What we learned from Steelers win in Hall of Fame Game

The Steelers emerged as the victors against the Dallas Cowboys in the Hall of Fame Game. Here’s what we learned from the win. 

I don’t know about you, but anytime the Steelers beat the Cowboys is a good win. If you put the final score aside, the Hall of Fame Game was honestly not a ‘pretty’ win for us, but it was a win nonetheless. We will take the win and move one, but we do have some things to correct.

According to ESPN.com, we were outplayed, statistically speaking. The Cowboys had the advantage in total plays, total yards, average yards per play, and time of possession.  If you didn’t know the final score, you would conclude that we lost the game, but we did not.

The difference in that game was the turnover margin. The Steelers turned the ball over once on a play that, quite frankly, looked a little ‘high schoolish’ to me; The Cowboys turned the ball over thrice.  Another deciding factor was the margin in sacks allowed.  True to form, we got to the QB four times as opposed to once for the Cowboys.

So as I stated, our only turnover came on a play that I think we will see a lot of this season under new OC Matt Canada.  Shortly after Canada was promoted to Offensive Coordinator, I wrote an article about what we could expect to see from his offensive scheme.  One of the facets of his offense that I mentioned was the predilection for pre-snap motion.

Don’t get me wrong, I think pre-snap motion is great, except when it results in a fumble on a play that looked to me like it was supposed to be either a ‘jet sweep’ or a ‘fake jet’.  Whatever it was, it didn’t work the way it was designed to work.

The Steelers got the ‘W’ in the first pre-season game, but we still have a lot of work to do in all three phases

The one glaring opportunity on offense is still the running game.  The Steelers ran the ball 30 times and averaged 2.5 yards per carry.  I realize the starting offensive line was not playing; however, our first-round pick, Najee Harris, did play.  Harris ran hard, in my opinion, and created some holes that were not there initially.  So far, so good on that front, but if the Steelers are to re-establish a rushing attack that was ineffective in 2020, all ‘O-linemen’, starters and back-ups need to be able to open holes for our RBs.

On the defensive side of the ball, I thought we played really well at times, but not so well other times.  Granted, the Steelers essentially stayed in our base 3-4 alignment or in our Nickel package, which was the majority of the time.

Similar to the offensive side of the ball, many of our starters on defense did not play.  With that said, there were a few ‘bright spots’ on the defensive side of the ball.  I think Tre Norwood, one of our two 7th-round picks in this year’s draft, acquitted himself well.  Another 2021 draft pick who acquitted himself well was Quincy Roche, our 6th-round pick out of Miami.  Roche had one of our four sacks in the game.

On the special teams front, Pressley Harvin III, the second of our 7th-round picks in the 2021 draft.  Harvin averaged 45.8 yards per punt and downed three of his four punts inside the 20-yard line.  Honestly, I think he may be our punter on opening day.

Look, it’s only the first pre-season game and we won, so that’s great, but as with anything else in football, nothing is ever perfect.  The Steelers will take the win with the understanding that we still have some work to do if we want to be playing meaningful football in January.