Steelers Today – A Pittsburgh Steelers blog

The Steelers will travel to Houston to take on the Texans on Sunday.  The game will be televised nationally on CBS.

This is a pivotal game for both teams.  Each team has a 2-1 record, but both teams have shown major flaws which need to be addressed.

The Texans have traditionally been a high-scoring team.  This year they’re 7th in the NFL in scoring, averaging 30 points per game.  However, despite the impressive scoring output, the Texans’ offense has actually struggled.  They’ve played without 2010 NFL rushing leader Arian Foster for most of the season, and they’ve struggled in the red-zone without him.

Foster’s back-up, Ben Tate, has been more than adequate in Foster’s absence.  He’s run for 301 yards in the Texans first 3 games, and the Texans rank fifth in the NFL in rushing yards.  However, the Texans rank 30th in the NFL in red-zone percentage.   They’ve managed to score on just 5 of 16 trips inside the 20 yard line.  Last week, against the New Orleans Saints, they were only able to score a touchdown on 1 of their 5 times in the red-zone.  Instead of touchdowns, they settled for 4 field goals.

Last year, Foster led the NFL in rushing touchdowns, and the Texans were fifth in red-zone percentage.  So his return should do a lot to help fix their red-zone woes.

The Steelers have had struggles of their own.  They’ve had difficulty playing on the road so far.  They got crushed in Baltimore, and barely squeezed out a win last week in Indianapolis.  So traveling to Houston may not be a good thing for the Steelers.

But perhaps more concerning for the Steelers is the fact that their offensive line, which was already struggling, got dinged up pretty badly against the Colts.  Jonathan Scott, Doug Legursky, and Marcus Gilbert all got hurt during the game.

Colts’ defensive ends Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis had their way with the Steelers offensive line last week.  And things aren’t going to get any better this week when they face the Texans’ Mario Williams.  Williams is one of the best pass rushers in the NFL, and he may be better than either Freeney or Mathis.

Steelers left tackle Jonathan Scott seems to struggle against speed rushers.  He also struggles against big, powerful bull rushers.  He actually got pushed backwards fairly consistently last week by Dwight Freeney, who is fairly small for his position.  So what’s he going to do against Mario Williams, who is big, strong, and super fast?

For those of you who aren’t familiar with him, Williams is slightly bigger than Brett Keisel, but he runs like Lawrence Timmons.  See the problem?

Another player who may give the Steelers problems is Texans’ wide receiver Andre Johnson.  Johnson is one of the best receivers in the league.  He’s 3rd in the league in receiving, and will provide a worthy challenge for Steelers’ cornerback Ike Taylor.

Ultimately, the final outcome of the game may be determined by the Steelers’ front 7.  If they can stop the Texans’ running game, that will greatly aid in sealing a win.  Over the past 10 years, the Steelers have been one of the best teams in the NFL at stopping the run.  But for some reason, they’ve struggled in that area this season.

In particular, the left side of the Steelers’ defense has struggled.  Aaron Smith has been unsuccessful at holding his ground and occupying blockers, and LaMarr Woodley has applied almost no pressure to the quarterback.

I anticipate the Steelers are going to struggle with offensive line issues for the rest of the season.  That same issue has plagued the team for at least the last 3 seasons, so there’s nothing new there.  But if Smith and Woodley can pick up their respective games, then the Steelers have a real chance of leaving Houston with a victory.

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In our last article, we interviewed Indianapolis Colts blogger Kyle Rodriguez from the blog Coltsider. He gave very candid answers to our questions about Sunday night’s Steelers-Colts game.

Coltsider also interviewed us to get our perspective on the game as well.  Our answer can be found on their blog right now.

If you’re interested in reading the interview, click here.

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As a prelude to Sunday’s Steelers/Colts game, we decided to interview an Indianapolis Colts blogger.

Our guest is Kyle Rodriguez of Coltsider.  We’ve asked Kyle a few questions about the upcoming game.

1)  Is there any way that the Colts can overcome the loss of Peyton Manning, particularly if Manning is out for an extended period?

