Tag: offense

Week 10: Commanders’ greatest strength may present issues for Steelers

The 7-2 Commanders host the 6-2 Steelers in Week 10 and Washington’s perfection in the turnover game could prove troublesome for Pittsburgh.

In Week 10, iron sharpens iron—and in this case, Pittsburgh steel aims to cut deeper—as the 6-2 Steelers travel to the nation’s capital to take on the 7-2 Washington Commanders in a clash of behemoths. The Commanders’ strongest asset, their narrow margin of error in the turnover game, could present the Steelers with some challenges throughout the game.

Commanders’ rookie QB Jayden Daniels could give the Pittsburgh defense a tough matchup; however, it is the offensive effort and protection of the football that makes the team truly threatening. Washington has only turned the ball over three times all season, leading the NFL in fewest turnovers on offense.

The Steelers are 1-1 in games where they lose the turnover battle this season, and when facing a Washington team currently ranked fourth in total points scored per game, the Steelers may need to rely on expert coaching to secure a victory in Week 10.

Can the ever-reliable Pittsburgh defense do what very few NFL teams have done to the Washington Commanders, and force them to turn the ball over? Tune in to see the Week 10 matchup unfold on November 10th at 1:00 PM EST.

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Russell Wilson keeps cooking throughout the Steelers’ bye week

Russell Wilson stays busy during the Steelers’ Week 9 bye with practice, showing his relentless drive and proving he never stops cooking.

Champions are made when no one is watching. Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson personifies this attitude, as while many players take time to rest, relax, or enjoy life outside of football during their team’s bye week, Wilson was focused on bettering his game.

Fans of the Steel City were initially hesitant when news broke that Mike Tomlin was benching QB Justin Fields in favor of Wilson, especially after Fields led the team to an impressive 4-2 start. However, Wilson has proven himself with two great back-to-back performances in Weeks 7 and 8, as well as providing the team with a leadership presence that has been sorely missed since former Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger retired in 2022.

Wilson wants nothing more than to bring a seventh Super Bowl title to Pittsburgh, and his work ethic should make this long-desired goal a reality. The veteran QB is most likely preparing for the tough stretch of games in the second half of the season, starting with two extremely difficult matchups consecutively: facing the Washington Commanders on the road in Week 10 and hosting the Baltimore Ravens in Week 11.

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Should Pittsburgh target an offensive lineman at the trade deadline? 

Poor penalty management by Steelers’ RT Broderick Jones, and injuries to the offensive line may need to be solved via trade by the deadline.

It is truly miraculous how the Pittsburgh Steelers continue to win games given how injured their offensive line is. In Week 8, the Steelers were missing three starting offensive linemen, with two out for the entirety of the regular season. The interior depth on the o-line has been great, but the tackle position may need an upgrade before the upcoming trade deadline on November 5th. 

LT Dan Moore Jr., whose play has been outstanding this season, was banged up and had to sit out one play late in Week 8’s contest. Backup offensive lineman Spencer Anderson replaced him and immediately allowed QB Russell Wilson to get sacked. 

RT Broderick Jones continues to commit penalties that kill offensive momentum, and while it is probably time for HC Mike Tomlin to bench him, there is truly no quality starter who could take his place. 

Offensive tackle trade targets such as Cam Robinson, Andrus Peat, or Walker Little could help alleviate the injury woes. This team looks primed to make a deep playoff run, but they’ll first need to address depth issues on the offensive side of the football. 

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Newly-acquired wide receiver details what he brings to the Saints’ table

The New Orleans Saints have a clear vision for Marquez Valdes-Scantling, and he says he’s ready to step up to the plate:

There was a clear goal when the New Orleans Saints signed Marquez Valdes-Scantling. New Orleans was bringing him in to offset some of deep threat ability Rashid Shaheed brought to the table.

That wasn’t lost on Valdes-Scantling. On Wednesday, he said he wants to “come in and contribute any way he can,” but we all know what that looks like.

The wide receiver is aiming to “provide the big-play ability that I’ve had over my whole career. I just want to get back to doing that and be able to push the ball down the field, so we can score some points.”

Valdes-Scantling averaged 15.3, 17.4,  20.9 (leading the league in 2020), and 16.5 yards per catch during his four years with the Green Bay Packers, and he continued to make plays as a downfield threat on the Kansas City Chiefs. He picked up yards at 16.4 and 15.0 per catch the last two years, so he knows how to take the top off the defense.

