is 55th
and Antwon Blake is 107th

[steelreserve]

QB Landry Jones (-0.5) played as well as anyone could have asked, completing safe throws and not forcing anything. His numbers were boosted by an amazing catch-and-run by WR Martavis Bryant (+2.1), but of his 12 passes, all of them were aimed beyond the line of scrimmage.

Amazing what that will do for you, huh?

I don't know whether it was a Haley thing or a Vick thing to decide the only passes we'd attempt would be dump-offs where our receiver has to break three tackles to gain positive yardage, but seeing the end of it sure was a relief.

– The Cardinals picked out CB Antwon Blake (-3.4) as the man they wanted to pick on in the passing game for this one, and evidently they chose correctly. Blake was targeted 13 times, and allowed nine of those to be caught for 163 yards and a touchdown. Every reception he allowed was for a first down, and on two of the incompletions Blake was beaten and Carson Palmer just missed his receiver. If you take away Blake’s rough game, the rest of the Steelers’ secondary actually didn’t play that poorly, allowing 20 receptions on 31 targets for 258 yards and 0 touchdowns.

Yeah, but you know why you can't take away Blake's rough game? Because if they weren't busy torching him, they'd have gone for just as many yards against our other people. Blake was merely the name on the faceless jersey of generic sub-par DB play.

Seriously, the numbers aren't that different. They completed 69% against Blake for about 18 yards a catch, and 65% against the rest for about 13. Neither of those are very good.

If you just took Blake out and averaged the other people's stats across his 13 targets, the overall numbers would've been 29-of-44 for 421 yards with Blake, or 28.4-of-44 for 375 yards without.