GRADING THE STEELERS’
EPIC 17-10 WIN OVER THE PATRIOTS IN WEEK 15
The Steelers has
their collective backs to the wall and desperately needed a win over the New England
Patriots. After three straight losses and the Ravens win
over Tampa earlier, the Steelers were in grave dangerous falling out of the
playoff race.
Despite my less than prestigious BTSC teaching certificate,
I have to issue the necessary disclaimer. You know the story; of course, I’m
not a football coach, or a teacher, but I play one in blogs and podcasts. All week,
I found myself noticing just how equal the two teams actually are and that
shows in their respective records. And then I realized that these teams both
usually battle fiercely in tight contests. Then the game happened and judgments
followed.
Grading games is an extremely difficult and somewhat
thankless task. While the coaches’ grades, of course, are what count the most,
the media and fans can’t help but evaluate as well.
So let’s take a look at my early perceptions
OFFENSE: A-
Ben Roethlisberger wasn’t
awesome, but he was great when he needed to be. 22/34 for 235 yards with 2 TDs
and 2 picks thrown isn’t an amazing line, but two key third-down conversions on
the game’s last drive set up a very crucial field goal. Big Ben found eight
different receivers, none with more than four catches and 65 yards (James
Washington). Each of those receivers came up big for the
Steelers. Vanimal (Vance
McDonald) and AB (Antonio Brown)
scored touchdowns, while JuJu
Smith-Schuster, Eli Rogers and
Washington extended drives with huge grabs.
James Conner’s
absence was glaring last week. This time aro7nd, the rushing attack shined
bright. Stevan Ridley’s
16 yards on a mere three carries were in big spots, while Samuels stole
the show with 172 total yards. The rookie had 142 yards and averaged over 7.0
ypc. The offensive line game up two early sacks, but they protected Ben well
and aided Samuels greatly.
DEFENSE: A
Despite a few lapses, the defense was stellar on this day.
The defensive line continued to play well with Cam Heyward, Javon
Hargrave and Stephon Tuitt shutting
down the Patriot running game. The linebacking crew was solid. Maybe Jim
Herrman’s presence was bigger than originally expected. T.J. Watt registered
a sack and only three tackles, but his pressure of Tom Brady all
day forced the legend into mistakes. One of those mistakes was a pivotal
interception that Joe Haden miraculously
pulled in. Haden and the entire secondary came up big and limited Julian
Edelman, Josh Gordon and Rob
Gronkowski from inflicting too much pain.
SPECIAL TEAMS: C
Jordan Berry fell
back to earth, the return game was decent and penalties were less of an issue.
However, Chris Boswell’s
short miss could have been costly and remains to be a major concern. Boswell
redemption kick was huge though.
OVERALL GRADE: A
They beat the Patriots. Enough said.
VALEDICTORIAN: Jaylen Samuels
HONOR ROLL: Joe Haden, T.J. Watt, David
DeCastro, Mike Tomlin...Oh hell, Everybody.
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