The Steelers preseason schedule has been announced. All of the preseason opponents are NFC teams, and the Steelers will open at home against the Detroit Lions. While the exact dates aren’t available yet, here are the opponents for each week.
Week 1 vs. Detroit Lions
Week 2 vs. Philadelphia Eagles
Week 3 at New Orleans Saints
Week 4 at Carolina Panthers
None of the games are scheduled to be nationally televised.
The Steelers will announce their preseason schedule today at 4:00 pm according to team spokesman Burt Lauten.
https://twitter.com/SteelersPRBurt/status/718115065631739905
We knew the date was getting close, as the schedule was released on April 9th for the past couple of years. The 4 game schedule typically includes a mix of non-divisional opponents who aren’t terribly far away. Here’s my guess at this year’s opponents-
@ Philadelphia
Tennessee
Detroit
@ Carolina
There was plenty of good and bad in the Steelers first 2014 preseason game. Here are some takeaways from the loss to the Giants.
The first team offense looked pretty sharp with their starting quarterback at the helm…until they got to the redzone. The Steelers are no strangers to redzone problems, but I’m going to blame the vanilla and rather meaningless play calling of the first preseason game. It would have been nice to see an offensive touchdown scored at some point during the night, but we’ll have to be patient.
Dri Archer is dangerous. On the first drive Archer took a Roethlisberger screen pass 46 yards and it looked like he was holding back.
It’s premature to say the starting offensive line will be a bright spot this year, but they played pretty well last night. David DeCastro looks like David DeCastro. The man is a technician and looked to be in top form. Of the two times I watched the game, DeCastro’s performance stood out as the best on the line. I’ll review the offensive line play in more detail in a future article.
Markus Wheaton looked pretty good. He had a 10 yard gain on an end around and caught a Gradkowski pass on a deep post route for a 28 yard gain.
Martavis Bryant needs work. I would expect after reviewing last night’s film, he’ll be the subject of some heavy coaching this week. A muffed punt (why was he even returning?), a dropped pass that resulted in Bryant punching the ground, followed by a fumble by Bryant that killed a potentially game winning drive.
Brad Wing showed off some of that nice hang time, but he also showed how inconsistent he can be. I can’t see him being the Steelers punter this season if he shows more of that.
The first team defense looked pretty good aside from allowing a running back to take a handoff 73 yards for a touchdown. Cam Heyward was pushed off his gap, Lawrence Timmons was egregiously held, and some mistakes and bad angles in the secondary led to the Giants running back finding the endzone. The Steelers were in Nickel run defense. S Mike Mitchell looked like he might have been out of position, and S Will Allen missed the tackle to stop Rashad Jennings. Steve McLendon wasn’t in on the play. Sorry, I couldn’t resist.
Stephon Tuitt looked ready for primetime. He contained his gaps, he got penetration even while being held, and looked pretty darn good against the Giants starters. It was just the first preseason game, but he should contribute early, and he sure looked the part of a Steelers defensive end.
Jarvis Jones can sack. No really, here’s proof.
Sean Spence made an amazing comeback. He looked solid last night, especially for a guy who many thought might never play football again.
Tauren Poole pulled himself ahead of the other second tier running backs last night with his special teams play. The other backs in that group were unimpressive, though, that’s typically the case.
Lastly, based on the quarterback play last night, let’s collectively pray that Ben Roethlisberger doesn’t miss a game this season. Gradkowski looked very rusty for much of his time under center last night. Landry Jones looked a lot better than he did last year, and he was a victim of the talent around him at times last night, but he still has warts.
Mike Tomlin addressed the media after the loss to the Giants tonight, and here are summarized key points~
Coach Tomlin started by saying it was not an acceptable performance on a lot of levels. ‘Some really good efforts. Some positive, some negative…a lot to look at and learn from. We did some good things, particularly in the run game. Winning the line of scrimmage and running the ball consistently and efficiently. Just too many mistakes, penalties getting us behind the chains offensively. We gave them 30 yards in free real estate in the 2 minute drive prior to the half- that’s self inflicted wounds- and then obviously we have some poor judgment in the return game. From a kicking standpoint we got a punt blocked. We’ve got some young guys maybe in some instances being overly aggressive and trying to impress. We’ll learn form this and move forward. It needs to improve and our focus will be putting together a winning performance for next week.’
‘On the injury front, we got through it relatively clean. ‘Stenvenson Sylvestor has an ankle. I don’t know the severity of it. I did see him walking in there, but we’ll see how he is.’ ‘Other guys have normal bumps and bruises.’ ‘It was my decision not to play Bell. He worked in a limited capacity late last week. Watched him in practice Friday and didn’t see enough to feel comfortable for him to start his career in less than ideal circumstances from a health standpoint. He’ll be back on the field the next day we practice.’
What was the story of the game for you?
‘Just the errors. Steelers defeating Steelers.’ Don’t get me wrong, sometimes it can be characterized as part of August football, but I’m not buying that…’
Anything you can do other than get healthy in regards to Tight Ends?
Just that and continue to work with the men that we’re working with. I’m not going to discount the guys that are working…we got quality work from David Paulson and others tonight. We’ve got guys down at the position we need to get back and we will when they’re healthy. In the meantime, we’ll focus on the ones that are working…that’s just football in the NFL.’
Any update on Spaeth?
‘I know he got a surgery preformed, as far as a timeline, I haven’t been privy to that information, but I’ll get an update within the next 24 hours…’
On draft picks taking time to develop historically. Will they’ll be pressed into action sooner this year?
‘They won’t be pressed. If they’re ready and capable to help, we’ll utilize them. If they’re not we won’t…’
On Jarvis Jones and Wheaton
‘Saw some positive things. We’re going to comb through it. We’re going to continue to challenge those guys to continue to improve… Nice start for those guys, but they need to continue to grow.’