My Good and Bad for Week 1

[bmoritz]

Obviously, the GREAT is a nice dominating win to start the season. The good far outweighed the bad in this one, though there are some clear opportunities for improvement. The rest of the good:

Big Ben - What can be said? The guy is in the zone right now, and is freaking awesome. Right there with Rogers as clearly the best QBs in the league.
Brown - See Ben. Flat out dominant. Even when he's covered like a blanket, he's open. Easily the best receiver in the league, and I'd argue the best player, period.
Offensive line - Outstanding job by the unit of not only keeping Ben upright, but providing holes for the running game.
Shazier - When healthy, he's a beast.
Rogers - Yes, he made a bad mistake that led to a pick, but remember, this is his first ever "real" NFL game experience, and he didn't fail to impress.
D Will - This is NOT a shot at Bell in any way shape or form, but there's very little to any dropoff with Williams. He's a good mix of speed and power. So thankful we have him, and when Bell is back, LOOK OUT!
Harrison - The ageless wonder continues to defy all critics.
Clock management - This has long been a weakness during the Tomlin regime, but they did an excellent job managing the clock, particularly towards the end of the first half. Great job!
Aggressive offense - admittedly, I would not have run the plays they did on 4th and 1, but I'm happy to be wrong. They showed complete (and justified) faith in Ben, and the aggressiveness paid off.

The Bad:
Lack of aggressive defense - We blitzed what, maybe five times? And that damn huge cushion is still there. I hate this pansy defensive scheme. Bring back Blitzburgh!!!
Cockrell - He's a very good depth CB, but I don't think he's starter quality. He was too tentative and ineffective last night.
Timmons - He looked very slow often last night, and had some glaring missed tackles. Hopefully he just needed to knock the rust off, but I think this is definitely his last season in Pittsburgh.
Mitchell - He didn't play bad, but his stupid penalties have got to stop! His block in the back during Shazier's pick was completely unnecessary and dumb. Wise up!
We're definitely missing something without Heath. It's not that James played poorly, but he's no #83. Wish we still had Miller.

 

[bermudasteel]

Meh...no need for the complaints - no team EVER has a perfect game...

 

[pittbull]

It certainly would have been nice to round off the offensive showcase with some sacks, but I actually liked what I saw on defense. Yes, there were a couple of missed tackles early in the game, but it seemed to me that after every catch there were immediately 3 or 4 Steelers surrounding the receiver. They seemed to be playing with emotion...they were swarming. Now, that's not to say that the sit-back-and-wait-for-the-opponent-to-self-destruct approach will work every week, but it wasn't a bad game plan against the Redskins.

 

[bermudasteel]

It certainly would have been nice to round off the offensive showcase with some sacks, but I actually liked what I saw on defense. Yes, there were a couple of missed tackles early in the game, but it seemed to me that after every catch there were immediately 3 or 4 Steelers surrounding the receiver. They seemed to be playing with emotion...they were swarming. Now, that's not to say that the sit-back-and-wait-for-the-opponent-to-self-destruct approach will work every week, but it wasn't a bad game plan against the Redskins.

I agree - Washington has some burners at WR and "keeping them in front of us" (most of the night) was obviously the plan...personally, I like what Coach Butler did by mixing up his coverages and subbing in different personnel for his schemes - I projected that they'd only score 17 points (I think - need to check that) but, this is DEFINITELY a step in the right direction!!!

 

[Hobbster]

.
Mitchell - He didn't play bad, but his stupid penalties have got to stop! His block in the back during Shazier's pick was completely unnecessary and dumb. Wise up!

I completely disagree as and I have never seen that called on similar interceptions where the interception is made by one player while the other defensive player essentially is tackling what he feels will be a catch. It was literally bang bang if you watch it, as Shazier is leaping making the Int, Mitchell is already lined up and a step or so from tackling the catch and is just finishing that action. Watch the replay.

 

[antdrewjosh]

I completely disagree as and I have never seen that called on similar interceptions where the interception is made by one player while the other defensive player essentially is tackling what he feels will be a catch. It was literally bang bang if you watch it, as Shazier is leaping making the Int, Mitchell is already lined up and a step or so from tackling the catch and is just finishing that action. Watch the replay.

Yep close call and close to being a terrible call

 

[steelhurt]

Lots of good came out of the offense last night. OL played a very good game opening holes and providing Ben time. DWill had an excellent game and makes this offense not miss a beat with LBell out. The young receivers stepped up and was very impressed with James and Rogers in particular. Can you imagine if the beast Martavus Bryant, Wheaton, and Green were on the field?

The defense couldn't get any penetration and get to Cousins who virtually went untouched. Not impressed with Cockrell at all. He's a career backup that's in a starting role. We need badly for Burns and Gilbert to step up and take over the starting cornerback positions. Especially Gilbert who has great talent but needs to start displaying it. Forget about what happened in Cleveland, that **** hole is joke and would jeopardize anyone's career.
Jarvis Jones flat out was a wasted draft pick for this football team. The guy cannot play at this level and never got close to Cousins. From what I saw he looks completely overmatched and just isn't physical enough. Thank God this will be his final year in black n gold. Shazier and Harrison the only bright spots from the linebacking group although I did like what I saw from Fort in the limited time he got to play.
The DLine I expected more from but I think that will come, especially as Hargraves gets used to the speed of the game.

 

[ExUSAF]

It certainly would have been nice to round off the offensive showcase with some sacks, but I actually liked what I saw on defense. Yes, there were a couple of missed tackles early in the game, but it seemed to me that after every catch there were immediately 3 or 4 Steelers surrounding the receiver. They seemed to be playing with emotion...they were swarming. Now, that's not to say that the sit-back-and-wait-for-the-opponent-to-self-destruct approach will work every week, but it wasn't a bad game plan against the Redskins.

There were a lot of missed tackles in the game. It's good that we had 3 or 4 defenders surrounding the receiver so at least one could make the tackle. Of course Washington didn't tackle much better. It's a lost art, I guess, or still too early in the season.

 

[Coach]

Still smiling. It was a great road win.

What has not been mentioned this far. Haley called a great game. Boswell, Berry and the kick coverage units were very good.

Now for the needs improvement part. Burns did not play. Davis did and he missed a tackle that went for too much yardage. Don't use Jessie James to block ends. Heath miller he's not. The DL had a quiet day. Cockrell was overmatched at times. Mitchell still is penalty prone.

 

[MTC]

Meh...no need for the complaints - no team EVER has a perfect game...

True. The D had moments when needed. I thnk they'll get better by mid season

 

[Wingman]

You have to remember they pay the other guys too. I thought some of those calls were designed to keep the skins in the game. I also thought they missed quite a few that could have been called against the skins.