Heroes: Pickett, Najee Harris, Benny Snell, Offensive Line Run blocking, Pressley Harvin, Minkah
Goats: Canada nearly outsmarted himself again, Diontae Johnson, Steven Sims had a rough game.
Heroes: Pickett, Najee Harris, Benny Snell, Offensive Line Run blocking, Pressley Harvin, Minkah
Goats: Canada nearly outsmarted himself again, Diontae Johnson, Steven Sims had a rough game.
Love for Puntus Maximus!
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And I love the heads up selfless play by Minkah. Probably could have gone for the TD but chose a guaranteed win instead.
Matthew Wright gets a gameball along with Najee and the o line for their run blocking
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Today's game wasn't over until Minkah said it was over! Everyone, including the coaching staff, had a good game with the exception of Diontae Johnson.
Wright gets the ball and Run game
Play calling might be the goat. 4 FGs and 19 points is crap against a defense giving up the most pass plays over 20 yds.
I mean Canada make a plan involving your deep guy early
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Merry Christmas
Gameball to KP, Najee, defense as a whole, Harvin and Wright, Watt (Derek)
goats: DJ and Canada (running plays for DJ at the expense of Pickens, just stupid), whoever is letting TJ play, he’s not ready and he can only make his injury worse
DJ had some bad drops and almost a fumble (overturned). One in the EZ that GP would have made 1000000x. To be fair, had had some decent catches also, and ran NS instead of backwards. They targeted Pickens maybe 2x and he was getting visibly frustrated. Muth had a very good game.
Game balls to The O-line, Pickett, Muth, Najee and Fitzpatrick.
Goats- the coaching staff for going into turtle mode the 2nd half, the receiving corp with the exception of Muth and a pathetic showing by every LB who suited up.
Those penalties are always huge too. Like today.....they're in the red zone with a manageable yardage to pickup the first down. The idiot false starts, and it ends up being a long third down play that comes up short and they have to kick a field goal.
The most aggravating part is that WR's don't go on sound in loud conditions. They are coached to look in and go on the snap because they are so far away from the QB. All he has to do is watch the ball get snapped, yet he does the same thing over and over and over again.
I know. That's my point. He knows the play. He knows there could or will be motion. His job is to stare at the football and only move when the ball moves.
He constantly has mental breakdowns during games.
He also runs wrong routes.
He quits on routes and will just stop running.
That guy CANNOT be your #1 WR.
Game balls: Najee, Harvin, 1st half Pickett, Fitz, Muth, Special Teams.
Goats: TJ for second week in a row. Total non-factor. Zero. Second half Canada.
Kirby Puckett
Formerly known as Fire Goodell
The Pickens vs DJ thing is just growing pains for a young QB. Honestly, I never put much stock in the Ben reaching out to Kenny talk. Or vice versa. Ben had to find his own way as a young QB. And I think Kenny's personality is such that he would expect to have to figure things out on his own as well. But, the one area where Kenny might be wise, if the opportunity arises, to seek the council of the 0le #7 is in how to handle the 1 ball multiple hands want it situation. Difficult enough when you are an established player with pro bowls and playoff success. A real challenge I suspect when you don't have any of that on your resume. I also don't think coaches can really help a young qb much with that dilemma, because most coaches wouldn't be able to see it from a player's perspective.
Well, it did seem that Cam Heyward tried to help out with that. He was talking to a visibly frustrated George Pickens on the sidelines. It was cool to see a vet try to help manage the emotions of a talented but frustrated rookie, even if he plays on the other side of the ball. Cam is just a great leader like that.
On the Pickens frustration/angry thing....I think it was James Lofton doing the TV commentary and he had a good point. Pickens thinks he is open based on what he is doing because in HS and the NCAA that was all the "open" he needed to be successful. But in the NFL...he isn't "open". Lofton (again I think this is who it was) pointed out that Pickens has work to do early in his routes and in his initial get-off of the line of scrimmage, to show his QB that he is "open" and cleaning up those technical issues will start to send the ball his way.
Dude sounded right to me. Assume he is. I hope that the Steelers coaching staff can funnel Pickens frustration into dedicated work on the technical elements of his game. Very typical for a young WR to need help there. Can you imagine the natural ability he is gifted with paired with the route running abilities of a non-crazy AB or the footwork of a Davantae Adams? Sweet googly-moogly, dude would be a monster.
I'm not worried about the Pickett to Pickens combination. They have good rapport on and off the field. It's one game and it was a W. Kenny will learn how to keep all his guys happy.
Heroes:
Team.
Goats:
Anyone on this board calling for the running offense a few years ago and now complaining when we run the ball when ahead as if that hasn't been Steelers run-style football since the 1980s.