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The Pittsburgh Steelers' road to redemption following an ugly finish to the 2020 season began Thursday night in the Hall of Fame Game against the Dallas Cowboys.
Pittsburgh won the game 16-3, but as always, with preseason games, the final score doesn't matter too much. Instead, the Steelers went into the game more focused on getting reps for their younger players, while keeping their stars healthy. Because of that, the Steelers sat out a good chunk of their starters in Thursday's contest.
However, even without most of their starters playing, the first NFL preseason game of the year revealed a lot about the Steelers' strengths and weaknesses. Taking into account the action on Thursday night, here are three strengths and as many weaknesses of the 2021 Steelers.
Pittsburgh Steelers' strengths:
#1 Chase
Chase Claypool carried the momentum from his rookie season into the first preseason game of 2021. He had three catches for 62 yards in limited action. He also made the catch of the night, hauling in a deep ball from Mason Rudolph.
With what we've previously seen from Claypool in 2020 and now at the start of the 2021 NFL season, it's safe to say he's going to be an excellent wide receiver for a very long time. The connection between Claypool and Ben Roethlisberger this season should be fun to watch.
#2 Pass rush
Led by TJ Watt, the Steelers had the best pass rush in the entire NFL last season. Watt and the other starting Steelers pass rushers didn't even play on Thursday night, but their pass-rushing prowess carried over to the backups.
As a team, Pittsburgh combined for four sacks and nine quarterback hits. They got after Dallas each and every snap. Quincy Roche and Alex Highsmith were some of the individual performances that stood out. Both players had one sack and one quarterback hit apiece.
With an already stout starting defensive front, it's impressive the Steelers have good young talent serving as depth. From starters to backups, the Steelers' pass rush is going to be ferocious once again in 2021.
#3 Punter
The Steelers opened training camp with a battle for the starting punter job, but that may already have been settled. Rookie punter Pressley Harvin III was phenomenal against the Cowboys. He punted four times, with three of them pinning the Cowboys inside their own 20.
Harvin has a strong leg, and even more importantly, his touch on his punts is remarkable. Pittsburgh have found themselves a special teams weapon. Veteran punter Jordan Berry is strongly on the roster bubble.
Pittsburgh Steelers' weaknesses:
#1 Kicker
Pittsburgh aren't as well off at kicker as they are at punter. The Steelers brought in Samuel Sloman this off-season to compete with Chris Boswell for the starting job. Unfortunately for Sloman, very little went his way in the Steelers' first pre-season game. He went one for two on field goals and one for two on extra points. Two early pre-season missed kicks are going to hurt him in his battle for the starting job.
The Steelers would have liked Sloman to provide some competition for Boswell, as Boswell missed four extra points last season. However, Boswell clearly has the leg up on Sloman.
#2 Backup running backs
The selection of Najee Harris in the 2021 NFL Draft was as much about running back being a position of need as it was about Harris' talent. The Hall of Fame Game was direct evidence of that. When you take out the carries and yards by Harris, the rest of the Steelers running backs combined for 19 carries and 48 rushing yards, which was a very poor showing.
Pittsburgh desperately need Kalen Ballage, Anthony McFarland Jr., Jaylen Samuels or Benny Snell Jr. to step up and be productive backup running backs. If none of them can deliver, Harris is going to have an extremely high workload in his rookie season.
#3 Run defense
As good as the Steelers' pass rush was against the Cowboys, their run defense could still use some work. Without starters and a small sample size, there's no room to panic, but it's something the team could look to improve on.
Dallas rushed for over 100 yards on 5.2 yards per carry. Most of the rushing yards given up were on large chunk plays. Pittsburgh need to find a way to limit the big plays, otherwise, that could really hurt them in the regular season.
