PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Is was the question du jour in the Steelers locker room on the first practice after the preseason victory over Buffalo. Does preseason success matter or transfer to the regular season?
OC Matt Canada and others discuss, plus what Mike Tomlin said of the left tackle position and who gets credit for springing Jaylen Warren?
Preseason points
It's three possessions, three touchdowns for the Steelers first-team offense. Does it mean we should expect better performances when it counts? Do preseason touchdowns equate to at least regular season improvement?
"It's always challenging with how to see the preseason," said center Mason Cole. "I think anytime you go out there, you roll the ball on the field, anything you do out there is a big deal. It's good to have success."
"There is always more to improve, you can't let two games define a season and say that's how we are going to be," said receiver Diontae Johnson. "We can improve every day and everything can get better."
"It's just the preseason, we have an agenda going into each game," said Steelers offensive coordinator Matt Canada. "When you go out and play, you are playing to be successful. We are happy with what we've done in a lot of cases. Trying to spread the ball around and get a lot of guys touches. With the ones, we are pleased with a very small sample size."
"You don't count the scoreboard," said receiver Miles Boykin. "I think that's a big thing. We count the plays not the scoreboard. We are watching film, we are not talking about did we win or lose a game. We are talking about how did this play look? What are the details? What are the assignments?"
"When you get to the season, you start paying attention to the scoreboard, but those details came from preseason."
"We are just a world ahead of where we were last year that this point," Cole said. "The confidence is high right now. There is obviously still a long way to go between now and that point."
"I don't think you ever want to have a bad one," Canada said of preseason performances. "If we want to go out there and play, you want to do it. We are not minimizing it, but it is preseason and it really doesn't matter."
"We are just going to keep coming out and working every day, methodically moving forward and getting for the 49ers."
Warren scamper
One of the best comments after the Steelers win over Buffalo Saturday was running back Jaylen Warren noting all the good blocking he got on his 62-yard run and how he basically went by Bills defenders saying 'excuse me, excuse me, excuse me' as he headed to the end zone.
After watching it on film, the Steelers said what made the play special was all did their jobs.
"We blocked it well," Cole said. "Diontae had a good block downfield. It's really a credit to everybody."
"The job well done by everyone," said tackle Chukwuma Okorafor. "Not just the back. Not just Dan as the left tackle or Diontae, the whole team. The fact that he didn't just give a little push, he kept going and going. Hopefully we'll have more type of plays like that."
"Just being a team player, whether the ball comes my way or not, just do my job," Johnson said. "You never know where the ball is going to be at. The play call was to my side, so I had to be on point."
Moore left tackle
OK, by at least this point with Latrobe in the rearview mirror, Mike Tomlin would have named Broderick Jones the starting left tackle. But he hasn't. It's still Dan Moore's job with the final preseason game on Thursday.
How has the incumbent Moore been able to hold off the Georgia star?
"It's not about him holding off anyone," Tomlin said. "It's about his relationship with his game and where he is in his career. And I think it's reasonable to
expect him to be on the trajectory that he's on. We're talking about a guy that's played 1,000 snaps two years in a row. There's no substitute for that snap experience and what you're seeing is probably the fruit of that growth process."
Moore credits the cohesiveness of the unit, with four of the five starters returning and how easy it's been to acclimate Isaac Seumalo into the mix. The third-year lineman from Texas A&M says he's just been trying to sharpen his sword every day and let that show on the field.
He also left this disclaimer.
"It's too early to tell, it's preseason," Moore said. "We will determine (his improvement) once we get the bullets really flying'.
It's a common theme of being cautiously optimistic. One more game that doesn't count until we really see what this Steelers team is all about.
