Picking Up Steam
It’s official, the Steelers are on a winning streak. Albeit only 2 games, it’s a streak they’ll gladly accept and they’ll hope to extend. The black and gold enjoyed their second consecutive win at the expense of the Washington Redskins by a score of 27-12.
It was a game I expected this team to win but it looked a little more precarious as RG3 has been rolling through the league like it’s nothing. He’s been the clear rookie of the year this year but today he was nothing more than another man the Steelers kept in check.
Defensively the black and gold looked dominant, sure the Redskins had about 8 dropped passes, however don’t discount that some of those were caused by Steelers hits, the Skins fear of taking a hit and the Skins hearing the footsteps of a member of the black and gold bearing down on them. RG3 was held to 177 passing yards and had 18 incomplete passes. He was also stuffed for only 8 rushing yards; by far his ‘worst’ performance of his young career.
Ryan Clark and Will Allen led the team with 7 tackles and Larry Foote had an additional 6 with a sack. The team looked great in the rush and while only sacking the elusive Griffin once; they put a lot of pressure on him, hitting him 5 additional times. The team looked fast and didn’t miss too many assignments overall. While the big names like Woodley and Timmons only had 2 tackles each, the other guys like Clark, Allen and even Ryan Mundy stepped up and did the job.
James Harrison had 5 tackles today and may be starting to get his legs back; though he was burned on a fortunate incompletion that could have gone for big yards. His presence is still a factor and if this team can get Polamalu back soon, they may start to click.
Heinz Field is a tough place to play and that was proven once again. The team moved to 3-0 at home and in large part they got back to the basics that have made this team great for years; defense and running the football.
Jonathan Dwyer put on another great show with 17 carries and 107 more yards. He does look like a mini Jerome Bettis the way he runs. He’s got the power and a little bit of speed and once he gets those initial 3 or 4 yards he’s good for another 3 or 4 based on shear force and will. I’ve said for a while that I like his style of play and the way he runs the football and he’s starting to prove me right. It seems like it took the coaches a little while to recognize his ability and often times the O line was blamed for the lack of a running game this year but it’s apparent to me it’s a matter of who was running the ball. Dwyer is allowing the team to move the ball on the ground and control the clock, which allows the defense to get a breather and keep their old legs fresh. Dwyer is playing well but don’t discount Rainey and his 4 carries for 26 yards either, providing a much needed speed back to compliment Dwyer. While it’s only been 2 weeks, it seems like a winning combo.
Passing is really never an issue and Big Ben shows that each and every week. He put up 222 yards on 24 of 33 throwing and added 3 more TD’s. He spread the ball to 9 receivers today, with Mike Wallace being his go to guy. Wallace grabbed 7 balls and was a great possession receiver today. Roethlisberger continued the trend of getting the ball into Heath Millers hands and Miller continued the trend of scoring TD’s. He’s showing he’s one of the best Tight Ends in all of football and is yet another threat to go with the speedy wide outs. Antonio Brown was relatively quiet today in the passing game, only grabbing 4 balls but he was clearly a guy the Skins tried to take out of the game, meaning guys like Wallace, Miller and Emmanuel Sanders (3 catches for 56 yards) were open and able to make plays for this team.
While Brown was quiet offensively with his 4 catches and the stats will show he was quite on punt returns, he really wasn’t. He had a long return for a TD called back due to a penalty.
Tomlin said this week he was working on the penalties and would potentially bench anyone who messed up special teams, that will be tested this week as this team cannot afford to have penalties remove points off the board, in any game. Overall they actually only had 3 total penalties so there was marked improvement today but the timing of the penalties is the next thing that must be rectified.
Other than the botch on the penalty, the special teams got it done today. They blocked an extra point and had a punt downed on the Skins one yard line. Suisham was perfect with his kicks and Drew Butler averaged 50.7 yards per punt. Those are all good signs that things may be coming together.
