D.C. Steeler Nation

The Bubble Screen of Death is Dead

2012-01-20T12:55:00.003-05:00

Presumably, at least. How knows if the Steelers will double down on pass happiness and sign Mike Martz just to see how high I'm willing to climb to leap to my demise. Even worse, some are saying Jim Caldwell is a possible replacement candidate. What conversations

For now, let's just celebrate Bruce Arians being gone forever. Granted, he wasn't the worst offensive coordinator the team has ever had in my lifetime (Kevin Gilbride), but the Steelers could certainly do better. I'm sure the guy got tired of the constant hate and blame heaped on him (hate and blame I was only happy to contribute) and really, that was the only way he was gonna leave. Tomlin and Roethlisberger were fiercely loyal to the guy.

If nothing else, hopefully this spells the end of the stupid bubble screen strategy the Steelers routinely employed under Arians. Not only was it usually a waste of a down, it was also turning into turnover bait on a consistent basis. The INT Terrell Suggs got a bubble screen the team telegraphed possibly cost the Steelers the second game against Baltimore. Had they won that, the team is probably still playing this weekend. Only a bad early whistle by the officials stopped the bubble screen from resulting in another turnover in the Wild Card loss in Denver.

Tebow 3:16 Means You Just Got Sideline Smolderfaced

2012-01-09T14:20:00.003-05:00

Fuck.

Fuuuuuuuuucccccccckkkkkkkk.

It's been readily apparent for weeks that the Steelers were too banged up and otherwise out of sorts to put together another bid for the Super Bowl. Most likely they were going to lose to New England in six days in Foxboro, but they should have enough - even with half the defense sidelined or compromised - to down a 8-8 team, even on the road.

The Steelers might have (could argue they should have) pulled it out, but poor coaching and, more importantly, a lack of adjustments kept them from advancing. Moreover, the Steelers just became evidence for the many Tebowtards out there that Timmy is "for real", whatever the hell that means. I'll give the guy credit, of his 10 long completions, a lot of them were pinpoint throws that were downright impressive. But a lot of quarterbacks in this league will excel if the opposition is defending their receivers in man coverage with no safety help.

I don't fault Dick LeBeau for trying that scheme at the outset. Who would trust Tebow to make accurate throws the way he has played? But how was that still the coverage by the time overtime rolled around? LeBeau's ancient and maybe that advanced age makes him more resistant to change than he should be. Shit, it took four or five losses to the Patriots before he tried something new with them. If anything, the loss deprives us of the chance to see if LeBeau would actually stay creative with the challenge of New England. It could have been hubris that convinced him even after his defense got burned several times in the second quarter that lowly Tebow couldn't hit another open receiver streaking down the field.

I'm not among the irate knee-jerkers calling for LeBeau's ouster or even the dispatching of Ike Taylor. Obviously, Taylor was put in a difficult position with Ryan Mundy giving him no help over the top. But you can't be a supposed shutdown corner and get abused the way he was by Demaryius Thomas. Thomas is a great young player who has been on fire the last month of the season. Not really a guy to take lightly in single coverage, even if it's Tebow throwing to him.

The clock management on the final drive of regulation was atrocious. The Steelers seemed to have more issues with that this season than at any point in Tomlin's tenure. Mike is a guy who talks a good game about being hard on himself and his strategies, and he usually, if not always, follows through on that. Let's hope he makes a point to revisit some of those blunders between now and September.

Give it up to Ben playing hurt and rallying the team back. He was obviously hobbled and appeared to have reaggravated his injury at one point in the game, but stuck it out and was solid throughout. Can't say his receivers did him a lot of favors either. Jerricho Cotchery and Mike Wallace had two critical drops on what would have been big plays when the throws were there. It's nice that Wallace made the Pro Bowl as a starter and all, but I can't image that it did a lot for his contract demands that he forgot how to catch the ball the second half of the season.

Had to have heartened a lot of Mendenhall's detractors to see Isaac Redman play so well. That's probably the brightest point for me. If Mendy didn't just suffer a torn ACL, you could conceivably see him offered as trade bait, both to acquire another pick and maybe clear some cap room for Mike Wallace.

In some ways, I guess losing to Tebow isn't as bad as losing to New England, because then at least the last meeting between the Steelers and the Pats was a victory and we don't have to hear about how this season was a repeat of 2004, when the Steelers won the regular season meeting, only to drop the playoff rematch with the Greatriots. That said, I'm not watching a goddamn minute of SportsCenter or any sports talking head show all week.

Pretty shitty showing by the refs yesterday. The botched fumble on the lateral seems to be getting all the attention, OF COURSE. It was a terrible call, no doubt, but the Broncos got their share of breaks as well, if you wish to count three grievous no-calls on Harrison holds, a puzzling incidental contact explanation when a defender tripped Antonio Brown streaking toward the end zone (the Steelers had to settle for a field goal instead) not to mention what could have been a helmet-to-helmet hit on Mike Wallace in the second half. There was some garbage officiating throughout the weekend, which makes yet another case for full-time officials, but don't hold your breath or anything.

Yeah, the Steelers will be back next year, presumably healthy at a lot of positions where they didn't finish the year healthy, so that's nice. Except people like James Farrior, Casey Hampton, Brett Keisel, Ike Taylor and Max Starks are gonna be a year older. Will Starks still be a capable tackle for one more year. Does anyone trust Willie Colon being worth another shot if he even comes back? Another postseason loss that showed that the corner play is a liability might lead you to think a DB would be a big priority come draft time. Who knows, though. With Green Bay and New England the likely participants in the Super Bowl, the line of thinking may just be that defense doesn't mean shit so long as you can put up 40 per game. That would lead you to think that the Steelers are a strengthed O-line away from being a serious threat again.

There's also the matter of the middle linebackers. Fans are furious with Lawrence Timmons, who did have a down year, but James Farrior has lost a step as well. They're two positions that certainly must be addressed. So even though Mike Wallace is the only guy to be concerned about, the Steelers have some veteran fat they can trim, but will have to have a big score or two in the draft to be able to enter 2012 with an eye on another championship run.

My Grandma's Wild Card Weekend Picks

2012-01-06T15:26:00.010-05:00

Pretty sure this is graphic for a baby's bib. Whatever.

My Grandma grew up on the mean streets of Sharpsburg, PA. She lived between a brewery and a cement factory. She worked at a bank for 40 years and only took 3 days off. When she "retired" she got bored, so she went to work at the snack bar at Hills department store in the Waterworks.

Grandma is endemic of so much of what Pittsburgh is. She is a tough lady. She's a busy-body. She tells stories, usually interrupting our conversation to do so. And she tells it like it is. But, she loves each and every one of us in her family. Fiercely.

Growing up, she refused to come see me play football, only baseball (that's her favorite sports and she watches the Buccos on TV whenever she can) because she didn't like, "seeing all of those boys hit into each other."

But, in her golden, hell, platinum years, she's taken to entering her assisted living center's weekly Steeler block pool. It's given us something to bond over. This week, I hoped to solicit her "picks" for the upcoming NFL Wild Card Weekend. Once I dangled the idea of going to lunch at Atria's out there, she quickly agreed. Hey, I figured we had my cat do it previously, so why not? Anyway, here's the first go 'round:

Grandma likes the Steelers, which is sort of surprising actually. She obviously expresses some doubt, but as I said, she used to have a real problem with tackle football. When I was younger, any mention of them and she would immediately say "Bah humbug! Football stinks! Let's Go Buccos!" I suppose this matches the overall sentiment of SteelerNation this week. With all of the injuries and nagging concerns I think most fans will simply be relieved by a win. While we are the better team in nearly every facet on paper...well...Grandma heard they might lose SOMEWHERE, right?

As you can hear, her pick of the Bengals is simple: she knows people in Cincinnati (my in-laws...don't worry, they're Steeler fans). With Andy Dalton's health being a surprise quesiton mark, it's no wonder she took her time to decide/swallow the cheese dip she was eating. This game is likely the most indeterminate of the weekend. If you're like me, pausing to decide who to root for (and ostensibly pull for as an opponent for next week) is a thought, but it has been restricted to a passing one at that. Cannot allow for the 'ole "Thinking Ahead" jinx. She's also a bit confused by the playoff format in the NFL. And I'm not sure I really did much to clear that up...

She goes with the Saints in a matter-of-fact fashion, as have most of the pundits and experts. I suppose that makes sense, especially considering the game is in New Orleans. But, it's worth noting that a healthy Lions defense could easily, yes easily, swing this game the other direction. But, Grandma isn't buying that "rubbish" - she knows the Saints have too many weapons to succumb to what amounts to a leveraged pass-rush. Ok, time for the final segment, a review of her picks and the final one, Falcons/Giants:

So, it's Giants. I actually deleted the story she told me about how her first ever plane ride was to NYC with some of her fellow cashiers from The Federal Reserve Bank she used to work with. They saw a show. It was "delightful"

I'll be back next week with more picks...

Steelers Go Before God Boy

2012-01-06T08:54:00.003-05:00

Unless the Steelers overcome injuries to pull another 2005-esque three-win playoff run on the road, the team is going to end up having its season come to close with a loss to either Tebow, the Patriots or Baltimore. None of those is particularly pleasant to contemplate. Being myth building fodder for the Tebow media machine might not be quite as bad as conceding a first playoff loss to the Ravens, but it's not far off.

The hype behind Timmy has fallen off slightly given Denver's implosion the final month of the season. That should help allay fears that the Steelers won't suffer a crushing one-and-done road upset, but even an out-of-sync Broncos team can pose some problems for a Steelers squad at considerably less than full strength. More to the point, given how Pittsburgh has played on the road this season, I'm not sure how most pundits are calling for a Steelers blowout. What was the best Steelers road performance this season? A 24-17 win in Cincinnati? A two-score victory over Arizona? Those are the only outings I can think of where they didn't lose or squeak by with a sloppy day.

That Maurkice Pouncey will probably also miss this game concerns me more than Rashard Mendenhall being out. This is a game for the Steelers' line and passing game to win or lose. Unless the defense chips in with a score, Denver isn't scoring 20 points. If this were the Steelers run defense of last season, I'd say Denver wouldn't clear double-digits, but McGahee should probably get at least a little traction on the ground.

Anyway, should be the Steelers put up another turnover-laden performance despite the offense moving the day (see either Cleveland game) and the team is probably setting itself up for a unbearable Tebow Time finish. The problem is, Denver knows this. They know Ben isn't as mobile as he usually is. And now the line has further vulnerabilities. So you're gonna see a fierce pass rush from Von Miller and Elvis Dumervil. How Pittsburgh copes with that decides the game, almost certainly.

Ryan Clark's absence hurts run stopping possibly even more than pass coverage. Polamalu gets more of the credit for safeties crushing the run, but Clark has been fairly instrumental with
coming in and taking out the fullback. Ryan Mundy's an okay fill-in, but I'm worried, just as I am that LaMarr Woodley, even though he's playing will be anywhere close to where he was when he was winning AFC Defensive Player of the Month earlier this season. Hell, apparently James Harrison has a toe issue now, which, you know, greeeeaaaaattttt. A pure pass rush probably isn't as import against Tebow as is just being disciplined about how you try to bring him down. It's probably similar to the way a lot of teams approach playing against Ben. The worst way to let Denver to move the ball, other than just let their run game dominate you, is to miss on Tebow and have him take off for 20 yard gains.

During the Broncos much overblown run when Tebow first assumed the starting job, Football Elmer Gantry was at least good about not turning the ball over. If anything, that's where his strength lie. He let the running game and defense do their job. In some ways, he obviously helped the run game with some option looks, but for the most part, he didn't hurt the defense or put the team out of the position to stick with the run by not turning the ball over. During the recent three-game skid, that's clearly hasn't been the case, as Tebow is responsible for seven turnovers over that span, compared to only five the previous eight weeks combined. The Steelers defense has also gotten better about creating turnovers, though they're never exactly been great about it this year. Those are two encouraging trends, as any turnovers by Tebow are practically fatal for the Broncos on Sunday. The best chance for a Denver win is their pass rush frustrating Ben, maybe getting a fumble, while Tebow, maybe not even playing what a reasonable viewer might call "good", just doesn't make the killer mistake.

I know I sound racked with worry that the Steelers, but I feel pretty comfortable that the team will win, even though it won't be anywhere near as lop-sided as a lot of the general public believes. Were the Steelers totally healthy, yeah, they'd probably throttle Denver. But that seems to be lost on a lot of casual fans. So if the game remains close, I'm sure I'll see a lot of the Twitter commentary on the game be about how it's a lot closer than people expected and HURR DERR here comes Tebow Time. Not looking forward to that. I think most anxiety from Steelers fans about Sunday come from the fact that the Steelers are getting propped up like that from those hoping Tebow goes down that anything less than complete slaughter will come off looking like a disappointment. Kind of a no-win scenario. That and the prospect of losing and being background fodder for the media hero-making campaign for Tebow is too horrifying not to gnaw at you even a little bit.

As long as the Steelers win, hopefully don't lose another half dozen players to injury and put an end to Tebowmania, at least for this season, I'll be pleased however it comes about. That has to be a Mike Tomlin-approved disregard for style points.

Lights Go Out On Steelers Playoff Bye

2011-12-20T17:05:00.004-05:00

I haven't watched any reaction or sought any feedback regarding Monday night's loss in San Francisco. Not because I'm avoiding it because I'm overly crushed. Disappointed, to be sure, but this outcome was largely an expected one. I try to avoid live blogging Steelers games at KSK mostly because I'd like to focus on watching my favorite team play rather than moderating comments from a thousand readers at a time. Also, since KSK readers know I'm a Steelers, a lot of get off on being trolling dicks whenever I write about them, even though I've taken great pains to strip my writing there of the homerism that I've been guilty of in the past. If anything, I've actually been pretty hard on Pittsburgh over there recently to combat that perception. Nevertheless...

The point here is I expected the Steelers to lose, so what the hell. The most discouraging thing is that my biggest reason for assuming that was Roethlisberger's limited mobility. And, yeah, the guy was very clearly hobbling last night, but as the game wore on, you could tell that the hitch was leaving his gait and Ben was moving pretty fluidly. It was shoddy decision making on his part that was largely to blame for the Steelers' loss. I tend to rail at the "drama queen" trash talk that Ravens fans especially use to smear Roethlisberger as a player. They want to believe he milks injuries, when the guy actually just gets hit a lot and tends to play through pain, usually well. That's in keeping with the usual empty tough-ass facade of Baltimore sports fans, though. I will say you know that if Ben is ever guilty of the drama queen stuff, it's when he goes overboard trying to be the hero. Last night, it wasn't enough that he was playing through injury. Toughing out pain isn't enough; you have to make impossible throws while doing it. There were a lot of times he ignored open shorter routes because he wanted to jam it in to a tight space for a big gain. Now, obviously some of his inaccuracy can be put on having an injured ankle support your plant leg. Knowing that's the case, maybe Ben shouldn't be trying to force post patterns to Mike Wallace in triple coverage on the opening drive. Just a thought.

Going forward, with so much of the offense based ar0und Roethlisberger's ability to scramble, it's imperative the guy gets healthy. But as you always see this time of year, two weeks to get rusty is just the kind of thing that leads to flat playoff performances. So I can't say I advocate not giving Ben any play time over the next two weeks. I would argue that he should sit against the Rams in favor of Dennis Dixon, of course. I'm not confident that Batch at this point is a safe bet to pull off the win against lowly St. Louis. Let Ben close out the season in Cleveland, yes, against the team that hurt him last week. Better that than a QB trying the field, likely in Denver where building a lead early is important, but being rusty with several weeks of inactivity.

The health concerns with Ben are paramount, but the sluggish pace at which LaMarr Woodley is recouping is really troubling. Granted, just having him play more than a drive for the first time in more than a month should be welcome news. But the guy showed barely any drive at all last night. Woodley had one decent drive that drew a stupid holding penalty, but that was about it. The absence of James Harrison felt all the more pronounced. But would it really have mattered that much if Harrison played, given how LeBeau reverted to the old "death by a thousand dinks and dunks" strategy that gives receivers 10 yards of cushion off the line of scrimmage? It's like the win against New England never happened. Why be afraid to play press coverage? Are the Niners' receivers really worthy of that much respect? Not when Alex Smith missed badly on every deep pass.

Last night felt like the Steelers reverting to all their worst habits. Ben trying to force big plays when moderate gains are there for the taking. The defense playing back on its heels. I know it's still technically possible for the Steelers to win out and have Baltimore lose in the season finale in Cincinnati, but not only would I not count on it, but I don't think the team really deserves it at this point. Yes, Pittsburgh was severely handicapped by injuries and a suspension last night, but hell, the Niners were without Patrick Willis. If you want to look for him on a list of slouches, you're gonna be scanning for a while. There was bad gameplanning and bad execution. It was hard coming away from last night's game saying that this team is one that deserves a playoff bye. We've seen them play at their best and hopefully can again before the season gets away from them, but it may be a few weeks on autopilot before we can even get the opportunity to see one way or the other.

Worth filing away for the next time you hear the trite cries of officiating bias for the Steelers were the two huge egregious calls last night. The first wrongly wiped out a possibly momentum-swinging fumbled punt (when the game was still only 6-0) deep in San Francisco territory. Replay showed hit a San Francisco player first but couldn't be challenged. Instead, the Niners got a 15-yard gain out of it. Then there's that bizarre leaping call on Lawrence Timmons that set the Niners up for an extra four insurance points late in the game. The Steelers played poorly throughout and even if those calls were made correctly, there's still a good chance Pittsburgh loses anyway. Still, for a team that's supposedly protected as the Steelers are by the refs, those were two painful oversights in a big game.

Anyway, on to the Rams. Can't lose to 'em or you get kicked out of the league.

James Harrison Receives Inevitable Suspension

2011-12-13T11:10:00.004-05:00

Just yesterday, I expressed doubts that James Harrison was going to be suspended by the NFL for his hit on Colt McCoy. There's no question that league executives have been waiting for an opportunity to levy this punishment on Harrison, but I figured they would have waited for a less borderline infraction. Guess not. I mean, since Harrison is such a VICIOUS MALACIOUS HEADHUNTER ANGRY BAD MAN it should just be a matter of time, right?

From my vantage point watching the game live, it looked clearly like an instance where Harrison was aiming at McCoy's lead shoulder. There certainly was helmet contact, and perhaps that could have been avoided with Harrison went lower with the shoulder. Then again, this is a moving target, so second guessing the angle a tackler takes is a fairly glib criticism. That said, I have no problem with the play being flagged or Harrison even being fined. But he wasn't headhunting. It doesn't help all the slow motion replays I've seen of the hit have come from the angle behind Harrison. The linebacker's body obscures the first point of contact at the shoulder, so all the viewer sees are the helmets colliding. Harrison is a media villain and most talking heads want to give him a fair shake about as much as they want to impugn any aspect of Tebow's game. Honestly, I still can't believe Deion Sanders stuck up for James during the NFLN postgame.

All said and done, Harrison obviously didn't make matters easier for himself with his outlandish comments about Goodell. This was going to happen sooner or later. Hell, the same might happen to Ryan Clark within the course of time. The NFL gets to be vindictive toward players that have been critical of the league under the pretense that they're making the game safer while at the same time leveling no sanctions against a team like the Browns that probably knowingly sent a concussed player back into a game.

High Ankle Spains Complicate Chase For AFC North Crown

2011-12-12T19:00:00.005-05:00

Looks like I'm guilty of a little blog neglect.

Don't have much in the way of illumination from the two wins over four days last week. The victory over Cincy was as decisive and encouraging as the win over Cleveland was not. Don't want to bemoan the lack of style points in the Thursday win. The Steelers actually played that game well and Roethlisberger looked as sharp as he has all season before he suffered the high ankle sprain. But one careful red zone fumble by Hines and a perfect hit to dislodge the ball from Heath Miller kept the game from getting away from Cleveland early, as it should have. As soon as the second fumble occurred, Ben went down and the offense was significantly hamstrung, as it were.

While we're on squandered scoring chances, even as a Mendenhall fantasy owner, I'd like it if Redman were made the default goal line back. There's no question he gets better push than Mendy and that wasn't more clear than during the four-and-out sequence inside the two in the second half of the Cleveland game.

Still don't know how Ben played the second half of that game, even if he was given the shot at halftime. I was at the game live and the experience was twice as bizarre as it would have been watching TV, where the reports were constantly updating. I just remember repeating to myself that the best case scenario is that it would be a sprain and maybe Ben would miss at most a week or two. Then there's Roethlisberger sitting on the sidelines grabbing his helmet just before the second half kickoff. I figured, even then, that there was no way. Possibly the team would give Batch a few more series to hand the ball off en route to a three-and-out.

It's as a much a testament to a lack of faith in Batch as it is to Ben being tough that he came back in or was even allowed to do so. Charlie's been more than a capable fill-in when called upon in his time in Pittsburgh, and he was important during the labor standoff, but the guy is very obviously finished as a quarterback. It's sad that the team has seemingly no confidence in Dennis Dixon, because they're gonna need him to become the next back-up unless they can sign another veteran, which won't happen until the off-season at the earliest.

Roethlisberger and Pouncey are reportedly on track to play in a week in San Francisco despite their respective high ankle sprains. That Ben's is the lowest grade sprain leads to believe at least some of his mobility will have been restored with 11 days' time. I'd really Pouncey not even bother to go. It seems even more likely that he'd have a setback trying to take on an attacking defense on a weakened leg. Doug Legursky starting against that Niners defense is surely not ideal, but sticking Pouncey in there more than likely dangers Ben and his center more than if he's kept out.

Some are arguing that it doesn't really matter if the Steelers have to settle for the 5 seed, because that may be even easier than if they get the bye. Can't say I agree with that, even with the disdain I have for Tebowmania. Denver has the kind of attacking defense that could give the Steelers' line fits. Not to mention the Pittsburgh run D isn't quite what it was. If this were last year, I'd say a run-heavy team like the Broncos plays right into the Steelers strengths, but, well, it's not last year. I wouldn't go as far to say that the run D is a liability now, but it's not the shutdown guarantee it once was. And you can't gloss over just how difficult it is to win on the road in the playoffs anywhere, especially an environment in Denver that automatically eliminates one of your starting safeties because of a health issue with the high elevation.

The Chargers have rebounded in the past two weeks and are probably the best possibility to knock off the Ravens among Baltimore's remaining opponents. Yeah, they still have a game left in Cincinnati. With the way the Bungles have fallen off, I'm not liking the upset chances there. If Baltimore wins Sunday night, I won't exactly be crushed if the Steelers can't eke one out in the Bay Area. Losing to Arizona was no doubt a sobering experience, so now that the Niners' once assured bye in the playoffs is now threatened by the Saints, I wouldn't expect anything less than their best shot.

I've tried to ignore most of the hue and cry about the James Harrison shot on Colt McCoy. That said, I think there's more of an understanding this time around that it wasn't Harrison's intent to go at McCoy's helmet, since the quarterback was a moving target out of the pocket. Hell, Deion Sanders on the NFL Network postgame gab session said that it wasn't Silverback's fault at all. If only the consensus were so level-headed when Massaquoi ducked his head into a tackle last year and begun a lot of the focus on James. As far as a suspension, I don't see it, but just because discipline is being discussed yet again, I don't consider it out of the realm of possibility just because the media echo chamber might force Goodell to set pointless examples.

This time of year presents a usual challenge to the Steelers of having their stars performing at significantly less than 100 percent. Last year, Polamalu was demonstrably not at full capacity from the Bengals game on. And we all remember the concussion that Ben got in Week 17 of the '08 season - also against the Browns - before embarking on a title run. Ben, Pouncey and Woodley will have to be the ones excelling through pain this time around if the team wants another crack at Green Bay (assuming, but it's more than a fair assumption).

You're So Dreadfully Ugly, Ugly Win

2011-11-28T16:31:00.004-05:00

Bless you, Anthony Becht.

A lot of comparisons are being made between last night's ugmo win in Kansas City and the equally putrid yet also equally victorious showing that the Steelers had in the beginning of the season in Indianapolis.

And while I was one of the many down on the team after the win in Indy, I'm much less so after last night. Why? Because now, as opposed to then, I know the Steelers are capable of much better. And this shoddy performance was coming off a bye week, which has mysteriously been tripping up more than a few teams this season.

Not that the Chiefs haven't been dealt more than a few personnel setbacks (Tyler Palko being able to commit terrible turnover after terrible turnover last night is evidence enough) but the Steelers had more than a few of their own on Sunday night. There's the obviously concerning head injury to Polamalu. The team had to deal with Maurkice Pouncey not being able to go at the last minute.

Then, of course, a potential trap game started off in the least desirable way. The Chiefs, whose defense came out fired up as they did the week before against New England, got on the board first. The Steelers looked primed to respond with a touchdown to take the lead, only for Mewelde Moore to cough the ball up as he was making a nice run inside the five. I'll question a lot of Bruce Arians' playcalling, but I didn't necessarily hate the idea of that run. And it's not as though the play failed. Had Moore not fumbled, it's at least a five- or six-yard gain to set up a third and goal from the 1 or 2. It's not like Arians told MeMo to put it on the ground just before reaching the goal line. Unless he actually is evil personified. Still, I feel like even if that were the case, he would have funneled his evil through a bubble screen of some sort.

Not gonna let Mike Wallace off the hook. He's quickly become one of my favorite players on the team, but that was one of his worst showings. He dropped a pretty routine touchdown grab on the play before Moore's fumble. He let another long pass go through his hands later on. The latter was far more excusable. Wallace didn't have tons of separation from a defender who had a 10-yard cushion to try to cover him deep, plus the DB's outstretched hand also blocked his vision. Nevertheless, Mike got his hands on the ball and maybe we're spoiled, but we're used to seeing him haul those in.

For as poorly as the offense played - the O-line's regression (possibly because of Pouncey's absence) was troubling - the defense got turnovers. Yes, two of them were giftwrapped, but, hey, sometimes turnovers are giftwrapped and teams still don't get them. Look at the Chargers on Sunday, for instance. so, that was nice. Could have lived with more of a pass rush, but Woodley is coming back soon and thank goodness for that.

So I'm not gonna join the chorus of pessimists, unless of course Polamalu will have to miss extended time because of the concussion. I've heard mixed reports on that issue thus far, but he was able to come back the following week after taking a similar blow earlier this season against Jacksonville, so hopefully that trend will be followed.

The Steelers won't have the luxury of playing down to competition next week, when they face the Bengals for the second time in a month. Taking down Cincy again at Heinz Field would erase a lot of the nagging doubts that resurfaced last night. It would almost open up a mostly easy closing stretch for the team.

Defense Actually Gets Turnovers, Steelers Enter Bye On High Note

2011-11-14T10:17:00.003-05:00

As far as the national media narrative, yesterday's Steelers-Bengals game was going to teach us more about Cincinnati than it would about Pittsburgh. Accordingly, we did discover that the Bengals are an upstart team worthy of its 6-2 start, but still a little ways off from challenging for the division.

For the Steelers, a lot of it was reinforcement of trends that have been prevalent all season. It's a team that typically comes strong out of the gate, at least on offense, but has some difficulty sustaining that momentum throughout games. For a while, it seemed like yesterday's win would be very similar to the win at home against Jacksonville, where the Steelers leaped out to a double-digit advantage, only to watch it slowly erode for the remainder of the game. It didn't end up being quite that agonizing, as the offense still found had some gas in the second half.

But the real reason that Pittsburgh won is because on Sunday the defense equaled its entire interception total for the season coming into the game. Lots of credit to William Gay, who had been torched for the deciding touchdown by Torrey Smith the week before, for jumping a route on an Andy Dalton pass late in the game to seal. Lawrence Timmons grabbed an earlier pick on a fortunate deflection. I'm not complaining. Any turnovers the defense can muster are more than welcome this season. Any season, really. They're turnovers. When don't you want your defense to force turnovers? Given the general paucity of them this season, expectations have been skewed a bit, I guess.

A follower asked me on Twitter during the game whether this game marked Antonio Brown surpassing Mike Wallace as the team's best, or most complete, wideout. I think that would be a very hasty pronouncement to make, but AB is making his case. Obviously, I think it's unfair to say Brown is better now because Wallace certainly draws more attention from opposing defenses. Brown is a better receiver in the middle of the field and a better possession receiver, but there's so many ways Wallace can kill with his speed that he more than makes up for that facet of his game being underutilized. While the Steelers did try Wallace deep against Cincinnati - Ben should have hit him deep once - I like that most of his focus was on underneath stuff and designed runs. Not that you want to ignore the home run potential, but if you can get those quick dump offs where Wallace can sprint for a first down, not unlike Santonio used to do, that's easy money worth taking.

