Steelers Dominate Panthers 27-3

It was two nights before Christmas and all through the stadium, the Steelers were scoring, making the game far from boring.  The Steelers flat out dominated the overmatched Panthers.  The air attack that was Big Ben to Wallace and Miller was second to none. Big Ben threw for 320 yards and a TD and had another TD overturned as well. Wallace put up 4 catches for over 100 yards and Miller posted 5 catches for 73 yards. We had mentioned that Miller should and would be a key to the game and he was. That’s important as he can make up for whta seems to be lacking in the run game. Mendenhall had 18 carries for 65 yards. That’s not terrible, BUT, 35 of those yards were on one carry.  Those numbers must improve as the Steelers head to the playoffs.  The O line is still not creating the wholes for the speedy Mendenhall to breakthrough. We see this as a big concern, clearly. 

Defensively the Steelers dominated again, only allowing three points. Ryan Mundy, better known as Troy’s replacement, posted 8 tackes to lead the team. Collectively the Steelers had 4 sacks and a pick. They do need to improve the bend but don’t break D they have been playing though. You may be saying what the hell are you talking about? Well, let me tell you. They seem to give up a lot of yards on several occasions before they finally put the clamps on and force the opposing team to punt. As you may have noticed the past two weeks, this play, while not allwoing opposing points, has pinned the Steelers deep in their own end zone. With a porous line, the offense is struggling, then punting deep from their own zone and the cycle continues. We’d like to see the D force more 3 and outs.

We felt that oveall it was a complete game and a game that they had to win to stay in front of the dirty purple crows in Baltimore.  Tomlin should have pulled Ben and the starters and the special teams coverage is still weak, but overall they got the job done against the worst team in football.

11-4, next up: Cleveland

Tavern 245/Steel Nation Association Event!

On 12/23/10, come out to Tavern 245 at 245 4th Ave. Pittsburgh, PA. Join us in your opportunity to purchase discounted memberships, win drawings sponsored by Tavern 245, Courthouse Tavern and Steel Nation Association. And as always, 20% of our profits go to the kids at Children’s Hospital. We hope to see you all there!

Steelers Blow Game To Jets, Lose 22-17

The Steelers came into today one game up on the Ravens in the AFC North and had a chance to clinch a playoff spot with a win.  Instead, they left tied with the Ravens in the AFC North and the Jets left with a playoff spot clinched.  Pittsburgh knew this was going to be a hard fought contest, a defensive struggle but the didn’t get the job done today. The opening kick was returned by the Jets for a TD and they took a quick 7-0 lead.  The Steelers were able to tie the game at 7 in the 2nd quarter, and traded field goals after that to make it 10-10 at half time.  They took a 17-10 lead and then the Jets did the rest of the scoring to win 22-17.  The worst play of the game came in the last few minutes of the 4th quarter, down 20-17. The Steelers had the ball on their own two yard line. They go into a shotgun and hand the bal off in the end zone to Mewelde Moore. Jason Taylor busted through the backfield and pummled Moore in the end zone for a safety which essentially sealed the game.  The Steelers made a 87 yard drive at the end of the game, but they needed 92 yards to win.  They fell short on two incomplete passes from Roethlisberger in the end zone and the Jets left victorious.

Big Ben threw for 264 yards and a TD but he was off today. It may have been the weather, it may have been the gloves, it may have been the receivers running poor routes and dropping balls but it all added up to 21 incompletions on 44 throws.  The offense wasn’t putrid like in recent weeks but they just couldn’t put it all together when they needed to. Mendenhall put together 100 yards on only 17 carries against a very strong Jets defense but it just wasn’t enough today.  The offensive line showed once again it’s not very solid as they gave up three sacks, a safety and several hurries in which Big Ben fumbled twice.  The defense showed that without Troy Polamalu they just aren’t the same. They were unable to truly contain a struggling Mark Sanchez who was a respectable 19/29 for 170 and no interceptions.  Side note, we think Sanchez is a jerk off but we digress. The D only got to Sanchez for 1 sack. Timmons and Harrison were animals combining for 23 tackles but they weren’t able to ever really pressure Sanchez.  The defense also gave up 106 yards on the ground to the Jets running attack. That’s not seen often but the Steelers were unable to mix up their blitzes and coverage without number 43. 

