Today's post though is a selfish post, if you are new to my blog I am a Steelers fan. But I love sports so I comment on everything in general, if I can. I wanted to spend a little time talking about the season opener for the Steelers against the 2014 NFL Champions, the Patriots. Maybe it was the fact that I was in one of my favorite DC sporting venues only to be surrounded by the most arrogant Patriots Fans I have ever met. Maybe it was because I was coming off of having one of the worst viruses I have ever had. Or maybe it was because just maybe they weren't ready, but the outcome of that game was not what I was expecting.
Let's start with Deflategate and get that out of the way:
If anyone has been following, Tom Brady was accused of tampering with game balls during the AFC East championship game. It became this scandal and eventually Tom was suspended 4 games by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. Now regardless on where you fall in relation to the validity of the claims, the fact for me is that I think the ruling was excessive. I think there should obviously be some punishment, but not sure if it needed to be 4 games.With that said flash forward to the start of the season and Brady has a case with a court system that eventually overturns the suspension completely.
My take, playing the Patriots honestly wouldn't be fun if we weren't playing CryBrady, so as much as it pains me to see privilege win (we can talk about NFL punishments later), I wouldn't have anted us to start the season without playing him, although their backup QB is pretty hot!
The Game:
Against the Steelers, we are lacking in our offense having Le'Veon Bell suspended for 3 games and Martavis Bryant was suspended for 4. Our center Maurkice Pouncey is injured and so is our kicker Shaun Suisham. So a big part of our offense is already out and makes our first few weeks a little interesting. Additionally, our defense is young. This is the first season without the great Dick Lebeau and our Defense is young! The identity that has been known as #TheSteelCurtain is going to very much be a new generation of Steelers. We might not be known for our defense anymore which has been the foundation of our team. I mean think about it, every team knows get Brady on his back enough times and you can get into his head. but the fact that Gronk was left open as much as he was being a key player for the Patriots, it's unbelieveable to me that we would allow that to be the way our defense plays.
The Patriots had the momentum going for them first in the game. It took the Steelers a while to hit a rhythm and we couldn't convert. But what killed us was the new Kicker brought in this season from the Jags, Josh Scobee. Scobee had two attempts to put some points on the board for the Steelers and couldn't connect. One wild kick after another and had us with 0 on the board for two drives that could have ended in some additional points before the half. It wasn't until his third attempt that Scobee finally connected and we went into the half at least with 3 points on the board.
D'Angelo Williams cannot be our only offensive weapon. One you can't have him running up the middle EVERY SINGLE play and yes he has speed to squeeze through, but thinking about the long term impact, if you aren't changing it up it's going to be a defense's open shot every time. Antonio Brown definitely stepped up and in BIG during this game catching a few well placed balls, but I need to see some consistency, and I would like to know what the identity of our Defense will be.
A look ahead:
Next game we are home against the 49ers who are coming off of a great win. I think I am most excited to see two former team mates Ryan Shazier and Carlos Hyde literally up against each other. And I have Hyde on both of my fantasy teams, so I do need him to do well, even though he's up against my boys.
That's all she wrote folks!
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