Glad to also see Jerricho Cotchery finally being worked into the offense. It's borne out of necessity with Emmanuel Sanders banged up, but he's already showing himself to be a vital and useful weapon. Hines is good for a play or two a game at this point, but he's not really a viable starting receiver anymore, in my opinion. I think it hurt the offense a lot in the Super Bowl last year when Manny went down. Wallace becomes a lot easier to defend when he doesn't have a nice complement like Sanders or Cotchery on the opposite side.

Speaking of Hines, that was his first catch in three weeks (because dicksmack John Harbaugh challenged the one last week where Ray Lewis got away with an illegal helmet shot on him) so that puts Hines 19 catches away from 1,000 on his career. I think and hope it's reasonable to expect that he can reach that mark over the final six games of the season.

Up and down game for Heath. He made an incredible 3rd down catch in the red zone to set up a touchdown, taking a shoulder to the facemask and hanging on. Sadly, he followed that up later by handing the Bengals a momentum swinging interception by bobbling a pass twice and knocking it into the hands of Leon Hall. The corner would later suffer a season-ending injury, which will certainly be a blow to Cincy's fortunes for the remainder of the year. And, surprise, surprise, the Bengals play Baltimore next week. The Ravens always seem to catch teams at the right time when it comes to injuries.

Max Starks left the game for a spell with an injury which prompted the frightening return of Jonathan Scott. It's amazing how quickly I went from disdaining the return of Starks to the Steelers to not imaging they could even put together a scoring drive without him. I'm a knee-jerk asshole like that.

As we all know, the Ravens once again lost in gloriously inept fashion a week after blowing their load beating the Steelers. Just fantastically terrible coaching by John Harbaugh and Cam Cameron. Cam actually makes me glad for Arians, which hurts so much to say it might be inspired trolling if it weren't so destructive to the Ravens. How do you have Joe Flacco throw 50 times in any game? I realize Seattle jumped out to an early lead, but that game was never out of reach. A shame the Ravens waste all of their halfway decent coaching on the Steelers. These letdown losses really have to fall on Harbaugh, who made a jackass of himself celebrating to the point of personal injury last week while still bitching about some song played on the Heinz Field PA that he deemed offensive to poor delicate Joe Flacco. All of that, and Harbs has his team fall flat again. Maybe the Ravens just can't sustain top performances on a week-to-week basis? That doesn't figure well for the postseason, where one big win is going to do for you.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the Steelers likely getting Woodley back after the bye. His presence has been sorely missed these past few weeks. The Steelers, it should be noted, had no sacks on Dalton. James Harrison didn't quite have the dominating performance he had the week before against Baltimore, but he shouldn't be asked to do everything for the pass rush.

Again, it wasn't a perfect victory, but few ever really are and perfect victories usually don't come in big wins against surging division opponents, so I'm more than grateful for just keeping the Bungles in their place and moving on to what is hopefully another shot at a division title and an extended run through the postseason.

Ravens Complete Sweep, Reignite Rivalry

2011-11-07T08:09:00.009-05:00

You know, you can only leave Torrey Smith open so many times before he's actually going to catch it. The Steelers learned that the hard way.

For all the mocking we do of Joe Flacco, he's now led last-minute scoring drives to win at Heinz Field in consecutive seasons. It doesn't automatically make Bert an awesome QB or anything, but I'll give credit where it's due. The guy isn't completely worthless. Well done, Unibrow. Hopefully the Steelers will get another shot at thwarting him in the postseason.

It's a tough, painful loss, and the Steelers now definitely owe the Ravens a good deal of payback, but I'll take away positives where I can. The receiving corps continues to be stellar. Mike Wallace, who is usually big early in games, showed up late with a go-ahead touchdown. Max Starks did a better job containing Terrell Suggs than anyone on the Steelers has in some time. Suggs obviously made a great play intercepting a bubble screen in the third quarter.

The most surprising thing is that that hasn't happened early with how often the Steelers got to that stupid play and how much they telegraph it when they do. It's tempting to blame Bruce Arians, who is never ever shy about deploying the dreaded Bubble Screen of Death, but this was in a no-huddle situation, so it was more than likely on Roethlisberger for calling the play. It's the second time he's been intercepted in the last few weeks trying to force a receiver screen. The other time, the offense was in hurry up and he just chucked it out there when the receiver seemed confused as to what was going on. So Ben might just have to shake things up with the play calls if the offense wants to go no-huddle as much as he would like.

Ike Taylor was solid in coverage on Boldin, but did get torched by Smith on the ball that was dropped right before the TD. Polamalu went to help in coverage on the other side and Flacco had his guy open deep. Honestly, the Steelers would have been better off if Torrey caught the first one. It would have left the Steelers with 35 seconds left and multiple timeouts needing only a field goal. So the drop turned out to be a fortunate break for Baltimore.

James Harrison is all way back to his dominating form. The Steelers would have been destroyed in that game without Deebo. Then again, had the Steelers only had LaMarr Woodley on the other side last night as well, things might have been different. At least one thing to be encouraged about if the Steelers get a third crack at Bawlmer this year.

Speaking of Deebo, did you see Ray Rice DUCK A BLOCK on Harrison? Oh man, the Ravens are just so badass, I can't take it.

I've seen some Steelers fan bitching about the officiating, which is unfortunate, but there were tough calls both ways. Don't be like Ravens fans. They won outright. The only call (or non-call) that bothered me was the helmet-to-helmet shot from Ray Lewis. Not only was it evident and flagrant but it resulted in Ward being injured. Isn't the NFL trying to clamp down on those kind of things? Shit, they flagged Ryan Clark for hitting a receiver in the back last season. And they rightly got Clark on a helmet shot he issued just a few minutes after Lewis' last night. "God's Linebacker" is allowed to decapitate whomever he pleases, it seems.

Somehow, in the last two seasons, the Ravens have gotten away with Haloti Ngata punching Roethlisberger in the face and breaking his nose, Jameel McClain concussing Heath Miller with an illegal hit and Ray Lewis' cheap shot on Hines last night. No flags for any of those. I'm sure Lewis will be fined, but I really don't give a shit about a fine. What does that do for anybody? Nothing. It sucks. Not reading anything further into this, but it's shitty nonetheless.

Anyway, I'll just be here agonizing over Larry Foote's near-pick that would have closed out the game for a few more hours before I start looking forward to the equally important showdown with Andy Dalton and the upstart Bengals next week. Pittsburgh doesn't have itself in the best position for taking the division now, but it's still entirely possible they can come away with it. And, failing that, there's still a Wild Card berth that's by no means guaranteed.

The Steelers gave Baltimore a battle and could have easily won. It sucks that they didn't, but it's better than a shellacking that leaves them with the perception that they're old and done. This team will be all right. Now they just have to play well enough to get a chance for redemption.

Assessing the Steelers-Ravens Rivalry

2011-11-04T10:24:00.007-04:00

Last Sunday, the Steelers exacted their first measure of revenge against Tom Brady's Patriots in quite some time. About seven years, actually. Similarly, the Ravens, who had been tormented by the Steelers for the past five years (at least when a backup QB wasn't starting for Pittsburgh), finally got some payback of their own in Week 1.

In both cases, I wouldn't say the long-dominated team has gotten the monkey off their back as much as made more interesting what have been one-sided recent rivalries. The Patriots have still gotten the Steelers when it has mattered most, and the Steelers still own every critical matchup there is to own against the Ravens.

The Ravens could earn only their second-ever regular season sweep of the Steelers on Sunday in Heinz Field. Or they could suffer a loss that would almost effectively negate all the good feelings of the Week 1 drubbing at M&T Bank Stadium. A Baltimore loss wouldn't exactly wrap up the division for the Steelers, but it would show yet again that Baltimore can't win the one they really truly need to against Pittsburgh. It would also drop them a game back (the lack of the Steelers' bye muddies things a bit) and lose them their tiebreaker advantage, as all the Ravens' losses have come against conference opponents. It would also engender more and more serious doubts about whether Joe Flacco is in fact a franchise quarterback.

Suffice it to say, a Baltimore loss makes Week 1 look like a fluke, like the 41-0 lambasting that Buffalo gave to New England the opening week of 2003. It makes it look more like the upshot of an early season upended by the lockout's scheduling chaos.

But a Ravens victory? Well, that makes matters more interesting. I don't think it quite equals the Steelers being 3-0 in the postseason against a division rival, but it would let Ravens fans look less pathetic than they do beating their chest unremittingly about one September regular season blowout.

Baltimore has a knack for catching the Steelers at the right time in terms of injuries. Obviously, the fact that three times within fours years, they got to face a starting QB who wasn't Ben Roethlisberger was a luxury. Sunday, the Steelers will likely take the field sans James Harrison, LaMarr Woodley and James Farrior. The two best players in their front seven and a key Pro Bowl veteran middle linebacker. The Steelers will have to make do, as they have in recent weeks, but it'll be tough. Imagine the Ravens trying to win without Suggs, Ray-Ray and Ngata in the lineup. They'd be a little concerned, too.

That said, Haloti Ngata is banged up and may not play, which evens matters considerably. He's the best player on the Ravens' defense by a significant margin. He's also given Maurkice Pouncey some serious problems so far in the young center's career. So having Ngata out or even hampered by injury would be a huge plus. It would also opens things up nicely for the running game.

You could argue that Harrison, Woodley and Farrior all played Week 1 and it didn't make for a whole lot of good. That is true, to an extent. The Steelers were playing much less aggressive defense early in the season, much to their detriment. if anything, those injuries might end up benefitting this Steelers season in the long run, because it's made Dick LeBeau make serious evaluations and in some cases radically change long-entrenched schemes. Woodley has been incredible since Deebo went out of the lineup. That's evident even without the Defensive Player of the Month honors he earned this week.

It's not only the play of the Steelers defense that has improved markedly in recent weeks. The offensive line may not be stellar, but it's far from the disaster that it was. Max Starks, while not great, has been a welcome replacement for Jonathan Scott. I don't expect Starks to have a great showing against Suggs, but I think he'll make P-Drizzle work for his pressures a lot more than Scott. That Ben Roethlisberger has hit his stride in terms of accuracy after early season falters should give the offense much more confidence.

Speaking of epic mouthbreather Suggs, the fact that he was back to running his mouth this week gave me a lot of comfort. I realize the sideshow means nothing, but it's good to see nonethless. The Ravens were disturbingly quiet before Week 1. Very uncharacteristic. Now? They're back to their usual stupid antics and bold proclamations before a trip to Heinz Field. If Baltimore's stoicism before Week 1 helped catch the Steelers overconfident and complacent, well, it won't this time.

I don't at all expect the Ravens to come in flat, as they did against Jacksonville and in the first half against Arizona. They know what's at stake. Hell, they've probably been looking ahead to this game. And that's fine. I wouldn't expect any less. No doubt the Steelers have a huge amount of pride at stake after the loss and all the fighting that happened on the field back in Baltimore.

Obviously Timmons is going to have to have a huge game, as if Worilds if he can actually go. Not sure what you can expect from Sylvester and Carter other than hopefully they keep to the running lanes when Ray Rice gets the ball. There was a pretty big drop-off in pressure on Tom Brady after Woodley left the game last week, and that's concerning, but I think a few players, as well as LeBeau will rise to the occasion. Don't be surprised to see Troy Polamalu sent after the QB on a few plays. Who knows? After last year, Joe Flacco might actually see it coming.

The one annoying thing about the win over the Patriots was all the knee-jerk dipshit commentators, who back in September gleefully dismissed the Steelers as old and busted and done, reversed course immediately. WELP! GUESS THE STEELERS AREN'T OLD ANYMORE. A-DERP-A-DERP. As much as last Sunday's win did to chase away those doubts, a win over Baltimore eradicates them entirely.

The Steelers Finally Have An Answer For Brady

2011-10-30T20:28:00.003-04:00

I'm gonna be upfront - I had little faith that the Steelers could knock off the Patriots. Recent history has given little indication that Dick LeBeau had been willing to abandon the zone-heavy strategies that resulted in a host of humiliating Steelers losses to New England. Even in the best of seasons for the Pittsburgh defense, Brady had been able to make them look wanting. How could they, minus James Farrior and James Harrison, with William Gay starting, hope for a different outcome this time around?

Now, of course, we have our answer. LeBeau proved willing to radically change the approach of his defense and the payoff was monumental. By all accounts, the Steelers played more man and press coverage than they had at probably any point in LeBeau's tenure. It makes sense that that would lead to more pressure on Brady. Give receivers free release and Brady is going to find someone to check it off to before the rush gets there. Obviously the danger is that a big play can occur if a corner gets beat badly off the press. The problem for the Patriots is now that they lack a Randy Moss type that can beat any DB in single coverage. Think Deion Branch or Chad Ochocinco can dominate an aggressive corner? Not likely.

Of course, when LaMarr Woodley left the game with a hamstring injury, this strategy started to wane in effectiveness. Down their two best outside pass rushers, Brady had tons of time to throw. There was more than a few dropbacks where Brady had five seconds and still couldn't find a target. So today was a huge win for a secondary that is mostly maligned aside from Troy Polamalu and Ike Taylor.

It wasn't only the defense that stymied Brady. A Pittsburgh attack that was able to consistently put together long drives - only one punt all game - kept the Patriots with limited opportunities to score. At the same time, the Steelers allowed New England to hang around closer than the stats would show. For starters, the Patriots got the one turnover which led directly to points. The Steelers offense also couldn't apply the kill shot when given multiple chances in the second half. The Cowboys saw what happens when you toy with New England and give them chances to close the gap late. This almost caught up with the Steelers as well, but thankfully the Pats fell short enough that they were never realistically in position to grab the win.

A lot of things have come together since the dreadful start to the season. Ben Roethlisberger has resolved most of the accuracy issues (the bad INT today not withstanding), the Max Starks signing amazingly stabilized a horrid offensive line and the run defense is, if not as dominating as last season, certainly not a liability. This win was key for the Steelers season in innumerable ways. Maybe even more so than if the Steelers had only beaten the Ravens over this two-game stretch. Because the Patriots have always been the litmus test that showed the Steelers were just short of the class of the league. I don't mean to say that this win alone elevates Pittsburgh to the definitive top of the conference, even if it did in the de jure standings. It simply means that there is no longer a challenge that we know that the Steelers absolutely cannot overcome. Maybe there wasn't one before, but the Pats sure seemed like one.

There were a few bad calls that went the Steelers way in this game. As is typically the case, this has brought out only the saddest of the officiating conspiracy trolls. Rob Gronkowski's catch should have been a touchdown, but what stopped the Patriots from challenging the ruling? Nothing. Belichick had ample time to make a call for the officials to look it over. As for the Polamalu punch that led to a safety, it's almost certainly meaningless. Troy gets flagged and the Pats get the ball back at about the 20 with 10 seconds left and no timeouts. With the Pats inability to get ANYTHING completed deep during this game, we're to suppose New England can cover 80 yards and score a TD in 10 seconds, when on the previous play Brady was sacked and stripped?

There's no reason to remind anyone of the enormity of next week's game. I've seen a few wishful (deluded?) Ravens fans on Twitter already saying they love the position that their team is in - that the Steelers will be overhyped and overconfident. I'm sure there isn't a Steelers player (maybe save Max Starks, who didn't play) for whom the memory of the Week 1 blowout isn't fresh in their mind. The Ravens haven't looked great the past two weeks, but they rallied when they had to late to beat Arizona and that should give the team reasonable momentum coming into Pittsburgh.

Still, if the Steelers were able to show new wrinkles to a more sophisticated and superior Patriots offense, one would imagine that they can do the same to the Ravens. Baltimore caught the Steelers at a good time in Week 1 - what with the team not knowing that Aaron Smith had little left to cover, with LaMarr Woodley yet to be turned loose in the pass rush. If anything, the play of the Ravens O-line and their quarterback has regressed significantly since that time.

I'm excited to see what will come. I'm certain that the gravity of the rivalry and the significance of the next game, I would expect nothing similar to the one-sided contest that we saw in Week 1. The Steelers are riding high but have a good deal of payback to issue to their main rival. The Ravens also know that losing in Pittsburgh might mean having to kiss the division goodbye yet again, given the schedule remaining.

It's almost seven years to the day that the Steelers last beat Tom Brady, so today is certainly something to savor. Nevertheless, just as big a hurdle awaits in seven days. The Steelers in Week 1 let the Ravens jump out to an early lead, only to see their own sloppiness bury them beneath a huge deficit. I can't see the team that played today put forth that kind of effort. And if LeBeau can kind a solution for a Patriots attack that bedeviled him for so long, the Ravens flurry of chop blocks can't be all that intimidating.

Steelers Get Their Showing On The Road

2011-10-25T12:24:00.003-04:00

Creating turnovers, getting consistently solid play from the quarterback and winning on the road. Not things we saw a lot from the Steelers early in the season, but it finally manifested itself Sunday in the desert. And none too soon. With the two-week gauntlet of AFC heavyweights staring them down, Pittsburgh could ill afford to drop one to Whisenhunt's Pittsburgh West.

Granted, this wasn't an ideal performance. The running game didn't have much to show, but when you're completing 95-yard bombs to Mike Wallace, that's probably not the hugest concern. Whisenhunt and Grimm also have a bit of insight into the Steelers run blocking strategies. The team never seems to be able to move on the ground well whenever they play the Cards the last few years. Ike Taylor was pretty badly abused by Larry Fitzgerald, as well, but not too many corners aren't. Ike had to get chippy and got flagged a few times, but he managed to avoid killing up the killer big play, so let's consider it, if not a victory on his part, a passable performance against one of the league's best.

Of course, the Steelers escaped with their first convincing road win of the year, but they couldn't do so without an increased injury toll. Hines Ward has already been listed as questionable for Sunday's game against the Patriots. Farrior looks gimpy, which could figure immensely against a Patriots attack that relies heavily on their standout tandem of pass catching tight ends. And it appears James Harrison, Chris Hoke, Jason Worilds and Doug Legursky have already been ruled out for this week.

Still having Harrison out is gonna be rough against Brady. Last year, the Steelers barely managed any pressure on Brady at all even with Deebo playing, so there has to be some concern about how the defense is going to try to rattle him. Honestly, I'm not sure how they're gonna go about doing it. LaMarr Woodley has done extremely well taking over as the prime pass rusher, but the Pats can easily double team him. Plus, with the offense likely spreading itself out, Woodley might not have a lot of time to get to Brady unless LeBeau has finally come up with some creative coverage schemes to counteract the Patriots usual scheme of attack against Pittsburgh.

The Patriots only loss this season came against Buffalo when Brady threw four picks. The Steelers can boast the best defense in terms of yardage allowed (though some of that likely has to do with only having to defend short fields with the offense turning the ball over so much early in the season) but they aren't proving very adept at getting takeaways. Part of that is just an inability to catch the ball. Polamalu has dropped multiple INTs this season. It's not exactly a sight we've never seen before, but Troy showing off the Ike Taylor stone hands isn't going to fly if he gets a shot to make a play against the Pats.

New England's defense is seemingly regressing from year to year and teams this season - at least, so far - don't appear to be doing so well coming off the bye week (3-9 through Week 7) so that goes in the Steelers' favor. Rob Ryan had Dallas stymieing Brady for much of the Cowboys late loss in Gillette. While the Steelers may not be necessarily able to replicate that plan, their best chance is likely to play possession ball and limit what damage the Pats offense can do.

That would require a departure from Arians' M.O. this season, which has mostly been going for the kill early with big pass plays. Not that I'll ever mind a 95-yard touchdown bomb to Mike Wallace, but the Steelers can't try to get in a shootout with New England. Unless Ben's deep pass is more accurate than at any point in his life, that's not a battle they're likely to win. Teams can grind out the clock and dictate the terms with the Pats defense. The Chargers would have been able to do it if they weren't content to kill themselves with turnovers all game.

Even in the best of seasons, the Steelers have been bedeviled by the Patriots. At 5-2 with the top-ranked defense, the Steelers are looking a lot like paper tigers that have feasted on lesser competition. They can change that perception in a huge way over the next two weeks. They can also secure the top seed in the conference going into a stretch run that looks mighty accommodating. Failure to do so won't torpedo their season, but it will make it easy for folks not to take them seriously.

20 Minutes of Playing, 40 Minutes of Panic

2011-10-17T09:54:00.004-04:00

There's really no bad way to win in the NFL, but the most agonizing is probably the way we watched the Steelers win yesterday, or how they did in the AFC Championship Game last year - by mounting a huge lead, only to watch it slowly erode as the seconds tick off the clock in the second half.

Of course, that suggests that the Steelers simply went conservative and were content to try to run out the clock. Quite the contrary, the team was still trying to run up points, but being grossly ineffective at it. After looking sharp in the early going, Ben Roethlisberger lost all touch on his deep passes. He missed Emmanuel Sanders twice on would-be touchdowns. He had Mike Wallace targeted on another deep pass along to right side, but threw the ball too far to the sideline, forcing Wallace to have to attempt an awkward over the opposite shoulder grab.

Opportunities are bound to be squandered on both sides - for example, Ziggy Hood should have had a pick-six in the second half - but this seemed like another case this season where the Steelers were fortunate to be playing against a lower level of competition. I would like to say it's just complacency, but we've obviously seen flat performances against more impressive teams like the Texans and Ravens. So to see the Steelers come out blazing for a quarter, then proceed to do very little except post abortive drives and watch Shaun Suisham shank field goals just seems like an inability to make proper adjustments as the game goes on.

Obviously, we can be thrilled with Rashard Mendenhall's output, which was more than double his previous season-high rushing total of 66 yards in Week 2 against Seattle. Unfortunately, a dominant rushing attack is only going to go so far when Bruce Arians would rather the team be throwing bombs all over the field. When Ben is on target, that's great. But as they saw big throws being repeatedly missed, perhaps they were better off simplifying things a tad. Oh, and there are few positive things for the Steelers that disturb me like seeing one of Arians bubble screens to Hines go for more than 10 yards. I never see the point of those plays, of which there are at least one per game. Do the coaches want to ensure that Hines gets a catch? That would make sense if his streak were still going on. Otherwise, that play might be better suited for a faster, younger receiver.

Going into this game, the easiest trend to spot was that the Steelers were simply a dominant home team so far this season. Not sure you can still say that after the way they sputtered through the final 30 minutes of that game. But it does illustrate a more discomfiting habit of this team: that they're a first half team. That's an easy generalization to make after yesterday's game, but the more I've thought about it, the more it's held. If the offense has clicked at all this season, it's usually right out of the gate. That happened yesterday and it happened in the close with in Indianapolis. I would love to see a breakout of Mike Wallace's stats by half. Save for last week's win against the Titans, it seems like all of his big plays happen early in games. Not sure if that just means the opposition begins double teaming him and works especially hard to take him out of the game, but then you would think that would open other facets of the offense. And it isn't, for whatever reason. Uneven performances don't necessarily preclude winning. Most recall that the 2008 Steelers were largely a second-half team on offense and they won the Super Bowl. Of course, they also had a far superior defense to this season's squad. So accepting that the team is only going to put up so many points early in games then put fans through massive anxiety as they hope to squeak out wins isn't the greatest formula for winning games, unless you happen to be playing subpar or rookie quarterbacks.

Troy Polamalu's concussion, given that stupid misnomer of a "very mild concussion", is clearly a big concern, both for his availability in a road game the team needs to win next week, but more so for Troy's overall health. We all know Troy has suffered more than a few concussions in his career and I worry with each one that comes that his playing career may soon be curtailed and that his post-football livelihood may not be the greatest.

And while Ryan Clark couldn't have known that Troy was feeling woozy after that tackle, I have a feeling that headbutt is going to be shown in a few ominous clips about football and concussions in the offing.

If Pattern Of Steelers Home Games Holds, Jags About To Get Rolled

2011-10-13T21:53:00.003-04:00

The Jaguars are the kind of team that in recent years would have been almost expertly engineered to lose to the Steelers. An offense that needs the run game to thrive to have any chance. A quarterback not necessarily bad, but at least too inexperienced to exploit the holes in LeBeau's scheme that only Brady, Rodgers and maybe Brees have been able to with any consistency.

Despite last week's improved effort, the Steelers defense still hasn't shown that its run defense is quite at the level where you can essentially write off a one-dimensional offense that depends on the run. Chris Johnson only finished with 51 yards, but looked good early and would have had more yards if the Titans hadn't fallen so far behind. It's true that the run defense got better against him after the first drive, but I'm still not at the point where I can say that the run defense is just yet near where it's been. Maybe this week I'll be able to say that if MJD is shut down and the Jags forced to put it in the air despite the fact that they're starting Blaine Gabbert.

Rashard Mendenhall is apparently starting Sunday, which I'm not totally wild about. Not that I think Mendy is slipping and that Redman and Dwyer have really earned any claim to stealing carries, but there always the concern with rushing back hamstring injuries. Of course, that concern was swirling around Arian Foster the other week and he proceeded to torch the Steelers on the ground, so take from that what you will.

There's been a pretty big dichotomy between the Steelers at home and on the road so far this season. Perhaps that's because both of the Steelers home games in 2011 have followed pretty embarrassing losses and the team is more motivated and focused, or simply that the Steelers are a far better home team this season for whatever reason. Too early to say, obviously. But if the Steelers struggle against the hapless Jaguars, the answer is obviously closer to the former.

Backs To The Wall, Steelers Finally Put Up Fight

2011-10-10T10:05:00.004-04:00

The Steelers, a month into the season, finally gave a performance that shows that they belong with any team in the league. None too soon, of course. Pittsburgh was coming into Sunday's game hard on the heels of a feckless outing in Houston that was made worse by yet another substantial injury toll.

The Titans had been rolling prior to yesterday, even decisively beating the Ravens a week after Bawlmer lambasted the Steelers in Week 1. It appeared the two teams were on clearly divergent paths. No one was mistaking the Steelers for a team on the accent. Even after the win, I would still doubt that analysts would change that appraisal, but a few may now take pause before saying this Steelers team is "done".

Some will say the abrupt turnaround is owed to backups who made the most of their opportunity to contribute. And certainly, much of yesterday's win is thanks to the Max Starks, Chris Hoke, Jonathan Dwyer and Isaac Redman, among others. I was among those who scoffed when the team brought on Starks, remembering how little he had to offer last year. But the big guy was solid yesterday. It remains to be seen whether Max is still durable enough to keep that up for the remainder of the season, but that's a risk less dangerous than just being resigned to have Jonathan Scott or Trai Essex start there. Of course, all was not rosy for the O-line, as Scott got back in the game after Marcus Gilbert left with a shoulder injury. Hopefully he won't be out an extended period. I haven't seen any reports indicating as much yet, but we'll see.

But it was also key members of the team who at last stepped their game up to the level to which we're accustomed. LaMarr Woodley has admittedly been called upon to drop into coverage a lot this season, but with James Harrison out, Wood was finally turned loose in the pass rush, and it's good to know he can still bring it in that department. His first sack where he took down the blocking back as well as Matt Hasselbeck was just an unbelievable display of strength. And let's not forget that Woodley notched the team's first interception of the season. Given the secondary concerns coming into the year, maybe that's not the ideal scenario for the team's first INT, but who won't take it at this point?

Despite the questionable move before the half to try a hurry-up receiver screen that ended up being intercepted on the Titans' end of the field, this was easily Ben Roethlisberger's best outing of the season. Obviously, the improved protection aided in that showing, but in general, I feel like he was more on point.

After the Titans opening drive, the run defense showed glimpses of its former self. It was personally satisfying to see Nate Washington play well, but come up just short of making huge plays in the passing game on several occasions. Nate and Kenny Britt form a nice WR tandem for the Titans, but I can't say the guy is missed much around these parts.

You could tell early on that this game was not only huge in the standings, but of personal significance to the team that they attempted this fake punt early in the second quarter with a slim lead, hoping to break the game open early. Nice bit of film study and great execution by Sepulveda.