The team did reduce the penalties as we had been calling for, only having 3 today but they just didn’t have enough of the all around game to get it done. A failed special teams play, a failure to get to Sanchez and a failure to get the down the field on offense effectively cost the Steelers the game. They better get over it fast though, they play their final home game of the year, barring playoffs, this Thursday night.

A couple of notes, we had mentioned you should compare Holmes vs. Wallace today to see who comes out with the better numbers. For the record, it was Wallace! He had 7 catches for 102 yards while Holmes had 6 catches for 40 yards.  The problem with that number is the Steelers allowed Braylon Edwards 8 catches for 100 yards. (NO TROY!)

We had mentione how Harrison didn’t tackle anyone last week, he picked up 10 today.

The bottom line about today, it wasn’t a crippling loss, it didn’t change much, the Steelers still hold the 2 spot in the AFC for now and a tie breaker over the Ravens, but they must win their final two games to keep both of those in tact.  They should be able to but you never know.  The Steelers were out coached today. The 4th and 1 bootleg and the 3rd and 3 snap to the RB were proof of that. We think they’ll bounce back but a couple things are very obvious, the team must get better on the O Line, special teams, in the secondary and the coaches must game plan better….yeah, we’re talking to you Tomlin and Arians.

10-4, next up Carolina.

Led By Polamalu, Steelers Defense Dominates Bengals

It didn’t start off well as the Cincinnati Bengals took their opening drive down the field for a 7-0 lead but after that, it was an all world day for the Steelers defense.  Troy Polamalu was the spark plug that led the charge today as he had two interceptions, one in his own endzone when the game was decided and one, more importantly, withe the Steelers down 7-0 with about 5 minutes to play in the 2nd quarter. That interception Troy returned 45 yards, the last 2 of those yards in mid air, for a TD to tie the game and shift the momentum the Steelers way.  Troy was everywhere today, but he wasn’t the only one, LaMarr Woodley had 5 tackles, 2 sacks and a pick returned for a TD as well! The defense was clearly too much for Carson Palmer as they forced him into those three interceptions, sacked him three times and only allowed him to throw for 178 yards and a feeble 48.7 QB rating.  To top that off the Steelers only allowed 34 total yards on the ground as Casey “Big Snack” Hampton plugged the middle and the linebackers led by Woodley, Timmons (5 tackles) and James Farrior (10 tackles) didn’t allow any type of penetration.  The secondary was pretty decent today too as they held T.O. and Ochocinco to a total of 7 catches, only one of which went to Owens.  If you read our Game Day section you know we said that stopping Owens was important, mission accomplished.  Overall, defensviely, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! Well done boys.

Offensvively, the Steelers were moderately effective. Moderately because they moved the ball but didn’t score a TD. Ben was on target most of the day as he went 21/33 for 258 yards, no TD’s but no INT’s either.  His favorite target today was Hines Ward who he hit 8 times for 115 yards. Ward showed he still has the ability to get behind the defense and come up with a big catch when needed. We were very impressed with the Steelers on third downs today as they converted 7 of their third downs.  One of them, a 3rd and 1 was set up by a 2nd and 30 that saw Ben hit Hines (who made a great over the head catch) for 29 yards.  That catch was great but Randle El made a catch in the first half that will be a top 10 catch on the season in the NFL. Ben overthrew him and Randle El leaped up several feet, reached his right hand out and brought the ball in with one hand only, spectacular. If you missed it, see the highlights.

Overall a very pleasing game by the Steelers, they can improve the offense as far as scoring more points, especially in the red zone. They’ll need to down the stretch and against a defense like the Jets next week but we’ll take the outcome of course. Now, as far as penalties, we’ve been hitting on this as a key to the Steelers for weeks now but they had another 9 penalties for 89 yards. We’ll admit, some of those calls, especially the Pass Interference call on Taylor, were complete garbage, but, the team needs to be far more diciplined than they are. They had too many holding calls and mistakes. That goes on to coaching, Tomlin needs to lace into these guys and make them accountable for these egregious errors. We are sick of saying this but one day those types of penalties will cost the Steelers big. They must fix this now.

