Steelers Today – A Pittsburgh Steelers blog

According to head coach Mike Tomlin, the MRI revealed that Troy Polamalu’s injury is to his posterior cruciate ligament (PCL).  This is not the same ligament that Troy injured earlier in the year.  Troy’s earlier injury was a medial collateral ligament (MCL) injury.  This injury doesn’t appear to be as severe.

Troy Polamalu

Troy is said to be “questionable” at best for this Sunday’s game against the Kansas City Chiefs.

We all know how the Steelers defense struggled the first time Troy was out of the line-up.  Hopefully, this absence will be much shorter.

But as Mike Tomlin always says, “the standard doesn’t change”.  Looks like Tyrone Carter is going to have to step up again.   We all know that he is a seasoned veteran who is more than capable of pulling his weight when called upon.  Go Steelers!

(If you enjoyed this article, please consider leaving a comment below. Also, please subscribe to our blog by pressing the orange button below. You can also follow us on Facebook or Twitter by clicking the doohickies at the bottom of the right column of this page.  Thanks.)

Subscribe in a reader

Here is Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin’s post-game press conference following the loss to the Bengals. Not much he could say. The team looked bad on offense, and they looked worse on special teams.

Oh well.  Sunday’s game is behind us.  The team is going to have to fight hard to maintain their position as a wild card team.  On to Kansas City.

(If you enjoyed this article, please consider leaving a comment below. Also, please subscribe to our blog by pressing the orange button below. You can also follow us on Facebook or Twitter by clicking the doohickies at the bottom of the right column of this page.  Thanks.)

Subscribe in a reader

The last time the Cincinnati Bengals won the AFC North was in 2005.  That’s the same season that the Steelers went on to win Super Bowl XL.

That is recent proof that all is not lost following the Steelers 18-12 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals.  However, that doesn’t change the fact that the Steelers made things much more difficult for themselves by losing for a second time to the Bengals.

The Bengals now hold an almost insurmountable advantage in the division race.  It would take a miracle for the Steelers to wrestle the division crown from the Bengals grasp.  So if the Steelers are going to repeat as Super Bowl champs, it is going to have to be as a wild card team.

The Steelers defense looked impressive in the loss.  They held the Bengals to only 61 yards rushing.  They also held Carson Palmer to only 178 yards passing, while sacking him twice.  They didn’t allow a single touchdown to the Bengals’ offense, and stopped them 3 times in the red zone.  We really can’t ask them to do much more than that.

Unfortunately, the Steelers offense and special teams didn’t uphold their end of the deal.  The Steelers special teams allowed the only touchdown of the game.  Kicker Jeff Reed was within a few feet of Bengals return man Bernard Scott, and could have tackled him early in his run.  Unfortunately Reed didn’t even make an attempt to stop him.  He didn’t dive for his feet.  He didn’t stick out his leg to trip him.  He didn’t even reach out an arm to try to touch him.  He just let him coast by for a touchdown.

I know that Jeff Reed is a kicker, but can someone remind him that he’s also a football player.  And a professional football player at that.  He has to learn how to tackle. 

The Steelers offense didn’t do much better.  They didn’t generate a single touchdown despite being in the red zone 4 times. 

Part of the problem seemed to be the play calling.  The Steelers attempted 40 passes while only giving the ball to their running backs 16 times (Big Ben also ran the ball twice).  That’s more than a 2-1 ratio of passes to running plays.

The heavy emphasis on the passing game might have been okay if Roethlisberger was playing well.  But he wasn’t.  Big Ben completed only 50% of his passes, was sacked 4 times, and ended the game with a 51.5 quarterback rating.

Another incomplete pass

Did the Steelers forget that Rashard Mendenhall had rushed for 155 yards last week?  Did they not notice that Willie Parker averaged 7 yards per carry during the game, and that Mewelde Moore averaged 10.5 yards per carry?  Obviously they didn’t.  I think Big Ben and Bruce Arians grew too infatuated with the incomplete pass.

As if to add insult to injury (or should I say “add injury to insult”?), safety Troy Polamalu left the game due to an injury to his knee.  No prognosis was available, but Mike Tomlin said that Polamalu would undergo an MRI.  Hopefully, it’s nothing serious, and Troy won’t be out for an extended period of time.  We all saw what happened last time Polamalu was out of the Steelers lineup.

