My thoughts on reg season wk 2

1. Kaleb Johnson had his bone headed rookie moment

2. While Broderick Jones struggled wk 1,.... it was Troy Fautanu's time to struggle this wk

3. Outside of Fautanu's struggles, most of the o-line shortcomings came from being out schemed by the Seattle defense.... ie, coaching failure

4. Middle of the defensive secondary got abused throughout

5. Once again, we struggle against the run

6. Can't blame Patrick Queen for the defensive struggles this wk.... he played like he was on a mission

7. Overall, Jack Sawyer and Nick Herbig stepped up well

8. No excuse for the coaches not involving the other wr's

9. Corliss Waitman had himself a day and Boz was his usual automatic self

10. The same o-line scheme failures apply to the d-line

 

That was an awful performance. The 2025 Pittsburgh Steelers are a bad football team. They are poorly coached and play very soft. They should be embarrassed but nothing will change.

 

9-8 with some lucky break with that

 

So again, only to repeat time and time again, until the Offensive Line continues to gel, expect the same problems rear their ugly head. That unit is gonna have to take its lumps; some games more severe than others. Today was one of them.


As for an additional thought?!


Derrick Harmon or not, Pittsburgh's Run Defense isn't getting fixed anytime soon until both the personnel and schematics change. These past two weeks have been a disaster.

 

They seem to be playing a 'prevent the big play' defense a lot of the time. Trying to keep everything in front of them, but they seem fine with giving up 6 to 14 yards every other play. The one exception is on 3rd and long. In that spot, the Steelers like to give up 25 to 40 yards.

 

As I posted earlier.
I left right after the kickoff bungle, the Steelers plays ruined my PeppeRooney Pizza.

Austin's idea of a defense is let everybody wait around for TJ to make a play. The only good news is Patrick Queen didn't listen to Austin.
The offensive line play is even worse. I think they don't really even watch film or even practice. There's certainly no coaching leadership.
If your line can't block and the Defense can't play defense, things don't go so well.

I definitely give the entire coaching staff a F for this one. Not sure they even prepared.


Additional notes
- Key players that seem to always come up injured. That's a problem here.
- 1 int was on Calvin Austin. That was terrible and it is also a coaching issue. That's one of the very first level teachings for the scramble drill, don't lead your cover guy into your teammates area. He was supposed to come to the QB.

 

A new defensive coordinator like Flores would have solved that and tell Bags Tomlin to just go be the head coach. They could have demoted the puppet Austin. But alas here we are.

The schematics are not going to change. Its the head coaches archaic scheme. The one year defensive coordinator who some think he is a defensive guru

 

Hopefully they get this all figured out before the bye week or this will be Tomlin's first losing season. Funny thing bout the run defense is that they defended well in 5 man fronts and continued to get dashed in 4 front. I get that it's early still, but the New England and Minnesota games will make or break this season.

 

My prediction was that the Offensive Line will begin to get better after the bye week; health permitting of course. I still believe that the Line can make the pivot. The question I always had though was will Aaron Rodgers survive by then?!


I honestly don't believe so.

 

It really doesn't look good for the OL when even Seamalu is looking bad. As for Aaron's health, don't be surprised if he just randomly retires at some point this season.

 

I know the "players play", and that will forever be the argument for the pro-Tomlin crowd, but it sincerely looks like no one ever coaches anything. It's chaos. There are several Pro Bowl/All-Pro level players, and a few going to Canton, and yet the team has such poor fundamentals and no awareness. They would look very different under a competent staff.

 

Austin's defense is players take their zone and sit around, let the offensive player make his break then tackle him after the catch. The inside linebackers overpursue or get blocked out too many times. Bills showed everyone, why Chicago got rid of Justin Fields. Not the QB answer for the Jets anymore. While our D made him look better than Rogers. FIRE TOMLIN

 

answers to thoughts 1--johnson cost us the game--2--It's not off. line screw up player of the week-- there's no reward for it.--3 arrrgh--4-----5----6-----7------8--What WR -do we have any---9--Waitmanand of Boz---10--OFF. LINE--DEF LINE=same --piles of

 

We have analyzed it to death for years. Tomlin and his staff are just too dumb. No overcoming that.

