Crash and Burn

The Steelers entered the home stretch at 6-5 and looked as though they were going to slip their way into the playoffs.  They had one more game to go before Big Ben was returning and then the schedule lightened up slightly after that with three of their final four games at home. 

The black and gold controlled their own destiny. What they did with it was disappointing and shocking.  At 6-5 a road visit to the Ravens with Charlie Batch at the helm appeared to be the scariest game left on the schedule. Little did we know that would be their final win to date as Charlie and company went into Baltimore and took care of business. Batch had a big day, the defense played great and the team looked like they were back on track.

Big Ben returned the following week to play the lowly Chargers and the Steelers flopped. They came out flat, Ben looked off, mistakes were made left and right and a furious comeback at the end did nothing other than make the score and game look closer than it really was.  Still, at 7-6, they were in playoff contention and sitting in the final spot.

 A trip to Dallas ensued and the Steelers again made costly mistakes, most notably an awful interception by Big Ben in overtime that cost the team the game.  It wasn’t easy to watch, but the game was rather meaningless in that even at 7-7 the Steelers STILL controlled their destiny and all they had to do was win out at home vs. the Bengals and Browns.  Pittsburgh even had a shot at winning the division if they won out and Baltimore faltered.  Yet, once again, they failed, at home, against the Bengals, the little brother of the division. The Defense stepped up only allowing 6 points but two Big Ben picks, leading to 10 points (One TD Was returned for a TD) was the difference.  It not only knocked our beloved black and gold under .500, it knocked them from the playoffs.

So what happened in the last 4 weeks? Where did things go wrong? There are plenty of fingers to point and no one player or coach is responsible. It’s a collective effort.  First, the offense was wildly inconsistent when Big Ben returned.  He wasn’t the same guy and he uncharacteristically threw picks at the end of the Cowboy and Charger game, effectively ending those games and the season along with it. That’s not what we’ve become accustomed to seeing out of him, it was just one of those things that happened and I don’t anticipate it being an issue in the coming years. 

Secondly on the offensive side of the ball, Todd Haley and Mike Tomlin failed to ever commit to a feature running back.  It was laughable. They used 3 and even 4 backs in a game, often never giving a guy more than about 10 carries in a game. They publicly stated Dwyer was their starter, but apparently that meant nothing more than he would physically start the game, he was never given starter carries.  I’ve said it all season long, it’s hard to win when you don’t get one back the bulk of the carries.  Sure, the days of guys getting 30 or 35 carries in a game are over, but there is no reason they couldn’t hand Dwyer the ball 20 times a game. He showed us all early this season that he can rush for 100 yards in a game if given the chance.  For whatever reason, he, nor any other back, was ever given the chance. 

Another issue was the overall play calling by Todd Haley. His offense was designed to protect Roethlisberger, hence a lot of the quick throws or the “dink and dunk” as Big Ben called it. However, they didn’t take the appropriate chances down the field the last few weeks, only a couple a game. When they tried it, Big Plays did happen. See Mike Wallace in the Charger game or Antonio Brown in the Bengal game. The big plays worked but were not called often enough.  The running game, as mentioned prior, was not utilized properly and Haley needs to really look at his schemes moving forward. Big Ben questioned the play calling after the Dallas game and was given a lot of grief for it. Tomlin called it natural frustration after a loss. I don’t care what it was, Ben was right. The play calling was a big factor down the stretch and clearly didn’t work.

A fourth issue was injuries. In the last four weeks we’ve seen Willie Colon go down for the year (again), Ike Taylor, Heath Miller (in their last meaningful game) and other role players as well.  The offensive line was in flux over that stretch and there was no consistency when it was needed most. Injuries happen, but you need to overcome them.  This team lacks the depth to do so and it was very apparent down this home stretch.

The coaching staff truly failed to have this team prepared for these stretch games as well.  I’ve never, in all my years of following this team heard a player come out and say they had a feeling they were in trouble that week, after they lost at home. However, that’s exactly what Brett Keisel said after the Charger loss. He felt something wasn’t right and they were in trouble.  That tells me something certainly isn’t right, and that’s the coaching. There is no way that professional football players should feel that way, especially veteran players like Keisel who have been to 3 Super Bowls and won 2.  Have you ever seen a Steeler team fail in the clutch the way they did this year? Did you really think they would lose at home to Cincinnati with the season on the line? Never in a million years did I see that coming.  That’s preparation, or lack thereof. That starts at the top again. Tomlin and his staff failed this team down the stretch and it showed on the field with both mental and physical mistakes. The hunger wasn’t there, the desire wasn’t there and certainly the leadership wasn’t there.

Troy Polamalu came out recently and said he hopes this experience of missing the playoff humbles both the young guys and the vets too. He hopes it shows them all that making the playoffs and having success is no given thing, even if you’re on the Steelers. He’s right, and I hope what he says resonates with some of these guys.  If the soft spoken Troy Polamalu is speaking up and speaking out with these words, you know something is horribly wrong in that locker room.

