Malcolm Butler

[sarge]

I know the stat line looks bad, but I though Butler played well tonight.

It seemed most catches Butler was in perfect position, Brown just made the play.

I am thinking he is going to have a great year.

I was encouraged by most of what I saw tonight.

The gaping wholes the steelers ran through on the other hand, those disturbed me.

 

[slash83]

He won some battles and lost some tonight, he competed hard tonight versus one of the best and most electric receivers in football. Still has room to grow as a player but I'm happy.

 

[MassPats38]

The gaping wholes the steelers ran through on the other hand, those disturbed me.

As with every season post-2004, you can expect some hard lessons early on. The hope is they pick-up the D and fix the mistakes quickly.

Losing Wilfork on the line will be felt. The rookie replacing him will likely go through the same growing pains that Wilfork suffered.

 

[Angelpats]

I thought he had a good game too. I think there were one or two play where he fudged up but he was in position and competed on almost all the other ones. Regis is not perfect either and brown is one if the best wrs.

 

[VectorPrime]

Well he can only go up from here

 

[Tyler.Durden]

I think he was tight in coverage, got burnt on that stop and go/double move by brown, but was in the mix all the time. If he locates that ball a little earlier that's at least two more incompletion's.

 

[wolverinejoe80]

i'm glad he is good enough, but not good enough to be called as 'shut down corner'. keep him humble and cheap

 

[Joey007]

He was against a guy with 1500+ receiving yards over each of the last two seasons.

People need to give him a break.

 

[Sticky Caulk]

The entire secondary covered well enough. Brown and Butler both played pretty tight coverage. Just too much generic cover 2. The line let Big Ben step up into the pocket after the receivers had 4-6 seconds to get open. This defense is going to start the year like they did last year and a lot of patsfans are going to freak out. But they were fine.

 

[jboston19]

He's 1 game in to his second season coming from a division II school. The best coach in nfl history thought he earned the right to be the number 1 corner on the defending super bowl champions.

I was absolutely shocked when I saw the stats - 9 of 10 for over 100 something yards- but he was going against one of the best WR in the league and often in tight coverage. Hell, the first completion he surrendered he was literally in a headlock and Brown made a 1 handed catch. I thought he picked off that td pass.

I'm far more worried about the other cbs than I am thus budding star.

 

[juny]

Brown had a big night tonight. There are very few corners if any, who can contain Brown. I'll give Butler a pass and see how he does vs non all-pro WRs.

Did not like the number of times the secondary was just burnt toast as their receivers just ran way past them.

 

[Guts]

Ben had a lot of time in the pocket I was more disappointed with the front 7 than the secondary this game.

 

[BradyFTW!]

I wouldn't say he played well, but he played passably. I agree that the stat line was worse than the actual performance. A few of those catches by Brown were just unbelievable plays on his part despite Butler being in the right position.

The pass rush no-show vs. an iffy Pittsburgh line is more of a concern, although I'm not ready to freak out over either. It's week one. The only thing that would truly bum me out from this game is if Easley's injury turns out to be serious.

 

[PatsBoy12]

Stats do not tell the whole story. He was competitive all game and the TD was in garbage time and it was an absolute perfect pass by Ben. In fact, I count two and possibly three of those catches where it really was the ball placement that made the play. Butler will have his bumps and bruises, especially early, but I do believe we have something good on our hands. He'll be fine. He'll only frustrate the people that are expecting him to be Revis.

 

[manxman2601]

Nice to see a replay of the SB interception play. He'd have nailed Antonio if Tarell hadn't got there first.

 

[PatsBoy12]

I wouldn't say he played well, but he played passably. I agree that the stat line was worse than the actual performance. A few of those catches by Brown were just unbelievable plays on his part despite Butler being in the right position.

The pass rush no-show vs. an iffy Pittsburgh line is more of a concern, although I'm not ready to freak out over either. It's week one. The only thing that would truly bum me out from this game is if Easley's injury turns out to be serious.

The pass rush frustrated me all game. Ninko had an uncharacteristically up and down game. Chandler Jones was his (what's become typical) underwhelming self. He showed up a few times in the run and I do believe he had a pressure or two. I'll tell you what, we have two of the best A-gap blitz LB's in Hightower and Collins. They'll have to do what they did last season. Sheard will get better. Easley going down is hard to swallow because I feel he was in for a big season based on how he looked in the preseason.

We'll see what happens. I think the D-Line benefited a lot from coverage sacks last season. They likely will not get many of those this season, or at least not this early. They will definitely have to show up better in both the pass and run game. It must get better. For as good as they looked overall as a team, they benefited from a lot of miscues by Pitt. They won't be so lucky in other games.

 

[Sticky Caulk]

I wouldn't say he played well, but he played passably. I agree that the stat line was worse than the actual performance. A few of those catches by Brown were just unbelievable plays on his part despite Butler being in the right position.

The pass rush no-show vs. an iffy Pittsburgh line is more of a concern, although I'm not ready to freak out over either. It's week one. The only thing that would truly bum me out from this game is if Easley's injury turns out to be serious.

I've been saying since the end of 2013: Antonio Brown is the best receiver in football. I'd take him over J. Jones, C. Johnson, D. Bryant and OBJ. He's paired with a guy we all love to have, but is also one of the best QBs to play the game, Big Ben. Brown would do this to Revis, Sherman and Peterson if Ben gets a clean pocket for 4+ seconds. It's unfair to ask the CBs to run the entire route and back without one hole opening up. The line has to do a better job of moving the QB and not letting him step into every throw like it's preseason.

 

[Deus Irae]

Butler got his ass handed to him. He remained competitive throughout, though, and that's a good sign.

 

[fnordcircle]

The Steelers are easily a top 5 offense, imo, and he went against an awesome receiver and was rarely out of position. He just got beat by a great QB and WR.

I'm really excited about Butler, it's so great that this guy who is the SB hero looks like he can be a competent corner.

 

[VJCPatriot]

Butler had a very good positioning for the most part. But he mistimed the knockdown/int a few times which led to some big plays by Brown. Has a lot of room to improve, but I don't believe that he got flat out beat as far as positioning which is a good sign. I could see Malcolm having some growing pains, but he has the upside to be a true #1 CB for us.