Good victory Monday to you Steelers fans.
It wasn’t pretty (as if it ever is), but the Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Atlanta Falcons yesterday 19-16 to move to 5-7 on the season. On the horizon is division-leading Baltimore who may be without Lamar Jackson due to a knee injury suffered yesterday. We’ll get to the Ravens later. Despite the win, there is a brewing problem with the wide receivers. Diontae Johnson has shared his displeasure with not getting enough throws in recent weeks and now his counter-part George Pickens is screaming at coaches while coming off the sidelines about the same thing. There are two sides to this. There are those who see Pickens as just frustrated and filled with competitive fire. On the other side are those that see yet another ‘diva’ wide receiver pouting. I’ve got some opinions that I’ll be sharing later this week. At the current time, I don’t see this becoming a big problem just yet. Could it? Hell yes it could and it’s something to watch but with two straight wins and the Ravens coming in the focus should be elsewhere.
Heyward’s
Sometimes things just happen for a reason. There’s no use in trying to figure it out, they just happen. Cam and his brother Connor used their visit to Atlanta to visit the grave of their father Craig “Ironhead” Heyward. If you don’t know, he played his college ball at Pitt and then played most of his NFL career in New Orleans and Atlanta. It was only appropriate therefore that Connor recorded his first NFL touchdown in Atlanta. Cam later wore his father’s Falcons’ jersey at the postgame press conference. Pretty cool if you ask me.
Tweet of the Day… Coach T is right. What an amazing turnout yesterday in Atlanta. Some accounts had a 70-30 ratio of Steelers’ fans to Falcons’ fans.
Thank you, Steelers Nation. You never disappoint. pic.twitter.com/sASUcSbbRR
— Mike Tomlin (@CoachTomlin) December 4, 2022
Red is the ‘Dead’ Zone for the Steelers Offense
Heading into tonight’s Monday Night game between New Orleans and Tampa Bay, the Steelers rank 26th in the league at scoring touchdowns inside the Red Zone. While there’s clearly an improvement in recent weeks in the offense in general, the inability to punch in touchdowns is glaring. When the Steelers play at home, they are averaging almost 60% at scoring TDs in the RZ but that number drops to 40% on the road. While that isn’t totally unexpected, it’s still a pretty alarming separation. The bottom line is that Matt Canada needs to get his players in better position to be successful.
The Committee Approach
Like it or not, but I think Mike Tomlin has adjusted. He doesn’t seem to be putting the bell around the neck of Najee Harris nearly as often as he did last season. Injuries to Harris have been a part of this transition but I get the sense that Tomlin really likes using both Jaylen Warren and Benny Snell in order to get Harris a breather. In yesterday’s case, the running game felt like it could have been successful with me running the football but the point is this. If Harris has more gas in the tank later in the game and the team hasn’t suffered earlier in the game by using Warren/Snell, then why not continue the practice?
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