The Pittsburgh Steelers pulled off an upset in Week 1 against the Atlanta Falcons. The Falcons and their new quarterback, Kirk Cousins, had been highly touted throughout the preseason as a kind of "sleeper team" to take the league by storm. This was especially true of their defense, often referred to as underrated. Yet the Black and Gold, led by Justin Fields (who found out only shortly before the game that he was playing), managed a win.
Steelers' Justin Fields in the Week 1 victory over Atlanta.
In his weekly press conference, Head Coach Mike Tomlin praised the players for their enthusiasm, upbeat attitude, and performance. It wasn't a pretty win, with the only points coming off Chris Boswell's toe, but it was enough to make Pittsburgh the only team at the top of the AFC North.
According to Tomlin, getting a road win is no easy feat. For those watching the game, and no doubt for many of the players, it felt like the Steelers were facing two opponents: the Falcons, and the officiating crew. Tomlin addressed some of the things the team needs to work on going forward, with penalties being at the top of the list.
"There were some things that obviously need to be improved. You know, low-hanging fruit is the penalties. I thought penalties were catastrophic to our efforts. We had some big plays and field flipping scenarios negated by penalty. So we got to grow there and we'll put our focus appropriately there, in improving those areas."
The Steelers had nine penalties for 60 yards, but the numbers do not show the impact of those penalties. An offensive pass interference call on George Pickens negated a huge 30+ yard contested catch. T.J. Watt also had two strip sacks that were both negated.
Steelers' TJ Watt pumps up the crowd on the road in Atlanta.
Given how lopsided the penalties were, Pittsburgh was lucky to win, but Tomlin didn't lose sight of what is important, that's improving. While it is easy for the fans and even the players to blame the officials, Tomlin is putting the focus back on the team and their responsibility.
"It happened in a variety of ways. We had penalties in the kicking game, and in the return game - blocking people in the back. As i told the team yesterday, you got no chance for splash in the kicking game with penalties. It starts there for us before we can talk about the exploits of guys like Calvin Austin or CP [Cordarrelle Patterson] or Jalen [Elliott]. It starts with us being good fundamental blockers and positioning ourselves to get and maintain blocks in a legal way. The field position result of that is catastrophic and we felt that in game. We had some pre-snap penalties, offensively and defensively, that we need to continually clean up. Those things are reflective of September ball, but it's JV; we can't lose downs pre-snap."
Watt made his own subtle dig after the game. He had a walk-off strip-sack to close out the contest and seal the Steelers' win, and he joked that he had to check that there wasn't a flag on the ground, like with the others earlier in the game. Despite the penalties, Watt made his presence known and terrorized the Falcons' offense all day long.
Karl Roser / Pittsburgh Steelers
Steelers' George Pickens after making a catch in the 2024 season opener against the Atlanta Falcons.
Tomlin was surely unhappy with the team for all three phases of the ball. Usually, Tomlin is fairly dismissive of things like complaints about the officiating, but it is clear that he feels the team had their part to play in what happened with the Falcons. They face the Denver Broncos in Week 2 and all eyes will be on the team to see if they cleaned up some of those sloppy mistakes.
Steelers Suffered A Major Loss
One of those perceived major misses on the part of the officiating team came with the hit on Steelers punter Cameron Johnston. New to Pittsburgh, Johnston is in his eighth season in the league. Despite it being only the season's first game, Johnston was already proving to be a valuable team member.
Steelers' punter Cameron Johnston showing out in a preseason game.
Steeler Nation watched in horror as Johnston went out with a knee injury that appeared immediately quite serious. Running into the kicker is almost always an immediate penalty, so fans were relieved to see flags fly, but unfortunately, the penalty was against the Steelers. That meant that Boswell had to come in and punt. The Steelers have struggled to find a consistent punter for a few years now and seemed to have that in Johnston. With the news that his injury was season-ending, the team chose to sign Corliss Waitman to take his place.
