Still concerned

Today was a good win and I am enjoying it. I am not concerning myself with anything today

 

That's fine, but give me the same oppertunity to voice my opinion. If it comes off as rude sorry, no different then the way some of the posts come off to me. What happens when we play a perfect game? I'll take it down a notch

 

Don't let them bother you it is pretty much standard that after all the high fives and awesome air kicks over a win that people generally want to discuss the good and the bad. I'm like you and it only takes me a hour or so before that warm post game glow from a win wears off and I want to talk about areas of concern. Typically those who linger on the win will react in different ways to threads like this one but give it a day or two and they are saying the same things you are now.

 

I agree lots of good things the last two weeks and plenty to talk about. I enjoy the win the whole week but I am ready to talk football and say what's next usually before the end of the day. I will say I was really shocked that for an early game and a win the board was sluggish in the first hour or so after the game.

 

i don't think it's just the run either. 10 drops by washington. 4 of those we forced. 4 of those were drive sustaining and two of those were TD's. it sure could have been a whole different game. we got hit with that drop syndrome last week and on one today. i thought we did a pretty decent job today against the run. rarely will we face running qb's like RG3. we did a decent job against vick too.

we still need some players healthy and some more playmakers added to this defense, but some guys are making progress. [/quote:v19d6569]

You really think we did a good job against the run? RG3 was like 6 carries for 8 yards. He had very little to do with the 4.1 ypc. I agree with the comment about the drops--were it not for them, the game may have been very different.

 

I just can`t believe that for the first time in my life, my area of concern is the defense...
Aside from the dropped balls, by wide open recievers, it`s not like we really STOPPED RGIII from running, as much as he didn`t really TRY to run...
I remember one tackle on him, when he tried to run for the endzone(Timmons, I believe), and a nice hit by Clark(I think), when they tried the trick play to use him as areciever, but other than that, they just faked him running, and had him pitch one on an option run...
Other than that, they seemed to use the THREAT of him running, to sell play-action plays, more than actually running him.
I credit the defense for being disciplined, for the most part, but they did allow a lot of open receivers...
And I`m not gonna mention, that on the int that got reviewed, in the endzone, our db, clearly held their receiver`s arm, to stop the catch.
We`re allowed to get away with pass interference, once in a while, like any other team...
Yes, I am very happy with the win, but, I see how it could have been a much closer game, if their recievers just caught more of the balls that hit them right in the hands, while they were fairly wide open.

 

i don't think it's just the run either. 10 drops by washington. 4 of those we forced. 4 of those were drive sustaining and two of those were TD's. it sure could have been a whole different game. we got hit with that drop syndrome last week and on one today. i thought we did a pretty decent job today against the run. rarely will we face running qb's like RG3. we did a decent job against vick too.

we still need some players healthy and some more playmakers added to this defense, but some guys are making progress. [/quote:ue5mml45]

You really think we did a good job against the run? RG3 was like 6 carries for 8 yards. He had very little to do with the 4.1 ypc. I agree with the comment about the drops--were it not for them, the game may have been very different.[/quote:ue5mml45]

what i meant was playing that type of qb, we had to pay perticular attention to him alone. we had some good stops on their backs today. that is a hard offense to defend when a very good running qb is in there running it. they had under 100 yds.rushing i believe. thats very good against that type of O.

 

I use to look forward to our D being on the field. Not so, over the last couple of years. It's just like how our special teams was that year when we gave up 4 kick/punt returns for touchdowns. Now, I feel more comfortable with our offensive on the field. We will have to rely on Ben more than before.

 

i don't think it's just the run either. 10 drops by washington. 4 of those we forced. 4 of those were drive sustaining and two of those were TD's. it sure could have been a whole different game. we got hit with that drop syndrome last week and on one today. i thought we did a pretty decent job today against the run. rarely will we face running qb's like RG3. we did a decent job against vick too.

we still need some players healthy and some more playmakers added to this defense, but some guys are making progress. [/quote:2i11q065]

You really think we did a good job against the run? RG3 was like 6 carries for 8 yards. He had very little to do with the 4.1 ypc. I agree with the comment about the drops--were it not for them, the game may have been very different.[/quote:2i11q065]

what i meant was playing that type of qb, we had to pay perticular attention to him alone. we had some good stops on their backs today. that is a hard offense to defend when a very good running qb is in there running it. they had under 100 yds.rushing i believe. thats very good against that type of O. [/quote:2i11q065]

I see your point now. There could be some merit to that.

