Preseason Watchlist: Steelers vs. Giants

I have to say that the preseason snuck up on me this year.  I could've sworn that the draft just happened, then suddenly I turn around and Training Camp is opening.

Here's what I'm going to be watching for tonight, since it doesn't make sense to put much stock in who wins and loses.  It's only the preseason, but there are some interesting things to watch.

Zone Blocking Scheme:

They're implementing a new blocking scheme this year and it's a zone blocking scheme instead of the traditional "everyone has a guy they're assigned to block" scheme that they've used since The Chief bought the team.

It's a change in strategy, but the word on the street is that it's not Todd Haley's idea/fault.  The Steelers wanted to move to this kind of blocking scheme since 2011, but they didn't have the athletes at tackle to pull it off.

This is just for the running game, not the passing game.  The idea is that, unlike a man blocking scheme, where you "put a hat on a hat" and everyone blocks their assigned guy, each lineman is responsible for a zone and needs to block anyone that is in that zone/comes into that zone.  The tackles push to the sidelines and interior linemen push towards the middle of the field.  In theory, that creates seams and cut-back lanes in the defense that the running backs will then be able to run through.

Honestly, I don't think we have the athletes at running back to pull this off, but I am willing to try anything that will improve the running game. In this blocking scheme, the running back needs to have great short area quickness to burst through the seams and cut-back lanes, excellent vision to see those openings develop, and good decision-making ability (or at least the ability to make quick decisions and commit to them) so that he hits the hole before it closes.  No one on the roster in 2012 fits that bill, with the possible exception of Rashard Mendenhall.  He might have been a good fit, but he's now in Arizona.  Word is that Le'Veon Bell has the right kind of skillset to run behind this scheme and be successful, so that's another thing to watch.

The Rookies:

Really, there are two rookie classes to evaluate in this game, since DeCastro and Adams were hurt most of last season, third round pick Sean Spence missed all of last season on injured reserve, and Alameda Ta'amu went on a drunken rampage through South Side, which hurt his chances to crack the line-up.

Adams and DeCastro will be in starting roles and it'll be nice to see them in action, along with the fact that they'll be working in the new zone blocking scheme.  Spence and Ta'amu will be playing more, because they're lower on the depth chart, but they're both playing positions -- Spence at inside linebacker and Ta'amu at defensive tackle -- where there isn't an entrenched, established guy.  If they play well, they could unseat the guy in front of them on the depth chart, which is always interesting to watch.

I mentioned Bell, who has apparently had a great camp.  Jarvis Jones has also done extremely well by all accounts and I'm most excited to see him play.  I really need to see him step into the void that James Harrison left behind, especially since I don't trust Jason Worilds any farther than I can throw him.

Since all the cornerbacks on the roster are working through some type of injury, Shamarko Thomas will be playing nickel back with the first team defense tonight.  I'm really looking forward to seeing him play.  His natural position is safety, but if he can also help out as a nickel cornerback, then that's another thing he can do to help this team.  Ryan Clark and Troy aren't getting any younger, Ryan Mundy will be on the other team's sideline, and it would be super nice if this kid stepped up and started playing well from the get-go.

Rookie receivers Justin Brown and Markus Wheaton should get a lot of work, since there are now open spots at 4th and 5th receiver after the Plaxico Burress injury.  There are actually a lot of warm bodies at the position -- there are 11 guys in total, counting Antonio Brown, Emmanuel Sanders, Jerricho Cotchery, and Plax, who probably won't have to fight for their roster spots -- and I'm hoping that this fosters competition for remaining roster spots.  The more tough decisions these young guys can make the coaches make, the better the depth at the position.

Explosive Plays:

The Steelers were a really, really boring team last year.  They didn't generate a lot of explosive plays on offense and they played things ultra-conservative on defense.  Dick LeBeau knew that he didn't have the personnel to take a lot of chances and try to make a lot of splash plays, so he tried to teach the guys on defense to keep everything in front of them and not be a hero.  The result was that they didn't allow a lot of 20+, 30+, or 40+ yard plays, but they also didn't record a lot of sacks or force very many turnovers.

On offense, they were hesitant to stretch the field and go for the big play and their running backs were mostly "two yards and a cloud of dust" guys that didn't get yards in chunks.

You ended up with an 8-8 team that played vanilla games that didn't feature many big plays on offense or defense, not a lot of sacks or turnovers, and a lot of low-scoring slugfests.  The 2009 Steelers finished 8-8, but at least they were exciting.  They forced turnovers like crazy, turned the ball over like crazy, and big plays were all over the place.  Another team like that may kill me, but it's a chance I'm wiling to take.

At this point, I suspect that the 2013 Steelers will finish anywhere from 6-10 to 8-8 and I'm prepared for that.  I just don't want it to be boring.

