Pittsburgh Steelers: Stock rising/falling after Week 5

The Pittsburgh Steelers hosted Atlanta Sunday in a big game after falling o 1-2-1. The team came out and played their most complete football game this season.

The Steelers and Falcons were both in desperation mode Sunday with the Falcons coming in at 1-3. The Steelers offense needed to take advantage of the Falcons defensive injuries and the defense needed to put up a great performance and keep the Falcons down.

The defense did just that as they sacked Matt Ryan six times and allowed just 285 passing yards and a touchdown. The run defense also held its own giving up just 62 yards and a garbage time touchdown to Ito Smith.

In a game where all three facets of the game perform very well, it is hard to find anyone whose stock is trending down. I will take that every week but there were still a couple of players I could put as stock down for the week.

T.J. Watt – Stock: Up

T.J. Watt had sat under a microscope all week in the media. He had been quiet since week one but he let out a howl on Sunday.

Watt finished the game with eight total tackles and three sacks. One of those sacks was a strip sack of Matt Ryan that L.J. Fort recovered for a touchdown.

Watt wreaked havoc all day on the right side of the Falcons offensive line. He is now tied with his brother, J.J. Watt, and Bengals defensive lineman Geno Atkins for the league lead in sacks with six each.

L.J. Fort – Stock: Up

The Steelers have been looking for a linebacker to step up and replace injured Ryan Shazier in pass coverage ever since he went down in 2017. Fort stepped up in a big way against Atlanta.

He finished with six total tackles, one sack and three QB hits. His fumble recovery after a Watt strip sack also helped put the icing on the cake in the big win.

Fort’s biggest contribution was providing great coverage ability from the inside linebacker position. He was great in man coverage, especially in third down situations.

Fort’s role will absolutely increase while he is healthy. This will allow Bostic to be in on more run oriented downs with Fort handling passing downs and coverage responsibilities.

Bud Dupree – Stock: Down

Dupree didn’t have a bad game , per say, but his two penalties for illegal use of hands, hands to the face were bad. One of them kept a Falcons drive going on third down after they failed to get a first.

Dupree has shown flashes of the edge defender Pittsburgh needs him to be and he does have three sacks through five games so he is getting some pressure. He definitely needs to correct himself from getting these penalties as two in a game are unacceptable.

James Conner – Stock: Up

Conner had a pretty rough stretch after the Browns game. The Steelers running game was basically nonexistent in weeks two through four.

That all changed week five when Conner unloaded on the Falcons defense to the tune of 185 total yards and two touchdowns. 110 of the yards came on the ground with the other 75 through the air.

Both touchdowns came on the ground as Conner helped propel the entire offense to new heights against the Falcons. Conner forced many missed tackles and was difficult to bring down from the very first snap.

James Conner could see his role diminish in the coming weeks with Le’Veon Bell looming. However, I think, if he keeps playing like this, he will see more of the workload than some think even if Bell comes back.

Chris Boswell – Stock: Down

Boswell is having a rough start to the season as he has three missed extra points and three missed field goals on the year. In a game where everything seemed to go right it is hard to pick who has stock falling.

Boswell made the decision a little easier when he missed the first extra point of the game. He went on to make the five remaining kicks to finish five-of-six but that miss played in fans heads every attempt after it.

Boswell needs to get back to making virtually every kick to show us he is back. His accuracy can still head back up to one of the best in the league by season’s end due to kickers around the league seeming to struggle early.

Antonio Brown – Stock: Up

Antonio Brown has made headlines a lot this season but for all the wrong reasons. He turned that around Sunday as he went off on the Falcons secondary for six catches and 101 yards with two touchdowns.

For that game at least, it seems Brown and Ben Roethlisberger tried switching to a wired connection for faster connection. The switch seems to have worked as the two connected for two scores and Brown tallied 100+ receiving yards for the first time in 2018.

Brown and Ben will need to keep this connection going entering a stretch in which they have three division games in four weeks with a bye in there. This is the Steelers chance to make up ground in the north after a bad start to the season.