Initial thoughts on packer game

[stillwright]

Well yes. Kenny has something like 7 4th qtr. come from behind wins.

Since he became a starter....Pickett that is....no one has more. Go figure.

 

[Punxsutawney]

we're done same thing being down 4 or more with less than 2 minutes to play.

What exactly are you basing that on? Leading the team into the end zone late in game's is one of the few things he has done consistently well to this point.

I'm not sold either way on him yet in terms of being the guy, but it's kind of gotten to the point where one expects him to make the plays late in games.

 

[warriors42]

Is it fair to compare Kenny to Ben? Really? Ben looked like crap in this offense until the 4th quarter and Ben did his own thing.

Your right about Ben In this offense but Ben was in his late 30's at the time and was not only handcuffed by the scheme but by father time. make no mistake though I don't care who the OC is or what kind of play makers you put around Kenny he will never come close to putting up the numbers Ben did or Rivers or Eli for that matter.

Kenny is in his second year and his decision making should be soooo much better. I thought one of his attributes was his ability to run, I have no idea how many times this year I yelled at the TV for him to just run and get 4 or 5 yards instead of throwing a stupid pass.

watch him, like I said in my post his reads are slow as hell and his delivery is slow. Kenny Picket was a major reach in the first round and now we have to live with that decision for the next two or more years while we watch way better QB's get drafted. I am no scout, GM or coach and I don't own a team but I just don't think Kenny has what it takes to get us another trophy. I hope I am wrong I really do but that is just my feelings.

 

[SteelerFan448]

Pickett was bad today. There were two balls that should've been picks (one a pick 6) and he maybe had three good throws--the back shoulder to Pickens (the best pass in his arsenal), a deep ball to DJ which was dropped, and then the big pass to Pickens which was called back due to OPI.

The ground game is looking like the way Khan and Weidl probably envisioned this offseason. Jones and Washington were a big part of that as well as Seumalo, who continues to open up big holes. Warren and Harris were a terrific 1-2 punch today.

Defensively, the Steelers were a bit of a mess today. Barely any pressure and that cannot be the case with Watt and Highsmith. The secondary was a disaster outside of JPJ and the big play from Peterson to cause an interception.

It's amazing how quickly the defensive depth imploded, especially at inside linebacker. The trio of offseason additions were playing so well and now Roberts is the last man standing.

How about the rookie class? Jones, JPJ, Benton, and Washington are all playing well and Herbig continues to be a valuable backup.

 

[stillwright]

Your right about Ben In this offense but Ben was in his late 30's at the time and was not only handcuffed by the scheme but by father time. make no mistake though I don't care who the OC is or what kind of play makers you put around Kenny he will never come close to putting up the numbers Ben did or Rivers or Eli for that matter.

Kenny is in his second year and his decision making should be soooo much better. I thought one of his attributes was his ability to run, I have no idea how many times this year I yelled at the TV for him to just run and get 4 or 5 yards instead of throwing a stupid pass.

watch him, like I said in my post his reads are slow as hell and his delivery is slow. Kenny Picket was a major reach in the first round and now we have to live with that decision for the next two or more years while we watch way better QB's get drafted. I am no scout, GM or coach and I don't own a team but I just don't think Kenny has what it takes to get us another trophy. I hope I am wrong I really do but that is just my feelings.

So now you are comparing him to arguably one of the best QB classes ever drafted. Ummm. OK.

 

[Steeltime]

So now you are comparing him to arguably one of the best QB classes ever drafted. Ummm. OK.

Personally, I'm comparing him to Bert Flacco and Trent Dilfer.

And he is not looking good so far. That is troubling.

 

[stillwright]

Personally, I'm comparing him to Bert Flacco and Trent Dilfer.

And he is not looking good so far. That is troubling.

Both have SB rings. So if Pickett brings us one of those I will be happy. You?

 

[Steeltime]

Both have SB rings. So if Pickett brings us one of those I will be happy. You?

Thrilled. And shocked.

 

[insaniti]

I would love to see what everyone is doing. Where everyone is during these plays. Someone does a breakdown weekly on our games and on most plays it seems like we have all our WRs in one area on one side of the field and then another by himself on the other side. The middle of the field, you rarely see a WR enter into that area. Today we had one throw into the middle of the field and it was to a RB I believe slipping out from the backfield. Most routes work to the outside. My question is why don't we use the middle of the field. Why doesn't any reporter ask this? Not that we would get a real answer.

This, I don't know how many times I saw single high safety, one on one with Pickens. And then they put DJ in motion and brought the safety over top the two, now stacked WR. Instead of creating mismatches, Canada makes the D's job easier.

 

[warriors42]

So now you are comparing him to arguably one of the best QB classes ever drafted. Ummm. OK.

