Game Thread: Week 7 vs Patriots

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Where we game threadin this bech? Doesn't look like anyone is around in here...

@Southieinnc @sonnyblack65 @NWPATSFAN @NEPatsfan

 

[MISKO]

I'll be in and out I got bowling tonight

 

[#1BostonFan]

Butler with great coverage.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Qtr 1

Offense... What I expected. Lots of Bell and 1 INT from Landry. Not surprised.

Defense... Decent efforts so far. But like I predicted, the bend but don't break scheme is getting picked apart.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Edelman vs Timmons all day... Terrible mismatch for the Steelers

 

[MISKO]

So far it aint as bad as i thought it would be

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Qtr 2

Offense... Much better showing. That TD called back from the hold by Hubbard was heart breaking. Still managed to march down the field on the next drive. Kudos to Landry for giving it his all even if he is leaning heavily on Bell. Horrible passes in the EZ though. That last pass should have been another INT for Butler. Glad to come away with the FG.

Defense... Shazier is making a solid impact in limited fashion. That Edelman-Timmons matchup has been brutal to watch. Glad Edelman dropped that last one.

Shockingly in this game. Could be an interesting finish.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

So far it aint as bad as i thought it would be

Secondary has looked pretty decent. Good coverage for the most part. Brady has been forced to checkdown to his underneath routes a lot. And that's where the mismatches are. Run D has been fairly hit or miss.

Landry hasn't been too awful. At least he's looking somewhat competent so far. Couple good downfield passes mixed with a lot of Bell dump passes.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Well I'll admit it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought. Missed opportunities killed them, but they were in it for most of the game.

Coaching... I've been losing some faith in Tomlin lately. His decision making has been pretty bad. The challenge on Gronk's catch over the middle was mind boggling. Not sure what he thought he saw, but he was laughably wrong. Then in the 2nd half when they passed on 3rd & long and then kicking a 54yd FG? I know it was a badly missed FG which makes this sort of redundant, but if he knew they would kick a FG then why not take short yardage and present an easier FG for the kicker? Not to mention, he passed up a 53yd FG in MIAMI in near perfect conditions, but tries for a 54yd FG in poor conditions in Pittsburgh? Where is the logic behind that? Haley was calling a pretty good game. Not his fault that Landry wasn't taking more shots. Hard to judge Butler's scheme. They did a decent job through 2.5 quarters, but fell apart late. That underneath mismatch of Edelman-Timmons was hard to watch. Luckily Timmons was able to make the tackle most of the time and limit the damage. C-

QB... Decent game from Landry tonight. Very poor passes to the EZ though. The 1st for an INT, and the 2nd at the end of the 1st half should have been another INT. Lots of underthrown balls. Landry leaned on Bell very heavily tonight, which is what we expected. But damn I wasn't expecting 20+ targets or whatever ungodly number Bell had. Pretty frustrated with how many times they were in 2nd/3rd & long and Landry kept dumping the ball off instead of taking more shots. It is what it is, but at least Landry proved to be somewhat competent tonight. It was a good enough effort, and with the 10-13 missed points on TD called back & missed FGs, the blame can't be thrown on Landry. C+

RB... Almost 150 all-purpose yards from Bell tonight. He gave it his all. Solid effort. A

WR... No Wheaton. Lost Coates early but came back late after AB went to the locker room. Thankfully AB came back in. Still the WR's put on a decent display tonight. Hamilton & DHB in particular. Hammy could have had a monster night if it weren't from some poorly underthrown passes from Landry. And so could DHB if that pass wasn't called back on the holding call. The OPI calls on DHB & Coates were frustrating. Not great, but good effort. B

TE... Couple of drops from Grimble that were head scratchers. Would have loved to have seen Landry use this group better tonight. James & Grimble were open on a few passes that Landry dumped the ball of to Bell on. C+

O-line... Killer penalties on this group. Holding & false-starts were the theme. Hate to see that stuff happen on an otherwise good night for this group. They gave Landry quite a bit of time in pass protection. Run game wasn't all that spectacular as Bell had to fight for every yard and create running lanes on his own. I'll give their effort a B-.

