Good, Bad & Ugly – Steelers vs. Falcons Preseason Week 2
Well the most promising thing from the first game (the defensive line dominating the Giants offensive line) went out the window in this game, and Bart Houston threw a TD pass that has a gaggle of fans screaming that he’s the second coming. (He’s not).
At the end of the day, the Steelers find themselves someplace they haven’t been since 2010 – 2 and 0 after their first two preseason games. There was once again some good, some bad and definitely some ugly to take a look at in this game, so let’s get to it.
Good
The Special Teams
A punt return for a touchdown. A blocked punt. 7 (YES SEVEN!) punts downed inside the 20. Top that off with solid coverage, a couple half decent returns and this was a special teams effort unlike anything we’ve seen in a long while. There is no question in my mind that the special teams were the difference in this game.
As much vitriol that gets thrown Danny Smith’s direction, let’s give him some love for this effort. Trey Williams did a great job with handling punt return duties, and let’s not forget our sixth-round pick Colin Holba who was down their covering punts as well.
Great special teams play in this game made the difference.
James Conner
The Pitt rookie finally got a chance to show his stuff, and he performed, well, to be fair, it was a bit up and down. Still the needle was pointing more up than down in the end. 98 yards on 20 carries for an average of 4.9 per carry isn’t too shabby.
The problem is that most of that damage was done against third string players, later in the game. On the plus side, early on he wasn’t running behind the starting offensive line either, so there was a mismatch in the Falcons favor there.
Yes, he dropped a couple of balls, but give the kid a break – it was his first NFL game and in Pittsburgh no less. He looked good, showed burst, and speed to go along with his power. He definitely looked like a guy who has something to offer.
Martavis Bryant
Martavis gets on the good side of things just for being back. I’m really hoping Ben plays a few series against the Colts and we get to see AB, Bryant and Ben all together. It’s hard to evaluate the performance of the receivers when the balls thrown at them are coming from the third and fourth string QB’s.
Bryant looked really dynamic on his one long reception, and it felt like if his arm wasn’t being barred by the defender he might have had another. I was hoping for a breakaway, but I am just glad to have him back.
Welcome home Martavis.
Mike Hilton
This kid was robbed of a safety. He should have had his second sack to go along with that. But of course, there was some rule that got in the way. (For the record, I still didn’t see anyone tip that ball.)
I didn’t see this young man out there with the 1’s, but he was on the field late in the second quarter and for most of the second half. Not quite as noticeable as he was against the Giants, still that burst when he blitzes is a pleasure to watch.
Now he just needs to get some varsity snaps and maybe I’ll buy my ticket for the hype train.
Anthony Chickillo
Does it feel like we are going to have one linebacker make his claim per game? I know there were two in the Giants game (Watt and Moats), but this game belonged to Anthony Chickillo.
It was his turn to dominate the JV, as he racked up a couple sacks and 4 tackles. I’m trying to keep a little perspective here, because these are guys who have started NFL games (Moats and Chickillo) playing, for the most part, against guys who may never get the opportunity to start.
Regardless, it was a nice game for (as the NFL Network guys called him at half time) Anthony Chick-A-Dillo.
Bad
Joshua Dobbs
When your stat line is 10/19 for 70 yards and a passer rating of 39.4, it’s hard to put you anywhere but in the bad category. That being said, Dobbs actually looked better in the early parts of this game, and he was victimized by a lot of the guys he was throwing the ball to getting Ike Taylor disease (you know, can’t catch).
He made good decisions for the most part, and avoided turnovers until… That really foolish attempt to make a play that more or less ended his night.
I applaud the effort, but he needs to learn to throw the ball away when there is nothing there, rather than forcing it.
Ugly
First Team Defense
After what was truly a dominate start last week, the first team defense looked like they were getting dominated.
It didn’t start out that way, but after Jayvon Hargrave left with a concussion, well, things went downhill. There was next to no pressure during the first few Falcon’s series, and they were able to basically do whatever they wanted.
Their first 3 series were 10, 14 and 13 plays and totaled 76, 86 and 77 yards. The best thing you can say is that they only gave up one TD. The Falcons got 7 first downs on the first drive, 5 on their second and 4 on their third, and Matt Ryan only played the first series.
The zone coverage failures were reminiscent of the AFC Championship game, and that’s not a memory any of us wanted to savor. It’s preseason, and it does matter that there was no Bud Dupree, no Ryan Shazier and no Mike Mitchell (not to mention no James Harrison). So, there is some solace in that.
Hopefully they play more like the Giants game next week when they face up against the Colts.
Conclusion
It was a win, and we all had the opportunity to cheer on James Conner and that felt good.
They didn’t game plan (nobody does for preseason games) and they were missing pieces, so it wasn’t a pretty win.
I think these snaps are definitely benefiting Josh Dobbs, and hopefully he’ll make strides over the next two games. If Landry’s abdominal strain lingers into the regular season, we will really need to hope Ben stays healthy and upright, because Dobbs clearly isn’t ready yet. But he did make progress.
Let’s see how T.J. Watt bounces back after a less than stellar performance (he wasn’t bad, but nobody is putting him in the Hall of Fame after that game). Can the rest of the injured guys get on the field? Hello Cam Sutton, I’m looking at you!
Check out our SCU podcast later this week when we preview the Colts/Steelers matchup!