The black and gold have now won 2 straight and are over .500 for the first time this season. They still have a lot of work to do before we can ascertain exactly who they are this year but this is a good start. They are picking up steam heading to the middle part of the year and need to keep the momentum going.
NEWS, NOTES AND SUPERLATIVES:
Player of the Game: Jonathan Dwyer-107 more rushing yards, allowing the black and gold to win the time of possession battle and keep the D fresh.
Move up the depth chart: Dwyer-He’s got to be at least number 2 above Redman right now.
Get him more balls: Emmanuel Sanders-He may be just as good as Wallace or Brown!
NOTES: Ryan Clark left the game with a concussion and I’d speculate he’s 50/50 for next week.
Jonathan Dwyer appeared to tweak his hamstring on his final carry of the game; we’ll need to monitor that this week.
4-3, up next: at NY Giants
And Like That, Their Season Was Saved
With a little bit of lighting, a good bit of thunder and a nice mix of rain, the Steelers went into Cincinnati and saved their season on Sunday night.
No the lightning, thunder and rain have nothing to do with the weather but rather what I feel best describes the offensive play. The team came in on a mission to win at all costs and they knew, like the rest of, if they didn’t win, the season was close to being over before the World Series was even played.
Fortunately both the offense and defense delivered in a big way, although being down 14-3 in the first half put a good scare into the Steel Nation, the black and gold were resilient and came up big. The Thundering Jonathan Dwyer, the teams number 3 running back put up a very big performance and is a big reason why this team came away victorious on Sunday night. Dwyer, who I have been saying all year should be the feature back when Mendhenhall is hurt, was given the ball 17 times and he put up a yardage total of 122 in those carries. He averaged 7.2 yards per carry, far exceeding the team’s season average coming into the game which was south of 3.0 yards per carry. Dwyer enabled this offense to control the clock and keep the defense rested and off the field. It helped the play calling as the team was able to mix the run with the pass and even call a gadget play. If he, or anyone can run like Dwyer did last night, then this offense will be even more potent and this team can start to go places. The offensive line, led by Willie Colon, didn’t miss a beat, even with guys like Maurkice Pouncey sitting on the sideline. The line opened holes for Dwyer and kept Big Ben upright for most of the game. Colon was a beast pulling and breaking the defensive line down. I particularly loved seeing him scuffle on the ground with one Bengal player after the play was over. Willie can take this line places and we need him to keep playing the way he did last night.
The lighting came from rookie Chris Rainey who has explosive speed. He was handed the ball 4 times and he gained 17 yards and TD. He was a great compliment to the Thunderous Dwyer. Rainey also added 122 more yards on kick returns. His returns were so impressive that I feel it’s time to remove Antonio Brown off of punt returns and hand that over to Rainey. Brown is a great punt returner, no question, but I think he’s far too valuable in the passing game to have him risk injury in the punt game.
Brown in fact, was a part of the rain that came from the offense last night. The passing game made it rain all over the field with Big Ben throwing for 278 yards and a beautiful TD to Heath Miller (who also caught a great 2 point conversion as well). Brown added 7 grabs and led the team with 92 yards receiving. More impressive than his yardage total were some of the moves he put on. When he was able to juke Newman by cutting back towards the line of scrimmage before burning up the sideline I had to rewind the DVR a couple times to see it. That’s video game material. Mike Wallace led the team with 8 grabs but he wasn’t as big a factor as he dropped 3 balls and just didn’t bring that deep threat again. Dropped balls were a bit of a problem, specifically with Baron Batch dropping, well, completely missing a perfectly thrown Antonio Brown ball that was a guaranteed TD. Instead a couple plays later Big Ben tossed a pick.
The mistakes were there, the dropped balls, previously mentioned, the pick, a fumble by Big Ben and 5 more penalties but the defense arrived last night and made sure the mistakes didn’t kill the team this go round.
