Things Looking Up

1niksder · Post by **1niksder** » Sat Aug 13, 2011 10:53 am

What the heck? I’m excited about the performance of my team in the first preseason game of the year? I must be nuts! Well… maybe not. Look things happened in the Friday Preseason game against the Steelers that cannot be attributed to “luck”. 3 penalties… one, a roughing the QB called on Kerrigan (it was one of those “the league says we have to call this cheap penalty so nobody breaks our quarterback” penalties).

But, the outstanding factoid was NO FALSE STARTS called on the O-line, which, oh by the way, was running at mid-season efficiency and discipline. Sure, you can say all you want about vanilla D line play by the Steelers, it still follows… that is one of the most effective defensive front 7′s in the league, even with their early substitutions. You also have to be highly impressed with the play of OUR defensive front 7. They were everywhere, even with the same vanilla philosophy used by the Steelers…

I’m also going to note, that, despite the hand wringing about the new kick-off rules, this may well prove to be a strength of the Redskins. Gano consistently put the ball through the end zone (anybody else out there want to see him try a 65 yard fg?). On the other hand, most kickers on other teams will not be so consistent in their ability to drive the ball. If Brandon Banks makes this team (he certainly made a strong case last night), he will not hesitate to bring the ball out, meaning many opportunities for big returns. I think we need to see this play out..

I fear that, at the moment… I’m suffering from an optimistic outlook. It’s an unusual feeling. Don’t tell anybody, but I kind of like it.

HTTR

Irn-Bru · Post by **Irn-Bru** » Sat Aug 13, 2011 11:09 am

We do have to take into account that the teams were running vanilla playcalling. But that really doesn't have any bearing on the execution we saw from our squad last night, which was excellent.

Red_One43 · Post by **Red_One43** » Sat Aug 13, 2011 12:08 pm

Love the quote - right on the money!

Skinsfan55 · Post by **Skinsfan55** » Sat Aug 13, 2011 12:38 pm

Okay, so I didn't see the game, and it can be hard to judge O-Line play, but were they really: "running at mid-season efficiency and discipline."

I haven't read one article about it, or heard anything about the offensive line's play. (Other than the bad shotgun snap by Monty on the TD strike to Moss.) How did they play really? Did Chester look good at RG?

Countertrey · Post by **Countertrey** » Sat Aug 13, 2011 12:58 pm

Skinsfan55 wrote:Okay, so I didn't see the game, and it can be hard to judge O-Line play, but were they really: "running at mid-season efficiency and discipline."

I haven't read one article about it, or heard anything about the offensive line's play. (Other than the bad shotgun snap by Monty on the TD strike to Moss.) How did they play really? Did Chester look good at RG?

1: They were firing off the ball at the snap, and immediately into their assignments. There was no confusion in handing off assignments, and no hesitation in engaging... Blocks were being made at the second level. We had two running back average in the 4.5 yd/carry range, and, as I pointed out, NO FALSE STARTS. Do you have any idea how difficult that is to accomplish at this point in the year? The level of confidence carried by both first and second string was ramarkable.
There was but one sack, late in the second half, and that was mostly on Clemens lack of familiararity with the offense.

If you watched that game, you had to be impressed. Offensive line cohesion is probably the toughest component to coach, and often doesn't get to this point until well after the regular season starts. There were no glaring errors in line play from first and second string. There is no reason to expect it to anything but improve. Could it have been a fluke? Sure... I suppose... but, with all of the things that can go wrong, against one of the top D's in the league, how likely is that?

HarleyHog · Post by **HarleyHog** » Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:18 pm

I also was deprived of the opportunity to watch. Overjoyed to hear that the line play was cohesive. Rex may have a future as a soothsayer. Hope this improving level of play means something come the regular season. Sure could hang with a bunch of WINNING !

skinpride1 · Post by **skinpride1** » Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:30 pm

O-line looked solid. I know it's early but sometimes things do carry over from preseason into the regular season. hELL how many times the last several years has the skins looked terrible in preseason and it continued on into the regular season.

preseason is important when you have a new unit trying to get them to gel.

I was happy to see us play well against a GOOD DEFENSE.

HarleyHog · Post by **HarleyHog** » Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:47 pm

It was very nice not to have us give up a late lead, but instead seal the deal with a drive and score. In recent years, we often put up a good fight when we were underdog, but lost to teams we should have handled readily. If we can beat the teams we ought to beat, and stay in the rest of the games, we may well have a good season.

