Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Miami Dolphins preview
The Steelers take on the Miami Dolphins this Sunday. Steeler Nation’s attention will be focused on the outcome of a bunch of other games to see if the Steelers will luck out and make the playoffs.
That’s all fine and good, but the reality is that the most important game to pay attention to is the Steelers-Dolphins game. If the Steelers don’t win, then the outcome of all of the other games becomes moot.
The Steelers MUST beat the Dolphins. Period. End of story.
If the Steeler lose, it’s a wrap. The Steelers won’t make the playoffs, regardless of what anyone else does. So beating the Dolphins is the only thing that anyone should be worried about. Everything else is out of our control.
So let’s take a look at the Dolphins. What do the Steelers need to do to beat this team?
The Steelers have won 4 of the past 5 games against the Dolphins, including their last meeting which was the muddy mess of a game in 2007 that the Steelers won 3-0.
The Dolphins are 7-8 going into the game. The Dolphins were primarily a run-oriented team. They average 142.1 yards per game on the ground. Much of their ground yardage came from their wildcat offense. Fortunately, the Dolphins’ running game has been hampered by injuries. The Dolphins lost Ronnie Brown in November due to a foot injury, and Ricky Williams was hurt last week and is unlikely to play on Sunday. So the Dolphins’ running game is basically screwed.
If the Dolphins can’t run the ball (which they shouldn’t be able to do against the Steelers’ defense), then they’ll have to rely on quarterback Chad Henne. Henne’s role in the offense increased drastically after Ronnie Brown was lost for the season. Henne has averaged over 40 passes per game the past 6 games. That’s a lot of passing.
This is Henne’s first year as a starter for the Dolphins. His results have been mediocre at best. His quarterback rating is 74.4. He’s completed 59.9% of his passes, and has thrown for 11 touchdowns and 13 interceptions, while being sacked 24 times.
Unless things go in a way that is totally unexpected, the Steelers should have no problem stopping the Dolphins’ offense. The Dolphins’ defense, on the other hand, might be another matter.
The Dolphins defense is a fairly blitz-happy bunch. They’re 5th in the NFL with 41 sacks. That’s only 3 fewer than the Steelers have. The Dolphins are led by a guy named Joey Porter. The name sounds slightly familiar, but I can’t quite remember where I’ve heard it before. Porter leads the team with 8 sacks. Jason Taylor is Porter’s partner in the Miami sack parade. Taylor has 7 sacks. The Steelers offensive line is going to have to work overtime to keep these two off of Big Ben.
Fortunately, the Dolphins’ secondary is even weaker than the Steelers’ (if that’s even possible). The Dolphins’ secondary gives up more yards per pass than any other team in the NFL. If the offensive line can buy Ben a little time, he should be able to pass for even more yardage against the Dolphins than he did against the Packers. How does 600 yards sound?
For once, I might even be able to forgive Bruce Arians for having Roethlisberger pass the ball 50 times. Okay, maybe not. Brucie isn’t getting off that easily.
If they play up to their ability, the Steelers should beat the Dolphins. Everything else is out of their control. Steeler Nation will just have to pray that the football gods smile upon the them and make things fall into place the way we all hope that they will.
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Now that the Steeler season has ended, it is time to look into the mirror and most importantly, identify those players and coaches who had miserable years.
1Offensively, the play of our line was atrocious. Willie “hold em” Colon just cannot figure how to block a defender and Max “agile as a pothole” Starks cannot block anyone if his life depended on it. Rashard Mendenhall just is not intelligent enough to focus on skills and objectives. He makes mistake after mistake like not being able to hold onto the ball and stopping when he thinks he cannot get to the outside. Ben Roethlisberger needs to learn how to get rid of the damn ball. Another season of beatings and he will end up playing checkers with Mohammed Ali, and there will never be a winner.
Defensively, it is a toss-up as to who’s game has deteriorated the most. James Harrison could not have had a worse year in not being able to break out of blocks and never being in position to turn a play inside. James Farrior just looks for a place on the field where the ball carrier is not going to be and gets there as quick as he can. William Gay, Deshea Townsend and Ryan Clark cannot cover receivers man on man, play way too soft and do not have a nose for the ball. QB’s drool when they have these guys in single coverage.
Special teams are a joke. No other team in NFL history has given up four kick returns for TD’s like these flakes have. The primary weakness on kick-offs is Jeff Reed who is a major headcase who can only create intestinal fortitude when he has a liquor bottle in his hand. His leg is weak and on returns we play one man short because he never learned how to tackle.
Coaching is a big-time problem. Mike Tomlin lost this team when he failed to make players accountable for unacceptable performance. He has shown no leadership ability and that is almost criminal. Offensive line coach Larry Zierlein is totally inept as he never taught guys basic blocking schemes and how to pass off blocking responsibilities. Special Teams Coach Bob Ligashesky has absolutely no idea what guys running down the field are supposed to do. If you asked Larry what a tackling lane was he would tell you that it was a disabled vehicle in the passing lane on I-79. Larry Zierlein might make an above average toll-taker on the turnpike but he will never be an acceptable NFL coach. Bruce Arians needs to spend the off-season learning some creative play calling as he generally calls plays that may work on the other game channel but not the one the Steelers are playing on.
In summary, we need wholesale changes on this team. Those players who never showed up this season need to be called out and made accountable for their lack of effort. The ones who need to go must be sent down the road.
Hey Capt Sank! Come in off the ledge. Put down the gun! Step away from the razor! Yes it was an incredibly frustrating season. The fact that we could have won it last year and been so mediocre this year tells us that we do not have to blow the whole thing up in order to be in the hunt again next year. I am most interested in learning about our coach during the off season. We have all chronicled what we believe needs to change with our beloved B&G. What does our coach have in store to make us better? (Despite bold predictions, he did very little during the season to change our course.) Is he an ‘Arians guy’? Will he ‘force’ LeBeau out? Will Zierlein be sacrificed? Or will nothing change?
2Will we draft the best player in a key need area (fill in the blank) or will we pick the highest guy on our board regardless of position? Who comes back (FWP,Big Snack, JR?) & who is jettisoned? Once for all, we should have more evidence to help answer what is my biggest question, “Does the man have a plan?”
Have a great 2010 Steeler Nation!Peace! …and Let’s go Pens!
force LeBeau out? Oh, please. That would be the next mistake on an ever growing list for Tomlin.
If anyone in the organization deserves a pass for a bad year its him. My question is this: Has Tomlin started to try and tweak the Def? It sure looks like it to me. We are playing a Tampa Two alot these days.
If so, Tomlin needs to understand tha he may be the head coach but he is light years away from knowing with Dick knows about the Defensive side of the ball.
Shouldn’t even have to write such a thing.
3Tomlin actually thinks (thought) he was the genius behind the Steelers Super Bowl victory last year. If he thinks he has a clue about defense, he needs to realize his entire basket of knowledge wound not amount to a pimple on the backside of Dick LeBeau. I do however feel that Coach LeBeau has to be completely fed-up with the performance of defensive players especially with the total lack of effort by Harrison and Farrier. Their 2009 efforts would not qualify them for a spot on a Div III college team. Keeping that in mind, Coach LeBeau may decide he has had enough and say see-ya-later genius Tomlin.
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