Led by Lawrence Timmons and his 11 tackles, the team only allowed 185 total yards. They didn’t allow a score in the 4th quarter, actually protecting a lead on the road for the first time this year and they only allowed 3 point in the 2nd half overall. They made Andy Dalton look foolish and they completely removed AJ Green from the game. Green came in leading the league in receiving yards and he was held to one catch for 8 yards, albeit a TD catch, but you have to take those numbers. This was all done without Troy Polamalu who sat out another game with a calf injury. Lamar Woodley returned to game action however and picked a ball off as well as added 3 tackles.
James Harrison played again but it’s apparent he’s not the same guy, he really didn’t seem to be a factor last night and was help pretty much in check. Will he get back to form this year, or ever? It’s tough to say, but at his age, you have to at least wonder. I think we have to hope that his presence alone is enough to scare some offensive players and he can disrupt their minds if not their bodies.
All in all the season was saved with the teams first road win and a division win at that. Add in a Raven loss and a trip back home for next week and the Steelers have a real chance to get on a roll and make some noise, noise that sounds like Thunder and is accompanied by lightning.
NEWS, NOTES and SUPERLATIVES:
Game Ball: Jonathan Dwyer-Great game, he was big factor in the win last night.
Willie Colon-Unsung hero who came up big on the line
Start: Dwyer-As long as Mendenhall is out, Dwyer should be the guy.
Cut or send deep to the Bench: Baron Batch-I like Batch as a person, he’s a good guy to talk to but you can’t miss a ball like that and get playing time. You can’t.
Get him some Stick em: Mike Wallace-You have to catch the balls that are thrown your way Wallace, in your hands = catch, no excuses
News: There were really no injuries to report this week for the first time all season.
3-3, up next vs. Washington
Steelers Lose To Titans, Blow Yet Another 4th Quarter Lead
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Pathetic. Embarrassing. Unacceptable. Those are a few of the words I could use to describe the loss to the lowly Tennessee Titans on Thursday night. The Steelers came in at 2-2 but many of us, myself included, felt that record was not indicative of the team they truly were. I felt they were still a legit shot at 12-4 and a contender for the division. Well, at this juncture, they simply are not.
The display on Thursday night was nothing short of sickening. The improvements made last week in the running game and on defense vanished. The injury bug struck again, grabbing 7 more Steelers (Pouncey, Gilbert, Foster, Mendenhall, Redman, Carter and Clark) and a problem that was small before; volcanically erupted on Thursday as well; the special teams failed.
Let’s start with the good, not that there was much. The passing game was once again the best part of this team’s evening as Big Ben through for 364 yards and a TD, he also threw his 2nd INT on the year late in the first half when the team was driving for a score. That play certainly had a role in this loss, no doubt.
Isaac Redman of all people was the team’s leading receiver going over 100 yards. The production is great out of Redman but you never want your running back to lead the team in receiving yards. Mike Wallace put up 94 yards but only on two catches. He did have one deep 82 yard TD score which is something I called for in my pre game break down, so I enjoyed that, but he was relatively nonexistent down the stretch. Miller was solid again with another 6 grabs and Antonio Brown had 4 but only 20 yards and was unheard of late in the game as well.
Roethlisberger was forced to throw 40 times as once again the running game came up short, averaging a miniscule 2.5 yards per carry. Rashard Mendenhall had 6 carries for 6 yards before he left with an Achilles injury. Redman had 14 yards before he left with an ankle injury and that forced Baron Batch to shoulder the bulk of the carries, getting 10 and totaling 22 yards. Mendehall is a big part of this team as he proved vs. Philly but it is more than obvious now that without him, the team has no back. I was in the Redman camp, especially after last year but he’s not getting it done. I’ve met and talked with Baron Batch, he’s a very nice guy, willing to answer questions and politely discuss whatever’s on your mind. That all said, he’s not an NFL back. He’s just not. They have no backup plan and that’s a shame.
Many will say the line isn’t doing their job, quite frankly they are. Even on Thursday night when they dropped 3 guys to injuries, they only allowed one QB sack. That’s getting it done. They are opening holes for the running backs to get through but the backs aren’t hitting them with speed. The offensive woes fall squarely on the running game right now, period.
