What happened?
What happened to the improved defense that was supposed to boast one of the best front sevens in the AFC? What happened to the entire offense? What happened to the Steelers we were expecting to show up on Sunday night?
The answer is pretty simple; the Patriots happened.
I haven’t written an article in nearly 3 months to focus on “The Fifth Line” podcast that was started on this site. However, I decided to dive back in with the disappointment that was the Steeers 33-3 loss to the New England Patriots.
The loss wasn’t on one particular player or group of players it was a team loss. For one, the offense wasn’t ready at all for what the Patriots defense brought from the first snap. The defense was able to play half decent. They stopped the run fairly well early on, but we’re unable to shutdown Brady and the pass game (obviously).
Devin Bush looked every bit of the rookie he is, which is okay. He showed flashes of how we can expect him to play on a more regular basis, but overall was taken advantage of by the bright lights and Tom Brady. On the other side Mark Barron was unable to make his coverage assignments on James White/Burkhead the entire night. He played well against the run, but was exposed when he had to lineup out wide to stay with the Patriots running backs.
TJ Watt and Bud Dupree were equally ineffective in the pass rush. The Patriots line, which started two backups, kept Brady as clean as he was at the beginning of the game, which is why he was able to pick apart the Steelers secondary.
There isn’t much to discuss with Joe Haden and Steve Nelson in coverage because Brady picked apart the middle of the field. Haden’s tackling and the secondarie’s tackling as a whole was once again very poor.
On the offensive side of the ball JuJu was alright. He was covered for most of the night by Gilmore, but still racked up 6 catches for 78 yards. Donte Monctief was awful and had multiple drops, some of them being on key downs. James Washington looked fairly good when they used him.
We did see Ben spread the ball out like they were expected to. At the end of the day he had targeted nine different receivers. The main issue offensively was that they fell too far behind too fast to be able to establish a run game, hence running back James Conner only rushing the ball 10 times.
Coaching was questionable. Play calling throughout was reactionary. And kicking a field goal down 20-0 in the second half on 4th and goal seemed passive, and seemed like there was no gas left in the tank for Tomlin and Co, but hey at least Chris Boswell is perfect on his FGA on the year.
My biggest piece of advice for Steelers fans; Don’t jump ship yet.
This is not even close to the team that we will see throughout the regular season. Next week is another big challenge, but the Steelers will have to play the game they want instead of reacting to what the other team is doing. If they fail to do so it will be a repeat of Sunday night.
Devin Bush will settle in and become the star he seems to be. The staff will realize that trailing a linebacker out to matchup a running back on the far outside is a bad decision. TJ Watt will be better. Ben and the offense should be able to move the ball better and strike a better run-pass balance.
If the Pittsburgh Steelers decide to act instead of react they will be just fine.
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