Game balls ... Offensive play calling the last two drives. Defense 2nd half. Honorable mention the coaches. They apparently made adjustments and kept Houston off the scoreboard in the 2nd half!
Goats ... Offensive play calling 1st half. Defense 1st half.
Game Balls - Run Defense, Ben (throwing the ball better than ever) Conner (Best back on the team), JuJu (best WR on team).
Goats - Pass defense/coverage schemes.
Originally Posted by Dwinsgames
Enthroned Into The Good Old Boys Club - 2024
No Ebron? He might not be able to block but he was a key offensive weapon.
Forgot him. Good addition.
Game Ball: Conner had a great day.
Ben overall did well
Ebron had his most productive day
2nd half defense with the shutout of Watson
Goats: 1st half defense sucked ass
Fichtner: For the most part at least, offensive playcalling was really really bad
I didn’t get to watch the game but I checked in on the Gamecast.
Seems to me that the game could have gone the other way until Hilton’s interception. He’s been a valuable asset this season and made a play when a play absolutely needed to be made.
It’s cliche about games coming down to who gets the turnovers, but really that’s what probably determined the game. We got the key turnover and the victory.
The Steelers turnover streak of 25 games is over!!!
Do you mean by us or by us?
Gotta be by the offense...right?
Chuks Okorafor should get a game ball. He was stellar against JJ Watt today.
Agree. I hope he stays healthy and productive the rest of the way. Okorafor may prove to be capable of handling LT spot eventually and Dotson is going to replace Feiler next year.
Ben, Conner, O line and defensive coaches for making some adjustments in the 2nd half.
No Goats, but Steven Nelson is getting picked on so far this season at CB.
Great point, did JJ even play because I didn't notice him all game. Now his brother TJ, another monster game. In JJ's defense he's older, his body has been beaten down and he's probably not the player he used to be.
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I think Tomlin said they focused on keeping him in the pocket more and adjusted their zones down field. Tomlin said they played ZONE because that allows defenders to watch the QB where in man to man a QB like Watson can be 10 yards down the field before you realize it.
Whatever they did it was refreshing to actually see our coaches not only make an adjustment but one that worked so dominantly.
JJ was playing a lot in the middle at the NT position.
Hopefully, later in the week, someone will provide more details on what the adjustments were. Like I understand that there is more than one way to run a zone defense. There is more than one way to send pass rushers. But it would be cool to get a guided walk-through on what the team specifically changed.
Game ball - Offensive Line, 2nd half defense
Goat - 1st half defense
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Game balls - Second half Steelers
Goats - First half Steelers
Didn't see the game so no Game Balls and Goats from me, but we need a new OC and punter.
This rookie class looks very good. McFarland gave the offense a spark with 2 good runs, Chase, though he almost coughed up a turnover iced the game on a good catch and run.
Also, Ray-Ray McCloud has done fantastic as a returner.
After last week's coaching mess, the coaching staff (mostly) atoned for themselves. Tomlin put together a solid game plan and the second half defensive adjustments to contain Watson were excellent.
Ben is quietly having an outstanding season. In fact, I would go so far to say this is the best football he's been playing in a long time. The stats aren't eye-popping, but he's being very smart with the football and not putting the team in poor spots with turnovers. He's distributing the ball, managing games and winning them. He's shut me up big time. Please continue.
James Conner had another solid game. Snell scared him Week 1 and figured maybe its time to stop getting hurt and play like the starter he is capable of.
The Second Half Defense obviously for shutting down Watson.
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https://www.pro-football-reference.c...R/RoetBe00.htm
Good to see we are back to explaining everything as "coaching" and "game planning" and armchair psychology to explain everything that happens on a football field.
Watt and Conner gameballs. No goats.
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Game Balls:
Offense:
- Ebron. He had himself a good game. One drop that looked like he probably should have had it, but it was also thrown behind him and he put out good effort to catch the ball.
- Running Backs (all but one, see goats). Didn't look to impressive early, but Connor ended up over 100 yards today and McFarland had some nice caries as well. Snell didn't put up a lot of yards, but he had good, hard runs.
- Rushing defense. Held Johnson to 23 yards rushing and 1.8 average.
- Ben R. He quietly had himself a good game. 23/36 may not look good, but I saw at least three balls hit receivers in the hands and then drop.
Defense:
- Mike Hilton. He got burned, then came back and played great defense after that including the INT that was beautifully timed. He also had 8 solo tackles and a pass defended.
