One Week Til The Big Game!

With one week left til the big game we thought we’d do a little re cap of the Steelers season so far and the keys to getting them to this point, take a peak and enjoy:

The Defense-With Big Ben out for the first 4 weeks the team did go 3-1 but the offesne struggled, the defense knew they’d have to step it up and did so from game one. Led in tackles this season by Lawrence Timmons, the linebackers and company never allowed a single 100 yard rusher. Troy Polamalu missed a few games but he made some BIG plays and had 7 interceptions as well as always being a constant presence tha tthe opposing offense must be aware of. The D was ranked #2 overall on the season and #1 in rush defense on the season only allowing 62.8 yards on the ground per game. That was #1 by a large margin (28 yards).  Despite their issues in the secondary occasionally, they still ranked #12 in pass defense.

Troy Polamalu made play after play this season and was a great candidate for defensive player of the year. Check out some of his highlights here:

Lawrence Timmons was the leading tackler on the team this year and this tackle below sums up his entire way of playing this season:

Lastly on the defense how can we show highlights without the team sack leader and fine leader due to his rabid style of play, James “Silver Back” Harrison:

Offensively the team struggled out of the gates without Big Ben but they still managed to put up a 3-1 record. Dennis Dixon and Charlie Batch shared the snaps until his return. Mendenhall put up over a thousand yards and when Big Ben Returned he passed for over 3,000 and protected the ball by avoiding interceptions. The offensive line suffered several injuries but got the job done in the clutch. We’ll show you a few of the big game players highlights here:

Big Ben-He may never have had a bigger role in the Steelers success in any season like he did in this one. He made so many smart plays and really became a team leader for the first time.  He played through injuries and really showed his worth.

Mike Wallace led the league in yards per catch and led the team in yards and receptions, he’s as fast as they come and here you see why the Steelers love him!

And what would the Steelers be without a Running Back?  Rashard Mendenhall stepped up and delivered another 1,000 yard black and gold rusher:

That all said, it’s a team game and the boys did it together, they overcame adversity off the field, injuries and odds and they got to the super bowl. They now have one more big game they need to deliver in!

Steelers Crash Jets, Head to Dallas!

And the stairway to seven continues!  The Steelers got the job done last night and beat the Jets 24-19 to win their 8th conference championship of all time and get their shot at winning their 7th Super Bowl title!  It started off with a bang as the Steelers jumped out to an early 7-0 lead on a 9 minute dive that ended with a Mendenhall TD.  A field goal, a Big Ben 2 yard run and a William Gay fumble return for a TD put the Steelers up 24-0 right before half. The Jets were able to add a field goal to make it 24-3 at half and subsequently scored the only 16 points of the second half to make the final score 24-19 but all that matters is the Steelers survivied and are moving on to play the Packers in the Super Bowl. How’d they beat the Jets?  Well, it was a game of power as Mendenhall managed to run for 121 yards and the defense stuffed the Jets as they held them to 289 total yards, only 70 on the ground.  The linebackers led the way again as they combined for 29 tackles, 10 of them by their season leader and game leader, Timmons.  The defense is always stellar and this is what we have all come to expect but we’ve also come to expect huge numbers from Big Ben each and every game and last night’s numbers were pedestrian but he was still the emotional leader of the team and made great decisions on just about every play. Despite going just 10 of 19 for 133 yards and 2 interceptions, he had a rushing TD, he had an improvisation on a wishbone pitch to Mendenhall that was career highlight worthy and he made the decisive throw to Antonio Brown on 3rd and 6 to end the game and sen dthe black and gold back to the big game.  It’s certainly nice to see Ben and the team trusting the rookies Brown and Emmanuel Sanders and seeing those guys prove they are trustworthy. Two weeks in a row Brown caught the decisive pass, we love seeing that! 

The boys now have two weeks to get ready for Aaron Rodgers and the Packers. We certainly like the fact that a lot of the Steelers have been a part of the last two titles and have that experience. They’ll need it when they play that potent air attack that Green Bay sports.

A couple of notes, the Steelers kept the penalties to a minimum, only committing four for 25 yards, we’ve been asking for that all year and finally got it!  No word yet on Pouncey but he’s a must play in the Super Bowl for the Steelers to truly be succesful. Legursky did an admirable job but Pouncey is in the Pro Bowl for a reason and we need him!

When it was all said and done the Jets had nothing to do but pick their noses and wipe them clean: 

Conference Champs, up next: Green Bay in the Super Bowl!

Steelers Kick Ravens Out of Playoffs

It didn’t start off pretty but in the end history proved to repeat itself once more as the Steelers beat the Ravens in the playoffs 31-24. This is now the 3rd time in 3 tries that the Steelers have knocked the Ravens from the postseason.  It’s also the 6th time in 6 tries that Ben Roethlisberger has beaten Joe Flacco.  However, to get the desired end result the Steelers had to climb up hill in the second half.  The first half started ok with a 7-0 Steeler lead but they subsequently gave up 21 consecutive points, largely due to penalties, sacks, poor special teams play and turnovers and they found themselves down 21-7 at the half. 

