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Can the Steelers bring home a Week 1 win? Pittsburgh’s three keys vs. Atlanta Falcons

Published

2 years ago

September 5, 2024

Can the Steelers bring home a Week 1 win? Pittsburgh’s three keys vs. Atlanta Falcons

The Pittsburgh Steelers will head to Atlanta on Sunday in hopes of claiming their first win of the season. The matchup is primed to be tough, with the Falcons looking like a much-improved team overall.

However, the Steelers still have some advantages they could exploit against the Falcons, who did not play their starters in the preseason. Here are the Steelers’ three keys to beating the Falcons:

1. Keep Grady Jarrett and Matt Judon in check

While the Falcons have a wonderful secondary with Jessie Bates, Justin Simmons, and A.J. Terrell, the Steelers will lose this one from the jump if they can not stop Grady Jarrett and Matt Judon from taking over the game up front. If you want, feel free to throw David Onyemata in here, too. The Steelers will have to keep Russell Wilson or Justin Fields upright to win this game. They need to give their wide receiver and run game a chance. Spencer Anderson is starting at left guard with rookie Zach Frazier at center. That matchup feels like one where Jarrett should dominate, but Anderson and the team feel up to the task.

“Well, he’s definitely a twitchy rusher,” Anderson said. “We know who he is and how great he is. But there, you focus on yourself and your technique. You play with good pad level and hand usage. You have to focus on yourself just as much.”

If the Steelers can run the ball between the tackles and force Atlanta’s linebackers to make plays, the Steelers might have a chance to ride Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren in this game. That has to be the plan, but it all starts up front.

2. Beanie Bishop balls out and proves himself

The Steelers, defensively, have one glaring hole in this game. Yet, it is actually a hole, or is it just an unproven player? Slot cornerback Beanie Bishop played well in the summer but looked just okay against the Houston Texans in his first starting spot in the preseason.

The Steelers know the Falcons will have an X-crossed right towards No. 31. Until he proves he can stop guys like Kyle Pitts, Drake London, and Darnell Mooney, the Falcons will go right to them in the slot.

“You never know. I just look at it like this. Like most things, we always prepare our guys so that if you’re a young guy out there, you just have to be ready. You will be tested and if you, if you handle the test, then they’ll go away from you. But if you don’t handle the test, you can expect it to keep coming,” defensive coordinator Teryl Austin said about Bishop.

The Falcons will try to attack him, but Bishop will not shy away from the challenge that the Falcons will likely bring him. If he can back up the challenge and show what he is made of, the Steelers can slow down this talented Falcons offense.

3. The ‘other eligibles’ step up

The Pittsburgh Steelers have two standouts in the passing game that will stick out in George Pickens and Pat Freiermuth. Yet, with Terrell, Bates, and Simmons in the secondary, they can erase the two of them through coverages. The Steelers might have to win their other matchups.

As stated above, the other obvious outlet is the running game. Warren and Harris figure to be the two big time players featured. However, the Steelers might need one big play from someone else. That could be Van Jefferson, Calvin Austin III, or someone else. The Steelers do not have the juice in the passing game to expect those two to be enough against a secondary like this on paper. Someone else has to step up, and if one player does, it might be enough to crawl the Steelers over the finish line.

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Colorado Rockies vs. Pittsburgh Pirates game discussion: Bubba Chandler vs. Kyle Freeland

Published

4 hours ago

June 19, 2026

Press Room

Colorado Rockies vs. Pittsburgh Pirates game discussion: Bubba Chandler vs. Kyle Freeland

The Colorado Rockies (28-47) had the day off Thursday after an uneven road trip that took them from Las Vegas to Wrigley Field. They dropped two of three to the Athletics, with the lone win coming in a wild 23-9 game, then went to Chicago and again lost two of three.

That leaves the Rockies at 6-9 in June with a -7 run differential. Even that number is softened by the 23-run outburst against the Athletics. Colorado has been pesky and more competitive, which is an improvement from last month, but the results are still the results: they enter tonight with the worst record in baseball — if only by a game.

Cole Carrigg has brought energy since arriving, and Sterlin Thompson is coming off a two-homer game at Wrigley. There are plenty of reasons to keep watching. The problem is that the old bad-team tropes are still there: blown leads, rocked starters, missed chances, defensive mistakes, and poor execution. The Rockies have been in more games, but they are still too often finding ways to let winnable games get away.

Now they get the Pirates at home.

The Pittsburgh Pirates (38-37) arrive at Coors Field in fourth place in the competitive NL Central — and only 1.5 games out of a wild card spot. Pittsburgh gets plenty of attention for its hyped rotation, led by Paul Skenes, but the offense has been much improved. The Pirates rank third in MLB in batting average, third in on-base percentage, fourth in OPS, fifth in runs scored, and sixth in stolen bases.

Kyle Freeland takes the mound to open the homestand for the Rox. The left-hander enters at 1-7 with a 7.98 ERA, 49 strikeouts, and a 1.70 WHIP over 58.2 innings.

