2024 Week 1: Steelers 18, Falcons 10

This will probably be the worst offensive game I’ll watch this week, gunning for the worst this year. Giants-Panthers in Germany will compete in that regard. The Falcons handed this game to Pittsburgh with 3 turnovers, and it should have been more. Atlanta was 2/9 on 3rd downs in this game and still had a chance to win it late, which is pretty telling of the state of the Steelers offense. Who thought hiring Arthur Smith was a good idea? The Falcons just fired him and their offense didn’t look any better than Pittsburgh so there’s that.

This will be the same Pittsburgh team we’ve seen for years… dormant offense and dominating defense. Atlanta on the other hand, it’s too early to tell what kind of team they’ll be with so many moving parts in the offseason. This was without a shadow of a doubt the worst Kirk Cousins performance I’ve ever seen.

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QB Report: 

- As I mentioned, Kirk Cousins (16/26 for 155 yards, 1 TD/ 2 INT) played a terrible game. I’m not even joking when I say that some of  his best passes in this game were to the defense.

- Atlanta may be in trouble with Kirk and if they drop the next 2-3 games the cries for Michael Penix Jr. will start to get loud. There’s a real chance Cousins is benched or out of Atlanta entirely if the Falcons stay this stagnant on offense.

- Justin Fields (17/23 for 156 yards, 14 rushes for 57-0) played the kind of football defensive-minded coaches love, and that is mistake-free football. Fields’ numbers don’t light up the stat-sheet but that’s not what he’s meant to do in this offense. His #1 job is to hand the ball off to the running backs. #2 is to not turn the ball over. Fields likely should have turned it over a few times as he struggled with holding onto the snap, but it was also C Zach Frazier’s first NFL game. They’ll get that issue ironed out.

RB Report:

- My least favorite running back in the entire league is Najee Harris (20-70-0, 1 catch for 9-0/2). I don’t see ‘it’ with him and I never saw ‘it’. He never had ‘it’. It’s tough to tell if Tomlin and Art Smith are getting to that point with Najee. 20 carries here and Jaylen Warren (2-7-0, 2 catches for 13-0/2) barely played in this game, but Cordarelle Patterson (4-13-0) was getting some meaningful work. Warren-Patterson should be the backfield for Pittsburgh with a Warren lead.

- Bijan Robinson (18-68-0, 5 catches for 43-0/5) was the only thing semi-working for Atlanta in this game so he got a million touches. Pittsburgh knew this and stacked the box. This wasn’t an efficient game for Bijan or Atlanta as a whole but he will get his work… too much of an investment to not use him.

- The best running back I watched in this game was Tyler Algeier (3-21-0). Atlanta hates him as evident by drafting Bijan 8th overall right after Algeier had a 1000-yard rookie season. Algeier will only be a ‘change of pace’ back so their former first round pick doesn’t get shown up.

WR Report:

- I think Darnell Mooney (1-15-0/3) is going to be the #1 for Atlanta eventually, Mooney and Kirk were buddy-buddy this offseason and Mooney is running better and more meaningful routes than anyone else on the team.

- Drake London (2-15-0/3) is well on his way to being another first round WR-bust. This was the slowest I’ve seen him play in his young career. Everyone always says he’ll hit eventually, if he does it won’t be with Kirk.

- Kyle Pitts (3-26-1/3) once again had a dud of a game but was saved by a touchdown, nothing on this offense is going to work if they continue at this rate.

- George Pickens (6-85-0/7) is a top 3-5 talent in the NFL and I will die on that hill. Tyreek and Jefferson are the obvious 1 and 2, but I don’t think there’s many more athletic, more game changing wide receivers in the NFL than George Pickens. Fields is the first Steelers QB to recognize it, he is the guy in Pittsburgh as long as Fields has the job. Every third down was either Fields running around and trying to get it on the ground, or he’d blindly throw it in the direction of Pickens who kept coming down with the ball.

D/ST Report:

- The Falcons defense was terrible, if they had faced a better team, like they do in Philadelphia next week, it would have been a slaughter. I suspect Atlanta will bounce back next week like teams that were embarrassed tend to do. The score doesn’t indicate an embarrassing performance but ATL was outplayed in all three phases of the game.

- Another year, another great defense in Pittsburgh, what else is new? Ultimately it’s tough to truly judge this defense because of how bad the opposing offense was.

Rookie LB Payton Wilson (3 tackles) looked very good here. Currently splitting with Elandon Roberts, but Wilson will win the role in short time.

- Chris Boswell deserves a mention for singlehandedly winning the game for the Steelers, kicking and making 6 field goals. All 18 points came from his leg.