Predictable Outcome In New England

Raise your hand if you thought the Steelers were going to win this game before kickoff even happened.  Anyone? Anyone?  If you’re raising your hand right now, you’re either an extreme optimist or a liar. 

The truth is, the Steelers were never going to win this game. They never beat the Patriots, especially on the road, they never beat Brady and the Patriots rarely falter when they come out of a scandal and are anxious to show the world how good they are.  Add in the fact that the defending Super Bowl champ typically wins the Thursday opener and this smelled of trouble from the minute the schedule makers handed this game to the Steelers. 

I’m ok with that. I’m ok with the loss.  I’m actually pretty happy with the offense too.  They moved the ball relatively well. Big Ben made some tremendous throws, Antonio Brown was Antonio Brown, with another massive game (9 catches, 133 yards, 1 TD), DeAngelo Williams was very impressive, gaining 127 yards on the ground and the offensive line played fairly well too.  So the notion this offense can move the ball was confirmed this evening.  The issue that arose was clock management at the end of each half as well as the inability to put points on the board with two missed field goals and the inability to score from the one yard line.  Those issues should resolve themselves however. 

While I’m ok with the offensive performance, I’m not pleased with the defense, in particular the secondary. Tom Brady did what he always does, torch the defense but I don’t think it’s just Brady that can do that against this squad. By the end of the year, everyone will be very familiar with William Gay, we all saw the back of his jersey many times.  Additionally, it’s no secret that Rob Gronkowski is the best tight end in football but it must be to the black and gold. How many times did they leave him completely open? The coverage on him was unacceptable.  The pass rush was limited, gaining only two sacks and four quarterback hits and once again the team failed to gain a turnover. 

Conspicuously awful was Jarvis Jones. He had one tackle. It’s time to wonder, is time running out on the former first round pick being anything worthwhile?  It’s only one game in to his third year but one must begin to ask the question.

One must also question why Mike Tomlin continues to put Antonio Brown back to return punts? It’s absolutely moronic to have the best receiver in the NFL returning punts, which is arguably the most dangerous thing to do in sports.  I’d rather put Dri Archer back there and have him fair catch every punt all year long than risk an injury to AB.  It’s mind boggling to think that Tomlin is willing to take that risk, it’s very interesting.

Also interesting is the fact the Steelers had head set problems where they picked up the Patriot radio broadcast. It’s completely unacceptable and it’s sad to say, it needs to be investigated. You just can’t trust the Patriots in any facet of the game.

The headsets, however, were not the reason for the outcome and all in all it was a loss, an expected loss at that and just like we could have predicted the loss, we could have predicted the offense would play well and the defense would falter.  It’s now time for the black and gold to take a few days off, rest up and move on to San Francisco.