The Pittsburgh Steelers took on the Falcons at home, Sunday night. It was a decisive victory that saw the team correct a lot of nagging issues to take the win.
The Steelers have been looking for any kind of good news this season and in Sunday’s game against the Falcons they got all the good news they could handle. Every part of the team where there were question marks gave fans a reason for confidence (except Boswell). They were in charge of the game throughout and when they clock ran out the Steelers won 41-17.
This brings the record to 2-2-1. They’re back at .500. Once you get into the playoffs anything can happen. The Steelers have had worse starts and made the playoffs. Just last year they were .500 at 6 games in and made the playoffs.
Let’s not read too much into it though. Anything could happen, but lets see what we learned.
James Conner is an NFL starter
Yes, Le’Veon Bell, whatever. Yes, he’s good. No one can do what he does. But we’re all sick of talking about him at this point so let’s skip the qualifiers and get straight to the good news. James Conner showed he is an NFL starter. He might not be Adrian Peterson in his prime but he’s a starting caliber NFL running back and it showed on Sunday.
James Conner showed power, awareness, and quickness. He also showed hands and blocking skills. He finished the game with 110 rushing yards and 75 receiving yards with 2 touchdowns. We’ve seen the Steelers try to get away with a backup or a split-carries type of back in the full time starter roll, Verron Hayes for example. Conner is not that. The blocking was certainly good, but Conner looked like a full time NFL starter who can get more yards than the blocking gives him.