Now that we know the Steelers won't be content to just sleepwalk through this season, there's still the concern that they're not much of a road team. Right now, they;ve won two games at Heinz Field by 20+ points each, but have looked completely lost elsewhere, with their only win in three road games being a pathetic squeaker in Indianapolis over the winless Colts. The Steelers won't have another road test for two weeks, when they have to go to Arizona. The schedule is fortuitous in many ways for the Steelers - their last two really difficult games are against the Patriots and the Ravens and both of those are at home, even if in back-to-back weeks. Of course, the trip to San Francisco a few weeks later is more and more starting to look like a real challenge, but have to wait and see on that one. As for now, I'll just be glad with what we saw yesterday.

Steelers Reanimate The Broken Down Husk Of Max Starks

2011-10-05T09:28:00.003-04:00

Busyness, rather than the understandable excuse of crushing despondency, kept me from writing about the Steelers' lifeless showing in Houston. For the sake of going through the motions, which seems apt right now - The Steelers sucked. They should lost by far more. They failed to capitalize when the Texans practically begged to lose. The O-line is laughable. Arian Foster's meastliness notwithstanding, the run defense is as porous as I've seen from this team. Roethlisberger is hurt. Silverback is hurt. Mendenhall might as well stay hurt.

And the team's solution is to bring back Max Starks, the inferior of the two ancient tackles that fans were begging the team to sign since Willie Colon got hurt. Lord knows why. Not only is he out of shape, but he's about as injury prone as Colon or Aaron Smith has been the past few years. Hope they have the cart ready at Heinz on Sunday.

Oh yeah, the Titans are also surprisingly good this season. And even though Chris Johnson's numbers have been less than spectacular so far this season (2.9 ypc) we can't have the luxury of year's past that we know it's going to stay that way on Sunday.

There are a few things I will be curious to watch for, aside from Ben maybe getting finished off if he does play. Lawrence Timmons will move to the outside to play for the injured Deebo. I like the idea of Timmons on the outside, even if he's replacing one of the two players on the defense that seem capable of forcing a turnover this season. On the other hand, that means Larry Foote, who has been atrocious so far this season (Houston was picking on him regularly) moves into the starting line-up for the week. Still have no idea why the team let Keyaron Fox go.

On the upside - Antonio Brown appears to have entrenched himself as the no. 2 receiver on this squad, and the team is better for it. For better or worse, Mike Wallace seems to be doing most of his damage early in games. Either this is because teams thing they can get away with certain coverage then learn otherwise, or it just may be that as the game goes on, the Steelers can't risk the kind of dropbacks they would need for Wallace to get open deep. No matter the reason, Brown has been the most reliable target for the Pittsburgh offense late in games. Something good to know if the protection issues ever get close to being remedied.

So far this year, we've seen three dreadful performances on the road and one passable effort in a rout of a shitty Seahawks team at home. Probably not enough of a sample size to say for certain that they're sure to play better at home this week, but one would hope with the embarrassment they suffered Sunday at the hands of the Texans, that they, oh hell I don't know, show us something, anything.

It's Okay To Admit You're Worried About The Texans

2011-09-30T09:19:00.006-04:00

Wait. I'm seriously concerned that the Steelers might lose to the Texans? "This is not my beautiful house... This is not my beautiful wife..."

It's not that I think the Steelers are uncapable or even all that unlikely to beat Houston. I've just yet to see the team put forth the kind of effort that I know that it should be on a weekly basis if it hopes to contend for another title. I know that's odd to say about a team that has won a game 24-0, but it's true. Perhaps we'll finally see different against the Texans. We may have to if the Steelers want to win.

Above all else, that means not turning the ball over. Pittsburgh has at the moment a league-worst -9 turnover differential. That might be a bit inflated from the -7 that came out of Week 1 alone, but you'd prefer they stay out of the negative over any span of time. Of course, the turnover issue can be blamed as much on protection issues, as it can on erratic play. Of course, that a fine preface for discussing how the team plans to deal with Mario Williams.

Jonathan Scott probably won't start, which would be welcome news if it weren't Trai Essex replacing him. Now, it were just Super Mario who was a threat to disrupt in the pass rush, I wouldn't worry so much, since you can just double team him with a tight end. But Texans defensive end Antonio Smith is so far having the makings of what could be a breakout season with three sacks through three weeks. Oh, and just to twist the knife a little more, let's not forget what happened the last time these teams faced off. Yes, the Steelers won handily, but Mario Williams came off the edge to crush Roethlisberger, a hit which resulted in a shoulder injury that dogged the quarterback for most of the '08 season.

There are two components to the turnover differential and the defense isn't contributing much more than the offense. Granted, the Steelers first takeaway of the season last week proved to be a mammoth factor in determining who won, but the fact that Steelers are even getting turnovers need not be a novelty. James Harrison and Polamalu are the only ones even getting close in most occasions. Someone like Timmons or maybe even Ziggy Hood is going to have to make those kind of splash plays as well.

Arian Foster appears likely to play for the first time this season, which doesn't bode incredibly well for a rush defense that has looked more vulnerable than it has in years, possibly since late in the 2007 season after Aaron Smith went down for the season. I doubt Foster will be entirely 100 percent when testing a hamstring injury that could be aggravated fairly easily, so I would expect the workload to still be predominately Ben Tate, who has been passable, if not spectacular in Foster's absence.

One positive is that despite racking up huge yardage, Houston has been fairly wretched in the red zone so far in 2011. They're 29th in red zone efficiency and were only 1-for-5 last week in the loss to New Orleans (even still, they managed to score 33 points). Obviously, you like a game not determined by whether the opposition is rolling up either threes or sevens on your team, but any edge is appreciated at the moment.

As for the dour preview, I'm still waiting for this team to dominate the way they're capable of doing. I know that's a shitty thing to say about a team with a winning record, but we all know that's padded by wins over two of the worst teams in the league the past two weeks, and a very narrow one at that last week. A loss to the Texans doesn't write the Steelers off entirely, but it will make you wonder when the team will finally get it going, or maybe whether if what we're getting is simply what we're gonna get.

Between The Bookends, A Troubled Team

2011-09-26T09:30:00.003-04:00

It's not often that a team comes away with a victory and ends up looking the worse for it, but here we are with the Steelers. Granted, I'll take the 2-1 start given how the team has played through three weeks, but unless there is marked improvement in the weeks to come, this team won't do much except prey upon the Seahawks and Curtis Painter-led Colts of the world.

The Steelers' weaknesses were almost all glaringly evident last night. Only the play of the corners who aren't Ike Taylor weren't exploited because Painter and Collins simply weren't good enough to do it. Credit to Ike, by the way. He was tested often in single coverage deep and won the battle each time.

There were some other things to be encouraged about. James Harrison continues to regain more and more of his dominating form each week. Last night, he wasn't very far off. Which is nice, because LaMarr Woodley isn't doing a heck of a lot from the other side. I've noticed over the past few seasons that Woodley's sack totals are mostly backloaded through the schedule. In 2009, he didn't register his first sack until Week 5 and finished with 13.5. Last year, 6.5 of his 10 sacks came in the last nine games. So hopefully that;s the case again rather than Woodley being complacent with the big deal he signed in the offseason.

Troy was everywhere. He had one touchdown and was a hair's breadth away from scoring, or at least causing, one or two more. That was the first turnover the defense has caused since the AFC Championship Game against the Jets in January. Troy and James seem like the only ones capable of creating turnovers on this unit this season. They were the ones close to making them against the Seahawks last week and they were the ones responsible for the strip-sack for a score last night. Others have played solidly - Ike, Timmons, Ziggy Hood, for example - but more are going to have to show themselves capable of making what Tomlin would call splash plays.

As for the line, which I don't really much want to talk about since there's no clear solution for an issue that seems to get worse each week. Doug Legursky, Marcus Gilbert and Jonathan Scott all suffered injuries in varying degrees of severity against the Colts. Even if they hadn't, the picture wouldn't be much rosier. I had said going into the game that the Colts best opportunity for victory was Freeney and Mathis abusing Scott and Gilbert. And that's exactly what happened. It nearly cost the Steelers the game. Against a better or healthier team, it probably would have. Sure, the fumble that Mathis caused was as much on Roethlisberger than anyone else, but Gilbert was getting abused all night. The Steelers had no viable strategies for run or pass blocking. I'm not sure Jonathan Scott even moved on the strip-sack for a TD that Freeney executed. Even after the ball was fumbled. Scott's injury looks to be the worst from last night. Which likely means Gilbert will be moved over to left tackle, as he was late against Indy. And the team will have to cave to the contract demands of Flozell Adams. They simply have to at this point, unless they want to get Roethlisberger killed. Granted, not every team in the league has a pass rushing tandem on par with Mathis and Freeney, but several do. One elite pass rusher is enough to wreak havoc with this unit. I'm already dreading what Mario Williams is going to do next week.

Despite the one fumble he could have prevented (the second was entirely on Scott) and the bad interception, I thought this was the best performance of the season by Ben Roethlisberger. Manny Sanders and Weslye Saunders cost him two scores with poor drops deep in Colts territory. Ben spread the ball around well. After gouging Indy early with Mike Wallace, he was able to move the ball with Antonio Brown and Manny mostly being the primary targets. The screen plays to Heath were largely ineffective. I understand the thinking behind them since teams are going to send the house a lot against this line, but Heath doesn't exactly have incredible speed, even by tight end standards. He's not going break those plays for more than five or six yards.

Oh, and it still shocks me that the team didn't try harder to replace Shaun Suisham in the offseason. Shazam had a good streak to start his stint for the Steelers when he joined the team last season, but he's been mostly a liability since. I've gotten to the point of cringing anytime they want to try any kicks beyond 40 yards.

Obviously, I don't know if the Steelers will call Flozell, but it appears that their hand is forced, as it will be to dress more than seven linemen in any given game. If they do, I'll feel better about the immediate prospects of this team, because it's still very capable of contending. A below average line is one thing, but this unit has prevented what could be a stellar offense from establishing anything close to a rhythm. And now the team is staring down its first real test since Week 1.

Steelers Will Gladly Oblige The Colts "Suck For Luck" Plan

2011-09-23T08:53:00.004-04:00

The onset of Peyton Manning neck AIDS transformed what would have been an early season test for the Steelers into the second week of a two-week respite before that team has to travel to Houston to prove that it still belongs among playoff contenders after the Week 1 meltdown in Bawlmer.

The Colts got rolled by said Texans in Week 1 and were decidedly beat at home last week by the Browns. An 0-2 start is a signpost toward mediocrity, but there's still hope for redemption. Once a team hits 0-3, it's pretty much over. The Colts know this, which is why if the Steelers beat Indy, that can at least won't have beaten a team that played as flat as the Seahawks did in Week 2.

Beyond Peyton, the Colts will be without linebacker Ernie Sims and potentially Gary Brackett and safety Melvin Bullitt as well. Brett Keisel is out for the Steelers, thus giving Ziggy Hood his first start of the year. Ziggy played exceedingly well on the other side of the D-line in relief of Aaron Smith for most of last season. Tomlin has been making a habit of subbing on the line the first two weeks, so I have little concern that Ziggy won't be used to playing from that side of the line.

As I said last week, my biggest concern going into this game will be Jonathan Scott and Marcus Gilbert going against defensive ends Robert Mathis and Dwight Freeney. While the Steelers look like the superior team in nearly all other aspects of this match-up, the tackles are so overmatched that this particular disadvantage could, if not gameplanned around properly, potentially swing the game for Indy. Gilbert got beat badly a few times against the Seahawks, not a team noted for its dominant pass rush. And Jonathan Scott is Jonathan Scott. Suffice it to say, I wouldn't be surprised if the Steelers offense has to rely heavily on two tight end sets to give help to their beleagured bookends.

If Ben Roethlisberger doesn't get strip-sacked five times from the edge rush and manages to correct his own early season accuracy issues, then I don't see this being much of a contest. Of course, Ben has been a frustrating through two weeks. His stats improved last week, but he got fortunate a few times when he judgment lapsed on occasion. A solid outing out of him would be as encouraging as any other positives the Steelers could take away Sunday night.

The Steelers have had recent success against Kerry Collins, who lost to Pittsburgh in the '09 opener and made his first appearance of the season last year in relief of Vince Young, but provided little offensive spark in the 19-11 Steelers win in Week 2 last year. Further confounding the Colts hope is the fact that Collins has been dealing with a right shoulder injury. While the Colts say it's not significant, even if that's true, it's limited practice time for their starting quarterback this week. With Collins still struggling to pick up Indy's offensive scheme, any loss of practice time will be costly going against a defense as complex as the Steelers'.

Complex though it may be, the Steeler D has yet to force any turnovers. Yeah, I know, Polamalu dropped what would have certainly been a pick-six last week. James Harrison was close to another pick. And when a quarterback is as off-target as Tarvaris Jackson was, whether a team gets turnovers or not is of little consequence. But like I said - don't expect the Colts, decimated as they are, to show up quite as listless as the Seahawks. So the signs of life that the Steelers defense showed last week have to manifest themselves once again and then some.

Not a Learning Experience, But a Pleasant One

2011-09-19T12:20:00.035-04:00

Two games with wildly divergent outcomes against opponents of wildly uneven quality. That's what we have to base our current expectations of the 2011 Steelers. I hoped to learn something about the Steelers through Sunday's performance, and I did, though not quite enough to get a firm idea of where exactly they stand. It was a heartingly display, if not a very instructive one.

If anything is certain, however, it's that the Seahawks are, if not the worst, then combing somewhere at or near the bottom of the league. That is plainly an atrociously bad football team. When the Steelers failed on the 4th and goal on their first scoring chance, I cringed for the worst. But the worst never came. Even through what was still a mostly shaky outing by the Steelers, there was never even the meekest of threats posed by Seattle. It was as though the game was being played on Madden rookie mode.

Ben Roethlisberger, injured or not, has looked about as bad as he has since the '08 season when he played the entire year through a shoulder injury. He's missing open targets and making poor reads. It was one thing last week when making desperation throws down multiple scores in the second half. Though the stat sheet reflects a solid outing, Ben probably should have been picked at least twice. Granted, Polamalu should have had a pick-six himself, but I'm less concerned about wasted opportunities in a blowout than the fact that the starting quarterback, who came into week 1 off a near flawless preseason, has suddenly regressed. I'm confident that Ben is merely going through a bad stretch. Getting to play a devastated Colts team next week should give him another chance for easy sledding, but at some point he's going to have to regain his touch. If the defense isn't quite as dominant as its been (yes, yes, yesterday was a shutout, but the Steelers left enough open receivers for a competent team to exploit for at least some points) and the offensive line is going to be dreadful even b its recent standards, the team can't afford Ben to be anything less than very good to great.

Marcus Gilbert has a long way to go. He got beat terribly on a red zone sack and nearly cost the Steelers Ben Roethlisberger for the season when he leg whipped Raheem Brock into Roethlisberger's knee when Brock blew by him on an inside rush. It's a lot to expect a rookie to be fantastic in his first career start, but Gilbert is going against much better opposition very soon (expect Mathis and Freeney to have a field day with Gilbert and Scott next week).

The defense played better, but not to the level that a shutout would suggest. The Seahawks had open looks that they simply could seldom exploit. Not that some Steelers defenders who struggled mightily in Week 1 didn't fare better at all. It was a much improved performance by Aaron Smith. James Harrison looked just a little bit better and nearly came away with an interception in coverage. And the decision to bench Bryant McFadden already looks like a sound one, though I would prefer Keenan Lewis getting a shot and keeping William Gay in the nickel packages.

Going into Indy next week will be more of a test than yesterday, from which I'm not sure we can glean much beyond that at least the Steelers are far better than the worst the NFL has to offer. That the Ravens suffered an embarrassing letdown game shows how much mental and emotional that team invested in going all out against Pittsburgh in Week 1. So it's possible to still entertain the best case scenario that the Steelers got the absolute best the Ravens had to offer - an ideal, possible perfect showing by a Baltimore team playing over their heads - while the Steelers are foundering a little at the beginning of the year.

That's a hopeful scenario, but it might also be reality. There's just no way of knowing yet. The Steelers meanwhile, will get to face a Colts team that's suffered more than a little embarrassment of its own the last two weeks. That it will be in Indy and in primetime means the Steelers will likely get all Indy can muster. If you think about, if the Colts win, the team can still entertain the possibility of regrouping and making a run to respectability sans Peyton happen. Fall to 0-3 and you might as well pack it in and commence the Suck for Luck campaign.

Nothing Rejuvenates Like Terrible Teams

2011-09-15T22:04:00.003-04:00

Nothing like rebounding from a week of disappointment and Ravens fan gloating to hear that Bill Leavy has been assigned to Sunday's Seahawks-Steelers tilt. No way that gives cause to unbearably tedious Super Bowl XL officiating discussion from the announcers. At least Phil Simms won't be calling the game again. I'm sure by the second quarter that he'd be calling for the NFL to vacate the 2005 title.

Anyway, on paper the Steelers should wipe the floor with Seattle. But paper doesn't mean much right now. The paper said the Steelers would give a game to the Ravens last week and what we got was little tangible result. So until we get results to the contrary, or maybe even further confirmation of our biggest fears, everything is speculation, either hopeful or dreadful.

I don't think the Steelers are anywhere nearly as bad as the scoreboard indicated last week. They made mistakes that were both uncharacteristic and not likely to be replicated except for when a team falls woefully behind to a worthy adversary. That said, there were still a lot of distressing shortcomings that need to rebound should the Steelers maintain any aspirations beyond middling team for this season.

I think we'll discover a lot about the supposedly diminished speed of the defense early on. If Tarvaris Jackson can do anything well, it's scramble. Not that Bryant McFadden can't be picked on, but I'd expect the Seahawks to get Jackson out of the pocket as much as possible. As for the O-line, well, a lot of the season's fortunes depends on how quickly Marcus Gilbert can develop.

If I sound like a downer, then it's probably because it's been a downer week. That'll happen when the only meaningful football we've seen out of our favorite team since last season produced such parlous returns. The Steelers will be motivated and agitated and all the stuff they should be following last week's embarrassment. But they still have to show that they're any good.

That'll Be One Start In Two Years For Willie Colon

2011-09-13T19:39:00.002-04:00

Willie Colon had a strange and unexpected ascent two years ago. In 2008, Colon was the biggest liability on a much maligned offensive line that ended up being part of a Super Bowl champion, That year, Colon could be counted on for nothing much besides drive-killing penalties and an inability to read the pass rush.

So it took many, including myself, by complete shock when Colon transformed into the Steelers' best lineman the following season. So dramatic was his turnaround that Peter King called the tackle the 48th best player in the league. Of course, that was a laughably high valuation from PK, but it at least illustrates that Colon was starting to garner some respect around the league.

Now, however, we might never find out if that 2009 season was indicative of Colon becoming a standout tackle. After missing all of 2010 was a torn ACL suffered during training camp, Willie suffered a triceps injury in the Ravens drubbing that will require season-ending surgery. So that offseason $29 million contract looks great for a guy who will have played four quarters of football in two seasons. While it's not a reaggravation of the injury he already had, how many players rebound from missing essentially two straight seasons? Not many, I'd imagine.

I'd prefer it, and I'm sure the Steelers would too, that Flozell could return. But The Hotel's asking price is supposedly too high. While an adequate stopgap (at least in run blocking) Flozell isn't anyone worthy of breaking the bank on. So instead we get rookie second-round pick Marcus Gilbert taking over as the Steelers' starting right tackle. A best-case scenario would be Gilbert playing well enough that he could be swapped for Jonathan Scott on the left side, though I'll settle for something less than a complete disaster.

The Steelers, meanwhile, brought on tackle Jamon Meredith, who, along with Scott, was a guy that offensive line coach Sean Kugler coached in Buffalo two years back. No sure whether it's bad luck or something more distressing, but Kugler has had to deal with lines decimated by injuries each of the past three seasons. Does that mean he's to be commended for his flexibility or are there conditioning problems that the team should worry about?

Showing Their Age Or Just Not Showing Much At All

2011-09-11T22:10:00.004-04:00

The Ravens put a hurting on the Steelers today in a way they last, and maybe only did, in the 2006 season. Ironically, it was their first victory over a Steelers team starting Ben Roethlisberger since that '06 season.

Depending on your knee-jerk reaction, the Ravens made all the right off-season moves, the Steelers are too old to compete, the Steelers were complacent, the Ravens got all plays they needed until Pittsburgh was too far gone. However you want to frame it, this was really, really ugly.

The Steelers defense was slow and unable to apply pressure. The secondary was clueless, Bryant McFadden in particular. But even the greater lights of the unit deserve reproach. Troy Polamalu was beaten badly for a touchdown by a tight end. James Harrison looked like a guy running on fumes. Aaron Smith might as well have been replaced by Ziggy Hood.

Ben Roethlisberger had as stellar a preseason as anyone could have had, yet he made about as many unthinkably stupid throws as he could have made today. Two were intercepted by Ed Reed and a third should have been. Those were gift-wrapped interceptions to Reed. If you're gonna give Ravens fans something to crow about with the BALL HAWK, at least make the guy work for it.

Mendenhall was all right. Can't blame the fumble on him as Ngata was right there to pop him as soon as the late handoff was stuffed into his chest. Mike Wallace ended up with more than 100 yards receiving, though I can't recall a pass attempted in the air to him longer than 15 yards.

I'm willing to chock this up in part to arrogance on the Steelers part. When a team has owned another for so long, even if the regular margin of victory hasn't been that dramatic, there isn't a sense that much needs to be done. While the Steelers have changed as little of their roster as possible during the past few years, the Ravens have tried overhaul after overhaul until something stuck. Today, they found something that did.

A lot of the turnovers were sheer sloppiness. The defense I believe can improve if Ziggy and Keenan Lewis get starting nods over Aaron Smith and Bryant McFadden. James Harrison, if spelled over the next few weeks, should hopefully return to something approaching his Pro Bowl form of the previous few seasons. Any quarterback is going to look like a potential Super Bowl champion with as little pressure as Flacco got today. The Ravens' line isn't that good. The Steelers will make adjustments and find ways to make pressure the next time around.

I mentioned in my post this week that it was a matter of time that the Ravens got the better of the Steelers. I had a sneaking suspicion that it would be this week. Obviously, I didn't envision it would be quite this bad. The Steelers, especially under Tomlin, haven't been used to early season setbacks. In fact, it was the first Week 1 loss under Tomlin. But I have a feeling the team will learn to bounce back in a hurry. It doesn't hurt that a hapless Seahawks team comes to town next week with a trip to defeated Indianapolis the week after. Obviously, the point isn't about padding the record with wins over the meek as much as matching the best the league can offer. Questions remain after today and it may be a while before we get answers, for better or worse. Nevertheless, if nothing else, the Steelers have the luxury of some time. Pray they make the most of it.

Ravens Reboot Confronts First False Start

2011-09-06T11:34:00.004-04:00

To say that the Ravens underwent a complete roster overhaul in the off-season is a bit of a stretch, but the team did take risks (some commendable, others questionable) in replacing a few long-time staples in an effort to get younger and faster. Whether it's enough to finally vaunt Baltimore past the Steelers could determine what happens with much of the rest of the roster.

Baltimore's fan base and, to a slightly lesser but still significant extent, their front office evaluate their team's season based on how well they do against the Steelers. Save the games they've played against Pittsburgh (at least those that Ben Roethlisberger plays), the Ravens have been an incredibly successful team the last few seasons. But close as they may get, they just can't conquer their biggest rivals. The margin has been achingly close each time, to the point that a few minor changes could make all the difference.

Flacco has his faults and as Steelers fans, we've seen him at his worst more often than not, but the guy throws a good deep ball.

Okay, maybe not this one.

/gratuitous
//satisfying

Nevertheless, Flacco is usually pretty good when he's going deep. To that end, Derrick Mason, a good intermediate range receiver, wasn't much help. And Anquan Boldin isn't a whole lot better as a deep threat. Bawlmer took a flyer on Donte Stallworth last season and pretty much got their money's worth. They had a quarterback who's best asset is a deep ball and their star-studded receiver corps had three possession receivers (Mason, Boldin, Houshmandzadeh) and one mediocre deep threat who didn't end up doing anything (Stallworth).

So, even though I doubt it was their plan all along, the strategy to dump Mason and trade for Lee Evans turned out to be a fairly solid one for Baltimore. It may cost them early in the year when Flacco misses his third down security blanket, but by the end of the year it may end up looking inspired. Evans isn't great - above average might be pushing it to some - but he'll at least give Baltimore a halfway credible deep threat. He looked pretty good with Flacco in the preseason, for what it's worth. Pittsburgh's corners will never be mistaken for the fastest in the league, so of all the things Baltimore did since January, that's the one that concerns me most.

Of course, the addition of Evans is tempered by the aforementioned loss of Mason, as well as Todd Heap. Sure, Baltimore's tight end hadn't been putting up the receiving numbers he had since his prime in '05-'06, but I can't see the duo of Ed Dickson (some physical talent, but lots of mental fuck-ups in the times I saw him play) and Dennis Pitta making anyone forget about him in the foreseeable future. One day, perhaps, but certainly not this year.

The Ravens secondary didn't need the youth movement as badly as the receiving corps so much as it simply needed change. For all the hype for Lardarius Webb as a no. 1 corner last season, there he was having Antonio Brown blow past him on a 3rd and 20 in a huge play in a playoff game. Enter first-round pick Jimmy Smith and fourth-year player Cary Williams (one career start) as the proffered solution. Williams seems like more of a stopgap, while Smith might one day be good/great, though he looked downright confused in preseason action. You could even say he was laughably bad against the Redskins. Unless the new Baltimore defensive coordinator has made huge inroads with a pass rush that was decidedly lackluster in 2010, the Ravens secondary could be set up for an extremely difficult and even sobering early season test.

The Bryant McKinnie signing is the obvious exception to this theme, as he's overweight, old and of little to no use to the team that made him a name. It's easy to scoff at his signing, but the same was said of the Steelers acquisition of Flozell Adams last season. Adams, though hardly perfect, still managed to have a solid season and might have been the Steelers' second or third best lineman in 2010. If McKinnie produces anywhere nearly that well for Baltimore, it will have been a tremendous gamble.

For all the searing hatred I have for the Ravens, I can laud some of the gutsy moves they made. They may not position their team well for a Week 1 showdown against their nemesis (fine by me, btw) but they are able to retool at key positions without going into a full-on rebuilding stage. And who knows? By the end of the year, or even the second meeting in Pittsburgh - things might be better suited for them.

At some point, the Ravens are going to find a way to get the better of the Steelers. That won't necessarily mean that the series will swing in their favor, but Baltimore will eventually manage to steal a win. Maybe even in a game where Charlie Batch isn't starting. Hell, even the Browns finally beat Pittsburgh two seasons back. It can happen. Pittsburgh may not have the uncertainty of new faces in new places, but the health of both its starting corners, as well as that of Maurkice Pouncey and James Harrison are big question marks.

So Baltimore is close. As Baltimore has been the last few years. The riskiness of the Ravens new approach is in its disjointedness - trying to win now with a concerned eye cast toward the future. It's a difficult proposition and even more difficult in the early going. We'll see Sunday whether they can claim immediate dividends or start hoping the long view has a pleasant vista.

Please Allow Me a Belated WOOT

2011-07-28T22:48:00.005-04:00

Don't know if you heard, but the NFL lockout is over. Yeah, I'm pretty excited, too.

Oh, and Ike Taylor re-signed with the team. So did Willie Colon. Before that, Hines Ward won Dancing With The Stars and got a DUI (or didn't, if you ask him). James Harrison said some dumb shit. Rashard Mendenhall said some dumb shit. Ben Roethlisberger pretended to regain religion and got married. Ryan Clark quit Twitter. Ryan Clark rejoined Twitter. Ryan Clark used Twitter to make salient points about the lockout. And, saddest of all, Mike Wallace rooted for the Miami Heat to win the NBA Finals.

If you're one of the untold millions who rely exclusively on this blog for your breaking news needs, you likely missed all these developments because I've been dormant on DCSN for a good six months or so. No, it wasn't because I was taking the Steelers' Super Bowl loss particularly hard, unless nightly self-induced alcohol poisoning and plotting for the destruction of Wisconsin is a more unreasonable reaction than I've allowed myself to believe.

