Steelers 25 Patriots 17

Now that was a signature win!  The Steelers finally figured out a way to beat an old nemesis, the Patriots.  The black and gold did exactly what they needed to do and executed a near perfect game plan on offense to beat the Patriots by 8 in a game that really wasn’t as close as the score indicates.  The Steelers controlled the game from the outset, scoring on their opening drive for a 4th straight game and chewing up nearly 6 minutes in the process.  Overall the Steelers held the ball for nearly two thirds of the game with the final time of possesion number being 39 minutes and 22 seconds. That’s absolutely perfect. If you want to beat the Pats, you keep Tom Brady off the field! With that time of possesion accumulation you’d assume it was the running game doing the job, but it wasn’t, it was an efficient, short to moderate passing game led by Big Ben.  The Steelers took advantage of the Patriots biggest weakness, pass defense. All told the Steelers had Big Ben throw the ball 50 times and he delivered, completing 36 of those for 365 yards and 2 TD’s. He did toss an interception in a situation we blame Bruce Arians for.  The Steelers were backed up near their own endzone late in the first half facing a 3rd and 17 leading 10-0.  We felt the obvious call was to run a draw and punt. Instead Arians called for a pass and it was picked off, leading to a Patriots TD. 

That said, that was pobably the only coaching mistake today. They game plan was flawless, throw, throw, throw. And when they did run, Rashard got it done.  We said in pre game when Rashard did carry the ball, which we felt shouldnt’ be too often today, he needed to average 4.0 yards a carry. He bested that, carrying the ball 13 times for 70 yards which is a 5.4 yards per carry average. That’s a great game. The team had a total of 98 yards rushing on the day. Offensively it’s hard to have a better game.  The receivers were great, Heath Miller set the tone on the opening drive, when he had 5 cathches and finished the day with 7.  Wallace also had 7 and his long today was 17 rather than having the usual big play, but that was all part of the plan. Antonio Brown led the team with 9 receptions, he’s a true weapon with that speed and he proved it multiple times over, including his TD reception. He does need to drop the dance act, that’s not the Steeler way.  9 receivers caught at least 1 ball today and Hines Ward wasn’t one of them. He missed the game with an ankle injury.

Defensively the team was clearly up to play. They held the mighty Tom Brady to 198 yards passing.  That’s a really good day!  Ryan Clark and Larry Foote led the team in tackles with 8 and LaMarr Woodley was a beast again with 2 more sacks giving him 9 on the season. He’s pacing for 18, which would be a team single season record. Troy Polamalu wasn’t called often but he made some great plays and was a factor as usual, especially on the game clinching safety at the end of the game when he batted the ball towards the end zone. Technically that’s illegal but it’s still very heads up and it wasn’t called so it was legal in our eyes! 

The game plan was great, the team executed on both sides of the ball and most importantly they picked up a big win for the first time this year and a big win against the Patriots for the fist time in 7 years. Well done Steelers, well done.

Our Weekly Awards:

Stars of the Game:  Big Ben-Another huge day, throwing for 365 and 2 TD’s. He is the true leader of this squad.

LaMarr Woodley, 2 more sacks against a good O line, can’t ask for more than that!

Move to Starter: Antonio Brown-another big day with 9 more catches.

Move to Bench:  Hines Ward-He didn’t play today and the team showed they don’t technically need him. He still has a role on this team, but he’s not a starter anymore.

Marcus Gilbert-He’ll be a starter one day, but he’s constantly getting penalties or getting hurt, try someone else at RT.

Cut-Shuan Suisham-he keeps missing field goals and he missed on that could have really hurt the team late in the game. To top that off he kicked the ball off when the Steelers went up 7-0; out of bounds. Giving Brady a short field at any point is bad news. Enough is enough with this guy.

Aaron Smith-This is for no other reason than he’s on the IR for the 3rd time in 5 years. He was a great Steeler but his run is over. 

Next Week:  Steelers 6-2 vs. Ravens 5-2, first place on the line and revenge at stake too!

Steelers Pound Cardinals, Improve to 5-2

For the third straight week the Steelers took their opening offensive drive in for a TD and never looked back, winning their thrid straight game and improving to 5-2. This week’s victim was the hapless Arizona Cardinals. While the Cardinals did enter the game 1-4; we felt this game had the potential to be a dangerous one for the black and gold. The Cards were in dire need of a win, were coming off the bye week, certainly have talent on the team, have several former Steeler coaches and players who know the ins and outs of the Steelers and lastly the Steelers could have been looking ahead to next week’s matchup vs. New England.

