Recapping Steelers Big Win vs. Jets
For two straight weeks, I’ve seen convincing, stress-free Steelers wins for the first time in a long time. The Pittsburgh Steelers hosted the New York Jets, led by Aaron Rodgers, and newly acquired receiver, Davante Adams, on Sunday Night Football. After a slow start, with the Jets leading 15-6, the Steelers proceeded to step on their throats for the rest of the game en route to a 37-15 win; a hell of a start for the Russell-Wilson-led Steelers offense.
That brings the Steelers to 5-2 on the year, with the Giants next up on the docket, followed by their bye week. If you would’ve told me in August that this is how we would start off the year, I’d take that shit EVERY SINGLE TIME. Even in the two losses, there were times where it felt like the Steelers were somehow going to pull those matchups off with sheer talent and conservative play calling. It seems like, now, the offensive coaching staff has a guy that they’re willing to cut things loose with, and we could be at a real turning point for this offense, with Russell Wilson at the helm. With that being said, all three phases were ON POINT against the Jets, so I went back and watched the all-22 coaches film of every single play. Here are my thoughts:
The Defense:
I’m going to start with the defense, just because I expect this defense to be dominant week in and week out, so I’m not going to word vomit everything that happens when they do exactly that. Obviously, you can’t bring up the defensive performance on this particular night without bringing up Beanie Bishop Jr. After the loss to the Cowboys a couple weeks ago, I was pretty harsh on Beanie, and said that he looked out of his depth and shouldn’t be a starter. I’m not ready to back track on those words yet, because he has had some tough moments earlier this season. With that being said, he showed OUT in this game, intercepting Aaron Rodgers twice, and running one of them all the way back to the Jets’ one-yard line. He had a tackle for loss as well. I don’t care how old Aaron Rodgers is…he’s historically great at taking care of the football, and Beanie was able to nab two interceptions off of THAT guy. Hopefully that’s a shot in the arm for him to keep working towards solidifying his spot as the starting NB ahead of Cameron Sutton’s return to the team. I’m still not sold on Beanie, but this was a really big day for the undrafted free agent.
Cameron Heyward was really impressive, yet again. He had a great rep early in the second quarter where he batted a pass down at the line of scrimmage, putting the Jets in a third and long situation that eventually turned into a punt. On the Jets’ following possession, he had the play, shown above, where he just swats Tyron Smith out of his way and stuffs Braelon Allen’s run. That’s a 35-year-old man making that play. I’ve been right about a lot of things this year, but I was dead wrong for criticizing Cam during the offseason. He’s earning every penny he’s going to get, and I’m so fuckin’ glad we got an extension done with him. Cam is timeless.
Just to quickly rifle through some things that I continue to be impressed by with our defense: Payton Wilson seemed like he was playing really fast in the Jets game, which I loved to see. He continues to be wherever the ball is, and he tackles extremely well. I am extremely comfortable when he’s on the field, even though he’s a rookie; he just doesn’t look like one. And, when he’s not on the field, we have Patrick Queen, and Elandon Roberts. Our LB coach has an easy job right now. The same can be said about our DB coach and the offseason acquisition of DeShon Elliot. I can’t remember where I saw it…either reddit or twitter…but somebody said something like…DeShon Elliot, this year, is what we expect Minkah to be. Minkah is my favorite player on the Steelers, so that comment struck me, but it’s true that DeShon Elliot has been making big time plays this year. He had a play about half-way through the first quarter, where he lined up deep in the the defensive backfield, identified the run to the right was coming, and sprinted right to the spot Breece Hall wanted to get to and stuffed it for -3 yards. He is having an all-pro-caliber year, so far.
The thing about our defense is when you’re watching them, compared to other defenses around the league, just take a look at how guys are tackling as the game drags on. All of these names on our defense…T.J. Watt, Cam Heyward, Minkah Fitzpatrick, Patrick Queen, Payton Wilson, DeShon Elliot, Joey Porter Jr. (sometimes)...these guys are tough guys that just fuckin love to TACKLE. When this defense chooses to dominate, they dominate…and they’re getting healthier. Over the next few weeks, we should be getting back guys like Nick Herbig, Montravius Adams, Damontae Kazee, Tyler Matakevich, and Cameron Sutton (suspension). The numbers may not reflect it right now, but when healthy, this feels like the best defensive unit in football.
