Steelers News: Tomlin, Roethlisberger, Brady

The Steelers will look to shake off the funk from the opening loss to New England and make sure their headsets are working correctly in Heinz Field for their home opener against the San Francisco 49ers. While they’re preparing for their home debut we’ll be busy looking for mentions of your Black & Gold so we’ve got you covered. Here’s your Steelers Morning Huddle for Wednesday, Sept. 16th.

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Some guys will play; some guys won’t

In Mike Tomlin’s weekly presser he was asked about playing time for certain guys. Cornerback Brandon Boykin has been a hot topic of discussion as he didn’t get the snaps he was expecting for the first game. Tomlin didn’t elaborate passed the “we chose to play other people” response for why Boykin didn’t see a lot of playing time but some questioned the snaps for other players as well.

James Harrison was rumored to have a snap count limit going into this season per outside linebackers coach Joey Porter but Harrison played 38 defensive snaps on Thursday night, far more than the other outside linebackers. Tomlin explained that the games are going to unfold in their own ways and who is responding the best will get the most snaps.

"“We were happy with how it worked out. We didn’t count reps. We’re going to roll those guys, all four of those guys are going to play, and maybe some weeks James’ numbers will be higher and some weeks maybe they won’t. The issue for us, the critical element for us, is we’re going to play all four of those men.” – Mike Tomlin"

Haley got trigger happy

Ben Roethlisberger joined the Cook and Poni show on 93.7 The Fan on Tuesday and went over the Steelers decision to go for a trick play in their first offensive possession while they were moving the ball rather effectively using conventional plays. He explains that offensive coordinator Todd Haley admitted to being too anxious and calling for that type of play too early in the game.

"“Coach Haley wanted to kind of give them a bang, give them a changeup, some kind of a special trick kind of play if you will. Obviously, in hindsight, and he [Todd Haley] was the first one to say it probably wasn’t the right time for that play because we were driving and doing a lot of great things…As soon as it didn’t work, he said, ‘you know what, I got a little too anxious to call that play.’” – Ben Roethlisberger"

I wonder if it had worked and the Steelers didn’t lose eight yards on the play would there be so much grief about it being called at that point?

Brady saw chaos on Steelers defense

The only thing good about this is that it is early in the season and there is enough time to get on track, hopefully. However, the Steelers defense is still a huge question mark going forward.

Pro Football Talk’s Michael David Smith quotes Tom Brady from his interview on WEEI about how he could see problems on the Steelers defense and made sure to capitalize on them, particularly when it came to the Steelers leaving Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski uncovered several times.

"“I saw he was uncovered and I can usually get a good sense of when there’s not great communication going on between the defense. I typically want the ball in my hands at that point. Sometimes the chaos on defense is good.” – Tom Brady"

I’m sure he can sense when things are off on the defense when he can tell that they aren’t running the plays from the play-sheet Belichick had stolen from the locker room. Dirty cheaters.

Next: Steelers Tomlin Tuesday

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