Good Tuesday morning Nation! There is nothing quite like the day after a Black and Gold victory is there? What can we take from yesterday’s game? What was positive, negative or absolutely abysmal? It’s time for the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of yesterday’s game, so let’s get to it!

The Good

Wow, there was a lot of good last night: Shazier’s pick, the secondary stood up fairly well, and the defense overall played a solid game.

The offense, after a slow start in the first quarter, did what it does, and the Steelers head back to Pittsburgh 1-0 after a satisfying 38-16 road win. Here’s what stood out to me:

Luck

There is a saying that goes “better lucky than good,” and after Ben fumbled on that sack early in the game, and somehow Pouncey ripped the ball away and back, I messaged my brother that statement and he responded “or when you’re good, things just seem to go your way.”

I like the way that sounds, but I think after watching the pinball touchdown completion to Eli Rogers, we all have to admit that luck was riding with the Black and Gold last night. The way things were going last night is kind of summed up the by one play: Ben’s pass to Sammie Coates.

Ben is in the shotgun, and the snap is low.

He bends and struggles to get a grip on the ball, and I think we all are thinking “Oh crap!”

Then Ben gets the handle and just heaves the ball down the field and it’s a perfect ball to Sammie Coates.

Ridiculous.

That is the way things went for the Steelers last night, and who am I to complain?

Ben Roethlisberger/Antonio Brown

Ben and AB hooked up for 8 receptions which were good for 126 yards and 2 touchdowns. Ben was 27 of 37 for 300 yards, 3 TDs and a passer rating of 112.4. The prime-time battle between Josh Norman and AB didn’t really amount to much beyond a catch/strip that wasn’t a catch, because of how a catch is defined by the NFL.

On the other hand, AB just tortured Bashaud Breeland. I’m sure that Breeland will be having visions of a twerking AB running through his head for the rest of the week (we’ll talk about that twerking thing later.)

Ben was Ben and AB was AB. They did what they do. (If Tyrion Lannister was describing it he might say “He throws the ball and he catches things” to describe the pair of them.)

Once they got started, there was no stopping them.

Eli Rogers

Rogers had one bad moment, and it’s one of those things that is going to happen with young players who haven’t had a lot of time in the system.

Unfortunately, that bad moment resulted in a pick.

Still, overall Eli had a solid game. He was the outlet Ben needed him to be, and he showed speed and the ability to provide another weapon in the Steelers already fully-stocked arsenal. He looked so comfortable in the slot role that I began to try and make the idea that the middle of the field should now be called “Mr. Rogers Neighborhood.”

(C’mon, it needs to be a thing… It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood…)

The Offensive Line

The line was dominant. They did a good job of protecting Ben, and they did a great job opening up holes for DeAngelo Williams.

Running room was hard to find in the first quarter, but that is often the case when a game starts, but by the time the 3^rd and 4^th quarters rolled around, the Washington D-line looked defeated. They couldn’t get any kind of rush, and DeAngelo seemed like he had freight train size holes to run through.

DeCastro looked great pulling and leading Williams around the edge.

They imposed their will.

The Defensive Line

The pressure was constant all night. Cameron Heyward and Stephon Tuitt were constantly pushing the pocket.

Hargrave didn’t get the start because we opened in the nickel, but he did provide push in the middle when he was in there, albeit in limited work (he only had 13 defensive snaps.) Ricardo Mathews got 16 snaps, and not one time did he bring back memories of Cam Thomas.

Yes, they gave up a couple of runs, but overall the Redskins only managed 28 yards rushing in the first half, and 55 total for the game. This was a good offensive line, which only gave up 26 sacks last year, and the D-line was able to penetrate consistently.

Jesse James

I’m giving Jesse James some credit for making the catches he could make. Ben flat-out missed him once, but he was able to convert catches into first downs a couple of times.

He was in position, and he provided Ben another outlet, which is what we want him to be.

Was he spectacular? No.

Did he make us forget Heath? Not even close.

Did he block well?

Well, we’ll talk about that in a bit.

Mike Tomlin

Talk about not living in your fears!

Coach was aggressive last night and I loved it. He needed to spark them on that first touchdown drive, and that 4-and-1 play call was a great call.

