Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Chicago Bears Review | PFF Grade Release Show

Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Chicago Bears Review | PFF Grade Release Show

PFF is running one of their biggest sales ever. 40% off a PFF plus subscription right now using the promo code black Friday. That means that you get everything fully unlocked. You get the grades, you get the stats, you get all the fantasy advice, the betting advice, which our new player prop tool is available on web as well to make you a smarter better. You’ve got all the draft analysis, the free agency analysis, all of that great stuff. Subscribe.pff.com to get 40% off a year-long PFF Plus subscription. Get it now. Uh let’s get to that Steelers Bears game. You know, we had a super chat earlier talking about explaining the grade with Caleb Williams, which we will get to in a second, but Chicago, they did win 31 to 28. Let’s take a look at the top five graded players that we have for the Chicago Bears. Nahan Wright has had a great last couple of weeks here. 82.7 overall grade. Offensive tackle Jonah Jackson right behind him with a 765. Offensive tackle Azie Trapillo with a 750. Offensive guard Joe Tuni with a 73.7. Running back Kyle Mania a 72.4. And then Caleb Williams in this game, an overall grade of a 44.4. I think his pass grade was a 47 or something around a 47, but overall grade of a 44.4. We’ll dig into that more in a second here. On Pittsburgh side of things, offensive guard Mason McCormack with an 89, offensive guard Isaac Suo with an 888. Tight end Darnell Washington an 813, wide receiver Ben Scaronic with an 80.0. And then quarterback Brandon Nichols with a 73.1. Mason Rudolph in this game a 57.3. But Chicago big winners in this one continuing their win streak now at the top well have been top of the NFC North and they are still there. What was your stat? So for me first of all let’s get into the schematics of it and what went right for the Bears. If you are going to play defense against Ben Johnson, you better be able to cover the middle of the field. If you can’t do that, the Bears are going to carve you up the same way the Lions did for multiple years under Johnson with their as their offensive coordinator. Caleb Williams throwing between the numbers in this game. We’ll get to the good here first with Caleb. 15 of 22, 210 yards, all three of his touchdowns. The Steelers, when you look at their linebacker level, especially struggling, and just the way that they play zone defense, there’s just not a whole lot of matching and not a whole lot of carrying routes and really plastering to receivers that goes on. They had a 29.5 coverage grade on passes between the numbers in this game for the season, a 33.9. They’re the fifth worst team in the NFL defending between the numbers down there with some of the worst defenses in football when we talk about the Raiders and the Bengals and teams like that. This has been a problem for them all year, right? The quarterback position obviously got better with Jaylen Ramsay with Darius Slight coming in, you know, but the middle of the field is a major problem for them and it ended up being a really bad schematic matchup for for them against Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams when the throws that he did make cuz there was several throws that he did make in this game that made a big difference. They were basically all over the middle of the field, right? And that’s what Ben Johnson wants. He wants to attack you with the run game and then get into play action. And there was some of the same concepts that were working repeatedly throughout the game. And Ben Johnson could just keep hitting the same buttons and they were continuing to work. The Steel, this is a real problem. If you can throw the ball well over the middle of the field, the Steelers are going to have issues on defense. And that was their biggest problem in this game to me. Yeah, Steelers coverage overall was my most disappointing. 43.1 overall coverage grade. It was not just the linebackers. It was the safeties who struggled. It was the outside guys who struggled. Uh it was just a bad day at the office for for Pittsburgh and what was going on there. I mean the the one touchdown that Caleb Williams had and and we’ll dig into that a little bit more in a second. It was that touchdown to DJ Moore. The distance on it could maybe think like okay that should be a big time throw. But I don’t think we categorize as a big time throw because DJ Moore is so wide open because you’re basically just doing spot drop cover three to the trip side of the field. like you’re you’re just that’s that’s a recipe to lose that rep and they lost it in a big way with a wide open touchdown. And the first thing, you know, I I was taught this one time by a DB’s coach. The first thing you ask yourself in any coverage is how do we defend four verts? And the Steelers and that’s all that was just four verts out of trips and the number three just crosses the safety’s