You damn right I am he was a first round pick and I expect more out a first round QB, if we were gonna settle for ****** QB play we should have rolled with Mitch and Rudy and spent that first round pick on the oline. 126 yards passing and constantly being out gained by our opponents is unacceptable.

 

[maowv]

Had high hopes for Kenny after that senior season at Pitt. He was exceptional that season but not much to show for the previous years.

At this stage, he looks to be a QB who will be rated in the bottom one-third of starters no matter how good or bad his season goes

I don't see any progress from the second half of last season. In fact, he is regressing both in his accuracy and his decision-making. The game does not look to be slowing down for him (yet). Maybe it can still happen but with 20+ starts, he should be making and showing some progress.

Kenny's arm was never going to win him a starting job in the NFL. It's average to slightly below average arm strength. That's ok if matched with the right brain. Joe Montana's arm was nothing better than average and he made it work by having the 2 most important traits a QB must have to succeed: knowing where to throw it and knowing when to throw it.

The ability to make the right read and time the throw correctly has landed many a quarterback into a golden jacket in Canton. Drew Brees will be among them soon enough and Kenny's arm is as good as anything Brees every had.

I'm increasingly concerned that Kenny Pickett doesn't have those two abilities, or at least not to the level that I thought he might coming out of college. He isn't showing it. He isn't moving toward that direction. He appears to be going the other way. If that is not reason enough to make some changes within the offense, to move on from a grossly unqualified and ineffective coordinator, then I don't know what is. We are wasting the prime development years of a 1st Round draft pick in a league where you cannot succeed with failed 1sr Round draft picks starting at QB.

The entire football world can see it. It's the talk of every pre-game and post-game talking head, week after week. The Steelers, MT, Art II don't seem to care so the question is, why should I care anymore either?

 

[MT~Forged]

Only 20 passes are allowed to TE’s in the middle of the field, per year. Tomlin has made it clear to Canada he wants to save those for the Super Bowl.

 

[warriors42]

What exactly are you basing that on? Leading the team into the end zone late in game's is one of the few things he has done consistently well to this point.

I'm not sold either way on him yet in terms of being the guy, but it's kind of gotten to the point where one expects him to make the plays late in games.

On his numbers. Yes I know he has won games in the 4th qtr I even stated that in an earlier post, but one or two good drives a game are not good enough. how long before his play in the first three qtrs start to carry over into the 4th.

Look I want everyone that wears black and gold to be successful. I have been on this board from day one and you would be hard pressed to go back and find me saying anything otherwise but I feel we wasted a first round pick that could have actually helped this team in the long run and gotten a much better QB in a future draft.

 

[stillwright]

You damn right I am he was a first round pick and I expect more out a first round QB, if we were gonna settle for ****** QB play we should have rolled with Mitch and Rudy and spent that first round pick on the oline. 126 yards passing and constantly being out gained by our opponents is unacceptable.

You think perhaps the system and what Tomlin and Canada ask from him on a weekly basis doesn't factor into what we see every week? Not ONE pass to the middle of the field!!!! When teams know you aren't throwing to the middle and know it will be short and to the sidelines play after play.....you expect what exactly? Tomlin plays to win. If it means leaning heavily on the D and running game and playing it very very safe on the passing plays until you can't..so be it. Go ahead a compare this QB who was drafted late in the first round to others in the top 10(Ben 11) that was perhaps one of the best-ever QB classes. LOL

So any player taken in round one is now held to the HOFer standard in your eyes. Cool.

 

[SteelerFan448]

You think perhaps the system and what Tomlin and Canada ask from him on a weekly basis doesn't factor into what we see every week? Not ONE pass to the middle of the field!!!! When teams know you aren't throwing to the middle and know it will be short and to the sidelines play after play.....you expect what exactly? Tomlin plays to win. If it means leaning heavily on the D and running game and playing it very very safe on the passing plays until you can't..so be it. Go ahead a compare this QB who was drafted late in the first round to others in the top 10(Ben 11) that was perhaps one of the best-ever QB classes. LOL

So any player taken in round one is now held to the HOFer standard in your eyes. Cool.

The issue is Pickett isn't fully executing within that system. He's playing like a fourth rounder in this offense. It's not easy to compare, but if we're critical of Najee for averaging under 4.0 YPC, Edmunds for not making any plays in the secondary, Dupree for taking three seasons to develop and being a product of Watt, then Pickett is worthy of some criticism.

 

[Buster]

This game was further evidence of what I said after the Titans game. If they play relatively mistake free football, they can beat average teams. That’s what the 2023 Steelers are.

 

[GBpack]

I seen we won the total yardage 399-324 but that’s the only thing we won.