The losses, however, are falling on the defense. They allowed 26 points to one of the worst teams in the league. Yes, the Titans did start one drive from the Steeler one yard line, true, but when it mattered most, as is becoming the norm this year, the Steelers defense failed. The team once again had a 4th quarter lead, this time a 7 point lead in the fourth and they blew it. The passing defense allowed Matt Hasslebeck to throw for 290 yards, not to mention the multiple pass interference calls on Ike Taylor. With the game on the line, tied at 23, the Steelers let the Titans go right down the field to get into field goal range with 4 seconds to go and lose the game. Plain and simple; they failed. Yes Ryan Clark had 11 tackles, yes James Harrison had 6 and looked good and yes the team collected 3 more sacks and an INT but they failed. They need to start learning how to win without Troy Polamalu. Since 2009 they are now 7-9 without him. He’s not going to be here much longer; they better figure something out, soon.
But let’s not put all of this on the running backs or the defense, the special teams and coaching sucked too. The punt that was blocked set up an easy score for the Titans, that’s problem number 1. Then, problem 2, while a special team’s shortcoming ; it is more a Tomlin mistake than anything. The offense failed to convert a 3rd and 7 with a little over 40 seconds to go. They were on the Tennessee 36, meaning they were staring at a 54 yard field goal to potentially win it. They had 3 choices, kick, pooch punt or go for it. They unwittingly decided to kick, all the while knowing Suisham has never kicked one longer than 52 (which he had made earlier). He missed, giving the Titans the ball on their on 43. This enabled Tennessee to have short field, move the ball just enough to kick a 40 yarder and get out of dodge with a win.
The move was ridiculous by Tomlin, sure, he was trusting his defense in the event of a miss. I hate to say it, but you can’t trust this defense, they’ve proven that this year. The right play would have been to go for it. Big Ben has been nothing short of clutch on critical downs this year; give him the chance to make a play. Let’s say they don’t get the first down and the Titans get the ball back. Well, at the very least, you’ve saved your defense 7 yards. How so? The ball is always placed at the spot of the missed kick for the opposing offense to start. Had they gone for it, the ball would have been placed at the line of scrimmage. Those 7 yards could have been a difference.
Secondly, you play for overtime with these new rules. Tomlin should have realized that a FG at the end of regulation clearly beats you, and with a short field you’re handing them the opportunity to do so. However, a field goal on the opening drive of overtime does not beat you. If he wanted to trust his defense then he should trust them going into OT to not allow the fatal touchdown but only hold the Titans to a FG or nothing at all; all while playing on a long field. He didn’t think and it cost the team the game last night and potentially a lot more down the line, only time will tell.
The fact that this team has now fallen to 2-3, 0-3 on the road and 1-3 vs. the AFC; puts them in a critical position. They now have to start their AFC North games in a deep hole next Sunday when they travel to Cincinnati in what absolutely is a must win situation. They have injuries to heal, they have the running game to work on, they have special teams to shore up and they have a defense that needs to learn how to close, immediately.
I’ll stop just short of saying this season is over but you can bet all your savings that if they don’t fix all of these items, it will be over come Sunday 10/21. I trust Big Ben and the passing game and I trust in the talent this team puts on the field, however, I can longer trust a 4th quarter lead, any special teams play or the running game until we see some consistency out of all of these units. Until then Steel Nation, we’ll have to hold our collective breaths and hope that when the final second ticks off of each week’s game; we are on the winning side of things and not watching yet another kick go through the uprights that has us sinking our heads into our hands in disgust.
NEWS, NOTES and SUPERLATIVES:
Player of the Game: NONE! No more players of the game during losses.
NEWS: Pouncey has an MCL injury and could miss some time. Gilbert has an ankle and could also miss some time. It’s still very early to tell but don’t be shocked to see them miss a week or two, if not more in Pouncey’s case.
