Steelers Today – A Pittsburgh Steelers blog

September 16, 2009
By Donald Starver

This Sunday, the Steelers travel to Chicago to take on the Chicago Bears. Kickoff is at 4:15 PM ET.

Soldier Field has not been a friendly venue for the Steelers.  The Steelers have lost 11 of their last 12 games in Chicago.

Despite their losing record in Chicago, the Steelers have won their last 3 games against the Bears, including their November 5, 1995 37-34 win over the Bears in Chicago.

As evidenced by the fact that the Steelers haven’t played in Chicago in over a decade, these two teams don’t face one another very often.  That being the case, there won’t be a great deal of familiarity between them. 

The last time they played was in 2005 here in Pittsburgh, when the Steelers won 21-9.  Some fans may remember that game as the “Bus runs over Urlacher” game.  That’s certainly what I remember about it.

But 4 years is a long time, and these are both completely different teams.

The Bears are coming off a difficult loss to their NFC North rivals the Green Bay Packers.  In that game, the Bears’ new franchise quarterback Jay Cutler struggled.  Cutler completed only 17 of his 36 pass attempts, and ended the game with pathetic 43.2 passer rating.  More importantly, the Packers’ new 3-4 defense had Cutler completely frazzled.  Cutler was sacked twice, and threw 4 interceptions.

This is the Packers’ first year playing a 3-4 defense, and they executed it very well against the Bears.  Steelers defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau has certainly been watching the film of that game, and will have far more exotic blitzes planned for Cutler than what he saw from the Packers. 

Not only did the Packers successfully shut down Cutler, they also managed to keep Bears running back Matt Forte in check.  Forte was held to 55 yards rushing on 25 attempts.  That’s only 2.2 yards per carry.

Last season, Forte had a breakout season in which he amassed 1,238 yards and finished seventh in the NFL in rushing.

Bears' RB Matt Forte

We all know that the Steelers defense relishes the opportunity to face premiere running backs.  They take great pride in holding the NFL’s top running backs to under 100 yards rushing.  Matt Forte should be in for a long day.

When most fans think of the Bears, they think of the stout Bears defense that carried the team to Super Bowl XLI back in 2007.  However, that team has changed greatly.  The defense is no longer the strength of the team.  The Bears’ defense finished 2008 as the 21st ranked defense in the NFL.  That’s a far cry from the 2006/2007 team. 

To make things even worse for the Bears’ defense, star linebacker Brian Urlacher was lost for the season last week.  Losing Urlacher hurts the Bears the same way that losing Troy Polamalu hurts the Steelers.  Maybe more.

So the Steelers will face a Bears team with a depleted defense and a high flying offense.  Yeah, these are not your father’s Chicago Bears.

In order to win the game, the Steelers are going to need a much better performance from their running backs than they got in the season opener against the Tennessee Titans.  Willie Parker in particular is going to have to improve on the 19 yards that he accumulated against the Titans. 

The Steelers’ defense will be missing two key starters, as Troy Polamalu will be sidelined following last week’s knee injury.  The Steelers also announced that linebacker Lawrence Timmons re-injured his ankle in practice and is questionable for the game.

Despite missing Polamalu and Timmons, the Steelers should still be more than up to the challenge of facing the Bears.  Tyrone Carter is a seasoned veteran, and has played in place of Polamalu before.  Keyaron Fox is also a quality backup.  In fact, he looked more impressive than Lawrence Timmons in preseason.

My prediction is that the Steelers are going to leave Chicago with their 4th straight win against the Bears.  The final score will be Steelers 21 – Bears 10.  You heard it here first.

Fun fact:
The Steelers have won six straight games and eight of the past 9 (dating back to 1998) against teams currently in the NFC North.

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After each game of the 2008 season, Steelers Today ran a haiku contest.  The idea was to see who could best capture the events of the game in the form of a haiku.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with haiku, it is a form of Japanese poetry. A proper haiku is a 3 line poem with 5 syllables in the first line, 7 syllables in the second line, and 5 syllables in the third line. Remember, that’s “syllables”, not “words”.

