Hey Steelers Fans. Welcome to Victory Monday.
The Kickoff
Pardon my French but… Ho-Lee Shit. What a fourth quarter. What a final four minutes. What a final two minutes. What a final play! As you know, the Steelers hung on to defeat the Detroit Lions 29-24 but it wasn’t without controversy. The Lions had scored but a pick/screen by Isaac TeSlaa negated that. And then came the final play. Amon Ra St. Brown clearly pushed off on Jalen Ramsey to create space for himself to catch the ball, which he did. But he never broke the plane of the goal line as Ramsey and Joey Porter, Jr stopped him short. As they drove him further backwards, they started to disengage. St. Brown flipped the ball to Jared Goff who rumbled into the end zone. During the referee’s explanation, he said it was a touchdown. I firmly believe it was not. I believe the crew panicked and said it was knowing the offensive interference would nullify it. Had the flags not been thrown, replay would have shown the whistles had blown and the game would have been over either way. Ultimately, it was a great game for spectators but it also revealed some both good and bad things about the Steelers.
Offensively Speaking
The running game picked up 230 yards spearheaded by Jaylen Warren’s 143 yards and two scores. Kenneth Gainwell picked up 50 yards on nine carries and another 78 yards receiving including one of the greatest catches you’ll ever see. Aaron Rodgers had another solid outing and the patchwork offensive line largely held its own.
Rodgers would be the first to tell us that his unit left points on the field. They had a TD taken off the board for a penalty and then Darnell Washington’s fumble inside the Red Zone could have been a killer too.
Dylan Cook has been far from perfect at left tackle but my goodness, this guy was a college quarterback! He’s playing really well for a third-string tackle and now he’ll face his biggest challenge with Myles Garrett. We don’t talk enough about Zach Frazier. He’s been really good all season long at center. He’s everything the Steelers could have wanted.
Defensively Speaking
Sadly, the fourth quarter erased what had been one of the team’s better defensive performances of the season. Don’t get me wrong, it was still pretty damn good. Anytime you limit Detroit like that you’re doing something right. I firmly believe they ran out of gas.
The return of Derrick Harmon was huge because he allowed for more substituting and he happens to be pretty damn good (he was given a game ball after winning in his hometown). The Steelers held Detroit’s running attack to just 15 total yards which is quite frankly, unthinkable but they did it. Cam Heyward is playing at a high level and Keeanu Benton may have had his best overall game as well.
On the back end, the secondary got a huge night from Kyle Dugger who collected a sack and all-important safety on the play. He led the team in tackles too. Joey Porter, Jr had one of his better games with six tackles and two passes defended. Despite his untimely and weird tripping penalty, Alex Highsmith had another really good day as well.
The D.K. Incident
I believe D.K. Metcalf will be suspended for Sunday’s game at Cleveland. I do not know why he left the bench and went over to the stands. I do not know why he grabbed hold of the fan’s hair/wig and hit him. The fan chose not to discuss what happened when asked. As for D.K.’s explanation? He left without speaking to the press. My guess is that Steelers PR will work with him to craft a statement and go from there. Former Bengals’ WR Chad ‘Ocho Cinco’ Johnson claimed on his podcast last night that he spoke to Metcalf. D.K. claims the guy was wearing or had a #4 jersey. He walked over and the man apparently called him the ‘N-word’ and called his mother the ‘C-word.’ Either or both are reason enough to be pissed but here’s the thing. D.K. should have never gone over there in the first place.
Where Things Stand
I going to go ahead and predict that John Harbaugh is no longer the coach of the Baltimore Ravens in a few more weeks. At the very least, his offensive coordinator Todd Monken should be fired immediately.
Tomlin
I have no problem admitting when I’m wrong. In fact, it’s something I do quite often according to my wife. Four weeks ago I was ready to put a bow on the Mike Tomlin era in Pittsburgh and to be honest, my thoughts really haven’t changed in that regard. What I will say though, is that Tomlin rallied the team and has them on a three-game winning streak when it looked like they were dead in the water. As much praise as I can heap on Tomlin is blunted by this; if they don’t win a postseason game then I won’t be admitting anything. The playoffs matter.
Looking Ahead
D.K. Metcalf is likely going to be unavailable Sunday in Cleveland. Calvin Austin III left with an injury yesterday too. Needless to say the receiving corps is going to be less than 100% in Cleveland. Brandin Echols left the game with a groin injury which forced Jalen Ramsey into the slot and Chuck Clark to play safety (how many INTs can this guy drop???). Spencer Anderson did yeoman’s work in filling in for Isaac Seumalo but he’s also banged up. This week will be an important one in terms of getting healthy and we still don’t know about T.J. Watt either.
Random Reads
Huge props to Connor Heyward. He was the lead blocker on both of Jaylen Warren’s touchdown runs… Nothing brings more joy than seeing Darnell Washington catch the ball and knock off defenders. Please DWash, hang on to the ball man… Lions’ fans are screaming about the end of the game and I get it but let’s give the officiating crews some props here. They had called offensive pass interference twice earlier in the game – one on each team – so they were consistent with their calls… We survived a rare Chris Boswell miss. I’m assuming that’s going to bring some renewed focus from the all-pro… That said, he banged home a 59-yarder like he was just warming up… I thought Arthur Smith had stretches of real brilliance yesterday with both his calls and play design. From the Jonnu Smith jet sweep to the handoff to Kenneth Gainwell on the ‘Steel City Shove’ I thought he had a nice game… I do not expect the Browns to roll over Sunday. Myles Garrett wants the sack record and they’d love nothing more than to keep us from clinching the North.
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