Steelers Today – A Pittsburgh Steelers blog

The play that finally slammed the door on the Baltimore Ravens’ chances of beating the Steelers and moving on to the Super Bowl was Troy Polamalu’s interception that he returned for a touchdown.

Prior to the game, all anyone talked about was Ed Reed and his uncanny ability to generate interceptions and return them for touchdowns.  Everyone seemed to forget that the Steelers have a pretty good safety too.  His name is Troy Polamalu!!

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December 17, 2009
By Donald Starver

I respect the Baltimore Ravens.  I may not like them, but I respect them.  I think most Steelers fans feel the same way.  Afterall, how can you not respect a team that plays “Steelers football” better than anyone else other than the Steelers?

The Ravens are rough, and tough, and they come ready to beat their opponent into submission (Or a coma.  Whichever comes first).  They play smash-mouth football, the way it was meant to be played.

Let’s face it Steelers fans.  If Ed Reed played for the Steelers, we’d love him.  It’s hard for us to admit it, but we would.  Can’t you just imagine Ed Reed paired up with Troy Polamalu?  Wow!  I could root for that tandem any day of the week.  Ed Reed, you have my admiration and my respect.

Or what if Ray Lewis replaced Larry Foote as a Steelers linebacker?  Would you root for him?  Yeah, I thought so.  In fact, I think there would be a massive number of black and gold #52 jerseys filling the stands of Heinz Field each week.  It may be hard for you to verbalize as much, but in your heart, you know it’s true.

Same with Terrell Suggs.  Or Samari Rolle.  Or Le’Ron McClain.  We’re genetically programmed to root against them, but if they played for the Steelers, we’d all embrace them.  They got game.  We hate them anyway, but we acknowledge their talent.

But one thing that I don’t respect about the Baltimore Ravens and their fans is the way the react towards Hines Ward.  Hines Ward is persona non grata in Baltimore.  He’s public enemy #1 to both the Ravens and their fans.  They hate him.  Moreover, they think he’s a dirty player.  Personally, I think they’re just whining, and I just can’t respect that.

Hines Ward is quite possibly the toughest player, pound-for-pound, in the NFL.  How many other offensive players make safeties and linebackers quake in fear when they’re on the field.  Though they may not admit it publicly, defensive players try to ALWAYS stay aware of where Hines Ward is.  They fail to do so at their own peril.

But while Hines Ward is tough, he’s NOT dirty.  Hines Ward has knocked a few defenders unconscious, and he’s broken some jaws, but he has seldom been called for a penalty while doing it.  In fact, the times that the league has chosen to fine Ward were on plays that were rather innocuous.  But the plays that keep him in the minds of defenders seldom draw penalty flags or fines.

The problem with Hines Ward is that he works too hard, and his opponents don’t like that.  Hines Ward plays until the referee blows the whistle.  That’s what every high school and college coach tells their players to do, but few actually do it.  Even when the ball is not coming to Hines Ward, he stays involved in the play.  Unlike supposed superstars like Randy Moss and Terrell Owens who jog their routes and act uninterested when the ball is not coming to them, Ward gives 100% on every play.  With no exceptions.

When the ball is going to another receiver, or when the Steelers call a running play, Hines Ward stays engaged in the game.  He is more than happy to be a surrogate fullback for Willie Parker.  Santonio Holmes knows that Hines Ward is going to be in front of him clearing a path to the endzone.  That’s what Hines Ward does.  How can anyone not respect that?  Particularly the Ravens.

Do you think that Willis McGahee and Le’Ron McClain would appreciate it if their wide receivers blocked for them the way Hines Ward does for his running backs?  Yeah, so do I.  Think Derrick Mason would like having Hines Ward as his wingman?  Me too.

Given that, how can the Ravens dislike Hines Ward?  The Ravens are supposed to be tough.  And they should respect toughness.  So who is tougher than Hines Ward?

Unlike Calvin Johnson, Hines Ward is not 6’5″.  Unlike Steve Smith, Hines Ward doesn’t run the 40 in 2.7 seconds.  Unlike Larry Fitzgerald, Hines Ward doesn’t have a 79 inch vertical leap.  Unlike Terrell Owens, Hines Ward doesn’t have the physique of a greek god.  Quite the opposite in fact.  Hines Ward is relatively slow.  He doesn’t jump particularly well.  He’s listed as being 6’0″, but that’s only true if he’s wearing 2 inch heels.  Yet Hines Ward is a multi-time Pro Bowl wide receiver.  How can anyone not respect that?

But perhaps the most impressive thing about Hines Ward is that he has managed to become one of the most feared blockers in the NFL.  He’s short, slow, and weighs 205 pounds soaking wet.  Yet 250 pound linebackers fear becoming a part of Hines Ward’s highlight reel.  Just ask Bart Scott.

On the play shown below, Bart Scott had a clean shot at Ben Roethlisberger, and he was about to knock Ben’s block off until Hines Ward came in and made Scott duck for his life.  Roethlisberger slid safely, and took no damage.  Thanks Hines.

