Jags Coming To Town

[HollywoodSteel]

I don’t understand this “the Jags have our number” thing. What does that mean when you’re talking about a team with none of the same players on it? The uniforms have our number?

It’s different if we’re talking about something like going out west to the Raiders puts us at a disadvantage, but there’s nothing magical about the Jacksonville franchise itself, especially since we play in Pittsburgh. The ghost of Blake Bortles isn’t coming for us.

That said, this Jags team is actually better than many of the past iterations we’ve faced. This one has a legit QB, no disrespect to the aforementioned Bortles.

But I’m feeling optimistic. Home field advantage will mean something in this one. We win it by making a FG and them missing one. Or something like that.

[86WARD]

I wouldn’t call Lawrence “legit” quite yet. He’s a slightly better version of Kenny Pickett at the moment. If you watched him play this year, he hasn’t been playing great. Maybe my definition of legit is different but Lawrence hasn’t been my version of legit.

[Edman]

I don’t understand this “the Jags have our number” thing. What does that mean when you’re talking about a team with none of the same players on it? The uniforms have our number?

It’s different if we’re talking about something like going out west to the Raiders puts us at a disadvantage, but there’s nothing magical about the Jacksonville franchise itself, especially since we play in Pittsburgh. The ghost of Blake Bortles isn’t coming for us.

That said, this Jags team is actually better than many of the past iterations we’ve faced. This one has a legit QB, no disrespect to the aforementioned Bortles.

But I’m feeling optimistic. Home field advantage will mean something in this one. We win it by making a FG and them missing one. Or something like that.

The 2017 Steelers were highly flawed and won a lot of close games to inferior teams that season. They were rarely, if ever dominant, and they were arrogant and unfocused. The Defense couldn't tackle or cover, and their secondary was horrid. Anyone would've went into Heinz and handled that team, especially without Shazier.

I think its Steelers fans overcompensating for the arrogance they previously showed Jacksonville in the past and PTSD from the late Ben years. Instead of simply respecting them as an opponent, they now view them as this magical team that the Steelers somehow can't beat. Never mind the fact that the overall series is 14-13 and Pittsburgh has won two straight against them. On the other side, Jacksonville is favored and highly arrogant. They're 5-2 and playing a team that on paper they should be able to handle.

The Jaguars are a legitimate foe, but that's it. This isn't some dynasty.

[86WARD]

Diontae Johnson not practicing due to hamstring?

[Steeler-in-west]

I wouldn’t call Lawrence “legit” quite yet. He’s a slightly better version of Kenny Pickett at the moment. If you watched him play this year, he hasn’t been playing great. Maybe my definition of legit is different but Lawrence hasn’t been my version of legit.

I’m pretty sure Lawrence’s success is tied to Etienne, stop the run and see if lawrence can beat jp Jr and the rest of the secondary

[Born2Steel]

Diontae Johnson not practicing due to hamstring?

WTF?? Kinda need ya DJ.

[Devilsdancefloor]

I hate the jags that is all. They always no matter how bad give the Steelers fits

[El Kabong]

I’m a sense everyone should be trying to score 30 a game. Not sure the plan should ever be let’s just put up 20 and then punts!

Right, but the criticism of Tomlin is that he's not trying to score 30 ppg, he's instead trying to possess the ball, run clock, play conservative, keep the score close until the end and win 20-17.

[Mojouw]

Right, but the criticism of Tomlin is that he's not trying to score 30 ppg, he's instead trying to possess the ball, run clock, play conservative, keep the score close until the end and win 20-17.

Last few years? Or always?

I kinda feel he used to try and score points and now he doesn’t because of not Ben Roethlisberger.

Or am I missing more than I usually do?

[86WARD]

Tomlin has said on multiple occasions that he’s not concerned with how many points are being scored as long as the results are wins. If he scored 6 points a week and the team went 13-4 and into the playoffs, he would be fine with that.

[Mojouw]

Tomlin has said on multiple occasions that he’s not concerned with how many points are being scored as long as the results are wins. If he scored 6 points a week and the team went 13-4 and into the playoffs, he would be fine with that.

True.

But I remember when he had confidence in his QB....there was much thrashing of keyboards around here about taking risky deep throws on third downs. Aggressive 4th down calls. Etc. I think Tomlin coaches his teams to be comfortable and capable of winning 3-0 games. But I don't see a pattern of a guy instilling a philosphy/plan that only attempts to score like 12 points or something.

Wasn't one of the "reasons" Fichtner got and held the OC job to increase the amount of points scored?

