Thoughts on First Game

[MaxAMillion]

Re: Thoughts on First Game

Personally I agree with all the comments above except for Dixon.... I thought his passes early on were weak and not on target, but he did come on strong later in the game.... 10 of 19 for 112 yds was a decent showing IMO. ... But that's just me, and I know most don't agree.

.... Question is:

"Is it good enough to seriously consider him for the #2 position at this point?"..... I really like Batch, and he's done a ton for the city and the team.... But sooner than later the question/dilema is gonna come... I think Batch has at least one more good season as a backup in him, but how are you gonna protect Dixon if this is the case? .... Carry 3 qbs on the roster? .... I don't see it, but I don't want to lose Dixon. ... Good thing there are three more preseason games for evaluation.

I completely agree about Dixon. He has to wind up to throw the ball deep. I don't see a future NFL QB in Dixon. He is better than St. Pierre so I guess that is something.

[Ghost]

Re: Thoughts on First Game

Great posts. It’s so awesome knowing I was going to come into work and waste some time reading about the start of the football season!

QB’s:

I’d love to see Dixon get some time against better competition. He seemed to get better as he got in the groove. Last night they mentioned Tomlin wanting him to get “X” number of snaps (was it 200 or 400). I think the Steelers are taking a long look at the possibility of him being the number 2 guy.

Line:

I tried to watch the line and Legursky. It didn’t appear as if he was getting overwhelmed at all. He certainly didn’t stick out as a weak spot. Love you hear what some of the line guys here think. Overall I can’t say I was impressed with the first team. Just the first game so lets see what happens. When is Hartwig coming back? Anyone notice how Hills did late in the game?

Rookies:

Hood looked good and Wallace is a lock to make the team. Would like to not see Burnett run full speed into his own guy and then fumble. D’oh…

Backs:

Mendenhall ran hard and showed no signs if being tentative with the shoulder. I thought he actually did pretty good considering there was no room for him to run. I don’t think anyone would have done any better than he did.

Davis/Summers/Redman are all the exact same player (all within an inch in height and 5 pounds in weight). I’ve never been all that impressed with Davis but he’s got the advantage of last season and special teams play. Summers dropped a catch early and didn’t do a lot running the ball. He made a nice ST tackle and seemed to be around the ball all the time on ST’s. Like to see Redman playing against much better competition before we see how he does but he certainly took advantage of his opportunity and moved the pile.

Any thoughts on Vincent? Was he a PS player last season?

Refs - it's their pre-season too but that PI call was ludicrous. You can't call what you "think" you saw and there's no way he saw defensive PI. Just b/c there's some jostling doesn't mean you throw the flag. I'm guessing he looks at that in review and knows he blew it badly.

Watched to the end and it was great to have Steerlers football back!

[feltdizz]

Re: Thoughts on First Game

Personally I agree with all the comments above except for Dixon.... I thought his passes early on were weak and not on target, but he did come on strong later in the game.... 10 of 19 for 112 yds was a decent showing IMO. ... But that's just me, and I know most don't agree.

.... Question is:

"Is it good enough to seriously consider him for the #2 position at this point?"..... I really like Batch, and he's done a ton for the city and the team.... But sooner than later the question/dilema is gonna come... I think Batch has at least one more good season as a backup in him, but how are you gonna protect Dixon if this is the case? .... Carry 3 qbs on the roster? .... I don't see it, but I don't want to lose Dixon. ... Good thing there are three more preseason games for evaluation.

I completely agree about Dixon. He has to wind up to throw the ball deep. I don't see a future NFL QB in Dixon. He is better than St. Pierre so I guess that is something.

umm.. I don't agree..

Ben reaches back to Ohio to throw the deep ball... maybe I missed how long Dixon's wind up is..

I just think Dixon needs to throw the deep ball sooner when he has a speedy guy out there..

[grotonsteel]

Re: Thoughts on First Game

Line:

I tried to watch the line and Legursky. It didn’t appear as if he was getting overwhelmed at all. He certainly didn’t stick out as a weak spot. Love you hear what some of the line guys here think. Overall I can’t say I was impressed with the first team. Just the first game so lets see what happens. When is Hartwig coming back? Anyone notice how Hills did late in the game?

Hills looked pretty good last night. Ramon Foster impressed me but both Hills and Foster played against scrubs.

Darnell might be the best RG on this team. Trai Essex was the worst O-line on this team yesterday.

[NW Steeler]

Re: Thoughts on First Game

Our recieving core looks VERY promising. Ward, Holmes, Sweed, Wallace and McDonald?! What team has a quintet like that? This will be the deepest WR core this team has ever had. And I know they mentioned it last night, but Santonio looks great. He put on about 15 pounds of muscle.
Lastly, I can't believe that people aren't jumping all over Timmons for whiffing on some tackles last night........


AS always......

[steelblood]

Re: Thoughts on First Game

Madison - awesome interception. however, up to that point, he was terrible. he was beaten on 3 consecutive plays at one point. he is never going to be an every down corner. his change of direction skills/coming out of backpedal are really poor/slow.

Capizzi - Light on his feet. Blocked with power. We have to keep this guy on the roster.

Foster - looked strong at the POA.

Urbik - was sometimes passable, sometimes terrible. was beaten badly on two plays that were blown up in the backfield

Starting o-line pass pro was not good. Ben was shaking off guys all over the place. Run blocking was poor, except for one short yardage play where they got a great push.

Mendenhall - misses too many holes and is brought down too easily. So far, he isn't running like a 225-230 lbs. back

Redman - now that is a steeler back. it was against the scrubs, but it was impressive. besides him spinning too much, he generally made good reads and stuck his head down and burrowed for extra yardage. I'd love to see what he could do with the starters.

Sweed - impressive. the drop really was not an easy catch. he made two circus catches and looked confident.

[NorthCoast]

Re: Thoughts on First Game

THE GOOD:
We have a punting game again! Wow, Sep was really booming them and this could be pivotal in games this season.
I thought Wallace looked really good. Honestly reminded me of a fast Hines Ward when he was a rookie. Very good hands.
Sweed looked good and used his body well, appears much more comfortable running routes.
Mendenhall was OK but not special. Redman was a BEAST! (against 3rd stringers.....).
D. Woods was in on a lot of plays with the second team. I like his hustle.
Gruden in the box was great. Made some relevant and biting comments and should be entertaining this season.
Ziggy gets his first sack....although it was on a missed block assignment.

THE BAD:
OK, not real bad but the OL....hmmmm....not sold on Essex at RG. Legursky seemed to hold his own. AZ sent quite a few blitzes early which didn't help the run game.
Madison was abused by Leinart up to the point of his INT.
Tired of Vick stealing the spotlight. Doesn't deserve it and shouldn't be a focus of the media.

THE UGLY:
Well, not a lot of ugly in this one....(and I agree, S. Colber looked quite fine last nite).

[birtikidis]

Re: Thoughts on First Game

redman reminded me of Huntley before he started. really good in certain situations and a hard runner.
i was definetly not impressed with Mendy. reminded me of Amos Z. how he went down so easily (wasn't a long piece of grass, but nearly as bad). did not think he ran hard at all. didn't run with ANY authority. and he has TERRIBLE vision. all those folks that say willie has poor vision needs to watch last nights game.
I'm being extra critical of mendy because he's a former 1st rounder, but chalk up last nights game to having not played in a year.

[feltdizz]

Re: Thoughts on First Game

redman reminded me of Huntley before he started. really good in certain situations and a hard runner.
i was definetly not impressed with Mendy. reminded me of Amos Z. how he went down so easily (wasn't a long piece of grass, but nearly as bad). did not think he ran hard at all. didn't run with ANY authority. and he has TERRIBLE vision. all those folks that say willie has poor vision needs to watch last nights game.
I'm being extra critical of mendy because he's a former 1st rounder, but chalk up last nights game to having not played in a year.

regarding Mendy.. he is still young and a rookie in my eyes..
but when people put him over FWP it's ALL based on his college highlights..

I wanted to see Mendy catch a pass in the flats too.. I think he will prosper in the open field.. Redman looked better but it was against the scrubs.. regardless Redman ran with more balance IMO..

many gave Mendy the big back tackle breaking ability.. although he was never one in college... and hasn't earned it yet..

[RuthlessBurgher]

Re: Thoughts on First Game

redman reminded me of Huntley before he started. really good in certain situations and a hard runner.

I like the Redman-Huntley comparisons. Haven't thought about Richard Huntley in a while...

[MeetJoeGreene]

Re: Thoughts on First Game

redman reminded me of Huntley before he started. really good in certain situations and a hard runner.

I like the Redman-Huntley comparisons. Haven't thought about Richard Huntley in a while...

I was thinking that Redman reminded me of Kuhn....

[RuthlessBurgher]

Re: Thoughts on First Game

redman reminded me of Huntley before he started. really good in certain situations and a hard runner.

I like the Redman-Huntley comparisons. Haven't thought about Richard Huntley in a while...

I was thinking that Redman reminded me of Kuhn....

HEY!!! There is an unwritten rule that white WR's can only be compared to other white WR's. I would assume that the same holds true for RB's as well.

For example, you can say that UDFA Tyler Grisham displays some Welker-esque qualities as a WR. You cannot say that Grisham is Houshmandzadeh-ish.

[feltdizz]

Re: Thoughts on First Game

true.... although I was thinking Hines reminded me of an angry blocking Steve Largent with an attitude last night...

but i was on my 4th guiness so...

[Shoe]

Re: Thoughts on First Game

Bruce Davis looked good too... showed a lot of hustle.

[Snatch98]

Re: Thoughts on First Game

Madison - awesome interception. however, up to that point, he was terrible. he was beaten on 3 consecutive plays at one point. he is never going to be an every down corner. his change of direction skills/coming out of backpedal are really poor/slow.

Capizzi - Light on his feet. Blocked with power. We have to keep this guy on the roster.

Foster - looked strong at the POA.

Urbik - was sometimes passable, sometimes terrible. was beaten badly on two plays that were blown up in the backfield

Starting o-line pass pro was not good. Ben was shaking off guys all over the place. Run blocking was poor, except for one short yardage play where they got a great push.

Mendenhall - misses too many holes and is brought down too easily. So far, he isn't running like a 225-230 lbs. back

Redman - now that is a steeler back. it was against the scrubs, but it was impressive. besides him spinning too much, he generally made good reads and stuck his head down and burrowed for extra yardage. I'd love to see what he could do with the starters.

Sweed - impressive. the drop really was not an easy catch. he made two circus catches and looked confident.

Did we watch the same game as far as Mendenhall is concerned? I thought he hit all the holes but his holes were minimal and his legs were driving the entire time. I'm not a Parker hater but Willie wouldn't have done any better with the room he was given. He kept his legs moving, spun off a few tackles even if he got brought down and had good burst. Yes he's 230 pounds but he's a shifty guy that is ONLY going to improve. I thought Mendenhall looked great.