The Pittsburgh Steelers picked up a 20-13 victory against the Atlanta Falcons on Sept. 13 at Acrisure Stadium.
On paper, it was a feel-good start to coach Mike McCarthy’s tenure as coach after 19 seasons of Mike Tomlin standing at the helm.
In practice, it felt at times like the Steelers should have pulled away a lot faster from a Falcons team that was down to its third-string quarterback.
Here are USA TODAY’s position-by-position grades for the effort from a Steelers perspective.
Quarterback - A
Aaron Rodgers’ box score line wasn't very pretty – 24 of 40 passing for 221 yards and a touchdown. That’s an inefficient 5.5 yards per attempt that evokes a lot of his results in Arthur
Smith’s more conservative offense last season.
The film will show that he put a lot of downfield passes on target for his receivers. They just didn’t come down with them for one reason or another. (We’ll get to that shortly.)
He looked comfortable back in the McCarthy system that he knows so well from his Green Bay days. He knows where the ball needs to go, and he was not overly reliant on his running backs in the passing game like we was last season, when so much seemed to flow through Kenneth Gainwell. He might not have been playing at quite an MVP level, but that kind of effort will work more weeks than it won’t.
Running backs - C
It was an unimpressive debut for Rico Dowdle, one of the team’s key offseason acquisitions. He had just eight carries for 15 yards and two catches for six. That’s not good enough for 10 touches.
Jaylen Warren was a bit better. He had five catches for 27 yards and added 46 yards on 10 carries. That translates to a healthy 4.6 yards per carry average. Seventeen of those yards came on a single late fourth quarter carry, however. Without it, his average would have been 3.2. That better reflects how generally ineffective the group was for the vast majority of the afternoon.
Receivers - C+
We’ll be a bit more generous than perhaps these guys deserve here, given the drops, for a couple of reasons. One, as Rodgers pointed out postgame, the Steelers had a good case for a couple more interference calls than they ultimately received. One along the sideline to DK Metcalf was particularly egregious and justly drew loud boos from the crowd. It’s hard to pile onto them too hard for dropping balls with an inherently higher degree of difficulty attached to them.
The second reason is more important and less whiny: They were open and in position to make plays. That wasn’t true a lot of times late in the Tomlin days. If that can happen consistently in this offense, then we’re betting we won’t be talking about drops nearly as much across a larger sample size.
It was also encouraging to see Michael Pittman Jr. average nearly 20 yards across his three receptions in his Steelers debut that came at the end of an injury-plagued training camp and preseason.
Tight ends - B+
Until Pittman made a late catch, Pat Freiermuth was the team’s leading receiver for the afternoon. He still ended up with more catches than anyone else with five. Darnell Washington was solid in his primary role as a blocker, then caught the Falcons napping for a 15-yard catch in the four-minute drill that helped put the game away.
Offensive line - C
This might be a pass-first offense with Mike McCarthy, but this group still needs to create a lot more holes in the running game than it did. Averaging 2.8 yards per carry will not be enough to keep defenses honest very often. In pass blocking, the group allowed pressures on 12 of Rodgers’ 40 attempts, per Pro Football Focus data. Just one led to a sack, and only one other led to a hit on Rodgers. So at least they kept his person fairly clean.
Linebackers - A+
It wasn’t just about the huge day for the pass rushers. Yes, T.J. Watt’s interception of Rush and the ensuing touchdown return essentially won the game. And yes, his two sacks – plus a pair from fellow outside linebacker Alex Highsmith – contributed massively to Rush being in a proverbial blender all afternoon.
But it was also great to see Payton Wilson and Patrick Queen step up in run defense on a day that All-Pro Bijan Robinson was lining up in the opposing backfield. Those two had six stops between them, defined by PFF as plays that result in failure for the opposing offense. More of that moving forward would be a key development for this defense in DC Patrick Grahm’s first season.
Defensive line - B
Cam Heyward batted three of Rush’s passes at the line of scrimmage. It’s one of his underrated skills that’s kept him toward the top of his profession well into his 30s. In the running game, he finished the game with two stops, and fellow starters Derrick Harmon and Keeanu Benton added three and two, respectively. Paired with the linebackers’ production, it was more than enough to keep Robinson mostly bottled up on the ground. He averaged just four yards across his 21 carries.
Secondary - A
Falcons receivers not named Robinson caught four passes for 53 yards all afternoon. This defense will gladly trade some yards to the running back underneath to keep a lid on opponents. It helped that Rush was the opposing quarterback this time. Drake Maye’s performance next week in New England will probably tell us a lot more about this pass defense unit. Still, it was a good start considering the Steelers played this game without Joey Porter Jr. starting the game and with Jamel Dean getting a bit banged up at times.
Coaching - B+
Graham's defense flummoxed Rush and contained Robinson to ace its two primary tests for the afternoon. McCarthy's offense looked refreshingly aggressive. It was the change of pace many Steelers fans were hoping for. McCarthy just needs to get the execution squared away moving forward in both the running and passing games.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Grading the Steelers' NFL Week 1 win: T.J. Watt, Alex Highsmith were disruptive