In short, no.  Peyton Manning does more for the Colts than any other player in the league.  You can see that just in the last two games.  The Colts have built their team around Manning and his strengths, and until this year it’s worked out fairly well for them.  But for this season, there isn’t much the Colts can do in order to overcome his absence.

Most Colts fans have, and should have, resigned themselves to the fact that this is most likely a lost season.  That being said, there still are things the coaching staff can do in order to improve the team sans-Manning.  For example, I’ve called for them to experiment more with struggling young players Donald Brown and Jerry Hughes.  Both players have tremendous talent, but aren’t great fits for the Colts’ system.  Now would be the time to try some experiments.

2)  What players/strategy do you think the Colts should rely on to carry the team in Mannings’ absence?

The Colts are going to need to rely on their running game much more this season than in the past.  Kerry Collins and the questionable offensive line aren’t reliable enough to lean on.  Fortunately, the run game has looked much improved in the last couple of weeks.  But, due to falling behind early, the Colts have had to abandon the running game much earlier than one would like.

For players, the Colts will rely on the veterans to lead the team. Antoine Bethea, Dwight Freeney, Robert Mathis, and Reggie Wayne will likely be the most important.

3)  Which group (e.g. Linebackers, Offensive line, Cornerbacks, etc.) do you think are the Colts greatest strength right now?

The Colts’ greatest strength for me is their defensive ends.  The pass rushing duo of Robert Mathis and Dwight Freeney have terrorized the league for years, and don’t show signs of slowing down.  Mathis was a terror in last week’s game against Cleveland, and Dwight Freeney added another sack/fumble to his resume.  The Colts also added former first round pick Jamaal Anderson over the offseason, who has played very well, especially against the run.

Colts DE Dwight Freeney

Unfortunately, the defensive tackle play has been substandard, bringing down the overall play of the defensive line.

4)  Which group is their greatest weakness right now?

Well, there are a few different areas we could pick on here, but I’d say the secondary as a whole has been disappointing.

Free Safety Antoine Bethea has been steady, but the rest of the group has struggled.  Jerraud Powers was a good #1 cornerback for the last couple years, and showed promise to be even better.  However, thus far into the preseason, he hasn’t impressed at all, he may have even regressed.

Jacob Lacey has been the other starter, and is the fan whipping boy due to the huge cushions he generally gives to receivers.  Whether that is by scheme or by execution is unknown, but either way it isn’t succeeding.

Finally, strong safety Melvin Bullitt was resigned this past offseason, but has been very disappointing over the first two games.  His play against the Browns was possibly the biggest killer on defense, and it will need to improve if the Colts are going to have a shot at winning games this season.

5)  What do you think the Colts are going to need to do to beat the Steelers?

Their only chance is via turnovers.  The Steelers have had a problem with turning the ball over in the first couple games, and the Colts defense has been largely active with the ball as well, forcing five fumbles and two interceptions in the first two games.  If the Colts are going to have any chance of winning this game, they will need to take care of the ball on offense, and force turnovers on defense.

6)  Predict the winner of the game, and the final score.

Steelers 31, Colts 17

Today’s featured item:

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The Steelers will face the Indianapolis Colts in a nationally televised game on Sunday night.  The game will be played in Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

Most fans are probably aware that the Colts’ star quarterback, Peyton Manning, is out with a neck injury.  Without Manning, the Colts have started the season 0-2.  This is the team’s first 0-2 start since Manning’s rookie season.

Not only are the Colts 0-2, but with Kerry Collins starting at quarterback, they’ve failed to pass for 200 yards in both of their games thus far.  Collins is averaging 194 passing yards per game.  That ranks 27th among NFL quarterbacks.

With such a poor passing attack, you’d think that the Colts would be relying heavily on their running game to carry the offense.  However, that hasn’t really been the case.  The Colts have only averaged 86.5 rushing yards per game.  Moreover, their low rushing output has come against the Houston Texans and the Cleveland Browns.  Neither defense is in the same class as the Steelers’.

