Steelers Today – A Pittsburgh Steelers blog

The Pittsburgh Steelers have signed one of their former players, Max Starks, to help fix their horrid offensive line.

Starks spent 7 years with the Steelers, and has experience playing both the right and left tackle positions.  Starks had started in 79 games for the Steelers before being cut before this year’s training camp.

Starks sustained a neck injury in 2010 that forced him to miss the second half of the season.  The injury also prevented him from working out.  So when Starks reported for training camp, he was out of shape, and weighed over 400 lbs.  The Steelers released him immediately, without even allowing him to try to work himself into shape during training camp.

Since that time, Starks has been working out, and has lost over 60 lbs.  He’s now closer to his listed weight of 345 lbs., but it’s unclear how good his cardio is.

I suppose the Steelers felt anything is better than what they’ve been getting from their offensive line.  Frankly, I wouldn’t have been surprised if they had made calls to Tunch Ilkin, Jon Kolb, Craig Wolfley, or Larry Brown.  Any of them could probably do better than what the Steelers have been getting from their current offensive linemen.

Interestingly, the Steelers have not re-signed Flozell Adams.  Aside from Maurkice Pouncey, Adams was probably their most consistent offensive lineman last year.  The Steelers released Adams when Willie Colon returned from his injury because Adams wasn’t willing to take a pay cut to serve as a backup.  But the way the Steelers offensive line has been playing, Adams would be a welcome addition.

To make room for Starks, the Steelers waived Chris Scott.  Scott rarely makes it onto the field anyway, so that’s no great loss.

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The bad news for the Pittsburgh Steelers just keeps on rolling in.

According to the team, linebacker James Harrison has an orbital fracture around his right eye.  The injury happened during Sunday’s game against the Houston Texans.  Harrison had a violent collision with a Texans player, and his face mask was pushed into his face.  Harrison appeared to have difficulty seeing after the injury, and was shown on TV being examined by team physicians.

Harrison is scheduled to have surgery on Wednesday, and according to Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin, he’ll be out “a number of weeks”.

Ordinarily, Harrison would be replaced by second year player Jason Worilds.  Unfortunately, Worilds has a quad strain and is doubtful for Sunday’s game.  So the Steelers coaching staff is going to have to do some juggling with their linebackers.

Lawrence Timmons may be the most likely replacement on the right side.  Timmons can play both the inside and outside linebacker positions.  If Timmons moves to Harrison’s position, Larry Foote would likely replace him in the starting line-up at inside linebacker.

To make things even worse, Tomlin announced that Aaron Smith has a mid-foot sprain and is extremely questionable for Sunday’s game.  Hopefully, Brett Keisel will be healthy enough to play this weekend, otherwise both starters at defensive end will miss the game.

The old saying goes; “When it rains, it pours.”  This is certainly true for the Steelers right now.

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The game ended over 6 hours ago.  But I still don’t want to write about it.  I don’t even want to think about it.  I just want to forget about the debacle in Houston.

The Texans beat the Steelers by a score of 17-10.  But anyone who watched the game knows that it was much worse than that.

In case anyone missed the game, suffice it to say that the best players for the Steelers were wearing Houston Texans jerseys.

The Texans repeatedly shot themselves in the foot with silly penalties (9 in all).  Twice the Texans had touchdowns called back because of penalties.  It seemed like every time the Texans made a good play, it was called back due to a penalty.  If it hadn’t been for all of the penalties, the score would have been much, much worse.

After last week’s game against the Colts, when the defense made Colts’ running back Joseph Addai look like Jim Brown, I thought that it couldn’t get any worse.  But I was wrong.  This week, they made Texans running back Arian Foster look like Barry Sanders.  I haven’t looked at the box score yet, but I’m pretty sure that Foster ran for over 1,000 yards in this one game.

Okay, perhaps I’m exaggerating.  In truth, the Texans only ran for 180 yards.  So while I may have exaggerated a little, I didn’t exaggerate much.

But the defense wasn’t the only unit that was completely overwhelmed.  The offense was equally over-matched.

The Steelers’ offensive line couldn’t block anyone.  In fact, I’m not even sure if they played today.  If they did, they certainly didn’t make their presence felt.

