Another thought about the defense…… I don’t think Buffalo’s OL is all that,
either. The defense won’t always find it that easy to play in the backfield as
they did yesterday….
On 13 Sep 2021, at 13:53, Steve Rhoton <sprhoto@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
At least this line has room to grow from here. We could have a veteran line
doing this, which would be terrifying.
On Mon, Sep 13, 2021 at 8:44 AM Scott H <blitzum@xxxxxxx
<mailto:blitzum@xxxxxxx>> wrote:
Agreed on all. To your point on the O line, this year in particular they
almost did meet each other for the first time before the game. The last
minute Banner to IR, Chuks back to RT and Moore in at LT had largely a week
of practice. Let’s hope it gets quickly and like you said let’s hope it
happens before we play a good rushing team.
Scott in Jersey
On Sep 13, 2021, at 8:38 AM, David Reid <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
Helluva win. One of the best road victories of the Tomlin era, but I will
say I’m glad we played Buffalo now and not in a couple of months time when
they will have bedded in their pass rushers a bit more. They have a lot of
things to correct and adjust, but so has every other team in the league
after one week.
- I wasn’t surprised by what I saw from Ben yesterday - he spends most of
the summer and preseason sat on his helmet watching the other QB’s do 85%
of the reps and then everyone wonders why he’s rusty and missing receivers
and his timing is off? Come on, nothing new to see here, he’s just got to
get that timing down. He needs reps and not rest at this stage of the
season. There were some truly terrible throws in there, but again, I’ve
seen this in every opening game form Ben for years now. The challenge is to
protect him long enough to enable the downfield throw.
- Offensive line is a mess. They can talk all they want about being
aggressive and taking the fight to the defense, but mano-e-mano, they are
overmatched on this level. It was only when they actually started to pull
and trap that they were able to give Ben time and create creases. Downfield
blocking from the WR’s and TE’s was excellent too. Harris will be fine, but
he needs help. Greater challenges lie ahead. I fear for them when they come
up against a team with an above average pass rush, I fear for what might
happen when Cleveland throws their outside rushers at them. The cohesion
will come, but again, we say this year after year, they always come out in
the opening game and play like they met each other for the first time the
night before.
- Defense was great and the rotation along the front seven was good and it
worked, everyone was on a pitch count and kept fresh and everyone who took
the field on that side of the ball contributed to the effort, get Tuitt
back healthy and things will improve further. I liked Bush and Schobert
pairing in the middle, didn’t make many big plays but they were consistent.
Norwood played like he did at Oklahoma, he’s just a guy who can get
everywhere and he’s probably the best candidate for that Hilton role.
Terrell Edmunds will always be the weak link, he’ll always be a couple of
seconds too late to stop what is happening and will always be targeted.
- A big play on special teams was the upset of opening weekend, especially
after the breakdown on kickoff coverage to start the game. I’m so glad they
kept Boswell after he slumped in 2018. Harvin will be fine and his bad
punts will be less frequent than Berry’s were.
Onwards…...