The last month of 1-3 football has been frustrating, shocking and disappointing. The players failed to play and the coaches failed to coach.  They now have one final meaningless game against the lowly Browns to try to reach a .500 record. Big Ben stated he never wanted to have a year under .500 so he’s coming out swinging but in the end it doesn’t matter. They’re playing for draft position now as they certainly aren’t playing for anything else, unlike years past. This season crashed and burned and it took the stairway to seven right along with it. 

Epic Fail

When it was all said and done, it was the Bengals punching their ticket to the postseason and not Pittsburgh continuing their quest. The last two minutes of this game summed up the entire season for the Steelers.

Tomlin made some horrible coaching decisions and mistakes were made that cost them the game in the end.  This was a game this team had to win, at home, to keep their playoff hopes alive. They failed, miserably. In the past did you ever doubt this game would go any other way? These Steelers have no guts, no killer instinct and look old and tired. The Bengals are up and coming, the Steelers are on the decline and it showed. 

With the game knotted at 10 late in the 4^th, the Steelers obtained the ball near mid field. They drove the ball into Cincy territory with a little under two minutes to play but were stopped short of the first down. The failure to gain the first meant a field goal attempt of 53 yards with less than 2 minutes or a punt.  **Flash Back to the Tennessee Game Earlier This year. Tomlin was faced with the same decision and elected to kick the 53 yarder, Suisham missed (his only miss on the year til today’s game) and it allowed Tennessee to drive on a short field and eventually win the game.  So you’d think Tomlin would learn from that mistake right? You’d think that, but you’d be wrong. The jackass elected to kick again. Suisham missed, simply because the guy doesn’t have the leg for it, as we learned 3 months ago!  The Bengals are given the ball and move it a few yards and are stopped.  No harm no foul right? Wrong.  It’s a game of field position, now the Bengals punt the Steelers down into their own territory with 44 seconds left.  Sure you have Big Ben and some talented wide outs but at this point, the way the offense has played, take your chances and go to overtime, a turnover kills you. Sure enough Big Ben, who has been bad since returning from injury, throws a pick, the Bengals get a few pass yards and kick the field goal to win, ending the season.

You may ask why was Tomlin’s choice to kick so wrong? It was wrong for a few reasons. One, we’ve seen the movie before, Suisham misses, the Steelers lose. Two, if you want to put it on your defense, who has played phenomenal all day, put it on them to stop the Bengals inside their own 20, by punting them there, rather than having them stop the Bengals around mid field and put your offense inside YOUR own 20!  What was there to gain? The risk far outweighed the reward.  The offense was not moving the ball, let the D put them back to the same spot by having the Bengals punt to you, don’t make your offense drive the field.

Sure, I realize the Steelers have Big Ben and he’s an elite QB but something isn’t right with him and he hasn’t looked good since his return. He is a guy I’d trust 100 times out of 100, but he only comes through 98 out of those 100 and we saw those 99^th and 100^th times the last 2 weeks when he makes an ill conceived throw at the end of the game that gets picked. 

Tomlin failed to have this team pumped up. He failed to have this team ready to play in what was an elimination game and he’s failed to discipline these guys all season long. Furthermore he and Tod Haley failed to properly put together a running attack that could be successful in the NFL. This multiple back system they used all year long was an epic failure and it never had a chance.  Tod Haley’s play calls have sucked too.  The dink and dunk, short screens, limited deep routes is a joke. That’s not the way this team is built. Sure, you can do those, but you need to get downfield too. The offense was a massive failure this year and really fell short in the points department.  There is no way that an offense with this much talent should score 10 points against the Bengals, at home, in an elimination game, ever.  It’s quite frankly very frustrating. It’s quite obvious this team is aging but I felt they had more heart than this. I thought they had more guts, more pride. They didn’t.  They had no leaders and they clearly missed the guys like Aaron Smith, James Farrior and Hines Ward.

Many of you will disagree with me but I think the Rooney’s need to fire Tomlin. Yeah, I said it, fire him.  He is a major reason this team came up short. Yes the players  play, and they failed to make a lot of the necessary plays to win but the coaches discipline, they condition and they lead. Did you see any of that this year? I know Tomlin has a ring and an additional Super Bowl appearance but he is not the reason, his players that won those games were mostly Cowher left overs, they didn’t need a good coach, they’d done it before. Most of those guys are gone, the ones that kept the team together, now you have a mediocre football team with plenty of holes to fill and questions to answer.

There’s one more game left this year, it’s meaningless but it would be nice to finish at .500. Either way, this season was a failure and it starts at the top and works it’s way down. 

The stairway to 7 stops here in 2012 and we’ll have to wait and see where it goes in 2013.

 

Mistakes, Poor Defense, No Running Game, Steelers Lose Again

The stairway to 7 sits at a record of 7-7 as the Steelers lost yet another mistake filled ball game. Leading into this one I stated started this week we’d have to learn who this team really was and I believe coming out of this game we have our answer. They are a mediocre, mistake prone, aging team. 

