Remember when Pat Pete trashed talked the 49ers? Then they came out and roflstomped us and talked about that in the post game? Seemed like a pretty motivating factor for them that game.

So what does Pat Pete do before this game against the Cardinals? Calls Kyler short and bad from the pocket. And what do the Cardinals do? Roflstomp the Steelers, shouting from the locker room afterwards about how bad they are. Seems like they took it personally.

So yes, Pat Pete has gotten on my nerves. Run his ass out of town if he keeps talking like this.

One good thing I’ll say about Canada is that he got away from these tight compressed looks and running the ball into the stacked box. There’s just not enough room against good teams, against bad teams like the Cardinals it kinda works but I don’t like it.

One thing that’s annoyed me all season is just how bad the WRs are at scramble drill
-coaching issues, don’t ask them to cook you an egg if we can’t scramble

Broderick Jones might have had his worst game as a pro. I really do hope we draft a right tackle and move him back to left next year and send Dan Moore to the moon

Kenny Pickett has not developed sadly. I think it’s partly because of the bad coaching, part because he’s under a ton of pressure in the pocket every rep, and then the other part is that it feels like he doesn’t have a feel for routes and concepts against different looks

Our defense with Elandon Roberts and without him against the run is night and day. The three injuries to the ILB spot have been devastating. I really hope MyKal Walker and Mark Robinson are not the starters next week.
-Watching deeper into the game, the missed tackles by Walker have been absolutely awful.

Keeanu Benton’s been insane. Getting tired of me saying that on a week to week basis? #1 fan blog of Benton ain’t slowing down this week. First run play of the game is him getting penetration, first pass play he gets the knockdown.
-only downside to that knockdown is the fact that I think JPJ intercepts it if Kyler gets it past the arm

I think the worst thing I see out of this offense is the downfield passing attack. The route concepts have no distraction routes to get some of the deep crossers open. Allows guys to just drift and cover.
-and since the offensive line is meh at best against just average pass rushers there isn’t a lot of time to make plays. And even when there are plays to be made Kenny frequently doesn’t.

I wonder if the playbook is too complicated for some of these young guys

Mason Cole needs to get lost in Europe somewhere. Go become a backpacker.
-We’ve been pissed off at him all year, glad to see his awfulness is being repeated by more people lately. It’s a little easier to see on broadcast when he’s messing up snaps to be fair.

By their third drive the Cardinals finally read the scouting report. Take advantage of these poor LBs in coverage. (this is me hating on Mykal Walker some more)

There’s been a lot of talk of the “turning point” of the game where it went from Steelers to Cardinals and a lot of people are saying it’s the Pickett injury and then the next play the stuff 4th and goal from the 1. I think that’s a solid contender but the offense was pretty meh throughout.

The turning point to me was the Elandon Roberts unnecessary roughness on 3rd and 12 with the awfully dumb hit on the defenseless WR. If he literally does nothing the defense is off the field. Those kind of 3rd and long mistakes are devastating to morale.
-his injury later in the game ended up killing the run defense but this felt deflating

Watching more of this game, dang the Steelers taking (calling) a lot of deep shots, and not the glitchy deep shots which are streaks down the sideline to Pickens. Just like deep posts/crossers. This is a 9 year old in Madden’s offense.

These idiots running the O don’t seem to understand they don’t have the o-line for this.

Watching Kyler getting the ball out in 2 seconds because they understand modern offense vs. the Steelers losing downs b/c they don’t is frustrating.

To show just how dumb they are, they run a WR screen without spacing or numbers advantage

Does this offense not have audibles? Some of these plays are terrible going into the defensive look. Thought they’d institute better communication after the bad man left.

I don’t often talk of special teams but it’s been real bad since GB (the incident) and it’s hit a pretty bad low this week. I can’t even call this a bottom cause they seem to get worse every week. 3 penalties on Killebrew is embarrassing for him.

Pass rush did a really nice job in getting to Kyler, he has consistent pressure on him.

WRs seem super inconsistent on run blocking.

This o-line is embarrassing in blitz pickup. COACHING

Teach Kenny Pickett some sort of fighting style like Tua or draft someone else. These brittle bones he’s got is annoying af.

I know we shouldn’t take PFF seriously but seeing some of these grades… For example Nick Herbig had 12 snaps total (a few of those were on kneel downs), and in the one I just watched he had a super win against a run block, hit the RB in the backfield, RB spun out, TJ then hit him but didn’t bring him down, the Herbig got the tackle for like a 3 yard loss.
-Herbig and Watt both got knocked for the missed tackle so the “tackle” grade is in the 20’s for the game (I’ve noticed one missed tackle destroys a grade on defense) but it doesn’t seem like Herbig got credit for the run shed super win since his run defense grade is 51.4

Next play Herbig took on 2 blockers, TJ stopped both the RB handoff and got the tackle in the backfield on Kyler. These are great plays, these grades man…
-I do hate how since no one watches all the games we have to rely on the grades for other teams when there are so many problems with them.

It’s just insane to me the success rate they have on throwing the ball to Pickens down the sideline and how infrequently they do it

JPJ is so good I wish they’d lean into that a little bit more when designing their defenses. I will say they do a decent job overall on defensive calls. Looking at the tape it’s easier to say these things in retrospect because I can see the offensive formation and play as it’s happening.

I feel like a big weakness of the offense is that on 2nd and long they always want to make it 3rd and manageable. Which is a fine goal. But I feel like it becomes too obvious to the defense, therefore making it easier to defend. If they leave Pickens one on one on those, huck it chuck it football.

Goal line defense needs to be worked on. They looked really confused by the quick snap. The front shouldn’t be figuring out alignment at the snap of the ball.

I feel like the Steelers have the worst passing game in the league vs. cover 2

Cardinals came into this game with great zone beating concepts and Kyler on the right page with them dotting from the pocket even though Pat Pete said he “couldn’t”

You know how I talked about momentum changing plays? Cardinals recovering all three fumbles in the game felt pretty momentum changing.

2 TEs to one side with the outside one motioning? Oh that’s a toss. I THOUGHT WE LEFT THIS GENERIC PREDICTABLE OFFENSE IN THE CANADA ERA

Just like the new OCs said, these are still Canada’s concepts. This pound the rock and attack vertically offense just doesn’t work that well with this personnel. Mostly the vertical stuff since the QBs aren’t throwing it and the defense is playing it.

I have no idea how PFF gave Armon Watts a 65 grade against the run, dude was really bad

DOG AT THE END OF THE GAME TO ATTACK COVER 2 THEY WERE RUNNING ALL CURLS, THE WORST POSSIBLE PLAY. THIS IS A JOKE.