The Pittsburgh Steelers moved to 6-2 on the season with a less than convincing win over the New York Giants by the score of 26-18. Here were my observations as the game unfolded.
OFFENSE
-Terrific start offensively with a great mix of run and pass. George Pickens’ TD nullified by Broderick Jones’ facemask.
-Another great drive on the second series sputters but it’s hard not to like what they’re doing.
-Ryan McCollum hung in there about as well as could be expected against Dexter Lawrence II.
-Russell Wilson (20/28 278 yards TD/FMB) finds ways to get everyone involved. That may be the biggest difference between he and Justin Fields.
-Poor George Pickens (4 Rec 74 yards)… Two TDs taken off the board.
-Third and 11 and Van Jefferson (4 Rec 62 yards) makes a terrific catch for 36 yards down the sideline.
-What a throw from Wilson to Calvin Austin III (3 Rec 54 yards TD) for the TD early in the fourth. Great route from Austin too.
-Wilson’s best throw however was that beautiful 43-yard shot to Pickens in the fourth. Pickens made a nice hands catch over his shoulder down to the ten.
-Najee Harris (19 Car 114 yards) hit the century mark for the third straight game. He had some huge first half runs despite not seeing much action in the second quarter.
-Jaylen Warren (9 Car 46 yards, 2 Rec 13 yards) looks like he’s just about back to full strength.
DEFENSE
-Good play design by the Giants to pull Minkah Fitzpatrick up while Darius Slayton got deep on Donte Jackson. Fortunately the defense held them to a field goal.
-NYG are running the ball well early and they’re getting the ball out quickly. Teryl Austin needs to adjust.
-The Defense looks like a unit that thought this would be easy.
-The Steelers surrendered 157 yards on the ground giving up an average of almost seven yards per carry. That’s just plain awful and it needs to be fixed.
-Elandon Roberts comes downhill like a freight train.
-Back to back sacks by T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith to open the second half. Took the Giants out of field goal range.
-Patrick Queen can go sideline to sideline as well as anyone. Ask him to stack and shed? Not so good. He took a terrible path on the long NYG TD run in the fourth.
-Just an unbelievable play by Watt after the Russell Wilson fumble. Strip, sack and recovery.
-Beanie Bishop now has three interceptions in two games. Not bad rook!
SPECIAL TEAMS
-Chris Boswell three-for-three in the first half and then connected on his fourth in the fourth quarter.
-Danny Smith continues to have a great year. The punt return team set up a beautiful wall on Calvin Austin III’s 73-yard return for TD.
COACHING
-Mike Tomlin took heat for challenging the George Pickens’ catch in the back of the end zone. They called it a TD, then reversed it with help from New York. Tomlin should have never been allowed to even throw the red flag.
-Teryl Austin sucks. How can he not see what the NYG are doing? You have to adjust!!
OFFICIATING
-While there were a lot of flags, there weren’t really any calls that were egregious.
UP NEXT: BYE week.