Irn-Bru · Post by **Irn-Bru** » Sat Aug 13, 2011 2:09 pm

Countertrey wrote:
Skinsfan55 wrote:Okay, so I didn't see the game, and it can be hard to judge O-Line play, but were they really: "running at mid-season efficiency and discipline."

I haven't read one article about it, or heard anything about the offensive line's play. (Other than the bad shotgun snap by Monty on the TD strike to Moss.) How did they play really? Did Chester look good at RG?
1: They were firing off the ball at the snap, and immediately into their assignments. There was no confusion in handing off assignments, and no hesitation in engaging... Blocks were being made at the second level. We had two running back average in the 4.5 yd/carry range, and, as I pointed out, NO FALSE STARTS. Do you have any idea how difficult that is to accomplish at this point in the year? The level of confidence carried by both first and second string was ramarkable.
There was but one sack, late in the second half, and that was mostly on Clemens lack of familiararity with the offense.

If you watched that game, you had to be impressed. Offensive line cohesion is probably the toughest component to coach, and often doesn't get to this point until well after the regular season starts. There were no glaring errors in line play from first and second string. There is no reason to expect it to anything but improve. Could it have been a fluke? Sure... I suppose... but, with all of the things that can go wrong, against one of the top D's in the league, how likely is that?

You allude to this, CT, but I want to stress the point: they kept the pressure off the QB. They kept the pressure off the QB. And against the Steelers, no less!

We also saw actual holes opening up for our running backs and a pretty good deployment of the ZBS.

Mid-season efficiency really isn't a stretch. That was better line play than we often saw from the regular season over the past few years.

Countertrey · Post by **Countertrey** » Sat Aug 13, 2011 2:10 pm

Thanks for reinforcing that, FFA...

Red_One43 · Post by **Red_One43** » Sat Aug 13, 2011 2:39 pm

For those of us attending the game, we got an extra treat. During the pre-game warm-ups, the Steeler faithful, and faithful they were, dominated the scene. They came early and were loud. I have to admit I that all I could think about was that Monday Night game watching the Steeler fans waving those yellow towels looking like it was a Steeler home game.

The Redskin management handed out white towels to all fans to counter the Steeler "Terribel Towel", but I all I saw was yellow during the pregame and beginning of the game. The Steelers got the ball first and we stopped them, but Ben missed a wide open receiver deep. The mood of the stadium did not change. They punted and penned us on the one. I heard cheers. I asked why are we cheering when they penned us on the one. That was the Steeler faithful cheering and waiving their yellow towels, but that was the last time we would see the towels dominate the scene.

After first our two drives showed that the Steelers weren't going to push us around and that we were going to do the pushing, the mood of the stadium changed. It wasn't just Redskins fans who took notice that this team looks different than the ones in the recent past, Steeler fans took note as well.

The extra treat seeing those yellow towels, like magic, turned to white. I hope that the TV cameras caught that. It was a sight to see.

The win was nice, but the real deal was the execution we saw last night. This was nothing like the blowout win over the Bills last year. I didn't hear any fan talking about how we are going to the Super Bowl. I heard the same comments over and over - words like - "Wow, we looked good!"

1niksder · Post by **1niksder** » Sat Aug 13, 2011 3:22 pm

Red_One43 wrote: The extra treat seeing those yellow towels, like magic, turned to white. I hope that the TV cameras caught that. It was a sight to see.

The win was nice, but the real deal was the execution we saw last night. This was nothing like the blowout win over the Bills last year. I didn't hear any fan talking about how we are going to the Super Bowl. I heard the same comments over and over - words like - "Wow, we looked good!"

The Steelers had planned on just having their starting defense go 10 plays max. After being pushed around the way they were right out of the gate the coaches played them into the second quarter.

We did the dictating for a change instead of our standard sub par reacting.
HTTR

Red_One43 · Post by **Red_One43** » Sat Aug 13, 2011 3:46 pm

1niksder wrote:
Red_One43 wrote: The extra treat seeing those yellow towels, like magic, turned to white. I hope that the TV cameras caught that. It was a sight to see.

The win was nice, but the real deal was the execution we saw last night. This was nothing like the blowout win over the Bills last year. I didn't hear any fan talking about how we are going to the Super Bowl. I heard the same comments over and over - words like - "Wow, we looked good!"
The Steelers had planned on just having their starting defense go 10 plays max. After being pushed around the way they were right out of the gate the coaches played them into the second quarter.

