Bucs vs. Steelers Recap - Derrick Harmon Flashes
Following the late INT by Logan Woodside, the Bucs kicked a walkoff field goal, wrapping up week 2 of the preseason with a 17-14 win over the Steelers. Like last week, the outcome doesn’t mean anything; a win would’ve been mere fodder for the fans in attendance at Acrisure Stadium. With that being said…we probably don’t need to see any more Logan Woodside snaps right?
After last week’s preseason game, a lot of individual performances caught my eye, but that simply wasn’t my experience in Saturday’s game against the Bucs. There were some guys that, I think, continued their ascension toward regular-season readiness; Roman Wilson and Scotty Miller from the receivers, and Broderick Jones and Troy Fautanu from the tackles (specifically in pass protection). I intend to address the offensive line in their own post before the start of the regular season, so I’ll reserve my praises for that, but to sum it up quickly, I’m pleasantly surprised at what they’ve been able to do in pass pro. Run blocking, however, is a struggle that has lingered from the end of last season and now into the preseason. The Steelers’ rushing efficiency looked better in the box score vs. TB than it did @ JAX, but a lot of that was yards after contact and garbage time. The first-team offense didn’t run the ball well outside of one good run by Kaleb Johnson. It certainly concerns me that we haven’t seen, really anything, from the run game to feel good about this late into the process, but a lot of that is unfortunately by design; giving Kenneth Gainwell actual rushing snaps, using the same three-or-so rushing concepts over and over and over. It’s the preseason ya know?
One thing I needed to see, and did see, was a flash of dominance from Derrick Harmon. He had an awesome bull rush on Tampa Bay’s third-string guard Ben Scott, bringing down Kyle Trask on third down. I wanted to make sure I acknowledged that he was going up against someone that won’t make Tampa Bay’s roster, because that’s a rep that went exactly how it was supposed to. Tampa Bay’s o-line was keyed in on him early in the game, and he did a good job eating up double teams and keeping everything plugged up in the middle. The Steelers lined him up all over the damn place, and this play against Ben Scott was the first time in this game he had a real mismatch opportunity; he made it count.
Funny enough, this (above) is the second down play right before the sack that I just mentioned. It was a really nice sequence for Derrick Harmon, for sure. This is the kinda thing he was regularly doing to guys in college, specifically against the run. He’s physically talented enough to kinda freeze offensive linemen and move them out of his way to play the run. He can certainly improve above the shoulders, and I have no doubts he will, but that ability to impose his will is why we spent a first rounder on him. I love it. This, by the way, was against Elijah Klein, who’s the team’s backup guard. Not exactly top end talent, but that’s why he got disposed of by a 22-year old. It’s the preseason, lol.
With week three of the preseason set to kickoff, I’m just hoping we get a chance to see more of the names that we will actually be watching on Sundays. Mike Tomlin has already announced this week's list of veteran nonparticipants in tomorrow’s game against the Panthers: T.J. Watt, Cameron Heyward, Aaron Rodgers, and DK Metcalf. Yes, that means Jalen Ramsey will be playing in the black & gold for the first time.
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