Your Preseason Guideline: Five Classic Overreactions..By TB

 

With our first preseason game just a few days away now, I thought it’d be a good time to go ahead and try to clear the air of the sure to be overreactions some of us will form from these games. We’ve all been a victim to this at some point or another, so it might help to put together a quick five-point guideline to highlight the traps some of us will fall into while watching these “games.”

#1. “The d-line is old and awful!” This is a common mistake many Steelers fans have made over the past few years. As recently as 2008, I made the mistake of genuinely worrying about this defense perhaps having lost a step or two after watching the Bills consistently gash us on the ground in a preseason game up in Toronto. A lot of fans spent that preseason doing the same thing, only to watch the Steelers come out on opening day against the Texans an absolutely dominate the game on both sides of the line, at one point leading 35-3, en route to one of the most dominant seasons from a defense in modern day history.

When I say guys like Aaron Smith, Brett Keisel, and Casey Hampton could not care less about the preseason other than staying healthy, I really mean it. To hardened vets like them with nothing to prove, the preseason is basically one long-winded joke that they have to sit through for an entire month—forced to wait for a punch line that never comes. The level of play they bring on opening day against the Falcons will be completely different from what you will see over the next four weeks, so keep that in mind when you’re watching Jahvid Best break an arm tackle and bust a good gainer on Saturday night.

#2. “Hey, who’s this tall wideout tearing it up? Why doesn’t this guy play more?” Another common mistake we all make this time of year is completely overreacting to the giant wideout from Sandusky State that catches 4 or 5 balls and looks unstoppable late in the third quarter. Don’t kid yourselves; this guy is likely never going to be a contributor, and usually, it’s with good reason. The most likely candidate this season would be Brandon London. Does he run good routes, can he seal off his man on a block, can he break off his routes effectively, can he sell a head fake to get an extra step or two on a defender, can he effectively play the ball in the air, can he go over the middle and make a tough catch in traffic, can he protect his QB on a jump ball by making sure the defender can’t make a play, etc… well, who knows. But when Dennis Dixon is frantically scrambling around in the third quarter and hitting London up top over 5’8” corners who won’t be on a NFL roster in a few weeks, he might suddenly gain all of those abilities and more in the eyes of some. Sure, certainly some of these lanky, lumbering sloths grow into actual players, but for the most part, it just doesn’t happen. The smart money says this guy is never higher than fifth on our depth chart at best, or ever sees an important snap at wideout for the Steelers.

#3. “The o-line sucks, and Rashard Spinandfall likes ballet not football!!!” Running games in the preseason are a curious thing. Sometimes, they can look surprisingly effective and already in midseason form, but in other instances they can just as easily look like what would happen if Jessica Simpson were suddenly running the main switchboard for Amtrak. Either way, you shouldn’t put too much stock into how most of these big uglies look in the preseason, especially when it comes to issues with assignments and the speed of the game. Maybe one of the tackles completely whiffs on a speed rush, or maybe a promising young guard trips on his feet and lets the RB get destroyed on a two yard loss. While some of their struggles might certainly be an overall indicator of their level of play and ultimate potential, don’t put too much stock into it other than what’s needed, especially when it comes to the young guys. A lot of these younger players are just trying to make sure they’re making the right read and in the right position, let alone actually concentrating on executing.

#4. “I wish Ben was a real quarterback like Philip Rivers!” Perhaps it will be different this go around given the current circumstances, but some guys for whatever reason just don’t bring their A game, or sometimes even their B game, for the preseason slate, and Ben is one of those players. Dump off artists like Rivers, Trent Edwards, Flacco, etc… will naturally excel and complete a high volume of their passes, but that’s simply not Ben’s game, and thankfully won’t ever be. So even against soft preseason defenses that are giving up underneath routes and the flats, Ben will sometimes still refuse to give in and will try and force big plays down the field. Going back to 2005, his level of play (where the first team offense didn’t score a single TD the entire preseason) was a huge concern heading into the regular season, only for him to come out the first two weeks and play about as flawless as a QB can play. Ben is a gamer who uses the preseason not to play it safe, but instead to prepare for the regular season (the same way he’s the most prepared QB entering the postseason given what he’s asked to do in the regular season throw-to-throw), so don’t worry if he looks off. Obviously, the circumstances this year are entirely different than most normal years, but there’s no doubt in my mind that on week six home against the Browns he will be ready with guns a blazin’.

#5. Pre-fumble: “This kid’s YouTube vids are sick, gonna be a great KR...”
Post-fumble: “You God forsaken bum, I hope your whole family starves to death!!” If there’s one thing years of watching relatively meaningless preseason games has taught me, it’s that young returners will most likely struggle just to hold onto the football. Between nerves, over thinking their situation in the bright lights, or even just getting ahead of themselves and not focusing on securing the rock, these things tend to happen. Especially since most of these special teams units are filled with guys hurtling themselves down field who would kill to get the coach’s attention with either a big hit or a strip. And this is without even mentioning the classic case of a guy who calls for a fair catch at the two yard line, or who forgets to signal for a fair catch altogether and gets absolutely rocked—which is always a real hoot. So don’t necessarily get discouraged if you see an Emmanuel Sanders or Antonio Brown do something on a kick or punt return that makes you wonder if they’ve ever played football in their lives before coming to Pittsburgh. In the big scheme of things, a preseason screw up doesn’t deserve some huge extrapolation on what that might mean for the rest of their career.

So overall, don’t overreact to a lot of what you’re seeing in these preseason games. While they obviously serve a purpose in evaluating younger players and getting a glimpse as to their potential, for the most part they are still a relatively meaningless exercise for a majority of the players who really matter (something which cannot be stressed enough). Ultimately, these games have no bearing whatsoever on how this team will play like this season, which I think is forgotten at times in our rabid need for anything to latch onto on the eve of a new football season.