Falcons: Steelers seem impressed by the offense

[Polar Bear Jones]

Quote:Busy half chasing Atlanta receivers gives Pittsburgh defense an eyeful

By Associated Press, Updated: Sunday, August 28, 12:57 PM

PITTSBURGH — James Harrison expected the Pittsburgh Steelers defense to be tested by the high-powered Atlanta Falcons.

The All-Pro linebacker also expected to get off the field.

Turns out, he was half right.

Though the Steelers rode the big plays of wide receiver Antonio Brown to a 34-16 win on Saturday night, the league’s top defense a year ago had trouble keeping up with the Falcons, whose starters packed a full game’s worth of work into two busy quarters.

Atlanta’s Matt Ryan threw a whopping 42 passes — completing 22 of them — for 220 yards with a touchdown and an interception without getting sacked, moving the ball with ease at times against Pittsburgh’s banged-up secondary.

The Falcons had 266 yards in the half, nearly matching the 276 yards the Steelers gave up in an entire game in 2010.

“I think they would have run a lot more than what they did, but if you have something that was working, and it was working for them, I don’t see what you need to change it for,” Harrison said.

Atlanta did most of its damage through the air, with Ryan expertly picking his way down the field by spreading the ball around. Roddy White, rookie Julio Jones, Harry Douglas and tight end Tony Gonzalez all finished with at least three receptions.

Jones, who caught five passes for 59 yards and narrowly missed a 49-yard touchdown, didn’t anticipate seeing so much action.

“It wasn’t (the game plan),” Jones said. “Just whatever was out there and was working, we stuck with it.”

stuck with it and stuck with it, giving the Steelers a dose of reality after the defending AFC champions dominated Philadelphia a week ago, picking off Michael Vick three times in a half.

ugh linebacker Lawrence Timmons celebrated his new six-year, $50 million contract by returning an interception 44 yards to set up a field goal, it marked one of the few successes for the starters on a night in which they struggled to keep up when the Falcons spread the field.

“They have a lot of weapons,” Timmons said. “I think we did okay today. I think we could have done better.”

So does coach Mike Tomlin. The Steelers failed to rattle Ryan, who twice escaped a fast-closing Harrison to run for positive yardage. Given time to throw, Ryan helped the Falcons convert 7 of 12 third downs.

“I’d like to see us get off more consistently on third down defensively, put more consistent pressure on the quarterback and have tighter coverage in the secondary,” Tomlin said.

The Steelers played without starting cornerbacks Bryant McFadden (hamstring) and Ike Taylor (broken left thumb). The injuries thrust Keenan Lewis and William Gay into prominent roles and both had issues trying to contain Atlanta’s deep and talented group of receivers. The bigger issue for Tomlin wasn’t the completions as much as the sight of the Falcons running wide open down the field.

“We have to be closer and challenge more potential catches,” Tomlin said. “But that’s just looking at it from a knee-jerk reaction.”

The Steelers are hardly panicking. Defensive end Aaron Smith pointed out the game plan remained fairly bland, the blitz packages fairly benign. Still, Harrison was less than thrilled. With two weeks to go before the season starts in Baltimore, Harrison knows the nastiness needs to return.

ey were converting third downs as if it was the thing to do,” he said. “We didn’t play the way that we are capable of playing. And that’s why we were out there so long.”

When it mattered the Steelers were able to find a way to keep Atlanta out of the end zone. Three times the Falcons moved the ball deep into Pittsburgh territory only to come away with field goals.

It was enough to win on a night that served as the closest thing to the regular season that August can muster. And a late 95-yard interception return for a touchdown by Crezdon Butler helped the Steelers win their second straight and improve their turnover ratio to plus-eight in the preseason.

“It was not a consistent, dominant performance that we were looking for or winning by attrition,” Tomlin said. “But we were explosive offensively. We made key plays, game changing-like plays defensively. But we will have to learn from this.”

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Think we got a little pass happy but it was good work for the guys. When you spread a team out we should have had more oppuurtunities for draws and scrreens earlier. It looked like there were some cleet issues we had some key slips we need to be wary of soldier field condition game 1.

[Paprika Neck]

that's the way you beat tough defenses like the steelers and ravens.

[phocis850]

This is most interesting to me:
"The Falcons had 266 yards in the half, nearly matching the 276 yards the Steelers gave up in an entire game in 2010."

[JOEinPHX]

From the article:

Atlanta did most of its damage through the air, with Ryan expertly picking his way down the field by spreading the ball around. Roddy White, rookie Julio Jones, Harry Douglas and tight end Tony Gonzalez all finished with at least three receptions.


I just can't agree with this. 22 of 42, 52% completion rate, 5.2 YPA, 220 total passing yards, 65.6 passer rating - this doesn't say expert. I don't blame Ryan though. He threw some darts and his long ball to Jones in the end zone was perfect, but for every good ball I saw an equally bad one. However, I can only think of three unforced errors on his part, so I have to look at the line play. The collapsing pockets, continuous pressure, forced checkdowns, etc., were all reminiscent of problems past. Until this line gives him that extra .3 or .4 second of pocket time, we'll continue to see average-to-poor performances against strong rush defenses.

[Paprika Neck]

those are pretty damn good numbers against a top 3 defense

[ChrisD]

There were some bumps in the road for Ryan in this game. But nothing too major. I'm sure we'll get the same old "Matt Ryan isn't a franchise QB" from the same old guys. But I saw progression. Sure, he threw an interception, big deal. The Steelers are one of, if not the best defenses in the league. And to put up 276 yards in the half? That's awesome. I've said it all along, I'll keep saying it, our Falcons aren't showing all their cards. In fact, I think we will see a lot of things that will surprise even us on here.

[Paprika Neck]

he looked a lot better than the numbers indicated i didnt see anything really errant on his part. look at what they did to the convick

[Paprika Neck]

ryans clutch hes had way to many comebacks in the 4th quarter not to be considered franchise top flight epic

[NOVAFalconFan]

No question Matt and the offense were a lot better against Pittsburgh this year than in the opener last year. I was happy to see us moving the ball like we did, we just needed to get the three touchdowns we missed.

[papachaz]

(08-28-2011 06:03 PM)JOEinPHX Wrote:  From the article:

Atlanta did most of its damage through the air, with Ryan expertly picking his way down the field by spreading the ball around. Roddy White, rookie Julio Jones, Harry Douglas and tight end Tony Gonzalez all finished with at least three receptions.


I just can't agree with this. 22 of 42, 52% completion rate, 5.2 YPA, 220 total passing yards, 65.6 passer rating - this doesn't say expert. I don't blame Ryan though. He threw some darts and his long ball to Jones in the end zone was perfect, but for every good ball I saw an equally bad one. However, I can only think of three unforced errors on his part, so I have to look at the line play. The collapsing pockets, continuous pressure, forced checkdowns, etc., were all reminiscent of problems past. Until this line gives him that extra .3 or .4 second of pocket time, we'll continue to see average-to-poor performances against strong rush defenses.

no sacks, given the ability to step up a couple of times to throw and to escape harrison, this was not an average to poor performance against a strong rush defense. this was definitely an improvement over what we've seen the last two years. not perfect, still room for improvement, but definitely not as bad as we've seen in the past at all