My thoughts on regular season wk 5

1. Justin Fields was not seeing the defense well at all

2. Play calling was a major head scratcher

3. Defense got gashed something fierce

4. But for the turnovers, this game had no business being this close

5. Offensive and defensive coaches laid an egg

6. Losing Herbig was huge

7. Special teams was the only part of the game that was consistent for us

8. The Justing Fields starter talk is about to cool off a bit

9. One of the worst run defenses in the league and we did nothing to take advantage of it

 

Justin Fields is the least of the problems this team has. i am as more worried about this Def than QB. IT sucks are best option at qb might be in Tenn and no doubt are best WR is in carolina. i believe it all starts up front this oline is terrible and trying to run this type of offense will not work. they consistently get blown up and any Qb that is constantly under pressure will struggle. As for the Def thay are getting punched in the mouth and dont punch back. middle of field is open the whole game and Queen has been invisable.

 

They dared Fields to beat them with his passing: he couldn’t. Although our receivers didnt help Fields much.

 

Steelers have no Wr . pickens needs to grow up.

 

Through it all, it's Tomlin who is the problem. So long as Fredo is around this won't get better.

 

10. this team is stagnating for years now with no development to be seen. It is the same story year in year out. Every win looks the same and every loss looks the same. Same mistakes are being made every season.

 

Only too bad when the pass coverage is swiss cheese on a regular basis

 

When Allen hit Freiermuth for the first down, I kinda wanted him to stay in the game.

 

good teams take advantage of turnovers. bad teams go three and out and exhaust their defense by the 4th quarter

 

It looked like the training wheels were off early, but Fields was making bad decisions. Bad reads and missed passes.

 

Prescott ripped our D for 357 yards and the Cowboys anemic running game had over 100 yards rushing. It was a pathetic display by our defense. The offense was bad too, but we knew that going into the game.

 

The offense is a mess. There are young and/or new players everywhere. The OL is decimated, has different starters every week, and has an idiot for an OL coach. There is one weapon at WR and he's a head case. The two RBs who can actually cut, elude and create big plays are hurt. We have one decent TE. All of that falls under a new OC and system that everyone needs to learn and grow into. Over five games, Fields has done pretty well and there's at least some reason to think he could keep growing. Is the long term answer? Maybe, but Wilson is going to look worse and get killed if he plays.

 

Defense held to dallas to 6 points going into the fourth while the offense was anemic as hell. If anything blame Austin for the 10 yd cushion he was giving the receivers and the soft prevent on the last drive.

blame smith also for failing to do something about the constant pressure.

Aside from that our wide receivers were a joke tonight and Fields is a backup with unrealized potential. But its not being unlocked this year thats for sure. His accuracy wasnt there for the most part and his decisions got worse as the game went on. And of course the playcalling became more and more conservative

 

Problem is, that dynamic QB, if you put the ball in his hands the majority of the time,has had fumble problems and accuracy issues.OL usually heats up around this time of the season in their run blocking, look for them, even with the injuries, to open up the run game next week... I hope

 

We need more points on offense. Steelers football or not. The margin of error is so small on most of our games that we can't afford them getting a field goal.... Although when they do, it always feels like a relief because it was not a td and I know we will struggle to match tds.

Our defense was gashed for big plays badly this game. From memory, 27, 27, 35ish, 40ish and I think 1 or 2 others? They gave up some big plays, but also kept us in it with turnovers.

Our offense let us down. Gave good field position to Dallas several times and failed to give our defense much rest. They were always in crisis mode with must stop scenarios.

I see hope in Fields and really hope we can make it work. But he has to get more points on the board.

Starting to wonder if Najee should become a TE.

The long ball and Fields were in different zip codes today. I loved that we were pushing it out today, but I don't think they hit a single one. Whatever the reason for it, we need work on it. Be like Dak.....lol

I lost count of Fields fumbles....ok, only two but it felt like 8.

No snap issues today! First game for that I think.

226 yards of total offense? We can't be competitive like that.

We were lucky they did not have Micah on the field today.

Can we have a game every now and then we're we have a comfortable lead for the entire game rather that one where we lose or win on a field goal? Please?

We got our 4th and shorts today! Big improvement there.

We really need another strong wr on the field.

 

The run game was setting up the pass well. But then the pass game completely failed to take advantage. Fields missed things, but Pickens was AWOL as well. The lack of any RBs behind Najee also played a part - with Warren spelling him I think the drives would be lasting longer.

I agree with @Steelvision that the prevent defense was appalling in the last quarter. That's how they got 100 yards rushing.

I will also give props to some of Dak Prescott's throws. They were laser-guided missiles.

All in all, a frustrating finish to the game. It's like we just stopped playing with four minutes left.

 

A real gut punch of a loss. Hard to process right now, but this one was a single play from a win. I believe Dak killed them in similar fashion the last time he played against them. I actually felt Queen (9 tackles) had his first decent game. Not having either Warren or Patterson definitely hurt the offense. I have long been a Najeh supporter but now I believe they made the right decision not to extend him.

 

Najee is Mr average what a waste of a first rd pick like all of our recent ones. People applaud Khan for what???

 

Yeah, he really should just run over those guys hitting him in the backfield more often.

The offensive line is a mess. Injuries have seen to that. Fields is failing to see open receivers and missing too many throws. There were at least three huge drops last night. Pickens was useless until his big play on the late touchdown drive. They miss Warren, though I worry about him on wet fields like tonight.

Also, the defense was terrible most of the night. If not for some inexplicable, stupid throws by Prescott, that game wouldn't have even been close. Even with those breaks, the defense failed miserably on that last drive. They couldn't stop a terrible running attack. The pass rush disappeared. The loss of Herbig was a big part of that, but I also think Heyward and Watt were gassed or hurt. They were on the sideline far to much in the second half. As others also noted, Watt seemed to wince in pain on Prescott's first touchdown pass. He did very little after that. The Cowboys constantly seemed to outflank the Steelers all game long, especially on third downs. That is many things. That is the inside linebackers playing poorly, especially Queen. That is the absence of Highsmith and Herbig. That is Minkah Fitzpatrick doing very little. That is a well-coached offense against a poorly-coached defense.

Take the last play. It was a simple crossing route that got the Cowboys a great matchup, Tolbert against Elliott. The defense still might have been fine if they were getting pressure because that route took a long time to come open, but Prescott had all the time he could want. Maybe that doesn't happen if Herbig is still in there, but the Steelers have to figure out a way to get pressure in that situation and they couldn't do it.

 

I can tell by your posts you don’t like Fields for some reason. He’s the least of the Steelers problems.

 

From the looks of it this could get ugly. I don't see how they will win any games back half of schedule.

I'm not for or against Tomlin but the Steelers need a change. We are far away from being taken seriously. I sure hope the NCAA has a QB for us. Can't see Russell Wilson making much of a difference.

Generally a bad season for the Steelers is a 6 win season. I can see that happening.