That all said, let’s enjoy the rainy day win, over a division rival. The Steelers are one step closer to the AFC North title and a possible first round bye. Keep it up boys!

10-3, next up: NY Jets

Steelers Defeat Ravens 13-10 In Hard Hitting Game

It wasn’t always pretty but it was exactly the kind of game we thought it would be, hard hitting and low scoring. The end result was fantastic, the Steelers came out of the Sunday Night battle in Baltimore with a huge 13-10 win. This win puts the Steelers in sole possesion of first place in the AFC North and in prime positiion to grab one of the top 2 seeds in the AFC. Obviously they have to take care of their business in the last 4 weeks of the season, but tonight they can celebrate the big win and worry about the rest starting tomorrow.

It didn’t start off great as the Steelers offense was pretty anemic in the first half. Big Ben playing on a broken foot looked a little hobbled and off key. He wasn’t getting the ball in to his receivers accurately and when he was, the receivers were dropping the ball.  The first half saw Ben’s nose broken and Dan Sepulveda blow an ACL and lead to the Steelers place kicker Sean Suisham taking over the punting duties the rest of the way. Suisham got the job done. 

At half the black and gold were down 7-0.  They began to climb their way back in led by Big Ben and Troy Polamalu. Roethlisberge made some serious plays and had one play, an incompletion, that was down right amazing.  With the Steelers down 10-6 late in the 4th quarter and the ball on the Raven 10, Terrell Suggs, who had been an animal all game, got to Big Ben, wrapped him up and tried to strip the ball. Ben, somehow, managed to run backwards, stiff arm suggs, twist around and backhand throw the ball out of bounds, saving the team 7 yards.  They scored 2 plays later on a Big Ben pass to Redman and that’s all she wrote. 

A few things to come from this game are glaring. Once again the Steelers committed far too many penalties with 9. They had two pass interference calls on McFadden, they had a 3rd down conversion called back on an illegal formation and they had a punt downed inside the Raven 5 yard line overturned due to a stupid penalty. Those need to stop. They overcame them today, but that’s a big thanks to Troy Polamalu who got to Flacco in the dwindling minutes of the 4th and forced a fumble. 

It’s obvious to us that Mike Wallace is now the team’s top receiver, he pulled in 5 balls for 76 yards while Hines only caught one for 13 yards.

Randle El appears to be a fair catch punt returner only at this point. Look for him to be on another team or out of the league in 2011. 

McFadden looks terrible, he’s this week’s William Gay.  He was burned so many times and he looked bad. He’s better than Gay, but wow, he could have been the reason the Steelers lost, if they had.

James Farrior is a beast as he led the team with 7 tackles.

James Harrison was playing like the Harrison of old and we love that.

Big Ben is a man, playing with a broken foot and nose, he got the job done again and has now won his last 6 starts against Baltimore and 8 of 10 overall.

Overall a tough win, the team lost Heath to a concussion and “Glass” Flozell Adams to an ankle sprain.  They’ll also most likely need to sign a new punter with Sepulveda going down with an ACL. 

The Miller hit was absurd and flagrant, the refs blew it as usual and didn’t call a thing. McLain best be fined but where the hell was the flag? Speaking of fines and flags, where was the flag on Ngata when he broke Ben’s nose? Oh, Baltimore wears purple and black not black and gold.  You know damn well if a Steeler, particularly Harrison was involved in either of those hits there would be a 15 yard penalty and a massive fine. We’ll see on the fines but the penalties never happened.

None the less, the Steelers won and that’s all that matters.

9-3, up next: Cincinnati

Children’s Hospital Dick Lebeau Night Before Christmas Event

This is an annoucement to let everyone in the Steel Nation know that on 12/10/10 Dick Lebeau will be reading the Night Before Christmas at Children’s Hospital. This event is $300 per ticket and all proceeds go to the hospital. Hope to see you all there!