Never fear, that didn’t happen. The defense came up big on the opening drive, something they haven’t done recently and Ryan Clark intercepted a tipped Kevin Kolb pass. From there Big Ben orchestrated a short field drive that culminated with a TD pass to Heath Miller.  The Steelers jumped out to a 14-0 lead just like last week and then hit a little lull when the Cards cut it t0 14-7 close to half.  From there the Steelers rolled on offense as Big Ben hit on 26 of his 39 passes for 361 yards and 3 TD’s with no INT’s.  He found 8 receivers in the process. The play of the game was a Big Ben to Mike Wallace TD pass that covered 95 yards in the second quarter. Antonio Brown came up big with 7 catches for 102 yards and even Emmanuel Sanders added 5 grabs as he saw more action when Hines Ward went down with a leg injury of some sort in the 2nd half. 

Rushing the ball again appeared to be an issue for Rashard Mendenhall as he only managed 32 yards on 13 carries. It’s hard to blame the line anymore on his inablility as Isaac Redman was afforded 6 carries and gained 29 yards and Mewelde Moore was also given 6 carries and put up 26 yards. Redman averaged 4.9 yards a carry and Moore 4.3 while Mendenhall was 2.5.  Sub 4.0 is pretty unacceptable, especially for a back who’s had 1,200 yard seasons. We had thought after last week that Mendenhall had turned a page when he rushed for 146 yards but he keeps trying to break to the outside when the play calls for a run up the middle. The O line is usually to blame but how can we say that when the other 2 guys get the yards and combine that with Ben only getting sacked 2 times and you’d have to say they had a pretty decent game overall.

Defensively Lamarr Woodley had a day, leading the team with 7 tackles, 2 of which were sacks. Not statistically credited is the play where he forced Kolb into intentionally grounding the ball in the end zone resulting in a safety. Ike Taylor had some decent coverage on Larry Fitzgerald as he held him to only 4 catches. He did have to play him physically and was flagged a few times but we have to give him credit, he got the job done.  Overall the defense held Kevin Kolb to a low completion percentage as he only hit on 18 of 34 passes. The Rush defense kept the Cards in check as well, keeping them to 72 yards. They were certainly aided by an injury to Beanie Wells, but he was only averaging 3.5 yards a carry when he was hurt so we’ll credit them.

Overall the team put together a complete game, including Shaun Suisham who we were down on, but he hit 3 of 3 field goals and everything seemed to flow this week. Good game all around.

Our weekly comments:

Stars of the Game: Ben-He was on fire again throwing for 361 yards and 3 TD’s. When he’s on like this, they team is hard to beat.

Lamarr Woodley-He led the team with 7 tackles, 2 sacks and forced a safety. He was in on what seemed to be every play. 

Move to the Starting Lineup-Antonio Brown-We’re back on this, he’s just too good to not start, 7 catches for 102 yards prove that.

Isaac Redman-We said Mendenhall last week, but we’re back on Redman, we like the way he carries the ball more than Rashard.

 Bench:  Rashard Mendenhall-He’s not getting it done, breaking it to the outside instead of running betweenthe tackles, he needs to be the back who spells Redman.

Cut:  None this week!

Observation-The Steelers had a 3rd and 1 with 16 seconds to go in the first half up 14-7 and the ball on the Cardinal 24 with 1 timeout in their pocket and the clock stopped. They chose to hand the ball off to Moore rather than take a shot at the end zone, thus settling for the field goal. We would have taken a shot at the end zone, worst case you throw an incomplete pass and kick anyway. Not sure what they were thinking there.

5-2, up next: Vs. New England 5-1

Steelers Hold On To Beat Jags 17-13

The game started out the way it was supposed to and ended with the right result but the Steelers ended up having to hang on to beat Jacksonville today, 17-13. The black and gold gave up another long opening drive to start the game however this time they held the opposition scoreless. From there they came out rolling jumping to a 7-0, 14-0 and 17-0 lead. That’s what should have happened, they were by far the superior team and were favored by nearly two touchdowns to win the game. They were facing a rookie QB in Blaine Gabbert and despite being sacked five times by the Steelers, he hung in there and brough the Jags back to 17-3 at the half and led the team to a 10-0 second have outcome. Despite that, the Steelers hung on and won the game. Gabbert showed he was a rookie in some regards, only completing 12 of 26 passes for 109 yards and TD but he was mistake free as the Steelers coudln’t force a turnover. Overall we’d have to say we were pretty pleased with the pass defense and it actually started up front. As stated, the team recored 5 sacks, Woodley landed two, Keisel two and James Farrior had 1 to go along with his team leading 11 sacks. Of some concern was the fact that the Steelers allowed Maurice Jones-Drew to run for 96 yards on 22 carries.  He’s a great back, no question, but that’s something that could really hurt the Steelers if they played a team with a good QB.  In the end, it worked out and the Steelers D should be credited with this win, the offense sputtered after starting fast.