I hadn’t planned to bring back the weekly haiku contests this season.  The reason is that one of our readers named Patrick absolutely owned the competition.  He won every single week except for one.  And the only reason that he didn’t win that week was because I awarded a victory to someone else in order to keep Patrick from getting a clean sweep for the season.

Despite my desire to keep my readers from being bludgeoned by Patrick this season, the haiku black belt has other ideas.  Patrick has thrown down the gauntlet by submitting 4 very good haiku entries, and challenging anyone to do better.  Here are Patrick’s entries.

Haiku #1
Defense ruled the day
But when they need a clutch drive
Nobody beats Ben.

Haiku #2
Santonio Holmes
Exactly matching his stats
From the Super Bowl.

Haiku #3
Ward’s shocking fumble
Brought back the Bettis miscue
Both games victories.

Haiku #4
Run game down, Troy out
Who will come to the rescue?
Ben Roethlisberger.

Wow, that’s some mighty fine haiku.  All 4 are world class efforts.  But since I’m the judge, I think that #4 is the strongest of his 4 entries, so that is the one to beat.  (For the record, I love the reference to the Bettis fumble in #3.  Good work, Patrick).

Can anyone defeat this haiku samurai?  Give it a shot.  Capture the Steelers’ win against the Titans in a haiku and knock Patrick off of his throne.

The winner will be announced later in the week. Good luck.

Other Steelers news:

The Steelers announced today that tight end Dezmond Sherrod has been cut from the Steelers’ practice squad and replaced by tight end Kevin Brock.  Brock is  6’5″, 255 lbs.  He was originally signed by the Carolina Panthers as an undrafted free agent out of  Rutgers.  The Panthers released Brock in August, and he was signed by the New York Jets.  However, the Jets released Brock as they attempted reduce their roster to 53 players.

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September 14, 2009

Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu said today that he won’t need surgery.

Steeler Nation watched anxiously on Thursday as star safety Troy Polamalu went down with an injury in the game against the Tennessee Titans.  Polamalu was attempting to pick up a loose ball following a blocked field goal when Titans tight end Alge Crumpler fell on him.  Polamalu’s knee bent in an unnatural way, and his legs actually did a split. 

Some said that Polamalu had been hit by the Madden Curse.  The Madden Curse got its name because players that appear on the cover of the Madden NFL video game have a history of getting injured.  Polamalu and Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald are on the cover of this year’s game.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoqBeQ-KYyU

At the time of the injury, the Steelers announced that Polamalu had sprained the medial collateral ligament (MCL) in his left leg.  Head coach Mike Tomlin guessed that it would take 3-6 weeks to recovery from the injury.  However, this was only an estimate based on how long it’s taken other players with similar injuries to recover.

Now that the Steelers’ medical staff has had an opportunity to evaluate Polamalu thoroughly, they agree with the original assessment.  Polamalu will be out 3-6 weeks, and will not require surgery.

“Regarding an injury to the knee this is the best-case scenario,” Polamalu said as he addressed the media in the Steelers’ locker room this afternoon.

Troy Polamalu

Polamalu wore a brace on the knee.  However, he indicated that the only rehabilitation that he will go through at this time is “just rest”.

Not only is this a best case scenario for Polamalu, but it is also a best case scenario for Steelers fans.  Many of us feared that Polamalu might require surgery and be lost for the season.  After watching the first quarter of the game against the Titans, it was obvious why Polamalu is so important to the defense.  Did anyone other than Polamalu even make a tackle in that quarter?  It certainly didn’t seem like it.  Troy was everywhere, making tackles and one-handed interceptions.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kqj9j4jne8Y

We are certainly happy to hear the positive report about Polamalu.  In fact, I think that all of Steeler Nation is thinking the exact same thought right now; “Thank you, God”.

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By now, we all know that the Steelers met with utter failure when trying to run the ball against the Tennessee Titans.  The Steelers not being able to run the ball is like Jeff Gordon not being able to drive, or Michael Phelps not being able to swim.  Running the ball is what the Steelers do.

