On a day that looked like old fashioned AFC North football with rain falling and mud flying, the Steelers turned to the services of DeAngelo Williams early and often, and the back delivered when it mattered the most.
On a key fourth quarter drive in which the club ate close to 7 minutes of clock, Williams touched the ball six times, including the 4-yard TD pass that at the time put the Steelers in control 24-9 in the eventual 24-16 win.
Williams carried the a career-high 32 times for 94 yards, and while his longest rush was just 11 yards, he was tough to bring down, and made sure every yard was a worth it.
For his efforts, and being a key reason the Steelers are 2-0, Williams earned the hard way the award of the “Steelers Gab Week Two Player of the Week” award.
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Dave B.
September 18, 2016 at 6:51 pm
If Deangelo Williams was five years younger , I’d tell LeVeon Bell to not let the door hit him in the butt on the way out . As far as the win goes , very ugly but an important win none the less . For the second game in a row our outside linebackers are getting zeroe pressure on the opposing quarterback . Jarvis Jones looks lost as usual and gets driven into the turf on nearly every down . Tomlin needs to start Harrison in his old role and strictly use Jones to spell Harrison when he needs it . Bottom line , Jones does not deserve to start . At the end of the day theyre 2-0 but this team is still a work in progress .
Jay
September 18, 2016 at 8:02 pm
My share, much like Dave b’s, is gonna sound like we lost. That notwithstanding, I’ve got news for all of us steelers fans, this team Is going nowhere this year with gay and cockrell at corner. It’s just the way it is. We have the to babysit these guys ALL THE TIME! They suck and our pass rush also sucks!? We better hope burns comes along and they get Gilbert up to speed, get either Dupree or Golson back because otherwise, there is entirely too much pressure put on this offense to put up mega points! Everytime we score going back YEARS, our defense gives up mega yards and points on the turnaround. Regardless of what happens this year, we NEED to sign an ELITE PASS RUSHER IN FREE AGENCY NEXT YEAR!!!!! I don’t believe we can do anything this year with this secondary and. CORNERS WHO CANT COVER!!!!! OLBS who NEVER get home!
DrGeorge
September 19, 2016 at 9:04 am
Astute comments Dave B. and Jay. These are all areas of concern, although the sloppy field yesterday makes it hard to evaluate the quality of play and draw hard conclusions. We’ll learn more about these players against the Eagles.
I also worry that Haley will rush Bell back into the line up when he returns for the Chiefs in game 4 and forget about D. Williams. Williams is too good to be a backup. And Toussaint and Richardson are too good to be relegated to the bench. Bill Belichick would find a way to play all of them. Haley should too.
Jay
September 19, 2016 at 8:18 pm
What about these corners doc? Why can’t they cover? Why are we always babysitting dudes which opens up the underneath?!?!?! I mean we invested in edge rushers and front seven dudes while everyone else was building defenses around secondaries ( see Seattle), and THEY -the front seven guys- don’t get base pressure?!?!?! WHY?!?!?!?! I mean all I hear about from knuckleheads tunch and wolf are how good Heyward and tuitt are and how good rookie Hargrave is but THEY DONT GET SACKS and barely pressure the QB?!?!?! I’m not even mentioning the edge guys because they’re abysmal at it! So where is all this production from high round front seven guys in terms of pass pressure? Quite frankly, I’m SICK of having to watch a defense where the ONLY pressure generated is from blitzing and scheme! But yet, we have all these high round draft picks on defense! It’s ridiculous! Yes, congratulations on stopping the run….now wait and watch yourselves get carved up by Brady and other qbs who will simply throw the ball all game.
DrGeorge
September 20, 2016 at 2:17 pm
Yes, Jay, there are areas of concern on defense, and CB is one of them. But while our pass coverage isn’t great, it has improved. The reason Butler plays a soft zone is because he hasn’t got the talent for man to man on a regular basis. LeBeau had to do the same thing. The difference is that Butler has been given better players. Sean Davis and Artie Burns are a step in that direction. But they are rookies, and we can’t expect them to play like veterans yet. Even so, we are at least one more draft away — maybe two — from being a solid secondary. This has taken so long because Tomlin held on to his Super Bowl veterans too long, a concern I raised back in 2009.
The D-line story is similar. The lack of a pass rush goes hand in glove with secondary protection. No CB in the league can cover a WR for more than a few seconds. Except for Heyward, who draws double teams consistently, the Steelers haven’t invested much in the D-line, choosing to put the money in the LB position instead. So far, that strategy isn’t working. If we could land another DE equal to Heyward or better, opponents couldn’t double team either one, and the job of the CBs down field would be easier since they wouldn’t have to cover for so long.
Let’s see how the defense does on a dry field in Philly next week. The D is going to improve as the season rolls along. The key questions are: (a)can the talent we have develop fast enough to make a run deep into the playoffs, and (b) can we stay healthy (we are very thin at several crucial positions on defense, but especially the D-line).
Dave B.
September 20, 2016 at 3:56 pm
The Steelers as an organization have been known to hold on to players past their prime going back to the early eighties when the 70’s dynasty was coming to an end . I remember clearly watching Joe Greene in 1981 get shoved aside by one lineman like he wasnt even there . Joe admitted later on that he was playing with one arm due to nerve damage in the other arm . He also stated , the tank was empty . Noll knew this , but Joe still started . The same can be said for Mel Blount and Franco Harris . In Mels last season , he was beaten badly on any deep route because the speed was gone . In a game against the Browns in Mels last season he was beaten for a long touchdown and it wasnt even close . Noll being interviewed after the game , stated , everyone knew on defense knew where the pass was going but obviously Mel didnt . A few games later , Blount retired . The moral to the story is the Steelers waited far to long to start grooming for the future and instead went through a decade of mediocrity in the eighties because of it .