The Good, Bad and Ugly from Week 2 Steelers – Chiefs
It’s time to look at the good, bad and ugly from the… well, whatever the hell it was that happened when the Chiefs showed up at Heinz Field.
My grandmother said if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all.
😐
— Brian E. Roach (SCU) #TheRefsStink #GAM (@CannonsDontThun) September 16, 2018
That about sums it up, don’t you think?
I mean, if I follow Grandma’s rule, then I won’t be saying a whole lot about this game. Sorry, Grandma!
The truth is that there is some good covered up in the refuse of the giant turd of a game the Steelers dropped on Sunday. Like just a couple undigested kernels of corn sticking out of the crap that was the rest of that game.
Good
Ben Roethlisberger (after the first 3 drives)
39/60, 452 Yards, 3 TDs 104.3 QB Rating
Jesse James
5/5 138 yards, 1 TD
JuJu Smith-Schuster
13/19 121 yards, 1 TD
I’m just going to say that the offense did manage to put up 37 points. If Chris Boswell doesn’t miss a field goal that would have been 40. That should have been enough to win. It wouldn’t have been, not during this game, but the offense wasn’t really the problem this week.
Ben now has more 450-yard games than anyone in the history of the league. JuJu continues to show he’s a player who can make an impact and eventually that will lead to defenses not being able to key on Antonio Brown the way they have these first two games. Jesse James had a solid game and can be a reliable option running up the seam.
It wasn’t enough though, so I’m not going to waste that much time patting them on the back.
Bad
Game Plan
I almost tweeted out #HireHaley. I know this is Randy Fichtner’s second game as the OC, but you need to do something more than coming up with what equated to 3 3 and outs to start the game. It’s early, but the game plane seemed poorly conceived. You just played a much better run defense, and James Conner had a stellar game. You play these guys and somehow forget he’s on the team. Yes, at some point it didn’t matter anymore because being down 21 means you’re playing catchup. But maybe they should have thought about it early?
As for the defense, was there a game plan? It felt like the game plan was “let the Chiefs receivers run around. We’ll watch.” I mean, the only pass defense during the entire game was by Stephon Tuitt when he batted a ball down.
I am just not at all sure that anyone knew what the game plan on defense was, or if there ever was one.
Ugly
Everything else
There really isn’t much more that needs to be said. I can’t find a single positive thing to say about the defensive performance. I guess I could say at least they didn’t give up 50.
The special teams, which has been solid for the Steelers recently fell apart and made some huge gaffs that cost them, especially the coverage on that first punt that set the Chiefs up at the 10-yard line.
What really aggravated me more than anything else was the poor communication in the secondary. Unlike the week before where Sean Davis looked natural as a free safety, this week he looked lost. In fact, most of the secondary looked like they had their feet stuck in the mud. Slow to react and slow to diagnose what was going on.
And to steal a line from our own Terry Fletcher – WTF was TJ Watt doing covering Sammie Watkins? Seriously? That was a play that somebody actually drew up?
Ryan Fitzpatrick (I refuse to call him FitzMagic) is salivating.
The Refs still stink
Despite what I had to say here (in response to the holding call that overturned the Chiefs fumble return for a touchdown):
The refs still stink. Look, there were bad calls galore. Holding calls not called, holding calls called that shouldn’t have been called. Ben throwing the ball over the line of scrimmage. I’m not really going to be hypocritical enough to say that when they suck in the Steelers favor it’s ok. It’s not.
They stink.
Conclusion
I just want to forget what I saw. I want it to go away. Maybe the best thing that can be said about that performance is that it was week 2 and there is plenty of time to get better.
Please, get better.
