Carolina Panthers vs Pittsburgh Steelers: Positional Grades for the 52-21 Win

After we all anticipated a closely contested game between the Carolina Panthers and the Pittsburgh Steelers on Thursday Night.  The Steelers shocked us by obliterating the Panthers 52-21 in a game that could have been a lot worse than the score indicated. The offense put up 45 points, the special teams forced a turnover and the defense had a touchdown to go with five sacks.  Now that we have had some time to reflect on the win. Let’s go back and give out grades for every positional group and the coaches for their performance.

Quarterbacks: 

• Austin- A+, Ben Roethlisberger had a perfect passer rating with five touchdowns and zero interceptions, easy A+. 
• John- A+, One of the best games of Ben Roethlisberger’s hall of fame career.  Only three incompletions and you could argue that one of those three should have been caught. 

Running Backs:

• Austin- B+, Conner had a good game and Samuels caught a touchdowns.  But, overall Samuels and Ridley didn’t really run the ball effectively and there wasn’t much through the air besides the Samuels touchdown.
• John- A-, Conner didn’t get the ball as much as he had been getting it recently, so his numbers were down a bit.  But, Ridley and Samuels played well in relief and Samuels scored his first NFL touchdown as well.

Wide Receivers: 

• Austin- B+, Antonio Brown got that long 53 yard touchdown and another 33 yard catch, but otherwise his day would have been quiet. Same with Juju Smith-Schuster, he had that 75 yarder to open the game and that's where a lot of his yardage came from. Then those two and Switzer chipping in were really it in terms of the receiver production. 
• John- A, We finally got long receptions from multiple receivers in this one.  Obviously Juju Smith-Schuster caught that 75 yard pass on the first play of the game.  Brown added two 30+ yard receptions of his own and Ryan Switzer had two important grabs.  Still isn’t a number three receiver establishing himself through. Darrius Heyward-Bey caught his first pass of the season.

Tight Ends:

• Austin- A-, Although not dominant through the air in terms of yardage, James and McDonald caught a touchdown and they both had good days as blockers. 
• John- A, Vance McDonald and Jesse James combined to catch all five of their targets, for 52 yards and two touchdowns.  It may not have lit up the stat sheet, but they were involved and they were solid in terms of blocking for the running backs.

Offensive Line:

• Austin- A-, there were a lot of tackles for a loss in this one, but only one sack. They continued to open up a lot of lanes for Conner on the ground. 
• John- A, The tackles for a loss don’t really bother me, because two of the eight occurred on the final drives when Josh Dobbs was the quarterback and two more were on wide receiver screens that don’t really involve the offensive line.  Outside of the one sack allowed to Julius Peppers, which was really just a good defensive play. The offensive line was great again.

Defensive Line: 

• Austin- A, I thought all three of the starters were dominant in their own regard. Tuitt caused a lot of pressure, Heyward got sacks, and Hargrave finished with the second most tackles on the team with all of them being of the solo variety, so I was very happy with their performances. 
• John- A-, I can’t give them an A, because they did struggle early on against the run.  But, after the Panthers second touchdown, these guys really shut it down. All three were individual standouts.  Javon Hargrave lit up the stat sheet, Stephon Tuitt pushed the pocket a lot and Cameron Heyward had two sacks. They really dominated for the better part of the game.

Linebackers: 

• Austin- B+, in terms of forcing pressure and making plays, they were great on the Vince Williams pick six.  Then, three of the four starters (excluding Jon Bostic) picked up sacks in the game. But, I felt like they could have been better against the run. 
• John- A-, Vince Williams struggled in coverage early and Bud Dupree missed a couple of tackles in the backfield.  But, overall, these guys were great. T.J. Watt and Dupree were very disruptive on the outside and Williams and Jon Bostic were effective in the middle on blitzes and against the run.  L.J. Fort had three tackles as well in the sub-package.

Defensive Backs:

• Austin- B+, Mike Hilton continues to play like a big man as he fights through blocks and then Joe Haden was really solid. Even Coty Sensabaugh was okay. The safeties were mostly average, no complaints but nothing great from them.
• John- B+, I am not quite sure what happened on McCaffrey’s second touchdown.  But, it looked like a secondary problem so I will hit them with the punishment then.  But overall, these guys were solid again. Joe Haden shut down Devin Funchess. Coty Sensabaugh was active and had good coverage all night.  Mike Hilton was quiet on the stat sheet but had a few nice plays. The only blemish besides the touchdown was a pass interference by Artie Burns that was completely unnecessary.  In that situation you have more freedom to be aggressive and go after the ball, rather than try to focus so much on the receiver.

Specialists: 

• Austin- B+, Chris Boswell had a great game and Roosevelt Nix forced that fumble on the kickoff.  But, Jordan Berry had a bad punt and Ryan Switzer had a kickoff that only went 10 yards. Still though, Berry’s one bad punt and Switzer’s one bad return don’t outweigh Boswell and Nix’s play. 
• John- A-, Have a day Chris Boswell.  The much maligned kicker made eight of his eight attempts on the day.  Although seven were extra points, the field goal he kicked was enormous.  After struggling to hit 40 yard field goals all season, Boswell nailed a 50 yarder with room to spare.  Even in a game where Jordan Berry has two punts, he has to have one great punt and a bad punt too. The 27 yarder just isn’t good enough and it brings the grade down.  The turnover forced by Roosevelt Nix and Anthony Chickillo may have come with the game in hand, but it was great to see.

Coaching: 

• Austin- A, 1 penalty all game and it came with 6 minutes left in the 4th quarter. It was great to see that taken care of.  They played a great first half and adjusted appropriately, to be even better in the second half. However, I am not a fan of how many times a linebacker was put on Christian McCaffrey and Coty Sensabaugh being put in one on one coverage with Greg Olsen. 
• John- A, The coaches clearly had the advantage in this one.  The offense scored on seven drives (only broken up by the end of the half).  Their first non scoring drive came at the start of the fourth quarter, with the Steelers up 52-14.  On defense they wanted to keep Cam Newton from running and Christian McCaffrey hurt them because of it.  But, they made adjustments, got after Newton and the Panthers never got back into the game. Only one penalty too, great job.