Carter's Classroom: Excessively eager Conner eventually finds footing

James Conner came into his first NFL preseason game knowing that he would get a lot of carries to show what he has, but maybe he was a little too excited.



Sometimes, when a football player is excessively eager to make big plays, he'll miss the simple ones right in front of him. That seemed to be the case Sunday at Heinz Field. Conner gained 98 rushing yards on 20 carries in the Steelers' 17-13 victory over the Falcons, with most of his success coming in the second half.

Several plays provided opportunities for Conner, some of which he seized, but others where he looked too locked-in on what he thought would be there to even see what actually transpired.

Todd Haley's offense runs several zone-blocking schemes for the ground game, often leaving the call to the running back to decide which gap to attack based on which linemen are winning their spots. Early in the game, you saw Conner running into the scrum of the offensive and defensive lines and not mustering much: His first five carries went for 13 yards. While some of it had to do with solid line work from the Falcons, holes were visible.

The biggest run of the first half came on a draw the Falcons were willing to allow on a third-and-21 situation.

A few times, you could see that Conner focused on hitting the hole he was expecting to exist, rather than trusting his eyes as he approached the line after his handoff. Here's an example of just that in the third quarter when he plunged forward instead of feeling the right side of the field open up:



That kind of patience is something that Conner exhibited in college, so it only makes sense to wait to see him develop it at the NFL level.

Finding the balance between anticipation and reaction is always one of the most difficult aspects of finding a foundation in any sport, especially when making an NFL debut.

But ask the rookie, and he didn't feel any of the first-day jitters.

"No, my nerves were calm and I was into the game," Conner said afterward. "It's never going to be perfect. There are always going to be things to correct, and that's for the next game."

There was no real revelation about whether he was nervous, or whether he was so pumped to make the play that he forgot to read his keys. Conner wouldn't commit to how he felt about his decision-making without film review: