Game notes from the regular season finale, a 28-24 win by the Pittsburgh Steelers over the Cleveland Browns.
First Half
– Kick return team. The usual suspects. Moats-Watt-Matakevich-Chickillo-Fort. Golden behind. Nix/Grimble/Walton the wedge with Toussaint/JuJu the return men.
– Alejandro Villanueva defending Myles Garrett’s long arm technique. VIllanueva length to match, throws him down by the shoulder.
– Matt Feiler has some nasty to his game. Once he gets his feet pumping…and this is against Danny Shelton.
– Third and long. Steelers back in 2 Man. Covered well but man coverage, eyes off the ball, helped Deshone Kizer scramble around.
– Punt return team. Fitz-Matakevich-Fort-Chickillo-Nix-Golden. DHB and Brian Allen jammers to one side, Artie Burns and Cam Sutton opposite.
– Good job to recognize the CB blitz and hit JuJu in the flat for a huge gain.
– JuJu Smith-Schuster has really helped as a blocker, too. Team comfortable motioning him to the wing and blocking the backside end on this pin/pull scheme. Doesn’t have to be pretty, just needs to get in the way so he can’t flow freely and squeeze the play.
– Landry Jones should’ve hit the slant here, not the fade to Eli Rogers. Roughing the passer bailed him out.
– Higgins long TD. Safeties gotta be able to squeeze this. Really disappointing.
– Punt coverage team: Watt-Fort-Canaday-Matakevich-Chickillo. Nix/Davis the wings, Golden the upback. Allen/DHb gunners.
– Steelers doing a better job defending the over route, something that killed them out of Cover 3 in the past. Joe Haden passes it off to Mike Mitchell and then gets depth to play inside leverage and bracket #1 on the post. Well done.
Second Half
– Stephon Tuitt loses his gap…Kizer rushes for a first down on third and long.
– Nice throw by Jones on the slant. He’s struggled with these throws. Needs to see more of this.
– Will Gay came all the way from his LCB spot to force the fumble. Disappointing the defense gave up so many yards on 3rd and long but nice hustle play.
– T.J. Watt was really impressive vs the run. We’ll do either a video or breakdown of that in the near future.
– Both as a blocker and return man, I’ve liked what Toussaint has done in the kick game. Getting better…