The Offense:
So, Mike Tomlin goes “lone ranger” on his coaching staff, and starts Russell Wilson, and it results in the Steelers first 400 yard game in however many years. And that, my friends, is why he gets paid the big bucks. While I was CAUTIOUSLY optimistic about the quarterback change, a lot of that caution had to do with my lack of faith in the offensive line to keep Russ upright.
As you can see on the play above, Broderick Jones gets absolutely WORKED by Will McDonald, forcing Russell Wilson to leave the pocket and hit his check-down, Jaylen Warren, who is able to take it for 11 yards and a first down. Jones had a few rough reps against the Jets, one of which resulted in a sack; the only time Russell Wilson would be sacked in this game. Ryan McCollum had a play in the second quarter where he got beat pretty badly, and was flagged for a hold, but outside of that, the offensive line played a really great game, which was nice to see.
On the back of another 100 yard rushing effort from Najee Harris, Russell Wilson was able to put together a really solid performance passing the ball. He finished 16/29 for 264 yards, and 2 TD passes, one TD rushing. The throw, shown above, to Pat Freiermuth was probably his best throw of the night, really showcasing that touch on the long ball that he has always been known for.
One thing that really struck me while watching the tape was the amount of times Russ was working from under center. We saw some rough moments from Justin Fields, earlier on in the season, trying to run plays from under center, and he was clearly uncomfortable doing it, so Arthur Smith wasn’t doing it as much. With Russ as the starter, the offense was being run, primarily, under center, which is just another piece of evidence that Arthur Smith was limiting himself as a play caller to keep Justin Fields out of trouble.
It wasn’t all perfect for Russell Wilson, though. He definitely got bailed out on an occasion or two by the acrobat known as George Pickens. But, that’s what the fuck you do when you’re a deep ball thrower. Throw the ball up in the air, and give your guy a chance, and Russ is clearly more comfortable doing that than Justin Fields is. Still, Russ threw up a couple of duds that George Pickens ended up coming down with, and that made Wilson’s numbers way better than they would’ve been if George Pickens wasn’t an alien. With that being said, Russell Wilson’s dropbacks were lazy all game long, and he wasn’t doing a good job of getting his feet set before he threw the ball, especially early in the game. He was just kinda constantly drifting, which could explain why some of his deep balls were probably a little shorter than he wanted them to be. As he gets more reps at game-speed, I expect issues like that to get cleaned up.
How about the willingness of our skill guys to block? George Pickens is a guy that is often criticized for his lack of effort on some plays, but not in the video above, a 30 yard reception for Muth where Pickens takes two Jets defenders out of the play with his hip allowing Muth to keep moving up field. Van Jefferson also had a nice block on the first play of the 4th quarter, allowing Najee Harris to break one for 34 yards. You need plays like those from your offensive skill position players in order to drop 37 points on an NFL defense like the Steelers did to the Jets. Also, shoutout to Van Jefferson, who secured his first touchdown catch of the season in this game.
The offensive game plan in this one seemed pretty clear to me: run the ball effectively, and throw the ball to Pickens whenever he’s one-on-one with someone not named Sauce Gardner, and it worked to perfection. Also, Najee Harris is a better runner when Jaylen Warren is able to come in as the change-of-pace guy. Having Warren back healthy, with Cordarrelle Patterson returning soon, is going to be really good for Naj staying fresh. Pair that with the impending return of Zach Frazier, and this offense looks to be trending in the right direction as they turn their attention to the New York Giants, who rank 25th in the league in rushing defense.
Special Teams:
I’m sure most of yinz saw the clip circulating social media for Danny Smith celebrating with the boys during this game, and rightfully so. Minkah Fitzpatrick had a blocked extra point taken away because of a flag that the NFL confirmed shouldn’t have been thrown, which resulted in a two point conversion for the Jets. When are refs going to be held accountable for literally handing points to teams with their bullshit calls?
It’s all good, though. Ball don’t lie, and Dean Lowry blocked a Jets field goal attempt late in the third quarter when the score was Steelers 23, Jets 15. The Steelers offense would score on the ensuing drive, making it a two possession game. There should’ve been two different special plays in this game, but the one was enough to keep this game out of reach. It was an awesome day for Danny Smith.
That was easily our most complete game of the year. The Pittsburgh Steelers are COMING. Here. We. Go.
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