- Bud Dupree had 1.5 sacks.
- Watt had 4 QB hits with one resulting in a sack. He also had another tackle for a loss.
- THIRD QUARTER STEELERS DEFENSE. Get this. In the third quarter, the defense allowed 12 yards and no points.
- Coaching Staff. The adjustments they made for the second half literally shut down the Texans.
Total Team:
- FOURTH QUARTER PITTSBURGH STEELERS. That is perhaps the most complete quarter of football I have seen from this team since the third quarter of the AFC divisional playoff against the Chargers in their 2008 SB season. Texans had the ball for 3 minutes and 7 seconds out of the final 15 minutes. They made one (1) positive play in the entire fourth quarter, a 34 yard pass on the first play of the quarter. After that, the Steelers defense allowed -5 yards the rest of the game. Steelers offense put up 142 yards on 23 plays with a touchdown. They very well could have put up a second one but sat on the ball to run out the clock.
Honorable Mention:
- Special teams. Yes, that's right. Colquit isn't booming out punts, but he is hitting very consistent 48 yard punts (two at 48 yards, one at 47 yards). His only short one was on a shorter field, and he dropped it just inside the twenty. And, the Texans average punt return was only 5.7 yards, 8 yard average for Carter and 1 yard for Fuller. They also averaged only 19 yards per return with a long of 27. Converesly, the Steelers averaged 12.5 yard average return (with a long of 13) and 23.5 yard average kick return (long of 28). Moreover, McCloud looked like his was about bust a long return almost every time he touched the ball.
Goats:
Offense:
- Samuels. It's about time for him to go.
- Ben R./Fichtner, whoever was responsible for calling a run on 2nd and forever, and the looking like the Steelers offense of the last few years pushing the ball downfield needlessly. (Note, there were several times when they took legitimate shots downfield, I'm not arguing that. But, there were other times when it looked like they were just wasting downs—that is, the shot down field wasn't used to set up anything else, and was done at a strange time in the down/distance count.
- First and third quarter offense.
Defense
- First half defense. Do I need to say more?
Final Tip o' the Cap: Running Backs
Conner is quietly starting to come back to form. He showed physicality today with some good, hard runs, and also showed he can be a bit of a threat receiving out of the backfield with 4 receptions on 5 targets for 40 yards.
McFarland showed he can play in the NFL. He's going to be exciting to watch.
Benny Snell football doesn't look impressive in the stats, but he was asked to make the hard runs today, and he did it for the most part.
This isn't the Steelers RB stable of the seventies or Bettis and whoever was backing him up, or pre-hold-out Le'Veon Bell, but if things continue to progress, defenses will have to start devoting a bit more time to them in game planning.
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According to Tomlin's press conference, they made a few "technical" adjustments to coverages and to close up the escape lanes Watson was utilizing to keep plays alive. Start at 1:00.
I have to give a shoutout to VW.....2 sacks and 8 TFLs already this season.
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I think VW is one of the keys as to why the run d has improved this year - since he is playing more. Just wish we had somebody we could slide in there against teams without much of a running game to help with coverage. But I'm not complaining; VW is very good at what he does. We will need him next week, for sure.
Yes, absolutely. VW is a great run stopping thumper. I think all that Mark Barron stuff hurt us in the run game and it’s not like Barron was ever consistently good in coverage either. I like having Williams as that rock in there
The Good: Conner & Ebron
The Bad: Hilton's Burn & Ben's Deep Passing
The Ugly: The spot on Ben's scramble
I hope so too. Whatever they did they need to do that against Lamar Jackson as well. Keep him in the pocket and make him throw and take your chances with his arm versus his legs.
If the Titans could contain Jackson last year, the Steelers can do it this year and from what I recall, they did a pretty decent job of it last season in the one game they played...although it was earlier in the season.
The issue is that I dont think the Steelers front 3 D linemen can contain Mark Ingram, Gus Edwards and JK Dobbins well enough, to put the ball in LaMarr Jackson's hands in 3rd and 7 or more.
The Titans stopped the Ravens run game, then contained Jackson with athletic LB's that strung him out to the sideline where he ran out of room to run. Make Jackson beat you with his arm deep and you can beat the Ravens. Let Jackson and those RB's be productive and it opens up the pass game to his TE's.
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be nice to see him be accurate with it. If that was Hodges that overthrew Washington, who was open by a couple strides, the fanbase would be crucifying him.
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