Steelers Preseason Opener: The Good, Bad and Ugly

i saw some good things and bad things by young guys and vets. they have work to do and that goes with the territory at this stage.

 

Going to watch the repeat on NFC Network in 2 hours. I'm going to focus on DeCastro.

 

I think it was very encouraging as far as new players showing what they have the talent to do. I think they showed 1st team offense showed that in a real time game situation they grasped the concepts that Haley in installing. I don't think by any stretch they had really game planned beyond lets try a few of these types of plays to see if everyone is one the same page. I am not worried about the OLine at this time because they want a whole unit and not a patchwork line of the kind they have had in the past. I think they wanted to use this first game to get the rookie linemen some work and see how they look on tape so they can go into the classroom and work and then translate it to the field. I would expect the nest game will be a huge improvement over this one. One thing that also encourages me is that all of the supposedly high powered offenses that played last night struggled. The ravens looked horrible against the Falcons starters and wasn't until late that they made it a game and eventually a blow out against the second and third strings. Green Bay looked pedestrian. Manning had a pick but did look solid in his first game after a year off. i mean not a huge wow factor by any stretch.

 

I agree that worst thing of all was the injuries, but saw some good stuff going on. Liked using up the time clock & still moving the ball well. Liked the way Ben got the ball away a couple of times in short passes. How about Rainy??

 

Even Brady got leveled a couple of times. I only got a few glimpes but will be watching the game in it's entirety when I get home. I am excited to see McClendon and Rainey.

 

Oh wow...I didnt even realize he was not there! Congrats to him and to his family!

 

A 10-minute drive to open the game. That's the kind of possession this team needs in order to keep the defense fresh. If they can orchestrate that kind of offense over the season - they'll be difficut to beat.

 

they cant keep setling for field goals. i anice long drive has to be finished with a td.

 

i agree. they will also have to stretch the field once in awhile to make this type O work well. it's all still very new and they all looked like they are thinking instead of reacting at this stage. i'll bet next week looks a whole lot better.

 

After one viewing...

Good:

-DeCastro. I don't care what the article says. He played fine. He looked quick, athletic. He looked like he was playing his first ever snaps on an NFL field. He fell down once or twice and got pushed back a little more than he should have on some pass plays, but didn't make any big mistakes. And that's playing a whole half. I'm more confident in him than I was before the game, so that's good.

-Rainey, who obviously really is a threat every time he touches the ball. I said I wanted him in my mock draft... do I get to go all PWP now???

-Haley. I was really expecting a major shouting match with Ben on the sidelines, but it didn't happen! :o Way to keep your cool, Todd. I'm impressed. Also, I wasn't paying that much attention to the playcalling, but I thought it was a well called game.

-Steve McLendon, who Philly was obviously sleeping on. Whoops.

-Chris Carter, who may not be ready to start, but looks a great deal better than he did last season. Great play on the 2nd play of the game, stringing out McCoy.

-Sean Spence. This is the guy I most wanted to see on a Steeler uniform, to get a good look at his size and speed. Based on what I saw, he looks like we won't have to worry about his speed. He seemed plenty fast to me. He really does look small, which could definitely be a problem in the running game, but he delivers a bigger pop than a man his size should, which is good. He had very tight coverage on a tight end over the middle on one play.

-Will Johnson, who didn't get a ton of lead blocking opportunities, but looked good on the ones he had, including a near pancake against Kendricks on his first attempt on a running play (with Batch, down at the 5 yard line). This was his big question mark, but in his first ever game on an NFL field, I can say he blocked as well and better than David Johnson has historically blocked for us (check out the very first play of the game to see Johnson in a nutshell). Yes, he was partly going against backups, but hopefully that won't be the case next week. I look forward to seeing some early reps from him.

-Our kickers. Yay!

Bad:

-Mike Adams, who looked like he'd been told to spin around 5 times before each passing play. Seriously, it was like he forgot how to block. The Eagle guy would just run around him, and he wouldn't move his feet. That was ugly. However, we all know that he physically possesses great feet and movement skills, so I'll chop it up to inexperience and nerves. Still, he better get his crap together in the next 3 weeks. Hope the injury is nothing. I will say he didn't look so bad in the running game.

-Marcus Gilbert, who I said right before the game would be much better this year than last year, having so much more time to prepare instead of being thrown into the fire. He looked like crap. More than once he tried to do a cut block where a cut block was not called for (like on a long-distance passing play). Wtf? He also needs to get his crap together and not look like a rookie out there.

-Curtis Brown, who I thought actually had a very good game except for the two long ass touchdown passes he allowed against scrubs. On one he got burned and then fell down, on the other his coverage was okay, he just didn't look back for the ball or stick his hand out to block it. No es bueno. Looking forward to a rebound next week.

-Every backup offensive lineman. GOOD LORD! We had a 13-nothing lead, and all of a sudden the situation became: I hope they don't score 14 points, because we aren't going to get a single yard for the rest of this game. Every run lost 3 yards, every pass was a sack. And they all stunk, not just some of them. Chris Scott, Malecki, Beachum, Jolly, Essex (!), Legursky (!). Even our seasoned vets looked like it was their first trip up to the big leagues from community college.

Ugly:

-Biased announcers. Lots of announcers are secretly biased, and only let you hear who they're rooting for a couple times per game. I thought that was bad. But watching this, I felt like I was in the stadium with a bunch of drunk Philly fans. "Hey, this isn't the college rule! He can get up and run! He's just finishing the play!" Really? Well the way it really works is that even in the NFL, you can down yourself without being contacted if you are on the ground, not moving, clearly surrendering. Not sure how to tell when this is happening? Listen to the 5 refs blowing their whistles while your guy that's "just finishing the play" is still 10 yards away from contact. That's a clue. Dummies. Oh and speaking of Baldinger making an ass out of himself (heehee) on plays in which Paulson had the ball, how about the screen to Paulson in which Apparently Upcoming Defensive Player of the Year Vinny Curry rushed the QB and was played for a chump on the screen -- or as Baldinger described it, "Beats the tackle clean inside." What? First of all, he wasn't going against a tackle, he was going against a tight end lined up in the backfield. The very same tight end in the backfield that clearly let him go intentionally in order to catch a screen pass. You do know what a screen pass is, don't you? And when they show the replay, does Baldy realize his mistake? Maybe, but what he says out loud is, "Yep, there it is." .....And that was just Baldinger. The other guy was even worse. I never heard an announcer call for penalties during a play before. Usually even when it's really clear, they'll say something like, "And the fans want an interference call." Not, "THAT'S A BLOCK IN THE BACK! AREN'T YOU GONNA CALL IT? COME ON!!!!" I admit we got away with a -- pretty weak, but still a penalty -- block in the back on Rainey's TD, but there were two BS ones against Jamie McCoy on punts, which came first. The first one he was in the back but didn't block, and the second one he blocked but not in the back. In any case, that guy drove me nuts. I'm a Steeler fan, but if I was calling a game I'd pull myself together and behave like a professional.