The only thing is...we haven't proven we can stop the run against offenses without a good running qb either. Tennessee? Denver? Oakland? NYJ? I hope we'll get better as the year goes on, but right now I'm worried.

 

Going to have to look up the definition of a flamming post.
The way you're quoting the rules you act like you own the place. Lol!!!!!
In all seriousness though I just get frustrated with the were never good enough even when we win attitude. Like I said I'll take it down a notch.

 

The Skins dropped four passes that were a direct result of Steelers contact plus a couple of the other drops appeared to be a result of being afraid of getting hit after the catch. I think they played their most complete game today. I'm happy about that and the fact we seem to be getting better each week.

 

Of course, I think the people that are mentioning all their drops are trying to say that our pass defence isn't as good as it appeared to be today. Our pass defence is still definitely the weak spot on the team. We deserved to win as drops are one of the things that determine wins and losses, but if they hadn't dropped all those balls, we would have seen our pass defence exposed badly today.

 

Welcome to the new NFL, where playing defense has become much more difficult. How much so? Look at how "easy" rookie and second-year QBs are now taking to the league.

You can't measure defense by yards given up, anymore. It's about points allowed, mostly in the fourth quarter. But most importantly, it's now about big plays: sacks and takeaways. And this is where I have a serious concern about the defense.

I am far less interested in how many yards the defense gives up. Rather, the team needs to be creating turnovers, making big plays...and they simply do not do it. This has been going on for a season and a half, now.

The new standard of defense: give up FGs and not TDs, get turnovers. See New England for how this works.

 

Well, I think if we weren't concerned at all after watching our defense and special teams, we wouldn't have a pulse. Still, I like much of what I saw today (not the least of which was the big 'W' that we couldn't afford to be without). The defense was much more disciplined, there were not a lot of foolish penalties (on EITHER side of the ball), we stayed in bounds to run clock when it was appropriate to do so, we reached for the first down marker knowing where we were on the field. Top notch teams take a lot of those things for granted, but we haven't had that luxury recently.

Of course, watching what the class of the AFC is doing to some of their opposition (Denver, New England, Houston), it looks like we still have an uphill battle if we're thinking seriously about playoff positioning. Still, it's not to be in a position to at least THINK about it in any respect.

Congrats to the Steelers on another much-improved effort. Still obviously have to get better, but many more reasons for optimism. No reason we can't take the Giants next week, even though it won't be easy. After all, they have a winning record, unlike every other team we've beaten....or, in fact, lost to....all year (except for Denver now)!

GO STEELERS!

 

:godell:

 

I think you've got something! They played lights out in an early game!! What? A 1:00 game?

 

i don't think it's just the run either. 10 drops by washington. 4 of those we forced. 4 of those were drive sustaining and two of those were TD's. it sure could have been a whole different game. we got hit with that drop syndrome last week and on one today. i thought we did a pretty decent job today against the run. rarely will we face running qb's like RG3. we did a decent job against vick too.

we still need some players healthy and some more playmakers added to this defense, but some guys are making progress. [/quote:1ajkbqq5]

You really think we did a good job against the run? RG3 was like 6 carries for 8 yards. He had very little to do with the 4.1 ypc. I agree with the comment about the drops--were it not for them, the game may have been very different.[/quote:1ajkbqq5]

what i meant was playing that type of qb, we had to pay perticular attention to him alone. we had some good stops on their backs today. that is a hard offense to defend when a very good running qb is in there running it. they had under 100 yds.rushing i believe. thats very good against that type of O. [/quote:1ajkbqq5]

I see your point now. There could be some merit to that.

The only thing is...we haven't proven we can stop the run against offenses without a good running qb either. Tennessee? Denver? Oakland? NYJ? I hope we'll get better as the year goes on, but right now I'm worried.[/quote:1ajkbqq5]

i know what you mean. we have played some good RB's so far. we are giving up some longer runs this year, but they are showing some improvement over the last couple of games. it's not great but livable. the pass concerns me. yea they dropped them and i was happy about that. it lead to the win. my concern was they were open on 6 of those ten, which means we got beat six more times that game and two of those were for scores. they helped us look better by doing so. that's not always going to happen. it has nothing to do with the win we got, but it's not where we should be and worse than alot of people think.

 

I'm still concerned too going into this game but I don't think it'll be as bad as we might think.

Sure it's most likely at least going to be a nail biter if not a game we need to comeback in, but this team can do it.

If for no other reason, because it's around the same time of year we pulled that upset on New England last year and held the Brady bunch in check.

I don't think our chances are that bad.