Initial notes before watching the tape
Steelers pass offense looked brutal, Kenny didn’t take enough shots to Pickens
Plays aren’t designed to attack the middle of the field for some reason
Packers run defense bad or Steelers improving run game really hit their stride?
Kenny Pickett misses reads
Our rookies are great
Watt was gassed again at the end, we need to rotate Herbig and Golden in more often
-Should have drives of TJ off the field and only in on 3rd and longs
Highsmith didn’t do a whole lot
Coverage outside of JPJ (and whenever Minkah returns) is a disaster
We need LB help desperately with Kwon gone for the season
Benton is finally getting more recognition from people for his play (outside of pff for the game)
Why aren’t we using Darnell Washington more in the pass game? Kenny hate him?
Kenny seems like he locks onto reads too much
Kenny will make tough plays but botch easy ones too often
If defenses only covered flats we wouldn’t have a pass game
Levi Wallace needs to be given a one way ticket to fuckoffville. I wonder if the coaches just really like him as a person, cause his play on Sunday’s does not deserve the roll he has
Pat Pete’s been making some nice plays since they switched his roll a bit
Najee needs to be the power back he is more. One on one with a DB you need to truck.

Started watching some of the tape…there are so many one on one opportunities for Pickett to Pickens that him not throwing them is annoying af. This game is simple, throw it to your playmakers, score touchdowns.

I will say with how good the run game was early it makes a bit of sense they aren’t really worried about pissing Pickens off.

I just watched Elandon Roberts get around the o-line and put right guard Jon Runyon on his behind, it was glorious.

Christian Watson made an insane play against JPJ, really the only way he was going to catch it. Just crazy with how bad he’s played this year that he can still do that. I don’t know what’s wrong with the guy but the talent seems to be there. Chase Claypool disease?

…I see we’re back to the if it’s Boykin on the field it’s going to be a run offense. A little predictable Canada no? 8/9 plays he was in on Sunday was a run.

I will say Canada is moving the pocket a lot more lately, something that this blog said to do earlier in the season. Now we just need Pickett making good reads when it happens

Watching more of this film…The Packers have the worst run defense of any team we’ve played this year and it’s not close. I feel like they’re undisciplined, LBs aren’t shooting gaps, there’s little backside support, no run sheds…at least here in the first half. I know they changed things at halftime so it’ll be interesting to see that. Just strange you’d come out trying to stop Kenny Pickett first over the run game.
-Campbell does not look like a good run defender the few times I’ve seen him this game. I wonder what PFF says his run defense number is. (they gave him a 46 this game in run D, that feels about right)

Packers ran a lot of stunts on their d-line here in the first half and it made the running lanes a lot easier to navigate.

I love saying I told you so to national discourse but Najee looking good again after us saying that he wasn’t the problem with the O so many times feelsgoodman.
-He did have a terrible game (two weeks ago was it?) but overall he’s been much better since they switched to the power run scheme

I think the biggest indictment of the Packers run defense was the fact that we gained yards on inside zone style runs, something that every other team destroys us on.

I still have no clue why teams aren’t playing the flats more against Pickett, it’s 110% of his pass targets. (don’t ask me about that number, I was told there would be no math)
-I just watched the Packers drop 8 and the flats were wide open on 3rd and short and Kenny completed it for the first. Dude what is this D coordinator.

94 on the Packers, Karl Brooks – had one really nice play crashing down to kill a trap on a run and cause a butt tackle. A few plays later did the exact same movement inside from a 3 tech position and it caused him to get downblocked and opened a huge hole to gain which sprung Warren’s 15 yard TD run. Don’t know if that’s just the scheme or him doing it on his own.

I just saw Marcus Golden fight through a double team on the edge against a toss to push it back inside like a BEAST. Something I’ve seen TJ have trouble with (and sometimes do tbf) but the fact that the Steelers aren’t rotating him and Herbig in more to keep TJ and Highsmith fresh is pissing me off more and more.

The amount of miscommunications in the secondary for the Steelers was super evident and something they absolutely need to clean up going forward. It’s tough losing both your LBs that were the green dot guys and you’d think Minkah returning is going to clean it up a bit but overall they looked sloppy af on Sunday.
-Weird that they deactivated Darius Rush because they thought he’d be a liability in communication (according to him) when the rest of their secondary was about as bad as can be.
-I mean at least with Rush you have someone that’s big and can run with players. With Wallace you have all the negatives of Rush but none of the positives

Elijah Riley, someone that hasn’t played much has made some nice plays for us but you can tell he still is super hesitant out there in coverage. Really late recognizer in coverage.

I get it, it’s tough to play QB, but for some reason it feels like Kenny’s reads are out of phase with the WRs, he looks right before a double move and looks off of it, doesn’t time up the routes vs. when they’re supposed to be beating the coverage he’s seeing. Stares down checkdowns, pre-reads and decides on plays. Very Jared Goff against the Patriots in the Super Bowl type of games right now for him.

And about Kenny’s inability to throw across the middle, I do blame him for a lot of it versus Canada. At 21:01 of the all-22 there’s a perfect throw wide open in the middle of the field for the first down but he doesn’t unload, he gets happy feet. These are the throws professionals need to make.
-He does come back to the middle late on the read against cover three and might not have seen it in time. Just again, out of phase with the play call to the coverage. Needs to recognize earlier the coverages post snap.

I think without the clocking from our WRs our run game isn’t as good as it is. Allen Robinson does some nice work out there.

Steelers run blocking did well this weekend (or pack sucks) but the pass blocking still needs major work. Hopefully the brass sees it and acquires a stud Tackle and Center in the draft this year.

