Steelers scribes can use lots of adjectives to describe McCarthy’s inaugural win in Pittsburgh, but the one that best suits it is “sloppy” – a descriptor that applies to both teams.
D.K. Metcalf drops another pass. Photo Credit: Matt Freed, Post-Gazette
Numbers don’t lie and they tell a disheveled tale:
- The Steelers and Falcons combined to miss 3 field goals
- Add one more “what was that?” botched field goal attempt
- The Steelers and Falcons accepted a total of 13 penalties for over 150 yards
- Aaron Rodgers targeted D.K. Metcalf 10 times and only came away with 4 catches
- The Falcons and the Steelers went a cumulative 5 for 25 on third downs
- For the record, the Steelers were 0 for 2 on fourth downs
OK. Those conversion stats present a double-edge sword, because the takeaway could easily be that the defense was playing exceptionally well. If you look at how Alex Highsmith ended Atlanta’s opening and closing drives with sacks, that conclusion has merit.
Mike McCarthy acknowledged the “herky jerky” nature of his offense and chalked the sloppiness up to “September football.” So be it. That’s now the norm in the NFL.
- But the better question is: Must it really be that way?
We know the reason: With each passing year, coaches play starters and even first-line backups less and less in preseason. And that has consequences, as Bob Labriola laid out about a year ago in “Asked and Answered.” Responding to a question about early season sloppiness, the Steelers Digest editor explained:
Once the regular season begins, a team doesn’t need to be a well-oiled machine to win games; it just needs to be better than that week’s particular opponent. Since no teams give significant playing time to their starters during the preseason, there are no well-oiled machines in the NFL in September. Or even into early October.
Two questions later, in the same chat, Labriola pointed to the goal of protecting starters from injuries, indicating that coaches will err on the side of keeping players healthy.
Fair enough.
The days of Chuck Noll using the final preseason game as his “dress rehearsal” where he’d play presumptive starters well into the 4th quarter are long gone.
- But consider D.K. Metcalf’s performance in the win over the Falcons.
Metcalf didn’t play a down in preseason and he had two egregious drops. Now, no one will ever confuse Metcalf’s pass-catching ability with Antonio Brown’s. But his 40% catch rate is 20 points below his career average. In this game, that translates to 2 catches. And one of Metcalf’s drops would have been a game changer.
- It is tempting to wonder whether Metcalf would have been sharper with even a few preseason reps under his belt.
Couldn’t an enterprising coach create a competitive edge by finding a happy medium between playing starters just long enough to knock off the rust while keeping them healthy?
- Maybe, maybe not.
We’ll likely never know the answer to the question.
The Steelers went into the game healthy, not counting DeShon Elliott and, er um, Joey Porter Jr., and came out of the game healthy. And the Steelers, while sloppy, were less sloppy than the Falcons.
So maybe it is OK that we’ll never learn the answer to the question.