Having lost 4 of their last 5 the Steelers currently sit in the 7^th spot in the playoff race, on the outside. However, miraculously they still control their own destiny. If they should win the next 2 weeks, they’ll be in the tournament.  Is that something they can do? And if they do make it, can they get anywhere? The answer to the first question is yes, they can win out. Both games are at home and these guys play better at home (except when they play San Diego apparently).  The answer to question number two is no. They don’t appear good enough to advance beyond the likes of the Patriots, who seem to be the team the Steelers would play. 

Looking at yesterday; the team failed again in the clutch.  They blew a 7 point fourth quarter lead, the defense looked old and worn out, the injuries continue to play a factor, the team still has no direction in the running game, they lost the turnover battle again and lastly they lost the time of possession battle as well. 

This team is deficient in so many areas, with two weeks left in the regular season it’s hard to see how they’ll be any kind of a factor this season.  The defense may have good numbers and rank highly, however, those stats are clearly bloated. They don’t appear to be able to tackle anymore, they give up big plays, look at Miles Austin, Dez Bryant and Demarco Murray yesterday, and they just look old and a step behind.  The guys they drafted in the early rounds in the past few years, Ziggy Hood and Cam Heyward, don’t appear to be super star players and that’s not good. 

The turnover issue is a major one. The Steelers were actually able to convert a turnover yesterday for once but they gave back 2, both of which cost them the game. With the team up 24-17 and the Cowboys punting the ball to the Steelers, Antonio Brown put up a 30 yard return and then fumbled. The Cowboys went on to tie.  In overtime, Big Ben threw an inexplicable pass that was jumped, picked and ended the game.  It’s getting old.

Getting even older is the lack of a running game, specifically picking a feature back. Whether this coaching staff believes they have a real stud back on this team or not is irrelevant. If Tomlin believes in the next man up adage, then he needs to step up, pick a guy and roll with him. This nonsense of having your lead back get 10 carries per game is ludicrous.  How in the world are they going go anywhere not running the ball effectively? They have a top 5 quarterback but he needs help. If they Steelers don’t pick Dwyer or Redman or even go back to Mendenhall and give him 20-25 carries a game, they will not win. See the last 5 games, they’ve lost 4 of them. Or See the last 14 games, i.e. the whole season, they’ve lost 7. If you don’t run the ball, you don’t control the clock. If you don’t control the clock, typically you don’t win the ball game. 

The Steelers have long believed in defense and rushing but both are failing.  While they do control their destiny this season, having a 7-7 record this late is highly concerning. Yes, I’m aware the Giants were 7-7 last year and went on to win the whole thing, anything is possible. Yet I don’t see discipline, direction or even enough talent on this team to make the necessary run.  I hope I’m wrong, but the playoffs are now here for this team, beat Cincy and stay alive or else all of our Christmas wishes for a Steeler playoff run will be gone before Santa ever slides down the Chimney on Monday night.

NEWS, NOTES, SUPERLATIVES:

Injured: Keenan Lewis-They can’t afford to have another corner go down.

Pick a Back: Just pick one! It doesn’t matter who at this point, just pick one!

Failing in the Clutch: The Defense, the offensive line and the coaching.

Coach Em Up: Tomlin, wake these guys up, are you losing this locker room?

Lead Em:  They miss Aaron Smith and Hines Ward, Big Ben, Brett Keisel and some other vets need to fill that void asap.

7-7, up next vs. Cincinnati in an elimination game.

Who Are These Guys?

With the game well in hand for the Chargers in the 4^th quarter  yesterdays; the skies started to spit rain on the depressed crowd. Though I don’t think it was rain, I think it was Mother Nature crying, crying because she couldn’t believe what she just witnessed, none of us could. The Steelers had just lost a very important game to a lesser team, at home. Not only did the black and gold lose, but they barely showed up. 

The final scores was 34-24 but the game was never that close. It was 27-3 and 34-10 at one point. This type of loss, in such a pivotal time of the year really makes you take a step back and ask who are these guys?  We’ve seen them play 13 games and at 7-6, we still don’t know who the real Steelers are.  They have gone on the road and beaten the Giants and Ravens (with Charlie Batch) and they’ve lost on the road in horrible mistake prone fashion to Cleveland and then again yesterday at home to San Diego. 

I was sitting in the stands yesterday and I can honestly say that it was the worst game I’ve ever seen them play in all my time going to games in Pittsburgh. For much of the day the team looked uninspired and played like they were anything but professionals. 

Once again I will say this starts at the top with Tomlin. Why wasn’t this team prepared? Did they automatically assume a victory against a lowly Chargers team with Big Ben returning? They made mistake after mistake, again lacking discipline. They lost the turnover battle and committed another 8 penalties.  Unfortunately the Steelers are continuing to copy the formula for losing to bad teams. Throw in some turnovers, pour on the penalties and play like you don’t care. That’s all you have to do!  Well the Steelers have perfected that this season just as their leader Mike Tomlin continues to perfect the art of making coaching mistakes.

