It wasn’t always pretty but the Steelers picked up a big win over Atlanta to move to 9-5 on the season. Here are my thoughts as the game went on….
-William Gay set a team record with his third interception return for touchdown of the season. He also had pick-sixes against Indianapolis and Tennessee.
-The personal foul call on Jason Worlids was easily the worst call I’ve seen in this era of “player safety.” Worilds did everything a player is supposed to do when hitting a quarterback. He kept his facemask up and put it into Matt Ryan’s chest. There was NO helmet-to-helmet contact. Disgusting.
-Antwon Blake got beat on the TD to Devin Hester but he acquitted himself well in the first half with several good tackles.
-The catch by Antonio Brown that up Le’Veon Bell’s touchdown before the half ended was just beautiful. That’s exactly why these guys work on those catches thousands of times in the offseason.
-Almost an amazing catch by Martavis Bryant in the first quarter. He nearly caught the ball one-handed at the apex of his jump in the end zone.
-Sean Spence had some nice impact plays but one thing I’ve noticed with him this year is poor pursuit angles. On Devin Hester’s big reception to open the third, Spence could have closed the outside off to Hester but didn’t and let him get up field. Gotta turn the man back in there to your teammates who are in pursuit.
-I don’t know what Antonio Brown said, but it had to be pretty bad for him to have gotten the unsportsmanlike penalty because it wasn’t demonstrative at all.
-Defense is bending and bending and bending… Offense needs to win this game.
-Outstanding drive by the Steelers after the Falcons close to 20-13. Finally went to the pass more aggressively and that set up the run by Bell for the score.
-Great tackle by Vince Williams late in the game to stop Harry Douglas on third down.
-Goes without saying, but the Steelers were bailed out big time by the illegal contact call against Atlanta. Probably had it coming considering the poor calls against the Steelers today.
-I can’t tell you how much I loved the late game pass to Heath Miller on 3rd and short. Love the killer instinct!
-Great win. Not pretty, but good teams find ways to win.
Marc Uhlmann writes for and co-owns www.steelcityblitz.com. Follow him on Twitter @SteelDad and the website @SCBlitz. Check us out on Facebook at facebook.com/steelcityblitz and on Fancred.com. You can hear him weekly during the season on game day on the Trib-Live Radio Steelers Pre-Game
photo courtesy post-gazette.com
3 comments
Yes it was a good win. I 1000% agree with you on the Worilds call. The only reason why the penalty was called is because Ryan’s neck snapped back on the hit and off the turf as well. I thought the D was fine today and there Int for the TD was because of the upfront pressure they got on Ryan. I have one issue with what Ben said after the game. His comment about how they were able to run the ball was a flat out lie but Bell got 2 rushing TD’s which is nice and AB continues to prove why he is the Best WR in the NFL point blank truth and I dare somebody to tell me otherwise.
The running game struggled plain and simple with the exception of Bell’s second TD run. Haley has increased his usage of Matt Spaeth significantly in recent weeks and while there are times it helps, I believe there are times it hurts and today was an example of that. Should have gone to 11 personnel to spread the Falcons out.
It’s going to happen at times so I learn to live with it. Bell can only go through if the OL executes it’s blocking assignments and toady it did not happen but they won and that is all that matters. The D didn’t get a sack but they got a turnover and applied good pressure on Ryan but he was to elude most of the time and Ryan showed he had good mobility which many don’t see on a weekly basis. Now this team faces a KC team that has 8 wins but none of there WR’s have a TD catch so how do you draw up a Defensive Game Plan when there Rec TD’s are coming from Kelce, Fasano, Charles and Davis. Normally when your on D you put your best CB on the opponents best WR but KC is not like any other team the Steelers have played so my question to all of you is this: What gameplan should the Steelers D go with so they can come out with a victory on Sunday?