My thoughts on regular season wk 15

1. We're close, but not quite there yet

2. George Pickens absence is clearly noticeable

3. TJ Watt is still TJ Watt.... just hope he doesn't have to miss any time

4. Our intermediate pass defense got abused

5. We totally lost containment far too often when pressuring Hurts

6. Najee's inexplicable fumble was the straw that broke the camel's back

7. Why don't we get the te's involved more

8. Tackling in the secondary was sorely lacking

9. He wasn't perfect by any stretch, but i've been noticing a very positive change in Broderick Jones

10. Minkah Fitzpatrick probably played his best game of the season

11. It's over..... on to the Ravens, and the division title

 

Minkah was player of the game, IMO.

 

Colts and Dolphins both lost so Pittsburgh does secure a Playoff Spot!!


That said... that is as far much of good news as I have. Only saw bits and pieces of the game myself. Gonna have to rewatch it again tomorrow.

 

definitely on Broderick.

it will be a back yard brawl next week!

 

The one thing I have to say that you didn't put so eloquently already, is something I've noticed all season with Smith's offense - the stupid RB pitch/pitch sweep. Stop it. Today, 5 pitches for -4 yards and a fumble. When will they learn that just doesn't work against fast defenses?

 

Tomlin declining a holding penalty to make it 2nd and 20 instead of 1st and 30. Gave up 21 next play. That was your Tomlin weighty moment

 

Can’t wait for Glemm and his Steelers Digest player of the week!

 

I don't think we're as close as you may think.

 

MT gonna MT

 

Especially without a QB next year.

 

watching the Eagles tackle and us try to tackle - night and day.

Najee fumble reminded me of fumble in Packers SB game.

 

It's a combination of Smith and Tomlin. Coaches are brain dead sometimes.

It can work with Warren, but NOT w Najee.....

 

My thoughts are Saturday is way more important than this game. We were never getting the two seed.

This team isn't SB ready. But eight straight years without a playoff win would be simply inexcusable for a storied and historic franchise.

You would have to go back over 55 years since that occurred around here.

 

Great write up. Hope we don’t have to play ravens without Watt, Larry O, deshaun Elliot and donte Jackson

I always give Najee a ton of credit for not fumbling so it’s only fair I call him out today. That play changed the game

 

it is not a successful year w/o a playoff win. Not after 7 years.

We are the Steelers......

there is not 1 HC in the NFL that has that distinction, except 1. You know him.

 

If Pickens is out, we are also in trouble. The offense is in quicksand without him

 

You’re closer to this forum
Than we want you to be.

 

We are probably going to be the #6 seed and play at Baltimore so yeah the odds of winning a playoff game isn't very good.

 

would have been 31 next play anyways. Bend but don’t break right

 

Najee needs to go this offseason. He gets what the line provides and nothing extra. Anyone in the draft will do. Thank god they didn’t sign him

 

most likely, he is gone - good bad or indifferent. that has been written about as much as anything here, this year.

 

1. Eh, we need a WR so badly. We clearly can't do anything offensively in his absence. If Pickens plays this game, we might be competitive. We can beat anyone with a healthy 14 and healthy 90. Without either, we probably don't win any games.

2. Yeah, averaging 219 yards per game without 14 is miserable... 163 today. Anyone acting like he shouldn't be getting a fat contract in the offseason is wrong. We need a #2 too, and IDC how we get it (trade/draft/sign). Gotta do something or we are just a 14 injury away from ineptitude again.

3. Yeah, he had a nice game... Unfortunately it looks like missing time is inevitable. Even a bad sprain could be season ending. Best case scenario likely sees him back in time for Cincy or the playoffs

4. We just didn't adjust. We allowed Philly to dictate to us too much. Not a lot of blitzes. Not a lot of mixing it up. Just kinda relied on our pass rushers to win the 4v5 up front and play zone in the back end. Doesn't work against good teams often.

5. Yes, but Hurts made a lot for himself. He's just a really good player. I thought we defended him fairly well for the most part. Just didn't make enough plays

6. Yeah, that was devastating. We needed Najee to step up big time in Pickens' absence, but he's been a liability. There was a 3 game stretch where we all got nervous about not picking up his option, but now it is pretty obvious he's not worth a fraction of that 7 million bucks. Hard to believe we made him the NFL leader in non-QB touches for so long. Need to upgrade there in the offseason.

7. Idk. They probably emphasized stopping the TE's and daring us to throw to our nobody WR's. Aside from one really nice play from Muth, they were non-existent.

8. Yeah, not good.

9. He's mentally recovering from the early year struggles. Maybe it truly was an injury related issue and we will never know. He's definitely put the really bad stretch of play behind him

10. Yeah, maybe. Hard to tell though because he's just been invisible most of the season. Very minimal impact.

11. Thank god. That was a painful one. Felt like Pickett days out there on offense again.... Never want to go back to that.

We had a couple chances to get ourselves in that one. Got nothing out of the first turnover and went negative yards for 3 points off the second. Fumbled away the momentum and game in the second half. Lots of ways that one could have gone differently.

We are so reliant on that deep ball by Wilson, because we haven't found a way outside of the Browns game last week to really sustain drives and thrive offensively when the big plays aren't there. We really needed the run game to get going and it hasn't been there. Najee's YPC has dropped below 3.90 again... Played 3 STUD games against 3 garbage teams, and the rest of his year has been largely atrocious. What a massive disappointment.

Now we just hope that TJ gets to play more football this year. If Pickens and Watt both miss next week, then we're looking at another loss. That puts us in a situation where we have to win the last 2 to even win the division and avoid another road playoff game. Bleak outlook at the moment. Lets just hope we get good news on the TJ and Pickens front and see if we can win enough games to get a home playoff game.

 

Very true. He's a good coach, but man 8 years is a long time (and a lot of the playoff failures fall on him, as he's been outcoached just as badly as the team has been outplayed).

I hope we get one this year. I really do. Hard to feel optimistic where we're standing right now. A win next week changes the dynamic of course.

 

Who's we? You got a turd in your pocket?

 

Maybe it was similar in that the Steelers had a chance to come back until the fumble, but it was a very different play. At least he Packers had to do something to force Mendenhall's fumble. Harris just took his eyes off the ball.