Let’s look at yesterday’s blunders from Tomlin.  The first one could go either way but I felt it was the wrong move. Down 10-0 late in the second quarter with an offense that had done nothing all day, Tomlin elected to go for a 4^th and 1 on the Steelers 48.  If you don’t get it, you hand San Diego the ball with a little over 2 minutes to go on your side of the field.  Sure enough the team didn’t get it and San Diego gained a field goal out of the blunder.  Two more mistakes involve the failure to attempt a 2 point conversion on a couple of occasions. The game was out of hand at 27-3 in all reality, however in the 3^rd quarter the Steelers scored a touchdown to make it 27-9, meaning Tomlin Should have gone for 2 for the shot at making it 27-11. 27-11 would have meant the Steelers could have tied the game with two touchdowns and two 2 point conversions.  Easy to do? No. However, you have to try it. Instead he kicks the extra point meaning the team needed to score 3 times rather than the potential two times.  He did the same thing when it was 34-10, the Steelers scored a touchdown and he kicked again instead of going for 2. What is the guy doing? His head is clearly not in the right place in my opinion. Why make it harder for both your offense and defense in those situations? 

Furthermore, when it was evident the game was over; why not remove Big Ben, Antonio Brown, Troy Polamalu and the other starters who have been banged up this season?  Tomlin says it’s because they are competitors. Yeah, I get that but don’t you want them to compete next week and beyond? He’s lucky nobody got injured. 

I also worry about the locker room atmosphere that Tomlin is overseeing.  It’s a rare day in Pittsburgh when there are any locker room issues however Brett Keisel came out and said he had a feeling they’d lose this week. What? Tomlin, your players think you may lose this week?! That can NOT happen. You have to have them believing they can win every week. It also came out this week that Mike Wallace has trouble focusing when he’s not getting enough balls thrown his way. Wallace came out and said that himself.  Now, saying that’s on Wallace, and as a side note, for a guy playing for a big contract, that was a rather moronic thing to put out to the public. However, it’s Tomlins job to keep this kind of stuff from getting out there in the first place. His players need to know what to say, when to say it and how to say it. Look at Bill Belichik, stuff like this doesn’t happen there. It’s all controlled. Sure, it may be boring for us on the outside, but it’s smart and it’s hard for controversies to start in locker rooms like that. 

Tomlin doesn’t play the game however, he coaches it or at least attempts to.  The players failed to execute yesterday.  The defense was atrocious. The leagues number one defense couldn’t get to Rivers more than one time yesterday. The Chargers have a makeshift offensive line and Rivers has been sacked a ton this year. Not yesterday. The defense couldn’t force Rivers into a turnover. He leads the league in turnovers since the start of last season yet the Steelers D couldn’t get one. 

For all of the Steel Nation who has blasted Ike Taylor over the years, what are you saying now? The team sorely missed him yesterday as Cortez Allen couldn’t cover anyone. If Taylor isn’t back soon, which he probably won’t be, expect that to be a trend until Allen steps up.  Taylor always covers the top receiver on the other team and does a pretty good job. Now that falls to Keenan Lewis who’s’ good but not great and it means Allen must come in and start, which appears to be bad news.

Offensively the team looked bad as well. They didn’t get a run game established, Ben looked a little rusty early and it’s hard to see what the game plan was. Antonio Brown didn’t seem to be in the game plan as much as he should have been; it seemed that they were worried about appeasing Mike Wallace and getting him more catches. Sure, he had a big game statistically but he had drops when the game mattered and catches when it didn’t. That’s not lost on me and it shouldn’t be on you either. Miller wasn’t used enough and Plaxico, who caught his first ball since coming back, isn’t being used properly at all.

With 3 games left on this season the Steelers still control their own playoff destiny, which is lucky at this point. However, with both the wins they have and the losses they have it’s still hard to say what the identity of this team is. They better decide they are the team that can beat anyone, starting this week or they will turn out to truly be the team that just got embarrassed by the Chargers.

NEWS, NOTES and SUPERLATIVES:

FIRST: It was the first time the Chargers had ever won in Pittsburgh during the regular season.

HURT: Willie Colon, again.

CAN HE PLAY: Cortez Allen, he looked bad yesterday.

ROOT FOR: Anyone who plays the Bengals, we need them to lose.

7-6, up next at Dallas (who’s fighting for the playoffs too)

 

Steel Nation Association and Steel Nation Magazine Benefit For Children’s Hospital on 12/16

 

HOPE TO SEE YOU ALL THERE!  IF YOU CAN’T MAKE IT AND YOU’RE NOT A MEMBER YET, JOIN THE SITE AS AN ALL PRO, PUT IN PROMO CODE CHP AND GET UPGRADED TO HALL OF FAME FREE!  ANYTHING HELPS OUR CAUSE AND WE WANT TO GIVE THE KIDS A MERRY CHRISTMAS!  THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

Feature on Boss Jeff Hertzog of Steel City Mafia

Our Featured Member of the Month is Boss Jeff Hertzog from Steel City Mafia.

Boss Hertzog is a co founder and owner of Steel City Mafia (www.steelcitymafia.com).  SCM is the largest Steeler fan club in the world and is good friends with SNA.  We wanted to take the time to sit down with Boss Hertzog and continue to get the word out about SCM.  They support our work and we suppor theirs so please do stop by their site and sign up!

