The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

[flippy]

The Good

1. We Won
2. 8 Sacks
3. Mason - 24/28, 2 TDs and 0 Ints, 8.2 YPA
4. Samuels, Conner, and Johnson - ~90% of our offense
5. Pass Pro - Mason had lots of time
6. Vannett - Quick turnaround, made a couple plays. Upgrade @ #2 TE and may have some upside.
7. Secondary - This may turn into our strength


The Bad

1. Can't Stop the Run - Mixon - 4.1 YPC
2. Can't Run Between Tackles. Oline needs a lot of work as does play calling.
3. Johnson's Fumble turned into 3 pts
4. Watching Barron cover a TE - Butler's D allows other teams to force bad matchups on us all the time.



The Ugly

1. 33% - 3rd down conversions
2. Not allowing Mason to throw downfield even when opponent loads up in the box to stop the run
3. TOP - We had the ball less than Cincy @ 29:46
4. The Challenge - Can someone hide Tomlin's challenge flag please?




Overall it was great to see our first win of the season. Hopefully we can start stacking wins and coming together as a team. There's a lot of potential here, but there's even more work to do.

What did you see that you liked last night?

What did you see that's got you concerned?

[papillon]

Not being able to stop the run, the number one rushing offense is coming to town at 205 yards per game.
3rd down conversions
Intermediate passing game

Pappy

[Oh wow]

Not sure how I feel about the opinion of stopping the run.

I think we were more concerned with the pass in the second half so we gave up a few chunks.

They only had 3 points which tells me we tightens up once they crossed mid field.

Also didn’t mind the challenge at all. It was a terrible OPI call and we had no momentum on O early so I think Tomlin was trying to keep Mason from pressing early.

[Eich]

Not sure how I feel about the opinion of stopping the run.

I think we were more concerned with the pass in the second half so we gave up a few chunks.

They only had 3 points which tells me we tightens up once they crossed mid field.

Agree. If we couldn't stop the run at all, then why didn't the Bungles run it all night into the endzone? We stopped it when we had to.

Also didn’t mind the challenge at all. It was a terrible OPI call and we had no momentum on O early so I think Tomlin was trying to keep Mason from pressing early.

This was a challenge that I was screaming for. I thought maybe Tomlin was going to be shy about challenging it. It was absolutely the right call to challenge it. The only "Bad" in that was the outcome. Officials are just all over the place. Some are too afraid to overturn calls on the field. Everyone could see that it was clearly NOT pass interference.

[flippy]

Not sure how I feel about the opinion of stopping the run.

I think we were more concerned with the pass in the second half so we gave up a few chunks.

They only had 3 points which tells me we tightens up once they crossed mid field.

Also didn’t mind the challenge at all. It was a terrible OPI call and we had no momentum on O early so I think Tomlin was trying to keep Mason from pressing early.

Re: the runs, our best way to combat it is to run up the score so the other team can't run. In a close game against a slightly better team, I think we get gouged by a good running attack. I also long for Vince to be back.

Re: the challenge. I think we should rename Tomlin's challenge flag, the long time out flag. He's never gonna win a challenge and I'm ok using it when the team needs a long break. If he truly used it to give Mason time to settle himself, then it was a good usage.

[whatever]

Seems like the defense was flying around. Barron, Dupree and Hilton especially.
Was Fitzpatrick on the field.?
I liked the gimmicky stuff. Credit for mixing it up. Let's see if it is effective against better teams.

[Real Deal Steel]

Tell you one thing, we are going to get a large dose of Mark Ingram. And when LJ wonders out the pocket, we have to make him pay!

[Mick'sTeam]

Good: The game plan. I've been as critical of the coaching staff as anyone, but will gladly give credit for the game plan. Well planned and executed.
Good: Bush continues to improve.
Good: Watt is a complete stud!
Bad: Struggling to run the ball between the tackles. Not sure if it was the defensive formation Cincy was playing with multiple DT's clogging the middle, but it's been an issue all year. Need to figure that out.