Fortunately for the Steelers, their next game is against the pathetic Kansas City Chiefs.  That may be just the tune-up that the team needs before traveling to Baltimore for their first of two remaining meetings with the Ravens.

Sunday’s loss means that the Steelers now have an uphill battle on the stairway to seven.  Next stop, Kansas City.

(If you enjoyed this article, please consider leaving a comment below. Also, please subscribe to our blog by pressing the orange button below. You can also follow us on Facebook or Twitter by clicking the doohickies at the bottom of the right column of this page.  Thanks.)

Subscribe in a reader

I firmly believe that the Steelers are going to beat the Bengals today.  Sure, the Bengals beat the Steelers earlier in the year, but we all know that that game was a fluke.  The Steelers were without Troy Polamalu and Rashard Mendenhall.  They were in Cincinnati.  They blew 10 points due to a missed field goal by Jeff Reed and a dropped touchdown pass by Limas Sweed.  And their defense completely disappeared in the 4th quarter.

This time the game will be played in Pittsburgh.  Troy Polamalu is back.  Rashard Mendenhall is running wild.  Limas Sweed is on the bench (where he belongs).  Jeff Reed has recaptured his mojo.  And the Steelers defense is once again playing like……the Steelers defense.

So when the Steelers beat the Bengals this afternoon, all will be well in Steelerland, right?  Well, not so fast.

Even with a win today, the Steelers will still have their work cut out for them.  The Bengals have already swept their season series with the Baltimore Ravens.  Meanwhile, the Steelers have yet to face the Ravens.  Beating them once is always tough.  Beating them twice is extremely difficult.

The Bengals are 4-0 within the AFC North.  The Steelers are 1-1.  That’s a significant advantage for the Bengals.  And if the Bengals somehow win today, the advantage probably becomes insurmountable.

If we look at their remaining schedules, the Bengals seem to have a fairly easy path for the rest of the season.  The Bengals next three games are against the Oakland Raiders, the Cleveland Browns, and the Detroit Lions.  I’d say those are probably 3 easy wins for the Bengals.  The Bengals also have games remaining against the Kansas City Chiefs and the New York Jets.  Those are also probably wins for the Bengals.  The only two challenging opponents remaining on the Bengals’ schedule are the Minnesota Vikings and the San Diego Chargers.  Both games are on the road, so I’m going to assume that the Bengals will lose one, but not both games.  That would mean that the Bengals would end the season with a 12-4.

Meanwhile, the Steelers still have two games remaining against the Ravens.  The Ravens are 4-4 right now, but we all know that neither team’s record matters when these two teams face one another.  The Ravens are particularly difficult to beat in Baltimore.  So there is a possibility that the Steelers might lose one of the two games against the Ravens.  That would dig the Steelers an even bigger hole in their division tie breaker.

Besides the Ravens, the Steelers have a fairly easy path for the rest of the season.  They have games remaining against perennial losers like the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oakland Raiders, and the Cleveland Browns.  The Steelers also have to face a pretty good Green Bay Packers team, and an enigmatic Miami Dolphins team.

I don’t foresee the Steelers losing to the any of these teams.  But I didn’t foresee them losing to the Bengals or Bears either.  If the Steelers lose one of their games to the Ravens, and then drop a game to one of their remaining opponents (e.g. the Green Bay Packers), they will probably end the season in a tie with the Bengals.  That will leave the Steelers in an unfavorable position with the tie-breakers.  The Bengals will probably have a better record in the division.  They will probably also have a better record against common opponents (that Chicago Bears loss comes back to haunt us).

The bottom line is that if the Steelers lose today, they will have placed themselves in a very difficult predicament.  Catching the Bengals will be almost impossible.

The obvious solution to this problem is for the Steelers to win.  They need to beat the Bengals today, and then keep on winning.  They have to sweep their series against the Ravens (not an easy task).  They also need to make sure they don’t suffer any more unexpected losses (e.g. Chiefs, Browns, or Raiders).  Then they have to take care of business against the two respectable non-division opponents remaining on their schedule (Packers & Dolphins).

