Post-Jacksonville thoughts

The Steelers might want to adjust their goal of scoring 30 points per game. How about 35?

The offense came out against the Jaguars - with no game planning to speak of - and easily went 80 yards on six plays without the ball hitting the ground.

And five different guys touched the ball - only Le'Veon Bell, who had a catch and run - touched it twice. Actually, it was six different guys when Markus Wheaton hauled in the two-point conversion to make it 8-0.

The Steelers made it look easy.

Certainly, the Jaguars didn't game plan, either. But I watched this same offense last season and have continued viewing it throughout the offseason and into training camp. I have no idea what I'd do to slow it, short of sending the Hanson brothers out to attack Ben Roethlisberger and Le'Veon Bell during pre-game warmups.

* The defense? That's another matter. But Jacksonville's first possession was a three-and-out. Ryan Shazier made a nice semi-open-field tackle on first down, then Will Gay had a nice submarine tackle to force third down.

But it was nose tackle Steve McLendon dropping into zone coverage in the flat that forced a bad throw by quarterback Blake Bortles, who had to be surprised to see the 6-3, 330-pound McLendon in his passing lane.

Is there any doubt that, had the Steelers left their offensive stars in the game, they would have gone down to make it 15 or even 16-0?

The defense gave up a field goal on the next possession, but field goals aren't going to beat this team.

* OK, I realize it was the Jaguars and all, but this was the same Jacksonville team against which the Steelers needed a Brice McCain interception last season to put the Jaguars away in the fourth quarter.

That was in the pre-MB days (pre Martavis Bryant). The Steelers averaged 29.9 points per game last year when Bryant played.

They averaged 32 points per game when Bryant and Bell both played.

* We'll learn a lot about the defense this week with Green Bay coming to town. The Steelers need to get Mike Mitchell on the field working with Shamarko Thomas sooner rather than later for that action.

* Kudos to C.J. Goodwin, who had two big catches in this one after losing a fumble in traffic last week in Canton.

Goodwin obviously learned something. He hung onto his first pass, which moved the Steelers into the red zone while taking a big hit. Then, he took an even bigger hit at the goal line and held on for the score.

He and rookie receiver Sammie Coates were two of the biggest winners from what was a mess of a second half.

* I love the way Jordan Dangerfield throws his body around. Ten years ago, there would have been a place for that kind of assassin. But those days are gone now. It's all about coverage in the secondary.

* Last week, Landry Jones was OK in the first half and got worse as the game wore on. In this one, it was the opposite.

He started slowly and then got hot. Sometimes, the two-minute warning can be a detriment when you've got a defense on its heels and that seemed to be the case in this game.

Jones misfired on the final drive, but who expected that one anyway?

He's still not anything close to being an NFL-caliber QB, but the Steelers are going to keep three QBs unless GM Kevin Colbert and head coach Mike Tomlin have some kind of epiphany between now and the start of September.

* People on Twitter are freaking out about the kick and punt coverage teams. I even saw some say it's been an ongoing problem.

That's simply not true. The Steelers were in the top half of the league in punt and kick coverage last season. It was the same in 2013. So I'm not sure where it's been an ongoing problem comes from.

Realize that there are a lot of young guys out there that the team is looking at, some of whom haven't played special teams in several years - if ever.

It's an ongoing process. But it's not a problem, at least not yet.