 *SNA: *When did you form Steel City Mafia?

Roughly about eight years ago. It began as a small club in East Tennessee
until the metaphor became noticed online and became a popular viral trend
seen everywhere around the Myspace community after the Steelers won
Superbowl XL.

*SNA: *What made you decide to put together the club and what do you guys
hope to achieve with it?

The organized side of SCM began with a few cold beers and a backyard
barbeque “meeting of the minds” with the original co-founders ; Shawn
Kennedy, Jeremy Kinnard and myself after being contacted by Jerome Bettis’
memorabilia company, which clued us in on how the concept of SCM had taken
off. Really opened our eyes to how popular it had become all on it’s own
without really even trying. We saw it as a way to become more involved with
the world of Steelers football we were all so passionate about. We
originally hoped it would allow ourselves and other fans a way to become
more involved and really establish some pretty strong “bragging rights” for
Steeler Nation as the strongest fan base in the world.

*SNA: *How would someone go about joining your club?

Memberships are available on www.steelcitymafia.com as well as around the
country at any SCm event or fan rally. The monies collected typically go
right back into funding the process of fan related events and player
appearances around Steeler bars nationwide.

*SNA: *Aside from being a co founder of SCM, what current role do you play
in the organization?

We all wear many hats. Currently, Boss Shawn Kennedy wears the fedora as
the head role in SCM while myself, Boss Duane Smyth and his wife Missy,
Boss Denny Shaffer, Boss Lou Boris, Boss Wendy “Steeler Chick” and several
others fulfill various important roles, not to mention various other local
Bosses around the country . Everything from daily order fulfillment to
handling web content or answering floods of miscellaneous emails. It’s
always been and always will be a massive team effort by many who truly love
the Steelers as we do.

*SNA: *What will members find about your club that sets you apart from
others?

In one world, it’s “involvement”. We actually love promoting other Steeler
clubs as well and feel the unique characteristics and people involved in
the hundreds of Steelers clubs truly shows how wide spread and connected
Steeler Nation is. SCM stays actively involved in events that are typically
free to attend and continue giving fans everywhere a chance to have an even
greater experience regardless of geographical , or financial restraints.

*SNA: *What’s been your favorite SCM event since you’ve started?

No possible way to point a finger to a favorite, any time I attend an
event, it’s amazing to see how true fans really spread across the nation.
Ironically, the wildest events typically are outside the confines of
Pittsburgh, mostly due to the rarity of such events and the large massive
takeover seen when Steelers play on the road. Arizona, Denver, Dallas and
Jacksonville are areas you can always expect a headache the following day
but there are just too many to mention.

*SNA: *Does SCM hold a lot of events each year?  Do you go to most or all
of them?

Events are based typically on the relationships we already have established
with the clubs in those areas. We always try to remain respectful to the
existing clubs that already put in the hard work establishing Steeler clubs
for the locals in their respective areas. We always work with them to
ensure everyone shares the same goal. Other factors are night games,
weekday games or games around holidays that make it difficult for some to
travel in early before a game. As much as well all wish we could attend
every event, our involvement with SCM is voluntary and our personal jobs,
families and finances factor in. Many of our SCM Families around the nation
already have established “Bosses” in their area that are capable of
facilitating the events themselves, thus lightening the load and allowing
others to be more involved. Lastly, it’s always worthy of mention the
sacrifices our wives and children make pulling our weight at home and
making sure things are ticking on the homefront while we lead the worlds
largest “here we go” chant.

*SNA: *Do you have SCM souvenirs like T shirts etc and if so where can
people find those?

SCM has a full apparel line ad well as plenty of knickknacks and
thingydings available through www.steelcityswag.com.

*SNA: *Anything else you’d like to add about the club that we may have
forgotten here?

I always feel it’s important to mention that FANS are what makes an
operation like SCM possible. While some of us parade around in flashy gold
suits and are more visible than others, there are tons of people behind the
scenes that humbly put in hours of personal volunteer time doing anything
from writing web stories and  making runs to the post office to driving
lengthy tiresome hours behind a wheel. Our club is literally fueled by
great people who just love the Steelers and need nothing more to motivate
them. It’s always fun to show off our pride as fans. Those guys really make
all this possible and I love them like brothers and sisters!

*SNA:  *Thanks for all of that! It sounds great and we’re glad to be
associated with you guys.  Each Month we also ask our members of the month
the below questions and we’d like to ask you as well!

*SNA: *When did you become a Steeler Fan?

I suppose it was the day my mother and father committed the “immaculate
conception”… from the womb to the tomb!

*SNA: *Who is your favorite player all time? .

That’s like naming a favorite kid. But I grew up in the 90’s when the
Blitzburgh defense was king and Greg Lloyd was always someone I remember
looking up to as a true Steeler. I’ve always respected the guys on the
front line that dominated like Mike Webster and Dermonti Dawson.

*SNA: *Who is your favorite current player?