NOTES: Big Ben passed Terry Bradshaw as the all time leading passer in Steeler history.
Heath Miller became 3rd all time for receptions by a Steeler.
2-3, up next: at Cincinnati
The Steelers Come Out of Their Bye Week With A Much Needed Win
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Going into the bye week the weakness of the Steelers was clearly the rushing attack and the defense. Coming out of the bye week and into the game against the Eagles at Heinz Field on Sunday it was pretty evident the Steelers put a lot of work into both units over the last two weeks. The end result, a 16-14 Steeler victory in what I deemed a must win game.
The improvement in the running game and on defense was not without the addition of a few old friends. Rashard Mendenhall was back this week and made an immediate impact. The Steelers were averaging less than 3 yards per carry coming into the week. Mendenhall was given 14 carries and he put up 81 yards and TD on those carries. That’s a 5.8 yards per carry average. Coming into the week in the preview I stated that we needed to look more at the yards per carry Mendenhall averaged rather than the total yards he gained on what I expected and turned out to be, a small amount of carries. Basically doubling what the team had been averaging in the first three weeks told me all I needed to know. Mendenhall is the guy again, he had is power running up the gut and his burst of speed to the outside of the tackles. He’s going to be a big asset to this offense.
On a day where Big Ben was more pedestrian than usual, 21 of 37 for 207 yards, no TD’s and no turnovers, Mendenhall made the difference. Mendenhall carried a good load throughout the day and Ben was allowed to lead the comeback at the end of the game.
While Roethlisberger may not have had an enormous day statistically; he proved once again his favorite target is Antonio Brown. Brown put up another 7 catches for 86 yards, followed by Heath Miller’s 4 catches for 41 yards and then Emmanuel Sanders had 3 catches for 22 yards. All in all Ben hit 8 receivers on the day. Lost in the mix was Mike Wallace who only produced 2 catches for 17 yards. While his first 3 games were pretty solid, I felt he needed to be a much bigger factor in the pass attack against the Eagles. We’ll see how that plays out moving forward.
Defensively the return of Troy Polamalu and James Harrison had an intangible effect. The D rose to the occasion, they picked up 3 sacks of Michael Vick, they hit him 8 more times and they forced him to fumble 3 times, 2 resulted in turnovers. While Harrison only had 2 tackles, he brings a fear to opposing offenses. His ability to rush the QB and frighten running backs is hard to replace. Polamalu only had 2 tackles as well before leaving the game in the 2nd quarter when he re injured his calf. The team also lost LaMarr Woodley to a hamstring injury. Woodley’s injury ironically showed us all that Harrison looks to be back at full strength from his injury. Harrison was supposed to get some rest and take snaps off but once Woodley went down, he played nearly the entire way.
It was evident the defense was not happy with their first three weeks and Lawrence Timmons in particular broke out vs. the Eagles. He led the way, as I think he should probably do just about every week (he’s that good) with 9 tackles, followed by the old vet Larry Foote with 8. Timmons was a monster making play after play and was a big reason why the Eagles high flying offense stayed grounded on this day.
The main issue on this day was once again the penalties. The Steelers logged 9 more penalties for 106 yards. One of them, holding on Willie Colon, wiped out a 24 yard gain by Mendenhall. He’d have been over 100 yards on the day if not for that. The team needs to get it together and while it was evident the coaches worked on a several items over the bye week, this was one that did not appear they put too much emphasis on. They can’t continue to log several penalties each week and expect to win. The team must work on their discipline, immediately.
Overall the black and gold did what they had to do on both sides of the ball and most importantly they got the win to even up their record at 2-2 on a day when the Ravens still won but the Bengals lost. They will now have to come back on a short week and visit the struggling Tennessee Titans on Thursday night. It’s a great chance to keep things moving in the right direction if they can pick up 2 wins in 4 days and then get another long week off before they play again.
NEWS, NOTES and SUPERLATIVES:
Players(s) of the Game: Rashard Mendenhall-He stepped up when the team needed a running attack most. His 14 carries for 81 yards were by far and away the best performance by a running back all year.
