After October, Steelers Starting to Roll

As the NFL season moves to the midway point, the Pittsburgh Steelers seem to be in a much better place than they were just one month ago.  They now sit at 4-3 and just one game behind the division leading Baltimore Ravens.  It hasn’t been without struggle to get the record over .500 but it’s something they accomplished in their 7^th game and they appear poised to begin their run.

The team put up 3 wins in their 4 October games.  Before the October  run the Steelers were struggling with the ground attack on offense and with the defense being able to stop anyone when it counted, especially being able to hold a fourth quarter lead.  Those issues appear to be on the mend, perhaps not completely fixed yet, but answers seem to have been found. Penalties were a big factor early in the year and while they still played a role in October, they also appear to be headed in the right direction as they have been reduced over the past few weeks.

Following the bye week and a 1-2 start, October’s four games started off with a 16-14 escape at home against the Philadelphia Eagles. It was a game that saw the defense create turnovers, get sacks and hold the Eagle offense in relative check.  Lawrence Timmons showed up with 9 tackles and as I’ve stated many times prior, he’s a true cog in this defense. As he goes, so does this team.  Larry Foote; who has been a force all season; manned up with 8 tackles and assisted in the teams’ 2 turnovers as well.  Collectively the black and gold sacked Mike Vick 3 times and they looked as though they were back to form. The downfall in this game was the loss of Troy Polamalu, who re injured his calf and hasn’t played since. Polamalus’ injury came on the same day that James Harrison finally returned to action for the first time in 2012.  Also returning to the lineup for the first time in 2012 was Rashard Mendenhall and he was extremely effective in his first action in 10 months, rushing for 68 yards on 13 carries, which to that point was the best outing by any Steeler back all season.  Big Ben got his numbers once again as he spread the ball all over the field, most notably to Antonio Brown (7 catches for 86 yards) and was again turnover free.  It appeared as we headed out of that game that this team was poised to begin their run. The lowly Titans sat on the schedule just four days away on Thursday night and a winning streak appeared on the horizon.

That winning streak would have to wait as the Thursday night game at Tennessee turned out to be a step backwards. The team looked flat and the black and gold lost in heartbreaking fashion. Rashard Mendenhall was hurt early, Isaac Redman was hurt and ineffective in the ground game and the defense blew yet another fourth quarter lead. The penalties piled up and Pittsburgh lost on the final play of the game; following a controversial decision by Mike Tomlin to go for a 54 yard field goal late that fell about 3 yards short; providing the Titans with a short field.  Defensively they just didn’t’ have it. The black and gold allowed Matt Hasslebeck, who’s now a 2^nd string quarterback, to pass for 290 yards, of which 40 or so of those came as the clock clicked towards zero and the game was on the line.  The top 3 tacklers on the day were all from the secondary, something you never want and Ike Taylor was burned multiple times for big plays and pass interference calls. Things looked very bleak defensively.    On offense the running backs couldn’t muster up a thing and they only accumulated 56 total rushing yards. Roethlisberger put up massive passing yards with 363 and a he also added a TD. He did have a costly pick at the end of the first half however that loomed large late. Despite that he completed 24 passes and spread it out to 9 receivers. Heath Miller had another spectacular day and the one thing that was evident after this game was the passing attack was the only item on this team that really needn’t be questioned. However, after this lowly loss it appeared it was time to officially question where this team was headed in 2012.  They were now 0-3 on the road and just didn’t appear to be all that good. They now owned 2 losses to Oakland and Tennessee, two doormats of the league, and all 3 losses were in the AFC.

An ominous game on the road at Cincinnati loomed next on a Sunday night. This was in my opinion a do or die scenario in which if they lost, they’d have fallen to 2-4 and well behind both Baltimore and the Bengals in the division alone. They also couldn’t afford another in conference defeat which would really put them behind the 8 ball. Fortunately for all of us in the Steel Nation this appears to be the game that may have jump started the 2012 season. The black and gold went in there and took care of business. The defense played well, held a fourth quarter lead and pummeled the Bengal offense. Lawrence Timmons was a rock star; leading the way with 11 tackles and Larry Foote added 7 more. While the team didn’t sack Andy Dalton they held him to 105 yards passing and the NFL receiving yards leader AJ Green to 1 catch for 8 yards. It was an impressive performance. The penalties were reduced and most importantly a ground game appears to have been discovered. I like to call it Pittsburgh’s version of Thunder and Lightning.  Jonathan Dwyer was the feature back on this particular night and all he did was Thunder his way Jerome Bettis style to 122 yards on 17 carries. To compliment him the lighting fast Chris Rainey added 17 more yards on 4 carries and a TD. Big Ben produced 278 more yards in the air, Mike Wallace grabbed 8 balls and Brown and Miller had 7 and 6 catches respectively. Seeing the team add a ground attack with this potent passing attack made me realize they now had something to go on. You can’t win with just one part of the offense working but if the team could now control the clock via the run while allowing Roethlisberger to do his thing; this offense could be one tough unit to keep in check. It could also help the defense rest their legs and get much needed breathers. The Steelers picked up their first road win of the year and now were headed home to close out the month.

The month finished up with a home domination of the Washington Redskins and RG3.  RG3 was lighting up the league and it was unclear if or how the Steelers would stop him. However Dick Lebeau had a plan and the team implemented it perfectly. The Steelers forced RG3 into bad throws, held him to 8 rushing yards and banged him around for 5 QB hits. Thunder and Lightning combined for 133 rushing yards and the team committed only 3 penalties.  This was probably the most physical game the defense had played yet and they began to look like the Steelers of old. Larry Foote again had 6 tackles and a sack and the fact that they were able to stuff Griffin the way they did was very encouraging.  Mike Wallace and Heath Miller were the go to guys for Big Ben who added 3 more touchdowns to get him to 14 on the season.

At 4-3 the team is heading in the right direction but will really need to make their mark in November. Pittsburgh starts off by heading to New York to face the defending champion Giants, followed by a home game against the Chiefs, a home game against the hated Ravens and then a visit to Cleveland. We’re starting to learn a little more about this team as we enter November, by the time we hit Thanksgiving we’ll have a true measure as to how good they really are and where they may actually be headed.

In my season preview I predicted 12-4, the slow start to the year may prevent that from happening, while statistically it’s still alive, I think 11-5 may be more reasonable. With the eventual return of Troy Polamalu and Rashard Mendenhall on the horizon, this team may be able to string together quite a winning streak and put themselves in position to not only win the division but play for a bye as well. It’s still early and there’s a lot of football to be played but we all need to feel a lot better than what we did this time last month, the Steelers are above .500, they are running the football effectively and they are playing defense at a high level once again. All is right with the world.

FIRST HALF TEAM AWARDS:

Offensive MVP: Big Ben-He has 1,987 passing yards, 14 touchdowns and only 3 interceptions.

                 Honorable mention to Heath Miller and Antonio Brown.

Defensive MVP: Larry Foote-Leads the team with 50 tackles and has been the most consistent player each and every week.

                Honorable mention to Ryan Clark and Lawrence Timmons.