Although the defensive roles have been recast, the Steelers’ pass rush stole the show, consistently forcing bad throws and keeping the Cowboys off schedule.
Rookie first-round pick Najee Harris got his first action in a Steelers uniform tonight. He had 7 carries for 22 yards, and caught his only target for 3 yards. He started the game in the shotgun to the left of Mason Rudolph, who went 6/9 on the night for 84 yards.
Rudolph’s best pass of the night was a 45-yard hookup to Chase Claypool down the left sideline. Claypool was slow to get up and did not reappear, but he was spotted later on the broadcast with his pads off, moving around fine. Tomlin confirmed after the game “he’s fine;” probably just fell on top of the ball and lost his wind.
Kendrick Green also played his first game as a Steeler. If you were banking on him coming in Day One and making you say “Maurkice Who?” I regret to inform you a botched snap between he and Rudolph led to an early turnover. Hands off the panic button, though; it’s good luck to get these things out of the way in the preseason. He also showed some bully in the run game, and wants to finish every block through the ground. He definitely showed why he was on this team’s draft list, after their stated desire to recommit to the ground game.
Dwayne Haskins was the second QB in the saddle for the night, and went 8-13 for only 54 yards. I thought he looked uncomfortable at times; on one play a DB came around the edge untouched. After the play he was talking to someone and pointing in that direction, maybe somebody missed a blocking assignment.
Haskins led a TD drive that was capped by a short yardage run at the goal line from Ballage. The drive was set up by a big, Madden-style punt return from Matthew Sexton, feinting left to set the table before cutting back up the right sideline for 35.
Josh Dobbs took the reigns with about 12 minutes in the 4th quarter. Admittedly he was going against the Cowboys’ barrel-bottomers, but I thought he won the QB battle. His throws were crisp, he was hitting guys at the top of breaks, and he showed great poise especially while scrambling to keep his eyes downfield searching for weapons. Dobbs had the teams only passing TD, on a goal line out route to Tyler Simmons.
In this evening’s performance the part of TJ Watt was played by: Jamir Jones, who logged 1 sack and 3 QB hits. One of those hits resulted in a floated pass that Donovan Stiner stepped in front of and turned around for a 17-yard return.
Alex Highsmith reprised his starting role on the right edge of the defense. He had a sack and affected a ton of throws from Cowboys QBs. He was easily the best ACTIVE Steeler on the field tonight.
TW: 4th Down defense. The Cowboys converted on a 4th and 15, but Justin Layne came in punching and forced a fumble on the tackle. I like to see my guys trying to create splash on defense, but allowing a conversion on 4th and 15 is as close to unforgivable as you can get in American football. That is, until they allowed a 27 yard scramble on 4th and 21. The defense needs to tighten up in “gimme situations.”
Cassius Marsh and Abdullah Anderson both had strip sacks, and Marsh was a step late on getting half of Highsmith’s sack. The defense ended with 4 sacks, but all night long Cowboys QBs were uncomfortable in the pocket.
Ulysses Gilbert got a long look at MLB. I’ll be curious to see how the team felt he did communicating and calling a defense, but I thought I saw him talking and making adjustments. Robert Spillane also worked in the middle; he was caught cheating on a PA pass the TE fortunately dropped, and a RB ran a cross route right in front of his face for a 1st down.
Absolute UNIT: Steelers special teams did Danny Smith proud. In addition to Sexton’s big return, they blocked a FG which the broadcast credited to Gilbert. Presley Harvin had 4 punts for a respectable 45.8 yard average. 3 pinned the Cowboys inside their 20, and one particular beauty bounced four times on the 1 yard line and stuck there. That’s the guy to go golfing with if you want to learn a flop shot.
But where there’s good, there’s also bad… Another of Harvin’s kicks may have been a mis-hit as it only hung for about 3.2 seconds. The returner made the curious decision of trying to field the kick after two bounces, and Anthony Johnson fell on top of the muff. The result makes it look prettier than it was.
As for the ugly… Sam Sloman missed a FG from 49 wide right, but if he had kicked it from the opposite hash it could have been good from 55. He also missed an extra point wide right. He should only ever kick from the left hash. He loves that hash.
You Gotta Laugh: On Josh Dobbs first snap of the game, they ran a PA pass to Edmunds who was lined up at TE on the weak side of the formation, and Matthew Sexton was out in front lead blocking. For Tre Edmunds, backup FB. That’s not one I thought they’d put on tape this early.
Steely Cam 