One thing that’ll help is Valdes-Scantling’s familiarity with the system: “It’s very similar to the offense I had when I was in Green Bay a couple of years ago, so it’s some carry over there.”

Already possessing knowledge of the offense’s principles will help Valdes-Scantling grasp the Saints’ playbook quickly, and possibly get on the field Sunday against the Los Angeles Chargers. Either way, when the coaches call him up, he’s confident he can deliver.

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How many points have the Saints scored since their historic start?

The Saints haven’t matched their scoring output total from the first two weeks — in the last five weeks combined. Did Klint Kubiak’s offense run out of steam?

The New Orleans Saints were the best offense in football through the first two weeks. It’s no coincidence they were also undefeated in that time span. Since then, the Saints offense has sputtered.

Injuries to critical players such as Erik McCoy and Taysom Hill certainly had their impact, but Klint Kubiak’s play calling has been questionable as well. His tendency to run to the right side of the offensive line with little success has left some wondering, and the creativity seemed to run out of supply once Hill went out.

The most notable injury is quarterback Derek Carr. He was at the helm for three of the five games the Saints have lost in a row. It wouldn’t be sensible to point at his injury as a cause for the struggles. In Carr’s last 3 games, the Saints offense averaged 16.3 points with a high of 24 points against the Atlanta Falcons.

This pales in comparison to what happened at the beginning of the season. New Orleans put up back to back 40 point performances. That logically couldn’t last.

The Saints were out of this world, but they quickly came crashing down back to earth. Since scoring 91 points in the first two weeks, New Orleans has put 86 points on the board in the subsequent five weeks.

There’s a lot of places you can point the finger. At the end of the day, it just isn’t good enough. The Saints offense is a shell of who they were at the beginning of the year in multiple ways.

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Sorry Justin Fields, this is Russell Wilson’s team now

After leading the Steelers to score 37 points in Week 7, QB Russell Wilson has more than earned his starting position moving forward.

Much to the chagrin of Steelers fans, Mike Tomlin appears to have made the right call with the quarterback change in Week 7. A Russell Wilson-led Steelers team scored 31 unanswered points to close out the game, finishing with 37 points overall in the contest. 

Fans argued that it should be impossible to bench QB Justin Fields, who led the team to a 4-2 record, in favor of a returning Wilson.  Fields had helped lift the ‘Steel City’ to a win in Las Vegas last week, and his offense scored 32 points overall.  It seemed ludicrous to bench the young athletic quarterback.

However, it was clear to fans in attendance and those of us watching the nationally televised Sunday Night Football game around the world, Wilson is the best option moving forward. The veteran still boasts one of the best deep balls in the league, and his decision-making was flawless in the Steelers’ Week 7 victory. 

Wilson’s final stat line: 16-29, 264 passing yards, 3 total TDs

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Broncos had their best rushing performance of the last decade vs. Saints

The Broncos rushed for 225 yards vs. the Saints, their best single-game total since 2013. “Javonte [Williams] had some really good runs.”

The Denver Broncos‘ offensive line (and running backs) came to play against the New Orleans Saints on Thursday Night Football in Week 7.

Broncos running back Javonte Williams had the first two-touchdown game of his career in a 33-10 win over the Saints, and he went untouched on one of his scores. Williams ended the day with 88 rushing yards and Denver totaled 225 yards on the ground as a team.

That represented the Broncos’ best single-game rushing total in more than a decade. The last time Denver topped 224 yards on the ground was 2013 when they totaled 280 rushing yards against the New England Patriots.

“He had to have been good,” Broncos coach Sean Payton said after Thursday’s win when asked about Williams’ big day. “I didn’t see all of the numbers. We actually were going to come out early, mix in the run and the read option. Bo (Nix) did a great job. We got a penalty called on one that was an impossible penalty. He threw the ball in .5 seconds and we got called for someone downfield (illegal downfield pass). It can’t happen meaning it’s an impossibility. I thought all of that clicked. We blocked them.

“You get a sense right away how you are matching up. Really from the late second quarter on it was pressure. We got a lot more zone tonight from this team maybe to keep more eyes on Bo. He did a good job with his feet. Javonte had some really good runs. When you have a night like that rushing and the time of possession, the script was flipped a little bit from last week. Fortunately from our defense, they got some rest.”

