What to watch in Steelers’ Week 3 Preseason game
The Pittsburgh Steelers will take on the New Orleans Saints tonight for the third preseason game. This will be the Steelers’ first preseason game on the road.
The focus of the preseason is changing from what the Steelers have in its young players to getting the starters ready for the regular season with real game situations. This is not new for the Steelers nor is it an exclusive idea for the team.
In preparations for tonight’s game, here are three things to watch for.
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The Offense
From an offensive standpoint, the Steelers looked bad against the Philadelphia Eagles and looked okay at times against the Detroit Lions. That is going to change.
The Steelers have plans for Ben Roethlisberger, DeAngelo Williams, Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell to play in the game. Like I previously mentioned, this is to get the starters acclimated to taking game reps, but more importantly taking hits.
Even though Bell is suspended for the first three games, these reps will show how far he has come since hurting his knee last season. It will be good for his mental strength to take hits.
That’s not to say Bell hasn’t been tackled in practice, but he will be taking hits from players that aren’t going to take it easy on him like his teammates. To me, that is the most important thing for Bell.
Offensive Line
Last week, I watched the starting offensive line play a good chunk of the first half and give up way too much pressure. This could have been because they are veterans and don’t want to go too hard or because they hate Landry Jones. Either way, I feel that they should have played better.
Tonight, I will be looking to see how much of a confidence boost having Roethlisberger under center will be for the starting offensive line. Unlike Dustin Vaughan and to some extent Jones, Roethlisberger is not expendable.
If the same amount of pressure continues with Roethlisberger, then I would look into finding and hitting a panic button.
Tyler Matakevich
Matakevich is becoming one of my favorite players to watch. He’s a student of the game, he’s hungry for success, he flies to the ball and he plays hard. Obviously that is what the Steelers have built their persona around and I really want to see him succeed.
I would love to see Matakevich take some snaps in the first half to see what he can do with a quarterback like Drew Brees playing. I think that it would really be a good test of what he can do.
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