I know Ward just retired but it’s still hard not to think of him as
anything but current. I love Ryan Clark, not sure anyone hits harder than
him and in the current Goodell faux frenzy of phony flags we see thrown
weekly, he always brings the pain that we all love to see. Easily the most
underrated player in the NFL and I respect him for giving us what we really
want to see.

*SNA: *What is your favorite all time Steeler moment?

Going to the AFC Championship game versus the NY Jets with my brother. It
was a difficult time for our family, my brother and his wife especially
having just experienced the painful loss of their daughter. Andy Russell
allowed us to sit in his seats on the front row and after the Steelers win
Hines Ward jumped the fence into our section which resulted in my brother
grabbing Hines and kissing him. He and I literally danced like mad men for
at least thirty minutes in the main area under the jumbotron prior to
leaving the stadium. I cannot remember a stronger occasion where a Steeler
game resulted in such great and much needed joy than only Steeler football
can provide.

*SNA: *Do you have a quote from a sports personality that you’d like to
leave us with?

Well,there are obviously some great one’s from guys like Lambert, Rocky
Bleier and these days almost daily from Mike Tomlin. It’s pretty hard to
top hearing my five year old, special needs son Gabriel  putting his speech
therapy to proper use and yelling “touchdown Steelers” on gameday. I think
those words are music to any Steeler dad or mom’s ears 😉

What a Difference a Week Makes

What a difference a week makes.  Just one week after an 8 turnover, 9 penalty, mistake filled game against the lowly Cleveland Browns, the Steelers came into Baltimore with the season very much on the line and took care of business.

Charlie Batch came prepared to play and he delivered a 276 yard, 1 TD and 89.6 rating performance.  He wasn’t perfect and missed a few wide open receivers but he came up big in the second half completing 16 of his 20 throws and bringing the Steelers back from a 10 point deficit. 

A week after blasting Mike Tomlin, I’ll give him credit, he had his team ready to play and some of the moves he made midweek seemed to pay off. Tomlin elected to shuffle the offensive line this week due to some injuries and that included moving all pro center Maurkice Pouncey over to left guard.  The result was a line that only yielded two sacks against a rabid Raven defense. 

He also elected to finally pick a featured running back and made the right choice with Jonathan Dwyer.  While I don’t think they gave Dwyer enough carries, he had 16, I think he did enough to keep the starting job. Dwyer had some very powerful runs and gained 49 yards and made a beautiful TD run that will go on his career highlight reel.  He was supplemented by Isaac Redman who carried the ball 9 more times for 43 yards. While I liked the way Redman carried the ball and his production, I’d like to have seen Dwyer get at least 4 of those carries to give him 20.  I maintain that the key to success for a running back is having a lot of attempts and it would have been nice to see what Dwyer could do with those additional carries.  In addition to choosing his top two backs, Tomlin benched Mendenhall. I thought it was a great statement to the rest of the team. He put everyone on notice that if you don’t deliver, no matter who you are, you won’t play. 

The team did deliver however, and you can thank the defense for a lot of it.  Sure they gave up 20 points, but they battered Flacco, forced him into an interception (his first vs. the Steelers in 4 games) and a fumble. They sacked him 3 times and made him force some bad throws. The defense looked dominant at times and was able to pick up some key three and outs.  James Harrison continues to get back to old form and was a real force, leading the team with 7 tackles and a sack.

While statistically he may not have made a difference, Troy Polamalus return was a big reason why the defense was able to do a few more things yesterday. Polamalu enables the team to blitz more guys because they feel more comfortable in the secondary with him back there. When he lines up at the line, the offense doesn’t’ know if he’s rushing or dropping back, he’s a wild card and it rattles the opposition. It showed yesterday and it’s no coincidence the team picked up two turnovers for the first time since the Philly game early in the year. 

The penalties certainly improved dropping from 9 last week to 4 this week and while the turnovers had to improve, with 8 last week, they still had 3 more this week and I’d say that is still an area of concern moving forward. 

The most important stat of the day however was not the 276 yards by Batch, the TD run by Dywer or the fact that Mike Wallace, Antonio Brown, Heath Miller and Emmanuel Sanders all caught 5 balls apiece. The most important stat was the time of possession. The Steelers held the ball 9 minutes longer than Baltimore and if you can do that more often than not, you can win a good amount of ball games.

Moving forward the team still must scratch and claw their way to the postseason as catching Baltimore is all but impossible. The team clings to the 6^th seed at this moment but are tied in the standings with Cincinnati who has been rolling. With some more players going down to injury, yesterday, specifically Ike Taylor, they’ll need to make sure everyone stays focused, in tune and on the same page.

The matchup vs. Cincinnati may very well determine who’s in and who’s out as long as Pittsburgh can win their games leading up to that point. Only time will tell, but let’s hope yesterday was the game that put the Steelers back on track.

NEWS, NOTES and SUPERLATIVES:

Player of the Game: Batch-What a performance!

Play of the Game: The Heath Miller TD catch, nice dive Heath!

Injured: Ike Taylor, he’s said to be out 4-6 weeks.

