Wide Write with Rob Newell

We Steel Believe?

Well here we are the day after the night before, and lets just get straight to the truth of the matter, if you are a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and I admit I don’t know how you would be reading this in that case but on the off chance that you have found this, the San Francisco 49ers owe you a huge, huge apology.  The 49ers emerged out of this game with a win and that is pretty much a miscarriage of justice.

The Steelers came out West, without their leader in the shape of Big Ben (out for the season with an elbow injury), meaning that Mason Rudolph would be starting for them for the first time in his career, but the game week trade with the Miami Dolphins for defensive back Minkah Fitzpatrick, meant that the Steelers defence would be lining up with eight first round draft picks in their starting line-up, and it was clear from the start that the Steelers defence was ready to play.

There was quite clearly a philosophy handed down from Mike Tomlin in the build up to this game, if you at all have a chance to hit Jimmy Garoppolo, then you damn well take that chance and you hit him hard and hit him as often as you can get away with before the officials start throwing those miniature sized terrible towels.  Fitzpatrick, TJ Watt and Cam Heyward were treating the Niners QB as their personal plaything for much of this game, and the Niners offence which was second ranked coming in this game was simply unable to cope for huge portions of the game.  During the bye week, Coach Shanahan better find the answer to this because this is a copycat league and if the Steelers have shown how to tackle the Niners offence then be sure to expect a huge dose of similar tactics in the coming months.

Joe Staley is a huge part of this Niners team, we all know this and it was great to see him on the side-line still, despite his injury, but without him at left tackle the 49ers offensive line was at best a fairground turnstile on every single passing play, making every single attempt as annoying as the postcode lottery adverts that pop up on local radio and TV.  Four first half turnovers were testament to how much pressure the Steelers had put on San Francisco, but it is to the eternal credit of the Niners defence that despite those four turnovers the Steelers were held to just six points at half-time.

I have not been the most positive when it has come to the Niners defence this season, but to be up against short fields and constantly trotting back out onto the field as the Niners offence have construed yet another turnover could well have been soul destroying, but the Niners defence set about their task with much skill and enthusiasm to keep this game from being over well before the half-time interval.   I have also yet to be convinced that Jimmy G is the man to lead the Niners long term, but I will say this after his performance today.  The one Niner who seemed unmoved in the face of the relentless Steelers defence was Jimmy G, he kept on popping back up and having another go and for that bravery and belligerence effort he displayed he won me over more in this game.

I don’t feel the turnovers were really on him as he watched passes get tipped into Steelers hands, or saw multiple linemen come running through, so please protect him a little better, as Nick Mullins must have been thinking its only a matter of time before he was required yesterday.

The second half was in comparison an offensive explosion, the Steelers scored two touchdowns, one in particular Jason Varrett will not want to see back in the team meetings as he was caught looking in the backfield as his receiver was wide open behind him, not the greatest debut for the cornerback coming back off injury himself, so hopefully the injury to Ahkello Witherspoon which meant Varrett had to play will not be to serious.  The Niners for there part, started to get the running game going a bit and Matt Breida showed his usual quickness and elusiveness.  There were a few moments also where you could see how well Jimmy G has learnt the QB sneak from Tom Brady, as he lifted a few of those plays from the Patriots to ensure the Niners continued a few drives.

There is a tired NFL cliché that if you lose the turnover battle you lose the game, if you lose the turnover battle by four you shouldn’t be on the same field anymore, but despite putting themselves in a hole, time and time and time and time and time again, you have to play to win the game and somehow the Niners had a chance to do that going into the final minutes and this is why Jimmy G got paid, when needed, when it has to happen, the guy seems to find a way to win, and he found that once more with a TD pass to Dante Pettis to finally settle this one for the Niners.

In two months’, time or maybe later, when you look back the record books will say the 49ers beat the Steelers 24-20 to open the season 3-0.  If the lessons are learned from this game and applied to the coming ones, then this struggle will have been a good thing.  This could be one of those games that successful teams look back on when they are doing their end of season review and say it could have all changed there, this bought us together and despite the woefully early bye week and the hideously inept performance at times in Week Three, the Niners are 3-0, they are joint top of the NFC West and just maybe this was the matchup that will sharpen their ire going forward into the remainder of 2019.