The Steelers have historically subscribed to two key principles:

1. Run the ball.
2. Stop the run.

The Steelers’ defense seems to be having no problem in upholding their end of the deal.  They did a good job of stopping the run.  They held Tennessee’s talented tandem of Chris Johnson and LenDale White to a combined 85 rushing yards.

Contrarily, the Steelers’ offense didn’t quite get it done.  They delivered 36 total rushing yards.  Nope, you didn’t read that wrong.  I said 36 yards……total.  With a feeble offensive output like that, the Steelers may want to consider bringing back #36.  After all, it seems like the team has struggled in the running game since he retired.

So what’s wrong with the Steelers running game?  Why can’t they gain yards on the ground?

The easy answer is to point at the offensive line.  After all, they seem to be everybody’s whipping boys.  And to be honest, some of the blame does belong to the offensive line.  Their struggles are well-documented.

Following the game, Max Starks blamed the offensive line’s difficulties on the fact that the Titans play a 4-3 defense.  ”If we played a 3-4 team right now, we’d be great. We don’t play a 4-3 team that often, especially in training camp. All you see is virtually 3-4.”

Ummmmm Max, you’re kidding right?  You do realize that MOST teams in the NFL play a 4-3 defense, not a 3-4.  So if the Steelers can’t handle a 4-3 defense, then we are in for a loooong season.  Oh by the way, the Steelers happen to play the Chicago Bears next week.  They play a 4-3 defense.  Following the Bears, the Steelers face the Cincinnati Bengals, another 4-3 team.

As I said earlier, the offensive line played a role in the Steelers struggles to run the ball, but they weren’t completely responsible.  Another important factor was the Tennessee Titans.  They happened to have the 6th ranked defense against the run last season.  They allowed only 93.9 yards/game during the 2008 regular season.  That’s pretty good.

The Titans clearly came in with the idea that the way to beat the Steelers was to stop their running game.  The Titans often brought 8 men to the line to stop the run.  They seemed to be daring Ben Roethlisberger to beat them through the air (which he ultimately did).

The final factor that contributed to the Steelers’ difficulties was Willie Parker.  Parker has been nursing a hamstring injury that kept him out of most of the preseason.  Parker got no carries against the Arizona Cardinals in the first preseason game.  He got 4 carries against the Washington Redskins in the second preseason game.  Then he sat out the final two preseason games.  So Parker entered the regular season with a grand total of 4 preseason rushing attempts.  That’s not enough to get anyone ready for the NFL season.

In addition to Parker’s lack of carries during the preseason, he was also struggling at the end of the 2008 season.  In the Super Bowl, Parker rushed 19 times for a total of 53 yards.  Moreover, he got 15 yards on one of those carries.  When you subtract that lone long run, he got 38 yards on 18 carries.  That’s an average of 2.1 yards/carry.  Not good.  Not good at all.

In the AFC Championship game against the Baltimore Ravens, Parker gained 47 yards on 24 carries.  That averages out to 1.96 yards/carry.

So in the final 2 games of the 2008 season, Parker averaged approximately 2.0 yards per carry.  He then missed most of the 2009 preseason.

So as we can see, there are multiple factors contributing to the Steelers’ woes in the running game. 

While it is natural for fans to want to see drastic improvement by the Steelers, there really is no magic bullet.  We can’t make dramatic changes to the offensive line.  After all, they’re the only offensive line that we have. 

Willie Parker is also going to have to play better.  Fans are already starting to call for Isaac Redman to be called up from the practice squad.  However, with the limited number of carries that Parker got in the preseason, fans are just going to have to be patient as he plays himself back into mid-season form.

And of course, the opposition isn’t going to go easy on us despite our struggles.  Next week the Steelers face the Chicago Bears.  They were the #5 defense against the run last season.  That’s even better than the Titans’ defense.  I’ll bet the Bears have taken note of the Steelers’ difficulties running the ball, and will plan to exploit that weakness next week.

Steelers fans are a very knowledgeable bunch.  I’m sure that they’ve noticed that it was the passing game that won the Super Bowl for the Steelers.  Similarly, it was the passing game that won the game against the Tennessee Titans.

