07-27-2020, 06:19 PM
We lost to Pittsbugh in the first game 27-3, in an embarrassing loss. In the 2nd game we only lost 16-10.
It would be easy to look just at the final score and come away with either, or both, of these thoughts: 1.) We greatly improved. 2.) If we just had some more luck we could/should have pulled that out
Here's what a box score and a perception of being "so close" doesn't tell you:
-They were forced to play their backup QB's.
-They were missing James Connor (RB1)
-They were missing Juju Smith-Schuster (WR1)
-They were missing Marquis Pouncy (Best Center in NFL)
Now obviously we were missing AJ, and we had our share of injuries too. But you can't deny that we were facing a severely injury happered team. When you're missing your #1 QB, RB, WR, andyour best OL that's going to cause a world of hurt. But those are breaks in this league I guess. Still, we faced a much different team than we did early in the season.
Now let's see how close we were in the matchup against the wounded Squeelers.
-They had more first downs (16-10).
-They had more yards (338-244).
-They had more passing yards (179-158).
-They had more rushing yards (159-86)
-They were better on 3rd down (5 of 16 to 2 of 12)
-They had more time of possession (34:40 to 25:20)
-They had more sacks (4 to 3)
-They forced more turnovers (2 to 1)
-They had less penalty yards (77 to 79)
So did we improve?
Again, I don't know how you could prove that as we faced an entirely different team in the 2nd game.
So we were "so close", or did luck prevent us from pulling out a win here?
They won out in pretty much every statistical category. We held the lead only once, at 10-7, for a grand total of 6 minutes. The other 54 minutes was spent either even or behind, and we were behind the entirity of the 4th quarter.
This is another "close" game where I can't see luck playing any factor in explaining our loss. This was basically their B Team, and we got them at home. And they proceeded to outperform us at every single level.
It would be easy to look just at the final score and come away with either, or both, of these thoughts: 1.) We greatly improved. 2.) If we just had some more luck we could/should have pulled that out
Here's what a box score and a perception of being "so close" doesn't tell you:
-They were forced to play their backup QB's.
-They were missing James Connor (RB1)
-They were missing Juju Smith-Schuster (WR1)
-They were missing Marquis Pouncy (Best Center in NFL)
Now obviously we were missing AJ, and we had our share of injuries too. But you can't deny that we were facing a severely injury happered team. When you're missing your #1 QB, RB, WR, andyour best OL that's going to cause a world of hurt. But those are breaks in this league I guess. Still, we faced a much different team than we did early in the season.
Now let's see how close we were in the matchup against the wounded Squeelers.
-They had more first downs (16-10).
-They had more yards (338-244).
-They had more passing yards (179-158).
-They had more rushing yards (159-86)
-They were better on 3rd down (5 of 16 to 2 of 12)
-They had more time of possession (34:40 to 25:20)
-They had more sacks (4 to 3)
-They forced more turnovers (2 to 1)
-They had less penalty yards (77 to 79)
So did we improve?
Again, I don't know how you could prove that as we faced an entirely different team in the 2nd game.
So we were "so close", or did luck prevent us from pulling out a win here?
They won out in pretty much every statistical category. We held the lead only once, at 10-7, for a grand total of 6 minutes. The other 54 minutes was spent either even or behind, and we were behind the entirity of the 4th quarter.
This is another "close" game where I can't see luck playing any factor in explaining our loss. This was basically their B Team, and we got them at home. And they proceeded to outperform us at every single level.