Lawrence Timmons-He had been rather quiet all year and he delivered today, leading the team in tackles with 9 and causing havoc everywhere.
Injuries that will linger into Thursday: Troy Polamalu and LaMarr Woodley-Don’t expect them to play on Thursday night, possibly longer.
Pipe Down-Any of you who want Troy to retire. He’s still a massive factor on this team, they need him. Yes, he’s been injured this year but I’ll pose this question to you, do you want him injured now or towards the playoffs. Troy may decide to retire after the year but we all need to hope and pray he doesn’t. He still has some good football left in him.
2-2 up next, at Tennessee on Thursday Night.
What’s Going On With the 1-2 Steelers? – A Summation of September
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One and Two. That’s the record we’re staring at as the Steelers completed September. A record while not horrible; it’s certainly not great and certainly not what any of us expected at this juncture. It’s a record that doesn’t scream panic but it spells worry. This is a team that through the first three games is actually happy to have had their bye week scheduled for the fourth week of the season. If you asked me before the season started, I’d have said it was a bad thing to have the bye that soon, I’ve changed my mind.
The Steelers have looked great at times on the offensive side of the ball; well, in regards to their passing attack. Big Ben has looked nothing short of elite and through the first three games was number two in the league with a 109.2 passer rating. He’s thrown for 904 yards, 8 touchdowns and only 1 interception. He’s been allowed to play the way he knows how and the way that’s made him special throughout his career, extending plays. We all wondered what Todd Haley may do in regards to Big Ben, it seems he’s going to let him play ball. Haley has shown me that he knows what his strengths are on offense and he’s going to use those strengths.
In addition to Big Ben’s extreme success thus far, Antonio Brown, Mike Wallace and Heath Miller have all shown they are at the top of the league at their respective positions as well. Miller already has 4 TD grabs in 3 games and is becoming an essential part of this offense in the red zone; a move that I felt should have been made years ago. His hands are a sure as any other tight end in this league and he may set career highs in catches, yards and TD receptions this year at the pace he’s on now. Wallace has looked really good coming off the hold out; garnering 17 catches and 234 yards to go along with 3 TD’s. The catches and yards are both second to Antonio Brown who has a slight edge on him with 18 catches and 240 yards to go along with one TD. With those numbers being put up, the passing attack is in great shape. Not to be forgotten in all of this is Emmanuel Sanders who has 10 catches for 121 yards but looks every bit the part of a top level receiver and could be just that if the Steelers lose Wallace in 2013.
If I told you before the season started the team would be 1-2 and you had to guess which offensive unit was the problem unit, you’d all say offensive line, without hesitation. I would have said the same thing and did so in my season preview. Shockingly, through September they are not the issue. The unit has had some problems, certainly, but the pass protection hasn’t been horrific. Through 3 games they’ve allowed 9 sacks but only 1 vs. the Raiders and an average of 3 per game for this unit really is an improvement.
They may play a role in the real issue, but in my opinion it’s a small role. The real issue is the running attack. They are atrocious thus far. While the passing attack ranks 6th overall in the league, the rushing attack ranks 30th, dropping the overall offense to 16th in the league. Middle of the pack. Well, I can’t stress enough, the passing attack is 6th, and the rushing is 30th. Get the picture? Isaac Redman who I made a case for taking over for Mendenhall permanently is the team’s leading rusher with 72 whopping yards through 3 games! He’s averaging 2.3 yards per carry. The team’s leading yards per carry guy, Jonathan Dwyer has a grand old average of 2.9 yards per carry. See a trend? Many may say well that’s the line not opening holes. Honestly, I’d love to blame the line, I rode them all year last year and years prior but I’m not seeing it that way so far. I don’t think the backs are hitting the holes, they aren’t showing a burst of speed when needed and they are costing the team much needed time of possession. This team is in dire straits when it comes to the running game and we can only hope that the return of Rashard Mendenhall can cure what ails it. Hopefully he’ll be back after the break but don’t hold your collective breaths for an immediate impact. Mendenhall will need to slowly work his way back into the rotation before he can fully take over the bulk of the carries. In the meantime my belief is this; Haley and Mike Tomlin need to pick a back and provide that back the bulk of the carries each game. I think part of this problem is the lack of consistency and the inability for these guys to get a feel for the game. The rotation of backs between Redman, Dwyer, Baron Batch and even Chris Rainey is more of a disruption rather than a benefit. It’s clearly not working. Provide 25 carries for one guy and split the other 5 to 10 carries elsewhere. If they do this, they’ll see an improvement. My pick of this group to get those 25 carries would be Dwyer, I think he contains the most ability and is the best runner the team currently has.
