I noticed the Steelers are doing a bit more this game of downblocking…thank goodness. Crazy it took this long when we saw the same progression last year. Tried zone blocking, didn’t really work that well and now we’re doing this and lo and behold it’s looking so much better (and against a really talented Jets front)

I feel like some of the 2nd year players didn’t take the step forward I’d like to see them. I’m talking (obviously) Broderick Jones, but Benton in the run game is about the exact same as he was last year, with fewer splash plays outside of the knockdowns.
-I’d like to see the Steelers draft or acquire a nose next year to play Benton more in a 3 tech cause he is a little undersized for the nose. Don’t get me wrong, he’s still good, but I’d love to see him get more one on ones.

The other 2nd year guy that hasn’t taken the step forward is JPJ, although I think that’s more due to the scheme changing. They don’t run him in press man as much and it disappoints me. I’d love to just have him pressed up every down no matter the coverage, make it hard for the QB to read what he’s going to do since he can do it all from press alignment with his length.
-He has gotten much better against the run though

Two 2nd year guys def took step forwards though. Darnell Washington is looking real nice at TE (not perfect, but I like him) and obviously we all know Nick Herbig and what he’s done by now. Hope he heals up soon.

Steelers got worked all game by shallow checkdowns and screens. Which is concerning since Baltimore is so good at that, plus it’s like the easiest thing in the world for the offense to do. Open field tackling was a major issue
-I will say the refs didn’t seem to care about block in the back calls (remember, if either hand is on the back it’s a block in the back) so that didn’t help the tackling.

I still don’t know why this staff isn’t doing more to help TJ. They need to have a designated hitter, someone to go out and chip the chip man back. Make em think twice before teeing off on TJ. Use a man to take out a man, that’s great math.

I see the refs just don’t care about early get offs by the tackles anymore.

Hopefully the Steelers realize soon that when teams aren’t chipping TJ it’s 90% chance it’s a short pass concept or screen.

Talk about 2nd year bumps. I hope Peyton Wilson works on his ability to take on o-linemen this offseason.
-but man does he have great sideline to sideline speed. Can be REALLY special. (as long as he doesn’t learn coverage from Patrick Queen, that guy is a traffic cone out there not looking for work

I think Arthur Smith had his best game of the season. Is that due to Russell making changes at the line, the updated run game or Arthur just getting better with his personnel? Whatever it is, shout out to him
-I really liked all the rub routes to get separation on the man coverage the Jets were playing

Talking about man coverage, my new line of jockstraps have come in. So buy them at your local shopko.

But talking about man coverage last night it was interesting to see the Steelers switched to more man press later when Donte Jackson came out the game with an injury and Pierre filled in. I wonder why that is, is it due to the steelers staff thinking it’d be better for the gameplan? Is it due to them not trusting Donte in press since he’s better in off man coverage? Because JPJ looked remarkable in press late, but it saddens me to take your best corner and put him in a worse role because the other starter can’t play it.
-I just don’t understand why they can’t call split coverages more to take advantage of the talents they have.

Beanie Bishop…We’ve been frustrated with you for a while. Great to see Tomlin’s patience pay off. Amazing game with the pics and the other plays.

Talk about Tomlin’s decisions…Russell Wilson seems to have turned a lot of fans opinion around.

About Russell…I thought he played really well once he settled in. How often in this blog have we begged them to just throw the ball deep to Pickens. So far he’s been the most effective at it. Both the placement and the game script of play action it’s been great. Although some of the placement was a bit behind Pickens so it ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. (more of moonballs)

Patrick Queen had his best week as a Steeler.

Offensive line held up pretty decent in pass blocking (outside of when Broderick Jones is just completely missing blocking assignments.)

After watching the all-22, I’m excited to see what Wilson can do. I’ll leave it at that.

Najee had a good game, holes opened up a little better and he fought hard

I like more of Arthur Smiths playcalls this game. The execution on some of it by the players needs to be much better though. So is that a coaching issue or talent?

