Week 8 @ Lions

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

I have a tough time remembering that "CB Allen" is Brian Allen, and not Cortez Allen...

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Teammates still showing the queen support.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Tomlin looks pumped up tonight! Hopefully that means we'll see a motivated team on the field tonight.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Wide open drop in the EZ by Rogers...

 

[Superbelt]

FUCK YEAH, LIMAS SMITH-SCHUSTER!

 

[Yo Tee]

JuJu is the shit! Holy hell. 97 yard TD?!?! Hell yeah! 6-2 into the bye? AWESOME! 3 straight games and 6th game all season where we held our opponent to under 20 points. Our offense still needs to get it going. We can't win every game by scoring under 30 points. But, Le'Veon Bell is on pace for over 1500 rushing yards and almost 2,000 yards from scrimmage. Who woulda thought that JuJu would be leading this team in receiving TDs??? AB is on pace for 113 rec and 1670 yards. The offense is just not clicking fully yet.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Coaching... Seemed like a pretty motivated group last night, but still felt lackluster with the offensive struggles. Can't pin it all on Haley this time though, even if his playcalling still left some points on the field. More on that later. 7/14 on 3rd downs & 1/3 in the RZ. Another paltry effort. Butler continued to shine, even against a tough opponent. Detroit may have racked up the yards, but that was due in large to a $27mil QB earning his paycheck. Was a little surprised to see so much zone defense, but for the most part they covered the field well. It was the underneath routes that annoyed me the most. In man coverage those conversions wouldn't happen as much. B-

Offense... Gonna paint the elephant in the room red first. Ben looked like shit last night. Very inconsistent play from the field general. Missed a lot of wide open passes (a few that come to mind: DHB in the EZ, JJ in the middle on 3rd, the awkward dump pass right into the D-lineman's shoulder), but also had some big time drops (Rogers in the EZ, JuJu on 3rd). But even with the struggles he found a way to get the job done. That 97yd TD to JuJu was a thing of beauty. Perfect touch pass over the coverage right into a receiver in stride. Feels like the offense is living dangerously with Ben seemingly throwing 2-3 erratic overthrows but connecting on the occasional homerun to keep the team alive. And its been going on that way all season. Not to mention all the forced throws to AB. Last night was no different. That INT was a forced throw to AB in triple coverage. Had a bit of a scare last night when Hubbard got concussed & Feiler came in. Haley was wise to bring Grimble in on a chip blocks but Feiler held up ok. Bell had a relatively quiet night. That fumble in/near the RZ was brutal. Not much going in the run game but that credit goes to Detroit's D-line. Still happy with the way the O-line battled. Holding that D-line to 0 sacks on 31+ attempts was huge. I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge JuJu here. Incredible game from the rook. Quit callin him Limas and give the kid some respect! lol C-

Defense... Perfect game of bend but don't break. Forget the 482 net yards Detroit racked up, it's all about 0/5 in the RZ. Even better, 0/3 in goal to go (0/2 on 4th in those situations)! That was a thing of beauty. Stellar group effort from every level. Davis, Shazier, V-Will & Hargrave were dominating. Stafford played brilliantly between the 20's and the defense wasn't really at fault. Only a couple of broken coverages come to mind. Most of the throws were perfectly placed but the coverage was there. Tip of the cap to Stafford in that regard. He had to be feeling very frustrated. Surprised to see how well 3rd string LT (former Steeler) Brian Mihalik held up. Not sure why Harrison didn't get any playing time. Watt was mostly ineffective, and Chickillo was in to spell him on occasion. Even saw Moats in on a few plays. Pretty sure Deebo could have exposed Mihalik better, but we'll never know. He dressed for the game but didn't sniff the field. WTF? B

ST... Boz statistically was perfect 2/2 on FGs, 2/2 on XPs. But he got a lucky bounce off the uprights. I'll take it! Nobody will remember by season's end. Berry upped his average & net average. Coverage units were solid. B

Overall... Sloppy & lackluster effort from the offense, but they got the job done. Turnovers hurt but didn't sink the ship thankfully. Going to need to get better on both sides of the ball, but definitely starts with the offense. C+

Injuries... Mitchell (ankle) left in the 3rd & never returned. Hubbard got shaken up with a concussion. Looked like Davis also left late in the game but returned. Good time for a bye week to get Tuitt, Gilbert & McDonald back.

