Steelers Video Rewind (Part II)

We're on to the second half of the Steelers video rewind today.  We covered the starters in part one, so now let's move to the backups.

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I started with the offensive tackles.  Both Winston Justice (RT) and King Dunlap (LT) looked very solid in pass protection, but merely fair with run blocking.  They are two very different players, however.

Dunlap reminds me of Flozell Adams.  He doesn't always look pretty out there, but once he gets his meat hooks on the rusher, it's pretty much over.  He's so big he just engulfs the guy. 

Justice is much more of a technician these days.  There were still some issues with his overall performance, but you can see how much work he's put into his technique just by watching him for a series or two. 

One thing I noticed in particular was how fast he was getting off the snap.  Remember last year in that terrible Giants game, one of Justice's biggest problems was with the silent snap count.  It seemed on almost every play that Osi Umenyiora was moving long before Justice was. 

That's no longer an issue for the third-year man out of USC.  Justice was very fast off the ball in this game.  So much so that a couple times I almost thought he jumped early.  This isn't a great video, because I didn't want to fire up the editing software, but you can get some sense in this short clip of what I'm talking about:

(He may be getting a little too deep, too early, however, which sets him up for an inside move.)

Both Justice and Dunlap had bobbles with guys who busted out nice speed moves.  Dunlap had his man run around him once for some decent pressure and Justice fell for a bit of a head fake, but Kolb still had time to complete the pass.  For the most part, though, they did their job keeping their man clean on passing downs.

The run game wasn't as good.  On one run by Tony Hunt, Justice tried to cut his man at the line and missed, while Dunlap got too high on his way to the second level and was seriously blown up by the linebacker.  I counted three missed blocks by Justice in the run game.  Two were whiffs on linebackers and one was a poor block where his man just rode him down the line to plug the hole. 

Here's a quick video showing one of those whiffs.  I think it's interesting mostly because it gives the running back a chance to show that, yes, he can make people miss.  As a bonus, I also included the very next running play, where it wasn't Justice missing the block, but boy was it bad:

Yeah, that was DeSean Jackson.  Maybe he has a "no blocking" clause in his contract. 

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As with part one of the recap, I didn't intend to look at any other linemen, but Nick Cole really grabbed my attention. 

Not in a good way.

Cole was driven well back into Kolb's face on at least two plays, once by a backup nose tackle and once by a blitzing linebacker.  That's bad, folks.  It's one thing to get beaten on a blitz.  That happens.  But an offensive linemen should never, ever get blown up like that. 

Cole also looks very overweight.  Mike McGlynn (I believe that's the right Mike) got some time at center with the third team on Friday.  I wouldn't be surprised to see him have every opportunity to wrest that job away from Cole by the end of the preseason, if he can learn the calls in time.

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A few other notes on the offense:

• On the first two plays with Kevin Kolb, the Eagles went with two tailback personnel.  On the first play, they shifted to put Booker split alone to the bottom, hoping to get him matched up with a cornerback or safety (didn't work because the Steelers didn't flip the corner).  On the second play, Booker just lined up as a wide receiver from the get go.
• On the third play of that series, the Eagles saw just how hard it is to run a decent screen pass with an offensive line full of backups.
• McNabb was interviewed during Kolb's second series.  He didn't make a dumb joke or say that his shoulder was fine, but he did say: "We were able to establish the run game early, which kind of softened up their defense."  From your lips to Andy Reid's ear, big guy.
• The DeSean Jackson fake reverse only picked up three yards because the defensive end crashed inside and shut down the run play.  The funny part about that play is that I'm not sure the DE ever saw Jackson coming.  Too bad they didn't hand it to him.
• TE Kris Wilson is one unlucky dude.  He was wide open on the wrong end of the ground ball Kevin Kolb threw that spurred the "how strong is his arm" discussion between the announcers.  He was also the guy A.J. Feeley badly overthrew in the end zone for what should have been the winning touchdown.  The guy was only a couple of bad QB plays from having a lot of people notice him.
• So if it's a "worm burner" when McNabb does it, what do we call Kolb's version?  Because that ball wasn't moving fast enough to cause more than a slight blush.
• On the swing pass Tony Hunt didn't catch, the announcers said that Kolb threw it too hard.  That's kind of true, but I think the bigger problem is that Hunt didn't get wide enough on his route after feigning a role as a pass protector.  That seemed to be what Kolb was saying, anyway. 