Denver’s big day on the ground was boosted by Nix’s 75 rushing yards, tied for sixth-most by a Broncos quarterback in a single game in franchise history.

“I think it is just an added bonus,” Nix said when asked what his rushing ability adds to the offense.”Obviously, you want to run the ball with running backs in special ways and get behind the o-line. At times, things break down and those hidden yards, I think, are really important. They get extra first downs, and they are ways of sneaking yards in. So, that was good to see, good to use, and we have to continue to do that when it’s there.”

As for Williams, he ended the night with an impressive 6.3 yards per carry average, but he’s still not satisfied with his performance.

“There are still some things that I can clean up and some things that I can improve on,” Williams said. “I am just going to watch the film and get better.”

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Steelers insider believes Russell Wilson’s takeover is imminent 

Steelers insider Gerry Dulac argues why Russell Wilson will more than likely get the starting nod at quarterback in the near future.

Everyone can agree that Pittsburgh’s offense is simply not good right now. The issue with the offense is what fans consider debatable, as some argue the blame should lie with Justin Fields, while others argue it is the lack of playmakers in the wide receiver room. Fields has shown flashes of greatness, but he has also shown a tendency to fumble the football, while also showcasing his poor decision-making. 

Steelers insider and reporter for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Gerry Dulac, wrote an article that highlighted the inevitability of Russell Wilson getting his shot to start for the offense.

Dulac stated: “The Steelers wanted a quarterback the other team would fear when the game is on the line, the way Tomlin feared what might happen against Prescott. Which is why, at some point soon, Tomlin will make the decision to switch to Wilson”. 

It is hard to argue that Wilson isn’t far more reliable to win games, and it is also difficult to make the case to continue to ride the hot hand of Fields, who at this point has grown cold. 

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NFL analyst rips Steelers’ passing attack: ‘Shouldn’t be this hard’

Analyst Brian Baldinger, known for his NFL breakdown videos, touches on the overall frustrations behind Pittsburgh’s awful passing attack.

NFL analyst Brian Baldinger, creator of the popular Baldy’s Breakdowns videos, where he analyzes key plays from some of the best players in the league, told social media the painstakingly obvious on Monday afternoon: the Steelers’ offense is terrible. Typically highlighting what great players do right, Baldinger chose specific plays to illustrate where the Pittsburgh passing attack went wrong. 

On one key play, Justin Fields eyed a wide-open George Pickens running horizontally across the field, but the QB’s poor decision-making allowed the defensive back to make up the lost ground before he even attempted to throw the football. 

While much of the offense is under scrutiny, Baldinger highlighted that perhaps the best play of the night for the Steelers’ offense was made by none other than backup QB Kyle Allen, who hit TE Pat Freiermuth for 18 yards. 

Analysts and fans cannot make the tough decisions for Mike Tomlin and the rest of the Steelers organization. With Russell Wilson beginning to practice in full, Tomlin needs to consider the idea of starting the veteran QB in hopes of giving life to this awful offense. 

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Analyst believes the fix to the offense is WR, not QB Russell Wilson

Fans clamor for Russell Wilson’s return to starting duties, NFL analyst Dan Orlovsky states that WR is the fix for the offense, not QB.

The offense stepped through a proverbial time machine against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday Night Football. Gone were the spectacular performances the unit showcased in Weeks 3 and 4, replaced by the anemic, low-scoring offensive game plan from Weeks 1 and 2.

Speaking on ESPN’s Get Up, NFL analyst Dan Orlovsky seemed to hit the nail right on the head: Pittsburgh has a big problem—an offensive problem. However, Orlovsky believes benching Justin Fields is the wrong decision to make.

https://twitter.com/GetUpESPN/status/1843273535344501168

The fix that Orlovsky speaks of is a rather simple one, but it’s being made complicated by Mike Tomlin. Rookie WR Roman Wilson has practiced in full the past two weeks but continues to be designated inactive when game time rolls around. Tomlin, in response to Wilson’s inactive designation, stated “It’s difficult to get on a moving train,” but it’s clearly a loyalty issue.

If an NFL analyst noticed it, maybe Tomlin has too. Van Jefferson is not the number two guy in this offense, and Calvin Austin hasn’t proven it either. It’s time to get Roman Wilson a helmet.

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