face. Free safety’s face because that’s how it works against three. And and honestly, he probably could have thrown it to either guy and it wouldn’t have mattered. Honestly, all he’s got to do is freeze the safety and rip it back to DJ Moore. I mean, it’s but it’s plays like that. You’re right. That that one play that encapsulates basically every Steelers’s problem with defending the middle of the field. There is just no answer to it. You’re right. They’re just spot dropping and staring at the quarterback and that doesn’t work. So, my stat that told the story was the Steelers in the different halves. First half grade on offense, 77.8 overall grade, scored 21 points. Second half offense 67.0 only scored seven points. But specifically, you look at the scripted drives here for this team right out of the gate to start the second half. Uh they go six plays, 11 total yards and a punt. Not ideal. And then they have another punt after that and three and out. Then they had a fumble after three plays after that. They scored a touchdown. But then they get into the like the four-minute drill where there’s 430 left in the game. Punt after six plays and then after seven plays, turnover on downs. That’s how the game ends. So, they started off hot and like the offense was humming, like you said, they were getting the running backs involved, like it looked like things were going really, really well. And then the second half, I just think that whether it was the Bears making some sort of adjustment or just the fact that Mason Rudolph and the offense overall was not able to handle things the way that they needed to, it was those scripted and I think like rehearsed moments of what you’re doing right out of the first half. So, that first drive out of the first half and then like that fourminute blended drill that they had at the end of the game, both of those they fell, they fell flat. So to me that was the big difference in the game when of course it was just a three-point game when it was all said and done. Yeah. No, absolutely. I mean this Steelers team even with Aaron Rogers on the field has not really played 60 minutes of consistent football very often this year offensively at least. Um I think you saw that again in this game. They went into halftime and they felt pretty good about it. But I I think you just have a scenario here where the steel this is this is why they’re not great on offense. They’re not consistent. They’re not consistent on the offensive line. I thought the Bears pass rush got better as the game went on. And then you just look at this team and you go, you know, you had the Kenneth Gainwell touchdown that was the fake tush push with the kind of the end on there, but which is great. That’s fantastic. But I I think when you look again, it’s kind of the same Steelers problem when whether it’s Aaron Rogers or it’s Mason Rudolph, they don’t really play 60 minutes of great offensive football, especially if you don’t turn the football over. Yeah. So, let’s let’s talk about Caleb Williams now. Um, we can get into his explain the grain segment here. 42.7 overall passing grade despite his common stat sheet numbers as 19 for 35, 239 passing yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions here. Now the number obviously like those numbers are what they are. Our numbers, yes, he still has the three touchdowns and the zero interceptions, but three turnover worthy plays from Caleb Williams, no big time throws. So when you look at each one of those touchdowns, I remember that the first one was a whiper out from DJ Moore. I think he was in the slot and Jaylen Ramsey falls on it and it’s, you know, it’s a it’s a I can’t remember how long the pass was, but it was like six, seven yards. So that’s not considered a big time throw because it’s just not a long distance. Jaylen Ramsey slips on the play. It was a good throw. Like we I think again pe people people use the word like you punish Caleb Williams for doing good things. We don’t. Caleb still got a plus score for that. I believe that throw, but it’s just not categorized as a big time throw. So, he’s not getting, you know, above a plus one or a plus one and a half or a plus two or something. I think he got like plus 0.5 because it was a good throw. It was a touchdown throw, but he’s not getting a big time throw just because it wasn’t really a difficult throw for him because of the distance and obviously Jaylen Ramsey falling on the plate. There was another one that was uh it was more of like a like an out and in sort of like a post route where it was again a good throw that he got credit for in a good way. It just wasn’t categorized as a big time throw because there wasn’t a tight window involved. There was like it wasn’t tight coverage from him. It wasn’t super far away. So, we give him a positive grade for it, but it wasn’t a big time throw. And then what was the other one? What was the other touchdown? Um Oh, the other touchdown was the wide openen DJ Moore. The vertical. the wide open DJ Moore