Game Balls, Game Goats & FU's.............week @ Broncos

[Chicoman]

Well I thought last week was an ugly but this week our Steelers took it to a whole new level! This offense started off today looking pretty good jumping out to a quick 10-0 lead behind Justin Fields. Congratulations to Darnell Washington on his first TD catch....he showed BIG soft hands out there as the football stuck in his hands for the easy TD. The second half for this offense was really bad.....52 yds total offense in the 2nd half and we were only 1 miscue from disaster as a miscommunication between Fields & Frazier caused a snap to bounce off Fields face mask....luckily Jaylen Warren was johnny-on-the-spot and grabbed the football in mid-air. I still see Justin Fields very uncomfortable under Center and sitting in the pocket. It's just not Justin's comfort zone. He's at his best when they roll him out and get him out in space and let him make plays with his legs if there's no one open. Today they didn't really let Fields do that very much....maybe it was by design...I don't know but Fields is not a Pocket Passer....and I doubt he ever will be. 1 Touchdown in 2 full games is not what I'm comfortable seeing from Justin Fields and this offense. As for the offensive line....I saw good run blocking from Frazier, Daniels & Fautanu out there leading the way for Najee on a couple runs. The O-line is still a work in progress and yes Broderick Jones looks really bad right now and Dan Moore is not much better. They gave up a couple sacks today but those were on Fields who had plenty of time back there. I felt like the game could have slipped away but our Defense was able to do just enough to keep the game out of reach for Denver. The Steelers are getting good pressure from their Defense on the QB's and they really aren't blitzing much at all in their first 2 games. Last week the Steelers were +3 on turnovers. This week they were +2 and one of them was an INT by 2nd year DB Cory Trice who intercepted Bo Nix in the endzone late in the 3rd Quarter. On the backend the Steelers DB's had a couple penalties out there today....most notable Joey Jr. that had 2 penalties called on him but they were both off-setting penalties. Someone said this is the first time since 1975 the Steelers have started 2-0 winning their first two games on the road. 2-0 sure feels nice and I'll take it but I'll continue to keep my expectations low because this offense is just not good. Next week is the Steelers Home opener and it's going to be interesting because the Chargers are a hard-nosed, well prepared, well coached football team. We should see Troy Fautanu matching up most of the game against Joey Bosa which will be a great test for the young kid. Can the Steelers Defense shut down the Chargers running game? We shall see.......I'm happy to be 2-0 but this offense....my god man....it's no better than it was last season! I wanna see more than 4 targets a game to George Pickens and I wanna see more touches for Jaylen Warren behind Najee Harris! Will Roman Wilson add anything to this passing game when he comes back? I'm still on the fence about Arthur Smith as our OC. He's better than Matt Canada but that's not saying much.

Per Tomlin's Post Game:
MyCole Pruitt - Knee that's being evaluated
Tyler Matekavich - Hamstring injury....severity is not known

Game Balls:
Darnell Washington - Congrats to him on his first NFL TD. BIG BOI showed BIG HANDS, SOFT HANDS and swallowed up that football for the TD
Cory Trice - Kid came in after Donte Jackson went down with an injury and played it perfectly...dropping off his man as he ran across the field and coming across the back of the endzone to make his first career INT. So happy for him after spending all last season on IR.
Deshon Elliot - 9 tackles today 4 solo......perhaps the most overlooked Free Agent signing this off-season but what a signing. Glad he's a Steeler!
Minkah Fitzpatrick - 7 tackles today, 5 solo.....just another day at the office for him but he's all over the field out there and gave good effort on that trick play by Denver to catch backup to the receiver for a TD saving tackle as both Steelers DB's fell down as the pass was completed. He saved a TD there on that play and Denver had to settle for a FG.

Game Goats:
Broderick Jones - Had 3 penalties on the 3rd Steelers drive essentially killing the hopes of scoring any points that drive. That's 5 penalties in 6 Quarters of Football for him. Not sure what is wrong with Jones but he was god awful today!
Joey Porter Jr - 3 penalties today 2 of them offsetting......I love this kid's heart but god damn he gets penalized alot! Too grabby! Without those offsetting penalties we really would have put Denver in some bad opportunities.

FU's:
Watching the Broncos tackles absolutely bear hugging and hooking and grabbing TJ Watt, Alex Highsmith & Nick Herbig the entire friggin game was infuriating! #69 on the Broncos should have been called for a handful of penalties against TJ Watt. This was really bad Officiating.....I know what I'm seeing and our OLB's are being mugged out there and the officials are letting it happen week in, week out!

 

[xjx]

The olb's were held all game.

Lots of penalties in this game. Slow clock. Boring game.

We need to score touchdowns. Can't run with the big dogs only scoring 13.

