Seahawks @ Steelers Recap - The Good The Bad and The Ugly
Screengrab via NFL+
Happy hump day!! I hope yinz have taken the early portion of the week to get right spiritually and touch some grass; anything to forget about that garbage football game on Sunday. I’m ready to press on to Patriots Week, but first, I’ve had a chance to watch the all-22, and I’m ready to talk about it a little bit.
The Good
Yahya Black continues to look the part, in my opinion, which is good, because his role just got bigger yet again, with Isaiahh Loudermilk being moved to IR. In the play above, you can see Black (#94) eat up the double team, and stay with the play; it may not seem like much but he’s not giving up any leverage and he’s there to make the play if 56 isn’t able to. Also, 95 was able to stay on his feet on this play, which is noteworthy for him but more on that later. Good stuff from Yahya. I like what he’s been doing these first two weeks.
Jaylen Warren is probably the most important player on our offense - at least for right now. He was able to get almost 50 yards on 14 carries, but 4 catches for 86 yards, including a 65 yard reception - THAT’S what has my attention. It’s a shame we weren’t able to get points on that drive where he was able to break one, but that’s another thing I’ll address in a moment. He’s an invaluable piece of this offense as we look to establish an identity for ourselves
The defense was bad on Sunday, but they were opportunistic, coming away with two INTs and a sack. Nick Herbig deserves a ton of credit for the team’s ability to create splash in this game. On the Payton Wilson sack in the second quarter, it was Herbig’s pass rush off the edge that kinda freezes Darnold early in his dropback, and he was toast from there. Then, of course, there was the tipped pass from 97 that Herbig was able to intercept and return for about 41 yards. The offense was able to get a touchdown to DK on the ensuing drive. Those were big time plays at those points in the game.
The Bad
I gave Calvin Austin III a ton of credit after last week’s game, and he pulled the houdini act immediately after. One catch for 22 yards, but the game was basically out of reach at that point in my opinion, so basically 0 catches on the day, but even worse than that, he was kinda responsible for Rodgers’ INT in the third quarter. The live broadcast of the game actually did a good job of articulating this, but CAIII needs to work his way toward the pylon at the end of that route, not toward the back of the end zone. If he does that, I don’t know if Freiermuth would’ve caught that ball, but it certainly wouldn’t have been an INT. This play came on the heels of the 65-yard Jaylen Warren reception. What a shame.
The DBs had a tough time in this game as well, although attrition almost certainly played a factor in that. We had a Cooper Kupp revival game with all the soft zones he was seeing, and Jaxson Smith-Njigba was able to do mostly whatever he wanted. Mike Tomlin told the media that they felt limited in their playcalling abilities because of the mounting injuries, and that really showed in my opinion. That’s why I have the DBs in the bad rather than the ugly, but Jalen Ramsey would probably like to forget this game, and Juan Thornhill is certainly no Minkah Fitzpatrick. Still, I expect this unit to look better going forward with DeShon Elliot and Joey Porter Jr. getting healthier.
While I’m talking about coaching and the DBs, might as well show yinz this play from Sunday and ask if it seems familiar to you? It should because it’s the exact same play that the Jets ran on us in week one on their touchdown to Garrett Wilson. I can see that the Seahawks watch film.
The Ugly
Yinz gotta know where I’m going. I see it all over reddit and twitter/x, so I know we’re all on the same page here: Keeanu Benton can’t play NT. I’ll concede to the folks that follow the team in that I don’t know if the team’s plan was for Derrick Harmon to kinda fill that role, or if this is what they intended for Benton this season, but it just looks bad and it has looked bad for a while now. That’s two weeks in a row where he has been obliterated off the line of scrimmage time and time again. I really like DBs use of the word “detonated” in the tweet I’m providing for context, because that’s exactly how it looks. And as DB implied, it makes the jobs of those second-level guys a million times harder. That’s why Kenneth Walker III is able to run for 8.1 yards per carry against us. I said it in my reaction to the game, and clearing my head hasn’t changed my mind: Derrick Harmon needs to be a star out of the gate for this defense to be elite, and it’s unfortunate to put that on his shoulders at 22-years-old, but that is the reality of our situation.
I’m also going to put the performance of Aaron Rodgers in the ugly category (for this game). Or, perhaps I should say it like this: Aaron Rodgers and most of the pass catchers. I counted at least two drop-worthy plays from DK, who was mostly a nonfactor, besides some force-feeds near the end of the first half; one of them for a TD. Rodgers finished the day with 2 INTs, but it really should’ve been 3 as you can see in the play above.
To Rodgers’ credit, the entire atmosphere of the game could be different, especially for the offense, if 88 catches that deep throw from Aaron in the first quarter. There’s certainly value in a tight end that’s capable of taking the top off the defense the way Muth is, but the drops will forever keep him out of the elite category. He won’t be credited with a drop for that one, because there was a flag on the defense, so there was no play…but we all watched the damn game, and we all saw the clip on social media. Hell of a throw. Should’ve been caught.
The last ugly thing I want to talk about…and this is a really, really bad one…personnel usage. I talked about it in my last post and told yinz I’d find it in the film and let you know: 4:56 remaining in the 1st quarter, Steelers have the ball, it’s 3rd down and 2 yards to go from the Seahawks’ 30 yard line. We came out in 13-personnel (1 RB 3 TEs) with an empty backfield, Kenneth Gainwell as the RB out wide, and Scotty Miller as the only receiver on the field. With 2 yards to go. Of course, we didn’t get the first down, because that’s an unserious approach to 3rd and short. But, I’d like to get into the mind of Arthur Smith and Mike Tomlin and just ask why? Why no DK if you intend to throw the ball? Why an empty backfield on 3rd and short? Jaylen Warren was your best offensive player on this drive…why take him off the field here? I’ll never get those answers, but the result was a FG for Boz, when we could’ve kept marching.
On personnel issues….Danny Smith….are we not teaching the rookie who has never returned kicks the new kickoff rules? Obviously not, but do you mean to tell me we don’t have anyone else on this roster whose skillset might be better for that role? And for Kaleb Johnson, that young man’s story is not written yet, but there’s just no way you didn’t know that you were supposed to cover that ball up.
Yuck. So much bad football in this game. Guys unprepared. Poor scheme. Poor execution. I can only be an apologist for Mike Tomlin for so long. Eventually, he has to be recognized as the only real constant in what has been a rough decade for this franchise. We’re onto New England.
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