Big Ben was a big part of that fast start as he completed 8 of his first 9 passes including a nice 28 yard TD to Mike Wallace.  Wallace who only netted 2 catches still put up 76 yards on those catches. He’s a fantatic deep threat and a real asset to this football team.  They team had chances at 4 or 5 other deep bombs but Roethlisberger put too much arm into all of those throws and missed Sanders and Brown a few times.  He was able to involve old reliables Hines Ward and Heath Miller in the short passing game giving Ward 3 balls for 47 yards and Miller 4 for 27.  This is exactly what the team needs to do on offense as they can involve the short yardage possesion receivers to move the ball quickly with a mediocre offensive line. Notice we upgraded them to mediocre? That’s because they only allowed 3 sacks today and one fumble by Ben (which was recovered by the Steelers) and more importantly allowed Rashard Mendenhall to rush for 146 yards on 23 carries and a TD. Mendenhall ran like a man who’s job was on the line. You all know we’ve been calling for his benching for a while now and to play Redman and Dwyer more. Last week Mendenhall sat back while that combo went over 150 yards combined. Today, with his hamstring healed he showed he can still do it.  It was nice to see and if it’s a sign of things to come then he truly should be the guy. 

Overall the team won the game and that’s the most important thing, now they have to continue to shore up the defense against the run, keep working on the offensive line and really learn to finish the game. They had the Jags on the ropes and just pulled off the gas pedal. That’s not something that can be done if you want to win against the good teams. They’ll work on it and prepare for next week.

In our continued segment of comments we have some new categories this week:

Stars of the Game-Rashard Mendenhall-23 carries, 146 yards and a TD. Hard to beat that. Keep it up Rashard!

James Farrior-11 tackles to lead the team and a sack.  He’s telling all of us he’s not too old just yet!

Keep as a starter-Hines Ward-We’ve been screaming for him to be benched and move to the 3 spot but we’re changing our mind, he’s important as a possesion guy and should stay as the 2 guy.

Rashard Mendenhall-Same thing, if he’s going to play like that, he should stay as the starter.

Move to Bench-Nobody to move out this week.

Cut-Shuan Suisham. You may say “what are you talking about?” Well, he’s missing kicks this year and do you fully trust him? Answer truthfully. We don’t and we have a bad feeling he may cost this team big downt he line.

Concern-Troy. He came out of the game with a possible concussion. He may miss next week, we’ll have to monitor that.

4-2, next week: at Arizona 1-4.

Steelers Bounce Back, Pound Tennessee

It was a much needed win today as the Pittsburgh Steelers steam rolled the Titans of Tennessee.  Coming into the game at 2-2 the Steelers knew this was as much of a must win game as you can get early in the season. Had they lost this one they would have 3 AFC losses already and those can add up and cost you down the stretch. No matter, the team responded to all the negative energy floating around them after their lack luster play last week.  Now in what seems to be a week to week league and an immediate reaction league the media will go from telling you last week that this team was dead to rights to this week telling you they are Super Bowl contenders.  In reality; neither is the case. They are certainly not dead but they still have some issues to clean up.  Today however, they proved that their three biggest problems in this early season are fixable; protecting Big Ben, running the football and stopping the run. 

Coming into this game Big Ben had been sacked 14 times already, today, playing with a banged up left foot and a noticable limp he was only sacked once and hit once more.  The O line played really well and we think that part of that may have something to do with the re signing of Max Starks this week who started and played the whole game and played really well, having only 3 days of practice! Very impressive.  Marcus Gilbert was hurt again but right now we’re just not impressed with him anyway.  They protected Ben on the line and they also permitted the running game to 174 yards on 28 carries.  Jonathan Dwyer led the team with 107 of those yards on 11 carries. He was active for the first time this season and he looked really good. He is big and deceptively fast for his size, he may have earned some more playing time after this week. Isaac Redman was the starter and he put up 49 yards on 15 carries, which is a sub 4.0 YPC average but his yards were impressive and he hit the holes hard and got through the tight spaces.  Rashard Mendenhall, who dressed but did not play may need to be worried about his job, as we stated Redman should be the guy anyway and now it sems to be that Redman and perhaps Dwyer could be the tandem to kick Rashard to the curb. 

