Three statements for each week one NFL game

Pittsburgh Steelers @ New York Giants

1. The Steelers have the best front-seven in the league

This is nothing new to me, but I want everybody else to understand this as well. On Monday night, Pittsburgh’s front got after Daniel Jones and knocked to the turf constantly, while holding the most talented running back in football (Saquon Barkley) to six(!) rushing yards. Bud Dupree in particular was a terror for Big Blue, as he chased down a couple of run plays from the backside, when he was unblocked and took advantage of the mismatches, when a tight-end was tasked with him in protection. Both T.J. Watt and Cam Heyward had a pick, Devin Bush was just flying around the field all game long and New York’s offensive linemen were constantly getting pushed backwards in the run game, forcing the ball-carrier to re-direct and leading to a total of eleven tackles for loss.

2. Juju Smith-Schuster is a young star receiver

I have talked about disappointing that entire Steelers offense was in 2019 on several occasions and maybe the most obvious decline in production came from their 23-year old receiver. Juju went from a team-leading 1426 receiving yards and seven TDs to only 552 yards and three scores, largely because of how bad their quarterback play was and Smith-Schuster fighting through some injuries. I still had him as a top 70 player on my yearly run-down. While he isn’t your prototypical outside receiver, who wins against the premiere man-corners in the league, he is awesome operating out of the slot and making plays after the catch. He caught six passes for 69 yards and two TDs against the Giants. In particular I loved it when they went from running that shallow crosser to changing things up with the pivot route and getting Juju wide open in the flats.

3. Daniel Jones has already shown improvement

Another guy I was very impressed – even if it didn’t look great on the stat sheet – is Daniel Jones, because of how much he has grown with his ability to feel pressure and operate the pocket, while also keeping his incredible toughness. He made some crucial throws on third and fourth downs off play-action, he burned the defense a couple of times with his legs and I liked what he did with finding his check-downs late, instead of holding onto the ball and allowing defenders to swipe at it, like he did in his rookie year. Danny Dimes led an awesome drive early in the second half all the way down to the Pittsburgh four-yard line, where he had methodically led the G-Men down the field, until he had the ball knocked out of his hands by Bud Dupree, which ended up counting as an interception against Jones. This is still a rebuilding team, but I think they found their franchise signal-caller.