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I hate myself, but upon seeing news of the death of Bobby Grier, I couldn't help but think about the connection between his sad death and the 4 fumbles lost by the Pats. The imagery is just too perfect. Sorry.
I also have to admit that I turned off the game near the end of the first quarter. The Pats were down 14-0 and they just had their 3rd really horrible offensive drive of day. It was as bad as they had looked for a 3 series stretch in a quarter of a century. They had had 3 drives and got about 35 yds total. The defense looked like they couldn't stop the run OR pass in the Steelers' first 2 drives. A team having problems running the ball, was suddenly great at it. PLUS when the Pats made a good play like a sack, there was a penalty that wiped it out.
So when they made that horrible call on Austin at the goal line, on a guy who is LITERALLY twice his size and had made first contact (even the announcers who have orders not to make the official look bad, were at a loss for words, and it wouldn't be the last time), I decided it would be better for my soul if I read a book, recorded the game, and watched it when it was over. This game had the look of a blow out. Better to keep my sanity and move on. Teams have games like this.
Around 5, I assumed the worst and decided to go back and skim through what I expected would be a bad and painful loss. Instead when I resumed the recording I saw one of the most entertaining and FRUSTRATING games I'd ever seen. When the other team gets 2 more TO's than you in the game, your chances of losing rises to over 90%. When you have FOUR more, it's amazing that you don't lose by 30. Needless to say I was surprised by what I saw.
I'll tell you this. After watching that game, I'm actually feeling pretty good. The team in red today, if they played THAT Steeler team 6 times, they'd win 4 easy. But this is what I mentioned before the game. This team is going to TEASE the **** out of us. They are going to piss away games they should win, and be in games you don't expect. I'm sure this isn't likely to be the last one.
OK I felt I had to be honest about my weak fan moment and let's move on to the discussion of the game. I'll be observational for the most part and leave the details (heavy lifting) to KCSEVEN and the film guys. I look forward to their work. It makes my week.
1. My initial impression of the opening of this game was "WT**** did they do all week to prepare for this game" On defense a team that couldn't run the ball all year was gashing us at will with every RB they put out there. On offense those first 2 drives, we couldn't run, couldn't protect couldn't pass. We simply didn't look prepared.
Now I know we did SOMETHING, because we flipped the switch in some way and after those 2 scores, for the next 2 and a half quarters we were almost a different team. The Steeler offense did nothing while our offense was finding ways to move the ball on LONG time-consuming drives. But we CANNOT come out so... it wasn't flat, it was just BAD to start the game. It's something that Mike needs to address and should be a big topic all week
2. Now for some good news (and its VERY good news, imho) It is when you go through adversity that your REALLY learn about yourself and how you grow. Well this team put ITSELF into tons of self inflicted adversity today and it fought back time and time again till they were driving for the tying TD a half yd short deep of a first down in Steeler territory and time for about 4 plays. There were 3 or 4 times where there plays that could have or should have broken the camel's back and it didn't. You can build something out of that kind of clay.
This is a team of fighters, (at least so far) And when it comes down to it, as fans that is what we want our teams to be. Teams that won't quit
3. I don't usually get on officials during a game, but it seemed if the 5 TO's weren't enough, the Steelers got and NEEDED more than few gifts from the Refs. Let's start with the first one on their first drive. The Pats FINALLY make a run stop on 2nd and goal and bring up a 3rd and passing distance. The Pats get the incompletion on a badly overthrown ball...and there's the flag. You all saw the play. Where was the foul? The moose they had out there was the one pushing off. Austin couldn't get close enough to hold him. So instead with a new set of downs they get the score.
The next one that had me screaming at the TV hours after the game was over was that 3rd and really long that Rodgers overthrew by 10 yds and when they ran the play back, there seemed to be LESS contact between the 2 than there usually is on a play that isn't called. It was an uncatchable ball to start with and little or no contact in actuality. Mind boggling.
Finally, I'll need the film guys to check on this for me, and if there was someone else out there who saw this too. But it seemed to me that one more than one occasion that when the Steelers were up in there looking like blitz that they had a guy well into the neutral zone before the snap. Anyone else see that? Normally I wouldn't mention it, but it seemed to happen more than once.
4. Clearly that was the Robert Spillane that we all hoped we signed back in March. 15 tackles a couple of pressures and a constant presence around the ball. He had a great game along with the rest of forcing unit after that first drive and fumble led to those quick 2 scores. He took a LOT of heat last week, he deserves his praise today.
5. On the other side we had 3 fumbles from the RB's. Stevenson is the elephant in the room. From a coaches standpoint what do you do? This isn't just your top runner, I think he's your leading receiver as well and averaging close to 5ypc.
