Steelers Week 4 Reaction

I love the early morning start time for the Euro games! I was done watching this one at 1pm leaving the rest of my Sunday free to do whatever I wished. Apparently that didn't include watching the most consequential Jays game in a decade, but they got it done without my patronage anyway so yay! The Jays winning the division is awesome, it is slightly scary that their reward for that is playing either the Red Sox or Yankees, but the Jays have been better than those teams all season and we can't live in our fears now! I am hyped and will be finding ways to go to the playoffs so please Jays go deep! 

Anyway, we're here to talk Steelers! The Steelers had their most impressive, well rounded game of the year yesterday morning for about 55 minutes. Then just to get our heart rates going they nearly blew it before thankfully holding on for a victory to push the team to 3-1. Just 2 weeks ago 3-1 was the Steelers subreddit's biggest fear, now we're here I wonder how everyone's feeling? I'm feeling goo! Lets recap. 

Jalen Ramsey Cardio

This game actually started off pretty terribly for the Steelers. They got the ball first and on Rodgers' first drop back of the game he was sacked for a loss of 8 yards. The Steelers never recovered and ended up punting the ball on 4th and 13 for a disastrous start to this game. At this point, after Minnesota's defense manhandled the Bengals last week, I was feeling pretty pessimistic about this one. The Vikings get the ball back and immediately start cooking with the run game. This has been a recurring issue in all 3 weeks against the Steelers, their complete inability to stop the run had killed them on defense. After a couple of first downs, Mason got the ball on a running play again but he fumbles! Jalen Ramsey recovers the fumble and takes it all the way back for a TD to get the Steelers out to an early lead, or so we thought. After Ramsey ran 60 yards and did a fake hamstring injury into dance move celebration, the play was called back because Mason grazed the ball while he was lying out of bounds which rules the ball dead negating the entire play from Ramsey. After a nice bit of Cardio the Steelers have to set up again on defense and continue a 0-0 game. The Vikings now energized found Justin Jefferson for a couple of chunk plays but the Steelers came through and held them to a field goal limiting the damage. 

Annoying break for the Vikings, but I was pretty happy with the end of this drive for one reason: they actually stood up on 3rd and long for a change. All season long the defense had actually been really good at getting teams into third and long situations, it was just once they got there the team seemed to fall apart and give up the conversion consistently. This time with the Vikings in the red zone on third and 9, Patrick Queen got through the line and recorded a huge sack. I'll take field goals no problem!

Pass Feeding the Run

After adding a new QB1, new WR1, losing their RB1 and working with a young O-line, it was never going to be surprising if it took this team a while to figure out an identity on offense. In the first 3 weeks the Steelers started off games trying to establish the running game, something they have been successfully winning games with for a few years now. In the first 3 weeks the running game was terrible, forcing the Steelers to pass more at the end of games. In this one you could tell the Steelers wanted to make an effort to get the ball to DK Metcalf early and often, and I think it really opened up the rest of the offense. The second drive they moved DK around to multiple positions on the field. He caught a quick pass up the middle in the slot which he took for 20 yards. He caught a jump ball through a DB out wide for another 15 yards, he caught another one up the middle which he barreled through 5 Vikings to push the ball for a first down. The next drive for the Steelers starting at the 20, Rodgers hit DK on a crossing route and DK just turned on the jets and took it all the way to the house. When Metcalf gets a head of steam he's a genuinely terrifying player to watch, he's so much bigger and faster than eveyrone on the field it looks like he's playing children.  All of the sudden the passing game was a major threat and the Vikings had to set up to try and stop it. 

Jalen Warren was out this game leaving Kenneth Gainwell with most of the ball carrier duties. This should've been a red flag coming into the game considering how horrendous Gainwell had been so far, but with the passing game working he was able to really get it going on the ground. Gainwell ended up running in the first TD of the game. After DK's big catch and run TD, Gainwell was really able to get going and the Steelers were clicking on all cylinders because of it. He ended the game with 99 yards in 19 carries and 2 TDs. I guess you could say he gained well. 