 

[slashsteel]

The issue is Pickett isn't fully executing within that system. He's playing like a fourth rounder in this offense. It's not easy to compare, but if we're critical of Najee for averaging under 4.0 YPC, Edmunds for not making any plays in the secondary, Dupree for taking three seasons to develop and being a product of Watt, then Pickett is worthy of some criticism.

Of course he is as I have been preaching he needs to be more accurate. That is his part of the equation. But you see with Broderick in that rushing attack got a shot in the arm. But that scheme isn't getting a shot in the arm in regards to the WR concepts. So if a scheme is limited won't he force more balls? Cause more incompletions?

For me it is hard to gage how much the schematics are holding him back.

 

[SteelerFan448]

This game was further evidence of what I said after the Titans game. If they play relatively mistake free football, they can beat average teams. That’s what the 2023 Steelers are.

If this team makes the playoffs, it's setting up perfectly for another 30+ points allowed with no chance at winning because the offense can't score points. They'll play a good team with a good QB, who can avoid the pass rush and there are enough pieces in the secondary to pick apart. Now with two starting ILBs out, the defense will be even easier to play against.

 

[stillwright]

The issue is Pickett isn't fully executing within that system. He's playing like a fourth rounder in this offense. It's not easy to compare, but if we're critical of Najee for averaging under 4.0 YPC, Edmunds for not making any plays in the secondary, Dupree for taking three seasons to develop and being a product of Watt, then Pickett is worthy of some criticism.

By all means, criticize....but, we have had 3 QBs play in this system. All three never threw to the middle of the field by design. Two of three have made 4th quarter come from behind wins almost weekly. Ben looked like **** for 3 quarters and then like a switch was flipped....in the fourth he put up nice stats. Pickett up to this week had the best 4th quarter rating I believe. To date, the system is definitely holding Pickett back. It held Ben back. It would hold any QB back. Throw into the equation that Pickett is still developing and it is unfortunate that this is the offensive game plan they roll out week in and week out.

 

[warriors42]

You think perhaps the system and what Tomlin and Canada ask from him on a weekly basis doesn't factor into what we see every week? Not ONE pass to the middle of the field!!!! When teams know you aren't throwing to the middle and know it will be short and to the sidelines play after play.....you expect what exactly? Tomlin plays to win. If it means leaning heavily on the D and running game and playing it very very safe on the passing plays until you can't..so be it. Go ahead a compare this QB who was drafted late in the first round to others in the top 10(Ben 11) that was perhaps one of the best-ever QB classes. LOL

So any player taken in round one is now held to the HOFer standard in your eyes. Cool.

the system does not throw interceptions or miss wide open receivers in the end zone. the system does not give you a 81 QBR for the season so far this year and a 76 QBR for 2022. Take away his 5th year at pitt and he wouldn't have even been drafted let alone in the first round. numbers do not lie.

we can all hope he turns things around and becomes a solid first round pick but like I said numbers do not lie.

 

[stillwright]

If this team makes the playoffs, it's setting up perfectly for another 30+ points allowed with no chance at winning because the offense can't score points. They'll play a good team with a good QB, who can avoid the pass rush and there are enough pieces in the secondary to pick apart. Now with two starting ILBs out, the defense will be even easier to play against.

And all of that starts and ends with Tomlin....in which the Rooney's endorse....but hey....Tomlin will have another non-losing season. Hooray...

 

[GBpack]

If this team makes the playoffs, it's setting up perfectly for another 30+ points allowed with no chance at winning because the offense can't score points. They'll play a good team with a good QB, who can avoid the pass rush and there are enough pieces in the secondary to pick apart. Now with two starting ILBs out, the defense will be even easier to play against.

At least you guys will make it to the playoffs.

 

[stillwright]

the system does not throw interceptions or miss wide open receivers in the end zone. the system does not give you a 81 QBR for the season so far this year and a 76 QBR for 2022. Take away his 5th year at pitt and he wouldn't have even been drafted let alone in the first round. numbers do not lie.

we can all hope he turns things around and becomes a solid first round pick but like I said numbers do not lie.

The reason why we are winning is BECAUSE Pickett isn't throwing ints. They have asked him to play ultra-safe and it is limiting our passing game. Tomlin only cares about the W. If he could get a win by Pickett only throwing twice a game he would. The time Pickett will turn things around is if Tomlin lets Canada open it up. As of now, the passing game is a second thought in Tomlin's game plan week in and week out.

 

[GBpack]

The reason why we are winning is BECAUSE Pickett isn't throwing ints. They have asked him to play ultra-safe and it is limiting our passing game. Tomlin only cares about the W. If he could get a win by Pickett only throwing twice a game he would. The time Pickett will turn things around is if Tomlin lets Canada open it up. As of now, the passing game is a second thought in Tomlin's game plan week in and week out.

You guys ran for 200 yards. I do think Tomlinson needs to let Pickett throw more.