 

[Steeltime]

The officiating favors the home team. Well, until next week I guess.

The 2nd hold on Jones was not legit. The 2nd hold on JPJ - same. The refs go into games looking for "x" and they always find what they are looking for.

 

[slashsteel]

I like Smith. Today he was hamstrung by just and unjust penalties, This team is learning a new O. No reason for it not to get better as the season moves along.

 

[steel dino]

Worst nfl officiated game I’ve ever seen..
Multiple horrible calls on both sides..
Just terrible entertainment for football fans.!
College football officials do a much better job overall week in and week out!

 

[SteelerFan448]

I don't think Porter deserves a goat spot because he didn't do anything to get two of those calls. Swap in the coach who thought splitting the right tackle duty between Fautanu and Jones was a good idea. There is a reason no one EVER does that.

 

[Phoenix1172]

Jones is getting a lot of deserved heat, but Tomlin and the line coaches need to be held accountable as well. Management needs to step in and hire staff that can develop a lot of this young talent on the team. Otherwise, Jones will end up another pick that loses his confidence due to inept coaching only to leave and thrive somewhere else. How does he go from showing a lot of promise last year to what he has shown this year after a full offseason of training and practice? Khan has done of good job brining in nice talent. Now he needs to focus more on team coaches and make sure he has people in place that can actually coach and develop young players. Outside of a couple of positions, this has not been a strength of Tomlin or his coaching tree.

 

[Troglodyte]

FU to Pittsburgh sports media for declaring a QB controversy after the Falcons game. No, we need to see the offense with Wilson at the helm. STFU.

 

[Shane Falco]

Tomlin or whomever it is needs to stop with offensive line malpractice. Put Jones at LT and be done with it. I get Moore’s PFF grade and he’s playing solid. You traded up to get him now use him. He needs to get into a rhythm as LT.

Waitman was a good signing. He can boom it.

 

[troymania]

FU to Pittsburgh sports media for declaring a QB controversy after the Falcons game. No, we need to see the offense with Wilson at the helm. STFU.

I agree, Wilson should get the nod next just to see what we have in him. I have said it in other threads and I will say it again for the love of God play Jones at his natural position.

 

[Fiji Mariner]

Game Balls: Fields 2-0 on the road
Better reads today, good accuracy-only 1 slow bad read where he shoulda run with receivers covered.
Mr. conservative Coach T 2-0 on the road has em
right where he wants em in shortened clock
Killing close games. Big 0 with the first TD of season and Mr. Trice with a critical pick
Game Goats: Jones although he isn’t set up for any level of success
FUs: the refs-obviously

 

[ZonaBurgh]

I don't know what holding is anymore.

 

[bigben]

Jones is getting a lot of deserved heat, but Tomlin and the line coaches need to be held accountable as well. Management needs to step in and hire staff that can develop a lot of this young talent on the team. Otherwise, Jones will end up another pick that loses his confidence due to inept coaching only to leave and thrive somewhere else. How does he go from showing a lot of promise last year to what he has shown this year after a full offseason of training and practice? Khan has done of good job brining in nice talent. Now he needs to focus more on team coaches and make sure he has people in place that can actually coach and develop young players. Outside of a couple of positions, this has not been a strength of Tomlin or his coaching tree.

In my head I was excited when the Steelers traded up and got Jones.
In my heart I was skeptical of Bill Belichik trading down handing us à Stud/franchise Tackle. It made no sense as the Pats had/have a need there as well. I wondered what did the Pats see that Pitt didn't?
It's beginning to look as if without even taking the field good ole Bill B and the Pats made Pittsburgh look a fool like they always did.

Another season another 1st rd pick circling the drain.
SMH

 

[topseed]

Fields had another solid game statistically (as far as passer rating), but he was systematically handicapped by the coaching staff in the second half. The Steelers threw the ball on first down exactly twice in quarters 3 and 4. One of those two plays resulted in a 37-yard defensive pass interference call which set them up for their only three points in the second half. Last week, they continued to run the offense, and kept drives alive while controlling the clock and the game. Yesterday, I suffered through a 400-level master class in Turtling. So hard to watch.

Game ball to the D -- quality additions in 2024 are making a difference. #25, #26, #27, and #31 have all made plays. The secondary is vastly improved, and the linebackers are better with Queen and Wilson -- he makes some rookie mistakes, but his talent is unmistakable. Herbig has developed into that third OLB pass rusher they needed. And the DL rotation up front has been just fine, as I suspected it would be, with or without Heyward.

Once again, penalties negated a number of big passing plays, or Fields again could have put up better numbers. Starting the season 2-0 on the road is nice, and this defense is legit, but the Steelers have to let the offense breathe if they're going to be any kind of threat in the AFC.