Defense Got It Going

I said week 1 that I was not discouraged by the poor defensive play from the Steelers. This unit has way too much talent to play that poorly every week and eventually they would figure it out. It seems like this week they figured it out! I mentioned earlier but third and longs have been the big issue for the Steelers this year. This game they brought the blitz on third and long and were able to make Wentz uncomfortable, like this defense is set up to do, getting key stops in those situations. I will say the Vikings faced a big blow losing their starting right tackle early in this game going up against TJ Watt on that side, but you can only play the players in front of you and the Steelers took advantage perfectly. 

Bigger than that though is the ability to force turnovers. This team is at its best when the defense is making big splash plays. They can get grinded down with a run game and exposed over the top with big passing plays, but they can equalize all of that when they generate turnovers. The Steelers had 2 takeaways in this one, and it really should've been 4 if not for some extremely lucky breaks for the Vikings on some technicalities. Biggest one of the game came at the start of the second half. The Vikings had the ball to start and came out firing. They got the ball past mid field before the pocket collapsed to sack Carson Wentz. The next play Wentz, under pressure again, tries a short pass that's tipped at the line by TJ Watt, directly into his own hands for an interception ending what could've been the game tying drive. The Steelers end up with a TD pushing their lead to 2 possessions going into the 4th quarter rather than a tie game. 

Late Game Heart Attack

After dominating the Vikings all game, the Steelers were sitting pretty up 24-6 with about 11 minutes left in the game. The Vikings now in desperation mode had to pass, and the Steelers in prevent mode were allowing soft stuff up the middle. The Vikings marched all the way down the field on short passes and scored a TD, getting the 2 point conversion as well to make it 24-14 with a little less than 8 minutes to play. The Steelers are running the football with ease at this point and they manage to get the ball all the way to the 2 yard line chewing up a ton of clock in the process. It's 4th down, but rather than kick a field goal to keep it a 2 possession game the Steelers decide to go for it trying to push it to a 3 possession game. They are unsuccessful which gives the Vikings the ball back still down 10 with 4 minutes to play. 

Then came the play that might've saved the game. Disaster struck when the Steelers completely blew a coverage leaving Jordan Addison wide open down the field with nobody behind him. Wentz hits him in stride and Addison takes off down the sideline. Steelers linebacker Payton Wilson pursued him and managed to just barely take him down at the 1 yard line saving a TD for now. I've never seen a linebacker move so fast, and although this was a huge misstep by the defense, that TD saving tackle forced the Vikings to run 4 additional plays, taking the clock from 3:14 all the way down to 2:09. The Vikings eventually score a TD to make it just a 3 point lead but with just 1 timeout + the 2 minute warning remaining, after recovering an onside kick, the Steelers were a first down away from taking this one. 

Of course they didn't get a first down, this is Steelers football we don't do it easy! The Steelers' first play picks up 8 to take them to the 2 minute warning right around mid field. The second play gains a yard to make it 3rd and 1. On third and 1 they try to run it up the middle to pick up 1 yard and win the game, they're stopped probably 6 inches short and have a big decision to make on 4th down. Most teams would go for it here, if you get the first you win, and you're not yet in field goal range for your opponent so the risk isn't super high. The Steelers decide to punt and trust their defense with better field position. On the very first play it looked like Wentz threw a pick that would've ended the game, but upon further review the Steelers DB bobbled the ball as he was going out of bounds giving the Vikings new life. Despite this, the Steelers managed to get a sack, then deny the Vikings a first down to just barely hang on and win this one 24-21. 

And that's that! Honestly this one was more lopsided than the score suggests, even with the Vikings having a chance to tie it at the end. If that early fumble didn't get called back, that's a 10 point swing in this one which changes everything. Still not a perfect game, there's some stuff to work on in short yardage situations which burned the Steelers in this one, but without their power running back in Warren you'd expect things like that to be more difficult. I will certainly take a win, 3-1 going into the bye week sitting on top of the division I love it!