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Steelers vs. Giants: It Could've Been Worse - My Thoughts on the Steelers' First Preseason Game of 2014.

FIRST AND FOREMOST, all my thoughts on the Steelers and their performance last night can be summed up as follows: DEAR GOD, PLEASE DON'T LET BIG BEN GET HURT! AMEN!!!

If anything happens to our starting QB, WE ARE IN TROUBLE. Our backups couldn't hit the broad side of a barn! Bruce Gradkowski looked pathetic. This guy has started in this league before, how could he be so lost? From the Giants' 20-yard line, Gradkowski had a wide open Matt Spaeth on the 5-yard line, and he badly overthrew the pass. A catch there certainly would have been a touchdown. Spaeth's momentum would've carried him into the end zone before the Safety could make contact. Maybe Landry Jones just has bad karma following him everywhere. He seems like a career backup in the NFL. He doesn't seem like he'll win many games for us if he's our starter.

SECOND, on the Rashad Jennings TD, it looked like the Defensive Line got manhandled. Timmons got swallowed by the pulling right Guard. Will Allen whiffed, badly, on his feeble attempt at a tackle. Mike Mitchell was in no-man's land, but he did keep the play inside.

Maybe Mitchell just isn't familiar with this scheme. Isn't Allen supposed to be the last line of defense? It looked like Mitchell was supposed to charge in to make the tackle, and Allen was supposed to play deep. That's the way they lined up at the snap. If so, Allen NEEDS to take a better angle and lay a hit on any runner who makes it out of the backfield - at least slow the runner down so his teammates can get there to help. None of Timmons, Mitchell, nor Allen laid a hand on Jennings as Jennings ran right past all three of them.

There has been much talk lately about team speed. How about the coaches' ability to right this ship immediately??? That breakdown in defensive execution needs to be corrected - QUICKLY! That's the kind of speed this defense needs right now.

Further analysis of this play seems to point to the Steelers expecting the pass. On first down at their own 27-yard line, the Giants were in a 1-back, 3-wide set with a Tight End. The Steelers showed blitz, bringing all their Linebackers to the line of scrimmage. Before the snap, Eli Manning turned to Jennings but otherwise didn't seem to call an audible. They seemed to be planning to run all along. At the snap, the right guard pulled, and Twitter was abuzz with calls for holding by the Guard against Timmons, but the guard kept his hands inside Timmons's shoulders. Jennings had 2 holes on either side of Timmons to choose, which means the D-line didn't control the line of scrimmage. Jennings correctly chose not to bounce it outside to the right, where Mitchell initially stepped, and once he got past Mitchell, he went to the right to avoid Allen and nobody could catch him.

THIRD, maybe Neal Coolong's call for Brett Keisel's return should be considered. Maybe the Cool(ong)est Managing Editor of this blog site has a fleet of flies he sends to the walls of the Steelers' front offices. It sure seems that Keisel's services could be put to good use on plays like that Jennings TD. Who knows? Time will tell.

FOURTH, Le'Veon Bell looked good on a couple of runs, and the Offensive Line opened up some holes. It was limited action, but barring any major injuries, we can look forward to improvement from our running game. LeGarrette Blount made only a cameo appearance. By the third preseason game, we'll have a better sense of what's clicking on Offense. It was nice to see Dri Archer get the ball in open space. He took one for a long gain, but was stopped immediately on another.

FIFTH, I have been blogging about our poor Special Teams coverage ever since Mike Tomlin began his tenure as the Steelers' Head Coach in 2007. Bill Cowher had been a Special Teams Coach prior to being hired as Head Coach, and I had few complaints about Special Teams under Cowher. Tomlin, however, seems to emphasize getting more return yardage by drafting speedy return specialists, but he never seems to give the same emphasis on reducing opponents' return yardage. Looking back to long Special Teams returns given up by the Steelers at critical points in their respective losses against the Arizona Cardinals, Denver Broncos and New York Jets in Tomlin's first season, as well as a kickoff return to the Steelers' 1-yard line in that season's playoff game against Jacksonville, the Steelers have consistently struggled on Special Teams with penalties and poor coverage under Tomlin's (lack of) leadership in that area.

The Steelers performed well enough in kick/punt coverage against the Giants this preseason. However, poor Special Teams coverage is a recurring issue with Tomlin's teams, and it can't be swept under the rug, as Tomlin does every year. Mark my words, at least one loss this season will come as a direct result of poor Special Teams coverage.

SIXTH, Our starting receivers looked just fine. Antonio Brown had a nice catch, Markus Wheaton had a good run. It's difficult to evaluate their performance based on one possession, but they did well in limited action.

SEVENTH, Will red zone scoring be an issue for the Steelers' offense this season? The Steelers had a nice opening drive, but they couldn't punch it in. That will be something to watch in the next two preseason games.

EIGHTH, Going back to Special Teams, Shaun Suisham's missed field goal magnified Gradkowski's blunder on the missed touchdown opportunity. Had Gradkowski made that throw, nobody would be complaining about Suisham's missed FG.

NINTH, Sean Spence had his nose in a lot of plays. I hope he completes his comeback to become a future star for the Steelers. That guy has a lot of heart.

FINALLY, I haven't seen the 2nd half of the game yet, but was listening to it while driving. I won't spend a lot of time analyzing players who won't make the final roster. If I can make the time, I'll blog about the 2nd half in a future post.

The opinions shared here are not those of the editorial staff of Behind the Steel Curtain or SB Nation. These posts are not approved in any way by the editorial staff of this web site.