I love that he didn’t back down either, but in fact doubled down and went for it on fourth and 1 again as the half was ending, leading to our second touchdown.

I admit, most of the Nation would probably be crucifying him if we hadn’t converted, but I would not have been one of those people. I love his aggressiveness, and almost never disagree with when he chooses to roll the dice. The team had a really good game plan for the Redskins, and they executed it well.

Kudos to Coach Tomlin and the rest of the coaches.

3rd Down Defense

This one is important. This is the kind of situational football we need to be on the positive side of to win games, and we definitely were in this game.

The Redskins were 3-of-10 on third downs.

I’ll be honest – I was surprised because the Steelers have had issues getting off the field on third down, but last night they did a really good job in getting off the field.

DeAngelo Williams

The old man did good. He did great. He was the player of the game.

D. Will had 143 yards on 26 attempts (average of 5.5 yards per carry) and added two TD’s.

How much more can you ask of him? I’ve been listening to SNR all morning, and they have replayed Bill Hargrove’s call of DeAngelo’s first touchdown, and it’s so much fun to listen to. DeAngelo showed power, he showed speed and burst. He was great last night, much as he was in the beginning of last season.

What a great pickup.

The Bad

There wasn’t a lot of bad to take away from last night’s game. For the most part, the Steelers dominated the game and it showed in the final score and the statistics. However, there are a couple things that did bring a cringe or two.

Ross Cockrell

For the most part, the secondary played surprisingly well.

We had a very extreme zone scheme we were playing, and it was designed to help shore up the secondary; for the most part it did.

Cockrell had some bad spots however, and he missed tackles that he should have made. It wasn’t awful, but he gets the call out for bad because he was noticeable on a night when the rest of the secondary was not.

Jesse James

The Outlaw got his props for making catches, now he’s getting the other side of the hand for his blocking.

It was not good.

David Johnson did a solid job blocking, but JJ looked bad more than he looked good. It can’t be so obvious that when JJ is in, we are passing, and when Johnson is in, we are running.

He needs to make some improvements in his blocking techniques.

Shazier’s Knee

Shazier says his knee is fine. Let’s hope he’s right, because he would have been called out in the good for his play (although he also missed some tackles that he should have made.)

We won’t find out much about his knee until either today’s press conference or maybe even later in the week (I expect Coach to say “he’s day to day”). We need Shazam on the field.

Poor Tackling (again!)

I really hope that this stops being a talking point. It did get better in the second half, but there were just too many instances of not wrapping up, trying to tackle guys by knocking them down. It was inconsistent at best, and it needs to improve.

No Sacks

This is more on the edge guys than the line, but the fact of the matter is that we never got home. We really didn’t even get that close. Yes, we had pressure, but pressure needs to eventually pay off with the QB on his butt, and that didn’t happen at all last night. The absence of Bud Dupree was felt last night.

The Ugly

You would think in a game like this one, you might assume that I’d have nothing to call ugly and for the most part it that assumption would be correct. But last night there were two glaring things, things that made you want to turn away from the screen, or at the minimum, scratch your head and silently say “what the…”

Lawrence Timmons covering DeSean Jackson (or any wide receiver)

I don’t need to talk about this much. Let’s just say that is not a winning strategy, and let’s hope we never have to see it again.

15 Yards for Twerking

This is not a comment on Antonio’s dance selection: I have no problem with his decision to twerk out his TD celebration.

My problem is – how the hell is that a penalty?

Are we now judging celebratory dances on quality and personal preference? Did he use a prop? Did others join in? I didn’t see either (unless you consider AB’s booty as a prop.) There is no reason that should have been flagged. It’s that kind of nonsense that makes this the “No Fun League.”

Conclusion

Overall, we couldn’t ask for much more could we?

38 points, a road win and we leave D.C. 1-0.

Was it perfect? Of course not. Still there was a lot of good to take out of that game, and Deebo got a pick!

So we move on to a conference game against the new “most hated” team in the conference, the Bengals. The Bengals struggled to get a win against the Jets, and we won’t have to deal with Vontaze Burfict or Tyler Eifert. Hopefully we can clean up the few negatives, build on the positives and with luck Shazier’s knee really is fine.

Until next time Nation!