Can’t be a starter yet: Emmanuel Sanders-He put up good numbers but he fumbled for the 3^rd time in 2 games. I’m sorry but that can’t happen out of the wide receiver position. 

Get him some balls in the red zone: Plaxico Burress-2 games and no catches. I know he’s the 4^th man on this receiving corps but right now he’s been utterly useless

Needs Recognition: Shaun Suisham-He’s having a pro bowl year and has been coming up big in the clutch.

Root For: Anyone who plays the Bengals and Colts, those are the teams we are competing with for the last 2 playoff spots.

7-5, up next vs. San Diego

 

Summing Up November

As we head down the home stretch of this 2012 football season we are starting to learn exactly what kind of team we have on our hands. In October the Steelers went 3-1 and looked like they may be a good threat to win the division after all.  The same rang true the first week of November as the black and gold traveled to New York the day of their game and beat the defending champs. The Steelers looked strong in that game, Big Ben led the way through the air and Isaac Redman put up a bunch of yards on the ground (147). All seemed right in Steeler land.

And then; the Kansas City game occurred on Monday Night Football.  It was a game that saw the Steelers win in overtime but it very well may have cost them this season when Big Ben was hurt. This game truly exposed some glaring deficiencies.  From that point on the team hasn’t been the same, escaping the worst team in the league in overtime and then losing to divisional rivals Baltimore and Cleveland to close out the month.

So as we sit here today at 6-5, what do we know, where can this team go and what needs to be fixed in order to finish the year on a strong note? It’s an expectation for this team to get to the playoffs and contend for Super Bowls on an annual basis but I’m not convinced they can do either of those items this year based on the following reasons.

The Team’s Depth Is Lacking:

The Steelers have once again been decimated by injuries, none bigger than that to Big Ben Roethlisberger. The Steelers have proven that without him they cannot move the football effectively.  In the two full games he’s missed at the time of this article, the offense has scored 17 points total.  An average of 8.5 points per game does not get it done.  When Ben is at the helm the offense can run all the plays in the playbook, they can let Ben freelance and they can play to his strengths.  When they have Leftwich and especially Batch in the game, they can’t move the ball. These guys don’t have the ability to escape the rush that Ben has, they don’t have the talent that he has and the team needs to recognize they must mask the weaknesses of these players rather than expect them to play at the same level as Roethlisberger.  More so, they lack a quality backup to replace Big Ben. This is an area that should have been addressed in the offseason and wasn’t. Bringing back the aging vets of Leftwich and Batch was a mistake, neither has played much in the past several years and the expectation that they could fill in and win consistently is ridiculous.  The style of lay Big Ben brings to the table is great but it’s not without risk and he generally gets hurt each season in some way.  A quality backup should have been brought in.

But it doesn’t stop with the QB position, they’ve had James Harrison miss time this year and not get the same quality play out of his reserves.

Troy Polamalu has missed significant time and before Will Allen came into the picture, Ryan Mundy failed miserably. 

The offensive line again has been destroyed by injuries and continues to drop like flies; causing the pressure on the QB to go up.  It’s hard to come by good offensive linemen but this team is not equipped with either enough of them or at least not enough good ones to be able to withstand injuries.

There are some glaring needs that must be addressed in this offseason now that cannot be fixed in season but it’s a shame it takes all these injuries and losing football games to figure this out.

The Coaching is Suspect

Yes, I said it. The coaching is suspect. Mike Tomlin has been nothing short of unimpressive this season in my opinion. His inability to manage the clock has been a failure since the day he’s arrived in Pittsburgh. After six seasons you’d think that would improve at some point, it hasn’t. He constantly fails to take timeouts when he should and uses them when he shouldn’t. He’s good for a mistake or two per game. Many fans will laugh at this and say I’m wrong, Tomlin is a great coach, he’s not. I implore you to watch the game closely. He’ll bungle something, he always does. It’s easy to look past this when the team wins games however I believe that there are plenty of times where the team wins in spite of a Tomlin error.  When you begin to lack depth and suffer numerous injuries these mistakes don’t seem as minor anymore and they certainly become more costly.

His mottos are stale and tired.  “The Standard is the Standard” and “Next Man Up” clearly don’t work. They don’t work because this team doesn’t have the aforementioned depth and Tomlin doesn’t even allow it to happen due to shear stubbornness. Let’s take the running back situation for example. All year this has been a relative weakness of the offense. The team finally got some quality games out of a back when Jonathan Dwyer put up two 100 yard plus games in back to back weeks. He was living up to the standard and then Tomlin makes Mendenhall the starter out of the stubbornness that he should be. Mendenhall fumbles the ball constantly and hasn’t seen significant time in nearly a year, Dwyer has been successful, why mess with it?  Or how about Tomlins bull headedness in the Cleveland game? If a running back fumbled, he was benched immediately, leading to 4 backs playing that game and all 4 fumbling in it. That bull headed mentality led to inconsistent play out of all the backs, an inept offense and eight turnovers. Do you honestly think had Tomlin and Haley picked one primary back for that or any game for that matter the team would have had eight turnovers? They wouldn’t have. The backs, like all ball players need repetition and must get a feel for the flow of the game. Only allowing 5 carries in a game for one guy is moronic and doesn’t allow any part of the offense to click.

