Home Steelers 2016 Season Steelers Have Work to Do Before the Dolphins Arrive

Steelers Have Work to Do Before the Dolphins Arrive

by Steeldad

The Pittsburgh Steelers finished the season today with an 11-5 record and winners of their last seven games. With the big three offensive stars not playing, the Steelers still managed to win a 27-24 overtime victory against the Cleveland Browns. That was the good news because based on what I saw, this team still has some work to do before the AFC Wild-Card game against Miami next week. 

Much of what concerns me has to be taken with a grain of salt. I say this because the Steelers had absolutely nothing to play for and looked like it early. I also have to figure things were kept pretty simple on both sides of the ball  

That said, the Steelers’ defense gave up way too many yards on the ground today and gave up too much through the air as well in terms of ‘easy’ completions. Isaiah Crowell had way too much room to run often getting to the second and third levels before being slowed. Crowell is a nice running back but he isn’t Jay Ajayi, the Dolphins’ excellent running back who torched the Steelers for over 200 yards earlier this season. 

Last week, we were told the missed tackles were due to “the Ravens playing so hard.” What was the excuse today? Ajayi has a bad shoulder but that doesn’t mean the Steelers can tackle they way they have in recent weeks. This has been a problem all season and while it has had ups and downs, the tackling has been down of late. That has to improve. 

The other area that needs attention to detail (stop me if you’ve heard this before) is special teams. The kick return unit has essentially been a waste of time and the mental errors accrued on special teams continue to confound me. Today, Cobi Hamilton bobbled a kick and was stopped at the ten yard line. No disrespect to him, but Hamilton isn’t a return guy in the NFL and shouldn’t even be back there. The team’s inability to get a true returner back there is troubling.

We can only assume at this point that the Dolphins will have Matt Moore starting at quarterback. The Steelers will prepare for both he and Ryan Tannehill. With a backup QB potentially starting, fans can’t get ahead of themselves. If the Steelers don’t do a better job of stopping the run, tackling better and being more mentally tough on special teams it won’t matter who is calling the signals. 

Photo Courtesy latestnewsheadlines.ddns.net

You may also like

2 comments

bob graff January 2, 2017 - 10:20 am

If you watch the film on this game take note. Watch Jarvis Jones continually crash the line horizontally he’s a built in crack back blocker for the other team i know he had a great stat sheet game but it doesn’t change the fact he’s blowing up his own team. Be honest and watch, he’s the only one that takes that angle down the line.

Vittorio January 2, 2017 - 7:54 pm

Well yesterday’s game I’ll explain in the form of a movie title: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. The good that came out of the game was they won and that Ayers and Hamilton and Rogers do have a future in the NFL, The D had 3 Sacks and 3 Turnovers, The Bad was that the DL is continuing to get hurt and The Ugly well I don’t need to point that out cause Marc already did that. Yes the team has work to do but they know it’s the playoffs and to be honest this I the matchup they wanted all along. Your thinking “Have you lost your mind” and no I haven’t, I just believe that the Dolphins are the team that the Steelers wanted to face. All week the D is going to hear the same thing said over and over again and that’s “Jay Ajayi ran for more than 200 yards against you guys”.

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.