one where that touchdown throw is so much more about the Steelers busting that coverage than it is Caleb making a difficult throw because DJ Moore is wide open. And again, we don’t punish Caleb Williams for that. We’re not giving him a negative grade for that. We’re just recognizing the throw for what it is, a throw that every NFL starting quarterback should be able to make. So, you give him a positive grade for it, but it’s not anything that’s out of this world. Now, when you contrast that, that’s how we that’s how the three uh touchdowns came about. When you put that up against the three turnover worthy plays, the first one, he doesn’t see Kyle Duggar, and Kyle Duggar almost intercepts his football. It gets bounced up in the air, and the only reason why it wasn’t picked off is just because there happened to it happened to be in between a couple of defenders and nobody was there. But that is absolutely a turnover worthy play that could have been an easy interception for him. The other one was the pretty inexcusable fumble in the end zone, strip sack fumble by TJ Watt in the end zone where he held on to that ball for three, three and a half, four seconds. I can’t even remember what it was, but there were a couple of checkdown defenders that he could have potentially gotten to, but even if you if even if you want to say like it would have been unrealistic for him to get there, that for that play to have that result with as much time as he had in the pocket, that is absolutely on Caleb Williams. And that’s a turnover worthy play type of a play because obviously it was a turnover and basically because that that play especially is something that really breaks things here because okay so he’s got a 42.7 passing grade right now that play because he was standing at about the two or three yardd line right deep into the play like you mentioned TJ Watts coming first the first error there’s actually two separate errors here first is that he backs his way into the end zone kind of unaware of where he’s at on the field the ball’s at the 10 and after his shotgun step drop. He gets to the two yard line when he’s sort of scanning the field. So I I mean, you know, we we’ll probably ch we would if he would just lay down there at the two, right? Or step up in the pocket. We might charge him with the sack, but not nearly as bad. Backing into your own end zone is a Cardinal sin first and foremost. And then to still try to do something with it and fumble and it directly results in a Steelers touchdown. That that’s basically as low a play a grade, I should say, that I’ve seen on a play all season if if not since I’ve been here. you just cannot back into your own end zone plus throw the fumble in there. If I take out just that one play, the passing grade goes from 427 to about a 55. And there were still other misses in this game, don’t get me wrong. There were other good plays, too. There was 11 plays where he got a positive grade, but they were all fives. There just wasn’t any big time throws. Once you get above that, it’s a big time throw. So, it’s really just those three turnover worthy plays were so so heavy. Two of them he got away with like you mentioned, but the one that he didn’t, that’s about as egregious a play as we’ve seen all year. He’s not. And and again, it’s not just that, oh, he was in the end zone. He took a sack for a safety. He was out of the end zone. He made it worse. Tried to back his way because Caleb know he’s an athlete and it’s it’s what he does. It’s what Caleb Williams does is back out of the pocket and make crazy plays. But this is the one time you cannot have that. You’ve got to either sit tight, take the sack, or step up and find something vertically in the pocket. This is the one moment in your own end zone where you can’t and then the fumble just adds on to it. So he got a heavy as heavy a downgrade as I’ve seen for that singular play that that dropped his passing grade like 12 points. So I mean that’s a big part in it. So it’s just a thing where Caleb is making less mistakes this year for sure. But it’s those big ones that are really still going to ding you when it comes to the grading. Yeah. And then that third turnoverly play like you sort of mentioned it was it was an overthrow. I think it was Coulson Loveven who was coming over the middle of the field. It was just an overthrow to him and that one hits Kyle Duggar like in the chest like right right past the hand. So uh again like I think I think that if if the Kyle Duggar one is intercepted and if the tip is an interception I don’t know if people will look would look at this grade as harshly but because it shows no interceptions people think that it’s crazy. But that’s what we’re doing here is we’re grading every single play as if it matters. And Caleb had, like you mentioned, a handful of really nice throws in this in this game that got um.5 positive grades, like a bunch of.5 positive grades for him. But the turnover worthy plays, one of them was like a backbreaker, like you just can’t be doing that. And then the other ones, like you said, like could have changed the game if they end up getting caught. So, it was just a it it was a game from Caleb where there was good, there was bad, but what could have been the bad of how these plays were executed by him, they outweighed what he did like individually outside of Oh, sure. If those if those two potential interceptions are caught, they probably lose this game. I mean, that that’s what you’re looking at here. So, you know, again, it’s not it’s not that, you know, Caleb hasn’t been good, cuz he’s been really good in recent weeks. And there were moments where he was really good and Ben Johnson was calling awesome plays in this game as well. And look, the Bears, despite all of this, came away with a win. So, you’re talking about a quarterback that made some mistakes and the Bears still found a way to win. That’s great stuff. They’re in first place. They’re eight and three. You’re feeling really good about it. But, you don’t get away with these types of things every week. And to his credit, it’s his first game with multiple turnover worthy plays since week seven. He has played really clean football over the last month. this game. There was just a couple of mistakes here that one he did not get away with for sure and the other two that he did. Move forward, learn from it, play better next week. Yeah. Josh in the chat saying, “As a frequent NFL listener, I expected better.” Trevor, look, I knew that Bear fans Bears fans weren’t going to be happy about this. Your team got the win. So, be happy about the win. It is what it is. Uh, we explained our process here. That’s how we came about the numbers. And going back to another comment that Josh had, he said, “Imagine punishing him for three touchdown passes because you’d think they were too easy.” Again, if you have the mindset to use the word punish, you’re not I don’t I don’t think you’re actually listening to what we’re saying. I just think that you’re trying to be mad about it because we’re not punishing Caleb Williams for having good plays. We’re punishing him for the bad ones. We’re punishing him for the bad ones, but it’s those good plays. Like, we’re giving him credit for those good plays. We’re just trying to show what was your individual percentage of that good play. And it just happened to be that a couple those touchdowns that he threw were worthy of positive plays which we gave him. But the turnover worthy plays, the bad plays had heavier weight because of his responsibility in what those plays could have been to be backbreaking plays which ends this game. He throws maybe one of those turnovers, you know, that could be something that could be a backbreaker in this game. And just because Kyle Duggar did not catch the football doesn’t mean that Caleb Williams part of that changes. So, we’ll always try to explain the great here. I I we’ve said all the time, we don’t think the process is perfect, but I love the mindset that we have here when we get to talk about things from an individual perspective because that’s what we’re trying to do here. Grade the execution on what a player is asked to do on a single play. So, I knew Bears fans wouldn’t be happy about it, but hey, Bears fans, you got the win. Your team’s playing very, very well, and uh you should be very happy about that. Uh even when your players sometimes don’t play their best, you’re getting the win. I think that’s fantastic. That’s a sign of a really good team to be honest with you. Absolutely. I’ll tell you who they are happy about. How about Nan Wright with an 88 coverage grade. How about He’s been great. How about his fourth interception in the last six games plus four total stops between coverage and run defense, four catches allowed for only 20 yards been outstanding so far. And you got to think about the context of not having Jaylen Johnson for most of this season. A guy like Nan Wright stepping up in the secondary, that’s big time. I credited the pass rush before as well. I thought they got better as the game went on in this one. But the Bears, look, they’re trying to find any pieces they can on defense to not be in these shootouts every week. But Nan Wright’s really proven himself right now. Again, four interceptions in the last six games. That’s big time. He has been he has been awesome. Steelers run blocking was also really good in this game, especially in the first half. I mean, we had Darnell Darno Wright or Darnell Washington, excuse me, was uh was blocking very well. Um Pence Coronic, his run blocking grade was really good. The guys on the offensive line, they were blocking really well in the run game. A lot of that manifested in the first half. But uh yeah, this is a this is a fun game to watch. obviously went down to the very end and Bill the uh the bear, excuse me, got a big win in this

PFF’s Trevor Sikkema and Dalton Wasserman review the matchup between The Pittsburgh Steelers and The Chicago Bears.

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