In week four the Pittsburgh Steelers continued their road trip with a visit to Baltimore to face the Baltimore Ravens. It was a battle for AFC North supremacy, and the Steelers reigned supreme with a 26-9 victory. The Steelers lack of offensive precision manifested on the sideline in the form of a temper tantrum by Antonio Brown, who took his angers out on a Gatorade jug. Despite their mediocre performance and metrics, the Steelers are 3-1, lead the AFC North, and have yet to play their best football.
Pittsburgh Steelers Gut Reactions Week Four
Keep Their Heads Ringing
For the first time this season the Steelers outgained their opponent, led in time of possession, and had over 350 total yards of offense in the same game. There’s no doubt that the Ravens defense gives the Steelers fits at times, but in week four they had no answer for Le’Veon Bell. His 144 yards rushing and two touchdowns on 35 carries was literally what set the Steelers apart from the Ravens. Throw in four receptions for 42 yards and Bell’s 186 total yards is almost equal to Ben Roethlisberger’s 216 yards passing. Hopefully Bell is returning to form and the rest of the offense follows suite.
A Few Roethlis-Burgers Short of a Cookout
Roethlisberger had another subpar outing, going 18 for 30 for 216 passing yards, a touchdown and an interception. The vaunted 2004 quarterback class which featured Roethlisberger, Eli Manning, and Philip Rivers is 3-9 at this point in the season. All three of those wins belong to the Roethlisberger led Steelers, which is definitely a notch in his belt. But the plethora of weapons the Steelers call their wide receivers are handcuffed if Roethlisberger isn’t getting them the ball in space, with room to operate.
Roethlisberger Standing Matters
The offensive line finally opened some lanes in the running game. Even if it took an extra lineman playing tight end and fullback, they were able to let Bell chew up clock with his 35 touches. Even rookie James Conner got in on the action with a 23-yard gallop.
Now the line has to establish some consistency in the passing game, even though Roethlisberger only got sacked once, he still took seven hits on 30 passing attempts. in contrast, the Ravens Joe Flacco was hit by the Steelers aggressive pass rush six times on 50 passing attempts. This is especially alarming since Roethlisberger hasn’t played a 16-game season since 2014.
Right Under our Noses
After the way the Steelers lost to the New England Patriots in the 2016 AFC Championship there was panic. The Steelers had no answer for the Patriots passing attack. The front office signed Coty Sensabaugh and Joe Haden in the off-season to help strengthen the secondary. But it’s good to see the home-grown talent thrive.
It’s practice squad promote Mike Hilton that continues to steal the show. Sensabaugh and Haden finished the game with five tackles between them. But Hilton and Artie Burns, the Steelers first round pick from the 2016 draft, combined for eight tackles, two passes defended and a sack. Their play was instrumental in shutting the Ravens out in the first half, allowing the Steelers to stretch their lead to three scores before half time.
Feed the Freak
Martavis Bryant led the Steelers with only 48 yards receiving. He was the only Steelers player in week four to catch a pass that went for more than 20 yards when he hauled in a 24-yard reception. In contrast, Brown had his normal workload, near 10 targets (nine to be exact) but only had four receptions for 34 yards.
If Brown is being contained, Bryant should be getting more targets. Both Bryant and Brown only have one receiving touchdown on the season. Rookie JuJu Smith-Schuster had his second against the Ravens. The receiving corps is madness at the moment and the stats reflect it. Bryant should receive more targets until somebody other than himself, proves that they can stop him.
The Curious Case of the Steelers Defense
The Steelers defense shut a team out for a half for the second straight week. They are also on pace for a whopping 60 sacks, 12 more than any team had last season. But for the third straight week they continued the trend of allowing a back average over six yards per carry. In week two in was the Minnesota Vikings Dalvin Cook. Week three showcased two Chicago Bears backs, Jordan Howard and Tarik Cohen doing so. In week four, it was the Baltimore Ravens Alex Collins. Who? Point exactly.
Paging Mr. McDonald
Before the 2017 started the Steelers traded for Vance McDonald from the San Francisco 49ers. Head Coach Mike Tomlin said the current group of tight ends “wasn’t varsity enough”. Well, McDonald seems to fit that mold perfectly as he’s been a non-factor at tight end. He’s never really threatened Jesse James as the starter and doesn’t look like a receiving threat. Trading for a special team’s player right before the season? Not very Steeler-like.
Last Word
With the AFC looking relatively wide open at this point, the Steelers should be happy to be a division leader. Can this continue with a mediocre passing game? Ideally, the running game getting traction will benefit the passing game. Roethlisberger can’t get hit once every four or five drop backs or he won’t be around for the late part of the season. But the offense is showing signs of life. Converting seven of 15 third down attempts against a Ravens defense that knows the Steelers so well is nothing to sneeze at. Neither is a 2-0 start within the AFC North.
Next up is a home game against the 2-2 Jacksonville Jaguars, who scored 44 points on the Ravens defense in week three. They will feature rookie fourth overall pick Leonard Fournette at running back in a run heavy system. It’s time for the Steelers to put this string of backs averaging over six yards per carry to an end. Doing so to Fournette is a great place to start.
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