My thoughts on regular season wk 14

What does he challenge us to???

 

Let's hope they take NYG too lightly....and pay for it.

 

Surprised he didn't call that chant a mass racial slur.

 

From what I heard recently on the Steelers Depot podcast where Dave Bryan (cap centric guy) explained that Steelers will have the 2nd most cap save in the NFL, so, “not in awful” is pretty much a big understatement. That was pleasant good news to me.

I think they should re-sign Dan Moore and go through camp an evaluate to possibly trade if Jones can step up. I bet a LOT of teams will be willing to trade heavily for young-ish Moore - a four year starter of decent status - if not at the end of camp but before the deadline. He will certainly get a big jump in pay, but I don’t believe his new contract will be cost prohibitive for a trade.

He’s a valuable asset for Kahn to deal well.

 

Interesting. Can’t wait to see how Kahn works his math and magic with the o-line combo.

 

He will eventually play where he best helps the team win

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He would probably have to go homophobic with that chant

 

Smashing people in the head with a helmet

 

Seamalu is going into the final year of his contract, and Moore will be too expensive to re-sign.

 

When TJ is outshined by several other players, that doesn't mean TJ sucks, it means our defense is awesome. Even when TJ is not making the splash plays, he always pulls the best guy they have to defend him and frequently he is pulling 2 to 3 players away. That helps open things up for other guys to make the splash plays.

One of those things where you can sound all Confuciusy and say something like........A players worth is not measured in his accomplishments, but rather by the amount of shenanigans the opposing team has to go thru to counter him.

 

I completely understand this but TJ is not having a great year at all.

 

As the seasons get longer, and they will, expect a second bye to show up.

My brother had a good idea for byes. Instead of the hodgepodge of who is on it each week now, do it by divisions. 4 teams, 8 divisions. Just put a division on each bye. That way you never have division standings where one team is 5 and 6 and another is 6 and 6. Within the division you will always know exactly who is in what position.

 

The roughing the passer called on us was so ridiculous. The NFL really should answer for stuff like that.

 

I disagree. He is not having the same year he had last year, but he is still doing very well. He is as of 5 days ago (most recent I could find) still the best odds for DPOY.



From 5 days ago:
T.J. Watt continues to be an absolute force in the Defensive Player of the Year odds throughout our best NFL betting sites. We're quickly reaching the point where there are few questions left to answer in this market.

Watt helped to secure a key victory for his Pittsburgh Steelers over the Cincinnati Bengals during a divisional clash on Sunday. The dominant edge-rusher rebounded quickly following a quiet week by his standards, with his odds shortening dramatically as a result while moving from about +105 to -190.

There's now a canyon between him and the rest of the field. That's especially true after Myles Garrett was mostly silenced during the Cleveland Browns' Monday Night Football loss to the Denver Broncos. https://www.sportsbookreview.com/picks/nfl/football-defensive-player-of-the-year-odds/



From 19 November (few weeks out dated, but most recent actual numbers I could find):
Rank Player Sacks TFL QB Hits Pressures PRWR PFF grade
1 T.J. Watt 7.5 12 18 27 20% 92.9
2 Dexter Lawrence 9.0 8 15 36 N/A 89.8
3 Chris Jones 3.0 5 10 46 19% 89.5
4 Trey Hendrickson 11.5 12 24 55 27% 89.2
5 Will Anderson Jr 7.5 11 10 37 23% 78.0

He is winning on the PFF, which seems to be the magical stat for DPOY. He is not crushing any particular category, but he is doing well in all of them.

 

A lot of NFL players are starting to act like soccer players. They are mastering the flop and being overly dramatic about things to try and pull a flag.

 

The Giants are done. Drew Lock is a very bad quarterback and their best player, Dexter Lawrence, is out for the rest of the season. The Ravens will trample them.

 

the grounding call was too. but Wiliams did get away with a push off on the sideline catch.

 

looks like a lot of cap space for next year but we will start with zero QB's and zero RB's on the roster. jackson and moore also not on the roster. amongst others. that cap space will dwindle rather quickly.

