Monday Night Football to open the season: who can complain?

The Steelers head to D.C. to take on the Redskins, and the team is far from the complete unit we were hoping it would be.

What can we expect from this first game, and what should we look for?

Let’s get to it Nation!

Josh Norman vs. Antonio Brown

This is probably the biggest single one-on-one matchup in this game.

Josh Norman is one of the top corners in the league.

While the battle between these two will not necessarily be the battle that decides the game, it will be fun to watch. AB has made a lot of top corners look ineffective (remember Mr. “Nobody has caught a touchdown on me in forever”, Chris Harris, Jr.?) The important thing here will be that if Norman can’t handle AB one on one, then that means the Redskins will have to give him some help, and that help means less attention paid to Markus Wheaton, Eli Rogers and Sammie Coates.

And that could be the factor that gives the Steelers the victory.

Regardless of if Norman gets help, or is left to his own skills, I think AB starts the season off with a bang – 10 catches for 125 and a TD.

Alejandro Villanueva vs. Ryan Kerrigan

I don’t know much about Ryan Kerrigan, but I know he’s quick, and quick guys can give Alejandro trouble. If Kerrigan can cause problems for Big Al, we’ll have to give him some help on that side, and that may limit us somewhat. As long as Al can keep in front of him and let his speed run him out of the play that should give Ben time enough to get the ball out.

Watch for some inside runs against him if he starts to push the edge a bit, letting DeAngelo cut underneath him, and take advantage of the gap.

I am much less worried about Marcus Giblert, if his elbow his healthy, and he says it is, then he has proven to be one of, if not the best right tackle in the game in the last year, and I don’t expect Preston Smith or whomever else they trot out there to be able to beat him.

Steelers Interior D-Line vs. Redskins O-Line

I don’t know what to expect out of our outside guys.

Deebo is, well, Deebo. I expect that he’ll make a splash play in the game at some point, but he’s just one guy.

I have no idea what to expect out of Jarvis, Moats and Chickillo at this point, but I think all 4 of our outside guys will benefit from a solid effort by our interior D-Line of Cam Heyward, Stephon Tuitt and Javon Hargrave. If we can force the Redskins tackles to operate without help from the inside, then maybe Deebo and the boys will make some noise in this game.

In all honesty, I think we have an extreme advantage here.

Cam is playing at the top of his game, and as I might have indicated in other posts, Stephon Tuitt is about to have a huge year. Add in a healthy slice of an extremely athletic, and powerful rookie looking to make a statement, and I think we might see pressure coming from the interior of the line like we haven’t seen in a long time.

If that happens, and Kirk Cousins can’t step up in the pocket and make throws, it will also make our secondary look that much better.

DeSean Jackson and Peirre Garcon vs. Steelers Secondary

This is trouble waiting to happen.

If we can’t get pressure on Kirk Cousins, it’s likely that Jackson and Garcon will find ways to get open in the Steelers secondary.

Hopefully Will Gay will be able to make a play or two on the ball and we can force a few turnovers, but there is no doubt that the Redskins receivers can test our secondary.

Jordan Reed vs Whomever covers him

I don’t know who is going to be the unfortunate person who has to cover Jordan Reed, probably it will be a group effort. Ryan Shazier, Lawrence Timmons, Sean Davis, Mike Mitchell, Robert Golden… who knows!

Whomever it is will have their hands full, because Reed and Cousins have a connection. Reed all on his own is a handful, and more.

This is what Coach Tomlin had to say about Reed in his weekly press conference:

“Jordan Reed, their tight end, is a great interior possession guy. He’s got great rapport and timing with Cousins and is highlighted big-time on third down, but is highlighted on just any down. He works interior of the field and is adept at doing it. He’s a big match-up issue for safeties, he’s an athleticism match-up issue for linebackers.”

Tomlin went on to say that covering Reed is going to involve multiple personnel and schematic approaches. It’s not going to be an easy task and we all know we’ve had our issues with athletic tight ends, or even tight ends period. Hopefully this game will show that we’ve figured out a way to manage this.

Conclusion

The Redskins, when you start to look a little deeper, are better than you think. Vernon Davis, Jordan Reed, Jackson, Garcon, and Cousins make a potentially potent offense.

While it’s true they’ve shown almost no running game through the preseason, you know they are going to try to run the ball at least enough to keep our line honest. I don’t expect them to be able to run it, but Hargrave is still a rookie, and he is going to make some mistakes, so it’s possible they could have limited success.

The truth is that I expect the Redskins to throw the ball… a lot. 

That will put extreme pressure on the secondary and linebackers.

I expect Shazier to be all over the place, and maybe some of that speed will pay off.

Bottom line is that we are on the road, and we are still figuring things out, but we are a scary team too, and despite how much firepower the Redskins may have, even without Bell and Bryant, we have more. I think Ben throws for over 300 yards, and possibly 4 touchdowns. DeAngelo might not break 100 yards, but I think he runs effectively. I think Markus Wheaton will make the Redskins pay for paying too much attention to AB. Sammie Coates will have one big play at least, and will attract some attention and Eli Rogers will show that he belongs.

It may not be as easy as we would all like, but I do think we come out of Washington 1-0, beating the Skins 42-27.

See you on the other side Nation!