Stillers 23, Cards 17……. Dec 8, 2019…………Game # 13
Stillers-Cards Postgame Analysis and Grades
The Stillers played what amounted to a home game in front of a Stiller-friendly crowd, against a weak, downtrodden foe. After storming to an early 10-0 lead, the Stillers had to scratch and claw to hold off the pesky Cards.
Grades:
QB: Another steady, solid game by Duck. 16 of 19, with 0 INTs, ain’t shabby. The TD strike to DJ was highly on target, and there were some other well placed throws. He was also decisive. Dude just makes plays. A
RB:
Conner - again sat, like a pansie.
Samuel - played a fair amount. Had 2 grabs for 18, but only 16 rushing yards on 7 rushes, which is obviously sub-par. B-
Snell: Had some strong running, although rushed for only 41 yards on 16 carries, a 2.6 YPC. Also had a hideous fumble that gave AZ life after being down 10-0. B-
Whyte - peels off a few nice runs; averaged 8 yards per rush on 5 carries. Had 1 grab for 9. With his superior (over his teammates) quickness and speed, he should be used more as a receiver than he has been. B+
FB:
Edmunds - Trey served as a FB on a few plays.
WR:
JuJu - again sat out like a pansy.
Wash - Had 4 grabs for 33. More importantly, drew two downfield PI flags. Finally starting to look like he belongs. B+
Dionte - Had 6 grabs for 60, including a couple clutch grabs, plus a TD. Best game of his career. A
Cain - had only 1 grab, but it was a big 22-yard gainer on a sideline lob.
TE:
McDonald - had 1 grab for 3 yards. Got injured and left the game. Will probably miss the next 3 games.
Vanette: Did little.
OL: Overall, the line blocked adequately. Not great, but decently. The Cards packed the LOS and many runs were into the teeth of an 8 man front. The pass pro was decent, although Matt Feiler spent the day trying to mimic Chris Conrad as a turnstile/pylon. Feiler was simply awful. Villa had a foolish false start. B-
DL:
Hargrave - solid all-around game. Had some pressures. I wasn’t pleased with AZ gashing the D for nice chunks of run yardage. B
Heyward – Ditto as ‘Grave.
Alu - got some PT here and there. Flagged for a hold on a RB who was trying to peel out for a flare pass. C+
LB:
Vinnie– Had a solid game. Made a nice play to spy and then sack Murray in the 1H. B
Barron - somehow credited with 6 solos. (Amazing how this pudd-puller manages to pad his stat sheet with loads of slop stops and stack-jumps….). A lot of the run gashing can be attributed to this soft run defender. B-
Watt - solid game with a goodly number of pressures, although he recorded just 1 solo. Had a huge INT in the 4Q. B+
Crud DuPree - had a couple acceptable plays early on, stringing out some wide runs. Also had a sack. Satisfied with his stats, he was quiet the final 45 minutes of the game. Ya take what ya can get out of this fellow. B
Chickillo - saw some PT
DB
Haden - good game with 2 INTs. A
Artie Burned - did not dress
Hilton - Surprisingly quiet today, altho, again, ya had a QB who cannot pass.
Minkah - made. TD saving play on a bootleg by Kyler that, against 95% of the safeties in this league, goes for a TD. Few (just two) downfield completions allowed all game. A
Nelson - got beaten on the deepish flag, and had some other struggles. B-
Edmunds - chipped in here and there on run stops. Took a poor angle, and then showed the ability to leap over SIX stacked nickels, on the 2H TD pass. Just awful. His vision must be hideous, and the measurable he supposedly showed at the NFL Combine were NOWHERE to be found in that shoddy, ill-fated leap at the pass. C-
Hilton - somewhat quiet, but had 4 solos and chipped in adequately. B-
Spec teams:
Jordan Berry – in the 2Q, had a perfect opportunity to pin AZ deep, but instead booted a shitty=assed 29-yard punt that was FC at the 15. (Note - I fuking hate the meaningless NFL stat of “inside the 20”, which is a bullshit, worthless stat.). AZ marched 85 yards for a TD after this shitty-assed punt. He had a 69-yard punt, but of course this out-kicked his coverage, and the punt was returned for like 28 yards. Then in the 4Q, this moron ran a botched fake punt that was stuffed, and worse, he coughed up the ball as easy as pie. Only the sheer luck did AZ not return this for a TD. D
Boswell – 3 for 3 on FGs.
Dionte - returned a 1Q punt 85 yards for a TD. Superb! A
OC: Randy Sphincter had some struggles. I wasn’t fond with the continual running into the teeth of 8 and 9 man fronts. Duck has proven to be capable and competent….time to take of the training wheels.
DC:
Keith Assler was gifted a 10-0 lead, and then immediately started to shit his own bed. He allowed a long, methodical, 85-yard TD march to let AZ back into the game. Let’s not forget that, had Murray simply KEPT the ball and run with it, he easily gets the 1st down to set up a 1st & goal instead of the INT by Watt. I also wasn’t pleased with how this D got gashed on the ground in the final 3 periods. C
HC: Stoogelin managed to pad his record with a fly win over a weak foe. An under-impressive win. Asslin got bamboozled by AZ’s fake punt. And if Asslin had anything to do with the foolish, brain-dead fake punt in the 4Q — while leading, no less! — he should be fired by Tues AM. (It turns out, he did.) After the game, he stated, “We going to aggressively pursue victory. We’re going to be unashamed and unafraid.” Unashamed, my ass. He should be ashamed and embarrassed for this assaholic decision to try a fake punt, while leading midway thru the 4Q. C-
Synopsis: At this juncture, ya take a win any way ya can. Almost feels like we stole a game today. We’ll take it. Now onto a tough nite game versus Buff, which has had a very nice season thus far.
(Still Mill and Stillers.com -- when it comes to the analysis of the Pittsburgh Stillers, no one else comes close….)
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