I’ve noticed Pickett likes escaping the pocket left for some reason. Even when there is space to go up the middle, it’s always back and to the left (JFK assassinator style of pocket awareness)

My biggest tip for JPJ is to stop looking for flags, it’s suspicious.

I think I said in week 1 against the 49ers when we got blown out how much I like Keeanu Benton. It feels like more people are finding out about him which is awesome. Been his #1 fan since that first game.

Mark Robinson…I wanted him to get more playing time earlier this year. He got it in this game b/c #1 and #2 LBs are out for the year and it looks like he’s having a rough go of it. If this keeps up he won’t be on the field much longer, just blowing assignments (from what I can tell)
-tbf it is tough going from scout team to the plays as you don’t get a chance to become familiar but that’s what the money is for, doing a tough job.

Pat Pete won the game for us this week, and I won’t forget that. The blocked kick and the breakup into INT were the differences.

The infamous swing screen of controversy. Play blown dead but that’s not what I want to talk about, let’s talk about how it was a good play call if the Steelers execute. Diontae missed his block like he had no idea he needed to, Kenny misses the throw. It was like a 10 yard play plus if the players do their job. Crazy how much the plays have switched to being effective and the execution isn’t there.
-Is execution on the o-coordinator? Yeah still kinda

Mason Cole – still garbo in pass blocking

The Steelers did drop Watt on some plays. It’s not exactly what I want, maybe instead of a predetermined drop there could be a check to it. Problem is the lack of leadership for defensive playcalls right now.
-But something that if TJs gonna get chipped by a TE, that he switches to man on him and 5 are sent off the other side to overload 5 v 4 (cause the tackle still kicks out to block TJ after the chip)
-It would have to be a 5 wide check or a green dog blitz in order to account for overloading the RB too

Man I still can’t believe we didn’t hit a single double move with how often GB was playing the curls (to be fair it’s all the Steelers throw lol) but the WRs had a few really good opportunities, Kenny just can’t read in time (the out of sync issue I said above)

I’ve talked a lot of crap about Levi Wallace but that’s because he’s constantly getting burned in man coverage. If the Steelers utilize him as a zone style inside defender he hasn’t played bad in that.
-Same with Pat Pete
-Just crazy their best pass defender is a stud coated stud in man in JPJ, sucks that they have conflicting skill sets in their secondary. Although JPJ is pretty good in outside zone to be fair.

I do know they’ve been calling a lot of cover 3 lately which is nice because they aren’t giving as big of explosive plays that way, but it’s not like they’re phenomenal in that either.

When Minkah gets back (I think this next game I’m think) in obvious passing situations they want the follow players out there in zone: JPJ and Rush on the outside (I know coaches don’t trust Rush because he’s a rookie) but Wallace, Pat Pete, Minkah and Kazee as the middle of the field guys, then an LB (no good choices but probably Roberts since there aren’t bodies left there with experience) and the 4 rushers (Highsmith, Watt, Benton and Heyward)

Overall we have a lot of liabilities out there and it’s not like the d-coordinator is anything crazy either so it’s basically our talent vs. yours. Tough position to be in as a team.

There’s a play in the 3rd quarter here when they mug the a gap, show strength of blitz to right but send off the left. I don’t hate the call. I don’t like the cover 3 behind it as Love has an easy check to the flat in the trips set. I feel like next game do the same thing but have it as cover 2 rotation and leave JPJ down there in the flat to pick it
-I feel like JPJ cheating deep in the coverage gave it away to Love, have him do the same cheat but at snap jump down.

I’ve noticed players give away too many tells to QBs pre-snap at times. Need to clean that up a bit.
-One of the obvious ones is where they’re supposed to be “mugging” the a-gap but they’re basically shouting across the street to give someone they’re money. Totally ineffective lined up 2 yards off the LOS.
-so ineffective Love had all the patience in the pocket and beat them for 30 yards on a deep in

Loudermilk have 100% improve since he was being bullied earlier this year. He must have switched to whole from skim

Watching this tape if Cleveland doesn’t use a lot of motion and low crossers (drags) out of bunch sets I will be very surprised
-Steelers might want to scratch some of these match concepts if they’re going to look like this running them

This might be crazy to say but I hate Pickens in a stack set. It usually means a bad play lol
-this is normally crazy cause stack sets usually mean free releases for WRs, more ability to get open
-But when he’s split wide, away from other WRs it opens up so much for this offense. The only problem is Kenny so rarely throws the one on ones to him it loses its effectiveness
-So a stack set means Pickens is easier to cover and the defense can condense, closing run lanes

You’ll know how much I like mesh concepts for this O, I just saw one where if Kenny throws it it’s like a 10 yard gain, but of course he doesn’t follow (due to pressure probably) but if he just throws it quick it’s a positive play.
-it just pisses me off his only checkdowns are outside throws

If Kenny just pump fakes short and throws an intermediate route I’d lose my mind. The pumps have been missed since Ben left

…oof, more Mark Robinson L’s. I think I just saw him blow another coverage assignment and chase the QB. I’d imagine if he plays like this again he won’t be playing much after.

I thought Jordan Love did a decent job of getting the ball out quick. A lot of these it seems even if Watt had a free shot with no blocker he still wouldn’t have gotten to the QB before the ball got out. Just overall effective offense. Reminds me of the Texans game that way. It’s also how Rodgers made his o-line look really good for years. Quick, quick, quick, gas out the rush then you got time for those long plays.

Final thoughts on the game: Steelers played a 6/10 game, sad the passing attack looked as miserable as it always has even with the Packers #1 CB out. The DBs are terrible outside of JPJ but at least we have the pass rush and run game?