Getty Diontae Johnson reacts after scoring a touchdown.
After four straight weeks of embarrassing outings, frustration is boiling over in Pittsburgh. Nothing is going the Steelers way, and for good reason. The offensive line is being pushed around, the run game is struggling, and a once elite defense now dwells among the Miami Dolphins and New York Giants.
But Steelers wide receiver Diontae Johnson has a positive outlook, refusing to give in to the doom and gloom. He recently posted to Twitter, “Be patient, it’s better soon.”
Positivity is a powerful thing, but patience is wearing thin. And while the season is a long one, there are more games in the rearview than ahead. Those games ahead give the Steelers the second-toughest strength of schedule.
According to CBS Sports, the Steelers are second only to the Cleveland Browns with an opponents’ combined record of 42 wins and 26 losses. Only one team of the remaining five has a record below .500 — the Steelers travel next week to Minnesota to take on the (currently) 5-6 Vikings for a Thursday Night Football showdown on December 9.
Be patient, it’s better soon.
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Stop to the Drops
Despite the Steelers experiencing one of the worst seasons in recent history, Johnson has a reason to be optimistic — he’s enjoying the best season of his young career. He’s put a stop to the drops after a tumultuous 2020 in which he suffered 14 of them (per Pro Football Focus). Things got so bad that Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin benched Johnson in Week 14.
Johnson has flipped the script with 107 targets and only one drop. For this significant turnaround, Johnson credits a tennis ball machine.
“It’s a smaller target, so you have to really focus on the ball and the object coming at you,” Johnson told Pittsburgh Tribune’s Joe Rutter in October. “That’s what I’ve been honing on to. Now, when I catch the football, it’s easy.
“It’s always been easy to me, but it’s keeping that focus and that confidence.”
Diontae Johnson this season:
🔸 107 targets
🔸 1 drop
Only receiver with 100+ targets and only one drop 🙌
Johnson is on pace to have a career year in 2021. If he keeps up his 80 yards per game average, he’ll end the season with 1,200 yards — the best single-season for a Steeler since JuJu Smith-Schuster’s 1,426 yards in 2018 (per Pro Football Reference).
Ravens Beware
The Steelers got the best news of the week on Saturday, December 4, when T.J. Watt was activated after spending five days on the Reserve/COVID-19 list.
For the Steelers sake, Watt needs a bounce-back game after an ineffective outing versus the Cincinnati Bengals. The Ravens could be just what the star linebacker needs to get back on track. Pittsburgh is 8-5 with Watt in the lineup versus Baltimore. According to Pro Football Reference, Watt has 5.5 sacks, 30 tackles (8 for loss), 14 quarterback hits, and two forced fumbles in those games.
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