Game Thread: Week 3... vsHOU

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Coaching... Credit to the staff for getting this team back to playing clean football. Only 2 penalties on the day, and WooOOOO the turnover streak finally comes to an end! Steelers were on a 25-game turnover streak dating back to 2018. Claypool's fumble out of bounds was a close one! I do not agree with Tomlin not taking advantage of his 2 timeouts before the half when the Texans were storming the field trying to take the lead. The D looked like they were already in the locker room and Tomlin was content with watching that fiasco. It took the Texans 50 seconds to score. CALL A DAMN TIMEOUT and give them a second to regroup FFS!!! Fichtner finally gets the stretch game going and look at the result. It works. You can ask my wife & kids, I've been banging the table wanting them to run more around the tackles rather than up the middle. Still looked like there were some baffling playcalls but such is life with Fichtner at the helm. In large part he called a better game. I do like that he is committed to keeping the ground game more involved, which is something he has ignored in previous years. 3 games in a row of having a RB over 100yds. That really helps control the TOP battle, where the Steelers had almost a full quarter of more TOP & twice the amount of offensive plays than the Texans. That's huge. They called 38 rushing plays & 38 passing plays. That's perfect balance. And when's the last time we saw this offense grind out a 6min drive to close out a game? That's championship football. Butler's defense may be surrendering the deep ball more than they are comfortable with, but they are doing a great job shutting down the opposition's rushing attack. 29yds on 15 attempts. And also managing to keep Watson bottled up for 5yds rushing. Credit Butlers for making the necessary adjustments at halftime to get things turned around. B

Offense... Have to commend Conner for looking better in the ZBS in this game whereas he looked out of sync in previous weeks. Hopefully that is a good sign of whats to come. Getting Ebron involved in this game was great. He was a solid contributor and they really need to see more of him. I hope that was a good confidence builder for everyone involved that TEs need more love in this offense! Now that DeCastro is back it has become readily apparent that Feiler is the new weak link on the OL. I wouldn't mind seeing Dotson get the start at LG. I like the addition of Mcfarland into the offense. His burst in tight space is a great compliment to this offense. I think they need to make Samuels inactive moving forward but I doubt that happens. Ben had another semi-rusty game. He looked better with his decision making but wasn't able to connect the deep ball. He had some errant passes in the intermediate window & a few balls thrown behind his receivers. Would like to see him clean that up. B-

Defense... Pass D looked atrocious. It looked like all a HOU receiver had to do was find a gap in the zone and sit there. The secondary really needs to improve its awareness in that area. Minkah, Nelson, and Hilton were all burned for TDs. That 1 minute, 75 yard drive at the end of the half was flat out unacceptable for the talent they have back there. Props to this D for providing a shut out during the second half, but man this pass D is clearly a liability each week that is proving to be a cause for concern. And I don't care what the stat sheets say, the pass rush was lackluster vs one of the worst OLs in the league. There needs to be more consistent pressure up front. Watt & Dupree were generating pressure, but Watson was able to create all the space he needed for most of the game. C+

ST... No penalties... That's certainly a highlight for this group. I think McCloud should be the full-time return guy. DJ is exciting, but more often than not he's making boneheaded decisions to field punts and he still scares the hell outta me with his lack of ball security. DJ's decision to fair catch a punt at the 5yd line was infuriating. Boswell was perfect on the day. Colquitt only had 1 questionable punt. I'd say things are lookin up for this unit. B+

Overall... This is a game the Steelers probably should have lost but won in the end. Houston was desperate for a W and the Steelers managed to survive. This defensive secondary has to get better or they aren't going to win the more important games this year. They are bleeding yards back there and keeping opposing teams in every game. It's still early in the season, and there is plenty to work on with both sides of the ball. But they are grinding out semi-ugly Ws while still trying to find their traction. Cannot ask for much better after getting zero preseason games this year. Back to back weeks of being nearly spot on with score predictions! Yes I'm patting myself on the back! B

Outlook... Back on the road to take on an undefeated Titans squad in Nashville. Going to be an AFC heavyweight bout of sorts. We are goin to learn a lot about these 2 teams this week. Both teams have looked fairly underwhelming at 3-0, with both defenses looking a lot more shaky than they did in 2019. I'm expecting it to be another week of trading blows, back & forth. The margins for error are going to be razor thin if the Steelers want to come away with a win in that game.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Another thing:

Chuks had an excellent game. JJ didn't do dick all day.


I'd like to see him replace Villy at LT next year (too much money for him, and he's been inconsistent anyway), with Banner coming back for RT.

I'd support that move as well. Chuks has earned the starting spot at RT. Banner was shaky out there whereas Chuks has rarely surrendered any pressure.

I'd also like to see Dotson over Feiler at LG. Feiler is the clear weak link to me.