We did the dictating for a change instead of our standard sub par reacting.
HTTR

+1

Warmother · Post by **Warmother** » Sat Aug 13, 2011 8:05 pm

I was most impressed with how sharp the Skins looked getting in and out of the huddle quickly.
I was also impressed with the o-line and how cohesive they looked after only a couple of weeks practice.
It's just one pre-season game but you have to be happy with the progress the team is making.

Red_One43 · Post by **Red_One43** » Sun Aug 14, 2011 12:57 am

Tomlin on 16-7 loss to Redskins

Coach Mike Tomlin assesses the Steelers’ performance after the team’s 16-7 loss to the Washington Redskins on Friday night at FedEx Field in the 2011 preseason opener:

That was not the kind of performance we were looking for or hoping for tonight. Quite frankly, we got outplayed in just about all areas – blocking, tackling, running, throwing, kicking. That team was better prepared tonight than us, and they showed it. We accept that, and I look forward to this group responding to what we put out there tonight and understand that we have a lot of ground to cover. Such is life. I’ll expect these guys to respond accordingly, and we’ll go back to work, we’ll assess this performance and it needs to be better quickly.

Q. Was the major problem on third downs for your offense having to do with blitz-pickup?

A. We had some guys accounted for and were physically beaten. We cut some people loose. It just wasn’t very pretty, and we all bear responsibility for that, starting with myself.

http://www.steelers.com/news/article-1/ ... c757558edf

UK Skins Fan · Post by **UK Skins Fan** » Sun Aug 14, 2011 4:55 am

At times like this, I feel a read of this is required to reinforce my own deliberately low expectations for the Redskins. A good dose of pessimism is healthy

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14506129
And yet, there ARE encouraging signs.

riggofan · Post by **riggofan** » Sun Aug 14, 2011 4:00 pm

Just a pre-season game I know, but there was plenty of good stuff to take from it. I dvr'd the game on Friday and watched yesterday. Glad I did!

I think the most encouraging thing from the game was the running from Hightower and Royster. Maybe this was a result of better o-line play or just upgraded RBs? I'm not smart enough to know. What I do know is that being able to run the ball CLEARLY makes life easier on Grossman.

The guy can run the offense. If the players around him step up, he has a chance to run the offense well. He also has more than just Moss and Cooley to throw to this season.

I still have no expectations for how well the team will do this season. But I have real hopes that we'll at least be competitive this year like we haven't been in quite a long time.

Red_One43 · Post by **Red_One43** » Sun Aug 14, 2011 6:48 pm

For those who doubt we pushed the Steelers first team around, here is a Pittsburgh newspaper take on it.

"Even though he watched his seemingly beleaguered first-team defense get pushed around by a revamped Washington Redskins offense in the preseason opener, Steelers defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau appeared calm after a 16-7 loss Friday night at FedEx Field.

LeBeau and Tomlin were forced to slightly alter their game plan. Tomlin said earlier this week that his starters would play 10 or fewer snaps from scrimmage, but several of them were on the field as the Redskins rolled up 119 yards on 22 plays during their first two possessions

Read more: Redskins give little rest to Steelers' defense - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsbu ... z1V2vcq3Ti

tribeofjudah · Post by **tribeofjudah** » Sun Aug 14, 2011 7:03 pm

"Quite frankly we got outplayed in just about all areas — blocking, tackling, running, throwing, kicking," Tomlin said. "That team was better prepared tonight than us. They showed it."

tribeofjudah · Post by **tribeofjudah** » Sun Aug 14, 2011 7:05 pm

ONE spin on the the Steeler loss was that all positions are already LOCKED-UP. Take a read:

The Steelers managed just 186 total yards against one of the NFC's worst teams a year ago and struggled to get the defense off the field. Washington moved the ball with ease, racking up 452 yards. Only some flawed execution by the Redskins in the red zone and spotty kicking from Shayne Graham(notes) kept the final score from being more lopsided.

"There weren't a lot of things to feel good about," Tomlin said.

Particularly in the training room. Veteran cornerback Ike Taylor(notes) broke his left thumb and will miss at least two weeks, possibly longer if surgery is required.

"It could be worse," Taylor said. "It will heal. Everybody plays injured."

What the Steelers didn't do, at least on Friday, was play with any sense of urgency. Call it a side effect when so many of the key spots are already locked up.