Post Game Thoughts – preseason Game 1 – Lions vs. Steelers

Okay Nation – first and foremost, understand what a preseason game is.  Credit where credit is due, Aaron Smith (@Aaron_Smith_26) posted it most eloquently on twitter after the game:

Good god, already seeing hot Steelers takes. You are watching a practice with fancy clothing right now. Just stop.

— Aaron Smith (@Aaron_Smith_26) August 13, 2016

Let’s start off by remembering that this game featured none of the following players: Antonio Brown, Le’veon Bell, DeAngelo Williams, Ben Roethlisberger, Cameron Heyward and others.  I could be wrong, but I don’t remember seeing Stephon Tuitt in there either.  That is almost the entire set of playmakers on offense, and two of the keys on defense.

Preseason is, and should be, a time to examine the players you aren’t sure of and get the starters a few sets of snaps so they get re-acclimated.  It’s a time for young guys to step up and win a helmet, or at least a spot on the 53, and for others to show they are worth hanging on to, even if it is on the practice squad.  It’s not the “real deal” and the while, of course, we all want to see a victory, it’s the knowledge that the coaches get, and the experience that the young guys get that is the real benefit of preseason games.

I know you all know that.  After reading so many tweets and comments on posts that claim we’re all doomed, I felt it was worth emphasizing. Okay, now on to what I saw Friday night.

The Good

Ricardo Mathews

Ricardo Mathews made my night in many ways.  The guy only had 1 tackle, but he pushed the pocket, pressured, and in one preseason game made more of a presence of himself than Cam Thomas did in two full seasons.  Seriously, I laughed out loud at some of the tweets that were being sent about how strange it was to see 96 making plays.

Doran Grant

He had moments.  The pick-six was a gift, and really he should go thank Ricardo Mathews for that one, because it was his pressure that apparently confused the Lion’s quarterback so much that he momentarily thought Grant was his receiver (I mean, c’mon, that pass was directed at who in silver and blue?).  Regardless of the pick-six, Grant had a better than good night. Yes, he blitzed and it ended up giving up an easy TD to the Lions, but I’m not sure if that was on Grant, or somebody else.  Still, he was decent in coverage for the most part, and made plays, and that’s what we need from the secondary.

Daryl Richardson

He has some jets doesn’t he?  Let’s not go nuts – he’s not going to be anything more than our 3^rd string guy, if that, but he is pushing Fitzgerald Toussaint a bit, and competition is good, as Mike Tomlin would say “Iron sharpening Iron”.  He provided some spark in the running game when he was in, and certainly made a case for why he should be in the conversation.

Eli Rogers

It’s hard to tell exactly how good Rogers can be, but he caught the pass that was tossed his way, and had a nice little gain on an end around.  I would have liked to have seen more, but the offense was not a high point during the first part of the game.

L.J. Fort

He made some plays as well, and brought the wood on a couple nice pops.  Again, I think he made a case that he deserves some consideration for more snaps, and that simply means he gets put into the conversation for a spot on the roster.

Jordan Berry

The much maligned Steelers punter boomed the ball.  With a long of 61 yards, and an average of 59.7 he looked like he was a man taking charge of his position.  Surprised the heck out of me!

James Harrison

@jharrison9292 looks ready for the regular season! #Steelers #SteelersCamp pic.twitter.com/zVBdTATr8w

— 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗲𝗹 𝗖𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗨𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 (@steelcityundrgr) August 13, 2016

Vintage Deebo.  Strip sack, fumble, Steelers ball.  I’m glad he sat the rest of the game.

The Bad

Really, I don’t know that I can single any one player out as “bad”.  Most of the individuals were “meh” if they weren’t good, and the “meh” section is next.  There were really only two players who stand out as “bad” I guess

Will Monday

His first punt prompted multiple tweets that stated “Will Monday ends the punting competition.”  His average of 46.5 was well off Jordan Berry’s, and his net average was only 36.3.  That won’t make anyone believe that a competition is actually occurring.

Sammie Coates

Two fumbles, dropped balls.  It was a tough night for Sammie.  Hopefully, it’s something he’ll build from.  It wasn’t Ben throwing him the ball, and look, I don’t care what anyone says, when Ben is playing he elevates everyone’s game.  Landry just doesn’t, and that’s ok, he’s a backup, and that’s what his job is, to be a backup.  He’s serviceable, but he’s not Ben.  Hopefully, as a friend of mine said on Facebook, they duct tape a ball to his hands and make him carry it around all week.  He’ll get better.

The Offense

Look, it’s not all Landry Jones’ fault.  Dropped passes, fumbles, and some poorly timed penalties all lead to what was, at best, an anemic performance by the first group (not first string, just the first group of guys trotted out there).  They were bad.  They went 3 and out, they couldn’t convert on 3^rd down, they looked out of sync.  The best that can be said is that they provided a lot of fuel for the coaches to say “We need to work on this”.

The pass from Jones to Hey-Bey was nice, and it showed that there is potential there, but overall, the performance wasn’t good.

3^rd Down Defense

The funny thing is we looked pretty darn good on 1^st and 2^nd downs, but we could not get off the field on third down.  It’s really hard to read into this, because without some of the starters on the D-Line in, no Dupree, and only a sprinkling of Deebo, well, it’s hard to judge.  Still, they allowed a lot of third down conversions, and that needs to change.

The Ugly

There was more “Meh” than I would have liked.  What’s “Meh”?  Well, it’s “Meh”.  I mean, it’s not good, it’s not bad, it’s not impressive, or unimpressive, it’s just…well…”meh”.

Sean Davis

He had a tough night, but he also made some nice plays.  I liked that he didn’t get his head down, and when he had a chance to break up that screen pass, he did.  I thought it was a good chance to grow for the rookie.  Overall, it was “meh”.

Dustin Vaughan

The number of references to “Vaughan is just a bit outside” that got tweeted were epic.  I’ve never seen so many baseball references during a football game.  Charlie Sheen probably got a royalty check.  Vaughan has a gun, he showed some escapability, but man, his accuracy, was not good.

Anthony Chickillo

He pushed the edge, a little.  He had some pressure, but overall, he didn’t make his presence felt in any real way.  I expected more.  I’m hopeful that the ankle injury isn’t a problem, because I have high hopes for this guy.

The game overall was exactly what it was supposed to be.  I tweeted that the player of the game was Tomlin, because he kept Ben, AB, Le’veon and DeAngelo healthy.  We don’t need to win preseason games.  We need to use them to learn what we have and how best to utilize it, and from that aspect, I think this was a successful game.  I didn’t mention Tyler Matakevich, because he didn’t really get much time until late in the game.  But there was one play where you could watch him do what he does, diagnose and snuff out a play.  I’m hoping he can be coached up, and we see him more in the upcoming games.

Next up – Philadelphia!