 

I like to cut to the chase.
What I saw was a better team beat a worse team, as they should.
Cleveland is not a conversation.
What Cleveland is, they are a warmup, a preseason game, a doormat to this stretch of real games.

Philadelphia, I think are overrated. Of their "8-game win streak" only the Ravens were legit and the problem there is the same thing: Lamar choking in big games.
One could argue the Rams, but the Rams are a Jeckel and Hyde team.
They avoided a loss to the lowly Panthers after a game winning TD pass was dropped.

Baltimore will be out for revenge, and it is in their house.

KC is not playing great football, but they are winning, and we have to play them on 3 days' rest, in our house.

Cincy is a doormat.

The Steelers came through this game with some good marks, I still don't like any WR's not named Pickens. I hope they spend this off season finding some solution to those woes. I did see Williams used better and I think they need to weave him in there more. Wilson is the best thing for this bunch, he throws a really nice pass to make it easier for them.

Austin has had me dining on crow this season. He still makes me nervous when it comes to big games. He has this defense playing very well and quietly becoming one of the better top defenses this year.

I am hoping to emerge from this 4-game stretch best case 3-1 and worst case 2-2.

 

Great summary as usual

Just want to add,

1. Why do we keep trying to find a position for Patterson, when we don't have to. Play your best players and only thing that does is limit Warren on his touches.

2. Muth still not getting enough touches. All he does is catch passes.

3. Toss sweeps to Harris work 10% of the time.

4. Loved to see more blitzes on defense. Winston was shaky at times.

5. Pretty good bounce back game for Porter.

 

Precisely why it makes sense to make such a move. Did my own research on it and extending Moore would cost the team 12-15m/year. And they'd likely get a mid round pick for Seamalu. Makes sense to me to have the starting 5 set for at least the following 3-4 seasons, barring injury and a pick to help with holes/depth elsewhere on the team as opposed to letting Moore go and needing to draft a G in the next two seasons.

 

I thought the defense played really well yesterday. Winston came into the game averaging 336 passing yards a game and only went over 200 because of garbage time in the fourth quarter. Benton made the play that turned the whole game around, the Steelers were trailing 7-3, the Browns were at midfield and things weren't looking good but his interception set up the TD that gave us the lead that we never relinquished.

 

i think we can look to these backups and what the staff thinks of them. scharping could be signed pretty cheaply and has experience at guard. anderson is a guy to keep at what he does. ie multiple role backup. mccullom as the backup center. cheap enough to keep. cook will become a possibility to keep as that backup T if they can't sign moore or it becomes too expensive. troy F will have to prove healthy enough and stay healthy enough to take over a spot. so scharping, cook, anderson, mcullom become depth that need signing. shouldn't cost that much. moore if possible. seumalo is a keep maybe, depending on what we can receive for him. at this point in his career, scharping may be equal for less money.

 

The Steelers have shown they know how to defend running quarterbacks, which should help against the Eagles. Their run defense had been good overall, but they have had some strange lapses. They can't afford that against the Eagles or Barkley will tear them up. The Steelers can win that game, but it's going to take a better performance than what we've seen the last few weeks.

Regarding the Ravens, it is a road game on a short week. Also, the Ravens are going to be coming off a bye and playing the Giants, so it is almost like two weeks off. This isn't the Giants team that hung with the Steelers. Daniel Jones was decent in that game, but now he's gone and Drew Lock sucks. They also lost their best player, Dexter Lawrence, for the rest of the season. The Steelers are going to enter that game in Baltimore at a significant disadvantage.

The opposite may be true the following week. The Chiefs will also be playing on three days rest and in their second consecutive game on short rest. (How the hell does the league justify that in terms of player safety?) Home field advantage is even more important when teams are on three days rest and perhaps that takes away a bit of the tactical advantage Andy Reid's teams usually have.

I agree with you regarding the receivers. If the Steelers can sort out their lines, keep Wilson at quarterback, keep Jackson at cornerback, and still get one premium free agent, Tee Higgins should be their target.