I guess it all goes back to something that we all learned on the playground in kindergarten; winning is good, and losing is bad.  If the Steelers keep winning, things will be good for them.  If they suffer another loss or two, things will be bad. 

The team’s fate is completely in their own hands.  They know what they have to do.  Beat the Bengals.  Beat the Ravens (twice).  Beat the doormats (Raiders, Browns, and Chiefs).  Beat the Packers.  Beat the Dolphins.  It’s as simple as that.

To quote a once great man who is now obviously senile; “Just win, baby!”

(If you enjoyed this article, please consider leaving a comment below. Also, please subscribe to our blog by pressing the orange button below. You can also follow us on Facebook or Twitter by clicking the doohickies at the bottom of the right column of this page.  Thanks.)

Subscribe in a reader

This week’s Steelers-Bengals game is right up there with some of the other great battles in sports history; Ali vs. Frazier, Lakers vs. Celtics, Tyson vs. Holyfield’s ear, Yankees vs. Red Sox, Ike vs. Tina.  Okay, maybe not.  But it should still be a very good game.

The Steelers and Bengals find themselves tied at the top of the AFC North with identical 6-2 records.  However, the Bengals have the advantage in the tie-breakers so far.  The Bengals defeated the Steelers in their first meeting this season.  The Bengals also have a better record within the division (4-0), having swept the Baltimore Ravens already, while the Steelers (1-1) have not faced the Ravens yet.

With that in mind, Sunday’s game becomes a must-win for the Steelers.

Personally, I have no doubt that the Steelers are going to beat the Bengals.  Call me a doubter, but I just don’t think the Bengals are in the Steelers’ class, despite their earlier win.

If you’ll recall the Steelers game against the Bengals earlier this season, you’ll remember that it took a 4th quarter miracle by the Bengals (actually, it was a 4th quarter meltdown by the Steelers) to win the game.

The Steelers dominated the Bengals in every way in that game.  They held Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer to a mere 183 yards passing.  Meanwhile, Big Ben threw for almost 300 yards and completed passes to 8 different receivers, including 102 yards to rookie receiver Mike Wallace.

Willie Parker rushed for 93 yards on 25 carries, as Rashard Mendenhall sat out due to being unprepared in practice.

The Steelers held the bengals to a mere 9 points through 3 quarters before surrendering 2 late touchdowns during a 4th quarter meltdown.

The Steelers domination was so complete that they held the ball a full 10 minutes more than the Bengals did during the course of the game.

Yet, a missed field goal by Jeff Reed combined with a dropped TD pass by Limas Sweed resulted in a 3 point loss in a game that the Steelers should have won.

Both teams remember what happened in the first game.  The Bengals know that they got beat like a drum, despite what the final scoreboard said.  The Steelers know that they lost a game that was within their grasp.

But that was then, and this is now.  In this game, the Bengals are going to find that they are facing a much improved Steelers team.

The Steelers are on a roll, having won 5 games in a row.  Troy Polamalu is back, having missed the first game against the Bengals due to injury.  Polamalu’s return seems to have ended the Steelers string of 4th quarter meltdowns.  The Steelers defense is now playing like the unit that we all know and love.

But perhaps the biggest difference in this game will be the Steelers’ running back.  The Bengals faced Willie Parker in the first game, and he almost gained 100 yards on them.  This time, the Bengals will be facing Rashard Mendenhall.  They’ve never faced Mendenhall, but I think they are going to find that he’s a much greater challenge than Parker is.

Steelers RB Rashard Mendenhall

Surely the Bengals watched Mendenhall run for 155 yards on Monday Night Football.  They know that they are in for a tough game.

They also know that the rookie wide receiver who torched them for over 100 yards the first time they faced him has gotten even better.  Their defensive backs can’t be looking forward to facing Mike Wallace again.

Those are some of the reasons why I am sure that the Steelers are going to win this game.  If the Bengals were honest, they’d admit that those are exactly the same reasons why they know that they are going to lose.

(If you enjoyed this article, please consider leaving a comment below. Also, please subscribe to our blog by pressing the orange button below. You can also follow us on Facebook or Twitter by clicking the doohickies at the bottom of the right column of this page.  Thanks.)

Subscribe in a reader