Despite allowing a bit of a fourth quarter comeback on Saturday, the Pittsburgh Steelers looked pretty good and certainly eased a few worries with their performance against the Giants. Without further ado, let’s get to the grades.
Ben Roethlsiberger, Byron Leftwich, Dennis Dixon – A
You could chalk it up to laziness for grouping all three together, but I thought the quarterback play was fantastic all night long. Roethlisberger’s outing wasn’t outstanding statistically, but he only had one bad throw and was deadly accurate throughout the rest of his outing. Moreover, he made a ton of good plays in the pocket and looked like the QB he was before all of the offseason drama hit. I thought his outing was a great sign for the Steelers season. Another great sign was the domination of Leftwich and Dixon. Leftwich was actually on his way to a mediocre outing before he threw one of the better passes I’ve seen and hit Mike Wallace in stride for a 68-yard touchdown pass. Dixon was fantastic all night, leading the offense on several long drives. He completed 7 of 8 passes and added 27 yards on the ground. I’m definitely not worried about the team’s quarterback situation at the moment.
Troy Polamalu – D
Polamalu was definitely “off” on Saturday. There has been a few seasons where he hasn’t missed as many tackles as he did on Saturday. I’m not worried about him in the least, but it was certainly strange to see number 43 whiff on the ball carrier three or four times. Jump it to read more..
Jonathan Dwyer – DNS
Time is running short for Dwyer, who I was so excited about when the Steelers drafted him. He hasn’t played in either of the first two preseason games and hasn’t given the Steelers any reason to hold on to him. Especially when…
Isaac Redman – A
Redman just continues to dazzle. I wrote last season that I wasn’t expecting anything great from Redman and I’m still not, but I’m totally comfortable with him being the team’s third running back behind Rashard Mendenhall and Mewelde Moore.
New Meadowlands Stadium – B
I wasn’t there, but the Giants/Jets new digs looked pretty solid. I’m not a fan of the scoreboard at midfield…it seems like a bit much to me…but the quartet of huge scoreboards in the corner of the stands and the sweet VIP seating behind the Giants bench are awesome. Heinz Field still blows New Meadowlands out of the water on location alone, but this looks like a major upgrade from their old stadium.
James Harrison – A++
Beast.
Joe Burnett/Keenan Lewis – B+
Both were less than impressive in limited time last year, but they look like they’ve taken some major steps forward in the offseason. Burnett made a nice interception and knocked down a pass. Aside from a bogus pass interference call in the end zone, each had a solid night.
Dan Sepulveda’s Kickoffs – C+
He didn’t boom the ball into the endzone every time and wasn’t substantially better than Jeff Reed. But he was a little bit better and it’s not like he’s done this a lot. I’m still an advocate of using him for kickoffs but the gap from him to Reed isn’t as big as I would have thought it would be given the admittedly small sample size.
