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I had the good fortune of going to the Raiders/Steelers game this week and thought I'd share some thoughts from the game.
1. Our Defense is worse live than they look on TV. Numerous times it took us too much time to get aligned. We left guys uncovered. And we looked like the 4 stooges trying to cover receivers. All of our DBs deserve to be benched. And there were a couple of plays where we had a LB matched on a WR with no help over top and Oakland just didn't take advantage. Oakland should have put up 45+ on us on Sunday.
2. Bruce G deserves some credit though. His handoff is spectacular. It's the best I've ever seen. I was in the closed endzone in the middle of the field and could not tell when he handed off versus when he kept the ball. His handoff is like magic. After seeing it a couple times, I told the people next to me the way he's handing off is going to open up some big plays deep cause our DBs are aggressive in run support. And in the end, the way he hands off broke down the Steelers secondary on some big plays.
3. The final Oakland score was nuts. Clark was going apenutz trying to get Mundy lined up in the right spot. Oakland's WR was uncovered on that TD. There was no Steeler within 10 yards of him at the snap. The only almost positive was Gradkowski didn't notice it either right away. Gradkowski missed so many plays. If we played Peyton, Brees, Brady, etc., they would have thrown for 600 yards against us. It was so bad.
4. Ike Taylor should be cut. I'm not kidding.
5. While I don't like to see anyone getting hurt. If Gay is out this week, we may be better off.
6. 4 and 1 early in the game and we call a QB sneak?!?!?!?!?! WTF, didn't our QB just have a concussion? The Raiders are bad against the run. We shoulda given it to Mendy. Or kicked a FG that could have made the final score a tie.
7. The FG to start the 4th quarter. If we were going to kick a FG, we should have called a timeout and kicked the 53 yard field goal into the closed end of the stadium at the end of the 3rd quarter. The left flag kept blowing randomly on the goalpost on the closed end of the stadium, but the right one never moved. Everyone in the stadium knew the ball was going left before Reed attempted the 53 yarder. We should have either kept the offense on the field or punted. Bad call Mike T.
8. I got a chuckle out of the guy next to me when he said maybe Tomlin will try a 70 yard field goal to tie it at the end of the game instead of throwing a hail mary.
9. James Harrison's jock strap is all over Heinz Field. Gradkowski is a slippery sucker.
10. Our defense has no heart. Only a handful of guys looked like they were giving 100%. Special shout out to Casey - he played well. And he was flipping out after we gave up the last TD. He's giving 110% on every play, and I'd like to see us try to keep him for at least 1 more year. He's really playing well.
11. Our OLine doesn't finish plays. Too many times I noticed an OLineman watching Mendy get tackled. Mendy is going to be really good. He's quick. And he's becoming very hard to bring down. Just like we have a QB who won't go down and you have to block extra for him, you've gotta start doing the same for your RB.
12. We left too much time on the clock when we scored our last TD. We should have taken some time off the clock. And we shoulda kicked the FG and sent the game into OT if needed. We just shouldn't have given the ball to Oakland with 2 min the way our D was playing. Everyone kinda knew we were gonna lose the moment we scored that TD.
13. Our fans dissapointed me. We've got a huge waiting list for season tickets and many of you season ticket holders should give your PSLs back. I don't get how someone can be lucky enough to have tickets and not even watch the game. There was an exodus after the Ward TD at the end of the game in our section. People left the game in spots where the ball was in the redzone right in front of us. Several folks had too much liquor to even remember the game. And I really noticed an empty stadium during the 2nd half kickoff. People just didn't get back in time for the start of the 2nd half and it seemed half the stadium wasn't watching. If you don't care to watch the Steelers, give your tickets to someone who does. Maybe it's a lower level thing? Maybe people that get to go to lots of games don't appreciate it? I've never been to a Steelers game where I felt like I was at a Pirates game where fans were so apathetic. In one sense, maybe the fans at the game deserved a loss given their lack of support.
14. Ben was off. He probably had a good game statistically, but many of his throws were just a little off all day. The INT in the endzone wasn't even close to Ward. I know the defender came from the other side so Ben probably didn't see him, but I have no idea what Ben was throwing toward.
15. I feel bad for Joe Burnnett. He missed out on what looked like an easy INT and everyone was really down on the kid. But he just came in off the bench on a really cold day and it's hard to make a play coming into a game so late after sitting on the sideline most of the day. I also noticed how quick he was on that play making a nice break with his WR. Everyone else noticed the drop, but I noticed, he might have more talent as a CB than either of our starters. He looked fluid in his break. I'd like to see more of him.
16. Not sure if Troy will be back or not, but I wouldn't mind seeing our starting DBs be Burnett, Lewis, Troy, and Carter.
17. James Farrior got slow.
18. These next 4 games are going to be exciting. If we can just get Troy back and get a little help, you never know what can happen with Ben and Troy on the field.
19. Do we play Renegade regularly after a score? Or did we do it this time so that we'd be pumped and Gary Russell wouldn't run one back on us.
20. I'm not sure anyone touched Carey Davis on his return other than a Steelers player.
I'm looking forward to going back and watching the game on TV before Thursday's game in Cleveland. I hope Tomlin seriously considers replacing a lot of starters on D.
Despite my dissapointments, I'm still hopefully we can squeak into the playoffs.
