They Beat the Browns, But....

I'm certainly excited about the victory, but definitely have mixed feelings about this one.

• Watt and Highsmith were fantastic. The Steelers are rotating in Golden and Herbig, who are also playing well, and it is making the defense even better.
• Holcomb stepped up tonight. The other two inside linebackers have been inconsistent, but Holcomb looked like a playmaker. I think that will improve as he gets more comfortable in the defense.
• Porter made a couple of nice plays, but he also got away with holding on the final play. He is still too handsy.
• The secondary is a big problem. Wallace was horrid tonight. Peterson is washed up. Now Fitzpatrick is injured.
• Despite all the big plays, they gave up over 400 yards of total offense. The tackling on defense was atrocious. Chubb would have gone over 200 yards if he didn't get hurt.
• The offense is a mess, but they had some bright spots. Pickens had one drop, but he was fantastic tonight. Harris and Warren made plays when the line actually gave them a chance. That's about it.
• Pickett was a little better, but he still missed at least three throws he had to make. Even worse, he threw three balls that should have been ugly interceptions. Luckily for him, Cleveland dropped two. This is why they ran that weird play on the final third down. They knew they couldn't power their way for a yard and they didn't trust Pickett to throw with the game on the line.
• The offensive line was horrible. Cole was getting shoved into the backfield. Moore could barely slow Garrett down. The Browns lost their other edge rusher and two of their top three corners and the Steelers couldn't take advantage.
• The special teams were outstanding. Harvin had a great night. Boswell hit two long field goals. The coverage was outstanding.
• This team is going nowhere unless the line can get its act together and Pickett can get his head right. There were a few odd calls by Canada, but I'm not sure what he can do. The execution might have been even worse tonight than it was last week.
• I had to add this one. This is an absolutely devastating loss for the Browns. They lost Chubb for the season. They lost some other key players. Aside from the long touchdown by Pickens, their defense was fantastic. Clearly, Watson is not worth anything near what they gave up to get him. He had a few great plays, but overall, he's not a special player any more.

 

Execution was awful esp on that screen. If KP puts touch on that it wouldve been a big gainer!

 

There are plenty of plays you can blame on Pickett tonight, but that wasn't one of them. The line allowed the pressure to come too quickly and the ball was tipped.

 

https://www.espn.com/nfl/boxscore/_/gameId/401547424

Look at the box score. If it weren't for the magical defensive plays, we shouldn't have even been in the game. TWO defensive TDs and it was still a close game. Make no illusions from this win: If we didn't get the big defensive plays, it wouldn't even have been a close game.

QB passing - take away Pickens one big reception and we were anemic.

Rushing - even WITH Chubb out, they rushed for about 200 to our 55.

If this is where we are at (and everything points to us being there) then we won't even come close to contending for much anything but first on tee time while the playoffs are going on. Our QB is frail/bad. Our playcalling is inferior. Our OL execution is sad. Our ability to put the ball in the hands of the players who can make a difference is poor. Our coaching is below par. These are the facts.

When we are celebrating 9-8 and Tomlin not having a losing season, I won't be there. This team is a mess with no signs of legitimately improving. The problems putting us where we are have no movement in improving.

 

Touch pass meaning put a rainbow over the defender, but you maybe right.

 

We are in trouble as of right now

 

I don't think Pickett was any better at all. That throw on the roll out he lobbed into defender's hands that he got away with was as poor a decision as it gets. And if it's not his poor decisions, it's his inaccurate arm. I thought accuracy was supposed to be his strength. I've all but lost hope he can be even average

 

Winning is much better than losing! Woooo.

I would like to eat some crow and give credit to the fat punter for having the best game of his career. He filled his girth properly tonight.

 

Garrett’s stats was one total tackle and one QB hit. Pretty pedestrian.

 

Can't say its never happened but I can honestly say in my 40+ years of watching football, I’ve never seen a QB get called for a face mask twice in a game..

 

Should have been called for that kick too! He grabbed it and went for a cleats to the shin on him. That's what he was pissed about.

 

It's bad enough that this idiot grabbed a facemask twice, but what is really stupid is that he had to be aware he was not inadvertently holding on to someone's facemask and intentionally pulling and yanking it as if he were trying to injure the players. He should have been pulled from the game after the second infraction as it looked obvious to me that is what he was trying to do. And the kicker is how dumb can you be knowing that you didn't get away with doing this the first time, yet do it a second time like no one will catch it again? JMO>

 

Not defending Pickett because he wasn’t that good again…however he was running for his life all night. If we don’t somehow shore up that O-Line this is going to be a very long season

 

We trailed going into the 4th quarter, had -7 yards of offense, and won the game. Read that again. Crazy.

How come no one is talking about Meyer? A lot of people want to dump on Kenny or hang Canada, but Meyer seems to get a pass and the Oline has been pretty bad.

 

I believe it was a little bit both. I was so excited when I 1st seen it getting set up.....all for nothing.

 

More like impossible. As another poster mentioned, "can we have the defense play offense."

 

But yet PFF gave him a better grade than TJ Watt for the game. LOL

 

PFF= Pretty F**king Fake

 

Damn, I re-watched the game and I wish I didn't. Dampened the good Monday after feeling. I dug Pickins TD but other then that, YIKES!

I am somewhat confident the O will look better in Vegas.

 

I said challenge KFP's int at game speed, this is what I saw and I still don't get how this wasn't challenged or overturned. If you go back and watch the play he juggles the ball and it hits the ground.

 

Yeah, you are right. They had best shore that line up or we will get Trubisky sooner than later.

 

I think people are remembering the way the line improved by the end of last season, but this is ridiculous.

 

You're joking, right? It wouldn't surprise me that much if you weren't. The way they overrate Garrett is one reason I can't take them seriously.

 

First of all, no - their 198 yards rushing includes Chubb's 64.

Second, you can't have it both ways - you can't dismiss 'Pickens one big reception' or the scores on defense but also ignore that of the 134 yards Cleveland had in rushing without Chubb, 69 came on a single Ford run.

There are plenty of concerns to be had despite the win, but your predilection for bashing the team is a strange one and seems just rooted in a desire to troll about the board.

 

Very fair and honest assessment - wouldn't change a word of it.