The Steelers are dealing with the chips on TJ by dropping him in coverage a bit more. That’s not a bad solution. I’d like to see more aggression and blitz the chip to take advantage of the double team.
-like why don’t they just have a guy inside or outside TJ run and hit that player as he’s setting up to chip TJ? Easily takes a receiving threat out of the play. And on defense you take one for ones.
-like oh you’re gonna chip our guy? We hit you back

They have JPJ playing in a system where his talents aren’t maxed. I need to see him press man more. Or try the press 3 like Seattle use to. He seems perfect for that system.
-I know they play off because that’s what Donte is better at but can you just press JPJ every play? Whether it’s 3 or man it’ll be harder for the QB to tell.

They are playing a lot of soft cover 3 these last few weeks. I don’t love it.

I love watching Cam Heyward. He is MAULING.

The Steelers are going very slow with Roman Wilson, which makes sense. Tomlin did the same last year with guys like Benton. But the separation needs to get better out of the WRs.

Joey Porter Jr.’s worst game of his professional career? It wasn’t BAD BAD, but he got beat a couple times and should have had a few INTs.

Steelers’ defense got torn up first few drives, soft zone got beat up and they didn’t really adjust well after their strategy to deal with Richardson, have his inaccuracy short and medium bail you out got put on it’s head when Flacco came in.

I did think the Colts matched up well with the Steelers, having one of the best o-lines in the league to help neutralize the Steelers biggest strength (and obviously having Highsmith out hurts the defense a ton)

Colts had a great game plan to take advantage of the Steelers linebackers. Just from watching the game on television we saw them get beat up.

It was a true Fields made bad plays, but he also made good ones.

HOW MANY WEEKS IN A ROW ARE WE GOING TO SAY, ALL THEY NEED TO DO IS CLEAN UP THE SLOPPY PLAY?

Too many missed assignments, bad communication and more

I’m interested to dive back into the film again because their run game looks a lot like it did early in the year with Canada, heavy sets, zone runs that get easily stuffed because we can see them coming. I can’t wait until Arthur Smith discovers what the Steelers staff did later last year, maybe we should mix it up, call more gap/power stuff and not be so easy to stack the box against.
-watching this all 22 film has me angry with how awful the Steelers are with this play calling

EVERY TIME YOU BRING MORE PEOPLE CLOSE TO THE OFFENSIVE LINE, THE DEFENSE BRINGS THE SAME NUMBERS. YOU AREN’T MAKING IT EASIER TO RUN, IT’S ACTUALLY HARDER.

Patrick Queen…oof. I’m not sure he’s going to be on the team this time next year if he keeps up this play. Really bad against the run 🙁
-he just can’t get off blocks, why isn’t he using his athleticism to shoot past the linemen? He clearly can’t take them on head on but he just kinda sits there when they’re on him and waits for the linemen to meet him then he just dances with them sadie hawkins style
-would rather have Elandon Roberts out there every down

The first drive, they just got dominated up front, Colts o-line really did a nice job

The offensive line is bad at picking up blitzes and stunts. They’re young but let’s hope coaching catches on soon with this (we had the same problems last year)

I like Mason McCormack. I’d keep him at left guard, move Seumalo back to right since Daniels is out for the year and probably gone as a free agent and Seumalo spent his time in Philly as a right guard.

Steelers need to figure out a way to save TJ Watt from these chips. I suggest overload blitzes, or just some sort of nickel blitz so that way if the chip hits TJ, the guy has a free rush at the QB

Steelers don’t disguise their defenses enough. It’s too obvious when they’re in press man vs. zone, etc.

I don’t know why Pickens isn’t the first read 50% of the time. It feels like Fields is focused elsewhere too often when Pickens is almost always open

I said this a couple weeks back but it’s showing on film again. Muth cannot separate in man coverage. The way he runs feels like he’s going 80% out there

It almost feels like Najee isn’t patient enough for this zone scheme. Like he’s the guy in Madden that’s always holding right trigger and running into the back of his o-line. Need a little bit more Le’Veon Bell in his game. We saw what someone with good vision did when Patterson came in for those rushes before he got hurt

…I just watched the Steelers send a backer from TJs side and he got in untouched…Flacco got the ball out quick (for no gain) but I want to see more of this. Free rushers are free money!

