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
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
Chuks Okorafor should get a game ball. He was stellar against JJ Watt today.
No Ebron? He might not be able to block but he was a key offensive weapon.
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.
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!!!
1. Graham Barton, C, Duke 2. Ricky Pearsall, WR, Florida 3. Maason Smith, DT, LSU 3. Max Melton, CB, Rutgers 4. Blake Fisher, OT, Notre Dame 6. Tommy Eichenberg, ILB, Ohio State 6. MJ Devonshire, CB, Pittsburgh
Do you mean by us or by us?
Forgot him. Good addition.
Gotta be by the offense...right?
The Steelers did not give up the ball. No int or fumble on offense, or turnover on returns.
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1. Graham Barton, C, Duke 2. Ricky Pearsall, WR, Florida 3. Maason Smith, DT, LSU 3. Max Melton, CB, Rutgers 4. Blake Fisher, OT, Notre Dame 6. Tommy Eichenberg, ILB, Ohio State 6. MJ Devonshire, CB, Pittsburgh
So you’re saying we turned the ball over at least once in 25 straight games? I didn’t know that. But it certainly seemed like it.
Correct. Not a good stat to have.
1. Graham Barton, C, Duke 2. Ricky Pearsall, WR, Florida 3. Maason Smith, DT, LSU 3. Max Melton, CB, Rutgers 4. Blake Fisher, OT, Notre Dame 6. Tommy Eichenberg, ILB, Ohio State 6. MJ Devonshire, CB, Pittsburgh
Did the coaches make noticeable adjustments in the second half? Or did the players just execute better?
I have to say, I love the fact that we closed out that game the way good teams are supposed to. Once Hilton got the interception, we score the go ahead TD, get the 2 pt. conversion, get the 3 and out, then March down the field eating all 3 Houston TOs and the entire clock. It was the opposite of the normal heart attack Steelers script. That is an encouraging sign.
Tomlin said they made adjustments.
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.
1. Graham Barton, C, Duke 2. Ricky Pearsall, WR, Florida 3. Maason Smith, DT, LSU 3. Max Melton, CB, Rutgers 4. Blake Fisher, OT, Notre Dame 6. Tommy Eichenberg, ILB, Ohio State 6. MJ Devonshire, CB, Pittsburgh
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.
I am not certain HOW they did it, but I think what they did was changed how they were pressuring and containing Watson. Almost all of his big plays in the first half were "off schedule" where he bought time and a receiver shook loose as the DBs were trying to figure out whether to close on Watson or hold their coverages.
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.
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.
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https://www.pro-football-reference.c...R/RoetBe00.htm
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.
Would have to look at the film again, but I think I seemed to notice more line stunts and twists in the 2nd half. They could have possibly switched out of straight pressure with the emphasis of keeping in their rush lanes to contain Watson and instead changed to more stunting and still staying in their rush lanes to contain, but cause confusion among the O linemen in terms of their pass sets.
If the Texans had a specific plan to handle Steelers blitz, by letting Watson get out of the pocket, it would show up from the booth or in film. Have a chance to make adjustments in game or at halftime. Its part of the chess match.
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
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