Bungles 19, Stillers 17 ...... Jan 4, 2025 ………Game # 17
Stillers - Bungals Postgame Analysis and Grades
The 10-6 Stillers hosted the 8-8 Bungals in the season finale. Balt beat Clev earlier in the day to secure the AFC North title. Still, PIT needed to snap the sour taste of the 3-game losing streak. PIT won the toss and deferred.
Sure enough, Cinci took the opening KO and marched for a cake-easy TD. Cinci was up 10-0, but the Stillers pieced together a nice drive to make it 10-7. The Stillers clawed back to cut the deficit to 19-17 in the 4Q, but a late drive stalled out to give Cinci the win.
Grades:
QB: Wilson got the start.
Held ball forever, first series on 3d & 7, and got sacked. Went 4 of 8 for 45 yards, 2 sacks, in the 1H. Embarrassingly ugly.
The 3Q was no better, with no points scored and minimal movement of the ball.
Hit Fryboy for a 19 yard TD, mid 4Q.
Scrambled to his RIGHT with around 30 secs left in the game, and instead of whipping the ball OOB, he KEPT it and was tackled for a 2 yard gain IN bounds, keeping the clock running. Dumb. Entirely stupid. Either whip that ball OOB or run OOB. Wilson did neither. He then took a sack, and then had Pickens WIDE open on an out-and-up, but misfired poorly and gave GP no chance on what should have been a pitch and catch. Terrific trio of 3 consecutive plays for The Great Savior, Big Russell Wilson.
Finished 17 of 31 for 148. Sure, he was victimized by several drops, but his play wasn’t anywhere near good enough. D+
RB:
Harris – ripped off a couple good runs, 1Q and 2Q, over 10 yards. Scored on a 1-yard plunge, 10:00 2Q. Solid 1H, with 9 rushes for 35. Good RAC, busting 3 tackles, in the 4Q, gaining 12. Got smacked helmet to helmet in the 3Q and mostly sat out after that. B
Warren – 5 for 12, 1H. Had only 6 carries, for 21 yards, and no receptions. Not sure why he was written out of the offense.
Cord Patt – ran a toss sweep, latish 4Q, for 1 yard. Flagged for a hold, 2 plays later. Hopefully he’s played his last home game ever for the Stillers. D
FB: never used.
WR:
Pickens – Had 1 grab in the 1H, good for 0 yards. Failed to haul in a deep lob on 3d & 8, 3Q, when the DB was able to paw the ball as it arrived to GP’s hands. Dropped slant route, 4Q, which would have gained 12 yards or so. Dropped a cake-easy hitch pass, 5:11 4Q.
Van Jeff – targeted on 3d & 3, 2Q, and was blanketed (surprise!), with the DB busting up the pass. Had 3 grabs for 18. Great numbers for a WR2 ! C-
Austin – 3d & 8 pass to Pee Pee Austin, early 3Q, and PeePee fails to haul it in. Not a great pass, but hardly a great attempt to catch the ball. Thank you, Hextall Khan, for THE worst WR corps in the NFL. Had zero grabs. C-
Skowronek – thankfully was not targeted.
Mike Williams - Big catch along the sidelines, Mike Williams, last play 1Q. Good thing Asslin and King Arthur have rotted this guy for WEEKS on end. Of course, he was immediately removed and targeted just once more the rest of the game.
Rom Wilson – did not dress (surprise!)
Scott Miller – thankfully not active.
TE:
Pat FryBoy – was left wide open for a 19 yard TD grab, mid 4Q. Dropped the late 4th & 12 pass that sealed the loss, on a PERFECT pass that should have been grabbed. Good thing Hextall Khan gave him that fatty extension back in Sept. D-
Darnell – drew a DPI flag in the EZ, 2Q.
Con Heyward – not involved at’all.
OL: Overall, the line (Moore, Seumalo, Frazier, McCormick, Jones) had a spotty, subpar game. The running game was sporadic and the pass pro allowed loads of pressure and harassment.
Moore got whipped by Hendrickson multiple times, including a big sack, 5:00 4Q.
Late in the 1H, the O faced 3d & 1, and then 4th & a half-yard, and was unable to convert on either the QB sneak or the Warren run on 4th down. Very grisly. Unacceptable. Overall grade: C-
DL:
Heyward – deflected a pass on 4th & 1, 2Q, to cause an INC pass. Batted a pass, late 2Q. 1st Half stats, Scam Heyward: ZERO solos, ZERO assists. Yeah, he had 2 batted passes, both while getting completely stymied on his weak-as-shit pass rush. $23M Cap Hog, doing jak fuq.
STOP the presses ! Scam Heyward just got his FIRST assist of the game, at 12:13 3Q, on a 3-yard plunge. Quick -- get this guy a $78M extension !!
Bowled over the LG on the 3d & goal play, 3Q, which caused SOME pressure on the QB. (Herbig got the sack on this play.)
Got a batted pass, 8:00 4Q. Finished with ZERO solos and 1 assist, along with 3 batted passes as he got stymied on 95% of his pass rushes. All this, for only $23M per season. D
Ogunjobi – did little.
Adams – did little.
Lowdermilk – having not done anything in weeks, he was inactive.
Benton – got a fingernail nip of Burrow for a sack, 2:00 4Q.
LB:
Queen – blitzed untouched and smacked the QB, 1Q, forcing a fumble that Cinci recovered. Had 3 solos in a quiet effort. C
Landon Rob – did little.
Watt – had some harassment, but was held off the stat sheet. Did have a strip sack of Burrow, but a Trice flag negated the play. Overall, not good enough. C+
Highsmith –
2nd & 5 at PIT 31
(11:44 - 1st) (Shotgun) K.Herbert left guard to PIT 27 for 4 yards (A.Highsmith). Losing football, of course, allowing 4 yards on the ground.
