Winners and Losers from Pittsburgh Steelers' Week 1 Performance
The Pittsburgh Steelers came away with their first victory of the 2017 season Sunday, defeating the Cleveland Browns, 21-18. The win came courtesy of the contributions of certain players and despite the struggles of others.
Here are the winners and losers on the Steelers squad following their Week 1 besting of their AFC North rival.
Winner: LB Anthony Chickillo
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Backup outside linebacker Anthony Chickillo was promoted to a starter in Sunday's game while Bud Dupree sat out with a shoulder injury. And what should have been a step down in quality was anything but, with Chickillo being one of the Steelers' biggest standouts of the day.
The 24-year-old had six tackles in the game—four solo, including two for a loss—and sacked quarterback DeShone Kizer twice, with two additional quarterback hits. He also blocked a Britton Colquitt punt in the first quarter, which he also recovered for a touchdown.
While there are questions about the Steelers' depth on the line and at safety, there is no concern about the quality of their outside linebackers. Chickillo proved exactly that Sunday against a Browns offensive line that is among the best in the league.
Loser: Le'Veon Bell and the Run Game
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Star Steelers running back Le'Veon Bell spent all summer away from his team, holding out in hopes for a long-term contract rather than having to play the 2017 season on a $12.12 million franchise tag. When that didn't materialize, he continued to avoid his team, ultimately missing all of training camp and the preseason and making his return in early September.
Perhaps it was that time off that led Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin to use Bell sparingly on Sunday. According to Adam Levitan at DraftKings, Bell only played 71 percent of the Steelers' offensive snaps, compared to 90 percent of them a season ago. But that's not the only reason why Bell had a bad day, with only 32 yards on 10 carries; the entire Steelers' run game was stymied by Cleveland's defensive front.
The Steelers rushed just 17 times in Sunday's game—nine rushes in the first half, eight in the second—for a mere 35 yards. The team averaged 2.1 yards per carry, and Bell 3.2. Bell also was not very involved in the passing game either, catching three passes on six targets for 15 yards.
Though the Steelers won, Pittsburgh needs to hope that this down performance out of the run game was an anomaly and not the beginning of a season-long trend.
Part of the reason why the Steelers have long had such an explosive offense is their ability to make big plays whether when passing or running the ball; focusing on one over the other will turn them one-dimensional and thus easier to scheme against. Whatever rust Bell is exhibiting or caution Tomlin is exhibiting need to quickly abate.
Winner: TE Jesse James
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Throughout the offseason, the Steelers tight end position seemed to be their biggest weakness on offense. It seemed that Jesse James earned the starting job by default and not because of anything he did to particularly earn it. Though his hands have shown some improvement since debuting in 2015, his blocking has long been a work in progress and he had yet to develop into the red-zone target the Steelers had anticipated he'd become when they drafted him in the fifth round.
But Sunday, James shined. He was the second-most targeted receiver by Ben Roethlisberger, with six catches on eight targets for 41 yards. James was also the recipient of both of Roethlisberger's passing touchdowns, first a four-yarder late in the second quarter to give the Steelers a one-touchdown lead at halftime and another for two yards in the third quarter.
On a day when few things went right for the Steelers on the offense, James' efforts helped bail them out. Perhaps the Steelers have had the tight end they've needed all along and just have focused too much on James' weaknesses to notice.
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Loser: WR Martavis Bryant
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It had been since 2015 that Steelers receiver Martavis Bryant had played in a regular-season game, having spent all of 2016 suspended after violating the NFL's substance abuse policy.
Though a full participant in offseason and summertime activities this year—when allowed by the league—there was doubtlessly going to be rust for Bryant to shake off. However, there was also some optimism that his defense-burning ability to score a touchdown would reveal itself both early and often on Sunday.
Neither was the case. Bryant was barely in Roethlisberger's sights for most of Week 1, with the receiver well-covered by the Browns defense. And when he was, he made little difference. Though Roethlisberger targeted Bryant six times on Sunday, Bryant caught only two of them—one in the first half, for no gain, and another in the second half, for 14 yards.
At some point, Bryant will be far more involved in the Steelers offense. But his 2017 is noticeably on a slower start than most had expected.
