TIOPS DAILY FIVE
*Rumblings, Musings, Opinions*
1. The Steelers offense showed it’s achilles heel tonight vs New England in a 28-21 loss. Whether it’s bad clock management, running a trick play at an in-opportune time to kill a drive, to Darrius Heyward-Bey’s poor awareness to have his feet in on a should be touchdown catch, it was a night of not capitalizing for the offense.
We know it’s a great yardage offense and that was on display tonight vs the Patriots but the inability to finish and turn 3’s into 7’s is what’s going to tell the story whether this group evolves into a great offense and the Steelers return to the playoffs for the second straight year.
With a defensive unit so bad, there is no room for error.
For now this group should continue to be looked at as a yardage offense not a great offense.
Until that changes don’t get your hopes up about the season.
2. Kelvin Beachum will play out the season without a new contract. According to a league source, the sides never got close and as the source described it, the Steelers were offering “right tackle” money, believed to be around $7 million per season.
The Franchise tag this season for left tackles was $12.93 million and is expected to be over $13 million in 2016. Tagging Beachum is extremely unlikely in 2016.
The Steelers trend of paying the wrong people continues. Beachum will be a significant loss.
3. How’s DeAngelo Williams going to take it two weeks from now when he goes from lead back to seeing five plays a game? Maybe not as bad as LeGarrette Blount but word earlier this week is some in the organization don’t feel like Williams is going to embrace the backup role like they thought he would and anyone who talks to Williams might feel the same way too.
Williams believes he can still play at a high level and proved it tonight as he was sensational vs the Patriots. The explosiveness is still there and Williams was a huge positive. Pittsburgh didn’t miss Bell.
4. A.J. Burnett’s career looked over just a couple pitches into his night. Burnett in the first inning looked like a pitcher throwing batting practice as he was rocked for three runs, highlighted by a two-run homer by Khris Davis that was crushed and might still not have landed.
Burnett had no movement on his fastball and his location was a mess. It looked over for him.
Burnett, though, settled in to throw four scoreless innings. Burnett’s final line:
5 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 3 K, 2 BB, 9 ground-outs, 0 fly-outs.
Burnett threw 64 pitches, 38 for strikes.
He bought himself another start as Burnett is basically battling Charlie Morton down the stretch to be the Pirates No. 4 starter in the rotation for the playoffs.
5. 150/150 Club: Andrew McCutchen joined an exclusive club tonight.
McCutchen’s game tying home run was the 150th home run of his career, joining Barry Bonds as the only Pirates in team history with 150 home runs / 150 stolen bases.
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Latest Steelers Buzz: Can offense evolve into an offense that can outscore teams? On Ike Taylor’s decline & more
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