The second half saw the roles reversed as the Steelers came out and caused all the turnovers, sacks and miscues and took full advantage of it. Thanks in part to two TD passes by Big Ben, the black and gold tied the game at 21 and a field goal by Suisham gave the Men of Steel a 3 point lead in the 4th.  It appeared that if the Steelers played solid D the rest of the way, as the had done all game, the game was won. The forgotten part, special teams. The Steelers punted late in the 4th and it was returned for a TD, if not for a holding call on the Ravens it would have given them the lead. Instead they found themselves out of the end zone but in great field position at the Steeler 29.  They got the ball within the Steeler 10 before the D held and forced a FG and the game was tied at 24 at that point. Just minutes later the Steelers had the ball in their own territory with a 3rd and 19 and looking at punting the ball to the Ravens with plenty of time to go.  That’s when Big Ben delivered a perfect ball downfield to Antonio Brown that put the ball inside the Raven 5. It was a great catch and couldn’t have come at a more clutch time of the game.  See video here:

From there the Steelers ran a little more time off the clock and Mendenhall put in his 2nd TD of the game to ice it.

It was a huge win, obviously, but Big Ben proved again that he’s a big game, elite QB. He was 19 of 32 for 226 yards 2TD and no interceptions.  It’s not like they were playing the Panthers, this was against a good Raven D.  The thing we like the most abou Roethlisberger’s passing exhibition yesterday was his confidence in the two rookies, Antonio Brown and Emmanuel Sanders. Brown led the team with 75 receiving yards and combined the two had 7 catches for 129 yards. The Big Dogs that are Ward and Wallace had 6 catches for 45 yards. That should serve notice to the rest of the league that even if you shut down the top two, you better worry about numbers 3 and 4 on the depth chart as well.  The Defense was stellar as usual only allowing 126 total yards. James Harrison led the way with 3 sacks and Timmons led the team in tackles as usual with 9.  We had mentioned in our pregame to watch the linebackers, we hope you did as they combined for 24 tackles 4 sacks!

The assumption here and around most of the league is the Steelers will face the Pats next week for the AFC title. While this was a great win, they must come out of the gates faster, limit the stupid penalties, turnovers an dumb challenges by Tomlin. Yes, Tomlin made a very dumb challenge on the Big Ben fumble.  Bottom line, they will need to play a full 60 minutes. 

Big win, even better when they beat the Baltimore Ravens, enjoy it and let’s wait til next week to see if the road to 7 can live on!

Steelers Destroy Browns, Clinch #2 Seed in Playoffs

The Steelers have now won 14 of 15 and 20 of 22 against the Browns after the man handled them today 41-9.  The win while big in scroring, was also big for the Steelers playoff run. This win locked up the #2 seed, a first round bye and gave the Steelers at least one home game in the playoffs. (We are hearing they will be playing on 1/15 at 4:30pm by the way). 

It was all Pittburgh from the get go. Cleveland received the ball first and on their opening drive Troy Polamalu picked off a Colt McCoy pass to give the ball to Pittsburgh on their own 44. The very next play Big Ben threw a deep bomb to the speedy Mike Wallace and the Steelers took an early 7-0 lead. They neve r looked back from there taking a 14-0 lead and a 31-3 lead into the half.

It was a stellar day for Big Ben as he was 15 for 22 and a whopping 280 yards with 2 TD and no interceptions.  Oh by the way, he only play 2.5 quarters.  After the Steelers took a 38-3 lead, Leftwich and the rest of the subs came into the game. This was done in an effort to keep the team healthy for the playoffs. Unfortunatley it probably should have been done earlier for Maurkice Pounce as he left the game with an injury. Rumor has it as a stinger, so he should be ok. We were  a bit frustrated about that but as long as he’s ok we’ll get over it.  Other than that, if you couldn’t tell, the offense dominated. Wallace led the way with 105 yards on 3 catches, sprinkle in Hines Ward, Heath Miller and 5 other receivers and it was a great day for the passing game. Hell, Randle El even threw a TD pass today. It truly was a thing of  beauty.

The ground attack was questionable as Rashard Mendenhall only 36 yards on 14 carries. That is not going to get it done during crunch time. The team had 30 carries for 100 yards even which is 3.3 yards a carry. We tend to think a good average is 4.0, that needs to improve.  They have a week off to fix that.

The defense was it’s usual self led by Lawrence Timmons with 9 tackles, they had 4 sacks and 3 picks. Troy Polamalu was super man in his retun with his pick but he also did another ‘fly over’ the line of scrimmage. It was great to see him out there.

The key to all of this is they won, getting the bye week and the home game. The bye week should allow everyone to get the rest they need and get healthy.  There are even thoughts that Aaron Smith may return for the playoffs which will be a huge addition. If you thought the Steelers looked fresh today with a 10 day gap between games, let’s see what they can do after 13 days. 

So who will they play you’re asking? Here are the scenarios. If the Jets beat the Colts, then the Steelers will play either the Ravens or the Chiefs.  If the Colts beat the Jets then the Steelers play the Colts.  The best scenario here is the Jets win and the Chiefs win and the Steelers get the Chiefs. We think that would provide the easiest road to the AFC Championship game. Either way, you take what you get and you go from there. Right now the Steelers have a bye to find out what’s in store next.

Great regular season, let’s keep it going in the post season boys!

12-4, up next: TBD