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Feats of Strength/Airing of Grievances: Rookies, backups counter sloppy play in Steelers win | TribLIVE.com
Steelers/NFL

Feats of Strength/Airing of Grievances: Rookies, backups counter sloppy play in Steelers win

Tim Benz
Tim Benz

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Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Perkins is tackled by Steelers defensive end Yahya Black during the first half Thursday in Charlotte.

At the end of his club’s preseason-opening win in Jacksonville, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin applauded the fact that the players managed to avoid penalties, injuries and turnovers.

Unfortunately, those matters all became concerns to various degrees over the last two preseason contests. The next one was a 17-14 loss at home to Tampa Bay on Saturday. The other was a 19-10 victory in Carolina on Thursday night.

First-round pick Derrick Harmon got hurt in that win against the Panthers. The first offensive unit did nothing. The partial debut of Tomlin’s alleged “historic” defense was underwhelming, and the team was collecting penalty flags like they were souvenirs from the trip to Charlotte.

Thankfully, there were enough silver linings to get a win. We discuss all the pros and cons in this week’s “Feats of Strength” and “Airing of Grievances.”

FEATS OF STRENGTH

The ‘Sky’ is the limit

Skylar Thompson was sharp again. He completed 11 passes on 13 attempts for 152 yards and a touchdown. That was good for a 141 passer rating.

His biggest play was a 53-yard bomb to Scotty Miller.

Thompson was 10 of 13 for 115 yards, no touchdowns and an interception with three sacks last week. In Jacksonville, he was 20 of 28 for 233 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions.

If the Steelers want to keep Thompson while rookie Will Howard recovers from his broken hand, Bob Labriola of Steelers.com outlined how the Steelers could adjust their roster accordingly.

”If a team puts a player on injured reserve before the date that rosters must be reduced to 53 — which this year is on Tuesday, Aug. 26 — that player is either out for the year, or the team will reach an injury settlement with the player that will make him a free agent once he is healthy,” Labriola explained. “If a team puts a player on injured reserve as part of the cuts it makes on Aug. 26 to get down to 53 players, then the player will automatically be designated to return and count against the 8 players the team is able to designate to return during the upcoming regular season.”

That second option might be what they do with Howard in an effort to keep Thompson at least for the time being.

Unless, of course, some other team wants to trade for Thompson — or, perhaps, wants to trade for Rudolph — and they put Howard on the active roster immediately.

Backup backs

Aside from an inauspicious preseason debut from Jaylen Warren (which we will discuss later), the Steelers’ running game had a little bit more of a boost than it had at other points in the preseason.

Kaleb Johnson averaged 4.8 yards per carry — 24 yards on five attempts. Lew Nichols III had 35 yards from scrimmage on five touches. Trey Sermon also busted off a 39-yard run.

In all, the Steelers’ run game had 99 yards on 18 carries. That’s 5.5-yard per carry, up from a 5.0 average last week in Tampa Bay and a 2.6 yards per attempt effort in Jacksonville to open the preseason.

Just keep in mind, most of that happened once the second-team and third-team units came into the game.

Rookie rumblings

First-year defensive players Yahya Black, Carson Bruener and Jack Sayer had some highlight moments.

Black had five tackles, two sacks and a forced fumble.

Meanwhile, Sawyer registered five tackles, two for a loss, and a quarterback hit. Bruener led the team with seven tackles.

Tip of the cap

Let’s pass out a few more flowers before we go to the negative side of the ledger.

• Kicker Ben Sauls made all four of his field goals. One of them was from 50 yards. Chris Boswell made an extra point in his preseason place-kicking debut after handling kickoffs last week.

• James Pierre added to his special teams efforts with an interception in the end zone off a pressure from DeMarvin Leal.

• Depth receiving options Lance McCutcheon and Ke’Shawn Williams combined for five catches, 83 yards and a touchdown.

AIRING OF GRIEVANCES

Harmon hurt

The biggest concern emerging from the night was Derrick Harmon’s knee injury. The first-round pick looked dejected getting carted off the field.

However, the rookie out of Oregon eventually walked back onto the sideline and sat between Cameron Heyward and T.J. Watt on the bench during the second half.

After the game, Mike Tomlin said that Harmon had a “knee sprain of some description.”

Harmon is slated to be a starter and full-time contributor this year for the Steelers. If he has to start the year on injured reserve (or is inactive on the first few game days), that means if either Logan Lee or Isaiahh Loudermilk were on the bubble, they may both make the roster now.

If Leal was being considered a “defensive lineman” (even though he was playing a lot of outside linebacker), he might be in the mix, too. Leal had three tackles and was around the quarterback quite a bit — as was the Steelers pass rush on multiple occasions. But their sacks didn’t match the amount of pressure they created.

Carolina quarterback Jack Plummer frequently ducked collapsing pockets throughout the first half. The Steelers got to former UFL MVP Bryce Perkins more readily in the second half, but it still felt like there were more negative plays available that weren’t quite finished.

Tomlin was critical of the tackling, saying it was “shaky at best at times.” In the secondary, Chuck Clark, Brandin Echols and Joey Porter Jr. all had fairly obvious missed tackles early on to set the tone.

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Flag fest

Apparently, the officials were trying to get their arms loose for the regular season.

The Steelers had three penalties between the opening kickoff and the end of their first offensive drive. Nichols got one on the kick. Zach Frazier was busted for a hold on the first offensive snap. And Pat Freiermuth erased a first down with a hold.

Jalen Ramsey also got a penalty after making a really nice play on a handoff to Trevor Etienne. But he threw Etienne to the ground, drawing an unnecessary roughness penalty.

Somehow, a narrative began on social media that there was no whistle. I’m not sure how that started. You could hear at least two or three whistles.

Backup center Ryan McCollum was flagged three times in the second half. Leal was penalized twice. In all, the Steelers ended the day with 13 penalties for 104 yards. The Panthers weren’t exactly clean either, accumulating 73 yards on seven penalties.

Pick problem

Mason Rudolph threw an interception for a second straight game. Last time, it seemed to be a predetermined read that Rudolph threw even though he claimed he was “late to the party” after scooping up a low snap from center.

This time, Carolina defensive back Lathan Ransom baited Rudolph into a throw to Williams that he picked off.

Rudolph ended up 6 of 8 for 36 yards with no touchdowns and a 43.8 rating.

Slippy n’at

Jaylen Warren had a rough preseason debut. He slipped on the Carolina turf on two occasions, cutting potential gains short.

Evan Hull wiped out at one point as well, so maybe there was an issue with footing beyond just Warren’s cleats.

He also fumbled after securing a pass reception for 12 yards. Fortunately, Roman Wilson recovered the loose ball. That’s why Warren needed to get hit at some point this preseason to get that out of his system (hopefully) before the start of the regular season.

Warren ended up with only 3 yards on two carries.

Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via X. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.

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