The next play TJ flipped sides and they sent an overload blitz from there with Herbig dropping out as the left edge (TJ’s normal side) The play ended up being an explosive one sadly but I like the mix up
-you can def tell TJ doesn’t feel comfortable on the right side
–I really think they should work on attacking the double on TJ, take notes from the old LB coach of the Steelers now coaching in Minnesota

Leal played…okayish, not really. He needs to learn pass rush moves if they’re going to play him on the edge. He just runs into the tackle, he should be trying to run over the tackle if wants to use power moves like that
-the more I watch the less I like

Have I not talked enough about DeShon Elliott? Dude’s been an absolute stud pickup. Nice work Omar.

Najee being a vet but not knowing to go out of bounds in a running clock situation is embarrassing.
-no game situational intelligence along with his inability to effectively run in a zone based system…I feel like the Steelers made the right decision this offseason.

I do feel like Arthur Smith’s long distance pass calls are pretty bad. The standard play is “just go to the sticks and stop.” Can this guy watch some other team’s calls in this situation. Streak, post, dig. Or streak, corner, flat. PUT SOME DUDES IN CONFLICT in this situation.

Final thoughts, brutal mistakes, bad run game, iffy pass concepts. Same thing, different week on offense even though Fields really showed out at times, which is super encouraging. Defense def suffered from no Highsmith and the Colts taking advantage of quick strikes, exposing the Steelers linebackers was just good strategy.

Thoughts – defense good, offense rough. Why does Joey Porter Jr. keep wearing his yellow gloves? He always gets penalties with them cursed jersey grabbers

One encouraging sign from the offense is that it looked good at times but a lot of those times were brought back on penalty. That won’t always be the case.

One discouraging sign for the defense, you won’t always face a quarterback that’s inaccurate under pressure. If you want to win in the playoffs, these open WRs will be hit by Stroud/Mahomes and you need to play a little better to make it work.

Why is Arthur bringing back the 3rd down Canada special of just running stop routes? It’s super predictable and as we see easily defendable. Look at the better playcallers, they all have route concepts that put defenders into conflict.
-now I’m not saying all stops is bad, I’ve just seen it too often in that situation where it becomes predictable and the Steelers don’t have separators other than Pickens to make it truly work.
-also with a QB that can move and likes to scramble, having your players all stop momentum on critical downs really reduces the power level of your QB since the WRs can’t be as effective with no momentum to get open
-if next game Arthur doesn’t run some stop and go’s on 3rd and long I know he’s washed

I am concerned with Donte Jackson, not just due to injury but because he seems to get beat deep. Feels like he’s a top athlete that doesn’t stay disciplined in coverage. He’s going to pay for it one day. The pass rush won’t always be able to bail him out. Some team will see it on tape and take a designed shot over his head.

Spencer Anderson isn’t great. And he’s one of the reasons why the run game isn’t as effective as it could be…but then I just watched a run go right behind him and he drove his guy back like 4 yards.
-I think Mr. Anderson is a little inconsistent but not at all unusable
-I’ve mentioned a lot of power runs vs. zone runs but I will say that Spencer Anderson’s strength doesn’t seem to be pulling and hitting hard. I feel like he doesn’t have that mean streak you want in an o-lineman, he doesn’t seem to have the downblock mentality.

I haven’t see much out of Connor Heyward this year, feels like he got a lot of his role eaten by Pruitt since Arthur seems to really like him.