No, it's because I've been spending a lot of my time working for a moving company to pay the bills. And you'd be surprised how pissed they get if you take a break from carrying a tall dresser down the stairs to write a blog post about Antwaan Randle El getting cut. All I ask is a little perspective. Corniness aside, I haven't been in front of my computer all that much. And when I have, I've been a little too bummed out by the whole lockout business to bother with writing about the Stillers.

But now (or at least a week ago) the lockout is over, thus wresting away any excuse I had not to write on this site. So now, heart in hand, I proclaim that I renew my commitment to using words to convey my love for Stillers footbaw and hatred for Arians bubble screens and whiny ass Ravens fans. Rejoice! It's back.

Steelers 1st Round Mock Draft Roundup

2011-04-28T10:40:00.012-04:00

Voted "Most Likely To Be In The Black n' Gold"

One of the ways the NFL Draft format shift (from multiple rounds on the first day, to a stand-alone, showcased first round tonight) affects the common fan, other than a bonus night of drinking, is to put a focus on those initial series of picks.

This “Prime Time” slot, combined with the new-fangled interwebs has resulted in a myriad of draft experts/analysts/diving-rod readers, and what’s more: They are WAY more visible than just a few years ago. Sure seems like every swinging dick in the football valley is posting a Mock Draft these days.

Now, you may be Mock Drafted to death. But, there’s no denying picks 1 through 32 are important…for every team. With the 31^st pick as Super Bowl Runners-Up (Runner-Ups?), the Steelers have the unenviable task of predicting what players will still be left on the board when their time comes. This is just south of a crap-shoot. So. WHAT DO? I figured grabbing a snapshot of all the Mock Drafts out there would at least give us the opportunity to snicker and snark at those that miss the mark…because we could do better, for sure. Anyway, it breaks down like this:

Link to Individual Picks

Remember, this is all predicated on the idea of the Steelers retaining the 31st overall pick...if we move up for Pouncey, as some have theorized (not I, however) or make any other deal, all bets are off. Oh, and there's always the ever popular "trading out of the 1st round" option, too.

Interesting Tidbit: Kevin Colbert's comments regarding this year's talent in the draft. Take it for what you will...

Well, At Least Hines Will Return

2011-02-09T12:37:00.003-05:00

I've only spoken with Hines Ward once and it was a phone interview done last spring probably about an hour after it was announced that Roger Goodell was suspending Ben Roethlisberger. He told me he was planning on retiring if the Steelers won the Super Bowl. With what was going on at the time, it seemed a very ridiculous condition on which to pin your career plans.

He backed down from that claim as the Super Bowl approached, saying he wasn't going to retire no matter the outcome. I'm not sure that's true. At the conclusion of the AFC Championship Game in Pittsburgh, he was climbing into the stands and exchanging hugs with fans. I watched the broadcast later and it didn't seem to get picked up on TV. To me, it came off as something of a send-off for a guy thinking he might have played his final home game of his career. I think he just played down his career plans so as not to serve as a potential distraction.

I could be wrong, of course. He might have just been typically exuberant after beating the Jets. Even for a guy with two rings, going to the Super Bowl is not a mundane experience. And the retirement talk might have been frustration based on the way things seemed to have been unraveling last spring.

Either way, it's moot, because as we're all painfully aware the Steelers did not win the Super Bowl. Had the Steelers completed their comeback, I think Ward would have made a compelling case for MVP. Obviously it would all depend on how the final drive shook out if it were successful. If it were, Ben probably gets the MVP unless he throws a TD to end it to Hines. Two TDs, including the game-winner might have earned Ward his second SB MVP award of his career.

And credit to him for stepping up huge in the game. His seven catches for 78 yards and a TD were better than his two outings in the AFC playoffs combined (five catches for 39 yards and one score). It was especially pivotal with Emmanuel Sanders having been lost in the first half.

Hines is already scheduled to have more offseason surgery. And no one will make the mistake that he's not on the downside of his career in terms of production. He probably only has a year or two left, tops. Obviously, he's still valuable as a third receiver and even more for his leadership with the rest of the young receivers. I'd imagine he's owed no small part in the emergence of Mike Wallace from one-dimensional deep threat to full-on star receiver this season. And Wallace will likely only continue to thrive while learning from Ward, as will Manny Sanders. By the time Hines is done, the Steelers may have quite the staple of receivers waiting to take over.

In many ways, Hines has been the signature player of the team since Bettis retired. So it will seem like a changing of an era when he finally does hang it up. Good for us that's still at least one year away.

You Can Only Overcome So Many Mistakes At The Super Bowl

2011-02-07T08:31:00.005-05:00

Keep reaching, Mendy.

The Packers played a very good game and Aaron Rodgers a great one, but Steelers fans are going to look back at Super Bowl XLV and agonize over the many opportunities squandered and what might have been. Like Super Bowl XXX, it was a game they never led, but seemed just on the cusp of taking control of, until being undone by costly turnovers. At least the ones on Sunday weren't quite as ugly.

Were it just the two first half turnovers, the Steelers very well might have completed what would have been the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history. But twice being situated on the Packers' side of the field with a chance to draw closer than 21-17 resulted in a frustrating decision to attempt a 52-yard Shaun Suisham field goal and later a huge fumble by Rashard Mendenhall.

Nice trajectory.

Despite all that, of course, the Steelers still had a shot at the very end to stage last-second heroics, having the ball with two minutes left and a timeout, though a stupid penalty by Keyaron Fox meant it would have to be a touchdown drive of 80-plus yards. It stalled out pretty quick. The last throw by Ben to Wallace was off target. Even if it's caught to maintain the drive, the Steelers probably have to burn the last timeout inside of a minute with the ball still on their side of the field. Not impossible at that point, but not the greatest likelihood of getting a touchdown, either. I'll give Antwaan Randle El credit for having probably his best game of the season, but that was a time when Emmanuel Sanders was missed.

It was just such a schizophrenic postseason for the Steelers. Garbage first half against Baltimore capped by a heroic comeback in the second. Dominating start against the Jets that almost slips away in the second half. About as miserable a start to the Super Bowl as they could have had, but one foul-up too many and a lack of a huge play by the defense in the second half prevented another championship. Obviously it would have been nice to get a great performance from start to finish, but obviously there are not many teams in the NFL capable of such outings, at least this season.

For the most part, Ike Taylor did a good job with Greg Jennings. Both of Jennings' touchdowns can on plays where Ike wasn't covering him. I realize McFadden was coming in hurt and even left the game at one point, but getting corner help is going to be a huge necessity in the coming offseason. If you think teams can spread out the Steelers and dink and dunk now, just try seeing the defense without Ike.

For all the pregame attention on Doug Legursky, his name didn't come up much during the game, which is generally a good thing for a lineman. I'd have to watch the game again for a full evaluation, but other than one mishandled snap between him and Roethlisberger, I felt like he had an all right game. Can't complain much about injuries when the Packers also lost Donald Driver and Charles Woodson during the course of the game.

It's a disappointing conclusion for what could have been another championship season. That it was there for the taking lends more regret the more one thinks about missed chances, but it's worth stressing that many people - myself included - never saw the Steelers getting even this far given the shitstorm of horrible things that happened the previous offseason. They won the division. They furthered their dominance over the shithead Ravens with a third playoff victory over Bawlmer. They denied Rex Ryan a trip to the Super Bowl for the second time in three years.

Presuming there even is a season in 2011, there remains reasons for optimism assuming the team can retain Woodley and Taylor. The two starting tackles will return. Presumably more help on the offensive line should arrive. And hey, something might happen to Bruce Arians, not that he'll be fired now, presumably. Granted, it's another year older for Ward, Farrior and Hampton, but the Steelers have positioned themselves well for the future at wideout and obviously at linebacker.

It'll take a while to get over and, as all Super Bowl losses do, will linger more than your garden-variety postseason defeat, but it's not the end of the run for this team yet. Let's just hope they get a chance to keep it going in 2011.

Make It Happen

2011-02-06T14:16:00.001-05:00

Maybe making Roger Goodell eat crow and hand over the Lombardi trophy to the Steelers, especially Roethlisberger or James Harrison, won't be the single greatest thing about a Steelers victory today, as the question suggests. But it would be way up there.

Keeping Rodgers' Championship Belts Invisible And Ironic

2011-02-04T10:36:00.007-05:00

If you've paid any attention to Steelers detractors over the past three weeks, you've probably heard how the team got lucky to avoid a Patriots team that presents difficult match-ups for the defense. Of course, that supposed luck only goes so far. To win their seventh Super Bowl title, the Steelers are going to have to best a team that can stretch the defense with an elite quarterback. And one that has a more talented roster than the Patriots.

Most likely, you've heard Steelers fans say feel less confident about this game than they did against the Ravens and Jets. That makes sense. There are a few troubling indicators in recent history. The two games this season the Steelers played against what we could reasonably describe as elite quarterbacks (Tom Brady, Drew Brees) capable of spreading the field resulted in losses. The lone game played in a dome was a loss, even if that was more on an offense that hadn't yet found its stride. Aaron Rodgers is a top-tier quarterback with superb receivers and in Dallas they will be playing on a fast track, on which they typically do well.

Throw in the fact that Maurkice Pouncey either won't play or won't be anywhere near sufficient shape to be a net positive and that's another blow to your confidence. Oh, and Aaron Smith's remarkable and inspiring comeback in time for the Super Bowl didn't quite come to pass. I'm as much as I can to get the scary parts out of the way.

I had really gotten myself worked up over Pouncey's injury during the week, even though I had said that I thought Legursky's size and strength advantage would be a slight silver lining. Reading the latest entry in Football Outsider's excellent Word of Muth column helped to assuage a lot of those fears. While pass blocking is always going to be a challenge for the Steelers, especially against top pass rushers like Clay Matthews, the Steelers line actually matches up very well against the Packers when it comes to the running game. Muth suggests that there's a good chance the Steelers will be able to run on Green Bay as well as they did in the first half against the Jets in the AFC championship. Which is imperative. The Steelers showed they're capable of winning a shootout against the Packers last year, but that's still generally the game the Packers want to play.

The last thing Green Bay wants is a game where Pittsburgh can grind the clock and keep the pass happy offense off the field. Moreover, the Packers are generally an inconsistent team. At times, their attack can be outright devastating, but they often find ways to torpedo their own momentum. The NFC championship game is a handy example. While the media is quick to give the Steelers grief for the second they played against the Jets (not undeservedly so) the Packers basically got a pass for a lackadaisical effort in the second half in Chicago. Hell, if Caleb Hanie isn't dumb enough to not see B.J. Raji jump a slant pattern, things might have turned out differently. The point being is that you force Green Bay to be limited in their opportunities to score, even if the overall point total is low, and you've improved your chances at beating them. One huge advantage the Steelers have over the Packers is a knack for winning close games. In games decided by four points or fewer, the Packers were 1-6 this season.

Mike Wallace and Troy Polamalu have each had a fairly quiet postseason so far. The extra two weeks should mean that Troy's Achilles is that much closer to 100 percent. If the man himself is to be believed, it's the best it's felt in a while. That's a pretty sign, as the Packers showed considerable ability to chew through the Steelers secondary without Polamalu last year. Of course, the unit as a whole has improved since that time. The same, of course, could be said about Green Bay's defensive backfield, which got torched in the '09 game.

Everyone talks about how the dome turf benefits the Packers offense, though the Steelers speedy trio of receivers will no doubt benefit from it as well. Sam Shields is probably the Packers fastest corner, though I wouldn't expect the team to trust him to cover Mike Wallace and leave Charles Woodson responsible only for lining up against Hines Ward or Manny Sanders. William Gay going against Jordy Nelson will be key. Gay's had an impressive bounce back season after what was a terrible 2009 campaign as a starter. I'd love to see him have a huge game, not only cause he's a funny dude and it would of course help the Steelers win, but I think the bad rap that hands over him from his one bad season is a little unfair at this point.

Heath Miller is repeatedly been raised as a conceivable Super Bowl MVP if the Steelers win, as the Packers generally struggle in coverage against good pass receiving tight ends. To be honest, I don't really care much who the award goes to so long as the Steelers win, obviously. My dark horse, however, would be LaMarr Woodley. Rookie Bryan Bulaga, as Muth notes, is likely to struggle against Woodley's speed rush unless he gets help or wildly changes his technique. Of course, you focus more on shutting down Woodley and there comes James Harrison with a strip-sack. Rodgers is obviously very nimble in scrambling, so whatever pressure the Steelers do generate will have to succeed in bringing him down. He's probably even better than Mark Sanchez is this department and that's the one thing that Sanchez even does well.

The Packers have gotten more out of James Starks than the other rushers they've tried to use since Ryan Grant went down, but I doubt he'll be much of a factor unless the Steelers really have to sell out to defend the pass. That's a possibility of course, but aside from the stray draw play to keep the defense honest, I can't see the Packers trying to run much unless they're able to get a lead in the second half.

I don't know if it's just my mind succumbing to the Media Week mantra that this is a particularly even contest, but the teams' set of strengths and weaknesses play off each other in an intriguingly large number of ways. Things might not be "even" because no game is ever really that. It's a scenario where the A game of both teams is capable of beating anyone in the league and it's just a matter of who gets closest to that A game. Especially when both defenses come with similar approaches and backgrounds, even if their personnel have several shifting variables. I can see any number of outcomes favoring both sides. If one side wins in a blowout, it would probably be Green Bay. I don't really see that happening, but it's always a possibility with a few bad bounces. Should the game finish close, which I imagine it will, the Steelers are winning a majority of those scenarios.

A victory would mean tons of things in terms of legacy, history and all sorts of stuff you don't need me to explicate and I don't want to discuss unless a win actually comes. I will say, the run-up to the game meant barely stomaching the inevitable myriad of either poorly written or poorly conceived pieces trying to provocatively frame, pro or con, the Big Meaning of Ben Roethlisberger Being In The Super Bowl Post-Allegations. I know what it is to be a writer and to be forced to come up with an angle when you don't necessarily have one, but these were almost uniformly terrible. I can't recall one truly illuminating piece I read on the subject over the past two weeks. Even more frustrating was the tendency of the negative pieces to attempt a little feat of mental gymnastics, wherein they would handily ignore the vast crush of articles employing the same critical tone while depicting one halfway complimentary thing said about Roethlisberger as representative of some fawning consensus that doesn't actually exist.

That said, I have enjoyed the attention heaped on Brett Keisel. Or more specifically, Brett Keisel's beard. It's nice that a guy who's been a consistent and solid contributor for the entirety of his career can let his personality come out after years of relative obscurity.

Let's hope that's not all we have to celebrate about this trip.

James Harrison: Still Terrifying

2011-02-01T13:51:00.001-05:00

Don't necessarily blame Kara Henderson for asking the question, but I don't envy her for getting that response.

Team Rallying Around Flozell, Of All People

2011-01-31T14:03:00.008-05:00

The Steelers have arrived in Dallas and so the real hype madness can ensue. There were rumbles over the past week that the team wanted to frame the game as an effort to win one for Flozell Adams, who spent his entire career prior to this season in Dallas but never made it to the Super Bowl before this season.

I guess they're taking it more to heart than they had even been leading on. Upon arriving on Monday in Dallas, the offensive line, including an injured Maurkice Pouncey, was seen exiting the team plane wearing Flozell's Michigan State college jersey in a nod similar to what the team did with Jerome Bettis' Notre Dame jersey when arriving in Detroit for Super Bowl XL. Nothing wrong with seeing camaraderie from the O-line, especially with Pouncey almost certainly out.

Meanwhile, Hines was sporting his western get-up with giant S belt ("stands for SUPELL!"), which will undoubtedly get the majority of the attention for the day.

Oh yeah. Let's not forget amid the countless warmed-over, sharted-out Steelers hate pieces and forced sound bytes that it's really all about this.

Hopes For Pouncey Just Got Fainter

2011-01-28T10:23:00.006-05:00

In addition to a high ankle sprain, center Maurkice Pouncey also has a broken bone in his left ankle, according to Gerry Dulac and Ed Bouchette. None of us want to fully abandon hope that he'll be in the line-up for the Super Bowl, but it's looking highly unlikely at this point. Then again, Pouncey was apparently in a boot instead of a hard cast on Friday, so there's something to keep the hopes stoked for at least a few more days.

So, an already battered offensive line will be without its most talented member. Some fans have praised Doug Legursky for playing well in Pouncey's stead against the Jets. Botched snaps aside, I don't know if that's entirely accurate, but he wasn't exactly bad, either. I think getting the full two weeks working at center with the first-team offense should help significantly with the snap problem.

When Pouncey has struggled this year, it's come against massive nose tackles like Kyle Williams, Vince Wilfork and Haloti Ngata. If there's one advantage Legursky has over Pouncey in this point in his career, it's size. Granted, it's not a significant upgrade there, either, but it's something. Besides, do you really want a center who has struggles against huge linemen trying to block B.J. Raji at considerably less than 100 percent? Not really.

In further distressing news, the comeback story of Aaron Smith hasn't yet followed its preordained heart-warming script just yet. He continues to remain limited in practice and there are those who say he's an extreme longshot to play in the Super Bowl as well. Again, it would be very nice for line depth, but Ziggy Hood has played well enough that it's not devastating by any means not to get Smith back for the game. Again, nothing is completely definite until the inactive lists are set, so we shall see.

The Steelers beat the Packers last season without either Pouncey and Smith. Obviously, there are additional factors at play, but if any team is equipped to play extremely shorthanded on the O-line and thrive, it's the Steelers.

Attack of the '94 Defense

2011-01-27T11:13:00.004-05:00

"At least I only failed once as a head coach."

The Steelers can't seem to avoid their recent past in the Super Bowl. Two years ago, the team had to square off against former assistants Ken Whisenhunt and Russ Grimm. In Super Bowl XLV, the past is present comes knocking once again in the form of Dom Capers, Kevin Greene and Darren Perry.

Yeah, all three were on staff as Green Bay defensive coaches when the teams played last season in Pittsburgh, but as a storyline, it beats repeating that head coach Mike McCarthy grew up a Steelers fan. Together, they've helped make the Packers defense only slightly less impressive than that of the Steelers. Good on them.

Kevin Greene has imparted the pass rushing significance of long flaxen tresses to Clay Matthews. Conversely, Matthews offered Greene a handy lesson in how to avoid getting caught using steroids.

Perry is the only member of the three to have won a ring as a player or coach. Of course, he got his as an assistant coach with the Steelers in 2005.

It Begins

2011-01-26T10:18:00.002-05:00

E-mail from a reader this morning:

My friend is in Dallas for non-football related business and toured the Cowboys Stadium (or whatever the name is) yesterday. He sent me this pic. You have my permission to post on KSK or DCSN, if you want to stick a knife into Ray Ray's back (and his fans) some more.

Very nice. All that remains now is getting the hypocycloids on this year's Super Bowl ring. Oh man, it needed to be kickoff five minutes ago.

Somehow, It All Worked Out

2011-01-25T14:04:00.006-05:00

In the two days since the Steelers beat the Jets to advance to the franchise's eighth Super Bowl, I've heard mostly exclamations of incredulity from fellow Steelers fans that this seemed like something between a fever dream and a pleasant lie from viewed from the perspective of the preseason. Sure, if one takes that vantage point, the fact that the Steelers are now advancing to Super Bowl XLV seems almost absurd.

I'd like to think there have been enough recalibrations of expectations over the past four months that a broader perspective is needed than one that merely examines the very beginning and now, just short of the very end.

Think back to Week 3 when the Steelers had started 3-0 without Ben Roethlisberger, having defeated teams that had all suffered their only loss of the season to date to Pittsburgh. Perhaps this doesn't quite seem so improbable.

A humbling defeat to the Patriots at home on Sunday night likely set the dial back to maybe being thankful for just getting back to the postseason.

Another late win in Baltimore that essentially secured the division and a first-round bye was enough to make people think that, hey, give the Steelers another shot at the Patriots and they could just mess around and do it.

Of course, we know since then that no such Patriots rematch occurred and that the Jets wanted to justify all the preseason Super Bowl hype that had enjoyed months earlier. In that sense, it was an AFC Championship Game featured a team that summer dictated would thrive being hosted by one that would supposedly be fortunate to keep its head above water.

Maybe in a just world, or maybe a more poetically just one, the Steelers would have been made to pay dearly for their decision to trade Santonio. 'Tone gave it his best and provided the early second half spark that started the nerves rattling. Lucky for us, that was about it out of him.

I'll never be an ardent Bruce Arians supporter, but I'll give him this much: he's figured out how to run on the Jets. Granted, several of the nice gains by Rashard Mendenhall were the result of a mixture of poor tackling and pure effort of the runner's part, but oftentimes the blocking and running schemes were superb. The Steelers ran the ball nearly at will in the first half, with their best offensive lineman only playing the opening drive. This against the league second-best run defense. That's pretty damn impressive.

I'll cop to being overconfident at this point. That a few Jets fans were leaving in the surrounding rows didn't help to assuage that hubris. That lasted for all of about two minutes until Santonio broke free deep and pulled the Jets to within two scores. It probably took me a full hour to let panic return to elation even after the Steelers ran out the clock.

From the Santonio score on, it was pretty much all defense until the final three minutes. Scanning the reactions to this game, Ben Roethlisberger is either being appallingly fluffed by the media or wrongly dumped on. Obviously, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Sunday certainly wasn't his best game by any stretch, but he did make several key plays to either extend scoring drives, then to run out the clock at the very end. Like Mark Sanchez, he got away with two or three throws that could or should have been interceptions. His game turned out to be not very dissimilar to the one Aaron Rodgers had against Chicago: a first interception that wasn't really on him followed by an ugly one that took away a score that might have put the game out of reach earlier in the second half. Had Roethlisberger deep throw that was intercepted by Brodney Pool been thrown further toward the sideline, it would've likely been a touchdown. As it was, it squandered what would have at least been probably a key field goal drive. Mike Wallace also had Darrelle Revis beat about two steps on the one long bomb they tried, but Ben didn't put it out there far enough. Let's hope it's his one less than inspiring performance of the postseason.

You don't need to tell you that Rashard Mendenhall was easily the offensive star of this game. It was truly a star-making performance out of Mendy. While I don't think Mendy is a top five back in the league, I allow rarely see him get much recognition in the national media. Perhaps that will change now.

The defense did a better job getting to Sanchez than in Week 15. LaMarr Woodley might not have his multiple sack streak going, but he's still had at least one sack in every postseason game he's appeared in. Woodley had one of the sacks on Sanchez and was close a few other times, including one where he was held pretty badly a few plays before the Jets scored. Harrison was good in run coverage but Ferguson did a sound job of neutralizing him in the pass rush. Woodley will be going against a rookie in the Super Bowl, so it's probably a good chance he'll be getting in on Aaron Rodgers. If Silverback gets going as well, the Steelers chances for getting no. 7 will be considerably better.

So if you got tired of people parsing what to make of Week 15's impact on the AFC Championship Game, I won't have much to console you about how much last year's memorable win (also in Week 15) against the Packers will be pored over excruciatingly for the next two weeks. A few observations/things worth noting:

- Hines and Heath accounted for nearly half of Ben's 500 passing yards

- Greg Jennings had a pretty huge game (5 catches for 113 yards and a score)

- Two sacks for Clay Matthews. Steelers only had one total.

- No Troy Polamalu and Aaron Smith playing

- With nearly 900 total passing yards, you don't expect a ton of rushing. Accordingly, neither team had more than 65 yards total on the ground.

The health of Maurkice Pouncey is going to be a huge concern, no matter his level of confidence following Sunday's game. Even if he plays, it likely won't be at 100 percent. That's good in that there's a much less chance of the bobbled snaps we saw against the Jets, but it does mean bad things going against B.J. Raji. With two additional weeks, however, Bryant McFadden and Troy Polamalu will be that much closer to full strength. And Aaron Smith will likely get to pull a Rod Woodson and validate the Steelers' decision not to put him on IR back in October. Should he do so, one of the more interesting wrinkles will be how he is worked in with Ziggy Hood, given that the second-year player has more than come into his own as the season has worn on. Not the worst problem to have, I'd say.

Anybody, Especially Braying Jerseyites, Can Be Beat

2011-01-21T09:48:00.010-05:00

There was once a time when the AFC championship game for Steelers fans would be a nerve-wracking affair on its face. Going into '05, the team had lost in three consecutive appearances since reaching Super Bowl XXX and seemed incapable of making the leap into another Super Bowl, no matter how good the season that proceeded it.

Five years on, we know that to no longer be the case. The Steelers have already won two conference championship games in that span and can add a third on Sunday. To do so, they'll have to deny a Jets team that has appeared in and lost all three conference championship games the team has appeared in since winning Super Bowl III. Of course, one of those was last season, so the Jets aren't much lacking compared to the Steelers in experience with this game.

All things being even, the Jets don't have enough offense to beat the Steelers. I doubt it will be a mistake free game on both sides, but the Jets will need either another kick return, a plethora of turnovers or a defensive score to pull another win at Heinz Field. Mark Sanchez can make a couple good throws, but for every good one he makes, there are three or four routine ones he misses badly. The Jets had a respectable rushing performance in the Week 15 meeting, but I have a feeling with even with Troy appearing slightly less than 100 percent, his presence can bolster an already incredibly strong rush D. Just remember that aside from Ray Rice's TD run last week, he barely registered another respectable carry the rest of the way.

Let's put it this way - the Jets managed not to turn the ball over, kind of had the run game going and still managed only 13 points on offense in Week 15 in Pittsburgh. Any slip-up by them could prove to be fatal.

Polamalu lined up more deep in coverage last week against Baltimore, though LeBeau did send him in blitzes late in the game, especially on the final drive. Remember, of course, that Troy was supposedly hobbled the week before the 2008 AFC title game and that game turned out all right for him. Some are freaking out over him missing Thursday's practice along with Wednesday, though that follows his schedule for nearly the last two months.

Both teams are going to want to ramp up the pass rush over what materialized in Week 15. For the Jets, the pass rush has been something of a weakness on their defense, though they were able to get a lot of pressure from Shaun Ellis on Tom Brady last week. The Steelers only sacked Mark Sanchez once in the December meeting, though narrowly missed him a few more times. The Jets will make it a priority to protect him and will likely use max protect on most long pass plays. Still, the Steelers will get their opportunities to get at him. Sanchez has elusiveness to escape sacks, so it's just a matter of being able to get him down when the chance is there. If James Harrison has anything like the performance he has last week, that won't be an issue. The Steelers game was the only game after Week 6 in the regular season where Sanchez didn't throw an interception. Get him rattled and the mistakes will come.

Drew Coleman had a huge game for the Jets in the last meeting, which shows that it's important for the offensive line to recognize when extra pressure is coming, because New York's front seven can't make much on its own. As I said then, except for a bad shotgun draw from the goal line that was broken up by Jason Taylor (hampered as well this week) Bruce Arians had a fairly good day with playcalling against the Jets. I don't doubt that Rex Ryan will make adjustments going into this game, but a team that can't get tons of pressure without sending a ton of rushers is going to have the Steelers move the ball on them. Incidentally, the last strong statistical performance by Mendenhall against the Jets (he may not have had a ton of yards, but he made several great runs last week against the Ravens, including a grueling effort to secure the winning touchdown). Get Mendy around 100 yards rushing again, and I don't see how the Steelers would lose without a host of huge mistakes.

Darrelle Revis is in better condition now than he was in early December, but has still been limited in practice with his hamstring injury. He won't shadow Mike Wallace all game, but Wallace will likely get a lot of his attention. Probably doesn't mean great things for deep bombs, but if Revis has a weakness, it's on inside and slant routes. As we saw in the Carolina game, Wallace can be equally deadly on those. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Steelers test that. On the other side, let's just hope Dwight Lowery and Antonio Cromartie aren't allowed to get away with holding this time.

A month ago, the Steelers were able to walk away knowing they nearly pulled out a last second win on an admirable effort playing shorthanded against a likely playoff team. No such consolation will be enough this time. The Steelers fought through an incredibly array of setbacks to secure another AFC title game in homefield. The team has been playing some of its most inspired football since it last faltered. The Steelers are too good to fall again to a run-first team that matches up poorly against them. Don't allow any cheap scores and Pittsburgh will be playing for the right to win its seventh title in a few weeks.

Having Trouble Hating The Jets? You Shouldn't

2011-01-20T20:50:00.004-05:00

Even in caricature, Holmes is never without his pipe.