[86WARD]

Roethlisberger said the deep throws on third and short and fourth and short was because he saw single coverage or cover zero and made those calls at the line. So some of that “riskiness” fell on Ben and not Tomlin and maybe that’s why we don’t see as many shots down field as when Ben was here?

[86WARD]

[Mojouw]

Roethlisberger said the deep throws on third and short and fourth and short was because he saw single coverage or cover zero and made those calls at the line. So some of that “riskiness” fell on Ben and not Tomlin and maybe that’s why we don’t see as many shots down field as when Ben was here?

Could be. Even if Ben is calling it, it still means Tomlin was "comfortable" with an aggressive set-up.

For me, Tomlin was almost always an aggressive coach who was hunting points (his love of 2 point conversions) and if his team failed in their scoring efforts, he had faith his defense could hold up. Since Ben or since injured Ben...Tomlin realizes his offense just can't score points. So he flipped to gutting out low-scoring contests.

Might be wrong in how I am thinking about it.

[86WARD]

Could be. Even if Ben is calling it, it still means Tomlin was "comfortable" with an aggressive set-up.

For me, Tomlin was almost always an aggressive coach who was hunting points (his love of 2 point conversions) and if his team failed in their scoring efforts, he had faith his defense could hold up. Since Ben or since injured Ben...Tomlin realizes his offense just can't score points. So he flipped to gutting out low-scoring contests.

Might be wrong in how I am thinking about it.

No. I think you are right on with Tomlin being aggressive. Remember the Chargers game where he went for the win? I think he is aggressive by nature but I also think he knows when to give it a shot and when not to. With Ben, he had a HOF QB...he let him do what Ben thought was right. Let's be honest, Ben probably knew much more about the offensive game than Tomlin did anyway. A good coach will give way to the one more knowledgeable. Like you said, Ben screws up? Tomlin has his defense to fall back on and himself to fall back on because that's where TOmlin's strengths came from..that defensive side of the ball.

[tube517]

[Mojouw]

This is an absolutely mind-bending stat. Like, what? How does that even work?

[Born2Steel]

Averaging scoring 16pts a game. Averaging giving up 22 points a game. That seems on the wrong side of things, but also makes one score games giving us a chance at the end.

The Steelers were not SB favorites coming into the season. Most don’t have us finishing 1st or 2nd in the division. Call it what you want but this is a rebuild/reload season. Just have to go 1-0 this week. I think all 4 AFCN teams win this week. Guess we’ll find out.

Let’s GO!!

[Moose]

As long as that damn Canada is on our staff, I don"t have any faith in a win !

[tube517]

https://steelersdepot.com/2023/10/st...le-for-sunday/

DJ had a full practice but there are 3 DBs questionable including JPJ, Wallace and Pierre.

Luq Barcoo had to take first team reps today. Yikes.

[Mojouw]

https://steelersdepot.com/2023/10/st...le-for-sunday/

DJ had a full practice but there are 3 DBs questionable including JPJ, Wallace and Pierre.

Luq Barcoo had to take first team reps today. Yikes.

That’s not encouraging but how much worse could Bucaroo be than Wallace at this point?

Remember after the Raiders game how everyone had him playing well because Jimmy H’s concussion tossed two picks? That seems like forever ago.

[tube517]

That’s not encouraging but how much worse could Bucaroo be than Wallace at this point?

Remember after the Raiders game how everyone had him playing well because Jimmy H’s concussion tossed two picks? That seems like forever ago.

Exactly.

More worried about JPJ. Put Darius Rush out there in place of Wallace.

[Mojouw]

Exactly.

More worried about JPJ. Put Darius Rush out there in place of Wallace.

Honestly, if I was running the show, Porter and Rush would be my starting outside corners for the rest of the season unless they were dead. And even then, I might try to Weekend at Bernie’s it rather than go back to Wallace.

[El Kabong]

Could be. Even if Ben is calling it, it still means Tomlin was "comfortable" with an aggressive set-up.

For me, Tomlin was almost always an aggressive coach who was hunting points (his love of 2 point conversions) and if his team failed in their scoring efforts, he had faith his defense could hold up. Since Ben or since injured Ben...Tomlin realizes his offense just can't score points. So he flipped to gutting out low-scoring contests.

Might be wrong in how I am thinking about it.

There's one game that is like a poster child for peoples' criticism of Tomlin being too conservative on offense even with Ben on the roster:

A few years ago (2018?) the Steelers had a game at New Orleans. The Saints got up to a 10-point lead. The Steelers dominated the third quarter because Ben to AB were unstoppable that game and the Steelers scored two touchdowns to go up by 4 points.

So people in the game thread on the board I was reading then predicted that Tomlin would come out running the ball on the next Steeler possession and sure enough, milking a 4-point lead, Tomlin came out running the ball and starting to run clock. The Steelers didn't score again and New Orleans ended up winning in the end.