D-line... Aside from Tuitt, this was a pretty disappointing effort. Hargrave was getting manhandled on the outside. Blount found little resistance when running to that side. Decent pressure from the front 7 overall, but I think that was mainly from the OLBs. C-

LB... Decent pressure from this group. Jarvis looked good early on but then disappeared after the 1st half. Moats had a sack negated by penalty. Glad to see Shazier get in some reps. He made a pretty solid impact in limited fashion. V-Will was surprisingly good in coverage tonight. The run coverage was pretty pathetic though. Lots of missed assignments from what I saw. C+

DB... Another night of poor tackling. Golden had a night to forget. Gay missed a tackle on Blount for TD. Burns whiffed a couple times as per usual. Decent coverage in the 1st half though. Quite surprised to see both NE TEs held to a catch a piece at that point. Brady was using his checkdowns frequently which meant the back end was doing their job. B

ST... Decent night from Berry. Boomed a 55yd to pin the Pats deep after a quick 3 & out from the offense. Boswell had a rough night. I could have forgiven the 2nd missed FG if it wasn't so badly wide right. C+


Overall... Not the greatest of efforts, but I'm glad they weren't embarrassed. There were some bright spots that could build some confidence. I'll give them a C+ or a B- for tonight. Could have been better, but if it weren't for the 10-13 missed points they could have made a run at the W tonight. So its not all-together a bad loss.

Outlook... Bye week comes at a great time. They need to get healthy ASAP. Back to back AFC losses sting though. They'll need Ben back in week 9.

 

[MISKO]

What happened to ab

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

What happened to ab

Looked like the cramps, but it could have been a mild strain/pull. He was stretching and riding the aerobic bicycle on the sidelines between series. I think he'll be fine.

 

[MISKO]

Looked like the cramps, but it could have been a mild strain/pull. He was stretching and riding the aerobic bicycle on the sidelines between series. I think he'll be fine.

Okay they didn't have the sound on at the bowling alley so I didn't know what happened

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Okay they didn't have the sound on at the bowling alley so I didn't know what happened

Yea I missed it initially. Heard them talking about it after the fact. Went to the locker room for what was reported as an icy-hot rubbing on the upper thigh, and came back into the game after the commercial break.

 

[Southieinnc]

@FaCe-LeE-uS . I thought you O-line gave Landry a lot of time. Was the Pats pass rush having a bad day or is your O-line that good?

 

[ATL96Steeler]

Week 7 Summary

We got a very predictable result yesterday… a slightly better showing on DEF than I expected, but a loss nonetheless.

Below are my grades for this performance.

OFC…2 of 5. I have to tip the cap to Haley even in this loss. I thought he might crawl into a conservative shell in this game…he was a little Bell heavy at times, but overall, he gave Landry enough ammo to put up 24+ pts. The problems on OFC were many, and not concentrated all on Landry. His OL gave him numerous pre-snap penalties to overcome. Hubbard took a TD off the board with a hold. And of course Landry hurt himself with a RZ pick. Bell was the only consistent producer on OFC.

DEF…2.5 of 5. Overall a fairly mundane day for Brady, but very efficient…when they did get close, they got 6 and the Steelers settled for 3 and that was the game in a nutshell. I figured that NE would target Timmons with the slot receiver and they did it often. Timmons held his own in coverage only missing one tackle that allowed a 1st down that I remember. They also did a pretty fair job on Gronk, but his TD was sort of the dagger that put the game on ice and he made nice move on Golden for another big play. Where the DEF failed again was vs the run. Blount was a major factor in this game going for 120+ yds and 2 scores. NE paid a good amount of respect to Hargrave, he was getting doubled a lot on those big running plays, yet they were still able to get blocks on the second level…Gronk did some great work in the run game.

ST…4 of 5. one missed FG that was makeable, and the long effort was never online. I know that was the textbook call there down 11, but wanted to see them go for the 1st there. The return game was pretty good, and Berry had a nice steady game, good average.

The pick was an awful pass and Landry missed a few more, but he played like I expected for the most part. His surrounding cast just didn’t help him out enough to get a win against a pretty good football team. The bye is coming at the great time With BAL losing it ensures that PIT will retain the DIV lead at 4-3 when they return to action in two weeks. Losing two in a row sucks, but not a terrible spot…hopefully they get some guys back in week 9 and close out this season strong.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

@FaCe-LeE-uS . I thought you O-line gave Landry a lot of time. Was the Pats pass rush having a bad day or is your O-line that good?

PIT's O-line is for real. They aren't quite as formidable as Dallas, but on a good day they can prevent anyone from reaching the QB... Just take last year's matchups vs Denver for example. They held that all-star group to (IIRC) zero sacks in 2 games vs the Broncos. Might need to do some fact checkin on that, but I know they posted the best stats against that D.

This year they have been having some injury issues, but for the most part they are playing well.

 

[Ewa PGH Fan]

so what are you sayin?

Just wondering if he's finally over the concussion.

 

[MISKO]

Just wondering if he's finally over the concussion.

ok gotcha