Like these Steelers, Mitchell’s Lesson, Heyward Homecoming
By Kim Myers
The Pittsburgh Steelers will travel to Atlanta for their final road game of the 2014 season to face the Falcons. While they’re working on the goal of winning out to secure a playoff spot, we’ll be busy looking for mentions of your Black & Gold so we’ve got you covered. Here’s your Steelers Morning Huddle for Friday, Dec. 12th.
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It’s OK to like these guys
Steelers fans are a fickle bunch sometimes. Sometimes it’s hard for us to be positive. For instance, last week it seemed as if there were more fans pissed about the big plays the defense gave up than the offensive performance and the actual divisional victory against the Bengals. But, Dejan Kovacevic from DK on Pittsburgh Sports writes that it’s ok to like these Steelers. DK says he’s even learning to like Mike Mitchell, who he’s been overly critical of for most of the season. It’s a very good read and definitely worth a click.
Mitchell Learned His Lesson
Speaking of the Steelers safety that is quite possibly the least likeable Steeler at the moment, Mike Prisuta says that Mitchell is taking full responsibility for his performance against the Bengals and particularly for the 81-yard touchdown pass from Andy Dalton to A.J. Green. Mitchell detailed what happened on the play after watching the film.
"“As a post-safety I’m responsible for everything 18 yards deep and deeper down the middle of the field. Now, on the route Cincinnati ran – hats off to Hue Jackson, it was a great route – they ran a deep ‘over’ (route) by the No. 2 receiver (Mohamed Sanu), the guy in the slot. His ‘over’ came to 17 yards up the field, which is just in the beginning of my zone. As I see that as a post-safety, not being on my job like I should be 100 percent, I see that ‘over’ and it makes me weave with it. While I weave you might think, ‘Hey, that’s not that bad.’ But those 4 yards that I weave over are the 4 yards that I needed to get back to the post to have the right angle on A.J.’s ball that gets caught. If you look when I got to him, he had the angle to cut back on me. If I would have been 4 yards closer to him I probably would have been hitting him as he catches it.” – Mike Mitchell"
Heyward’s Coming Home
Steelers defensive end Cameron Heyward may be the son of former Pitt star, Craig “Iron Head” Heyward, but he grew up in Atlanta and played in the Georgia Dome a lot in high school. According to ESPN’s Scott Brown, Heyward isn’t looking at Sunday’s game against the Falcons as a homecoming. He’s looking at the game as a business trip instead. Heyward will definitely be a key factor in the Steelers defense if they want to get pressure on Atlanta’s Matt Ryan, who is averaging 284 passing yards per game.