Defensively the team has been gashed and thrashed in the running game so far this year and they came in facing a top 5 NFL back in Chris Johnson, we all expected the Titans would try to copy what’s been going on and go to CJ early and often until the Steelers proved they could stop him.  The Titans went to him early as they moved the ball down field on the opening drive taking nearly 7 minutes off the clock and CJ had a 21 yard carry but the team was shut down near close to the end zone settling for 3 points and Johnson was shut down the rest of the game only managing 30 more yards on 13 carries.  The defense stepped up today in a week leading up to the game where Hines Ward said it was time for the offense to carry the defense.  The old vet in the middle James Farrior led the way with 13 tackles and wild man Troy added another 9.  We were suprised to see Lawrence Timmons only total 5 tackles starting at the outside linebacker position in place of James Harrison and not register a sack but Woodley added 1.5 sacks and the two young ends Ziggy Hood and Cam Heyward got to Hasslebeck as well. 

All around the team looked more like the Steelers of old, stepping up on D making the big plays when needed. Offensively some old faces really showed they can still be a part of this team with Hines Ward pulling in 7 balls for 54 yards and 2 touch downs and Heath Miller adding 3 catches for 45 yards and a TD.  Those catches came at the expense of Antonio Brown who only had one ball but this is exactly what we said they need to do and exactly what the formula for success is with this team.  They sill go the ball to their ace Mike Wallace who had a team leading 82 yards on 6 catches and a nice 40 yard TD bomb to seal the deal late in the game.  The real leader of this offense and the team though was Big Ben. He was on fire throwing for 228 yards and a team record tying 5 TD passes.  He did have a pick that was on an ill advised play at the end of the first half when he tried to trick the D into thinking he was spiking it but other than that he was completely in control of this game.

Special teams were interesting today as Sepulveda only punted once and lined up for another when he got to pull a fake and throw the ball to Ryan Mundy for 33 yards and a first down.  It was a joy for all of us to watch the game today wouldn’t you say?

Stars of the Game:  Big Ben-Throwing for 228 yards and 5 TD passes is exactly what this team needed, he’s the heart and sould of this team at this point.

                                      Hines Ward-7 catches and 2 TD’s is heart to ignore, great game out of 86.

                                      James Farrior-Team leading 13 tackles for the old vet.

Move to Starting lineup:- Max Starks-He’s only been back fora week but he’s proven he’s able to play and really he sured up some of these O line problems today.

Isaac Redman-His yards weren’t overly impressive but he ran the ball better than Mendenhall and the running game just flowed a lot better with him carrying the ball.

Move to bench-Jonathan Dwyer-Normally this move to bench slot is a move from the starting lineup but in this case we are saying move Dwyer from the inactive roster to the bench. He proved today he can carry the ball well, posting over 100 yards and he could be a nice change of pace back, we’d like to see him out there more often.

Rashard Mendenhall-The team had their best running game without him, we aren’t saying they can’t use him, but he should be coming off the bench at this point, he’s not the best option they have.

Marcus Gilbert-The guy doesn’t have it yet. He’s a rookie, he’s been hurt a few weeks in a row and he gets beat a lot. he needs to learn by coming off the bench, not starting.

Cut-No cuts today, not even the O line, they played really well.

So the win puts the Steelers in a good spot now hosting Jacksonville at home next week. Let’s see how they respond to a big win this week and hope they come out swinging again next Sunday.

3-2, next week vs. Jacksonville 1-4.

Steel Nation Association with Steeler Addicts Podcast

Check Us out on Steeler Addicts Radio by clicking either link!

http://steeleraddicts.podomatic.com/entry/2011-10-11T20_30_50-07_00

http://www.steeleraddicts.com/saradio/2011REG/mikesna/mikesna.mp3

 

Steelers Look Awful in Loss At Houston

It was another pitiful showing by just about the entire team in what turned out to be more than just a lost football game.  The Steelers went into Houston 2-1, left 2-2 and also suffered some injuries that may impact future games. After the 17-10 loss was complete the rubble that was the Steelers football team had Ben Roethlisberger in a walking boot, Aaron Smith carted from the sideline with a foot injury, Rashard Mendenhall with some apparent injury and further proof the Steelers have the worst offensive line in the league.