A weak passing attack, and a weak rushing attack, are not the ideal weapons to bring to a battle against the Steelers’ defense.  Knowing that the Colts have been impotent rushing the ball AND passing the ball, I expect to see Steelers’ Defensive Coordinator Dick LeBeau call for blitzes early and often.

Despite the dominant win last week against the Seattle Seahawks, the Steelers can definitely use an opponent like Indianapolis.  Neither LaMarr Woodley nor James Harrison has shown their normal dominance yet this season.  Harrison, in particular is still working himself back into shape after two off-season back surgeries.  So the Colts may be just what the doctor ordered.

On defense, the Colts aren’t much better.  They have the 29th ranked rushing defense in the NFL.  They’ve been yielding and average of 136.5 yards per game on the ground.  I’m sure that statistic has Rashard Mendenhall and Isaac Redman salivating.

Even the Colts’ defensive stars Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathias are off to slow starts.  The duo has recorded just 6 total tackles and 2 sacks through the the first two games.  Of course, they’ll be facing a Steelers’ offensive line which is suspect at best.  So maybe that’s just what the doctor ordered for the Colts.

Lucas Oil Stadium is known for being loud and rowdy.  And because Sunday’s game is going to be on national television, I expect it to be louder and rowdier.  But that shouldn’t matter.  Without Peyton Manning, the Colts just don’t have enough weapons to beat the Steelers.

I predict a Steelers win, by a score of 24-7.

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The Seattle Seahawks travel to Pittsburgh to play the Steelers this Sunday.  Both teams are 0-1, and looking to turn things around.

Unfortunately for Seattle, history is probably not on their side.

The Steelers have won 8 straight home openers dating back to 2002.  Moreover, the Steelers are 6-2 at home versus Seattle.  The Seahawks haven’t won a game in Pittsburgh since 1999.  That was last century.

None of those are good statistics for Seattle to build on.

The Seahawks are coming off of a poor showing against the San Francisco 49ers, in which they lost 33-17.  But the loss isn’t the problem.  It’s the way that they lost that should be most troubling for Seattle.

The Seahawks’ offense was completely impotent against the 49ers.  Seattle’s leading rusher was Marshawn Lynch.  However, Lynch only rushed for 33 yards on 13 carries.  And one of those carries was for 12 yards.  So on the remaining plays, Lynch rushed for 21 yards on 12 carries.  Numbers like those are definitely not going to strike fear into the Steelers’ defense.

Starting quarterback Tavaris Jackson didn’t do much to help their cause either.  He passed for only197 yards, and was sacked 5 times.  Much like Lynch, a large portion of Jackson’s yards came on one play.  Jackson had a 55 yard touchdown pass.  Outside of that play, Jackson passed for 142 yards on 36 attempts.  Do you think Troy Polamalu is worried about facing Jackson?

Seattle QB Tavaris Jackson

But the Steelers probably shouldn’t be too arrogant going into the game either.  They didn’t play very well either last week.  They’ll be seeking redemption as much as the Seahawks will.

Ray Rice made the Steelers’ defense look like a high school team last week.  So a rushing offense like the Seahawks’ may be just what the Steelers need to get their confidence back.

Similarly, the Steelers were able to put very little pressure on Joe Flacco last weeks, so facing an offensive line that allowed their quarterback to be sacked 5 times may be exactly what the Steelers need.  Tavaris Jackson is never going to be confused with Tom Brady.  We all know that, and I’m sure that LaMarr Woodley and James Harrison know that.

While the Seahawks’ offense may be just what the doctor ordered, the Seahawks’ defense may be even more vulnerable than their offense.

In 2010, Seattle’s defense was ranked 27th in the NFL.  They don’t appear to have improved very much in 2011.  So Ben Roethlisberger, Rashard Mendenhall, and the Steelers’ receivers should also be looking forward to facing the Seahawks.

The best way for a fighter to bounce back from getting knocked out, is to get right back in the ring and knock someone else out.  That’s what the Steelers will be looking to do against Seattle.  A win won’t suffice.  The Steelers need to dominate the Seahawks, and give them the football equivalent of a knockout.

Here we go Steelers, here we go!

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