It wasn't quite a letdown that the Steelers didn't end up getting the Patriots in the AFC title game. It was more like a narrative shift. All season it seemed fated that, if the Steelers were going to make it to another Super Bowl, they'd be forced to knock off their non-divisional nemesis in New England.

Then Sunday happened. Now instead of a championship game loaded with the history of two playoff losses, the Steelers are trying to avenge what was ultimately a pretty meaningless late regular season loss.

That said, it's fitting in many ways that the Steelers would have to face Santonio Holmes, the specter of a nightmare Pittsburgh offseason, with a Super Bowl berth on the line. Yeah, the Steelers dealt Holmes for less than he was worth, but it's not as though they did terribly by him. The team could have dealt him to practically any team, even the Bills, yet they allowed him to go to the Jets, another contending team. Perhaps this was stupid on their end. Actually, it was. But Holmes doesn't need to play the victim the way he did before the regular season contest and again this week. 'Tone wasn't much of a factor in Week 15 with six catches for 40 yards, but as know, he's the Jets' greatest threat of producing a huge play outside of Brad Smith, who appears to be ready to play, after all.

Of course, the animosity doesn't begin and end with 'Tone. Braylon was on the losing end to the Steelers long enough to make himself an even bigger asshole now that he's with a contender. Jets fans are maybe only a step down from Philadelphia on the fan mouthbreathing toxicity scale. It was Jets fans, absent of any semblance of self-awareness, who chanted "No means no!" during the Steelers picks at last year's draft. Somehow they didn't pull the same stunt when their team drafted fellow alleged rapist Mark Sanchez in the first round the year before.

If you thought the Jets' gloating outlandish last week, just imagine if the team completed its run through the AFC playoffs. Granted, going through the Colts, Patriots and Steelers would be an impressive run through the top three seeds (and the standard bearers of the conference championship the past seven seasons), that's almost besides the point once one imagines how the New York media would instantly mythologize the feat and proceed to never shut up about it for the next decade and a half. Even if they fell apart in the Super Bowl, we'd never hear the end of it. Better to establish the reputation that, for the Jets, the conference championships are as good as it gets.

This Time, It Was The Other Safety

2011-01-18T19:50:00.009-05:00

That headline might make it seem like Ed Reed finally came through with a huge play to key a Ravens victory over the Steelers, but once again we know that not to be the case. Of course, Troy was not one for heroics in this, the third Steelers playoff victory over the Ravens. Instead, it was Ryan Clark who made the two biggest splash plays on defense to get the Steelers back into the game after a first half riddled with huge mistakes.

As for the first fumble that led to a Ravens touchdown, I'm sure Ramon Foster has already gotten quite the talking-to about dropping on stray footballs, no matter how little it thinks it was a fumble. Sometimes you never know, and he certainly has to feel foolish now for having stared at the ball before it was run into the end one by Cory Redding.

The protection on the O-line during the Steelers first scoring drive was so good that I knew that it couldn't last. Lo and behold, it did not, as the Ravens proceeded to pound Roethlisberger for most of the next quarter and a half. That said, the unit played admirably when both Flozell Adams and Jonathan Scott left the game for varying amounts of time in the second half. To put a finer point on it, the Steelers offense put up 31 on the Ravens' defense was two third-string tackles playing a significant amount of time. That's quite the indictment of now-departed defensive coordinator Greg Mattison.

Not sure what it is about third quarters in the divisional round for the Steelers, but look at what happened in 2008 against the Chargers and on Saturday against the Ravens. Out of a possible 30 minutes in those two third quarters, the Steelers held the ball for 25:42 while forcing five turnovers and scoring 21 points, while being on the doorstep of 10 more.

Naturally, there's bellyaching over the officiating. Shannon Sharpe was bemoaning it in the postgame. True enough, it was pretty bad. And even though I've seen more than a few Ratbird fans whining that they got somehow "screwed" again, most of them for once realize that they were enough bad calls and bad non-calls both ways for it to essentially be a wash. As for the holding call on the Webb return, yeah, it was a hold. Smith is hanging onto Allen's jersey and his shoulder pad as Allen is trying to shift left to make a tackle. Allen exaggerates it, but that doesn't take away from the fact that he was actually held.

Of course, that didn't stop our good buddy from letting this Tweet slip when the Jets upset the Patriots.

Steelers back into another Super Bowl. Unreal.less than a minute ago via webB'More Birds' Nest
BMoreBirdsNest

More predictable sniveling from Nestminder. Don't even bother trying to figure out how a team "backs into" a Super Bowl. You either beat the teams put in front of you or you don't. Of course, this is just a terribly worded way of saying the Steelers are lucky not to play the Patriots, as they did not in the playoffs in '05 and '08. Well, '05 is easy enough to counter - the Steelers beat the top three seeds in the conference that season (see, the Pats weren't even that good that year) all on the road. As for 2008, if the Ravens hadn't purposely injured Chris Johnson in the division round, the Steelers would have had to go to Tennessee instead of beating Baltimore in the postseason. As for this season - weren't Baltimore and New York the consensus favorites to win the AFC this year?

Since we're on the subject of Nest - let's revisit what is perhaps his whinest post ever, his reaction to the Steelers winning Super Bowl XLIII. Here's his reasoning for then saying that Steelers fans are scared and jealous of the Ravens:

Fear because the 2% of Steeler fans who know even a lick about football see that Flacco is “Ben” 2.0. All the size, with a better arm, and without the holding the ball for 8 seconds too long and throwing silly interceptions like clockwork.

Woof. Guess he called that one. Flacco got two costly drops, but he also didn't do enough to win and failed to nurse a commanding halftime lead. Sure, Ben wasn't perfect, but, as always, he made the critical play when it mattered most and Flacco did not. No better proof than the final 2:07. Facing a 3rd and 19, Roethlisberger hits Antonio Brown, who torches Lardarius Webb, in stride, on the biggest play of the game.

Because the Chris Kemoeatu got a personal foul penalty on the ensuing touchdown and the Steelers squibbed the kickoff, the Ravens took over past midfield with a minute and a half remaining. More than enough time, given Flacco's "miracle" drive in Week 4 took less time. Two plays later, Flacco had Derrick Mason in single coverage with William Gay. What does he do?

Yep, he woefully underthrows Mason to the point that Mason is considerably lucky that he is able to prevent Gay from intercepting the pass.

Not that it was a matter needing much settling, but Flacco is at least one tier below Roethlisberger in the hierarchy of quarterbacks.

But enough about the Ravens, who once again, as Hines said postgame, have been knocked out of the tournament by the Steelers. While many of us are thankful to get another home playoff game, it's a little bittersweet, as I had mentally got myself whipped into wanting the Steelers to get another shot at New England, no matter what the odds or recent history had to say about it.

The Jets are certainly no cakewalk. Some have tried to denigrate their regular season victory over the Steelers by saying Troy Polamalu and Heath Miller didn't play, but the Jets had some injury issues of their own. Darrelle Revis wasn't 100 percent, leaving the outmatched Antonio Cromartie responsible for covering Mike Wallace. That Cromartie didn't get burned in that game has more to do with him getting away with a lot more contact downfield than he should have.

If we want to go simply on what happened in Week 15, we can feel pretty confident that the Steelers can beat the Jets, especially with Brad Smith likely to be out Sunday, thus lessening the chance of another kick return for a touchdown (which ultimately proved to be the difference). Then again, if Rex Ryan was able to put together a magisterial defensive plan capable of slowing the Patriots' offense, it's certainly within his abilities to do the same against the Steelers. Not that he will absolutely come through in this regard, but I wouldn't imagine that the Pittsburgh offense will have quite as easy a time moving the ball that they did in the last meeting, in which they might have only put up 17 on the scoreboard, but did compile nearly 400 yards of offense.

The Jets put up 13 points of offense with Troy Polamalu sidelined. Mark Sanchez made a couple throws against the Patriots, but missed more than a few routine ones that even a competent passer would have made. The Jets had a reasonably good running game going in Week 15, posting 106 total yards on the ground, which is about as good as it's going to get against the Steelers. Even replicating that feat will be difficult. Save for his touchdown run, Ray Rice was held to almost nothing. Another showing like that out of the Pittsburgh run defense and there won't be any ridiculous Jets arm-wing celebrations in these playoffs.

And, yeah, LaMarr Woodley only had one sack against Baltimore. So there goes that streak. Guess we'll just have to settle for the three that Silverback had.

It's In Dallas This Year, And Ray Lewis Won't Be There

2011-01-16T13:37:00.005-05:00

I'll have a more comprehensive reaction once my head stops spinning. For now, I'll just say that was one of the more thrilling Steelers victories I've ever seen. Obviously, nothing less than thorough domination of the second half was needed after the various mistakes made in the first half. I don't know if Tomlin's halftime speech is posted or transcribed online, but I'd sure as shit like to hear it.

The tide of recent history against Baltimore only flows stronger now. The playoff win in the 2008 AFC champsionship game came in Flacco's rookie season. There are no such excuses now. At this point in Roethlisberger's career, he had won a Super Bowl. The Ravens stocked their roster for a Super Bowl run this season. Derrick Mason said it was a title or bust. Everyone kept reminding us how Ray Lewis said "it's in Dallas this year" the first time he called Anquan Boldin after the Ravens traded for him. I'd love to hear the first thing he said to him after Boldin had a go-ahead TD clang off his chest.

In all likelihood, the Steelers are headed to Foxborough next week. The Pats have the Steelers number much like the Steelers do with the Ravens. The Ravens were in position to reverse that yesterday, but ultimately folded. Blowing leads in the second half was Baltimore's M.O. this season. Give the Steelers a 21-7 halftime lead next week, and I'd like their chances. Either way, it's great for the team to extend its dominance over Bawlmer and get another shot at Brady.

Surviving Armageddon Once Again

2011-01-14T09:45:00.004-05:00

As playoff games go, you can't get matchups more emotionally fraught for Steelers fans than the Ravens and, potentially, the Patriots. Dealing another fatal blow to the Ravens would not only be joyous because it would advance the Steelers to their eighth conference championship game in the last 17 seasons, but the win would be a triumph in itself to be cherished for years to come. A win over the Ravens in the postseason is one of those things that finds its way onto best win lists at the end of the decade, regardless of what happens in the following weeks.

While Roethlisberger has won six in a row against Baltimore, only the first in that streak could be considered an easy win. You can be certainly be confident that the Steelers were come away with another devastating win over Baltimore, but it'll have to be hard earned as always.

The Ravens got a decisive victory last week in Kansas City, but the Chiefs had one of the worse approaches to playing the Baltimore offense I've seen this season. Todd Haley committed all his attention to taking away the Ravens' deep passing game while leaving Ray Rice uncovered out of the backfield, while committing little attention to Todd Heap as well. Not that Joe Flacco can't hit a deep ball, but c'mon. Unibrow is more than content to be the checkdown king and dump the ball off to the Ravens' best offensive player. All things considered, you'd always want Flacco to try to beat you deep.

Heap had himself quite the game against the Chiefs, and Baltimore certainly missed him in the last meeting, as the Steelers missed Heath Miller in the second half after Jameel McClain got away with an incredibly dirty helmet hit to knock Miller out of the game. Heap makes Baltimore's offense more difficult to defend, but he was there for the first meeting in Pittsburgh and managed only three catches for 35 yards. Not exactly game changer-type stuff. In general, both teams are about as healthy as they can reasonably get right now. The Ratbirds get Le'Ron McClain back. Roethlisberger took a little while to get going in the December game in Baltimore trying to adjust to his injured foot and, of course, trying to focus after the Ravens were basically allowed to break his nose without consequence.

Getting Aaron Smith in any capacity for this game would have been tremendous, but it doesn't look like it's going to shake out that way. Not that he could have started at this point, but getting him in the mix gives better depth once Ziggy Hood gets off the field.

The offensive line played well toward the end of the season, but I'm not going to entertain any delusions that Terrell Suggs won't make his presence known, in ways besides generally being a braying jackass. The Ravens know the Steelers try to run right as often as possible, knowing there's no much stock in placed in Jonathan Scott's run blocking, so expect more unbalanced defensive fronts out of them that place Ngata closer to the right side. Were Arians ever to consider running a screen, you could probably easily exploit the lack of attention played to the left side.

Because I feel like being discursive, a few assorted notes:

- LaMarr Woodley has two sacks in each of the four playoff games he's appeared in in his NFL career. Woodley had none in the two games against Baltimore in the regular season, but did generate a ton of pressure in the second game in Baltimore. Getting two on Saturday would undoubtedly be huge.

- Manny Sanders has become more and more a part of the offense as the season has gone on, but Hines came through with a big production day every so often. He finished with only 755 receiving yards on the season, but still posted four 100-yard receiving games. So it's feast of fame this year with Hines. Against the Ravens, though, it was the former - only three catches for 27 yards. Whatever gets the job done of offense is fine with me, but nothing gets Rattard fans rankled like Hines smiling, so let's hope he gets a little more work in tomorrow.

- Mike Wallace, meanwhile, was absolutely on fire toward the end of the season, posting three-straight 100-yard performances. He hasn't had fewer than 76 yards receiving in a game since the start of December. It really speaks to how the guy has arrived as a complete receiver. Teams gameplan to take him away and the Steelers find a way to keep him involved. The Ravens can't simply sit back and hope to take away the huge bomb. Wallace can kill them in other ways.

The showdown of superstar safeties has favored Polamalu head-to-head as much as it has the Steelers themselves.

I respect Ed Reed as player and it sucks what he's had to go through with his brother, but Reed has been invisible as far as impact plays against the Steelers. The last turnover he forced against the Steelers was during garbage time in a blowout loss in 2007. Since then, Polamalu has put together quite the string of highlights when he's been available against the Ravens. If there's another one on Saturday, there's more than a good chance it means the Steelers are moving on yet again.

P-Drizzle Needs Better Hate

2011-01-13T09:06:00.004-05:00

Terrell Suggs, as is his wont, as been flapping his constantly exposed gums all week about Saturday's upcoming playoff game, terming it both "Armageddon" and what amounts to the de facto AFC championship game. As much as I dislike the Patriots, I can't even begin to get at how stupid the latter statement is. He does realize both teams lost to New England this season, and probably would again in a rematch? Then again, when does the truth or a history of ineptitude get in the way of Ravens players talking shit?

What offends me most about this latest example of T-shirt-as-trash-talk from Suggs (the first came in the preseason the year after the Ravens were on the business end of a three-game sweep) is that he's using the most easily obtained and ubiquitous Steeler hate shirt among Ratbird fans. Every single street vendor outside that purple-seated, taxpayer-funded pile of shit in the Inner Harbor hawks these things. If you've ever attended a Steelers-Ravens game in Bawlmer, you've seen tens of thousands of angry mouthbreathers wearing one of these. So what's one more? The effect has kind of waned by this point. At least the last shirt was halfway novel. This is just lazy and forced. At least carrying a bottle of bleach might have been funny.

Even though he couldn't complete the sack that might have won his team the game in December, Suggs, to his credit, had a hell of a game in the loss in Baltimore, completely dominating Jonathan Scott in the process. I hardly expect Scott to shut down Suggs on Saturday, but any improvement would be a huge break for the Steelers. And while I'm giving Suggs credit for possibly the first time ever, I will say though he never shuts up, at least he doesn't completely vanish after a Ravens loss the way Ray Lewis does. Ray-Ray has built a reputation among the Baltimore media for never being around and never responding when the Ravens lose. But when they win, there he is beating his chest and being the gloryhog he usually is. Just what you want to see out of the supposed veteran leader of your team.

Ravens: Still Dicks

2011-01-11T11:35:00.005-05:00

John Harbaugh on Monday boasted that he was happy that defensive tackle Haloti Ngata broke Ben Roethlisberger's nose on an uncalled cheap shot in the Ravens loss in Baltimore in December. Shock of shocks considering how much Ray Lewis bragged when Rashard Mendenhall got hurt in 2008.

Harbaugh at least qualified his statement by saying he was impressed that Roethlisberger played through the pain. That's nice and all, but it still doesn't take away from the fact that Harbaugh is praising an injury.

I get that the underlying message is that Harbaugh is pleased that his team was able to rough up the opposing quarterback, something any coach wants, but you don't cheer for injuries, even if the player is able to compete through them. And wasn't Harbaugh getting on his high horse just a few months back about how his players hit "the right way." That's far worse than the James Harrison comment earlier in the season that he tries to hurt people, but not injure them. Of course, the media leapt all over Harrison's statement since he was the new villain in the head shots freakout. Harbaugh's careless words will probably be mostly ignored.

When Willis McGahee got knocked out by Ryan Clark in the 2008 AFC Championship, did Clark dance around and brag to the media about the hit? Nope. Has Hines ever crowed publicly about doing the same to Ed Reed? Not so much. But the always posturing Ravens will never stop pathetically trying to prove to everyone how tough they are. Too bad it always seems to come in losing efforts.

And Again It Comes To This

2011-01-09T16:21:00.003-05:00

Everyone on three: HURRRRRRRRRRR

For the third time in a decade, the Ratbirds will visit Heinz Field in the playoffs. The Ravens lost the first two postseason meetings. The first ended Baltimore's only reign as champions. The second denied them a trip to the Super Bowl. A third defeat might signal an ignominious end to the careers of possibly Derrick Mason and Ed Reed, if not others.

Of course, the Ravens won their game in Pittsburgh in the regular season, albeit with the significant caveat that the Steelers were without the quarterback who has not lost to the Ravens since 2006. But of course, these things always have a way of ending close. After weeks of mostly uninspired play, the Ravens looked good in Kansas City and didn't appear to sustain any injuries that might constrain them the following week.

It'll be a nerve-racking week in advance of next Saturday afternoon, but improving to 3-0 over the Ravens in the playoffs would be a glorious triumph. It might be the highest tension of the opponents the Steelers could have gotten out of the first round, but I think we all knew it was coming. Then again, it also has the highest ceiling of satisfaction with a win. And as we've seen, the Steelers have found ways to do just that against Bawlmer.

Playoff Jagoff Pickoff: Wild Card Edition

2011-01-06T19:49:00.043-05:00

Click grid for pop out. Or don't.

I took a swipe at Mike Florio the other day, tweeting "I'd sooner believe my cat with a Ouija Board as a credible source of information." It was a moment of inspiration. What could make for a better playoff prediction post? I relied on some internet friends to round out the field and feign credibility to the following exercise:

This is what happens when I have a week off until classes start. Now, I cannot pretend to know, nor do I possess the mental faculties necessary to fathom the manner in which "The Oracle" arrived at her respective prognostications. But, here's what I think about what I think:

Ravens @ Chiefs
The Chiefs have the best running offense in football. Sure, some of that is product of them playing close games, having an INSANELY easy schedule, relying on Jamaal Charles and having Matt Cassel under center. It's been their bread and butter all year. The Ravens, on the other hand have had a resurgence on the other side of the ball. Having given up plenty on the ground early on (four 100+ yds rushing opponents out of first 5) this season, they've righted the ship. Some will point to Ed Reed as the key cog, but it's really their defensive front that has been penetrating. Additionally, it has been Joe Flacco who is more to be begrudgingly commended for their +4 give/take ratio. He only threw 9 picks this year. But, oh you remember that one fumble, don't you Unibrow...

Saints @ Seahawks <----Click for the cat pick.
There's just no way. I DO think the fact that the line will likely reach 13 or so is interesting. Qwest Field is one of the few measurable home field advantages in the NFL. And I suppose Hasselbeck returning to call signals does mean they have a punchers chance as he's actually one of the more proficient QBs at identifying and eluding the blitz. But, he'll be relying on a pass offense that looked completely inept last week and a ground attack that is even worse. Turnovers and special teams don't really paint a prettier picture, either. This upset would certainly be Buster Douglas-esque.

Jets @ Colts <----Click for the cat pick.
Probably the closest game, when all is said and done. The sloppiest, too. I think the Jets' defense is overrated and will have to hit a few home runs (INTs & sacks) to keep them afloat. And Sanchez is the embodiment of a fatally flawed QB. But, I also think the Colts have to be relatively content with their simply having made the playoffs. Complacency kills in the playoffs. Don't get me wrong, Manning can certainly audible and hand signal his way to a win. And The Colts still have one of the better receiving corps in the playoffs. But, I wouldn't put my paycheck on them rolling, here, not with their battered, untested squad up against a younger, hungrier (literally) team.

Packers @Eagles <----Click for the cat pick.
Why are people taking the Pack in this one? Philly has better players at EVERY talent position. It's as simple as that. McCoy > Kuhn. DeSean Jackson > Greg Jennings. Vick > Rodgers. I think people need to back up off Aaron Rodger's jock. I was watching Mike & Mike and they BOTH picked him as number one in their BS "Confidence Picks," whatever that means. You guys remember they lost to the Redskins and Dolphins, right? Point to their schedule and show me the part where they dominated in any way. Hell, their most "impressive" win was last week where they edged out the Bears 10-3. In fact, the only other playoff teams they beat were the Eagles (week 1 w/ Kevin Kolb) and Jets (in a putrid 9-0 snooze-fest where Rodgers was 15/34 passing). Also, this game is IN PHILLY. Sorry, not buying the Green Bay.

Obviously, the satirical nature of my friggin' cat picking winners underscores the crap-shoot nature of Wild Card Weekend. As a Steeler fan, maybe I'm too wrapped up in rooting for Baltimore to lose. And as for the other AFC tilt, there's no sense trying to figure out which is better when they are literally about to determine that for us, in theory. Sure, I hate Manning, so I'd probably prefer the Jets win, even though they came in to Heinz and beat us.

Much thanks to the following for their input. If you don't have their sites in your reader you're life is clearly in shambles:

Sarah @ Black & Gold Tchotchkes
Cotter @ One For The Other Thumb
Tecmo @ Pittsburgh Sports And Mini Ponies
Cory @ Three Rivers Burgh Blog
Pat @ Where Have You Gone Andy Van Slyke?
Super Fans Josh and Bryan

With All Due Respect To Bob Costas, STFU

2011-01-05T17:30:00.002-05:00

Not sure if you all caught Costas halftime monologue during the Rams-Seahawks game on Sunday night, but it was quite the heroic piece of Colts knob slobbing seen since, well, probably Peter King's last column.

He starts us off with the obvious: that the road to the Super Bowl in the AFC goes through New England and that, in case you hadn't been paying attention for months, they've been really good this year. Thanks for keeping us up to speed. Costas then segues into a wanton fit of Indy fluffing, the lust contained within possibly unfit for network broadcast.

Somehow, other than the Pats, the Colts are somehow the team to beat in the conference. Spouting apology after excuse, he then waves off the Steelers as though they were the Seahawks, a team that only made it to their position by sheer technicality. The Colts, Costas tell us, have overcome injury and fought through adversity, something the Steelers certainly have not. After all, the Steelers lost both starting offensive tackles, their best defensive end (who's also one of the best 3-4 DEs in the game and a key member of their defense) not to mention of host of other players throughout the season. Oh, and the adversity of their starting quarterback being suspended the first month of the season? Nothing compared to Austin Collie sustained multiple concussions, apparently.

The motivation behind this is just as likely business-oriented as it is a desperate attempt to puff up Peyton Manning, a perennial media darling if ever there was one. NBC, of course, is carrying the Jets-Colts Wild Card game on Saturday, and it makes sense for them to push Indy as the other legit team in the conference, seeing as how NBC won't get to broadcast any postseason games featuring either the Steelers or the Patriots. It's a cynical commercial for the network's programming masquerading as analysis.

Just something to keep in mind the next time Costas wants to pipe up about ethics.

Locked Up And Looking Ahead

2011-01-04T11:45:00.006-05:00

If you're among the dozen people who read my preview for the Browns game, you know I definitely didn't think it would be quite that easy for the Steelers in Cleveland, but then I didn't think Polamalu was going to play, either, so me knowing fuck all about everything should be well established by now.

You can definitely decry the constant home run approach of the Steelers offense, but it was certainly working out for the team on Sunday. Right after an interception finds its way off Benjamin Watson's hands into the diving grasp of Troy Polamalu, the Steelers went right for the throat, connecting on a 56-yard touchdown pass to Mike Wallace. That the pass protection was pretty good in this game - Roethlisberger wasn't sacked for once - helps with that approach. In a way, I can applaud the team for not playing scared facing what could have been a critical trap game. The team seized the lead in a hurry and kept piling it on once it was in place. Then again, something tells me that wouldn't be quite as effective against a lot of teams the Steelers might see in the playoffs.

Wallace's third straight 100-yard game put him at 1,257 receiving yards for the season, which is a shade higher than Santonio's highest single-season yardage total with the team. I'm glad (at least so far as I know) no one has tried to make the argument that that justifies the idiotic Santonio trade in the offseason, because it doesn't. Wallace has developed into more of a well-rounded threat than he was at the beginning of the season. The astounding aspect of it is that he will only continue to improve. That said, the receiving corps would be that much better if 'Tone were still around. But Wallace's emergence, coupled with a nice rookie season from Manny Sanders, has made the loss far less conspicuous.

The bye is especially welcome with Maurkice Pouncey suffering a minor injury on Sunday. Obviously Ben, Troy and others will get themselves back or as close to fully healthy as they can with the week off and we'll see how it goes with Aaron Smith. At this point, it still sounds iffy based on what various reporters are saying, but it's a huge bonus if he can make it back. If not, Ziggy Hood has played more than capably this season. I don't think he's gotten quite the credit he deserves for his first regular stint as a starter. Still, Smith is able to create more pressure on pass rush than Ziggy can at this point and that would be a huge difference playing a team like New England, against whom the Steelers rely on four-man rushes (to their detriment, sometimes) to generate pressure.

The defense is playing just about as any in recent history and can carry the team to victories over anyone remaining, even if the Patriots and Mike Vick have historically given them more problems than most. Incredible that three of the four starting linebackers finished with at least 100 tackles. This unit is one of the best all-time in stopping the run. The secondary certainly isn't up to that level, but for the exception of the Monday night game with Terrell Owens and the Patriots meltdown, it hasn't been getting torched either. Put Aaron Smith back in the equation and there's more than a fighting chance of taking down even New England.

The true measure of replacing Santonio, of course, comes in the postseason. Holmes only really had one statistically impressive regular season with the Steelers (his year with the Jets is about on par with his other years in Pittsburgh), but he'll be remembered forever for his heroics in the '08 postseason. The offense has looked good the last three weeks, but if they're going to get a shot at a seventh title, someone is going to have to emerge with the big plays in the coming weeks. As much as I liked sticking Mike Holmgren with another Randle El to Hines touchdown pass, it was hardly the cleanest executed play. The Pats might not have a juggernaut defense, but I doubt their promising young secondary would be so easily confused by that play.

As for who's coming to Heinz out of the Wild Card round, not sure I really have a preference either way. The Ravens want to pretend that they're the team no one wants to face, but they're not exactly playing well enough the last few weeks to be especially intimidating. Everyone seems to be assuming that the Colts will beat the Jets, but Indy supposedly rediscovering its A-game has come in narrow wins against mostly middling or plain terrible teams. Hell, they should have lost against the Titans at home. And the way the Ravens defense is playing, especially late in games, there's no reason to rule out the Chiefs getting their first playoff win in 17 years.

[Video via OFTOT]

2010 Wasn't 2009. Let The Same Be True Of 2011.

2010-12-31T12:33:00.000-05:00

For all the fretting Steelers fans (myself included) did whenever the team played an outmatched foe this season, the Steelers time and again took care of business when it was presumed they would. Granted, those included one scare in Cincinnati and a small bundle of them in Buffalo, but nevertheless, the string of gut-wrenching losses to lesser teams that marked the end of the 2009 season haven't come to pass this year.

And now, so as to finally exorcise that demon, and to get the critical first-round bye, the Steelers have to avenge what was probably the most agonizing loss of the year before: dropping a game on the road to goddamn Cleveland. This year's Browns are certainly capable of more than the 2009 edition, but the fight they put most of the season seems to be rapidly waning as the final weeks have played out. Either way, it's a game the Steelers simply must win.

Sure, the team has clinched at least a playoff berth and memories of 2005 will be invoked if they are forced to slink into the 6 seed, but you really think there will be the momentum that there was in 2005, when the team won four straight to make the playoffs, if the Steelers lose an important game to the Browns to back in? Of course not.