The fastball has been the biggest issue. Freeland is leaving too many four-seamers over the middle of the plate, and hitters have punished it. Opponents are slugging .794 against the pitch, which is especially damaging because he still throws it roughly 27-29% of the time.

That continued in his last start, when Freeland allowed six runs on 10 hits over 5.2 innings. He gave up 12 hard-hit balls, with both the cutter and four-seamer taking damage. The cutter was his most-used pitch in that outing, but it did not solve the contact problem. His sweeper has been his best pitch, holding hitters to a .171 batting average and .371 slugging percentage with a 32.8% whiff rate.

The Rockies do not need Freeland to be perfect tonight, but they need him to avoid the middle-middle mistakes that have turned innings quickly this season.

Pittsburgh will counter with Bubba Chandler, a 23-year-old right-hander who enters at 2-7 with a 4.76 ERA, 68 strikeouts, and a 1.38 WHIP over 68.0 innings.

The record is not pretty, but the stuff is real. Chandler averages 98.5 mph with his four-seam fastball and topped out over 101 mph in his last start. He has used the fastball nearly half the time this season, pairing it most often with a changeup and slider.

The slider has been his best bat-missing pitch, generating a 37.9% whiff rate on the season. The changeup has also been effective, holding hitters to a .186 batting average and .288 slugging percentage. Chandler has walked 43 batters, so the Rockies’ best chance may be making him work instead of chasing their way out of innings.

Kyle Karros has been swinging it well lately, hitting .370/.442/.565 over his last 15 games and raising his season wRC+ to 90. Willi Castro has two home runs, nine RBI, and a .680 slugging percentage over his last seven games, while T.J. Rumfield is hitting .321 with a .750 slugging percentage and two home runs in his last seven games.

For Pittsburgh, Bryan Reynolds has been especially hot, hitting .414/.469/.828 with three home runs over his last seven games. Brandon Lowe leads the team with 18 home runs and 49 RBI while slugging .511, and Endy Rodríguez has played well from behind the plate while posting a 149 wRC+ in 76 plate appearances since returning to the lineup in mid-May.

For Colorado, the task is straightforward: get a steadier start from Freeland, make Chandler throw strikes, and turn the recent flashes from the lineup into enough sustained pressure to win a winnable game.

First Pitch: 6:40 p.m. MDT

Radio: KOA 850 AM/94.1 FM; KNRV 1150

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Pirates Trade Analysis: Something Had to Give

Published

14 hours ago

June 19, 2026

Press Room

Pirates Trade Analysis: Something Had to Give

Photo provided by Matt Lynch

The decision to trade catcher Joey Bart to the Braves gives the Pirates a solution to a problem that soon needed to be made.

Bart had been on a rehab assignment with Triple-A Indianapolis, working his way back from a left foot infection that kept him out of action for over a month.

With Bart nearing a return, the Pirates were going to have to figure out what to do at catcher with Henry Davis and Endy Rodríguez splitting time behind the plate in his absence.

Given how Rodríguez has been swinging the bat since he was recalled from Indianapolis to replace Bart on the active roster, there was no way the Pirates could’ve sent him down. In 23 games, the 26-year-old has a .267/.413/.467 batting line with three doubles, three home runs, eight RBI, two steals and a robust 19.7% walk rate.

Davis, meanwhile, has struggled to an anemic .138/.242/.285 batting line with four doubles, five home runs and 17 RBI in 47 games. While he hasn’t offered much with the bat, he’s been responsible for two defensive runs saved and leads MLB with a 55% caught stealing rate.

Now that Bart has been traded, Rodríguez and Davis will remain the catching tandem at the big-league level with Rafael Flores Jr. as the top backup option with Indianapolis. Flores is considered Pittsburgh’s eighth-best prospect on MLB Pipeline.

For the first time in the big leagues, Rodríguez is realizing the potential that once made him one of the top 100 prospects in baseball. Because of that, he should get the majority of the playing time with Davis continuing to catch Paul Skenes’ starts and filling in when needed.

As for the return, the Pirates known what to expect from Hunter Stratton, who spent nine seasons in the organization and made 47 appearances with the team from 2023-25.

The bullpen has been an obvious weak spot for the team this season, and while it was somewhat surprising to see the Pirates assign Stratton to Indianapolis, he improves the pitching depth and will almost surely be called upon at some point this year.

In 60 career big-league appearances between the Pirates and Braves, Stratton is 3-2 with a 3.75 ERA and two saves. The right-hander spent most of the 2026 season with Triple-A Gwinnett and went 2-4 with a 4.38 ERA and 24 strikeouts in 24.2 innings across 21 appearances.

One more important note about the trade is that the Pirates saved some money in the deal, which could be used later in additional trades to add to an already record-setting payroll. Stratton is a pre-arbitration player, while Bart is making $2.53 million this season.

Mentioned in this article: Hunter Stratton Joey Bart Pittsburgh Pirates

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