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East Rutherfold – Two games in a row, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ defense . . .
. . . did more than enough to win, but their backup quarterback situation did them in. Last week, they lost to the Buffalo Bills 17-10, and this week they beat the Jets, 16-10.
The Steelers did a bad job stacking their quarterback depth chart. After Ben Roethlisberger, they went with two inexperienced players – Mason Rudolph and Duck Hodges.
I would never stack a QB depth chart that way. I want the backup QB to have some experience and to be able to keep the offense rolling, and not have to learn on the job. To me, the #3 spot is for the developmental player, but not both the #2 and #3 spots.
To me, you need a #2 like Case Keenum or Brian Hoyer, who have played a lot, and it’s not their first rodeo when called upon.
Neither Rudolph or Hodges are ready to play,
Bad job by the Steelers personnel department stacking their QB depth chart this way. It’s amazing they are 8-7 right now. Mike Tomlin did one of his best coaching jobs this year to keep this team in contention.
The reason the Steelers were a little better with Rudolph than Hodges today was height and arm talent. Rudolph is 6-4, and Hodges is 6-0. Rudolph has a gun for an arm, and Hodges isn’t a great arm talent, so the Steelers OC called some good first reads for Rudolph, and he connected on some passes, including the 29-yard TD to Diontae Johnson at the end of the first half. But aside from better height and arm talent, they both have the same issue – neither reads defenses very well, and neither has great pocket presence, and for the most part, Gregg Williams attacking defense had them both baffled . . .
Speaking of getting baffled, the Steelers did a good job on Sam Darnold, presenting him looks that often had him befuddled and not trusting his eyes. Darnold did enough to help the Jets get a win against an offensively-challenged team, but overall, it wasn’t one of his better games, going 16-26 for 183 and one touchdown.
His best throw of the game was his touchdown pass to Robby Anderson to punctuate the Jets’ first drive, getting behind CB Joe Haden and SS Terrell Edmonds. This was a great throw.
And then mid-fourth, he had two nice one-read passes to Vyncint Smith for 14 yards and Jamison Crowder for 20 yards. Then Le’Veon Bell had runs of 7 and 11 yards to put them in field goal range and Sam Ficken connected from 42 to make it 16-10.
A few drives before that, Darnold connected with a wide open Trevon Wesco in the right flat and he rumbled for 32 yards to put the Jets in field goal range, and Ficken hit from 37 to make it 13-10. This was another good “element of surprise” call by Gase, like the play in Washington to Ryan Griffin for 45 yards. Gase does a nice job with these “element of surprise” calls to seldom used targets.
Those were kind of the Darnold highlights from the today. There was a lot of mediocrity in-between these plays, but the bottom line he did enough for the Jets to win against a QB-challenged team.
“Sam played great,” said Le’Veon Bell.
Not really, but he did enough to help them win . . .
Jets left guard Alex Lewis was in bad shape after the game limping badly in the locker room. Don’t know exactly what he injured, but he was hurting . . .
Speaking of offensive linemen, Kelvin Beachum had an outstanding game doing a terrific job on Steeler edge-rusher Bud Dupree.
I have always said this about Beachum. Is he Orlando Pace or Jon Ogden? No, but he’s a solid left tackle, and he’s been playing with two bad ankles in the last few games. He has a good kick slide, excellent technique and an extremely cerebral player . . .
December 23, 2019
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