 

2-5 and 10.

if we cant stop the run against mediocre teams, if our o line cant open up holes for the running game and AR is showing his age already how do we expect to make any noise in the playoffs?

i know its still early but these are not good signs. Could this be Tomlin’s swan song? If we get a losing season its hard to see him come back, contract or no.

 

Austin and Johnson both made game-losing mistakes. That doesn't mean the defense isn't a mess. It is, but the Steelers could easily be 2-0 without two massive mistakes that handed the Seahawks the game.

Can you put both plays on coaching? Not entirely, but players with better fundamentals don't make those mistakes. How do you not drill into a young kick returner's head that they have to go get the ball in that instance?

That said, I wouldn't scream that much about Tomlin on that one. Barry Foster made pretty much the same mistake as a rookie in 1990. Chuck Noll was still the coach then. Let's hope Johnson makes up for it the way Foster did two years later.

 

Ramsey looked a step slow. JSN beat him like a drum out of the slot all day. Take a look at the big Seattle pass plays. Most came with Ramsey in primary coverage. Not good for the supposed "engine" of the defensive secondary. I have not seen the Dolphins play much this season....but I think Fitzpatrick for Ramsey was not a good idea.

Slay continues to be exceedingly average. Iggles knew he was done. Steelers are finding out now.

Peyton Wilson better hope it was his tummy that made him look awful for most of the day. He got pushed around in the run game and bamboozled on PA passes. Steelers FINALLY get two ILBs that can run like deer -- just when the league is returning to more physical inside running. Gah!

Loudermilk getting hurt and forcing the Steelers to play Black more was a good thing. Hopefully Loudermilk returns to the bench.

Last week Jones couldn't block anyone. This week it was the other tackle. He got abused by every defender Seattle put over there.

There is no more over-rated group of players in the entire NFL than the Steelers TE room. Those guys are all frauds. They are just not good at much of anything.

OK...ranting and raving over. This was actually about what I expected the Steelers to look like this year. Good but flawed and a bit too old where it counts. Ah well -- on to next week!

 

The steelers have been outplayed like crazy by Seattle....Only 11 first down on offense,it was around 400-250 in yards for Seattle and 65 of those yards was on one play.The error of Johnson was a big deal but Seattle make some mistake in the first half,otherwise this game would been a blowout at halftime

 

A 9-8 team...This team on paper would been great in 2020 but not in 2025!

 

Pretty much.

Once again....many of the off-season moves were and still are better than standing pat from the 2024 season. But they just didn't really move the needle. Still a team with a ceiling of a 10 win wild card round out and a floor of a 6 win write off.

Same as it ever was. They won't be anything else until they stabilize the OL and inject youthful talent at the QB position.

 

Its Bags Tomlins defense. Austin a puppet.

 

They're also incredibly close to being an 0-2 team if not for Boswell being Boswell. 1-1 seems about right considering how they've played and the opponents they've played against.

 

The steelers need a full rebuilding since a long time ago

 

Jones played badly again.

Troy F is new and going through growing pains.

Queen made some plays vs the run, but was abused vs. the pass. This can not be fixed. Sorry folks he is a good down run defender only.

Ramsey has great ball skills, but he has lost a step and was beaten in coverage.

The Run D...oh my. We need a NT badly.

Tomlin remains clueless and dresses like he is from North Alaska. He wears dark shades all the time. Does he have skin issues like Michael Jackson had? Way to cover your eyes and limit the necessary face to face coaching in game.

We are 1-1, But the D is bad and we barely beat the Jets who stink and they dropped 32 on us.