I just watched Justin Fields watching a 6 man double mug look with a 5 wide set and he didn’t even care to motion in a blocker. Has he ever played Madden or know anything about numbers?
-he actually ended up escaping the pocket and picking up a good gain because he’s a great athlete
-He also makes reads like a bad madden player, if there’s a blitz, he’s throwing to the sideline as the hot read instead of the middle from where the blitz came from (with some exception)
-Also, stop being an idiot and throwing downfield sideline shots to anyone but Pickens

But I’m concerned that Fields has no ability to change blocking/anything at the line and it’s going to be a MAJOR issue against good teams with quality d-coordinators
-this is me doubting Fields is smart enough to do it. PROVE ME WRONG YOU FUCKING COWARD.
(I just watched Fields shout something at the line of scrimmage and it looks like they switched from a pass to the kill play, a run)

The more I watch of Friermuth the more I have no idea why they paid him. Is TE play that bad in the league?
-bad blocker, can’t separate. Hope he can find a role like Witten could getting open against zone. But so few passes have been schemed up for him over the middle.
-AND he doesn’t show effort in the scramble drills from what I’ve seen so far

Dear Arthur, please more inside zone split if you’re going to be running a lot of zone
-split has a blocker coming back to block the backside pursuit, unutilized a lot by the Rams a few years ago, provides a nice cutback lane for the RB (but the Rams have moved more to a power scheme recently)

I actually don’t hate Scotty Miller, I see him go HARD AF on his wind sprints (distraction routes)

Whats interesting is that the Steelers are playing a lot of zone of defense. I wonder if they thought running that against a rookie QB was the best path forward. Make it more confusing for him making reads vs. a man to man style defense.
-because there are players open against the zone, but Bo Nix is having trouble finding them. (it’s much easier to find them when you can pause and rewind than in the 1.85 seconds he has)

Just when I was getting worried about BENTON and not seeing him much this game (after I thought he had a down game last week) he immediately pops like a weasel and forces a super quick throw on 3rd down where it’s inaccurate and Denver has to punt.

And hold up…Dan Moore…is he finally a good tackle? I don’t know how to feel. It might be clicking. We’ll see if the Steelers can now afford to pay him going forward. Do all the dev work together and lose the stud. feelsbadman.
-wait, he kinda sucks
-I think this means he’s league average. I don’t know how to feel.

Arthur Smiths got all these funky routes for Pickens stretching the defense deep. It’s not that hard, have him on the outside, send him on a streak, get 40 yard gain.
-(although I’m saying that half in cheek, they do need to move him around)

Broderick Jones…he had the worst day anyone at his position could have. Go in, draw 3 penalties in a short period and be pulled for the rest. And he looked bad during a lot of the rest of it. But sometimes you can see he’s got that mean streak and athleticism to be a good tackle in the league. For example, he had a play at 10:09 of the 2nd quarter where he collapse the DT then moved to the 2nd level and made a bone rattler on the 2nd level defender. Cleared the way for a 15 yard gain by Najee.

2nd and long after Broderick’s first holding, what does Arthur Smith call, all stops. Fields is able to scramble out and make a crazy good dot to Pickens who once again got the best of Surtian. But Jones gets another holding, this time a little more justified than the first but still a little iffy. Regardless, let’s talk about how stops is not great when it’s used so much.
-stops is not great when it’s used so much. There, we talked.

Next play is 2nd and longer and they go with all 5 yard outs with a RB checkdown. I don’t love it but I guess Arthur is playing for the punt at this point. And a called pass no matter how safe and short gets people less angry than a “give up” run even though they’re both practically the same.

2nd half you see more blitzes, and that what it looks like Fields is struggling with. He locks on to targets a little too much instead of reading the defense and knowing where players are going and deciding on where to throw based on that movement

You don’t need me to tell you but George Pickens doing what he did to Pat Surtain this week was very impressive. Back to back difference making against two of the best CBs in the NFL. Just wild work from him.

It was interesting hearing from Tomlin that their gameplan was to stop the run first and foremost and make the rookie make plays. The Steelers were in 3 interior linemen and the two edges much more often than against Atlanta, where they were more in a nickel set with 2 interiors, 2 edges. So we saw TJ/Highsmith drop a bit more in Denver.
-and Bo did miss quite a few throws, so it worked out pretty well

Minkah is back playing deep safety and it’s everything I ever wanted.

Pruitt, the new “blocking” TE ain’t great in space at all. Both blocking and receiving. Sadly we only have one Darnell Washington 😦