Welcome to the terrible take a daily segment telling Steelers nation what's on our mind.

I'm Ross McCorkle. The Pittsburgh Steelers will be on the road to start their season against the

Atlanta Falcons next Sunday. When they do so it will be the return of Arthur Smith to face the team that fired him just eight months

earlier as their head coach. Many have been wondering if Smith holds some kind of advantage

against his former team, nearly the entire defense is the same save for three starters.

While there is something to be said about his intimate knowledge of those players and their capabilities,

I think the advantage actually sways in the opposite direction.

The familiarity goes both ways after all and by all

accounts Arthur Smith's offense has functioned mostly as expected in Pittsburgh. A lot of

12 and 13 personnel, some pistol

full back packages etc. The Falcon's defense would have practiced against that offense in practice daily

some of them for the last three years. Things will look a little different for the

Steelers version of his offense, especially with a higher caliber

quarterback running the operation. The Falcons never really had that with Smith, but there

is still some advantage for their defense in that regard. On the flip side, Smith's

knowledge of their defense ends at the personnel. in that

the regard. On the flip side, Smith's knowledge of their defense ends at the personnel. They brought in a new defensive coordinator, Jimmy Lake, who will run a base 34 defense.

The Falcons had previously been running more of a base 4.3.

Obviously, Smith is well aware of these dynamics

and will be working to mislead their defense perhaps running variations of plays out of

familiar looks and alignments. Perhaps he will lean on the pistol offense even heavier in week one, given that the running back lines up behind the quarterback and not split off to one side or the other that could possibly tip their hand.

Pistol probably allows for the most play variations out of a single or small set of looks.

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