Let's get this thing restarted going into Cleveland!!!!!!!
WoooooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
1. Our Defense is worse live than they look on TV. Numerous times it took us too much time to get aligned. We left guys uncovered. And we looked like the 4 stooges trying to cover receivers. All of our DBs deserve to be benched. And there were a couple of plays where we had a LB matched on a WR with no help over top and Oakland just didn't take advantage. Oakland should have put up 45+ on us on Sunday.
2. Bruce G deserves some credit though. His handoff is spectacular. It's the best I've ever seen. I was in the closed endzone in the middle of the field and could not tell when he handed off versus when he kept the ball. His handoff is like magic. After seeing it a couple times, I told the people next to me the way he's handing off is going to open up some big plays deep cause our DBs are aggressive in run support. And in the end, the way he hands off broke down the Steelers secondary on some big plays.
3. The final Oakland score was nuts. Clark was going apenutz trying to get Mundy lined up in the right spot. Oakland's WR was uncovered on that TD. There was no Steeler within 10 yards of him at the snap. The only almost positive was Gradkowski didn't notice it either right away. Gradkowski missed so many plays. If we played Peyton, Brees, Brady, etc., they would have thrown for 600 yards against us. It was so bad.
4. Ike Taylor should be cut. I'm not kidding.
5. While I don't like to see anyone getting hurt. If Gay is out this week, we may be better off.
6. 4 and 1 early in the game and we call a QB sneak?!?!?!?!?! WTF, didn't our QB just have a concussion? The Raiders are bad against the run. We shoulda given it to Mendy. Or kicked a FG that could have made the final score a tie.
7. The FG to start the 4th quarter. If we were going to kick a FG, we should have called a timeout and kicked the 53 yard field goal into the closed end of the stadium at the end of the 3rd quarter. The left flag kept blowing randomly on the goalpost on the closed end of the stadium, but the right one never moved. Everyone in the stadium knew the ball was going left before Reed attempted the 53 yarder. We should have either kept the offense on the field or punted. Bad call Mike T.
8. I got a chuckle out of the guy next to me when he said maybe Tomlin will try a 70 yard field goal to tie it at the end of the game instead of throwing a hail mary.
9. James Harrison's jock strap is all over Heinz Field. Gradkowski is a slippery sucker.
10. Our defense has no heart. Only a handful of guys looked like they were giving 100%. Special shout out to Casey - he played well. And he was flipping out after we gave up the last TD. He's giving 110% on every play, and I'd like to see us try to keep him for at least 1 more year. He's really playing well.
11. Our OLine doesn't finish plays. Too many times I noticed an OLineman watching Mendy get tackled. Mendy is going to be really good. He's quick. And he's becoming very hard to bring down. Just like we have a QB who won't go down and you have to block extra for him, you've gotta start doing the same for your RB.
12. We left too much time on the clock when we scored our last TD. We should have taken some time off the clock. And we shoulda kicked the FG and sent the game into OT if needed. We just shouldn't have given the ball to Oakland with 2 min the way our D was playing. Everyone kinda knew we were gonna lose the moment we scored that TD.
13. Our fans dissapointed me. We've got a huge waiting list for season tickets and many of you season ticket holders should give your PSLs back. I don't get how someone can be lucky enough to have tickets and not even watch the game. There was an exodus after the Ward TD at the end of the game in our section. People left the game in spots where the ball was in the redzone right in front of us. Several folks had too much liquor to even remember the game. And I really noticed an empty stadium during the 2nd half kickoff. People just didn't get back in time for the start of the 2nd half and it seemed half the stadium wasn't watching. If you don't care to watch the Steelers, give your tickets to someone who does. Maybe it's a lower level thing? Maybe people that get to go to lots of games don't appreciate it? I've never been to a Steelers game where I felt like I was at a Pirates game where fans were so apathetic. In one sense, maybe the fans at the game deserved a loss given their lack of support.
14. Ben was off. He probably had a good game statistically, but many of his throws were just a little off all day. The INT in the endzone wasn't even close to Ward. I know the defender came from the other side so Ben probably didn't see him, but I have no idea what Ben was throwing toward.
15. I feel bad for Joe Burnnett. He missed out on what looked like an easy INT and everyone was really down on the kid. But he just came in off the bench on a really cold day and it's hard to make a play coming into a game so late after sitting on the sideline most of the day. I also noticed how quick he was on that play making a nice break with his WR. Everyone else noticed the drop, but I noticed, he might have more talent as a CB than either of our starters. He looked fluid in his break. I'd like to see more of him.
16. Not sure if Troy will be back or not, but I wouldn't mind seeing our starting DBs be Burnett, Lewis, Troy, and Carter.
17. James Farrior got slow.
18. These next 4 games are going to be exciting. If we can just get Troy back and get a little help, you never know what can happen with Ben and Troy on the field.
19. Do we play Renegade regularly after a score? Or did we do it this time so that we'd be pumped and Gary Russell wouldn't run one back on us.
20. I'm not sure anyone touched Carey Davis on his return other than a Steelers player.
I'm looking forward to going back and watching the game on TV before Thursday's game in Cleveland. I hope Tomlin seriously considers replacing a lot of starters on D.
Despite my dissapointments, I'm still hopefully we can squeak into the playoffs.
Let's get this thing restarted going into Cleveland!!!!!!!
WoooooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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