2nd series, was in pass coverage right from the get-go, and got tooled for a NINE yard reception. Got to the QB, AFTER Queen had smacked him, late 1Q, on a play that Queen forced a fumble that Cinci recovered.
Flagged for offsides, 9:35 2Q.
Got a slop assist - 2nd & 8 at PIT 44
(7:59 - 2nd) (Shotgun) K.Herbert right guard to PIT 42 for 2 yards (A.Highsmith, K.Benton).
Another slop assist- 2nd & 2 at CIN 21
(3:56 - 3rd) (Shotgun) K.Herbert up the middle to CIN 27 for 6 yards (C.Sutton; A.Highsmith). More losing football, allowing a 6 yard run by a backup RB.
Then, on the next play – 1st & 10 at CIN 27
(3:23 - 3rd) (Shotgun) K.Herbert left tackle to CIN 28 for 1 yard (A.Highsmith, P.Wilson).
While being solo blocked by a TE, 4Q, got a solo - 1st & Goal at PIT 10
(12:35 - 4th) (Shotgun) K.Herbert left guard to PIT 8 for 2 yards (A.Highsmith).
Another slop assist - 1st & 10 at CIN 44
(2:29 - 4th) (Shotgun) K.Herbert up the middle to CIN 46 for 2 yards (K.Benton; A.Highsmith).
You can plainly see here that Cinci had ZERO interest in running the ball anywhere near Watt. Overall, Fraudsmith was at least moderately active in the running game….not that he did much, but he did lightly chip in. His feeble pass rush was stonewalled time and time and time again. C-
Herbig – made a stop short of the sticks in pass coverage, mid 1Q. Big sack, 3Q, and he injured Burrow in the process. All this dude does is make plays. B
Pay Wilson – got tooled by Gieseke on an early 3d & 2 for a 5 yard gain. Got beaten on a flare RAC, 3Q, allowing 3 extra yards of RAC. C+
Pres Smith – thanks to a clumsy O-lineman, he got a rather easy sack, 2Q.
DB
Joey Porter Jr. – chipped in a little bit. Played adequately.
Donte Jackson – did not dress, due to a bad back.
DeShon Elliot – nailed the RB, first play o’ game, for no gain. But was soft the very next play, allowing Gieseke to make the grab and get RAC for 12 yards. Good stick on the RB on a flare, early 4Q, for a 1 yard loss. B
Minkah - again, too quiet. Lotta salcap for a guy to make 2 solos and zero PDs. C
Trice – got the start when Jackson couldn’t go. Got picked on during the 1st drive, including a cake-easy TD grab by Chase. Dropped a wide run, 2d series, for a 1 yard loss. Flagged for a hold on 3d & 6, late 2Q, on the play where Watt forced a QB fumble that Cinci recovered. Got abused by Chase, late 3Q, on a 15 yard out pass. Then got abused on a backshoulder pass to Chase, first play of the 4Q. He was being hailed by the fan base as the 2nd coming of Rod Woodson. He ain’t quite there. D
Bishop – got a Dong INT, late 2Q, when the ball deflected off the CIN WR and Queen before softly landing, soft as a baby’s bottom, in Beanie’s hands.
Cam Button – saw a fair amount of PT; did nothing.
Spec teams:
Waitman – had some awkward moments, but managed to cobble together a variety of good punts. B+
Boswell – clutch as always, booting 3 of 3 FGs.
Skowron had a good solo stop, opening KO.
PeePee Austin (couch, cough) fumbled a punt after getting hit by a PAW, late 2Q. Little bee-hotch. Worthless PoS. In the 4Q, fielded a punt at his own 8, and gained 3 yards, instead of allowing the ball to potentially bounce into the EZ.
Conn Heyward grabbed a “fumbled” punt, 4Q.
OC: Art Smith had yet another miserable 1H. He completed a rare feat, going 17 games without a first-drive TD. The offense stunk and sputtered in the 1H, mustering just 7 points.
Targeted Pickens only ONCE in the 1H, and that on a bubble screen that was completed 2 yards behind the LOS and gained zero yards.
The 2H wasn’t much better. The worst was inserting Cord Patterson deep into the 4Q, and ordering a toss sweep to Patt that gained 1 yard. Arthur kept Patt in the game, rather than Warren, on the 3d down, which Patt earned a holding flag. Just dumb, and brainless, playcalling, player usage (sat Mike Williams 95% of the game), and schemes. The NY Jets want to hire this stiff for their HC ?? Fuq, I’ll drive King Arthur to Jersey for the job interview. D
DC: Austin had his usual early-game struggles. Cinci took the opening KO and marched for a cake-easy TD. EASY, AS, PIE. Cinci also had a nice FG drive to make it 10-0.
Tee Higgins got hurt, 3Q. Why on earth didn’t Austin, the village idiot, move Porter to cover Chase ?? Austin finally did this, but only after a couple of series had occurred. The D allowed only 19, but much of that was on poor RZ execution by Cinci, plus a dropped TD pass by Chase, plus Cinci missing its starting RB and missing Higgins a good part of the 2H. D
HC: Mike Asslin oversaw a miserable, hideous 4-game losing streak. The great unleasher of hell, getting azz-whipped in Dec and Jan ! This epic collapse falls squarely on Stoogelin’s shoulders. F
Synopsis: A grisly end to the regular season, with a loss and a 4-game losing streak. Hard to fathom how this team is going to win even one playoff game. We’ll see.
Follow Mill on Twitter, at StillMill1