What I'm looking for tonight is whether or not the young kids have the swagger and the skill to go out and try and make something happen.  They may let up some big plays, they may make some big plays, but in the end what I'm looking for is something interesting and exciting.  With the number of players that are going to either retire or get cut in the next couple of seasons, I want to see what this next generation is made of.

No Injuries:

Just wanted to make sure I said it.  As long as we make it through tonight without anyone getting seriously hurt, that's a net win.

Steelers Preseason Game 2 Watchlist

My biggest takeaway from the first pre-season game against the Eagles is that we need the NFL officials to negotiate a contract with the NFL and come back.  The replacement officials aren't cutting it.  There were missed calls on both sides that both helped and hurt the Steelers.  The effect on the game really isn't worth arguing because it was an exhibition game, but you know how people like to ticky tack back and forth about this call or that call when the games actually count.  I'm not one to do that, regardless of how it affects the Steelers in a given game, but the fact that the replacement officials were entirely too inconsistent was driving me crazy.  So, I guess one of the things on my watchlist for this game is the officials.  I want to see if they're getting any better or not.  My guess is that they won't be any better and it will make me miss the old referees even more.

The other big thing I'll be watching is the offensive game plan.  Todd Haley mentioned a week or so ago that the entire offense is installed at this point.  That means that the largely "horizontal" passing game we saw against Philly might be what we see for the rest of the season, especially if Mike Wallace doesn't come back.  Now, I know that coordinators usually strip things down and keep things vanilla for the pre-season, but that seemed a little too stripped down and too vanilla.  If we see more of the same on Sunday night, that may be what's in store for the offense during the season.  I hope not, though I'm glad they're running more screen passes, but I guess that's why they play the games.

Other stuff I'll be watching:

1. I was not impressed with Curtis Brown and any of the back-up safeties not named Ryan Mundy.  I hope that, with a week of practice under their belts, they'll improve their overall awareness and cover their assigned areas (70 yard touchdown pass in game one was mostly Myron Rolle's fault, but Brown never should've lost track of him).
2. It looks like Keenan Lewis is now in the driver's seat for the #2 cornerback position, which means that Cortez Allen will probably get the start.  I was impressed with both of them, but I'd really like to see some consistency there.  Whoever is the starter, start getting them more reps with the first team.
3. Chris Carter looked pretty lost and slow last Thursday.  Maybe he improves, but I think a better plan is to start saying novenas that Harrison and Worilds get healthy.
4. Steve McLendon was solid in limited action against the Eagles and I want to see more of him.  Given the fact that Casey Hampton and Rashard Mendenhall just got activated off the PUP list, this seems like as good a chance as any for McLendon to show what he can do.
5. Speaking of guys that will get a chance to show what they can do, Baron Batch and Jonathan Dwyer are both going to get a lot of touches with Mendenhall and Redman not available and I'm excited to see how the perform running behind the first- and second-team offensive lines.  I've said all along that I think Batch is really just Verron Haynes, Jr; a guy that can carry here and there but is mostly a third down back.  If he can be an every down guy or at least looks a lot better than he did against Philly (which shouldn't be difficult), then that would make me less nervous about the running back position.  The fact that Mendenhall was taken off the PUP list doesn't make me less nervous.  It makes me think they're going to test him a little, find that he's not anywhere near ready, and put him on IR.  I'm thinking that about Big Snack, too, which is why they should put McLendon in there as much as possible.
6. Mike Adams can't possibly be as bad as he looked against the Eagles.  He played poorly, then got hurt, which is not an auspicious way for a guy to begin his career.  I'd like to see him play a bunch of snaps against the Colts, but I honestly don't think he's going to secure the starting job.  He's too far behind and the coaching staff loves Max Starks too much.
7. I think DeCastro is going to do just fine and he'll open the season at right guard, but I'd still like to see him get a lot of snaps and work out some of the kinks.  
8. Both rookies looked great in the running game, which makes me think that Pouncey has some work to do yet on line calls.  The past two seasons, he was mostly surrounded by guys that had been there longer than him and already knew what to do.  That's probably not going to be the case this season and he needs to step up.
9. They need to get the ball to Chris Rainey eight times on offense.  He may lose eight yards on the first seven touches, but he could also break that eighth touch for a 60 yard touchdown.  The guy is explosive and I want to see more of him and how he works in different personnel groupings, especially against the opponent's first team defense.
10. Dear God: Please no injuries to Roethlisberger and Leftwich.  Thanks.

That's it.  Game's on Sunday night football on NBC.  Pre-season football... feel the excitement!

Preseason Review: Falcons at Steelers

Well, I had to jinx Maurkice Pouncey.  I had to talk about how he's the best guy on the line and how he gives the line some much-needed stability.  Then, last night, he goes out and hurts his ankle.  His injury didn't seem as severe as the knee injury sustained by Keenan Lewis or Byron Leftwich's broken arm, but it's still significant.  If it's a high ankle sprain or a break, Pouncey probably won't be able to make it for the start of the regular season.