So the criticism was, given that you had a franchise QB in Drew Brees and an offensive mind in Sean Payton on the other side, you had to figure the Saints would score again and that the 4 point lead wouldn't stand up, and given that Ben to AB was unstoppable that game, why not keep passing to try to score as many points as possible?

Basically, it's that as soon as Tomlin has a lead no matter how small and no matter how much time is left in the game, he wants to start running the ball to run clock and count on his D to win in the end but it's dangerous in today's pass-oriented NFL because it's too easy for the other teams to score on you.

[Born2Steel]

There's one game that is like a poster child for peoples' criticism of Tomlin being too conservative on offense even with Ben on the roster:

A few years ago (2018?) the Steelers had a game at New Orleans. The Saints got up to a 10-point lead. The Steelers dominated the third quarter because Ben to AB were unstoppable that game and the Steelers scored two touchdowns to go up by 4 points.

So people in the game thread on the board I was reading then predicted that Tomlin would come out running the ball on the next Steeler possession and sure enough, milking a 4-point lead, Tomlin came out running the ball and starting to run clock. The Steelers didn't score again and New Orleans ended up winning in the end.

So the criticism was, given that you had a franchise QB in Drew Brees and an offensive mind in Sean Payton on the other side, you had to figure the Saints would score again and that the 4 point lead wouldn't stand up, and given that Ben to AB was unstoppable that game, why not keep passing to try to score as many points as possible?

Basically, it's that as soon as Tomlin has a lead no matter how small and no matter how much time is left in the game, he wants to start running the ball to run clock and count on his D to win in the end but it's dangerous in today's pass-oriented NFL because it's too easy for the other teams to score on you.

You are counting on your run game to keep moving the chains and continue running the clock. You're trying to keep Drew Brees on the sidelines as well. MOST coaches do not want a shootout type of game. With the lead in the 4th, being able to run the ball and the clock is important. Obviously it doesn't always work but that's a sound strategy. I disagree with your assertion of 'no matter how much time is left'.

[Born2Steel]

Back to the Jags game this week....

I read that Zay Jones is out. Calvin Ridley and Christian Kirk will still require attention. I'm really hoping JPjr can go this week. I don't know much about TE Luke Ferrell but I did get to see Evan Engram play at Ole Miss. He is much more of a threat in the run game than the passing game, unless he has improved greatly at run blocking. RBs Etienne and Bigsby are both hard runners and tough to tackle. We will miss Cam on our DL. I think Trevor Lawrence is going to be a fun opponent. At 6'6" he doesn't get many passes batted down, and so far this season he hasn't thrown many INTs. He does give up a lot of sacks though.

As far as OUR offense goes, I have no idea what to expect from us. I do notice the Jags don't seem to be deep defensively. Probably another keep it close and win in the 4th quarter type of game. Although I hope to see an offensive breakout type of game.

I think this will most likely be a 22-17 area win, but I'm going to go way out on that limb and predict a more heart than head 35-20 win this week.

[Mojouw]

I don’t think the offense work’s enough to pull this out.

27-12 Jags.

[Born2Steel]

I don’t think the offense work’s enough to pull this out.

27-12 Jags.

The Steelers are undefeated when scoring double digits this season.

[Mojouw]

The Steelers are undefeated when scoring double digits this season.

Really?

Alright. I guess I’ll go with 17-9 Jags?

[tube517]

There's one game that is like a poster child for peoples' criticism of Tomlin being too conservative on offense even with Ben on the roster:

A few years ago (2018?) the Steelers had a game at New Orleans. The Saints got up to a 10-point lead. The Steelers dominated the third quarter because Ben to AB were unstoppable that game and the Steelers scored two touchdowns to go up by 4 points.

So people in the game thread on the board I was reading then predicted that Tomlin would come out running the ball on the next Steeler possession and sure enough, milking a 4-point lead, Tomlin came out running the ball and starting to run clock. The Steelers didn't score again and New Orleans ended up winning in the end.

So the criticism was, given that you had a franchise QB in Drew Brees and an offensive mind in Sean Payton on the other side, you had to figure the Saints would score again and that the 4 point lead wouldn't stand up, and given that Ben to AB was unstoppable that game, why not keep passing to try to score as many points as possible?

Basically, it's that as soon as Tomlin has a lead no matter how small and no matter how much time is left in the game, he wants to start running the ball to run clock and count on his D to win in the end but it's dangerous in today's pass-oriented NFL because it's too easy for the other teams to score on you.

That's the game with the phantom PI call against Haden.

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