Nicholas Smith

My initial takeaways after the Steelers' loss vs. the Bengals in Week 18: ⬇️ - I'm at the point where if the Jets wanna hire Arthur Smith to be their next Head Coach, they can have him. He keeps trying to make 'fetch' happen and make this a ground & pound, bully-ball offense when the O-Line can't even get enough push to get 1 measly yard on a 3rd or 4th & short when the defense knows they're running. This offense has been at it's best this year when Russ is in shotgun & is free to distribute (like in the 4Q tonight), but Art is refusing to adapt & is stubbornly sticking to his bread & butter, leading to all these slow starts. If he comes out with that same offensive game plan next week vs. the best run defense in the league in the Ravens, it will be yet another slow start next week, & you can take that to the bank. - Russ certainly wasn't without his mistakes tonight, but he can't catch these balls for his receivers, guys. The reality is if Pickens catches that dotted up deep shot on a 3rd and long (not to mention the other 2 he dropped) and/or Muth catches that perfectly placed seam ball on 4th & 12 to give Boz a shot to win it, Russ would have been a big reason they came back to win. When they turned to him in the 4Q, it wasn't perfect, but the ball and the chains were moving much better. If they ran that 4Q offense the entire game (like they did the first time they played CIN when Russ threw the ball 38 times and put up 44 points), this likely would have been a W IMO. - I have to give props to the defense for finding a groove vs. a really good offense just in time for the postseason. The fact of the matter is this defense is probably going to have to hold good offenses like this to less than 20 points if they wanna make a run, and tonight they got back to making big stops in big moments. The defense played well enough to win, but it's tough to win games when the offense only gets 7 points in the first 3 quarters. - They probably won't do this, but I would think long & hard about keeping Cory Trice Jr. in there at CB2 next week over Donte Jackson, especially if Zay Flowers can't go next weekend. Chase certainly got his wins against him tonight, but I really like his physicality, especially since PIT will likely go to their heavy man coverage game plan that they usually run vs. Baltimore. - Although PIT is going into the playoffs with 4 straight losses and BAL is going in with 4 straight blowout victories, I still feel this team can absolutely upset the Ratbirds next week. PIT has still won 8 of their last 10 vs. these guys, and if the defense plays like they did tonight, we know Lamar tends to shrink on that big stage, and you mix that with a team in PIT that he's struggled against his entire career, you have a recipe for a potential playoff upset. - I'll say this though, if PIT loses next week and it ends up being 5 straight losses to finish the year & the last one is a 1st round loss in the playoffs vs. the Ravens of all teams... boy, Tomlin and Russ are gonna be hearing the noise this offseason, that's for sure. That said, if they get the upset next week, the waters would calm for sure. I guess we'll see what happens next week. Gonna be a fun one. #HereWeGo