When you’re down to second and third string guys; coaching becomes even more important. It also is a time when you know what type of coach you have. The backups are failing. If Tomlin expects these guys to get the job done for him, he and his staff better get to coaching them up.  Todd Haley has been very good for Big Ben and the offense this year with the quick throws and keeping Roethlisberger upright. He’s failed at being able to get the backups into a rhythm.  He didn’t scheme appropriately for Lefwich or Batch, asking them to do what Ben does. They can’t. A specific game plan must be made for your most important positions and it appears those adjustments are not happening.  If you can’t adjust, you can’t win.

You also can’t win if you lack discipline. This team is allowing nearly 70 yards per game in penalties. That’s good for 5^th worst in the league. Discipline comes from the top and you have to question the leadership with numbers like that.

The Team Is Getting Old and Injured

Piggy backing on the lack of depth is the fact that the team is getting old. Let’s look at some of the injuries that have occurred to players who have missed multiple games.  James Harrison has missed a few games and is just now getting his legs up to speed, he’s 34. 

Troy Polamalu has missed nearly all year with a calf injury. When healthy he’s great, but he’s 31, at strong safety, that’s getting up there.

Big Ben is the best player on this team and he’s now 30.

Other starters over 30 include Brett Keisel 34, Casey Hampton 35, Larry Foote 32, Ryan Clark 33 and Ike Taylor 32.  Throw in Max Starks 30 and that’s nearly half your starters.

Where’s the youth, where’s the “next man up”? They are either on another team or in college but a good lot of them are not on this current roster. 

The Inability To Create Turnovers

It may be due to age, it may be due to bad luck or simply due to a lack of talent but this team is again falling short on creating turnovers. The number one ranked defense in the league statistically is not making the big plays when they count the most. They have only created 9 turnovers in 11 games.  Just to compare, they turned the ball over 8 times alone in the Cleveland game.  Now that was more of an aberration than anything else but you don’t win football games consistently without getting a couple turnovers per game. 

The Mike Wallace Factor

I will stop short of saying that Mike Wallace is a locker room menace, I have no reason to say that he is. I will say that I suspect he’s unhappy due to his contract situation and I believe it’s the reason why his performance this year has fallen well short of expectations. He’s only caught 47 balls for 572 yards through 11 games.  Yet he wants Larry Fitzgerald money? No chance.  It’s not even the low numbers that make me question him, it’s his laziness. He’s short armed balls, he’s failed to break up interceptions, he’s failed to come back for balls and adjust routes, he generally looks disinterested.  If he’s going to act like that or bring that attitude to the field, what is he doing or saying in the locker room?  Wallace has indefensible speed but he’s not using it this year. He’s not a factor in games if he’s not getting behind the secondary and if he can’t or won’t play like the Wallace of 2010 and 2011, he’s not going to be a Steeler in 2013.

 

There are certainly many items that go into winning football games and putting together a winning season but it seems that on the surface the Steelers are missing a part of that recipe.  They do have some shining stars in 2012 that can’t go without recognition for what they’ve done to this point. Without them the team would be near the bottom of the league right now.

The Team Stars

It’s clear that the team’s best players are easily Big Ben, Antonio Brown, Heath Miller, Larry Foote, Lawrence Timmons and Ryan Clark.  I’d put Polamalu in there if I could but he’s not played enough.

Big Ben was a candidate for league MVP before he was hurt. You might say his injury increased the odds of him winning. Without him the offense is garbage. They can’t move the ball let alone score.

Let’s not leave out Antonio Brown, he’s their most dynamic playmaker and when he went down the passing attack suffered. He’s as fast as Wallace, plays harder than Wallace and has the most big play ability of anyone on this team.

Heath Miller has finally been discovered in this offense. He’s always been there but now he’s a true red zone threat and a security blanket. It’s not a surprise that he’s putting up a pro bowl caliber year, that’s the type of player he’s always been.

Larry Foote has been as reliable as they come, leading the team in tackles and making big plays at the line. He’s a force in a linebacking corps where he should rank 4^th.

Lawrence Timmons is a big play maker who makes the tackles at the line and makes big plays in the passing game, leading the team in interceptions.

Ryan Clark has really stepped up his game with Polamalu being out. He’s been all over the field and I have found him to be extremely impressive.

 

The end result is yet to be seen but this is beginning to look like a repeat of the 2009 season where the team had a 5 game losing streak and missed the playoffs with a 9-7 record.  The 2012 season has time to be saved and if the season ended today (prior to the 2^nd Baltimore game) the team would be in the playoffs as the 6^th seed.

It’s hard to say that will hold up right now unless Big Ben and a few of the other guys come back. The depth is lacking, the coaching is flawed and the team is in flux. The expectation of the fans has not changed, playoffs and a super bowl run, however, in 2012, it appears that the Standard is truly not the Standard as the next man up is failing to deliver.