Steelers Week 3: Winners and Losers
While defense was the story of week two, there seemed to be spark of confidence coming from that side of the ball Monday night against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The Pittsburgh Steelers had their first win of the 2018 season after forcing Bucs QB Ryan Fitzpatrick to throw three interceptions. Here are my week 3 winners and losers from the Steelers first victory this year.
Winners
Ben Roethlisberger
Apart from a bad interception early and a careless fumble that could have been costly in the second half, Ben was nearly perfect. He led the team to 30 first-half points and finished 30 of 38 for 353 yards with 3 TD and 1 INT.
Though the offense completely and inexplicably stalled in the second half, Ben played a large role in helping secure the first win for the Steelers this season.
JuJu Smith- Schuster
If you just started watching football this year, you would think that JuJu was outplaying the great Antonio Brown – and you wouldn’t be wrong. JuJu is on pace for a whopping 144 receptions and nearly 1900 yards.
He has been Roethlisberger’s go-to guy thus far and he showed up in a big way Monday night vs the Buccaneers – hauling in 9 of 11 targets for 119 yards.
Vance McDonald
Vance is finally healthy, and it shows. Though he only received four looks from Big Ben, he could not have been more efficient with his opportunities. McDonald racked up 112 yards and a touchdown on just 4 catches. Oh, and he leveled Chris Conte with the stiff-arm-of-the-year on his 75-yard touchdown grab.
Ryan Switzer
Switzer didn’t make the biggest impact on offense, but he certainly made the most of his limited touches. Switzer caught all 3 of his targets (albeit for just 9 yards), but also reeled in a touchdown.
However, the most impressive play of the night for Switzer was fielding a booming, 64-yard punt from Bryan Anger, catching it cleanly, and turning it up the field for a 16-yard gain late in the fourth quarter.
Joe Haden
The Steelers secondary has been anything but good. However, Joe Haden was a lone bright spot in a mess at outside cornerback. Artie Burns and Coty Sensabaugh were down-right awful – giving up a near 200 yards and 2 touchdowns combined.
Though Haden did give up a short touchdown, he was able to hold his man to just 3 catches on 8 targets for merely 23 yards. The Steelers defensive success (or any they could hope to have, at least) depends a lot on Haden’s health.
Losers
Artie Burns/Coty Sensabaugh
Coty Sensabaugh got the nod to start opposite Joe Haden this week but was less than spectacular. Even worse, Artie Burns came off the bench and still managed to surrender over 100 yards and a touchdown, according to Pro Football Focus.
The Steelers have absolutely no answer at cornerback. They may as well promote Brian Allen to the active roster and start him against the Ravens this week because Burns and Sensabaugh have looked terrible so far.
Mike Tomlin
I didn’t have a problem with the play calling Monday night. However, I do have a problem with the way Mike Tomlin has been handling discipline. Anyone that watches football can see that the Steelers are one of the most undisciplined teams in the league. They have committed 12 penalties in each of the first three weeks.
The bone-headed personal fouls and unsportsmanlike conducts need to stop, and it needs to start with coach Tomlin. The Steelers need to shape up if they want to be anything close to contenders this year.
Al Villanueva/Matt Feiler
The Steelers offensive line is typically one of the strongest positional groups on the team, but the tackles struggled on Monday night football. Villanueva and Feiler both had trouble creating space for James Conner on the ground and failed to keep Ben upright against the pass. The Steelers were missing the veteran presences of David DeCastro and Marcus Gilbert in this one.