Bart Scott was very upset after that play.  Why?  Was what Hines Ward almost did to him any worse than what he planned to do to Ben Roethlisberger?

The Ravens also hate Hines Ward because he once rung Ed Reed’s bell.  Here’s the play below:

As you can see, the play was coming to that side of the field.  After taking out Reed, Ward looks to make another block to free up his teammate.  That’s solid football, not dirty play.

The controversial play this year was when Ward broke Cincinnati Bengals’ linebacker Keith Rivers’ jaw.  As you’ll see below, Ward put a clean block on Rivers.  Moreover, if not for Ward, Rivers would have tackled the steelers’ player.  Ward probably allowed the Steelers to get an extra 5 yards on this play.

Hines Ward is a hard-nosed player who doesn’t stop until the ref blows the whistle.  How can the Ravens not respect that?  Did the Steelers, or their fans, complain when Bart Scott and Terrell Suggs used Ben Roethlisberger like a crash test dummy?  Did the Steelers, or their fans, complain when Ray Lewis broke our star rookie’s shoulder and ended his season?  No.  On both occasions, the Steelers and their fans acknowledged that they were clean plays.  We respected the fact that Roethlisberger and Mendenhall were on the receiving end of good, physical football plays.  We never whined.

But that is exactly what the Ravens do each time Hines Ward’s name comes up.  They whine.  And I’m sick of it.  The Ravens should like Hines Ward’s game (even if they don’t like him personally), and they should definitely respect him.  To do anything else is hypocritical.

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January 15, 2009
By Donald Starver

The time is finally here.  It’s the AFC Championship game, and appropriately, the two roughest, toughest, meanest teams in the NFL are going to square off for the right to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl.  The NFL’s #1 defense (the Pittsburgh Steelers) will battle the NFL’s #2 ranked defense (the Baltimore Ravens).  Perhaps the old saying really is true; “defense wins championships”.

On Sunday at 6:30PM ET, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens will square off at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh.  This will be the two teams’ third meeting this season.

There will be no surprises in this game.  The Steelers and Ravens are long-time rivals in the AFC North.  They know one another very well.  And they don’t like each other.

This will not be a game of finesse.  You won’t see any West Coast offense here.  Nope, what you’re going to see is pure, unadulterated smash-mouth football.  You’re going to see football the way it was meant to be played.  The way Dick Butkus played it.  The way Ray Nitschke played it.  The way Jack Lambert played it.  The way Ray Lewis and Ed Reed play it.  The way James Harrison and Troy Polamalu play it. 

This will be a battle of pure testosterone.  Only real men need step onto the field.  Reggie Bush couldn’t play in this game.  Matt Leinart either.  Braylon Edwards would wet his pants.  Nope, the soft need not apply.  No sissies allowed.

Both teams expect to lose players to injury during this game.  That’s just what happens when these two teams play.  Both teams walk onto the field, but they usually limp or even crawl off of it.  So the crew at Heinz Field had better have lots of crutches and bandages available.  Order a few extra stretchers, and have the paramedics standing by.  You’re going to need them.

Here is a little video clip of captures the intensity of the game.  At first we thought these were scenes from a Steelers-Ravens game, but then we noticed that the players were wearing boxing gloves. 

 httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxMbt3qYRSk

I know they were wearing boxing gloves, but are you SURE that wasn’t a Steelers-Ravens game?  It sure looked like one to me.

On offense, both teams are going to try to run the ball and impose their will on their opponent.  Both will use the run to set up the play action pass.  And most importantly, both teams know that they must keep turnovers to a minimum.  This is not going to be a high scoring game, and the team that turns over the ball most will likely lose.

On defense, both teams will try to stop the run.  At all cost.  Afterall, neither of these teams has allowed a hundred yard rusher since….. well, too long for anybody to remember.  The Steelers’ defense gives up only 237 yards per game.  Total.  Doesn’t Drew Brees pass for that many yards in a quarter?  The Ravens are right behind them, yielding only 261 yards per game.

Last week against the San Diego Chargers, the Steelers defense gave up 15 yards rushing.  No, not 15 yards in the first 3 minutes of the game.  That would be pretty normal for most teams.  Nope, the Steelers gave up 15 rushing yards in the ENTIRE GAME.  That’s what I call defense.  The most impressive part is that it was Darren Sproles that they contained.  You know, the same guy who had torched the Indianapolis Colts’ defense for 328 all-purpose yards just one week earlier.

Suffice it to say that nobody on the Ravens or Steelers is going to be running for 328 yards, all-purpose or otherwise.  28 maybe, but not 328.

The Steelers come into the game with a slight advantage, but only slight.  The steelers advantage comes in the form of what I call the “3 H’s”. 

