Steelers Week 1 Reaction

 Hi readers! I said last week that I would try to do a reaction article after the Steelers games. I'm still not sure what these are going to look like so bear with me here but I plan on having fun doing them! Football and sports to me right now are still just my favorite hobby. I considered watching the game diligently and taking notes to write a comprehensive article today, but I thought to myself: why? I wanted to have fun watching the game, and I certainly did! I watch the Steelers pretty diligently anyway. Alright, enough rambling time to get to it! 

What a week 1! I won't get in to the other games as I'll save that for a different article (gotta spread the love). The Steelers though, looked awesome! I have seen a lot of complaining online about the lack of touchdowns but I think we're underrating how much better the new offense looked. This was a ridiculously unlucky game for the Steelers from an officiating standpoint. The pass interference call on George Pickens in the first half would have resulted in a touchdown. It was maybe the right call but it's really a 50/50 call there, something that could easily go the Steelers way in a different week. TJ Watt had not 1 but 2 sack fumbles called back due to again 50/50 penalties. One of the fumbles, recovered by Watt, was called back and resulted in a Falcons touchdown a couple plays later. If you ran this game script 100 times I would predict the Steelers win by more than 2 scores 50 times at least. Either way, we are complaining about a win, the Steelers just know how to win. 

The offense was much better this season than last. Early in the game Justin Fields, who got the spot start for an injured Russell Wilson, looked a bit shaky. He quickly shook that off and delivered what I thought was a great performance. Early on he wasn't asked to do too much. The Steelers played conservative running the ball mostly on first down. They delivered some pretty good success with the offensive line playing impressively which is a promising sign for the season. As the game went on, Fields was given more of an opportunity to show his skills, and he delivered. Multiple great thrown balls, converting on third down and running where the opportunity presented itself. The numbers don't stand out as electric in this game but I believe they are doing him a disservice. If Fields can continue to not turn the ball over and make solid sound decisions like he did today, the Steelers are going to be a very good team. 

George Pickens deserves his own segment. Obviously I've said here before that I think he can be a star in this league and on Sunday he showed us all why. Pickens is an awesome deep threat, his longest catch of the day went for 40 yards. He has a long frame that he can use in physical contested catches and some of the best hands I've seen on a receiver. The ball almost feels like it is getting absorbed into his hands when he catches it, helping him to make some spectacular looking catches. He was very involved from the kickoff to the end of the game and should have had a touchdown early as well. If Pickens can keep this up and continue to be a true #1 receiver then the Steelers might not be in as rough of a situation at that position as we all thought.

Shout out to the defense as well. This team is going to have a defense that causes PROBLEMS on any given night. I am not going to sit here and pretend I know what's going on in coverage, I am far too casual a fan for that. What I can tell you though is the pass rush looks like it will be one of the best in the league. As I mentioned above, TJ Watt could've had 3 sacks today with 2 fumbles recovered. He is consistently the best football player on the field in any game he's in. I was joking with my friends during the game that TJ is a 1 man top 5 defense, and I think that holds true. The secondary seemed to hold together pretty well too, which is made a lot easier by the Steelers electric pass rush. You can likely count on TJ Watt to make a game changing play every single week, that might seem like hyperbole but seriously he is just that good. 

Overall there's a lot to be excited about! I know I am a homer and maybe I am overreacting to things a bit, but like I said, this is fun for me! I enjoy when the Steelers are good, which the frequently are and I think they have all the ingredients to be a winning team this year. It also helped that every other team in the division had a loss this week with the Browns and Bengals losing in especially embarrassing fashion. The Steelers are back on top of the North lets hope they keep this up!