Sunday night was the first and only chance for Pittsburgh Steelers fans to get a good look at what this team will look like in the regular season. And they should be pretty happy with what they saw. Pittsburgh controlled the game from start to finish and came out of Tennessee with a commanding 18-6 win. Here are our big takeaways:
The offense is going to be great
We got almost one quarter out of quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, and toward the end, Big Ben finally started to get his rhythm. Roethlisberger capped his last drive with a pretty 17-yard touchdown pass to JuJu Smith-Schuster. The offense didn’t miss a beat when Mason Rudolph replaced Roethlisberger, and watching this group as a whole against the Titans tells me they should be able to score consistently this season with a balanced attack.
But the defense might be even better
As good as the offense was, the defense looked even better. Even as the team dealt with a couple of injuries to starters and guys near the bottom of the depth chart came in, the intensity and athleticism didn’t drop off at all. Linebackers Tuzar Skipper and Ulysees Gilbert III continued to impress, and safety Kameron Kelly looked like a starter. The Steelers defense harassed the Titans quarterbacks all night long and gave their running backs nowhere to run.
Position battles coming into focus
Several key position battles really came into focus this week. At wide receiver, it’s hard to see Eli Rogers beat out Diontae Spence for the final spot on the wide receiver depth chart. At safety, Kameron Kelly is outplaying every safety on the roster but the starters and should see a ton of reps as the dime defensive back. As far as backup quarterback, Rudolph continues to outplay Joshua Dobbs and make a case to be the No. 2 quarterback.
Tight end remains a problem