I mentioned time of possession as a necessity for this offense and that obviously needs to be helped out by the running attack. That time of possession number is not only a benefit to the offense, but this year, more importantly it will help the defense. The prized unit of the black and gold has certainly had its share of struggles as well and as of today one might say it’s best to keep that unit off the field as much as possible.
While overall through three weeks the team ranked 7th in defense, they haven’t played well enough to show anything for that ranking. Overall defense is measured in yards allowed, the telling statistic is points allowed where this team ranks tied for 18th, allowing 25.0 points per game. That’s far too many. They are 12 points off the number one team through three weeks, Seattle, who is allowing a league low 13.0 points per game. The general rule of thumb for teams is if you can hold your opponent to 17, you should win the game. Well that would certainly apply with this team if it were happening regularly. Offensively they’ve scored 19, 27 and 31. However they’ve given up 31 (you can knock off 6 if you’d like for a return INT for a TD vs. Denver), 10 (win vs. the Jets) and 34. Holding the Jets to 10 is no prized feat either. In my opinion the Jets are terrible and they lucked into 48 points in week 1. They have no QB, and no real offensive threat. The Steelers have consistently shown the inability to come through in the clutch as they’ve blown leads in the 4th quarter vs. both Denver and again in Oakland. The lead against Oakland was 10 points and here’s a stat for all of you; Oakland hadn’t overcome that big of a deficit in the 4th quarter in their last 48 attempts to do so. The black and gold decided to break that streak for the Raiders.
When you look at the stats on a macro level you say how could this be? They rank 5th in pass defense in terms of yards allowed, something must be going right. Well, look on a micro level. Part of the reason they rank that highly is their opponents have attempted the 4th fewest amount of passes against them through three weeks, of course you’re not going to give up the passing yards if the teams aren’t throwing as often. The issue is twofold. One, the Steelers may not give up a ton of yards as a whole, but what’s happening is they are giving up big plays and allowing catches at crucial points in the game. The Steelers opened up against Denver in the 2nd half with a 16 play and nearly 9 minute FG drive. In response to that FG drive the Broncos came out and had a 2 play, 80 yard TD drive that lasted a grand total of 21 seconds. All passing yards. The Broncos then had 4th quarter scoring drives of 80 yards and 51 yards. Where’s the defense when it counts? Let’s look at the loss against Oakland. Carson Palmer had a grand total of 37 passing yards in the first half but finished with 209 on the game including three TD passes. The Raiders had 4 drives in the second half, all 4 resulted in points. They had 2 TD drives of 48 and 80 yards to go along with 2 FG drives, including the game winner as time expired, of 50 and 49 yards. If you go to the end of the 2nd quarter the Raiders put up points on their final 5 possessions, mostly passing yards.
The second issue in the passing game is the injury plagued secondary. First Ryan Clark missed the opener in Denver due to his sickle cell trait. Then Troy Polamalu has missed the last 2 games with a calf strain. Is that to blame for everything? No, but Ryan Mundy is neither Polamalu nor Clark so it certainly doesn’t help.