Until the Steelers figure out how to fix the problems in their running game, I recommend that they make a temporary  amendment to their key principles.  I suggest that the principles be altered to the following:

1. Pass the ball.
2. Stop the run.

All in favor say “aye”.

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It wasn’t pretty to watch, but a win is a win.  After looking completely impotent in their running game last night, the Steelers managed to pull out a win as they defeated the Tennessee Titans 13-10 in their season opener.

There was plenty of hype heading into the game as the reigning Super Bowl champs took on the team that had the best record in the AFC last year.  As if that weren’t enough, the Titans had beaten the Steelers last year in a head-to-head match-up.  To add insult to injury, several Titans players desecrated a Terrible Towel following their win, making many Steelers fans view this game as a chance for revenge.

But when the whistle blew and the game began, all thoughts of last year went out the window, and both teams knew that they needed to focus on the present.

For fan however, there were many aspects of the game that reminded us of last year.  Firstly, the offensive line looked eerily similar to last year (and that’s not a good thing).  They seemed to let the Titans’ defense hit Ben Roethlisberger at will.

Roethlisberger ended the game having been sacked only 4 times, but anyone who watched the game knows that he was pressured far more than that.  He seemed to be running for his life most of the game.

Where are you O-line?

To be fair, the offensive line seemed to improve as the game went on.  In the second half of the game there seemed to be several occasions when Ben seemed to have all of the time that he could possibly ask for.  But overall, I don’t think there are many fans who will be happy if the offensive line looks like that for the rest of the season.

Another aspect of the game that seemed like deja vu was the Steelers’ running game (or lack thereof).  The running backs struggled to gain even the tiniest amounts of yardage on the ground.  Willie Parker gained a total of 19 yards on 13 carries for whopping 1.5 yards per carry.  Rashard Mendenhall didn’t do any better, also averaging 1.5 yards per carry.  Finally, the Steelers benched Parker and went to Mewelde Moore who went on to average 1.6 yards per carry.

Another 1.5 yard carry.

Did the Steelers have anyone who could average more than 2 yards per carry?  Oh yeah, Big Ben averaged 3 yards per rushing attempt.  Not quite the place that I was hoping to find effective running, but I guess we’ll have to take what we can get.

The Steelers finished the game with a total of 36 yards rushing.  That’s right, 36 yards.  Those sound like the type of rushing numbers that the Steelers defense is supposed to hold their opponents to.  But it’s definitely not the type of output that we want to see from our running backs on a regular basis.

Fortunately, there were other aspects of the game that also reminded us of last year’s Steelers.  The defense was stingy as usual.  They held Titans running backs Chris Johnson and LenDale White under 100 yards for the game.  In fact, “Smash & Dash” had to settle for a combined 85 yards on the ground.

Ben Roethlisberger also looked like the Big Ben of 2008.  He led the team to another one of those last cardiac inducing wins that we got so used to seeing last year.  Big Ben almost delivered a last second win in the 4th quarter, but Hines Ward fumbled the ball on the Titans 4 yard line.  So the Steelers had to settle for delivering a nail-biter win in overtime as Jeff Reed booted a game winning field goal.

Reed kicks a game winner.

Just like he did in 2008, Roethlisberger often looked most effective when the Steelers went to their no-huddle offense.  Is it just me, or does anyone else notice that the offense is most effective when they go to the no-huddle and remove Bruce Arians’ from the equation?

Roethlisberger ended the game with one of the best statistical performances of his career.  He completed 33 of 43 pass attempts for a total of 363 yards.

Despite the win, Steelers fans couldn’t be completely happy following the game.  We learned in the post-game press conference that Steelers safety Troy Polamalu had suffered an MCL strain, and will miss 3-6 weeks nursing the injury.  That definitely added a sour note to an otherwise joyful occasion.

It wasn’t a pretty game to watch, but a win is a win.  The Steelers are now 1-0, and have the best record in the NFL (I like the sound of that).

By beating a quality team like the Titans, the Steelers announced to the rest of the NFL that they are again going to be a team to be reckoned with.  More importantly, they took their first step up the stairway to seven.

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