Outlook... 6-2 heading into the bye week riding some good momentum. After the bye they head into Indy. 2 weeks of prep for a struggling 2-6 Colts team seems like a very winnable game. But that's never a sure thing for Tomlin. I'll be getting the nervous B-G's (bubble-guts) leading up to that game.

 

[Ewa PGH Fan]

With a bye week coming up what were they saving Deebo for??????????

The announcers even made the point that Deebo has a lot of success against tall OTs and then showed him sitting on the bench. WTF????????

 

[Bridgeburner]

Quit callin him Limas and give the kid some respect! lol

You know I can't do that! Haha.

But I loved me some Limas last night!

 

[Superbelt]

Time to get on the JuJu train everyone. You too, @Bridgeburner


He's cementing his spot on the starting lineup, and making a name for himself now. He'll be in the conversation for ROY. Youngest player in the league and he has the electrifying ability and skillset of Larry Fitzgerald.

 

[ATL96Steeler]

Not a dominating performance by any phase of the game, but 20-15 on the road, I'll take it.

OFC...4 of 5...Obviously the star of the night was Juju...pretty avg game by Bell at best. As expected, Brown was held to a decent game...a few nice plays by JJ and the aforementioned JSS and the DEF made it stick....JJ is one tough hombre to bounce back from that lick as quickly as he did....good performance by the OL in pass blocking especially...Hunter, Rogers got a few targets....the 98 yd TD drive is really why I gave the OFC a 4...the long TD was a 3rd play, if they punt there bringing the DEF right back on the field, I think DET would have scored 6....key point in the game I thought.

DEF...4 of 5...I think we saw what a good QB vs zone can do, but I have to say hats off to Stafford though...some of those deep throws were in windows that only a few QBs even try....coverage was better than 400+ yds, but 150+ of that were on perfect passes. When it mattered...they stiffened gave up zero TDs in 4 or 5 RZ trips...not sure if it was intended, but true bend, don't break concept and it worked in this one. While not as many sacks or QB hits as I would like, the DL really dominated most of this game. I'm a little surprised they didn't unleash Harrison in this game, but for the most part they rushed 4 a lot of the night.

ST...4 of 5...solid game...nice to get a game without a weather factor.

General thoughts...good win vs a solid team. I think the Steelers DEF matches up well against what DET wants to do....they are not really a pound and ground type team and I think that hurt them in a few spots in the game. 6-2...3-0 in DIV...maybe not the way I thought they would get there, but atop the DIV by 2 games at the half way point. Good job!

Lot of work remaining, but the Steelers look strong enough to hang around the top of the DIV/conference. Still need to get more productive in the RZ, get all their horses back.

The 2nd half of the season, has them opening @ IND.

 

[Superbelt]

You know I can't do that! Haha.

But I loved me some Limas last night!

Just eat it and move on!

 

[ATL96Steeler]

Time to get on the JuJu train everyone. You too, @Bridgeburner


He's cementing his spot on the starting lineup, and making a name for himself now. He'll be in the conversation for ROY. Youngest player in the league and he has the electrifying ability and skillset of Larry Fitzgerald.

I'm on board...I know what they were looking for when they lost Green...I wasn't sure if this kid could be what they were looking for, a big target that can play in between the hash marks...it's pretty clear he can.

 

[Bridgeburner]

Just eat it and move on!

Crow? Pshha. He's doing what I said he would do. Have a few big games and struggle to gain separation at the pro level. I just tempered all of your HOF talk with a dose of reality son!

