Hey Steelers Fans. Welcome to Tuesday.
The Kickoff
A rock fight is a rock fight. It doesn’t matter who the participants are. If a fairly low-scoring, ugly offensive game breaks out then it is what it is. That’s what we had Sunday. No, Mike Tomlin wasn’t the coach for this latest contest of stone-throwing but he may as well have been. For those however that believe this offense is the same thing we’ve seen over the last five years since Ben Roethlisberger retired, it isn’t. Start with the fact that Aaron Rodgers was willing and able to throw down the field. He was willing to throw over the middle of the field too. There were more deep shots than we’ve seen too. The defense was also different. The rotation of T.J. Watt, Nick Herbig and Alex Highsmith was almost perfect. Watt actually played a handful of snaps on the other side too. Patrick Graham went exclusively with zone on the back end as well. So yes, this felt very much like what we’ve seen over the last few years but make no mistake, there were stark differences on both sides of the ball.
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Curious…
I’m not sure how Germie Bernard only got three snaps on offense. Is he that unable to pick up what Rodgers is doing? Did Roman Wilson suddenly learn to speak “Rodgersish?” It’s one game after all but Wilson getting 40 more snaps wasn’t something I saw coming.
Two Tight
Mike McCarthy is known for being an ‘11’ guy. He traditionally likes three wide receivers, one tight end and one running back. Therefore it was a bit surprising to see that 43% of the snaps on offense saw two tight ends. I’m not against that, I’m just pointing it out. Not many saw that coming.
A Lot Left on the Field
If you go back to the game then you know there were numerous instances where the Steelers were extremely close to adding splash plays and even scoring plays. The failures were the result of two things largely. One was Aaron Rodgers just missing on some throws and the other was a number of catchable balls that weren’t caught. Think of how different the game is if Roman Wilson hangs on in the end zone or if D.K. Metcalf corrals a couple of the passes he drops. Of course you could play this ‘woulda should coulda’ game all day but do you see my point? Those are plays that have to be made.
Random Reads
I’m not surprised the Chiefs beat the Broncos last night but I was surprised at how poorly the Broncos played on both sides of the ball… I’m still adjusting to Mike McCarthy holding his press conferences at 3pmET on a Monday… Our running game has to get going. It just has to or Aaron Rodgers is in trouble… If we win in Foxboro this weekend – regardless of how – it would be a big win. The Pats are coming off a poor performance in Seattle and won’t want to drop to 0-2… Ryan Clark, former Steeler who was dumped by ESPN, is introducing a new weekly show called “The Pivot with Ryan Clark” which will air on YouTube… The Dodgers have now qualified for postseason play in 14 straight seasons… If you haven’t caught them, I’m doing YouTube Shorts a couple of times a week and posting them to TikTok and Instagram. Believe me, I’m riveting!! LoL.
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