5 Steelers to Watch: Will Steelers overcome adversity to beat the Chargers?
In this edition of “5 Steelers to Watch” Christina Rivers steps in for Joe Kuzma and selects those players every fan should keep an eye on as the Pittsburgh Steelers go on the road to face the Los Angeles Chargers.
With the Pittsburgh Steelers fighting to stay in contention, they find themselves on the road against the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday night. Despite a lengthy list of injuries, the Steelers (1-4) will be going head-to-head against the Chargers team that is only 2-3 and lost last week to the Denver Broncos (1-4). The Chargers’ two wins came against the Indianapolis Colts and the Miami Dolphins, so they’ve experienced some frustrations of their own. With that in mind, let’s look at five Steelers players that fans will want to keep an eye on during Sunday’s competition.
Devlin Hodges
This should be an obvious “player to watch” as Sunday will be Hodges’ first NFL start. From undrafted rookie to starting quarterback, no one could have predicted that the champion duck-caller would be the Steelers’ next signal-caller. With the injury to Mason Rudolph forcing Hodges into last week’s game, he looked collected and poised running the offense. Add a week of practice with the first-team offense (minus a couple of players due to injury in Jaylen Samuels and James Washington) and Hodges should be ready to make a statement in Hollywood fashion against the Chargers.
“He is an exciting kid. He’s motivated. He has a lot of confidence. That is what you like to see in a quarterback… He is cool as hell too.” – Steelers center Maurkice Pouncey
Benny Snell
With Samuels sidelined, it will be Snell that will be asked to step up his game alongside James Conner on Sunday. Snell has had limited snaps since the preseason, but he has earned the confidence of his teammate in the offensive backfield. “Up to this point, I’ve been prepared by James (Conner) and Jaylen (Samuels),” Snell said this week. “I try to fill the role as much as I can.” While Conner will likely be asked to take the role of the lead back, Snell may factor into the Steelers’ offensive game plan in a big way this week after tape showed the Chargers allowed the Denver Broncos to run the ball on them, a lot, in a Week 5 loss for Los Angeles.
“Benny is more than capable… He has a great resume. He has been practicing hard.” – Steelers running back James Conner
Cam Heyward
After coming back from injury himself, Heyward was one player that didn’t mind that things got a bit chippy in practice this week. “It’s the way I like to practice,” Heyward reportedly told The Athletic. “I hold people up to that account.” In other words, Heyward is fired up and ready to feast on Sunday, and he wants his teammates to do so as well. As the only healthy Captain of the team (not counting Tyler Matakevich who has been subbed in due to injuries to Ben Roethlisberger and Roosevelt Nix), it’s refreshing to see a veteran Steelers player asking his teammates to be accountable.
Heyward and the defensive line should be able to do well against a Chargers offense that saw Philip Rivers end the game against the Broncos with a 32.0 quarterback rating, throw two interceptions, and have a 4.4 yards-per-attempt average in the passing game. Denver didn’t grab any sacks, but the Chargers are still trying to rotate personnel along their offensive line due to injuries. Forrest Lamp went from left guard to center. They could not create running lanes and with Rivers playing poorly (yes, there were drops from receivers), the Steelers defense has the potential to not only harass the veteran quarterback but force him to make mistakes when he tries to get the ball out quickly.
JuJu Smith-Schuster
Fans were elated to see Smith-Schuster beat Marlon Humphreys last week to grab a nice touchdown on a rocket of a pass from Mason Rudolph. At the end of the game, the new No. 1 receiver for Pittsburgh was being dogged on social media for not being able to hang onto a ball he’d caught when Humphreys literally punched it out during the overtime period. The fumble wasn’t what cost the Steelers the win. It just added insult to the injury inflicted by poor play-calling early in the game, a wasted time out before the first half (ask Brian Roach about that time out), and even officials that blew calls or just made some up.
As fun and loose as Smith-Schuster appears, the kid is a straight-up baller who takes the game seriously (even if he thinks it’s fun to play, too) and will be looking for redemption. That makes him dangerous, in a good way. Watch for him to make an early impact in how the offense runs with Hodges under center.
The Steelers offensive line
Okay, technically this isn’t the fifth-player to watch, but five players to watch rolled into one. After the nastiness of practice, the offensive line was really fired up. Imagine David DeCastro and Maurkice Pouncey deciding they’re going to tag-team you for 60 minutes. Yes, you. Just an individual person. And because they’re steaming under the collar. Then add the normally true professional Ramon Foster. Toss in Alejandro Villanueva and Matt Feiler.
Now throw yourself into the middle of a Chargers defensive interior who was shredded by the Broncos’ run game, allowing Phillip Lindsay to run like he was making a commercial for athletic shoes, and look at those guys in black and gold you have to face next. Lindsay wasn’t the only benefactor last week of poor play by the Chargers’ defensive interior. Royce Freeman racked up 61 yards on 13 carries. And the Broncos offensive line isn’t exactly held to the high standard that Pittsburgh’s is.
Pittsburgh’s offensive line is tired of being called-out and questioned, and if their attitudes are any indication after practice (it wasn’t pretty) then expect them to be getting into the second level, pushing opponents around, opening plenty of running lanes, and giving their quarterback the time he needs to execute the game plan – even if they have to get down in the dirt and sweat to do it.
