PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – It was a closed practice, so we are not permitted to share much, but in general there were some struggles by the Steelers offense Thursday at Acrisure Stadium after a great start.
Steelers were 6-1 against the first-team Tampa Bay defense during 7 Shots from the two-and-a-half-yard line. The Bucs offense went 4-3 against the Steelers first-team defense.
“It was a great showing,” said tight end Pat Freiermuth. “I thought we built on that the rest of the practice. It was great to see the guys on the offense fired up and compete. I think everyone took their reps personally.”
That was the really good stuff from the offense. They struggled on the final drill, the two-minute offense, failing to get a first down.
“Obviously, we got to be better,” Freiermuth said. “Obviously with the game on the line the offense wants to go out there and capitalize. There’s going to be stuff to figure out, but a lot of confidence. It’s earlier in the process. We will watch film, get it down and figure out what we are good at."
“It’s always our job to go put points on the board,” said receiver DK Metcalf. “Nine times out of 10 we are going to stop ourselves with either poor technique or not finishing drives. We got to go back and watch the film.”
“We can do more, always. I had a drop on the second play. I can run my routes better, so it’s always something I feel I can do better.”
“Today was, I wouldn’t say a measuring stick, going against our defense every day, surely we are going to get better. Just waiting until September 7 to put a real product out on the field.”
Related
Tampa Bay’s offense did score on their two-minute drill, a red-zone touchdown pass from Baker Mayfield to Mike Evans as time expired. Bucs receiver Emeka Egbuka said they had good competition with the Steelers defense.
“It was good work from both sides,” said Steelers defensive back Brandin Echols. “I feel like we could come out a little better, a little stronger than what we did. It’s practice, that’s what we are out here for, to get better.”
“We came out a little flat. We got to fix that and come out stronger. We got to show that we are a dominant group.”
Steelers have tomorrow off and play the only home game of the preseason Saturday against the Bucs at 7p on KDKA-TV, most of the starters who missed the preseason opener won’t play this week either.
The House He Built
Steelers Hall of Honor recipient Ben Roethlisberger attended the joint practice on Thursday with his two sons. It didn’t seem there was a player or coach that Roethlisberger didn’t talk to on the field during the practice including Mike Tomlin, Jalen Ramsey, Aaron Rodgers and others.
“It was great to see Ben,” Freiermuth said. “It was good to chop it up with him, great to see his kids. He’s always one of my all-time favorites. It was great to see him.”