And Rashard Mendenhall didn’t play much better.  Last week Mendenhall was held to a mere 37 yards rushing.  But as if to prove to us that he could do even worse, Mendy rushed for only 25 yards this week.

Initially, I blamed the offensive line for Mendenhall’s poor performances.  But Isaac Redman and Mewelde Moore seemed to have no problem running behind the same offensive line in both games.  So perhaps the problem isn’t with the offensive line.  Perhaps the problem is Mendenhall.

Perhaps the worst performance of all was given by #7.  Ben Roethlisberger played terribly.

To be fair, the offensive line didn’t give him much time.  It’s no coincidence that Roethlisberger was sacked 5 times.  But Ben still played badly.  He and his receivers don’t seem to be on the same page when it comes to “hot reads” when the blitz is coming.  On several occasions, Ben tried to get rid of the ball quickly because a blitz was coming, and the receiver didn’t even look back for the ball.  Clearly, that’s not Ben’s fault.

The thing that’s been most concerning this season has been Big Ben’s tendency to turn the ball over at the least opportune times.  If he’s not throwing an interception, he’s fumbling the ball.  Knowing that he’s playing behind a porous offensive line, Ben either has to throw the ball away, or secure it so that he doesn’t give up a fumble.

Okay, that’s enough.  Rehashing the game is making me upset, so I’m going to stop now.  But that’s probably a good thing, because it leaves me time to go out and buy a new TV before the stores close tonight.   I threw my shoe through my old TV during the game.

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The Steelers face the Houston Texans this Sunday.  This will be a tough contest between two teams that are both 2-1.

A victory by either team is going to take a solid performance by their entire squad.  However, there are a few match-ups that will play a pivotal role in determining the winner of the game.

These are the key match-ups that we’ll be watching during Sunday’s game:

Steelers run defense vs. Arian Foster

Texans’ running back Arian Foster was the NFL’s leading rusher last year.  However, he’s battled injuries and has missed most of the 2011 season.  He’s scheduled to play against the Steelers.

The Steelers run defense hasn’t looked very impressive so far this season.  Baltimore’s Ray Rice made them look like they were standing in quicksand, and they made Indy’s Joseph Addai look like Walter Payton last week.  So facing Arian Foster is going to be a real challenge for the Steelers.  It will be a good test of how much the defense is improving.

Ike Taylor vs. Andre Johnson

Ike Taylor has been playing at a Pro Bowl level so far this season.  Quarterbacks have rarely challenged him, and when they have, their attempts have been unsuccessful.

However, Texans’ wide receiver Andre Johnson may be the best wide receiver in the NFL.  He’s big, he’s strong, and he consistently puts up impressive numbers.

This may be the most exciting match-up of the game.

Steelers CB Ike Taylor

Aaron Smith & LaMarr Woodley vs. Mike Brisiel & Eric Winton

The left side of the Steelers defense has been suspect this season.  Teams have run successfully to that side, and LaMarr Woodley has been unable to apply pressure to opposing quarterbacks.

In a 3-4 defense, the defensive end and the outside linebacker work in tandem, so some of the blame for Woodley’s decline may belong to Smith.  However, it’s impossible to know if that’s the case.  But the one thing that we do know is that both of them need to play better, and it would be great if they did it against the Texans.

Mike Wallace vs. Johnathan Joseph

Steelers wide receiver Mike Wallace is one of the fastest receivers in the league.  He has supplanted Hines Ward as Ben Roethlisberger’s favorite target.

Wallace has had his sixth straight 100-yard receiving game last week against the Colts.  If he has 100 or more receiving yards this game, he’ll tie an NFL record.

Wallace said at the beginning of the season that his goal was to have a 2,000 yard receiving season.  He’s behind schedule, and will need to have a good game against the Texans.

Texans’ cornerback Johnathan Joseph is no stranger to Mike Wallace.  He played for the Cincinnati Bengals before signing with the Texans this off-season.  So he’s no stranger to Wallace and his speed.  This should be almost as good a match-up as Ike Taylor and Andre Johnson.  Almost.

Today’s featured item:

Ladies, why go out wearing your boyfriend’s boxy mens’ Steelers gear?  Why not represent your favorite team in this ladies’ hoodie, that will show your support while still keeping you looking feminine?

Don’t delay.  Order now!

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