That's really the only bad news that came out of last night's game.  The defense gave up a lot of yards and seemed to be in full-on retreat mode for most of the first half, but they were able to (mostly) hold things together in the red zone.  The score could've gotten way more out of hand if they hadn't held the Falcons to field goals inside the 20.

It looks like Matt Ryan, Julio Jones, and Roddy White are all worth grabbing for Fantasy purposes.  White had eight catches for 101 yards and a touchdown on ten targets in just the first half.  Jones would've had a much more productive night if he had been able to hang onto that 48-yard bomb from Ryan in the second quarter.  It also looks like Michael Turner will not have a productive season.  I know it's only the preseason and it's no time to panic, but he just looked slow to the hole and finished with 19 yards on seven carries.  He got 11 of those yards on one run.  With great blocking and a big hole, he wasn't able to explode into that hole the way he used to.  The old Michael Turner probably would've gained 30 yards or so when given that kind of opportunity.

Ultimately, I think this game came down to the fact that the Steelers made big plays when they had the opportunity and Atlanta did not.  If Jones hangs on to that touchdown, the game is very different.  If Antonio Brown isn't able to get his feet under him and split the safeties, he gets tackled before he can scamper off for a 77-yard touchdown.  I'm not discounting any of those plays.  The Steelers still had to make those plays and you can't look at this game without putting them in there.  But, the Falcons ran 86 plays to the Steelers' 51.  Atlanta had 25 first downs, the Steelers had 15.  I understand that the goal is to score in as few plays as possible, but this defense isn't going to hold together -- for an entire game or for the balance of the season -- if they have to face 86 plays every week.  On average, you give up a lot more than 16 points when you face 86 plays.

The Falcons were 10-for-20 on third downs.  That means that, not only did they convert on half of their opportunities, they also faced third down a full 20 times in this game.  That's a lot of chances for the Steelers to get off the field, but it's also way too many chances for the other team to stay on it.  If the first team played both halves on both sides, I have a feeling that the defense would have eventually caved in.  They actually did a good job of containing Ryan -- he completed only 52 percent of his passes, threw an interception, and his quarterback rating was 65.6 -- but they also let him throw 42 passes in the first half.  He had 42 attempts in one half of football.  Yes, Lewis went down in the first half and McFadden and Taylor didn't suit up for the game, but that's a ridiculously high number.  Teams are going to focus on spreading the Steelers out and throwing the ball all season, so I guess we had better get used to it.

I thought the offensive line played well in pass protection, especially considering that the Falcons were blitzing like crazy.  I also think that, after the last two weeks, the teams on the Steelers schedule this season realize that blitzing Ben Roethlisberger is a bad idea.  That's unfortunate, because most of the big plays he's made thus far came against the blitz.  I also think that the Atlanta coaches called that insane, jail break, Cover 0 blitz in the second quarter just to see what would happen.  I think the whole team came on that thing, with Mike Smith sprinting in from the sidelines.  I doubt we'll see that in their playbook once the 2011 season kicks off.

The bad news on the offensive line is that the same issue that has plagued the team since 2008 is still there: I doubt that we'll be able to run for one yard when we absolutely, positively need to.  Mendenhall didn't have a lot of room to run and his stats were padded by that touchdown on the first series (yes, I'm aware that it was a one-yard score, but I stick by what I said).  None of the running backs saw a lot of daylight, which means that this could be a passing offense that struggles in the red zone... kinda like how the Falcons looked last night.

On defense, I think the front seven is ready for the season to start.  Lewis -- if healthy -- and Gay have gained some valuable experience and the Steelers are going to need four quality cornerbacks if last night is any indication (and it is).  The secondary should be fine, provided Troy and Ryan Clark stay healthy, since they seem to be able to cover up for a lot of the shortcomings of the cornerbacks.

Of course, Antonio Brown is awesome.  He played an outstanding game and was running with the first team.  But, I think everyone needs to temper their optimism and realize that this is the preseason.  Yes, Brown had 246 total yards and two touchdowns last night, but Crezdon Butler also led the team in tackles and had a 95-yard interception return for a touchdown.  I believe that Brown has locked down the third receiver job and I think he's going to be very involved in the offense this season.

I also heard that, in a recent Fantasy Football draft, someone took Brown in the fourth round.  That is more than a little crazy.  The plays that Brown scored on last night both looked really familiar and I couldn't figure out why at first.  I eventually realized that they were kinds of plays usually called with Mike Wallace in mind.  I think that the Steelers coaches were testing Brown to see what he could do in those situations and they were very pleased with the results.  But, being pleased with the results and giving Wallace's touches to Brown are two different things entirely.  Ward and Wallace will still be the main guys in this group and they'll get most of the targets in the passing game.  It's good to know that Brown will be able to do a lot with the opportunities he gets when he gets them.

With one game left to go, I have to say they look pretty solid.  Let's just hope they escape next week without any major injuries.