Obviously, one of the bigger differences between this year's Steelers and last year's has simply been the presence of Troy Polamalu. Though he said he wants to go, my guess is Troy ends up sitting on Sunday. The defense isn't what it is with him around, but it should be enough to still severely limit a Browns offense with its new star running back roughed up. Peyton Hillis missed practice again on Friday, but I'm convinced he'll still play on Sunday. Nevertheless, it's fortunate that he may be somewhat less than full strength.

The Steelers win over the Browns in Week 6 was Colt McCoy's first NFL start. For the more part, the kid did pretty good under the circumstances, though it seemed like the Steelers were giving him even more dink and dunk stuff than they would to other young quarterbacks. I imagine with LeBeau knowing that McCoy can't be counted on to make the critical mistake, at least as much as some other QBs, he'll ratchet up the pressure a little more.

I generally like the way the offense has been playing the past two weeks. Many are wringing their hands about how the balance of the playcalling has tilted decidedly back to the pass after favoring the run during Roethlisberger's absence. Seems like that was an inevitability if you follow Bruce Arians' habits, but at least if the team is going to be pass happier than you'd like them to be, you have to be encouraged by the way young receivers like Emmanuel Sanders and Antonio Brown are coming along, and how much the pass blocking seems to have improved in general. Maurkice Pouncey's Pro Bowl nod notwithstanding, no one is going to mistake Pittsburgh's O-line for one of the better in the league, but it's obviously made gains since having to be shuffled considerably early in the season.

No doubt, the Brownies fans want nothing more than for their team to play spoiler for the Steelers for another season, but barring a Josh Cribbs returnkkake, they'll just have to settle for better prospects for next year than they're usually accustomed to having. The Steelers are too keenly aware of what happened when they let their guard down against them last season to let another slip by. Take care of business and this time next week we'll be looking forward to who emerges from the Wild Card round and possibly cackling at the prospect of Baltimore having to face Indianapolis again. Come up short and it's trying to get over disappointment in time to focus on a trip to Kansas City. The team knows well the former is the far superior of their choices and not beating Cleveland, however seemingly granted by some, is not a task to take lightly.

Panthers Put Down, Now On To The Browns

2010-12-28T11:08:00.003-05:00

Holiday distractions kept me from getting to the recap sooner, as did they from even watching the first half of the game live. So essentially I got to see the Steelers go into conservative mode in the second half, knowing full well Jimmy Clausen wasn't going to be able to get the Panthers anywhere close to making up a 20-0 halftime deficit.

Clausen is so terrible, it makes evaluating the defense's performance almost impossible, as there's no way to compare how a competent quarterback might have fared against similar conditions. Even when Clausen seemed to have time to pass, he would scamper needlessly around the backfield until someone hit him. Just the kind of "pro-ready" discipline his defenders crowed about during his freefall down the draft board this past spring.

The margin for error against Carolina is about as wide as Big Snack, but I'd still rather not see the careless mistakes like the fumbled snap and the first half and the Isaac Redman fumble on the Steelers side of the field in the second. And Shaun Suisham finally had his first miss since joining the team. Of course, better that it come in a blowout victory against the Panthers than in a more pivotal moment. Like, any in the coming weeks, for example.

As expected, the Ravens dispatched the Browns, so the Steelers must return the favor Sunday in Cleveland to win the division and keep the second seed in the AFC, unless of course the Carson Palmer to Jerome Simpson connection proves to be the new hotness and the Bungles beat the Ratbirds for the second time this season, but obviously I'll be going into Sunday operating on the assumption that that won't be happening. The Ratbirds did the Steelers one slight favor in roughing up Peyton Hillis in their victory on Sunday, not that Hillis did much in the running game in the Steelers' Week 6 victory over the Browns in Pittsburgh, but he was effective receiving out of the backfield, as he has much of the season. Him being limited restricts that offense's best weapon.

Mike Tomlin isn't ruling Polamalu out of Sunday's game, but at most Troy would get work in at practice on Friday. It's certainly an important game on Sunday, but I think the Steelers are more than capable of winning in Cleveland without him and I'd just as soon have Troy at full speed for the playoffs.

Preliminary weather conditions for Sunday appear to be clear with winds around a mild 13 mph, so the chances for Bruce Arians to try five-wide sets in blustery conditions, as he did in the Thursday night loss in Cleveland last year, should be significantly lower. The Browns got their lone touchdown against the Ravens on Sunday on a trick play and will likely open the playbook as much as it allows with this likely to be Eric Mangini's final game as their head coach. Josh Cribbs didn't do much in the first go-round because JAMES HARRISON IS A MALICIOUS BASTARD WHO INTENTIONALLY TRIES TO HURT PEOPLE AND THERE'S NO TWO WAYS ABOUT IT so I'd imagine the Brownies will try to feature him a great deal more on Sunday. So long as he doesn't break any big returns, I'm not too worried.

Not getting into any potential playoff matchups in the second round, as obviously the Steelers need to take care of business Sunday and the Browns, with wins over the Saints and the Patriots, have showed they're far from a pushover when they're on their game. The last three weeks haven't been quite as kind to them, but they'll obviously be trying to close out their season on a high note. So long as the Steelers are determined to seize their fate, they can take the best shot from the Clowns, Troy or no.

C'mon Now - It's Carolina

2010-12-22T01:39:00.004-05:00

I'm going to be traveling early Wednesday, so I don't have the time to write an in-depth (insofar as anything I write for this site has depth) preview in advance of the Thursday game. Hell, I don't even know if I'm going to be able to watch it live.

At the risk of invoking fate-tempting overconfidence, it's the fucking Panthers. I know, I know: parity, NFL, any given Thursday night game with horrible announcers, sure. Nevertheless, I can't help but return to that it's the fucking Panthers detail.

Not saying Carolina couldn't find a way to win this one somehow, but in the realm of possibility, it's teetering way off the most remote edge. Granted, the Steelers defense is less dynamic without Polamalu playing, but it's not likely to make a huge difference against the league's worst offense. The Panthers are the only team yet to eclipse 200 points or score fewer than 20 touchdowns on the season. Carolina plays some okay defense, but unless we're talking multiple fluky turnovers for scores and maybe a return touchdown or two, it'll take a herculean effort on their part to have a chance.

Suffice it to say, I'm not much worried about the outcome. I mean, it's one of those games where if the Steelers did lose, you'd just have to shrug and say that your guys just aren't that good. And, hey, Heath Miller will be back, so that's no less excuse. That I don't see happening. Not against a constantly confounded Jimmy Clausen. Not with a Steelers defense likely pissed about getting only one sack Sunday against the Jets. Not with memories of losing to bad teams in critical situations last season keeping them grounded.

Steelers Fall Just Short But Have No Reason To Feel Down

2010-12-20T17:21:00.004-05:00

I've read a lot of reactions to this game noting how it felt very much like the home win over the Packers last year. I get that in that the the ending was pretty similar, save for the critical and lamentable difference in outcome this time around. No Mike Wallace heroics as time expired this time around, regrettably.

But I was reminded more of the two home wins against San Diego in 2008. I guess it was both the snowy setting and the mostly improved performance by the offensive line and Bruce Arians that sparked the connection for me. In both those games against the Chargers, the Steelers moved the ball seemingly at will with remarkably good protection for Roethlisberger. Of course, both Arians and the line fucked up royally on the Mewelde Moore shotgun draw that went for a safety, but it's a little unfair to dismiss what was mostly a better than usual showing by the playcalling and blocking based on one bad play. Though the Steelers lost, there's some encouragement to take away from that.

Obviously, what also doomed the Steelers was the opening kickoff that went for a touchdown that didn't require Brad Smith to do much but run in a straight line for the end zone. If there's anything that's going to remind Steelers fans of last season, it's poor kick coverage and a defense that struggles to get turnovers when Polamalu isn't playing. The pass rush only managed one sack. They would have had more, but Sanchez escaped their grasp on a few occasions. Nevertheless, they got pressure but pressure was about it. The inability to bring down the QB let the Jets extend some scoring drives.

Sanchez played a decent, if unspectacular, game. He made one nice deep throw to Braylon Edwards and the Jets made a smart fake on his naked bootleg to give the Jets their only offensive TD of the game. Still, I would not be at all worried to face him again, especially if Troy Polamalu and Aaron Smith are playing. The Jets ran slightly better than I would have liked, but the same obviously went for the Steelers as well. After a few mediocre weeks, Mendy had a great game, posting 100 yards on only 17 carries against one of the best run defenses in the NFL.

It was frustrating to see how much contact Antonio Cromartie and Dwight Lowery got away with in coverage on Mike Wallace and Emmanuel Sanders. The Steelers got the benefit of a few bad spots when they had the ball, so I'm not gonna cry about the officiating, but if corners are going to allowed to yank on Wallace's jersey at will while he's blowing by them, then that obviously neutralizes a huge big play potential for the Steelers. The non-call on Lowery at the end of the last drive was pretty bad, but, again, you have to play well enough for the refs not to make a difference and the Steelers didn't. Just hope that isn't the case in the coming weeks.

It would have been very nice to get the win, not only to show the Steelers can beat good teams even when they're missing key contributors, but we know that to be true even coming up a hair short. Even though I thought Matt Spaeth and Ryan Mundy did all right in relief of Heath and Troy, they weren't able to be significant difference makers, either. As I said in the preview, it wasn't all that significant a blow to the standings and I'm not all that broken up about it. Miller is expected to return Thursday against the Panthers. Any self-respecting playoff team should make short work of them, Polamalu or not. While the Browns won't be a cakewalk in a game that will decide whether the Steelers are a 2 seed or a Wild Card team in Week 17, Pittsburgh will at least have almost a week and a half to prepare for them.

Coming into this week, panic was rife about the performance of the offense. Only putting up 17 points can't make you giddy, but they played well, moved the ball at ease and maybe were one 10-yard completion away from putting up 24 and a win on one of the league's tougher defenses. The Steelers defense looked a little off against a Jets offense famously struggling coming in. The performance was solid, but not stifling, which it needed to be and would likely be if the teams played again. You never want to call a loss encouraging, but this one wasn't devastating by any means either. A bad call on the goal line and bad kick coverage early cost the Steelers a game that might not have been close if they had the safety who's been an absolute force the last month.

Jets-Steelers Means Points Aplenty

2010-12-17T10:56:00.004-05:00

The last month for the Steelers and Jets have been remarkably similar. They both got blown out by the Patriots. Against everyone else, however, they're playing a lot of defense but not exactly lighting the world on fire when they have the ball.

For the Steelers, the offensive struggles haven't been a huge problem because an opportunistic defense has found ways to get key and timely turnovers. The Jets have had that luck most of the season, but just couldn't come up with it last week at home against Miami.

Of course, the reason for each team's offensive woes result from different causes. For the Jets, it's Mark Sanchez reverting to the turnover-prone liability that he was most of last season, coupled with the running game being less effective than it was at the outset of the year. There are many that assumed both were likely to happen at some point in the season. Maybe they were, but the latter was especially inevitable with LaDainian Tomlinson getting the bulk of attention in the ground game.

The Steelers, meanwhile, are dogged by a depleted offensive line and a coordinator who refuses to adjust to that reality. Perhaps that's being too cruel, but so far all the only answer Bruce Arians seems to have developed against the problems with blocking are quick receiver screens to players at the line of scrimmage. While that strategy might be smart to get Mike Wallace the ball when corners are playing off, it's woefully inadequate when it's the only means for Ben Roethlisberger to get rid of the ball quickly.

It was assumed and hoped that Heath Miller would be back this week, though that is increasingly seeming like it won't be the case. Nice that the Steelers lose a starter for two weeks on a heinous cheap shot by a Ravens player that wasn't even flagged. Disgusting. Worse still, reports are now saying Troy Polamalu won't be active, either.

Those are both significant, especially Troy, who has come up with huge turnovers in three consecutive games. For the Jets to have a chance to win, they'll need a much better performance out of Sanchez. Polamalu being out doesn't assure the Sanchise can be competent, but it certainly makes matters much easier on him. The Jets won't be able to run much, so it's imperative to get as much pressure on Sanchez. After a few down weeks, LaMarr Woodley is playing at a high level again. And Damien Woody will miss the game, opening up that more of a chance to him to have a big impact.

The Steelers can still beat the Jets without Polamalu and Miller, but it will be that much more difficult. While I'm not conceding the loss, I want to put the game in some perspective. Even if the Steelers lost and the Ravens beat the Saints, the Steelers would remain in first place in the AFC North by dint of a better division record. So let's all thank the Bungles again for beating the Ratbirds back in September. Of course, that would make the Week 17 game against the Browns a pretty huge deal for the Steelers. Cleveland has certainly been much more feisty this season, though by then hopefully Pittsburgh would have a lot of its main contributors back. There's no excuse for not beating Carolina no matter who you're missing.

With Ryan sending the house, it'll be difficult for Roethlisberger to have time to go deep for Mike Wallace, even if he weren't being covered by Revis. So it's going to be incumbent on other receivers to come up with big plays. That happened last week with great catches by Hines and Randle El. Hopefully that manifests itself again, along with a better scheme by Arians. I'll just go ahead and presume the former has a better chance of happening. The Patriots had a lot of success with quick release plays against the Jets, but then he know that's not Arians' nor is it Roethlisberger's style. Best case scenario, the pass blocking can provide protection in turns to open up big plays, or even red zone conversions.

And, yeah, there's the return of Santonio. I'll be the first to say I wasn't on board with the stupid trade that sold him to the Jets for pennies on the dollar. At the same time, Holmes saying he expects a standing ovation from Steelers fans on Sunday is a little annoying. I mean, yeah, 'Tone, you were really good, and you made a mammoth play to win a title but you weren't exactly a team icon for a generation, either. I'm sure he'll get some cheers and deservedly so, but not the hero's welcome he presumes is coming. Santonio had a horrible drop last week that might have even cost the Jets a loss, so he no doubt is looking to rebound, in addition to exacting a measure of revenge on a team that dumped him for cheap. Without Polamalu, that will be easier. Then again, he still has Mark Sanchez throwing him the ball. That's still the greatest impediment of all.

Thanks For Sucking, Carson Palmer

2010-12-13T15:39:00.005-05:00

The condition of the offensive line being what it is, it's hardly surprising that the Steelers offense wasn't exactly plowing through the Bengals on Sunday. But had Carson Palmer not charitably put 14 points on the board for Pittsburgh, who knows how dicey the closing of that game would have been.

Not that Pittsburgh was wholly unable to move the ball. The team put up 354 total yards of offense, but was wholly unable, either by dint of dumb penalties, bad playcalling or poor execution, to do anything in the red zone. The Steelers now have two touchdowns in their last 30 or so offensive possessions. Obviously, one of those was an incredibly timely score late in the win in Baltimore. Nevertheless, that's not going to cut it if they ever think they're going to beat a team like New England in the postseason. Tom Brady's not going to throw two pick-sixes and you're not gonna field goal them to death.

As for Sunday, I'll admit I had some genuine concern set in at the beginning of the 4th quarter when the Steelers came up empty of a potential scoring drive that got as far as the Bengals' 15 and terminated with back-to-back sacks to push them out of field goal range. That's the inability to put teams away late that killed them in 2009 and probably should have cost the Steelers in Buffalo.

But then Carson Palmer deposited one in LaMarr Woodley's hands on the first play of the successive drive and all was moot.

Now, I don't want to overly dump on a decisive win over a division opponent. There were definitely some positives to take away. Terrell Owens was largely marginalized in this game. In fact, the Bengals couldn't muster anything approaching an offense after their opening scoring drive. Thankfully Troy wasn't hurt significantly on his interception return for a TD. In fact, in a rare and welcome twist, the Steelers didn't appear to sustain any huge injuries, though Emmanuel Sanders suffered an ankle injury. From early indications, it doesn't seem to be all that serious.

And though I was willing to settle for anything above Mitch Berger-level awful, Jeremy Kapinos was actually decent in his first game with the team. So the worries that the special teams will be a liability in field position games haven't been realized just yet. It was also a standout game by the receivers with awesome snags by Hines, Mike Wallace and Antwaan Randle El in particular.

So overall, it was a satisfying voctory. Bengals getting swept just feels right. The red zone offense needs to pick it up, but at least getting Heath back next week will help on that score somewhat.

The only gripe I have is with Cincy geting away with a bunch of questionable hits on Roethlisberger in the first half.

In just the one drive at the end of the first half, Big got hit in the head and his facemask raked on one dropback. Then, on the third down before the field goal, Roy Williams nailed Roethlisberger after taking five or so steps following the quarterback releasing the ball. All that after Ben got kneed in the head by a lineman getting up after a play. It goes without saying that if James Harrison commits any of these, not only is he getting flagged and fined, but it's leading highlight packages of the games by all the networks. It's extremely annoying, but it's a trend that doesn't seem like it's going to change at any point this season.

Stop Terrell Owens And Wait For Everyone Else To Screw Up

2010-12-10T10:43:00.006-05:00

If it weren't for Jordan Shipley's hands of stone, the Steelers would have suffered a loss to the Bengals in Cincinnati earlier this season that was eerily similar to the one that lost in Paul Brown Stadium the year before.

That wouldn't have been possible were it not for Terrell Owens going off for a 10-catch, 141-yard, two-touchdown performance to make what seemed like a salted away win into a near-defeat. Owens accounted for more than half of Carson Palmer's passing yards and routinely torched William Gay.

While Gay has played far, far better in the games since, he really has no business guarding Owens for the better part of a game. It wasn't until late - almost too late - that Ike Taylor was moved to cover Owens in the first contest.

Hold T.O. in check and the rest falls into place. The Bengals can't run on the Steelers. Ocho never does anything against Pittsburgh. And Carson Palmer isn't good enough to make teams pay in any other way. Somehow I doubt him going to Jermaine Gresham is going to be a force enough to swing a game in their favor.

Remember when Mike Zimmer was hailed all throughout last season and this past offseason as the latest emergent defensive guru in the league? He even had a sympathetic personal story to draw more admiration his way. Too bad, then, that the Bengals are 28th in points allowed and 20th in overall yardage.

Of course, the offensive line problems being what they are, it doesn't necessarily even require a good defense to hold the Steelers offense in check. The Buffalo game with its myriad penalties and Kyle Williams domination should be evidence enough of that. Thankfully Flozell is expected to start on Sunday, which didn't seem likely in the immediate aftermath of the win over the Ravens. So no Trai Essex adventure, thankfully.

Cincinnati gave the Saints a scare at home last week, but the Bungles are riding a nine-game slide, which is bad enough even to force Ocho to momentarily go into silent mode. That might also have to do with his dreadful one-catch performance in the first meeting in Paul Brown Stadium.

For all the aggravation caused by Bruce Arians' red zone playcalling last week, I was encouraged by some of the quick throws to Mike Wallace at the line. It's basically what the team used to often use with Santonio and is almost always good for at least 10 yards or so when the defense is playing back to protect against the deep pass. Far preferable to constant bubble screens to Hines. It will be interesting to see whether they continue to go to that to set up the long pass. Wallace had a good stat line against the Bengals in Week 9, though that looks that much better with him making a great play on an iffy gadget touchdown pass by Antwaan Randle El.

The Steelers were doing a serviceable job running the ball against the Ravens until Flozell and Heath went down and the ground game completely went to shit. Hopefully having Flozell back (though somewhat hampered) and Spaeth back in to block will get it back going against a Bengals team ranked 24th against the run.

The immediate discussion from players following last week's win turned to getting their business done. Even in the immediate postgame interview, James Harrison said if the team failed to close out, then the big win over Baltimore would have meant nothing. That's the usual self-effacing thing players are taught to say to the media, so now it's time to show that it's not just hollow means to assure the fan base and writers ready to spring on any comment that goes against accepted convention.

Steelers' Playoff Push: Sifting Through Possible Opponents

2010-12-09T00:00:00.045-05:00

Hells Yea, Baby.

Miami, New Orleans, Cincinnati. Three close games. For the Steelers, a string of road games from Oct. 24-Nov. 8 that resulted in a few things of note. First, Pittsburgh lost a number of its starters to injury (Smith, Keisel, Starks, etc.). Second, it was probably the high-point of the season, you know, until New England came to town. Lastly, and most importantly, it secured what the Steelers are the ONLY team in the NFL about to enjoy: Three of their final four games at home to end the regular season.

The permutations and variance in playoff scenarios is still too complex to map out a probable course for Pittsburgh. Yes, The Steelers need to handle their business and just beat the Bengals this week. But, the separation between the teams currently listed as "in" the playoff picture and on the outside is surprisingly pronounced this season. It seems reasonable to say that 9-7 won't be good enough to punch a dance card in the AFC. This leaves only four teams with a shot to upend those currently "in," ten total teams with a chance at all.
Let's look at em:

Patriots (10-2):
We shouldn't be facing these guys until the AFC Championship, so long as we keep our #2 seed. And we have an extraordinarily good shot to do that, even if we drop one of our final four. See how that schedule is a big deal now? Sure, they blew us out on our home turf and Brady has an all-time NFL record home winning record going, but...eh. Let's just worry about them if/when we need to.

NY Jets (9-3):
Only team on this list we'll face before the playoffs. I'll reserve most of my judgment until then, suffice it to say: They're better than 147-2 or whatever it was they lost by last week. Some have postulated that New England "exposed" the Jets' weaknesses and that they've been mostly smoke and mirrors this season, eeking out wins against less than stellar opponents. But let's be careful not to buy in to that ideology. As far as I'm concerned, a win against NY give us the #2 seed in two weeks. Beat the Bengals for a chance to earn that 2 seed.

Kansas City (8-4):
The only team that could over take us for a first round bye if we lose one game. Of course, they would have to run the table to do so, starting with a trip to San Diego this Sunday. Man, I hope they win that one. We'll get to this later, but I'm actually rooting against San Diego harder than any other team right now. Plus, I would LOVE to face KC in round 2 of the playoffs. I'm not overlooking them, by any means as McCluster, Bowe, Charles & Meoakikiki are legit offensive weapons. Still, Matt Cassell? Muhahaha...

Baltimore (8-4):
The idea that we'll face the Ravens in round 2 of the playoffs here at Heinz makes the pubes on the back of your throat stand up. What a scenario. It would definitely be the biggest game since the 2008 AFC Championship at Heinz. But, Baltimore heads to Houston this week, not as simple a matchup as the two teams' records would indicate. If the Ravens would somehow lose to Arian, Andre & Co. they'd face Drew Breesus coming to town the following week. At that point, they might be looking at Indy or San Diego in their rear view. Still, don't you almost get the feeling Steelers/Ravens III is preordained?

Jacksonville (7-5):
The current place-holder atop the AFC South. I still have visions of David Garrard scrambling (via an obvious un-flagged hold) away the Steelers' playoff aspirations as a wild card in 2008. And MJD is a legit runner. But, the next two teams on this, and I cannot stress this enough, they would be a GODSEND as division champs. We would match up awesome with them as they don't have a legit first receiver (Sims-Walker is poor and Mike Thomas has come on but as a #2) and they're all ground game. For now: Go Jags.

Oakland (6-6):
How could the Raiders make the playoffs, you ask??? A game against the Jags this week (which they're slight underdogs), then rudderless Denver and Indy. Indy has 57 injuries and could be eliminated by, well...tonight. That would leave them with KC to cap of the season in an awesome scenario. Oakland showed a lot of spunk taking down San Diego last week. Considering the other 6-6 squads, I'd pull for them IF they take down Jacksonville. Still, it's difficult to think that the Raiders could still run the table to sneak up.

San Diego (6-6):
Man, Chargers' loss to Oakland was huge. If you look back, I've oscillated my take on the Chargers all season. From scared to sure they were out of it. I'm sure you've seen the stats. #1 in total defense. #2 in total offense. If push came to shove, I'd have confidence in the Steelers' ability to take them down at Heinz, but I REALLY don't want it to come to that. Next to Baltimore, I really fear these guys the most. I'll be rooting against them second only to pulling for Pittsburgh. Amazing. Let's just err on the side of caution and get them out of the discussion.

Indianapolis (6-6):
Another team that I won't be happy until they're dead and buried. I don't know how you could be a Manning fan unless you are a) from Indy or b) a Manning. Yes, the Colts are injured (they just brought Dominic Rhodes back FROM THE UFL!) and clearly, Pay-Pey is struggling, but the suffering cannot be too great.

Miami (6-6):
Surprised to these guys on this list? I know I am. The Dolphins' D (ranked 4th overall) is keeping them in games. I'm thinking their season will be over this week as they head to the Meadowlands to be the Jets rebound bitches, though. I would be remiss, however, if I didn't mention that their two games after are Buffalo & Detroit...if they can upend the Jets (hilariously), that'd give'em something to play/injure the Patriots for in Week 17.

The Moral Of The Story:
I can't work the percentages, but I think it's looking a lot like NYJ & BAL will be your wild cards. It's also looking like they are better than the remaining teams on this list, San Diego excepted. The natural conclusion to draw there is that we'll face one of them for our first playoff game. I would vastly prefer facing the Jets over the Ravens, if for no other reason than when we play the latter injuries tend to mount. Plus, can you imagine Sanchez trying to elude our defense right now? OF COURSE, the only thing that matters and should be focused on by the Steelers right now is winning the game in front of them. But, it's intriguing to look at what lay ahead and to get figure out who to pull for in EVERY game. So go root for your Steelers. And Jacksonville. And Kansas City. And Peyton Manning to throw 37 more picks.

Ravens Can Batter Ben, But Still Can't Beat Him

2010-12-07T15:00:00.006-05:00

This past week was one of the worst I've had in a while. A couple weeks after having to take my car for a costly transmission repair I can't really afford, I lost my job at SB Nation for reasons that still aren't entirely clear or reasonable. That firing, of course, came five days after the company made me miss Thanksgiving with my family because I had to work in the late afternoon and evening with them.

So it goes without further complaining that I personally really needed that Steelers victory.

Not that it wasn't supremely important to the team or any other fan for that matter. You'll forgive me my self-involvement after such an emotional win, right? After all, this was one of the most satisfying and impressive Steelers regular season victories for as long as I've watched the team. Impressive obviously not in the sense that it was a dominant showing but an incredibly resilient effort.

With what was their best chance to win the division on the line, the Steelers went into Baltimore with a depleted line, a hobbled quarterback and won despite incurring more injuries and ceding the lead in the first quarter and not getting it back until there were three minutes left in the game.

All during the week we heard jeering comments from Ravens fans and idiots like Mike Florio that Ben Roethlisberger was doing his drama queen thing again because Roethlisberger happened to sustain a foot injury against Buffalo. Only minutes into the game, Ben gets his nose broken on an uncalled shot to the face by Haloti Ngata. Roethlisberger struggled with his accuracy early trying to adapt to playing with the boot on his foot, but was on par with his usual output by the time the second half came around. His escape from a Terrell Suggs sack two plays before the winning touchdown was one of a handful of huge plays the team came up with in the waning minutes. Isaac Redman's touchdown catch and run was no less amazing, having broken tackles by Dawan Landry and Jarret Johnson before plunging into the end zone.

In many ways, it felt like a repeat of the 2008 road victory in Baltimore to take the division. Of course, while the controversial call in that game went in favor of the Steelers, there were multiple big non-calls on Sunday night that went the way of the Ravens. I can understand missing the Ngata hit on Roethlisberger, but for McClain's incredibly illegal decapitation of Heath Miller to go unflagged was egregious. Maybe it was the fact that the sloppy flags were such a prominent storyline the week prior that made the referees more hesitant than usual to dispense them. Whatever the reason, it's inexcusable.

A lot of Ravens fans are harping on offensive coordinator Cam Cameron for opting to pass on a 2nd and 5 with the lead and three and a half minutes left in the game. If Joe Flacco had slightly more awareness at the line of scrimmage, it's probably not a terrible play, as the Steelers allowed a five yard run on the previous down being in nickel coverage and were now poised to send the house. Of course, this was the same Joe Flacco who had been playing amazing football for the past month or so and had supposedly turned the corner as a complete quarterback. And it's not like the Steelers had a decisive effort in the offensive coordinator department. Bruce Arians' decision making on the Steelers first trip to the red zone in the second half could have been the difference in the game had Polamalu not made his play. Having lost two of the team's better run blockers in the game, Arians calls up back-to-back runs up the gut before a quick dump pass to Mike Wallace that has almost no chance of making it into the end zone.

