Steelers Week 14 Reaction

 Well that was a pretty boring one! I have to say, there's been Steeler blowout wins this season too but none felt as easy as this one. Contributing to the unwatchability was no George Pickens who was out with a hamstring injury making the offense run pretty bland. Either way, sometimes you need a nice boring Steelers win, they can't all be cardiac events. Lets get into it!

Famous Jameis 

Ok due to circumstances such as playing the Steelers and then playing on prime time and then playing the Steelers again, I have now watched 3 straight weeks of Jameis Winston, and I am over it. This one wasn't the full Jameis experience we got last week, but it was pretty close to it. The Steelers strategy without Pickens in this one seemed to be just don't make mistakes and let the Browns lose it for you. It worked like a charm. After the Steelers offense struggled in the first quarter, Jameis Winston made a brilliant pass on the move and across his body, 30 yards down field for a TD to Jerry Jeudy. If you had never seen a Jameis Winston game before you'd think "oh boy, we're in for a long one." But the other shoe always seems to drop with Jameis. With the Steelers offense not being able to muster anything more than a field goal in the first quarter, Winston helped them out by opening the second quarter with an interception. Side note, the pick was thrown to 6'4, 310 lbs Keeanu Benton, it's always a joy to watch the big guys make skill plays. The Steelers went on to score a TD in the ensuing drive to take a lead that they would never relinquish. From that point on, Jameis played straight up poorly. The Steelers pass rush, particularly Alex Highsmith was up in his face the entire game giving him no time to make decisions. The Steelers got rolling in the second half and got up 27-7 before Winston led a drive down the field to make the game seem interesting on paper. The comeback was short lived as even though the Browns defense got the ball back quickly, Winston threw another interception to all but ice the game. 

That's it for me I am not watching any more Winston games! It is a lot of fun because you never know what you're going to get, but we see here again despite all the talent and leadership, Winston is just a turnover machine. For all the good things he brings, he always seems to have a massive mistake or two that ruins his team's hope of winning. Famous Jameis, it was fun while it lasted, I am now over it. 

Jaylen Warren Needs More Snaps

Weird season from Jaylen Warren. Long time followers of this blog will see that I predicted he'd take over as RB1 as the season went on. Injuries stacked up early and strong play from Najee Harris have reduced Warren's role to special situations only. Slowly though, Warren's play has gotten back up to what we've come to expect from him and yesterday I think he had the first real Jaylen Warren game of his season. In just 9 carries Warren had 47 yards and that doesn't begin to recognize how impressive his game was. Warren seems to never go down on first contact, if you think he has a gain of 3 he probably is going to fight for a gain of 6. Warren hits holes harder and faster than Najee and once he's loose, he breaks tackles as well or better than Najee. The offense didn't get going for the Steelers until the second quarter when they started giving Warren the ball. This isn't a hate on Najee post either, Harris was good too and gets better as games go on with his big bruising style, but Warren's play was impressive and showed me that he needs to be used more. With the schedule getting tough to end the season, I hope to see a fully healthy Warren split the duties with Harris in the backfield. The two offer a great 1-2 punch that can wear out defenses and keep our defense fresh for more of the game.

Bow Down to Bos

I am grasping at straws, this game was just so uneventful lol. However, we power through because the Steelers won and I am excited about that none the less. A theme emerging especially in the AFC North this year has been kicker's struggling. You'll find me mentioning in multiple posts this season the struggles of former GOAT Justin Tucker, today I have a new target. This game could have looked a lot different had Browns Kicker Dustin Hopkins made his 2 FG attempts. Both were relatively easy looks set up by good drives by the Browns. Especially coming out of halftime, the Browns marched down the field and looked to take some momentum back only to miss a FG from their 20 yard line deflating their hopes. Meanwhile on the Steelers side, Boswell was a perfect 2/2 including a 54 yarder. It's a great feeling knowing the Steelers have a kicker so reliable that anywhere from the 38 yard line in is a likely 3 points. I have now done the math, non-Boswell AFC North kickers are now kicking a combined 69% on field goals this year. Boswell is a cool 36/39 for 92%. I can say too I remember 1 kick that was blocked against the Bengals and 1 kick that was a long shot 60+ yard attempt at the end of a half early in the season. Bos has been automatic, other kickers in the divisions have not and frankly it's a big reason why the Steelers hold a 2 game divisional lead this year. 

Russ Does his Job

It's always hard to appreciate conservative QB play in a regular game, but when your team is going against Jameis Winston, you learn to love it. Like I said off the top of this one, this game was all about playing smart and conservative and letting the Browns make all the mistakes. Wilson played this role beautifully missing his primary target in George Pickens. His stat-line doesn't look eye-popping, 158 yards on 15/26 with 2 TDs and no interceptions, but his play was exactly what the Steelers needed. Multiple times this game Wilson wisely threw the ball away to avoid a sack or a turnover. He had a couple of scrambles for much needed gains on the ground. Wilson took his shots, but at opportune moments when he saw the defense was playing softer coverage, never forcing up a deep ball into a double team. At the end of the game, on 3rd down with Garrett bearing down on him, Wilson took a sack rather than throwing the ball away this time to keep the clock running keeping a comeback at bay. Overall, Wilson just played a smart QB game. On a Steelers team with a defense as talented and strong at making plays as it is, that's all Russ ever needs to be. Against a Browns team prone to turnovers, it was way more than enough. 

Quick Shout out to Scottie Miller 

Scott Miller? Scottie? Who the heck is this guy? Before yesterday, I didn't know either, but with Pickens out he was called up from the practice squad and he ended up with a pretty nice game. Miller wasn't used a ton but Wilson found him for 3 big catches including a huge one to convert a first down in the 4th quarter by barely getting his feet down in bounds on the sideline. It's unlikely that Miller will get much playing time going forward when the team is healthy, but he definitely stepped up yesterday when his number was called and he deserves a little shout out here. 

Ok that's it! Short one for a Steelers react post, usually I have more takeaways. Fact is, that was just a better team beating a worse team from start to finish. I am glad the Steelers took this one seriously because they are approaching a stretch where they play 3 games in 10 days against the Eagles, Ravens and Chiefs. Thank schedule makers. The Steelers are sitting in a good spot should they only take 1/3 of those games they can still win the division, but this is a Steelers biased blog so we're going to predict a 3-0 sweep and taking over the 1 seed in the NFL! Go Steelers!