HR 1: Steelers Hits & Misses: Week 6

And you know, Brian, when you come off of a loss, this exercise is a lot easier because there's much that you can pick out.

But when you come off of a win, a bit more challenging, but I did find one on offense and one on defense to feed you.

First on offense is something we've been talking about quite a bit this season, and it's the Steelers' struggles on third down.

Now for the season through five games, they are at 33%, 20 of 61.

Now on the flip side of that, when you have an 80-yard score and a 50-yard score like they did this past week, you don't have to worry about third downs.

Yeah, and that's something that they've been trying to get right all season.

Mike McCarthy has said, I think probably on more than one occasion at this point, Ed, that the biggest emphasis, the biggest focal point for them is being better on third down.

It's only going to get more challenging, I think, as you You lose some pieces offensively.

But I think guys like Jeremy Bernard, Pat Friermuth, Darnell Washington, if this means more snaps for them, trickle-down effect, I feel pretty good about throwing to those guys on third downs.

Yeah, they got good options, that's for sure, right? And that's part of this offensive scheme that's going to continue to improve, Brian, as the season goes on.

And I think that's something that – and we talked about this the other day, I believe, or maybe it was even last week, that this is a new coaching staff.

This is a new system.

Now, Aaron Rodgers does have a history, obviously, with Mike McCarthy in this scheme and in this system, having played with him many, many years in Green Bay.

But for the overall roster – This is a brand new coaching staff.

It's a brand new playbook.

And it's going to take some time as the season goes on.

We're only five games in, but I would anticipate as the season goes on that they will get better and better on offense.

But again, I think that's something that we take for granted because for 19 years, even though you had a different offensive coordinators come and go, for the most part, the playbook was the same year after year after year.

It'll be a good chess match this week.

Offensive play-calling head coach in Mike McCarthy versus a defensive play-calling head coach in Todd Bowles in Tampa.

I think that's still the case.

I probably should have mentioned a guy who's on the coaching staff down there with the Buccaneers and other Steelers.

Great.

And someone who was part of some really, really good teams.

Two-time Super Bowl champion himself.