It can be somewhat excused (or at least slightly mitigated) because he was returning from injury, Bryant McFadden had yet another terrible game against the Ravens. Granted, he helped break up a pass in the end zone on the Ravens final drive, but he was being picked on all evening the way William Gay was most of last season. Keenan Lewis and Joe Burnett haven't made the leap and Ike Taylor is going into free agency. Keeping Ike and taking a corner high seem like huge priorities for the offseason. Of course, it would be difficult not to pull the trigger on a offensive tackle should a good one fall to Pittsburgh.

Not often does it happen in big games or against the Ravens in general, but Hines Ward had a rough day. Hines had only one catch all game, coupled with a bad drop on the Steelers final offensive possession of the first half. Had he made that one, the team would have likely been able to put up at least three before intermission. In the second half, he and David Johnson ran into each other on a route, which left no one open and Roethlisberger having to swallow the ball for a sack.

The win came at no small cost, however, with Heath Miller almost certain to miss Sunday's game against Cincinnati. Flozell Adams suffered a high ankle sprain and will be a question mark as well. Worse still, Daniel Sepulveda tore the ACL in his right leg and will miss the rest of the season. So we're looking and near and long term issues for the rest of the season on offense and special teams. The blocking will be aided slightly on Sunday, as Matt Spaeth has been cleared to return to practice on Wednesday.

Obviously the team can't allow themselves a slip-up after such a pivotal victory. The Bengals gave the Steelers a scare in the first meeting in Cincy and now it appears like the team will be even more shorthanded than they've been accustomed to this season. Nevertheless, it's a game they should be able to win to maintain their hold on the division and the second seed in the AFC.

Better Than Ed Reed Strikes Again

2010-12-05T23:42:00.001-05:00

Your game-winner, ladies and gents. Scratch that. Your division winner, ladies and gents.

Finally - A Quarterback Higher Than Third String

2010-12-03T10:26:00.006-05:00

Let's just say if the Ravens get another one of their fan-described "miracles" this Sunday, at least it won't have come against the Steelers current third- or fourth-string quarterback. Of course, it would also allow them to update that incredibly old and overused Bart Scott picture from 2006 as their go-to beat-off fodder after rubbing Old Spice on themselves and imagining its Ray Lewis' tongue.

Then again, they just might have to deal with yet another in a long string of frustrating and humiliating defeats to the Steelers in big games. That's right - stakes is high. While it's still a tad premature to definitively say the winner is assured of the second string in the AFC playoffs and a first-round bye, they'll obviously have a nice inside track toward that prized position, especially with the winners in the two other of the AFC divisions far behind the North and East leaders.

I've been thinking all week about how important Emmanuel Sanders' role might figure in this contest. I would assume one of the main goals in the Ravens' defensive strategy, much like it was in the first contest, will be to take out Mike Wallace as best as possible. Teams have shown this can be done, so long as you're willing to commit the extra safety to covering him deep. Hines will be there for possession-saving catches and the like, but the opening for Sanders to make big places will have to be taken advantage of. Manny has showed a lot of promise this year, but can be as unreliable as you might expect a rookie to be. His drop late last week in Buffalo could have proven to be costly and regrettable.

Chris Kemoeatu had his worst game of the season last week trying futilely to block Kyle Williams. Or even slightly impede his march into the background. He'll have no less a difficult assignment Sunday with Haloti Ngata, though Ngata was nowhere nearly as unblockable in Week 4 as Williams was last Sunday. I also just expect Kemoeatu to bounce back after being embarrassed. Can't say I'm any more comfortable with Jonathan Scott's first go against the Ravens' defense, but can't do much but hope for the best on that one.

LaMarr Woodley is just as desperate for an improved showing. Woodley has been silent in two of the last three games. He's typically a huge factor against the Ravens. The Steelers might be more tempted to test a somewhat gimpy Michael Oher with James Harrison rushing, but Woodley is going to have to win his one-on-one matchups more often to keep Flacco from having time to throw. With Le'Ron McClain out, the Ravens will likely do more passing than they might usually do against the Steelers (yeah, I know they threw 37 times in Week 4) being without one of their most important blockers in the run game.

Rashard Mendenhall was huge against Buffalo and should likely do even better against Baltimore than he did in the first meeting with the threat of a potent passing game from the Steelers. Nevertheless, Mendy has lost two fumbles the past two games. Obviously, any turnover in this game Sunday can and likely will be critical. Can't afford to cough it up again.

Bryant McFadden, Nick Eason and Brett Keisel are all expected to play. Welcome news, obviously, though the same was said to be true about Keisel last week, so we'll just have to see on that. It seems doubtful that Matt Spaeth will go, which is a shame as he could be used for help with blocking.

As for all the Steelers targeting stuff seemingly omnipresent again this week, I've said my piece on it. I don't think the league is purposefully going after the Steelers. James Harrison, maybe, but then that's been a situation fostered by the league, the media and Harrison himself. I think if there's any agreement between Steelers and Ravens fans, it's that we'd like not to see intimidated officials force themselves to flag iffy hits on quarterbacks and receivers for what could be critical personal foul penalties. That said, Pittsburgh is going to have to find a way not to kill itself with the other flags. It's highly unlikely they'd get a third straight victory in a game where they've compiled more than 100 penalty yards. Not quite the room for error against Bawlmer that there is against Oakland and Buffalo.

I'll hand it to Joe Flacco; Unibrow has played well the past two months. But he still hasn't shown he can win the big game yet. He's been terrible in the playoffs. Even this season when he stats are improved, he couldn't quite pull it off against the Falcons or the Patriots. He did little to nothing to win against the Jets. He got a fortunate second chance in Pittsburgh after blowing a 4th down and goal attempt that might have sealed a loss had circumstances been different. It'll likely be on him to finally have an impressive outing against the Steelers.

Mike Preston Brainfarts Sound Like Drama

2010-12-02T15:30:00.004-05:00

Mike Preston is The Baltimore Sun's resident Ravens homer hack par excellence. So grating are his half-baked or purposefully inflammatory views that he even manages to piss off hometown Ratbird fans with regularity.

Last year, I was in the press box in Baltimore for the Sunday night Week 12 game and this asshole was flapping off with the usual assortment of Ravens trash talk about the Steelers that you could read from fuckwits in comment sections of fifth-rate team blogs. And naturally some of his colleagues were yukking it up with him. That's some nice journalistic integrity you've got there, Sun. True to form, a few days ago on The Sun's web site, he posted an entry on the Ravens Insider blog decrying Ben Roethlisberger supposedly sustaining a foot injury against Buffalo for the sake of pregame theatrics. Of course he did.

As Roethlisberger limped off the field at halftime of the Steelers game against Buffalo last week, I laughed because I knew there was going to be some drama with an injury. If it wasn't going to be his foot that hurt, then it was going to be his big toe or his little finger, or his butt or a tooth. Always something.

I can understand why Roethlisberger might not want to play. He will be missing his two starting offensive tackles, and I don't think the Steelers can handle the pressure the Ravens will bring. But we all know that Big Ben will play. He'll get the ankle taped, take a pain killer and then play.

That's PFT-level mouthbreathing retardery, yet there are scores of fuckwit Ratbirds fans backing him up in the comments. Typical.

Yes, Roethlisberger only sustained a foot injury to ramp up the drama for the following week's game. Of this you can be certain. The injuries to Le'Ron McClain and Michael Oher? Why, those are understandable dings in the course of playing tough. I must have missed the part where Roethlisberger was showing off his walking book to reporters this week while shouting over-the-top promises about there being nothing in the world that could hold him back. That'd be too much like Terrell Suggs' histrionics before the 2008 AFC Title Game.

It should also be noted that the Ravens are once again distributing the knockoff rally towels they used in the home game last year. A fantastically hypocritical move by a fan base that glories in mocking the traditions of Steelers fans.

Your Quarterly AFC Team-by-Team Breakdown

2010-12-01T10:42:00.039-05:00

The South is a mess. At least it's not the NFC.

Unless you've successfully avoided all forms of media and permutations thereof in the past 48 hours, you've likely heard we have an important football contest this Sunday.

Lord knows ESPN has their fully engorged hype-boner going "OMFG!!1! AFC SHOWDOWNS ON SUNDAY & MONDAY NIGHTS" and "BIG BEN IN A BOOT!!! WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?!?!?1ZOMG!!" I swear, it's only a matter of time until the ABC/ESPN/Disney/Pixar/Exxon/Cheerios/Tampon conglomerate has the ability to directly siphon from my pay-check.

/buys domain sportsdirectdeposit.com

With the apparent separation between the four teams playing in these two games, it would seem as though a win would put the respective victors on the fast track to first-round playoff byes. But, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Casting aside all hyperbole and promotion, this game is about one thing: The division title. Too many factors are in play to determine who will DEFINITELY take it, but with Baltimore already owning a win over us and both the Ravens & Steelers facing a similar remaining schedule, this is likely it, folks.

Steelers remaining opponents' record: 15-28
Ravens remaining opponents' record: 19-25
Negligible.

Either outcome will leave us looking around at possible foes/matchups. So let's see what's in store for us as of now.

"Front-Runners"

NY Jets (9-2):
I don't really think there is any way The Jets take this game. Or the AFC East, for that matter. The Pats don't lose at home under Brady. Rex is a good motivator. Belicheck is a better coach. The streak of close-call wins for NY ends with this game. In fact, with Pittsburgh & Chicago road games still on their schedule, there's an outside chance New York could get paced by the Chiefs/Chargers loser for top Wild Card spot.

New England (9-2):
Do you want to know a big part of why the Patriots don't lose often? Going back as far as Belicheck has been their coach, they haven't lost to a divisional opponent twice in the same regular season. Ever. As if any Steeler fan who saw their team diced by a prepared, methodical offense a few weeks ago needs to hear it: That's coaching. The Pats will face Green Bay in Foxboro in 3 weeks, another prime time game. I'm guessing it will cement for New England a first-round bye.

"Second-tier"

Baltimore (8-3):
Joe Flacco and Ray Rice will not win the game for the Ravens Sunday. Neither are in the league's top 10 in any meaningful category. Receiving? Boldin is 32nd in the league with under 60 y/p. It's the defense. The defense has held almost every team they've beat to under 17 points (they went the route of shoot-out with Buffalo and nearly lost). So, should we be worried? If Harbaugh was paying attention to our MNF disaster, he'll try and dink and dunk to Heap, Mason and whoever is coming out of the backfield. That could be enough to muster a troublesome attack, but not one that would decimate Pittsburgh. Certainly, the return of Ed Reed has been a boon for the secondary and defense on the whole. But at the worst, the Steelers' numbers are a push with theirs. Still, Roethlisberger has a pretty good track record against teams that are predicated on a pass-rush. And an even more impressive record against the Ravens. Lastly, injuries and their impact cannot be overstated. Michael Oher could be out. Keisel could be back. Obviously, Ben's foot will be the center of much discussion as well. In such a physical contest, I'd expect some in-game casualties as well. Predictions are meaningless, but I like our chances.

"How The West Will be One"

Kansas City (7-4):
The phrase, "If the playoffs started today..." is by definition, moot. They don't. Having said that, if they did, we'd get these guys. About the only thing Kansas City has going for them is their ground attack. Up until now, it has been enough. A one dimensional team predicated on the run SHOULD play right in to our hands. If we do end up facing them, it'd be an acceptable consolation for the division, I suppose. Their matchup with surging San Diego in two weeks will determine whether they are for real, though a weak schedule could still let them back in as a Wild Card.

San Diego (6-5):
Here we are again. I shouldn't care that much that the Chargers are back in the positive side of the W/L column, except for the fact that I cannot help but notice what a complete football team they are. And how they, as opposed to all of the other squads with 5 losses (hell, 4 losses) would be MUCH tougher opponent in the playoffs. Sure, we handled them here 2 years ago and if push came to shove, the Steelers' D would give the Chargers problems. But I simply don't want it to come to that. With both a top-ranked D and pass attack (with people off the street catching balls, no less) it's looking like one way or the other, San Diego is going to make it to January. What's more, their schedule is now looking like cake. Four opponents with losing records and three straight home games, one of which is Kansas City. Steeler fans should be pulling Kansas City. Damn.

"Put Them Out of Their Misery"

Miami (6-5):
Not wasting much time, here. A game or two away, which will result in me having to drown out Dolphin fan's bitching about their loss to us. If I knew any Dolphin fans, that is. The best they can hope for is to be vanquished in the final week against New England.

"The Entire AFC South. Still."

Jacksonville (6-5):
If Garrard doesn't go this Sunday (injured hand), then it'll have a massive impact on this whole house of cards. With the Titans imploding, a loss to them would be devastating for Jacksonville. Jags/Titans is essentially an elimination game as only one team is coming out of the South from the look of things.

Indianapolis (6-5):
I don't care if he threw 3 picks. I don't care if their defense is porous from all the injuries, their on their 3rd RB and their WRs don't catch any more. A playoffs without Pay-Pey is an easier road, plain and simple. The Colts are horrible against the run and horrible running it (29th in both), but with Tennessee on their schedule twice, they could easily take this division.

Houston (5-6):
Games at Philly and then home against Baltimore. Lose just one more and they're done. With two talents like Arians and Johnson, this is a real shame. If you can't stop the pass, you can't ice games. Puhleeeeeze let Andre Johnson fight Ray Lewis or Terrell Suggs.

Tennessee (5-6):
You're looking at your NEW suicide league horse, right here. 3rd string QBs don't typically lead playoff pushes. Another shame, as Chris Johnson is a beast, but is completely neutralized as he's their only weapon at this point.

"Not Pictured"

Oakland (5-6):
Raider fans have to be somewhat pleased. Jacoby Ford looks good. Darren McFadden is not, as it turns out, a bust and the defense is above average (when healthy). Sure, Campbell nor Gradkowski are franchise saviors, but they've got some real building blocks. Four remaining playoff contenders on their slate means they are dead in the water. It also means they'll have a big say in who makes the dance...

Cleveland (4-7):
Will be interesting to see if Mangini still has a post come off season. Peyton Hillis and Colt McCoy could be haunting our dreams in future seasons.

Denver (3-8):
Im-plo-sion. Wow. Maybe Pat Bowlen will have more respect for Shanahan, now. Brandon Lloyd is a freak. My fantasy team would like to thank Kyle Orton.

Buffalo (2-9):
They'll win a few, yet.

Cincinnati (2-9):
Nothing pleases me more than to put these guys down here. I would like it if Marv Lewis makes a move to the NFC, however.

Playoffs...PLAYOFFS?!?!?!?!

EAST: New England (13-3)
NORTH: Pittsburgh (11-5)
SOUTH: Indianapolis (10-6)
WEST: San Diego (10-6)

WILD CARDS:
New York (12-4)
Baltimore (11-5) (Loss to Bengals bites them in the ass)

(don't hold me to this stuff...)

Why Didn't Anyone Warn Me About Joe Sacko?

2010-11-30T14:54:00.003-05:00

I was watching the Bucs-Ravens game on Sunday and announcer Sam Rosen made reference to a Ravens player named Joe Sacko. Not only have I never heard of him, but apparently he now holds the Baltimore franchise record for touchdown passes.

HE SOUNDS PRETTY GOOD!

Then again, the previous record holder was Vinny Testaverde, who set the previous franchise mark in only two seasons with the team. That's one less than Sacko. And with a vastly inferior receiving corps to what this Sacco guy gets to work.

Testaverde's top receivers in '96 and '97: Derrick Alexander and Michael Jackson (Zero combined career Pro Bowl selections). He did have former Steelers tight end Eric Green, however (two-time Pro Bowl selection).

Joe Sacko's main target for his first two seasons was Derrick Mason (two-time Pro Bowler) and now he has Anquan Boldin (three-time Pro Bowler) and T.J. Houshmandzadeh (one-time Pro Bowl selection). Oh, and don't forget Todd Heap (two more Pro Bowls).

So, I don't know - Joe Sacko might be all right, but Vinny Testaverde is still obviously the best quarterback the Ratbirds ever had. Good thing he's not around anymore.

Luckily The Bills Hate Winning

2010-11-29T22:39:00.007-05:00

Can we count the ways the Steelers got lucky in overtime against Buffalo? I probably shouldn't, but let's do it for the sake of exorcising the stink of that game and being grateful for an improbable win.

1. Leodis McKelvin gets tripped by teammate Arthur Moats as McKelvin broke free near midfield on the opening kick return of overtime.

2. Roethlisberger falls on his own fumble after a sack on the Steelers' 1. Flozell was uniquely terrible on this play. Let his man blow right by him and watched helplessly as he looped around and stripped Ben from behind. Guh.

3. God blessedly smiting Stevie Johnson.

Of course, you can make an easy and sensible argument that it should never have gotten to that. Another bullshit personal foul on James Harrison galvanized a dead Buffalo offense late in the third quarter. Emmanuel Sanders dropped a huge pass in the fourth quarter that could have probably put the game away for Pittsburgh.

That's a mighty impressive start, yet the Steelers led only 13-0 by the end of a first half they absolutely dominated. As we saw, all it took was one blown play for the Bills to get back in it. You can't leave that kind hope alive to a team being crushed for 40 minutes. And that's exactly what the Steelers did.

Why? One quick explanation was "holy hell, Chris Kemoeatu owned by Kyle Williams." Williams had two sacks and drew four holding calls from the Steelers' left guard, though the one that nullified the long Mendenhall run was some bullshit, as Williams initiated the hold by hooking his fingers on Kemo's facemask.

But other than the Harrison hit and one of Kemo's holds, the penalties were pretty much justified and taking away those two still leaves more than a bit of penalty yardage. That's back to back games giving up more than 100 yards from flags. Yeah, the Steelers have won both those games, but Sunday's game is a clear lesson of how it can let an inferior opponent get the best of you.

Hines and Shaun Suisham were clear bright spots on the day. Hines had more yardage than the past four games combined while Suisham was the polar opposite of Jeff Reed's long distance ineptitude this season. Besides Kemoeatu, LaMarr Woodley had a disappointing day, which marks the second for him in three weeks. Woodley typically performs well against the Ravens and will need to have a game to reverse some of the funk of getting little pressure on his own of late.

Oh, and you know who else performs well against the Ravens? The quarterback they haven't beaten since 2006. Ben has a foot sprain, but it certainly didn't stop him from pulling off this 18-yard scramble, so I wouldn't be too worried.

Bryant McFadden probably won't be able to go against the Ratbirds, which is unfortunate, though William Gay appears to have bounced back well the past two weeks after a disastrous game against New England. Keenan Lewis still doesn't look ready to take over as an outside corner role, so Gay will have to turn in another big effort.

Ratbirds fans are already chirping about the Steelers getting lucky in Buffalo, as though Baltimore didn't get several huge breaks of their own at home against the Bills. Can't expect any better from fuckwit fairweather Ravens fans. Sunday night's game will surely be a huge test, though I saw a lot of things the Steelers can exploit on that weakened Ravens defense during Sunday's game against the Bucs. Baltimore seems to be attacking more than they have earlier in the season, and they obviously will on Sunday against that O-line, but the coverage behind it has shown to be highly vulnerable.

It will be interesting to see if Arians has the guts or the imagination to try the kind of spread stuff that the Patriots did to the Steelers or even that the Ravens tried in the first match-up in Pittsburgh. Not saying I'm encouraging a steady diet or shotgun four- and five-wide sets, but pulling them out occasionally outside the obvious third down pass situations would be well advised rather than telegraphing the run at the start of most series, as Arians was prone to do with Batch starting the first game against Baltimore.

Despite the Ravens' "miracle" the first time around, that offense hasn't figured out the Steelers defense by any means. Of course, Keisel being able to return will figure hugely with Eason being banged up. It was thought Keisel would come back against Buffalo, but ended up waiting another week. Having an improved showing from the pass rush will be imperative and Keisel's return can certainly help set that up, especially with Michael Oher's false starting ass being slightly banged up.

Nobody Circles The Drain Like The Buffalo Bills

2010-11-26T10:00:00.007-05:00

Sorry for a spin on a Berman reference in the headline, but it was either that or something playing on Stevie Johnson's "Why So Serious?" celebration last week. And at this point, Dark Knight references are only slightly less overplayed.

And while I'm on the subject, when did that extra "i" get shoehorned into his Johnson's first name? Up until last week, every mention of the guy I'd seen had his name as Steve Johnson. Who's this Stevie? Is there an unspoken rule that once a receiver scores three touchdowns in one game that he is free to rejigger his name in any way he pleases?

As for the Bills, despite their record, they certainly aren't a team to be taken lightly. That's what we saw yesterday on Thanksgiving early game - even the teams with terrible records in the NFL aren't very terrible this season. After for weeks being on the verge of capturing their first win, by pushing some pretty good teams (Chiefs, Bears, Ravens) to the brink, now Buffalo has won two in a row.

The Steelers were able to dominate the Raiders' offense last week, but Oakland's run-first attack plays directly in the Steelers' strength. Even though they had a pretty good game running the ball, the Patriots understand that you're better off not even trying to run against the Steelers. At best, you pass to set up the run. That said, very few teams in the league can do to the Steelers what the Pats did a few weeks back. Ryan Fitzpatrick is having a pretty good year, but it remains to be seen whether he's quite that good. Having Brett Keisel back at defensive end should further help a pass rush that bounced back well last week.

And if it helps you sleep better, the Steelers have won their only matchup against Fitzpatrick, a 27-10 victory when he started for the Bengals in 2008. That won advanced the Steelers to 8-3, which would be a nice parallel for a win on Sunday.

It should allay concerns that Steve or Stevie will take over that the Bills huge second half against the Bengals last week coincided with four Cincy defensive back leaving the game with injuries, including starting corner Jonathan Joseph. Nevertheless, Buffalo absolutely bombarded the Ravens through the air. Let's just hope that William Gay sees as little man coverage on Johnson as possible.

Concerns over a trap game get less worrisome when you focus on the Bills' porous defense. They're 25th in yardage allowed. They allow the seventh highest third down conversion rate. There's no one on the roster with more than three sacks. They've forced only about 60 percent of the turnovers the Steelers have, and, most importantly, they're given up the fourth most points of all NFL teams. Me likely.

They are last in penalty yards, however, so don't expect any make-up calls for the officiating disaster that was last week. And that's fine for me so long as no one (on either team, really) gets flagged for hitting a receiver in the back or pushing a quarterback a quarter of a second after they release the ball. If you saw the Jets-Bengals game last night, you know it's a league-wide issue.

As a quick aside - I was happy to see much more of Antonio Brown last week against Oakland, even if he didn't have a huge impact. Other than one big reception in the first meeting with the Ravens and a touchdown pass that was more the result of a great play by Mike Wallace, Randle El hasn't been that much of a positive factor in the offense. He was crazy with the drops against New England and just doesn't seem to have much quickness is routes or on returns. Brown is at least going forward and taking the yards given him on punt duty.

It might be a closer game than any of us would be comfortable with against the Bills, but there's still no excuse for the Steelers not to go into Buffalo and get the job done, likely setting up a huge contest the following week in Baltimore with what could be the division on the line.

On a final note, I loved this very, very Ben opener from this article about Sean Kugler returning to face Buffalo, where he coached the O-line last year:

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger joked this week that he didn't remember offensive line coach Sean Kugler's first name until a Buffalo reporter mentioned it.

"We just call him Koogs," Roethlisberger said.

Steelers Big Win Overshadowed By NFL's Ongoing Identity Crisis

2010-11-23T22:16:00.006-05:00

I feel confident in saying that I never have and likely never will be more upset after a 32-point Steelers victory than I was after the one on Sunday.

Don't get me wrong - I was thrilled the Steelers beat some Raider ass and showed ferocity that was wholly absent the week before in doing so. I could have done without additional offensive line injuries, but on the whole it was a very impressive effort. At least after the first quarter.

It's not that bad calls went against the Steelers that enraged me, per se, because bad calls happen all the time to every single team in the league. No, it's the type of calls and what they indicate about the direction of the NFL that pisses me off.

Of course, I can't mention the officials without some fuckwit commenter on KSK or elsewhere calling me a hypocrite because of the way I rant about Ravens fan conspiracy theorists who blame all their team's losses on the officiating. There's a very key and obvious difference to what I'm talking about and how Ravens fans claim the NFL is out to get them and doesn't want Baltimore to win. It's whiny bullshit to explain away losses.

And that difference is I don't think the NFL is out to "get" the Steelers. If they were, they're doing a piss-poor job of it, the 163 penalty yards on Sunday notwithstanding. The fines are one thing. James Harrison has been targeted by the media and the media dictates largely who gets fined and how much, sure, but that's more a function of circumstance than the fact it's James Harrison. Had the hits he gave Massaquoi and Cribbs happened last year, or any other year, it would have been dramatically different. It was the worst of all timing of him.

No, I think the Steelers are among the victims of a league that doesn't know how to solve its current PR crisis with head injuries and their after effects. The Steelers aren't the only victims, mind you. It's the entire league that suffers. Pittsburgh has just been the most visible case so far. Because they stand out with their style of aggressive defense.

And the NFL has made it clear that it wants defenses to be completely reactionary to what the offense is doing. To follow the NFL orthodoxy is to wait and let a play happen rather than attack. A receiver is not to be contacted until he's been allowed to make a catch and adjust. The quarterback can't be touched at any point after a throw has been made, even if it's a millisecond later and the momentum of the defender cannot be stopped. You might call those oversimplifications, but with the results of the past few weeks, it's difficult to draw alternate conclusions.

Let's take a look at the three egregious calls that bespeak the new NFL "emphasis":

The supposed helmet-to-helmet call here on Clark is by far the most troubling. At least one could say with the Woodley and Harrison roughing the passer penalties, as bad as they are, is that they are consistent with what the NFL has done of the last few years, which is protect the quarterback at all costs. The execution might be inane, but the spirit has been there for some time. The move to make receivers practically impossible to contact is relatively new and looks to be headed for just as an idiotic conclusion. Here we see Ryan Clark hitting a receiver IN THE BACK and being flagged for 15 yards. In fact, the new "emphasis" almost causes Clark to injure himself on the play.

The problem with penalizing any contact with the helmet by DBs is that you even make leading with the shoulder dangerous territory. You can make a perfectly legal tackle with the shoulder and still make contact with the helmet. It's something the NFL doesn't want to admit. The league is operating as though randomly throwing flags changes reality. That means a tackler is going to have to aim so low that you're see defenders nailed in the head with knees or jamming their necks. You basically trade receiver injuries for defensive back injuries. Or there's no contact at all and the sport changes irreparably.

The flags on Woodley and Harrison were dumb and wrong, but this is how referees are going to confront these types of hits going forward. They're under such pressure from the league to prevent injuries, even on legal contact, that penalties will get increasingly ticky tack. The only hope for those hoping to see the game maintain anything of its current (or past) form is the chance that the NFL is only going way overboard with its enforcement as a token show of empathy for player safety to make the ownership look better as it enters into CBA negotiations with the players union and tries to get a longer regular season schedule.

Fans want to heap all the blame on Roger Goodell. He's obviously part of the problem, but certainly not all of it. The commissioner has no authority without the consent of the owners as a collective. Getting rid of Goodell isn't going to give the NFL a sudden burst of clarity on what to do on the helmet hits issue. Furthermore, he's just not going anywhere. Well, at least for the time being. We'll see after this lockout happens.

Sunday was a great win for the Steelers but it was also a sad convergence of a bunch of worrisome trends that might plague the league for years to come. I love the Steelers but I also love the sport they play. The former won big on Sunday. The latter did not.

The Raiders As Annoying Bellwether

2010-11-19T09:52:00.003-05:00

2006 and 2009, the only two seasons the Steelers missed the playoffs since Ben Roethlisberger was drafted also featured humiliating losses to either plain terrible or woefully underachieving (take your pick) Raiders teams. Certainly there were other things going wrong those seasons, but it's hard to take a loss to Oakland as another other than a metaphorical canary going through the death throes on the ground of the coal mine.

This time around, the Raiders are flirting with respectability coming in. All of their starting defensive linemen have at least four and a half sacks. Darren McFadden is finally starting to fulfill his incredible promise. Darrius Heyward-Bey still isn't doing shit, but then the Raiders have gotten surprise contributions out of guys like Jacoby Ford. A loss to this team wouldn't be quite as embarrassing, but it could still be devastating to a season that started so promisingly.