 

[xjx]

Tomlin is not an offensive minded coach and it shows. Hiding in his turtle shell during the second half is telling. Any team that leads by 10 points easily beats this Tomlin coached team.

 

[Slaine]

After watching the Broncos game vs Seattle, this was the first game ever that I have confidently bet on the Steelers to win knowing that it was pretty much a sure thing. Nix looked **** and their D looked like it would overpursue. I was expecting Fields to run for 50+ yards yesterday easily but the Donkey D surprised me there. I agree that it's ugly. I'd love to know what the adjustment was that the Broncos made in the 2nd half because our O was looking great in the first. I'm sure we'll learn from what happened there and we will need an answer that isn't a high-velocity throw up the seam that's too high to be caught and is begging to be tipped for an INT. I was very pleased to only see one of those from us. One was too many!

 

[slashsteel]

Troy had a solid outing. That 1 2 rookie punch is showing well. I think he won’t be taken off the field.

Elliott has two solid back to back games. A solid offseason pickup that is underrated to date.

I still think Jones can develop into a solid LT. He will rebound bookmark my words.

I like what Fields has shown so far. I think he still makes some snap errors that need cleaned up and some of his bad habits are still sprinkling. But he seems to be gaining confidence. If he continues to improve he might force his way to start. I am not saying that is here and now but I can’t count it out from happening down the road.

Outside of penalties needing to be cleaned up, substandard WR play opposite Pickens. I am pretty happy with the team overall.

But those areas need to be improved otherwise they are going to bite the team in the arse off and on down the road.

But a win always puts me in my happy place.

 

[bermudasteel]

Rewatching now but I liked, overall, what I saw yesterday.

I think Boderick Jones needs more coaching and NO MORE RT for him. Maybe Fautanu isn't fully healthy???

This offense is going to be super scary if Russell comes back at 100% - Justin Fields is ok, but you can, if you're looking, see how conservative the play calling is.

Had a great time watching the game w/ @Pittsburgh Charlie yesterday!!!

 

[TDX27]

Just way too many penalties today. Every time the O does something, it is called back. We had several drive killers today. The O just couldn't get any momentum or rhythm. Play calling in general is way too conservative so when they do get hit with a penalty, they can't recover. Fields played OK. No mistake. I believe the snap fumble was on Frazier as Fields and the rest of the team didn't look ready for the snap. They really do need a WR2.

The D played great again. A couple of penalties but nothing that hurt us a badly as the O did. Should have easily put up 20+ yesterday.

 

[bermudasteel]

Tomlin or whomever it is needs to stop with offensive line malpractice. Put Jones at LT and be done with it. I get Moore’s PFF grade and he’s playing solid. You traded up to get him now use him. He needs to get into a rhythm as LT.

Waitman was a good signing. He can boom it.

The holding call against Jones that wiped the 50 yard bomb to George was ticky tacky, at best. Jones did 'tug' the jersey, slightly, but let it go before Justin passes him. BS call IMO...

 

[Steelr4evr]

I don't know what holding is anymore.

It's whatever they want it to be, whenever they want it to be.

It certainly has no consistent application. The same goes for many other infractions.

 

[slashsteel]

Rewatching now but I liked, overall, what I saw yesterday.

I think Boderick Jones needs more coaching and NO MORE RT for him. Maybe Fautanu isn't fully healthy???

This offense is going to be super scary if Russell comes back at 100% - Justin Fields is ok, but you can, if you're looking, see how conservative the play calling is.

Had a great time watching the game w/ @Pittsburgh Charlie yesterday!!!

Troy is fully healthy and had a solid showing. They were just trying to be cute with the rotation. I don’t think you will see that again. That is at least the hope.

 

[Steeltime]

The holding call against Jones that wiped the 50 yard bomb to George was ticky tacky, at best. Jones did 'tug' the jersey, slightly, but let it go before Justin passes him. BS call IMO...

This ^^

If the zebras called that little jersey grab holding all the time then okay, holding. In reality they let that and much, MUCH worse go uncalled to "protect the QB."

 

[bermudasteel]

We got absolutely shafted on the OPI by Jefferson on George's TD catch.

When will NY call down and intercede w/ these atrocious calls??? I thought they were introducing some sort of instant replay assistance today???

BS

 

[Steeltime]

We got absolutely shafted on the OPI by Jefferson on George's TD catch.

When will NY call down and intercede w/ these atrocious calls??? I thought they were introducing some sort of instant replay assistance today???

BS

Simple, follow the money. If the score is 14-0 at half, the game is over. If the game is over, a lot of viewers change the channel. If the viewers change the channel, CBS loses money.