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One last word on Hunt.  I realize he's not the fastest guy on the field, but I just really don't understand why anyone wouldn't love the guy.  Watch how many guys it takes to bring him down on this simple little swing pass:

That's how he plays every single snap, folks. 

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On the defensive side, the backups showed just how carefully they had been paying attention by coming in and doing exactly what the starters did on their opening series -- get sucked inside and do a terrible job setting the edge against the run. 

On the first play, McDougle was moved at least five yards out of the hole by the offensive tackle.  "Mac" had a better game from that point forward, but at least one other defensive end besides Trent Cole has to be stout against the run this year.

Rocky Boiman also got obliterated on this play.  Anyone else realize the guy is only 236 pounds?  That may fly in Indy's scheme, but it drastically limits what he can do here.  He better be really, really good on special teams if he wants to stick around in Philly, especially with all the other good young linebackers around him.

On the next play, J.R. Reed got trapped inside, just the way Gocong and Mikell had been on the first series.  I detect a trend.

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Speaking of talented young linebackers, everyone noticed a couple guys:  Joe Mays and Andy Studebaker. 

It's funny, these guys are like mirror images of each other.  Mays is the short, slow (for an NFL linebacker), instinctual guy who just knows how to play the game.  Studebaker looks like a freakishly gifted athlete who has a long way to go before he feels comfortable at linebacker.

It wasn't all positives for Mays.  He's the guy who blew the sack on Charlie Batch after he came in free on a blitz.  He also looked very slow in identifying where the ball was on the next running play, which made me wonder if his height could be something of an issue at this level.

As for Studebaker, you're taking the good with the bad with this guy until he figures out how to play the LB position.  He's a heck of an athlete, but I saw at least one play where one of the secondary guys had to move him into the right pre-snap position.  He also takes a lot of false steps out there while he's identifying the play, which is to be expected until he truly figures out what he's doing.  (Gocong looked very similar last year in the preseason and he'd had a year to study.) 

I don't think there's any chance he doesn't make this team, though.  He's just too good an athlete and he makes too many plays to let him go.

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Other defensive thoughts:

• Trevor Laws reminds me of Mike Patterson.  Not a huge guy, but he plays with good leverage.  He looked pretty good out there.
• Dan Klecko is one-dimensional, but the good thing for him is that it's a dimension the Eagles need.  He can't stand up at the point of attack if you run right at him, but he seems to use his hands well and can actually get penetration from the DT position.  Since Kimo is gone (for now) and "one-gap penetrator" is pretty much the best description for the MIA Montae Reagor, you have to think there's a pretty good chance he's sticking around.
• Side note, the Eagles still have five guys listed as left DTs and only one listed as a right DT.  Guess Bunkley's position is safe.
• J.R. Reed can play.  He made a couple nice plays and also looks like he's figured out how to disguise/time his blitzes.  He looks approximately 200 percent more aware than Considine does.
• Bryan Smith showed nothing in this game.  He looked small, slow and out of it.  As fast as Winston Justice was off the snap, that's how slow Smith was on the other side.  It was just one game, but that was my biggest disappointment from everything I saw.
• On the flip side, I have no idea what it means, but Jerome McDougle was clearly the best player on the field for much of the second half of that game.  He was a little loosy-goosy at times, but as a pass rush specialist who can play on the right side, he should be just fine.

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Finally, two quick notes on the special teams play. 

First, I saw the Eagles double both gunners on at least two of their punt returns in this game.  I may just have a bad memory here, but I don't remember seeing that much in the past. 

And no, it didn't work either time.  Note to the guys trying to make this team based on their special teams' contributions, when you double a guy on the outside, he really, really shouldn't be the one who makes the tackle in the middle of the field.

Also, on a night when David Akers was (mostly) bombing the ball, the punters were pretty terrible.  Rocca's first punt traveled 42 yards (not good), his second 48 (better), his third 35 (into the end zone), and his fourth 37 (ditto).  If you're scoring at home, that's a net average of 23.0 yards. 

The only good news for Rocca?  Backup punter Richmond McGee wasn't better, averaging just 35.0 yards on his three efforts.

Busy week for the special teams coaches.