Winner: LB T.J. Watt
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The Steelers' 2017 Round 1 draft pick was a starter on Sunday and it was hard not to notice him. Outside linebacker T.J. Watt had practically the best professional debut a defensive player could ask for, and if it's any indication how the rest of his season will go, it's possible he's on his way to being Defensive Rookie of the Year.
Watt led the Steelers with seven tackles on Sunday, with six solo and 2.5 for a loss. He also sacked Kizer twice, hit him another two times, defended a pass and picked him off once, returning the interception for 17 yards.
Watt was drafted with the intention of making him the heir apparent to 39-year old James Harrison. Not only has Watt taken Harrison's starting job within a matter of months, he's quickly justified that coaching decision. For a rookie like Watt to have such success working on the right side—and thus matched up against future Hall of Fame left tackle Joe Thomas—says something about the ability he possesses and the potential of his career.
Loser: Team Discipline
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A season ago, the Steelers were not a heavily penalized team, averaging 6.58 accepted flags against them (or just under the league average) through 19 games played, per NFL Penalty Tracker. On Sunday, though, the Steelers drew 13 flags that cost them a whopping 144 yards of field position.
Five of the calls were for offensive holding and another four were for unnecessary roughness, both signs of a lack of discipline and preparation that both the players and the Steelers coaches must be held accountable.
It should be noted that no one player was particularly the problem—a good sign in one sense because there's no specific weak link to point out, but also a bad one in that the lack of discipline is a teamwide problem that struck members of the offense and defense alike. The only player to be dinged more than once was rookie receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, with two holding calls. Another silver lining is that none of the calls were pre-snap penalties.
But ceding 144 yards due to mental mistakes and discipline errors alone is never acceptable, especially in a road game. Further, of Cleveland's 20 first downs earned on Sunday, five were the result of Steelers penalties. Pittsburgh's lack of focus partially helped keep the Browns competitive in Week 1, and it cannot be a trend that repeats itself this season or it will eventually cost the Steelers a victory.
Winner: WR Antonio Brown
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Roethlisberger threw two touchdown passes on Sunday, with James catching them. Chickillo may have returned a blocked punt for a touchdown. The Steelers defense may have sacked Kizer seven times. But Pittsburgh would not have left Cleveland with a win without the contributions of one man: receiver Antonio Brown.
Brown was tasked with the majority of the Steelers' chain-moving Sunday and set up both of James' red-zone touchdown catches. He was also reliable to a ridiculous degree, catching all 11 passes Roethlisberger threw his way for 182 yards. Roethlisberger completed 24 passes for 263 yards; without Brown that number would have been considerably lower: 13-of-25 for 81 yards.
Further, Brown sealed Pittsburgh's victory late in the fourth quarter, managing to catch a 38-yard pass despite being draped in triple coverage. That catch converted a 2nd-and-12 that allowed the Steelers to make a few attempts at running the ball before taking a knee until the clock ran out; without that conversion, it was wholly possible for the Browns to get the ball back and either score a game-winning touchdown or a game-tying field goal. Brown made it so that would not be possible.
Brown is one of the best receivers in the NFL, and it's performances like Sunday's—up to and including the game-clinching circus catch—that helps cement that status.
Loser: Red-Zone Defense
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A year ago, the Steelers defense was not what one could term stingy in terms of yards allowed nor in terms of the big plays it gave up. But what it did do was limit opposing offenses from scoring touchdowns when they reached the red zone. Pittsburgh ranked fifth in red-zone touchdowns allowed in 2016, at 48.5 percent, despite ranking 24th in opponent red-zone scoring opportunities, at 3.5. Thus, the Steelers ranked 10th in the league in points allowed.
But that red-zone defense faltered against the Browns. Cleveland had three trips to the red zone and came away with touchdowns twice: a one-yard run by Kizer in the first quarter and a three-yard grab by receiver Corey Coleman in the fourth quarter that helped get the Browns a field goal away from tying the game before the Steelers ultimately came away with a win.
Keep in mind that Cleveland's offense is the youngest the Steelers will face all year. More seasoned teams may not just sniff the red zone more often in coming weeks but also have more established ways of turning those red-zone appearances into touchdowns. If Pittsburgh's defense is going to continue to give up chunks of yardage as it did a year ago, it also must reprise another hallmark of the 2016 defense—the "don't break" half of "bend but don't break." That wasn't the case Sunday.
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