Big Ben is in a walking boot largely due to the fact that the aforemetnioned offensive line sucks. Roethlisberger was sacked 5 times, hit 8 more and hurried so many times we don’t care to even count it.  He was the lone bright spot and on an offense that was completely inept overall. Roethlisberger was able to throw for 206 yards despite running for his life all day. The O line is not only destroying the passing attack with Ben getting killed on just about every play but the running attack is still non existent. Quite frankly it appears that what we’ve been saying is true, Mendenhall is not the best back on this team. He only managed 25 yards on 9 carries, a pitiful 2.8 YPC average while our boy Isaac Redman ended up carrying 6 times for 40 yards. He was able to find the small, nearly non existent holes this horrific, horrendous, pathetic, pitiful, scrub, loser offensive line created.  He seemed explosive where Mendenhall seems lost and confused.  With a running attack that hasn’t shown up all year now and being a quarter of the way through the season, it seems it may be about time to shake things up doesn’ it? 

That type of change is on Tomlin and Arians. And speaking of changes, they start a full back on the first play of the game every week and then they rarely ever use him again. It’s about time the full back stays in the backfield on just about every play. We know that would hurt what Arians thinks is a threatening pass attack. While it’s a very talented receiving corps, Ben won’t be able to get them the ball if he doesn’t have blocking or if the running game isn’t a true threat. Providing Ben with a full back to add an extra blocker in the back field and also have a lead blocker for the running back seems like a no brainer to us. Make the change guys!  Does it hurt to try it?  Doubtful.

Defensively something needs to change too. Aside from Polamalu, who led the team with 9 tackles, they look pretty terrible. They have always been a feared rush defense and quite frankly they suck. Arian Foster, essentially playing for the first time all year ran 30 times for 155 yards and a TD!  He’s a stud, no question, but in years past it didn’t matter who the black and gold was playing, 100 yards was not going to happen!  The secondary is no good, they still don’t have an interception 4 games into the season.  They have 1 takeaway all year!  This is not a Steeler defense we’re used to seeing that’s for sure! 

There are still 12 games to go and they do have time to turn this around but it better start in game 5 or it will truly be a long season and prove that this recent bunch can not play the year after a super bowl appearance. 

Here’s a new segment for you, we’re going to attempt to do this weekly, giving props to the stars of the game, calling for players to be benched, started or cut. It will be based on the season as a whole and largely take into account the game just played.

Stars of the game:  Ben Roethlisberger-he seems like he has to do everything on this 2011 team and while he proved again he’s capable of doing just about everything, he needs help. He’ had a good game and kept them alive.

Troy Polamalu-He was in on the bulk of the defensive plays and led the team in tackles, he’s one of the only guys to show up!

Move to the bench:  Hines Ward-He only had 1 catch for 19 yards, he’s just irrelevant at this point. He can still contribute but not at the same high level, the sun is setting on him.

Rashard Mendenhall-He doesn’t seem to have it this year. Yes, the O line is bad, but true super star backs find a way, he hasn’t and it’s time to see what someone else can do.

Move to the starting line up:  Antonio Brown-He looks to be the clear number two receiver at this point, he’s fast, he makes great adjustments to the ball and he can be a game changer.

Isaac Redman-He gets a lot of yards even with a bad O line, he’s powerful, quick and appears to be better than Mendenhall.

ANY FULLBACK-The O Line sucks so add a blocker!

Cut-The entire O Line (except Pouncey).  They completely suck and are by far the worst in the league.

The team won’t do these things but they should. Other things they should do is start using Heath Miller more.  He’s a clutch tight end and in an offense where Ben is getting hit so soon after the snap, he can be a go to guy on quick release throws. It could keep Ben upright and also make up for a non existent rushing attack. 

The thing the team is doing that someone needs to get in their ear about and tell them to stop is their show boating, mouthing off garbage. There’s nothing wrong with with swagger, but when you’re taunting, getting penalized and still losing, you need to cut that out. That’s all on Tomlin.

The damage is done, the wounds are are fresh and the team is down. They can sulk about this for a day or two and then they need to get their asses in gear and prepare for next week.

2-2, next weeks vs. Tennessee (3-1)