The Steelers play Dallas, the Giants, the Redskins and Eagles.  They have the Colts, Jaguars and Titans.  The Chargers and Patriots are also on their schedule, not to mention their division rivals.  If they play like they did last night, they'll be lucky to win four games. 

I'm not sure there's any area where you could say the Steelers played particularly well.  Their defense sucked.  The offense took a few series to get going.  The special teams gave up a kickoff return for a touchdown.  This was uninspired.  I understand that camp gets boring.  You'd think everyone would look forward to playing a game.  This is another instance of Mike Tomlin's team not playing well on the road. 

The tackling was atrocious.  The Steelers are supposed to be tough and hard hitting.  Last night, they were not so tough and hard whiffing. 

The line play on both sides of the ball was awful.  Ben was on the run again and there wasn't much running room.  The defensive line was pushed around like a shopping cart. 

It's only pre-season, so it's far from time to push the panic button.  But, here's a team that expects to be excellent that settled for something much less.

Let's visit the fullback position.  Last year, Dan Krider was more or less set adrift by the Steelers.  They weren't going to use a fullback, so they said.  So, now, they're using the fullback more, but it's Carrie Davis, not Krider.  If you were going to use the fullback more, why not keep the good fullback???

This secondary cannot cover individuals. They must have pressure on the quarterback in order to be able to stay with the opposition receivers. 

I believe that the Steelers' offense will be powerful this year.  But, I also believe that they'll have to be.  Sure, there were no special schemes in the gameplan, but eventually, you've got to work on what you actually plan on utilizing during games. 

If the Minnesota game looks at all like this one, bells are going to go off in the alarm department.  The Steelers cannot afford to get off to a slow start.  If they get behind in their division, catching anyone may be impossible.  I've liked Mike Tomlin in his first year plus.  But, I've seen too many flat performances by his team.  Many more of those and I'll have to assume his preparation is lacking.