LIMAS FOR PRESIDENT!

Seriously though. I'm impressed. He's doing better than I thought he would. I still question his upside (I don't think he can be elite) but I'm warming to the pick in the second round as a valuable piece of the puzzle. I do think his production will suffer second half of the season. He's on pace for what, 50/800/8? The Steelers seem bent on treating Bryant as a valuable member of the team despite his not deserving it. I think that's going to cut into Limas' end of the year numbers. Meaning he'll have been even better than his numbers will say he was.

 

[ATL96Steeler]

Crow? Pshha. He's doing what I said he would do. Have a few big games and struggle to gain separation at the pro level. I just tempered all of your HOF talk with a dose of reality son!

LIMAS FOR PRESIDENT!

Seriously though. I'm impressed. He's doing better than I thought he would. I still question his upside (I don't think he can be elite) but I'm warming to the pick in the second round as a valuable piece of the puzzle. I do think his production will suffer second half of the season. He's on pace for what, 50/800/8? The Steelers seem bent on treating Bryant as a valuable member of the team despite his not deserving it. I think that's going to cut into Limas' end of the year numbers. Meaning he'll have been even better than his numbers will say he was.

Having watched Muhammad Sanu in CIN and the last two yrs here in ATL...that's a great comparison to Juju imo...a bigger Hinds Ward even fits.

Bryant...they don't want to lose the kid...but Tomlin has done this before with young players...(forget the GA tech RB they had they was benched) Whatever impact he has this second half, he's going to have to earn it.

FWIW, I hope they do get Bryant going because I still think they need all hands on deck to be a more complete OFC.

Not that it will happen but since Ebron has failed his high draft status and they want him out...does Ebron for Bryant make sense?

 

[Bridgeburner]

Not that it will happen but since Ebron has failed his high draft status and they want him out...does Ebron for Bryant make sense?

Now THAT is an interesting proposition my man. I've always been a fan of Ebron's physical talent even if it hasn't translated yet (I've also been bullish on the fact that TE's generally take longer to make an impact). Do we need a TE though? The Outlaw seems serviceable and McDonald is quality depth. Grimble on the roster too...

I also agree that the offense isn't what it could be without a producing Bryant. I just wish I didn't feel so confident in him being a cancerous whore-son.

 

[Superbelt]

Ebron has a dropsie problem.

How many poor hands TE's do we need?

 

[NorthCoastSteelersFan]

OK, now for my own meager attempt to grade the team's performance.

No way can I be as thorough as @FaCe-LeE-uS or @ATL96Steeler, but here goes............

Offense. Not bad, but still far from its potential. Ben got decent protection most of the time. Bell got some nice runs, but not as many as in the two prior games, and he got hit for some losses. Ben's still a little erratic. Still overthrowing some passes, and forcing others into pretty tight coverage. But that 97-yarder to Juju was textbook perfect. The shovel pass to get the final first down was nice, too. And hey, they scored enough points to win. B-

Defense. Pretty good against the run. But (at the risk of borrowing a word from Sir Charles) they were turrible...just turrible...against the pass. That zone coverage just wasn't working, especially when our boys were getting little pressure on Stafford. Maybe they should've switched to man coverage in second half. The saving grace, of course, was that they were a stone wall in the red zone. They held when it mattered most. B+ (but God help them, the next time a QB throws for 400 yards against them).

Special teams. Very good. Nearly all of the kickoffs were unreturnable. Punting improved enough that the Lions' dangerous return man wasn't a factor. Small deduction for the near miss on the one field goal. A-

Coaching. This one's always tough to gauge, but I think it's improved. Much fewer penalties. They looked undisciplined as Hell earlier in the season, but looking more like an actual, functioning team. B

Overall, I'd give 'em a solid B. Hopefully, they'll keep improving. As long as they don't play DOWN to Indy in 2 weeks, the rest of the season should go well.