First week with the bad man gone – a weight has been lifted off the city

I thought they’d do a jet sweep first play for the meme’s but it was beautiful to see the long play down the middle to the TE. Was like one of those Mr Beast video’s where people can see for the first time

Diontae came back from his injury, played a good game but since then has been trying his best to become the bad man on the team. Veteran move taking the pressure off Pickens
-I still hate it

Tomlin is a coward with punts. What a cringe coach.
-4th and two from the Bengals 44, punts. Ball gets a touchback. Dude gained 24 yards of possession when there was like a 60% chance or more of converting.

I feel like since JPJ hasn’t gotten picks in the last few weeks we aren’t talking about him as much but his presence isn’t just turnovers. For example, the first Bengals offensive play: it was a play action and the Steelers went pressure. Bengals did a decent job of giving time but Chase was driving into JPJ’s chest on the press and didn’t look around soon enough for the pressure to finally cause the pass to be thrown away.
-the play was 100% a win due to JPJ but it won’t show as a knock down or a pass defense in the box score

Dear Steelers, when you are showing pressure with the double mug look, don’t have your LBs a yard off the ball. It’s obvious you’re not coming, defeating the mug concept. That’s like robbing a bank with a bomb on your chest but everyone can see it’s just road flares.

Calvin Austin is not as good of a returner as I was hoping he’d be. To be fair there isn’t much there for him but I feel like he should be more explosive looking
-Our entire special teams kinda sucks right now. Ever since the ST Coach got destroyed at the end of the packers game

Kenny still shows issues with route anticipation. He had a corner open to Diontae but he didn’t pull the trigger because Diontae wasn’t looking at him. But if he was confident he’d let it rip and Diontae would have gotten his head around in time.

I just want to say it’s interesting that people are back on the Najee train. Almost like we told ya’ll a few weeks ago that he wasn’t the issue even when every filthy casual said he was. (production vs draft position is a solid argument though, I think everyone would prefer Creed Humphrey right now)

I’m still seeing Pickens one on one and Kenny is not taking it. I HATE EVERYTHING. JUST THROW IT YOU BUM.

Najee’s Angry Run where he emerged from the pile was basically all the result of Broderick Jones our stud rookie’s continued effort on the play. His lead block and drive resulted in Najee still staying upright and gaining all those extra yards. Really good effort, love to see it. Thick. Solid. Tight.

Kenny had 4 verts against cover 2 and looked to Muth down the left sideline instead of Pickens down the right. I feel like ANY TIME YOU GOT PICKENS TAKE IT. HE IS A LITERAL GLITCH.

Even though Kenny looked better, there is still a ton of meat left on these bones. Unlearning the Canada will take time. Does anyone know a good cult deprogrammer?

Mycal Walker – nice play on the tip passed (that Chase caught off the tip) but then really bad play not taking a shot near the end zone on the guy that was scampering in. Need to try to lay him out there to prevent the points. Overall okay game, can’t expect too much for a recent signing.

Darnell Washington got a catch on a regular route! Work them big dudes in. More vertical high points please! Madden taught me they’re the glitch

I need more playing time for Nick Herbig like everyone needs more money. It’s just a fact of life. I truly want to see him get 20 snaps a game instead of 5.

Kenny needs to learn to chill in clean pockets just a little bit more. I don’t fault him for his skittishness because of how bad pass pro has been but basically any 20+ yard concept that’s not a straight streak or post can be thrown out the playbook because he gets the ball out before they develop. And not just due to the breakdown of protection, just his internal clock.

Steelers still ain’t great at blitz pickup (and Kenny looks bad under the pressure of the blitz)
-I blame all of Kenny, Mason Cole and the coaches

Maybe I’m wrong but I feel like the Steelers secondary has caught on to the fact that when teams don’t line someone up on TJ to chip, the pass is going to be out in 2 seconds. Seeing some nice route jumps when the Bengals showed their hand this way.

I like how whenever the Steelers move TJ Watt inside to rush the center it’s been a run play lol

Holy crap, the Steelers ran the play I’ve been trying to get them to run this whole season (almost)
Basically when you see extra protection to TJ’s side, this time both a TE and RB, have TJ lock onto the TE and cover him (exactly what happened)
-the benefit here is that TJ essentially takes out 2 offensive players, the tackle and the TE, allowing you to overload the weak.
-The only issue with the Steelers call this time is that they only sent 4 which allowed the RB to slide and pick up. I say send 5. If they would have listened to me it’s an EZ sack.
-It was almost perfect, just didn’t commit enough.

The one free release TJ sack came from a nickel blitz to his side that confused the protection. ALMOST LIKE THIS BLOG WANTED. LOVE IT.

Crazy how good Trenton Thompson has been for us. Got a nice pick this week, similar play to the one he dropped last week. Overall been really solid on film other than the splash play.

One note: new offensive coordinator(s), and now Miles Boykin isn’t a run tell! He was out for 8 plays this week, 4 run, 4 pass. Yay!

It seemed like the Bengals were really ready for Jaylen Warren and the outside run game this week. These under center heavy sets with him in them might be a little too much of a giveaway.
-You all know my disdain for their love of this set. I will say they’ve been better out of it these last few weeks since they’ve started using a bit more play action.
-but overall they don’t do enough out of it to make defenses respect the pass

Overall solid game, 400 yards offensively for the first time since Canada took over and now that he’s gone that curse has been lifted. Defense was truly the game winner. Our pass rush was back doing it’s dirty thing with pressure’s and sacks. That’s even with the Bengals getting the ball out quick. (which is really the gameplay to beat this team.)

The most pleasant surprise this year has been Keeanu Benton. His ability to play nose with Heyward and the other interior d-lineman has turned us into a good run defense. In previous years that was a HUGE issue. Elandon Roberts being a good run stuffer has really helped too, dudes out here straight stuffing o-linemen on pulls and it’s a sight to see.

So good run d, great pass rush. Just need to get Minkah back and the new guys more on the same page (saw JPJ blow another coverage but Highsmith was at the QB in 2 seconds so the ball was thrown away) and the team will be really cooking.

But overall still can’t shake the feeling that this offensive performance happened against a lessor team and the true test is yet to come.