By even their own admission, the Raiders can't do what the Patriots did to the Steelers last Sunday night, which is to say, they can't spread out the offense and dink the defense to death. The fact that the Raiders live mostly by the run plays right into the strength of the Pittsburgh defense. Yes, BenJarvus Green-Ellis actually had a pretty good outing last week, but I'm really not overly concerned with the run defense. When you're getting beaten that badly through the air, it's hard to clamp down seriously on the ground game as well.

The big issue, obviously come with the Steelers line having to block Oakland's front four. The Steelers' O-line made the Patriots parlous pass rush look like they were the goddamn Giants last week. The problem with that is threefold: the line had to improve, Roethlisberger has to be more decisive when he has the luxury of more than a second to throw and Bruce Arians has to call more pass plays that rely on three-step drops and routes that don't take far too long to develop.

How much confidence do you have in seeing all three of those things happening? Probably not a ton. Getting Chris Kemoeatu back will help up front, but even a thoroughly terrible loss like the one on Sunday won't even be enough to get Arians to make adjustments. I can only hope I'm wrong on that score.

Hines being back should help the red zone offense significantly, which was a huge liability last week and a reason why the game got out of hand the way it did. The pass rush too will have to rebound in a big way. The struggles against the Pats were partially brought on by design. If you're going to let the opposition spread you out, you're not going to have as many pass rushers getting to the QB. That said, Woodley was uncharacteristically dominated by Vollmer. He has to play better. Timmons and Polamalu are dinged up as well, but all indications suggest they will play.

And then of course, there's the great undesirable unknown that is the debut of Shaun Suisham. Let's just say the receivers are going to have to be better about hauling in passes they get their hands on in the end zone.

I know this was good week to be down on this team. Plenty of fans were. It's understandable, to a degree. The Steelers haven't played all that well the past few weeks and it's seldom any Steelers team loses by as much as the team did last week. Good teams respond to those kind of drubbings. Let's not forget that the Pats were coming off quite an embarrassing loss of their own the previous week in Cleveland. It was a bad loss to a team we hate to see beat us, but at 6-3, I doubt the Steelers will come in Sunday feeling sorry for themselves. Now they just have to give themselves a reason to feel good about the season again.

Disasters Don't Get Much More Unmitigated

2010-11-16T11:39:00.006-05:00

Criticism of Dick LeBeau isn't something readily offered or even reluctantly accepted among most Steelers fans, but he has to take a bit hit for the gameplanning against the Patriots on Sunday night.

That was every bit what the Patriots do every single time they play the Steelers and Pittsburgh looked wholly lost in their efforts to stop the New England offense or adjust to what they were doing. Underneath shit open all night. Outside stuff under 10 yards wide open.

That isn't to say all the throws were immediately there for Brady. It was another masterful performance against the Steelers, evidenced by the pinpoint accuracy on the first touchdown pass to Rob Gronkowski, who was actually well covered by William Gay.

LeBeau was also done no favors by James Harrison or LaMarr Woodley, who generated little to no pressure on Tom Brady. Woodley in particular was taken out of the game by Sebastian Vollmer. Timmons was by far the most impressive of the linebackers on Sunday night, which made it all the more distressing when Timmons left the game in the third quarter with a hip pointer.

Analysts and fans will gripe that most of Roethlisberger's stats came in mop-up duty and technically that's true, but I don't think Ben really played a poor game. He was done no favors in the first half with critical drops by Randle El and Wallace in the end zone.

Wallace excelled in more complex routes later in the game, which might be one of the few bright points to take away from this game. He'll need to continue to step up and be able to get open on patterns where he's just not streaking down the field when the rush comes.

Combine the drops with how little time Roethlisberger had to throw behind the patchwork offensive line and give him some credit for not even hanging in there. Losing Hines Ward in the first half on a helmet-to-helmet hit certainly didn't help matters, either.

The Hines hit sucks, but I'm fine with no penalty being called. It was a case similar to the Austin Collie concussion in the Colts-Eagles where a second defender hit the receiver with his helmet after the first defender started bringing him to the ground. Of course, the Collie hit was penalized in that game, but that was a mistake and I'm not advocating for the officials being wrong as long as it helps us. What does irritate me is the huge amount of attention given by the NBC announcers to a completely benign hit by James Harrison on Tom Brady later in the game. This is the second helmet hit that Hines has taken this season, along with the one issued by Saints DB on Sunday night a few weeks back, and no one cares. No stink is made. This one might be legal, but the Torrence one wasn't. Just imagine if that's James Harrison hitting Wes Welker. Never hear the end of it, regardless of the rules.

As for the line being a mess, I don't know what could possibly be done except hope for incremental gains from Jonathan Scott, the quick return of Chris Kemoeatu, Trai Essex sucking less and no one else getting hurt. That's not the most reassuring plan, but it's all we have until the off-season.

I'm willing to attribute some of what we saw to a fired up Patriots team coming off a loss, but that doesn't begin to cover what a monumental clusterfuck this game was. The line was slow and useless. The defense looked bamboozled and afraid to play aggressively.

Then there was this asshole:

I'll be the first to say I'm terrified of having Shaun Suisham as the team's kicker after the Steelers finally bid a long overdue smell ya later to Skippy. But there was no way the team could hold onto him at this point.

The team tolerated so much idiocy that Reed had no choice but to play well enough to make looking for a replacement unthinkable. And he really tried to test that by bitching about his contract during the preseason even after the team was made to look bad by bringing him back while ditching other so-called trouble cases like Santonio. Then he followed up shanking a 26-yarder at home in a still-competitive game by knocking fans, the media and the grass at Heinz. All of that might still have be forgiven if this year hasn't been one extended string of missed critical kicks.

If there's one minor solace it's that Suisham's try-out occurred at Heinz Field, which suggests that he fared at least halfway well at the stadium. But who knows just how desperate the team was to find ANYONE to take Reed's spot. Just as we'll found out how the line tries to rebound, that's something we're likely to discover with gritted teeth.

NO ONE DEFENDS THIS!

2010-11-12T10:22:00.005-05:00

Never have I wanted more to rub stats all over myself.

A team trying to make the first adjustments to life without their left tackle could do worse than draw an opponent with a negligible pass rush and an otherwise porous defense. That's what the Patriots have this year. To their credit, they also still have managed to post a 6-2 record despite that lackluster unit.

Of course, it's all on account of having MO-AH GRITTY HAAHHHHTTTT IN WOODHEAD NATION! or somesuch other thinly veiled racism from Pats fans.

A lot of the reason why, along with Miami and San Diego imploding against them, is that the Pats have Brady and an offense that doesn't turn the ball over a lot or commit a ton of penalties. The Steelers haven't beaten the Patriots with Tom Brady since Halloween in '04. Yeah, Pittsburgh rolled the Pats in Foxborough for a critical win in '08, but don't act like Brady being under center wouldn't have made it that much more sweet. The Stillers still have three consecutive losses to Dreamboat to avenge.

By now, we've all noticed the odd Cleveland Browns connection with the Steelers schedule. Cleveland played Baltimore the week before the Steelers did. Though the Browns lost, it wasn't by much and Peyton Hillis ran for 144 yards. The following week, the Ravens run D was slightly better and the Ravens beat the Steelers. The Browns beat the Saints in New Orleans the week before the Steelers went in there and lost. Then of course, there was the surprise pumbling the Brownies administered to New England last weekend.

Other than the to the paranoid among us (to which I'll admit to belonging occasionally) this doesn't mean a whole lot than hand wringing about facing a team now fired up after getting challenged by what's considered a lesser team. That's as much an excuse as the Patriots writers blaming some of Tom Brady's recent struggles on a minor foot injury that appeared on the injury report this week. Why, it's so debilitating that he's shown no visible effects of the injury.

So the focus will be on the O-line not to play so poorly as to make the Pats look competent on defense along with obvious improvement from William Gay and Bryant McFadden in coverage. Other than Brandon Tate, who isn't quite as skilled, the Patriots don't have anyone capable of burning them the way that T.O. did.

The Steelers took two out of three pretty tough road games in a row. Beating the Patriots would be important for reasons beyond the obvious sanity maintenance and playoff position implications, but because the following two weeks against a much improved Raiders team and the Bills, who despite still being winless are somehow able to play an agonizing brand of football where they are just good enough to lose as narrowly as possible to an opponent.

Oh Criminy

2010-11-10T09:04:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I was expressing relief that the Steelers, despite having three linemen go down on Monday night, seemed to escape any serious injury in the trenches. Then hours later, Ed Bouchette drops the bombshell that Max Starks' neck issues are much more serious than Mike Tomlin has been letting on and that Starks is probably/possibly done for the season.

Starks is seeking a second-opinion and is feverishly looking for a way to recover without season-ending surgery, but I'm operating under the assumption that his season is done. Which puts in the Steelers in a bit of a predicament in the trenches going forward. The obvious immediate move is to switch Flozell Adams from the right to the left side, which is where he's played most of his career anyway. Of course, Flozell's weakness is a slightly amplified version of Starks': he's slow and can be beaten around the edge by speed rushers. Not exactly a quality that makes you thrilled about someone protecting the QB's blind side.

That and Flozell has been generally good on run blocking to the right side, which is very the majority of the big plays in the running game have been coming from.

There aren't any particularly enticing candidates and the trade deadline has passed, so the chance for a quick fix through an acquisition seems slim. The team will probably sign someone to bolster depth on the line, but there isn't any chance for success in the near term that doesn't include Jonathan Scott, Tony Hills or Trai Essex stepping up.

It's an ominous way to mark the fourth consecutive season the Steelers have started 6-2. The three times the second half has failed to live up to the first, injuries have been a huge culprit. While Starks isn't anywhere near the talent level of Aaron Smith, but given the lack of depth the Steelers have at the position, it's still significant to lose the guy for the year. Let's just hope his replacement is up to the task and Bruce Arians is forced into coming up with more and better ways to counteract quick pressure from the defense than a goddamn bubble screen.

Ochocinco Hit The NyQuil Too Soon

2010-11-09T14:04:00.004-05:00

Some night to debut your ads for a sleep remedy, Ocho. If Chad didn't make his biggest impact on Monday night's game by yelling at his quarterback, you might be excused for forgetting that he was even on the field. Way to backup that "team of girls" bullshit you were spewing months back. Then again, let's just be glad Ocho isn't anywhere as good as his tard tandem buddy T.O. or that could have gone more worse.

I could have used some sleeping pills myself after that nerve-wracking finish. Thankfully Jordan Shipley is a little less trustworthy on 4th down than Brian Leonard or I'd be harping about one of the most agonizing collapses in Steelers' history. Even though the Bengals got quite a bit of help on questionable calls in their last touchdown drive, the Steelers have no one to blame but themselves for failing to put that game away before it got too dramatic for anyone's liking.

Jeff Reed missed another huge field goal. Yeah, he hit one from 53 yards, but the way he's been performing this season, who actually thought he would hit the one that counted most? I doubt the team will dump him before the season is out, unless he turns in some 0-for-4 performance at some point in the year, and that's a cause for concern going forward. The Steelers can't keep having to cover for him missing big kicks and hope to win. They just can't. It cost them against Baltimore. It cost them against New Orleans. They were fortunate that it didn't against Atlanta.

Bryant McFadden had an epically shitty night. I'm still glad to team reacquired him in the offseason, because without him the team might be in even worse straits in the secondary. But McFadden has been inconsistent at best this year. He's been good at times, but was burned by Houshmandzadeh at the end of the Ravens game and multiple times last night. I would include William Gay on the list of the burninated as well, but at least Gay made a handful of good plays to offset the stink of getting torched repeatedly by T.O. in coverage.

Roethlisberger deserves blame for a bad pick on an attempt to Miller when the Steelers still had a 27-13 lead in the 4th. You can bitch about Arians deciding to throw the ball in that situation, but it wasn't a bad playcall and Miller was open. Just a bad throw. I think Ben was fairly solid otherwise, but that error proved costly.

Where you can bitch about Arians is the pointless and maddening dependence on a never effective bubble screen. Yes, the offensive line was banged up last night and so the Steelers needed quick release plays to counteract the pass rush, but they have to come up with something else. It was one thing when they had Santonio, who is absolutely brilliant in the open field. Hines is a great player, but he's simply not quick and nimble enough at this point in his career to make that work. I really just assume they throw him one per game just to ensure that he maintains his consecutive games with a reception streak, but they went with bubble screens on consecutive plays to Hines and he fumbled the second when Leon Hall got his helmet in on Hines' hands. Even had Hines not fumbled, that play was going nowhere. At least try them at Wallace or don't even bother with them. Better yet, don't even bother with them.

I'm willing to excuse the fumble as a good play by the defender, but Hines can cut out that John Wall dance shit he did after he scored. It's old and brings too much joy to irritating D.C. fans. Cut it out.

Mike Wallace has great instincts to get jump balls. For someone of his size, he seems incredibly good at it. The TD pass from Randle El really wasn't that well thrown, but as was the case twice against the Buccaneers, Wallace just went up and got it. His four receptions were a season high, which seems odd for a guy now on pace for a thousand year season. I'll never get tired of the big plays, but I'd still like to see Wallace used for a few other functions than just fly routes.

Though the Steelers sustained more than a few injuries going into a short week - Will Allen, Mewelde Moore and Isaac Redman suffered concussions while Starks, Pouncey and Kemoeatu were all dinged up on the line. Of the O-line guys, only Kemo's seems to be at-all serious, though it looks like he'll only be limited in practice in advance of the game against the Patriots on Sunday.

I was a mess by the end, but the Steelers got a key win on the road over a division opponent that might just now check out for the season. The pass defense is going to have to step it up for Brady and the Pats, but I like the match-up with the running game going against the weak New England defense. Hopefully the line is in decent shape by the time Sunday rolls around. Should be a fun one.

Let's Get 'Em, Ladies

2010-11-05T11:18:00.006-04:00

I am watching Steeler film and i swear #onmymoma if James Harrison hit me like i am seeing on film we gone be fighting on the field #promiseless than a minute ago via webChad Ochocinco
OGOchoCinco

My Friday previews are typically earnest affairs where I parrot the same half-baked analysis that a couple dozen other Steelers bloggers are churning out in advance of the upcoming game. It helps me pretend like I actually have an idea how things are going to play out. A nice comforting delusion, you might say.

But in lieu of regularly scheduled ruminations of hot routes and not letting the opposing quarterback complete almost 90 percent of his passes in the second half, I would like to present an important message. And that message is fuck Chad Ochocinco and the withered Spanish dick he rode in on.

Chad's antics are occasionally amusing and altogether he seems an outspoken but generally decent guy. But his hang-up with the Steelers is enough to make me forget all of that and hope that he follows through on the threat he made last night on Twitter to fight James Harrison. PLEASE OH PLEASE LET THIS HAPPEN. I'll take James Harrison being further demonized by the media if it means Ochocinco gets knocked into a nice deep - most importantly SILENT - comatose state.

Ocho talks loads of shit regardless of the opponent, but he's been taking it to another level with the Steelers over the past year. This would seem odd given that the Bungles swept Pittsburgh last year, but then you have to remember Chad never does shit against the Steelers. Me-first assholes aren't concerned whether the team wins if they don't get to look good. Three touchdowns in 17 career games against the Steelers. An average of 65.4 yards per game, which is the worst figure for Chad among all AFC North opponents. Astounding stuff, Ocho.

In short, dude's grossly overrated and worked up by his lack of production against the division's regular powerhouse. It helps to explain why, apropos of nothing, he called the Steelers a "team of girls" during some random interview in the offseason to promote one of his many shitty TV shows. DURR HURR THAT CHAD FLINGS THE ZINGS!

It's even worse because this year he's being badly outperformed by Terrell Owens, the other half of his tard tandem in the receiving corps. Owens is probably are the only part of the Cincinnati offense that worries me going in Monday night. The Bengals are a talented enough team that they, like the Saints, could put together a good performance with the added motivation of being desperate for a win and playing in primetime. But Chad, as always, won't do shit but maybe throw in some more empty talk if the Bengals do happen to win.

Oh, and fuck both these diptards for this dim racial commentary on the Roethlisberger and Vick suspensions. I'm sure the difference in punishment has nothing to do with Vick actually having been convicted of a felony. When Michael Vick gets suspended for something when he's not even arrested or charged, get back to me, shitheads.

Your Quarterly Team-by-Team Breakdown

2010-11-02T12:09:00.038-04:00

Oh, yes. AFC Pencils, circa 1989.
(Bonus points if you can spot the only missing one)

As Mr. Tunison has pointed out, The NFC struck back a bit this past week. But instead of focusing on the merits league parity, he aptly stated, it should be noted that the playoff picture is a rather muddled one. Really, EVERY TEAM HAS ISSUES. Let us sift through them, shall we...

New England (6-1):
With Cleveland this Sunday, these guys are likely to be 7-1 when they come to Pittsburgh in two weeks. I cannot stand Bill Belichek, but there is simply no denying that his ability to groom a team of slightly-above-average talent in to one that will challenge for home field advantage in the playoffs is impressive. That's the "Bad News" as far as I'm concerned. The "Good News" is, as a team, they are fatally flawed and I cannot see them making it too deep in the playoffs. Their secondary is abysmal. They give up nearly 300 yds/gm in the air, 31st in the league. The Jets were able to exploit this, Sanchez spread around 3 TDs to his receivers (sans Santonio), pressured Brady on defense with aggressive blitz schemes and dealt New England their only loss. These are things that a more polished Steelers' O and keyed-up Steelers' D are certainly capable of. I just hope we can make the necessary adjustments on a short week following Cincy.

New York Jets (5-2):
Most of the talking heads mention the Jets & Steelers as the two best defenses this season. Some of that praise is fair, as they've been shutting down teams' running games all season. But, their offense has sputtered at times. They are coming off a surprisingly stymied 9-0 loss to the Packers, especially considering it followed the team's bye week. With games in Detroit & Cleveland coming up, I would be shocked if they don't challenge for their division at the very least. Our matchup with them on Dec. 19 will go a long way in determining the AFC's playoff picture and may be a preview of Wild Card Weekend.

Baltimore (5-2):
Joe Flacco and his band of miscreants hold the tie-breaker in our division. After we lost to them in October, I figured we'd have to beat Baltimore in December to win the division. But with the Ravens having yet to face six teams with winning records to our three, we could backdoor the AFC North crown. The Steelers' wins over Atlanta, Miami & Tampa (all teams Baltimore has yet to face) are huge now, as could be a loss by the Ravens to Cincy. Ed Reed's impact on the Ravens' secondary was immediate and cannot be overlooked (2 INTs), but even "Homeless Beard" couldn't keep the great Ryan Fitzpatrick under 350 yards passing. And let's not forget, the FIX WAS IN in Miami, so the Dolphins are likely a better team than we all realize. Coming off the bye this week, Baltimore opened at nearly a touchdown favorite over Miami, but then Vegas remembered Chad Henne prefers to win on the road, so who knows.

Kansas City (5-2):
It is likely that KC will be a home underdog in the first or possibly even second round of the playoffs this year (if they sneak out a bye). This team continues to post wins, flying under the radar and taking advantage of a schedule that is beyond easy. Seriously, someone from Elias or Football Outsiders get on this: They haven't won a game against a single team with a winning record. And it's possible that they won't all season and still get to double-digit wins! Amazing. But, let's not kid ourselves, the stats bear out that the Chiefs have one of the best running offenses in football and are rather adept at stopping the run. That's a good combination. Matt Cassell won't be hoisting any Lombardi's, in my opinion, and there is NO team I'd rather face in January, but they'll be there, make no mistake.

Indianapolis (5-2):
I'm not going to fall at the feet of Jim Caldwell, but he's obviously pulling the right strings in Indy. The Colts have dealt with a myriad of injuries since the season's onset and have still managed to lead their division, albeit tenuously. Monday Night Football painted a picture of a Colts defense that was disruptive of the pass and stout against the run. A lot of that was just Gary Kubiak's ineptitude, if you ask me. The Colts give up an average of 133 yards on the ground a game. They also have proven to be shakey on the road, where they are headed this Sunday against Philly. Manning has worked efficiently in almost every game this season, as the Colts have had to outscore, rather than stop their opponents. It'll be interesting to see if that approach will work against a rather potent Eagles offense.

Tennessee (5-3):
Vince Young is the number one rated QB in the league. Chris Johnson is third in the league in total yards. Kenny Britt has established himself as a dynamic receiving threat, hauling 7 TDs in as many weeks. But Vince Young has been knocked out of part of three games. Chris Johnson has been feast or famine, with four games over 100 yards rushing and four games under 70 yards. It is looking like Kenny Britt might not be around for awhile. And all of this is to say nothing of a defense that is toward the bottom of the league (28th). With four teams at .500 or better, the AFC South is looking like a game of divisional playoff musical chairs, with a good chance at a second-place finisher snagging a Wild Card Birth. I'm just not so sure the Music City will have a chair when the tune stops.

Miami (4-3):
I wrote before about how Miami is curious. At 4-3, they still have a shot at the playoffs, but they're sucking hind tit in a division that may very well produce two playoff teams ahead of them. Here's the deal: they rank right around the middle on all four statistical team categories, much like the Patriots. They have more talent in the backfield and on the defensive side of the ball than does New England. But their coach and QB are second-rate. An upset here or there and they could leap-frog the Jets or Pats, but I don't see it happening as games against both will be on the road. Wait, they're good on the road?

Houston (4-3):
As I stated above, Gary Kubiak really mismanaged the game this past Monday. I'm not saying Houston would've won if they'd handled the ball to Foster or thrown to Johnson more. But, I cannot imagine having two potent weapons like that and failing to use them would be a GOOD thing. Giving up 300 passing yards a game on defense is never good, but averaging 136 rushing is. With Johnson and Schaub failing to meet last season's form, the Texans will have to pound the rock and develop some effective defensive strategy in order to make a playoff push. But, it's unlikely. I think they'll lose to the Chargers this week, essentially burying them behind a tough schedule and two or three teams in their own division.

Jacksonville (4-4):
The last team on this list that could conceivably make the playoffs. David Garrard went nuts, Sunday, but that was against a reeling Cowboys squad that, it makes me giddy to even type this: Is already circling the drain. A closer look at Jacksonville's season shows they've only beat one team with a winning record and have yet to play Houston as they head in to the bye. A week 10 matchup between those two teams will go a long way in determining who could rise to the playoff ranks. My money is on neither, though. In fact, the two teams are VERY similar: Above average running backs, porous defense and a QB that can flash the deep ball, but little else. I just don't think the Jags will avoid two or more losses against the Giants, Colts, Titans and twice vs. the Texans. It's going to take 10-6 to dance this year.

San Diego (3-5):
Finishing 7-1 is not out of the question for the Chargers. Yes, that's right. I mean, look at this:
Those numbers are indicative of a team with MAYBE one loss. The Chargers will have to upset Indy, KC or Houston to reenter the playoff discussion. But, that's not impossible. Still, I have to believe the hole is too deep. I'm not a Rivers fan by any means, but watching him put up numbers with 4th and 5th string receivers that could end up being some of the best of all-time is impressive. It's a shame, really.

Cincinnati (2-5):
This is great. A free-fall against below average opponents, a crumbling before our eyes QB and an offense that basically gave up on what was a good system last year (TO & Ocho deserve each other) and you have a concoction that I pray that we can reap the benefits of in the form of two wins. If we are able to do so, and that's still a big "if" then we may have the Bungles to thank for helping our season as much as say, the fumble in to the endzone rule. I'm going to say something here: I've always thought Marv Lewis was a good coach. Certainly an adept defensive mind. But he will likely get the boot at some point this year. Completely undeservedly so. I will, however, be glad when he's no longer in our division as a head coach.

Cleveland (2-5):
Cleveland started off the season with three straight heart breakers. It's a shame, too, because they have some legitimate building blocks. Peyton Hillis is not awful. He's been a great find and something that the Browns, if they know what they have, will use to establish a running game to pound lesser opponents with. Also, early returns indicate that Colt McCoy is not terrible. Were he to have a few more vertical threats, like any, maybe they'd make .500 a reality. Next year, perhaps. I'll tell you one thing, however: If we are counting on a week 17 win against this squad to get us in to the playoffs, then we've already lost in a way.

Denver (2-6):
Another disappointment. People paying attention to the Broncos reliance on the pass early on in the season may have known that they were in trouble, but it wasn't until their absolute trouncing at the hands of the Raiders that the issues came fully in to the light. Kyle Orton & Brandon Lloyd. Both putting up crazy fantasy numbers. On my team. Both in football purgatory. Hilarious.

Toronto/Buffalo (0-7):
They're not going winless. That is about all that matters as far as their season is concerned.

Playoffs...PLAYOFFS?!?!?!

I just don't see any way the Pats & Jets don't come out of the East. Right now, I'd give the edge to the North to snag the other Wild Card, but the South certainly has the most teams positioned to do so. Hopefully the Jags & Texans will neutralize each other on that front.

East: New England 12-4(BYE)
North: Baltimore 12-4(BYE)
West: Kansas City 10-6
South: Indianapolis 11-5

Wild Card:
Pittsburgh - 11-5
NY Jets 10-6

(Don't hold me to this stuff...)

Steelers Run Into The Wrong Saints

2010-11-01T16:59:00.007-04:00

Ben setting up for his lethal back body drop on Will Smith.

Otherwise occupied by various other blogging jobs from pregame Sunday night until, well, just a few minutes before 11 p.m. on Monday night. Without getting into too much detail about the blog slog, I haven't had a ton of time to post a recap here. Your bated breath is appreciated.

By now everyone has had time to digest or vomit in the face of the disgusting display of offense the Steelers put on in the Superdome. I've seen it compared to the game in Cleveland last season, but I'd say is apt. In that game, the Browns kept bringing the house and the Steelers couldn't burn them, mostly because Arians elected to pass into heavy wind gusts with poor blocking schemes.

There's not much blaming wind inside the dome, but Arians didn't do a great job of designing quick throws to counteract the blitz. Of course, Ben deserves his share of blame for holding the ball in some situations, but there's only so much a quarterback can do when a offensive coordinator calls for slow-developing pass patterns when a defense is sending six rushers.

It doesn't help that Pittsburgh didn't get any lucky breaks on offense, either. Emmanuel Sanders foolishly slapped away what would have probably been a Hines Ward touchdown on a 4th down attempt in the 3rd quarter.

Blerg.

After Antwaan Randle El's touchdown was overturned, Rashard Mendenhall got the ball over the plane two plays later, but he was ruled short. The Steelers should have challenged, but didn't, claiming they didn't get a good review angle after the game.

But wait, I thought the refs bended over backwards to award Steelers touchdowns at the goal line. Guess I'll have to glom on to some other conspiracy. Got any good ones about the reserve vampires?

Credit to Drew Brees. He had a monster second half and responded to what could have been a killer fumble forced by Bryant McFadden to put the Steelers away when Heath Miller gave the ball back.

A couple other rants before I get some much-needed sleep:

- We all know the pass coverage blew in the second half. I wonder if sending more elaborate blitzes, as Cleveland did the week before to force turnovers might have been more effective.

- Emmanuel Sanders has been a decent fourth receiving option and looked solid as a return guy, at least when he isn't putting the ball on the ground. There were excuses that his first fumble was the result of a head shot and the second is because he was hit from behind. I'm willing to accept the first, but unexpected hits are no excuse for dropping it on kick returns. Will be interesting whether Antonio Brown will get another shot if that persists.

- Mike Wallace made one big catch over the middle, but the Saints taking away the deep ball with safety help contributed to tightening up the Steelers offense. Hopefully this will force Arians to expand his role beyond streak patterns. That isn't to suggest that was all Wallace was doing on Sunday night, but it certainly seemed that way on pass plays of longer than six yards or so.

- Get fucked, Jeff Reed.

-Get double fucked by a chainsaw, Leigh Torrence. Of course, everyone is carrying on again about how James Harrison is dirty and horrible for a late hit on Drew Brees. It was dumb, don't get me wrong, but while Harrison will be fined for his hit, Torrence seems likely to get nothing for his helmet-to-helmet shot on a defenseless Hines Ward in the first half. Wasn't this what the NFL was supposedly guarding against now. Goddamn, Goodell's enforcement is completely predicated on media pressure.

- Polamalu didn't exactly have his best game. His missed one tackle in the open field on Julius Jones and guessed wrong on coverage on a play that ended up going for 50 yards. Like Heath Miller's fumble, it's an unfortunate rarity that you hope doesn't reemerge in another big game.