Steelers Hall of Fame Game: The great, the good, and the bad

The Good: Offense trending in the right direction

We saw a lot of the short game in Week 1. However, it was still diverse. We saw sweeps, play action, shovel passes, screens, and pitches. The Steelers had a bit of a dropping problem on Thursday night, but they worked around it with a running game and some gadget plays that did the job. I liked Canada’s ability to work around the issues he had to deal with last night.

I also liked what I saw from our running backs. The offensive line wasn’t particularly great last night, but we had some success on the ground. Ballage looks like a true 3rd rusher that can do anything both Harris or McFarland will be asked to do. Ballage actually yielded the highest yards per carry number of any of the Steelers rushers.  However, Harris and McFarland are going to be the stars of this show.

Harris didn’t surprise us as we expected him to grit out a decent performance often making the first 2 or 3 guys miss for a moderate gain. He didn’t show a problem with carrying a defender on his back for a few yards either. McFarland looked like an NFL running back that is infinitely more decisive than what he was last season. He doesn’t seem as afraid of contact as he was last year either. With his speed, he will be the perfect big play compliment to Harris and I hope that these two stay healthy and together in black and gold for a long time.