The rushing defense is not guilt free in all of this either. They are ranked 15th in the league, allowing an average of 101 yards per game. When’s the last time the Steelers have averaged a number so high through any number of games? The linebackers are led by Larry Foote with 23 tackles, which in fact is the team lead as well. However, where in the world are Timmons and Woodley? Timmons specifically comes to mind as he only has 12 total tackles through 3 games. He should be averaging close to that per game quite honestly. Sometimes the importance of Timmons is overlooked but he’s a true cog in this defense and as he goes, the team goes. He’s been relatively nonexistent. Statistically Woodley hasn’t been as good as that either as he only has 9 tackles, including a team high 2 sacks. However, I give Woodley a bit more of a pass on this. He’s by far the most explosive player on the field for this defense right now without Polamalu and James Harrison in there so teams can concentrate on him. Woodley has certainly disrupted some plays and been a factor here and there, however he needs to do more. I believe he’d tell you that himself. Woodley and Timmons are both pro bowl caliber players and I don’t see any reason why they can’t and won’t rebound; we just need them to do it soon. The defensive line is struggling as well as Big Snack Casey Hampton and the Beard Brett Keisel lead the way with 6 tackles each. I am ok with Hamptons numbers but Keisel and Ziggy Hood (4 tackles) need to do more to disrupt the rushing attack of the opponents.
Collectively the defense is looking old. Hampton and Keisel are in their mid 30’s and both coming off injuries last year. James Harrison is also in his mid 30’s and hasn’t played due to injury so far this year. Troy Polamalu is in his 30’s and has missed 2 of three games due to injuries. Age has a factor in health and it has a factor in play. This team used to be good for 3, 4 or even 5 sacks a game in their prime. They are now averaging less than 2 per game. The key to Dick Lebeau’s schemes are blitzing and getting to the QB, if these guys can’t do it, for whatever reason, then the defense will look like this all year.
Blitzing and disrupting the QB is also a key to gaining turnovers, thus far they have only nabbed 3, which is an improvement upon last year at this same time, but not good enough to have the team on the winning side of things.
Let’s not forget about the penalties this team has put up on both sides of the ball. The discipline is not there and needs to change immediately. I don’t know if Tomlin needs to start fining these guys for penalties or making them run suicide drills but something has to give. They have a total of 25 penalties for 196 yards in only three games. That number is not only enormous, it’s unacceptable. They need to knock that down to about 3 or 4 penalties a game, this 7 and 8 stuff is absurd.
So with all of the above having been broken down, one and two seems about right, in terms of record. I led things off by saying it’s not time to panic and I believe that. Worry, sure. There are obviously plenty of items for concern. The good news is this, it’s only three games. While we may say that veteran is just another term for old, it could mean two things in this case. Yes, the team is a bit old, specifically on defense, but it means experienced too. This team has a lot of experience left on both sides of the ball and if anyone can turn it around it will be the Steelers.
My optimistic prediction in the September issue of Steel Nation Magazine of 12-4 may need to be re viewed as a precarious 1-2 start would indicate otherwise but I’m going to stick with it, for now.
The team clearly has the offensive passing weapons. Rashard Mendenhall should be on his way back sooner than later, which ideally will help this running attack. There is still potential for 1st overall pick David DeCastro to return later this year and bolster the offensive line and I trust Big Ben to lead and carry the team to victory at any cost. He’s that good.
Defensively the starting unit has not played together yet so we need to see everyone on the field at once before we can get a true measure of what they are. The bye week should enable Polamalu and hopefully Harrison to return for the Eagle game and maybe more importantly it will allow these guys to work with Lebeau on adjusting schemes and delivering big plays.
While this team and this year may be a continued transition from one era of Steeler success to another era of Steeler success (hopefully) there is no reason to hit the red button yet, stop freaking out Steel Nation, give it the month of October and then let’s see where they are. You can worry, I am worried too, but let’s proceed with some cautiously optimistic views, these guys have faced far more adversity than this before and have come out on the other side just fine. Until they show me they can’t do it, I trust that they can do that again.
