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Hello. This thread is for those who were unable to watch the game and for those of us who like talking about what actually occurred on the field of play in a specific game. It's not about who should be fired, our ownership, our all-time record, our bruised emotions, etc. Comments can be both positive and negative, but please keep them to things that happened during the game. And yes, I know that we lost the game. No need to remind me.
--Watson struggled again. He did hold the ball too long on many plays. He made a couple of really bad decisions where he forced the ball into tight coverage. He did show off his legs a few times. He also showed some creativity on some plays like the flip he made to Chubb for the TD. Overall, it was a disappointing performance.
--Chubb ran hard and made some nice runs. He didn't carry it much, but we did throw it to him on screens and in the flat on multiple occasions. Long handoffs, so to speak.
--The OL struggled some, but again, Watson was holding the ball too long. Wills makes some stupid penalties.
--I get that folks are complaining about us not running enough and perhaps we should have run the ball more. However, consider that this game was being played after we had been eliminated from the playoffs and it seems to me that we were looking at plays that we either want to use w/Watson in the future or scrap. It is similar to us trying to score at the end of the half when we should have taken a knee. What did we have to lose? Nothing. We were getting extra reps for our 2-minute offense.
--I read on the other thread that we were never in the game at any point. I don't think that is true. We led 7-0 late in the 2nd quarter. The Steelers tied it at 7 w/4:43 in the half. They kicked the go ahead FG w/33 seconds left. We also scored w/a little less than 5 minutes left to make it a one-score game.
--Myles played his ass off. His effort was incredible. I don't think I've ever seen him play the run better than he did yesterday.
--Our LBers who we got off the scrap heap played so much better against the run than our starting LBers ever did. Losing Ragland hurt against their power game.
--Njoku looked good when he got the ball. I am not sure if our WRs were getting open or not because it is hard to tell due to the camera angle, but I wonder if that had something to do w/Watson holding the ball too long? Most of our catches other than one to Cooper were contested.
--I thought the secondary played pretty good. They made some tough catches. Pickett was 13 of 29 for less than 200 yards.
--We did not get much of a pass rush, but when we did the refs negated the sack w/a penalty.
--The biggest story of the day was how good our D was playing only to surrender multiple 3rd and longs. They scored a TD on a play in which it was 3rd and 15. They picked up several first downs on 3rd and 8, 3rd and 9 and 3rd and 10.
--This is not a homer complaint, but that was the worst officiated game of the year. By far. My son and I were texting and he brought it up first. He is a Steeler fan. But man, the number of calls boggled my mind. The officials ruled N. Harris down when it appeared his knee never touched and he got the ball into the end zone. This led to us forcing a fumble and stopping their scoring drive. They called a PI on Fields [#42] when he wasn't even involved in the play. Delpitt wears #22, but he didn't touch the guy. In fact, I was complaining because he was late to help Newsome out. They about ripped Watson's helmet off and the official was staring right at the play and did not call a face mask. Cam Heyward sacks Watson w/out much force and they call Roughing the Passer. Myles had a guy grab the inside of the back of his shoulder pads to prevent a sack and the call is a bogus defensive holding or PI on us. We get a nice pass play or a run for a first down and it's negated by penalty. Ford w/a long KO return and a late flag appears for a hold. The officials stunk for both teams!
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