Now I know the brainless out there will simply call for his head, because that is what they do. But that would be cutting off your nose to spite your face. Except for 3 plays the guy is a VERY productive player. Runners don't fumble on purpose. He wasn't a "fumbler" his first 3 seasons. It IS a problem now! It is up to the staff to figure out what is wrong. Is his hand positioning wrong? Is his elbow flying out? Is there something going wrong with the exchange between the QB and the RB? I think the Gibson one was because Peppers head hit directly on the ball.
The bottom line here is that Stevenson is here and you are going to need him. It's not like he doesn't know or care about what happened. How as a coach do you get him back MENTALLY. After you exhaustedly look at all the physical things you can do to limit the fumbles, I wouldn't hesitate to get him to a sports psychologist, or if he needs to carry a ball around with him all day I'd try that too. But whatever it is, it's on the table. Simply throwing the baby out with the bathwater isn't a solution - just sad commentary from angry internet tough guys.
6. I'm glad we signed Tonga. He is playing well and his last name is easy to spell. I wouldn't be shocked to find out that it was HIS incursion into the game came about the same time the Steeler's run game shut down. Another piece of homework for you KC. The DL looks like it is developing more depth. IIRC, Farmer had a big play during the game.
7. Let's talk about the QB for a bit - I see a flaw in Maye's game. Nothing major, but he doesn't seem to have much of a pocket presence escapability. It seems to me that sometimes when the pocket is collapsing he just seems to refuse to leave, taking a short loss instead of trying to expand the pocket and use his speed like we see him do when he gets on bootlegs, and other plays he gets wide.
Maybe I'm too critical and Maybe the only way it's going to happen is through reps and seeing it over and over again. but ELUSIVENESS is not a skill he seems to have at this point in time.
One thing I'd DEFINITELY want to see happen is Josh giving him a few creative running plays. He's big and strong enough to take on tacklers 2 or 3 times a game in key moments. 6'4 235 is a big dude. Allen is a bit bigger, but it's a VERY short line of LB's and DB's looking forward to taking on Josh when he's running.
The OL will go back under the microscope. 5 sacks and a very mediocre running game, even if you forgot the 4 lost fumbles. I saw one blurb today that cited an 87% win rate for Campbell. I don't know about anyone else. It will be interesting to see these numbers this week. The worst sack was the Watt one where he just blew by a weak chip by the TE and was by Moses before he knew it. Bottom line it was still LIGHT YEARS ahead of what we were seeing last year and should get better over time.
8. Interesting game next week. The Panthers see themselves much like we see ourselves, as an up-and-coming young team looking to make an impression and seen this as a winnable game, and rather than coming off a painful loss, they are coming off one of the best wins in years and will be at home.
I also have to admit that I turned off the game near the end of the first quarter. The Pats were down 14-0 and they just had their 3rd really horrible offensive drive of day. It was as bad as they had looked for a 3 series stretch in a quarter of a century. They had had 3 drives and got about 35 yds total. The defense looked like they couldn't stop the run OR pass in the Steelers' first 2 drives. A team having problems running the ball, was suddenly great at it. PLUS when the Pats made a good play like a sack, there was a penalty that wiped it out.
So when they made that horrible call on Austin at the goal line, on a guy who is LITERALLY twice his size and had made first contact (even the announcers who have orders not to make the official look bad, were at a loss for words, and it wouldn't be the last time), I decided it would be better for my soul if I read a book, recorded the game, and watched it when it was over. This game had the look of a blow out. Better to keep my sanity and move on. Teams have games like this.
Around 5, I assumed the worst and decided to go back and skim through what I expected would be a bad and painful loss. Instead when I resumed the recording I saw one of the most entertaining and FRUSTRATING games I'd ever seen. When the other team gets 2 more TO's than you in the game, your chances of losing rises to over 90%. When you have FOUR more, it's amazing that you don't lose by 30. Needless to say I was surprised by what I saw.
I'll tell you this. After watching that game, I'm actually feeling pretty good. The team in red today, if they played THAT Steeler team 6 times, they'd win 4 easy. But this is what I mentioned before the game. This team is going to TEASE the **** out of us. They are going to piss away games they should win, and be in games you don't expect. I'm sure this isn't likely to be the last one.
OK I felt I had to be honest about my weak fan moment and let's move on to the discussion of the game. I'll be observational for the most part and leave the details (heavy lifting) to KCSEVEN and the film guys. I look forward to their work. It makes my week.
1. My initial impression of the opening of this game was "WT**** did they do all week to prepare for this game" On defense a team that couldn't run the ball all year was gashing us at will with every RB they put out there. On offense those first 2 drives, we couldn't run, couldn't protect couldn't pass. We simply didn't look prepared.
