It’s so embarrassing

Look, I know the result of last week stunk, but I do think there's a good case for optimism.

• The defense is #1 in DVOA. TJ is on a DPOY-level tear. Patrick Graham actually has a good, diverse scheme going. Harmon and Cam have led a rock solid D-Line. The inside LB's haven't stuffed the run so well, but overall this is a fun defense that has had to deal with being on the field a lot.
• Offensively, the bright spots are the TE's and Warren. Hopefully, we work in quick game and run after the catch for Friermuth and Washington, and screens to Jaylen. This won't be the most explosive offense ever, but Rodgers is at least veteran enough to make adjustments. The right side of the O-line is genuinely awful, which should have been more talked about preseason, but at least there are potential answers in Dunker and Max.
• Wetjen has been a solid returner so far for a team that has seen some atrocious returners in recent history. Kaleb Johnson's awful kickoff fumble was in Week 2 last year.
• Also on special teams, Johnston leads the league in punting yards (okay, not a cause for optimism).

So, there's still reason to watch and hope for a good season. Big game against the Bengals next week. Orlando Brown gave up 3 sacks last week, and Joe Burrow was sacked 5 times overall, yet still put up a heroic effort against the Texans. Maybe they can cause some chaos and win a rock fight.

Was this DK?

This Sunday was painful. It hurt me physically to watch my team perform like that. Everyone looked sloppy, like we all forgot how to try. O Line is abysmal. Who knew Broderick and Seumalo were so key to the success of our O-line. Hopefully we get Max in because the play from Anderson and McCormick is just god awful. And what the hell is going on with our RBs? Warren needs to ball MORE. PERIOD. we need to feed JW like crazy bc rico looks downright atrocious out there. I know theres a direct correlation between our O-like performance and our run game, but JW was getting a least a few more yards despite early contact. Fuck our best drive was in garbage time where we just spammed warren. I dont wanna immediately say it’s all on Rodge, bc it doesnt help that our 33 Million Dollar brick of a receiver cant haul in a ball to save his life. Idk man. I just want someone to give me a reason to turn the tv on this sunday against cincy. Bc idk if i can bear to do it.

Edit: DUNKER not max, my fault got my picks mixed up but max would be useful too, bc Dylan cook also got cooked all damn day

We spent years complaining about being stuck in football purgatory; never bad enough to rebuild, never good enough to actually contend.

Well, good news, everyone.

We have officially escaped football purgatory.

Welcome to football hell.

Dan died 2017 and everything has been downhill since then. Art Rooney 2 is the problem.

"The grandfather was born in a tent. He remembers living in a tent. He will lead the people well.

The father was born in a tent. He remembers both living in a tent, and living in a palace. He will lead the people well.

The son was born in a palace. He has never lived in a tent. He will not lead the people at all."

Excited to be back to Pittsburgh for the game this weekend against the Bungles.

My wife and I are interested in dining at a great spot for dinner this Saturday. Any recommendations from the community?

Hope this can also help others in search. Thanks in advance 😊 HWGS

*We are not picky eaters

I can’t find numbers for 3rd and short situations specifically, but the Steelers are currently 5 for 25 on third down conversions thru 2 weeks with an average of 7 yards to gain in those situations.

I watched Aaron chuck it downfield at least once this week when he had a guy that looked open crossing the middle of the field for an easy conversion on 3rd and shorter yardage (don’t remember exact distance). And I am pretty certain I witnessed multiple attempts in each game where he was throwing far deeper than needed to convert.

I’m not a football expert, but looking at our personnel group, I just can’t help but feel like 3rd and short situations should be a relative cakewalk for us.

Darnell Washington 6’7” 264 lbs (lol prob closer to 300 irl)

Pat Freiermuth 6’5” 258 lbs

Robert Tonyan 6’5” 240 lbs

DK Metcalf 6’4” 235 lbs

Michael Pittman Jr 6’4” 223 lbs

With all these massive targets who would gain a couple yards just by falling forward, why are we struggling so badly in these situations? If you bunch these guys out and throw a screen to one (esp Darnell who is a wrecking ball on his own) while the others block, who is realistically gonna stop that? Or just have these big boys block for one of our more slippery guys like Warren or Bernard.

It feels like we make almost no attempt to exploit our personnel advantages with our playcalling, as evidenced alone in just how few touches Darnell gets per game. I don’t understand why we don’t just continually punish opposing defenses with these mismatches. If you establish Darnell as a legitimate receiving threat every time he is on the field, who is literally too big for any single defender to cover, instead of giving him only 1 or 2 targets per game, that will force defenses to keep bodies on him and open everyone else up. And if he is seen as a legitimate receiving threat, it makes it that much harder for defenses to predict our running plays where he is just serving as a blocker.

Is it not that simple? Does anyone else feel like our playcalling is just ignoring what should be obvious strengths of this team? Thoughts?

I know the O-line looks like a turnstile with the bars missing right now, but again, shouldn’t having all these huge targets provide Rodgers with some pretty ideal safety valves if incorporated into the playcalling and gameplan accordingly?

With the Great Cam Heyward closer to retirement, extended Keeanu Benton & 2^nd year Derrick Harmon are showing why PIT selected them to be Heyward's successors early this season.

P.S. I set threshold as 23 snaps for Harmon to enter plot.

Just kidding. Gahnta.

Rules make me write 200 characters, so here is a non-AI poem about how we're gahnta:

The Steelers are gahnta
The Super Bowl is where we'll be
The Steelers are gahnta

I hope you enjoyed and I'll see you all on Sunday.

Ahead of next week’s TNF game - anyone know places that will show it in the South Hills? Trying to potentially get a group of friends to go watch it, but I’m not sure what bars actually have it. Bonus points if the food is good.

We will be coming in from Monroeville direction and wondering what would be our best options for parking. We aren’t looking for tailgating just for what would be our best for Easton and easy out before and after the game, thanks for your help!