[Northern_Blitz]

Not being able to stop the run, the number one rushing offense is coming to town at 205 yards per game.
3rd down conversions
Intermediate passing game

Pappy

A bunch of their running (238 yards so far) comes from the QB too and I think that's a different skill set to defend than rushes from the RB. To put that in perspective, Jackson (23 has about 100 more yards than Conner (139) this year.

It seems like we do have several athletes that would be capable spies on Jackson. I hope it helps.

[RuthlessBurgher]

Was Fitzpatrick on the field?

He was our free safety and Cincy was not particularly successful passing the ball downfield against us this week.

Many times when you see a lot of your FS, it's because he allow a long completion and is trying to make tackles 20 yards or so beyond the line of scrimmage. His coverage downfield might have been a primary reason why our front seven was able to get to Dalton 8 times. He just didn't get the glory of the INT and the FF like last week.

I'm satisfied with a quietly solid game from him in our defensive secondary. We don't necessarily need to see spectacularly dynamic Troy-like plays from him all the time in order to be successful. He did his job back there last night. I'm good with that.

[papillon]

Not sure how I feel about the opinion of stopping the run.

I think we were more concerned with the pass in the second half so we gave up a few chunks.

They only had 3 points which tells me we tightens up once they crossed mid field.

Also didn’t mind the challenge at all. It was a terrible OPI call and we had no momentum on O early so I think Tomlin was trying to keep Mason from pressing early.

The Pats rushed for 100 yards, Seahawks rushed for 151, the 49ers rushed for 168 and the Bengals rushed for 73 yards on a night when they were down by 14 or more points the majority of the game. The Ravens are rushing the ball for 205 YPG. I'm a bit concerned that the Steelers are vulnerable to the run, particularly against a team that will be committed to running the football.

Pappy

[steeler_fan_in_t.o.]

1. Can't Stop the Run - Mixon - 4.1 YPC

If you look at up until the Steelers went up by three TDs he was 8 for 29 (3.6 YPC).

[SteelerOfDeVille]

This was a challenge that I was screaming for. I thought maybe Tomlin was going to be shy about challenging it. It was absolutely the right call to challenge it. The only "Bad" in that was the outcome. Officials are just all over the place. Some are too afraid to overturn calls on the field. Everyone could see that it was clearly NOT pass interference.

what he said... i was like, "THROW THE CHALLENGE FLAG. HE DID NOT PUSH OFF... IT WAS A FEELER, BUT, NOT A PUSH!"

I also agree with Flippy's early assessment on the secondary... those guys had me sitting on the edge of my seat, batting down balls, etc.
as for the run, i think that's a combo of missing VW AND not having a true NT on on obvious running downs... we sub-package everything else, not sure why we don't do that here

[RuthlessBurgher]

A bunch of their running (238 yards so far) comes from the QB too and I think that's a different skill set to defend than rushes from the RB. To put that in perspective, Jackson (23 has about 100 more yards than Conner (139) this year.

It seems like we do have several athletes that would be capable spies on Jackson. I hope it helps.

Our ILB's will really have their hands full this week. They'll be counted on to try to stop Mark Ingram up the middle. They'll be counted on to cover TE's like Mark Andrews and Hayden Hurst. They'll be counted on to spy Lamar Jackson if he decides to tuck the ball and run.

[whatever]

He was our free safety and Cincy was not particularly successful passing the ball downfield against us this week.

Many times when you see a lot of your FS, it's because he allow a long completion and is trying to make tackles 20 yards or so beyond the line of scrimmage. His coverage downfield might have been a primary reason why our front seven was able to get to Dalton 8 times. He just didn't get the glory of the INT and the FF like last week.

I'm satisfied with a quietly solid game from him in our defensive secondary. We don't necessarily need to see spectacularly dynamic Troy-like plays from him all the time in order to be successful. He did his job back there last night. I'm good with that.

Agreed. But last week someone was ranting and raving about how awesome of a trade it was (trying to rub it in the noses of the fans that were concerned they gave too much up) and they pointed out the stats. Now I'm just waiting for an excuse for why he was invisible this week.