Now I know we did SOMETHING, because we flipped the switch in some way and after those 2 scores, for the next 2 and a half quarters we were almost a different team. The Steeler offense did nothing while our offense was finding ways to move the ball on LONG time-consuming drives. But we CANNOT come out so... it wasn't flat, it was just BAD to start the game. It's something that Mike needs to address and should be a big topic all week
2. Now for some good news (and its VERY good news, imho) It is when you go through adversity that your REALLY learn about yourself and how you grow. Well this team put ITSELF into tons of self inflicted adversity today and it fought back time and time again till they were driving for the tying TD a half yd short deep of a first down in Steeler territory and time for about 4 plays. There were 3 or 4 times where there plays that could have or should have broken the camel's back and it didn't. You can build something out of that kind of clay.
This is a team of fighters, (at least so far) And when it comes down to it, as fans that is what we want our teams to be. Teams that won't quit
3. I don't usually get on officials during a game, but it seemed if the 5 TO's weren't enough, the Steelers got and NEEDED more than few gifts from the Refs. Let's start with the first one on their first drive. The Pats FINALLY make a run stop on 2nd and goal and bring up a 3rd and passing distance. The Pats get the incompletion on a badly overthrown ball...and there's the flag. You all saw the play. Where was the foul? The moose they had out there was the one pushing off. Austin couldn't get close enough to hold him. So instead with a new set of downs they get the score.
The next one that had me screaming at the TV hours after the game was over was that 3rd and really long that Rodgers overthrew by 10 yds and when they ran the play back, there seemed to be LESS contact between the 2 than there usually is on a play that isn't called. It was an uncatchable ball to start with and little or no contact in actuality. Mind boggling.
Finally, I'll need the film guys to check on this for me, and if there was someone else out there who saw this too. But it seemed to me that one more than one occasion that when the Steelers were up in there looking like blitz that they had a guy well into the neutral zone before the snap. Anyone else see that? Normally I wouldn't mention it, but it seemed to happen more than once.
4. Clearly that was the Robert Spillane that we all hoped we signed back in March. 15 tackles a couple of pressures and a constant presence around the ball. He had a great game along with the rest of forcing unit after that first drive and fumble led to those quick 2 scores. He took a LOT of heat last week, he deserves his praise today.
5. On the other side we had 3 fumbles from the RB's. Stevenson is the elephant in the room. From a coaches standpoint what do you do? This isn't just your top runner, I think he's your leading receiver as well and averaging close to 5ypc.
Now I know the brainless out there will simply call for his head, because that is what they do. But that would be cutting off your nose to spite your face. Except for 3 plays the guy is a VERY productive player. Runners don't fumble on purpose. He wasn't a "fumbler" his first 3 seasons. It IS a problem now! It is up to the staff to figure out what is wrong. Is his hand positioning wrong? Is his elbow flying out? Is there something going wrong with the exchange between the QB and the RB? I think the Gibson one was because Peppers head hit directly on the ball.
The bottom line here is that Stevenson is here and you are going to need him. It's not like he doesn't know or care about what happened. How as a coach do you get him back MENTALLY. After you exhaustedly look at all the physical things you can do to limit the fumbles, I wouldn't hesitate to get him to a sports psychologist, or if he needs to carry a ball around with him all day I'd try that too. But whatever it is, it's on the table. Simply throwing the baby out with the bathwater isn't a solution - just sad commentary from angry internet tough guys.
6. I'm glad we signed Tonga. He is playing well and his last name is easy to spell. I wouldn't be shocked to find out that it was HIS incursion into the game came about the same time the Steeler's run game shut down. Another piece of homework for you KC. The DL looks like it is developing more depth. IIRC, Farmer had a big play during the game.
7. Let's talk about the QB for a bit - I see a flaw in Maye's game. Nothing major, but he doesn't seem to have much of a pocket presence escapability. It seems to me that sometimes when the pocket is collapsing he just seems to refuse to leave, taking a short loss instead of trying to expand the pocket and use his speed like we see him do when he gets on bootlegs, and other plays he gets wide.
Maybe I'm too critical and Maybe the only way it's going to happen is through reps and seeing it over and over again. but ELUSIVENESS is not a skill he seems to have at this point in time.
One thing I'd DEFINITELY want to see happen is Josh giving him a few creative running plays. He's big and strong enough to take on tacklers 2 or 3 times a game in key moments. 6'4 235 is a big dude. Allen is a bit bigger, but it's a VERY short line of LB's and DB's looking forward to taking on Josh when he's running.
The OL will go back under the microscope. 5 sacks and a very mediocre running game, even if you forgot the 4 lost fumbles. I saw one blurb today that cited an 87% win rate for Campbell. I don't know about anyone else. It will be interesting to see these numbers this week. The worst sack was the Watt one where he just blew by a weak chip by the TE and was by Moses before he knew it. Bottom line it was still LIGHT YEARS ahead of what we were seeing last year and should get better over time.
8. Interesting game next week. The Panthers see themselves much like we see ourselves, as an up-and-coming young team looking to make an impression and seen this as a winnable game, and rather than coming off a painful loss, they are coming off one of the best wins in years and will be at home.
