Pittsburgh Steelers: Getting ‘Gronked
By Harv Aronson
On a night where they were without two huge offensive stars, the Pittsburgh Steelers opened their 2015 season with a loss to the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots 28-21.
Despite not having Le’Veon Bell and Martavis Bryant, it was Pittsburgh’s defense that could not hold up their end of the bargain and contain Tom Brady, Rob Grownkowski, Julian Edelman, and the rest of New England’s potent offense.
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After their performance last Thursday night, the Steelers offense did about as well as can be expected without their starting running back and the #2 receiver. With DeAngelo Williams filling in, the former Carolina Panther ran roughshod over New England’s defense and if not for two missed Josh Scobee field goals and a blown red zone opportunity from the one yard line, the outcome of the game may have been different.
For Steelers fans disappointed in this opening loss, bear in mind that for one, the Steelers were facing the adversity of playing in a hostile environment in front of fans who were pumped up not just because they were seeing their champions playing in a meaningful game for the first time this season, but were also jacked up because of the whole Tom Brady “inflate-gate” fiasco. As if Bill Belichick and his Patriots are under enough controversy at the moment, in Thursday’s game, all the sudden the Steelers coaches had the New England radio broadcast interrupting their headsets. Coincidence? Or more to it that meets the eye? Things that make you go hmmm…
Controversy aside and more importantly however, is that the Steelers were facing the best team in the league for the moment. There is no shame in losing to the Patriots and it was a game that could have been won by Pittsburgh had they found a way to defend a little better.
Credit goes to the Patriots for displaying some outstanding talent offensively, but for Pittsburgh they have things to work at on the defensive side of the ball. As noted by Al Michaels and Chris Collinsworth, too many times Steelers defenders were out of position or mis-played formations set forth by the New England offense. Improvements to that will come as the season continues and Pittsburgh while taking the loss, probably got their most difficult game out of the way.
“We were listening to the Patriots radio broadcast for the majority of the first half. On our headsets” Mike Tomlin
What New England got accomplished last Thursday night was a preview for the remaining teams on their schedule for what to expect in 2015. Tom Brady appeared to be in mid-season form as did his weapons to his left and right. With rookies forced to start on the Patriots’ offensive line, it may have been thought that Pittsburgh could take advantage but they did not. Dion Lewis, formerly of the University of Pittsburgh had his way on the ground, and Brady used finesse passing to tear up the Steelers secondary.
Pittsburgh simply had no answer for the combination of Brady/Gronkowski/Edelman. For new Pittsburgh placekicker Josh Scobee, his Steelers career could not have gotten off to a more embarrassing start. By missing two field goals from 44 and 46 yards, Scobee became the first Pittsburgh kicker to miss two field goals in the same game since 1970.
Pittsburgh Steelers
There is consideration that had he missed his next two attempts that he did in fact make, Scobee might be an ex-Steeler today. Now having nine days off before they play again, had the ex-Jaguars kicker missed those two 3-pointers, Mike Tomlin would have had time to bring in yet another kicker, perhaps Jay Feeley who lost the job to Scobee.
As the Steelers defense stumbled, a few players did have shining moments. Among those players making some key plays were Will Allen, rookie Bud Dupree, Ryan Shazier, and Mike Mitchell. The absence of Troy Polamalu and Ike Taylor was felt a bit despite those players’ best days were behind them when they last played.
Keith Butler and his unit will have to forge ahead and discover who the players are that will make big plays this season. Last Thursday night, big plays were few and far between. Jordan Berry did have a solid night punting in his Steelers debut.
The positives to take from this loss are for the most part on offense. Antonio Brown was … well, Antonio Brown. The star receiver picked up where he left off last season without missing a beat. Heath Miller looked great in doing what he does.
But the star of the offense was DeAngelo Williams and his 127 yards rushing with a 6.0 yards-per-carry average. Darrius Heyward-Bey who did not play well in 2014 made a nice rebound in New England, although he had a sure touchdown grab nullified when he allowed his foot to barely slip onto the out of bounds line in the end zone. But Heyward-Bey did a fine job filling in for Martavis Bryant.
The Steelers offense produced. No argument there. Ben Roethlisberger totaled 351 yards passing and a 95.4 rating. He did get sacked three times and had a slight twist of an ankle from which he made a quick recovery. Outside of having penalty flags thrown his way, Cody Wallace held up fine in replacing Maurkice Pouncey and the rest of the line held their own and then some in helping Big Ben move the ball up and down the field.
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Looking ahead, Mike Tomlin would have liked to open the season with a victory especially against such a high-caliber opponent. But it wasn’t to be and the team moves on. In his post-game press conference, Tomlin began with the following opening statement:
“Really tough game versus a good team in a hostile environment. I thought it was a little bit closer than maybe the score might have indicated there. We have to finish a few instances better. We have to finish drives better offensively. We have to finish drives better defensively. Sometimes they go down the field, we have to be able to stand up in the red zone when the field gets short and make them settle for three. Little things like that are the difference in the outcome of games like that.
Obviously we had a turnover there. We have to be better; we will. I thought we got a little frazzled at times from a communication standpoint when they changed the pace. We have to be better than that. Some of the young people have to grow up in a hurry. But largely I just think it comes down to finishing and making plays and situational football.
They were a little better on third-down than we were, they were a little bit better in the red zone than we were. That’s the outcome. That’s the case when you play good people. You have to play good situational ball. They were better than we were tonight. On the injury front, Sean Spence has a hamstring and Will Allen is being evaluated for a potential concussion, but I don’t have any other information on that.”
For the rest of Tomlin’s press conference and comments from other players, those have been published on the Steelers’ official website. Another positive from the game is that Pittsburgh came away with no serious injuries and will have until September 20 to prepare for their home opener against the San Francisco 49ers who are sporting a new head coach and trying to play despite many offseason distractions and turmoil.
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