The first “H” is “history”.  These teams have already faced one another twice this season, and the Steelers have won each time.  That is a decided advantage.  The Steelers know that they can beat this team.  The Ravens on the other hand……….  There are some who have used twisted logic to imply that having lost twice is actually an advantage for the Ravens.  They say that it is very difficult for a team to beat another team three times during the same season.  Therefore, the odds are in the Ravens’ favor.  Huh??!!  That’s some pretty convoluted reasoning.  Under closer scrutiny, it just doesn’t hold water.  I debunk that myth here.

The second “H” that is working in the Steelers’ favor is “health”.  The Ravens are banged up.  Really banged up.  They are coming off a brutal battle against the Tennessee Titans last week.  The Ravens won on the scoreboard, but they took a beating physically.  Terrell Suggs hurt his shoulder, and is questionable for Sunday’s game.  Samari Rolle is also hurt, but he is likely to play.  Other Ravens nursing injuries include Ed Reed, Fabian Washington, Todd Heap, Le’Ron McClain, Willie Anderson, and Derrick Mason.  They’ll all take the field on Sunday, but they won’t be at 100%.

To make matters even worse, the football gods played a cruel joke on the Ravens when the 2008 NFL schedule was formulated.  The Ravens got their bye in week 2.  That’s right, week 2.  They really needed it then, after that brutal pre-season (in which the starters barely play) and one regular season game (yes, that’s sarcasm you hear).  Since then, the Ravens have played for 17 straight weeks with no rest.  That’s not good for any team’s health.

The third “H” is “home field advantage”.  The Steelers are playing at Heinz Field.  One of the best home field advantages in the NFL.  Not only will the Steelers have Steeler Nation behind them waving their Terrible Towels and rooting the home team to victory, but they’ll also have the added advantage of the Heinz Field turf.  Heinz Field’s turf is notoriously bad.  The NFL players voted it the worst playing surface in the NFL.  Sure, the Steelers have recently had the turf replaced, and they say that the field is in great shape.  But does anyone really believe them?  “Great shape” is a relative term.  It may be in great shape relative to the normal sloppy, cratered disaster area that the Steelers call a playing surface, but relative to any other field in the NFL, it would probably be found wanting.

Because of those 3 H’s, it’s hard for me to bet against the Steelers.  Well, I’d never bet against the Steelers anyway, but if I weren’t so biased, then I still wouldn’t bet against the Steelers.  The odds are in their favor, and it doesn’t take a biased homer like me to see that.

Because these two teams have faced one another twice, I’ve already done some pretty extensive analysis of the two teams and the key matchups in the game.  Rather than recreate that, I’m going to ask that readers refer to those articles for additional information.  We try to provide some of the most comprehensive pre- and post-game analysis available anywhere.  Please take a look at them.  I’ve provide links below:

Steelers vs. Ravens Preview (Round 1)

Steelers vs. Ravens Key Match-ups (Round 1)

Steelers vs. Ravens Recap (Round 1)

Steelers vs. Ravens Preview (Round 2)

We also wrote the following articles pertaining to the two Steelers-Ravens games earlier this season.  There is very good information here as well for those who are less familiar with the Steelers-Ravens rivalry.  It is good background information before watching Sunday’s game:

Welcome to the NFL, Rookie!!

Steelers vs. Ravens: A tale of good versus evil  (I highly recommend this one)

Purple dragon slain (Part 2 of the story above.  Highly recommended.)

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In an unusual playoff weekend, only one of the favorites managed to defend their home field advantage.  Fortunately, that one team was the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Steelers defeated the San Diego Chargers 35-24 in a game that looked like old fashioned Steelers football.  The Steelers ran the ball, controlled the clock, and played stingy defense.  Sound familiar?

Willie Parker ran for 146 yards on 27 carries.  That’s a 5.4 yard per carry average.  Not a bad day’s work.

The Steelers ran the ball 42 times while only throwing the ball 27 times.  That’s probably not a bad ratio, particularly when the running game is working as well as it was on Sunday.

Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger completed 17 of 26 passes for 181 yards.  More importantly, Roethlisberger avoided careless turnovers.  He threw no interceptions, and never fumbled the ball.  Roethlisberger did take several long attempts downfield that just missed their intended receivers.  Though the long bombs missed their intended receivers, they were enough to keep the defense honest.

On the defensive side of the ball, the NFL’s #1 ranked defense held the Chargers to 15 yards rushing.  Total.  In the whole game.  That is impressive under any circumstances, but considering that Chargers’ running back Darren Sproles had torched the Indianapolis Colts’ defense for 328 all-purpose yards last week, it is absolutely astounding.  Sproles averaged 1.4 yards per carry, and his longest carry was only 8 yards.

But the most impressive aspect of the entire game was probably the third quarter.  The Steelers controlled the ball so effectively that the Chargers only got to run one play from scrimmage during the entire quarter.  Their total time of possession during the quarter was less then 20 seconds.  it’s pretty hard to score when you don’t get to touch the ball.

So the Steelers move on to the AFC Championship against the Baltimore Ravens.  The Steelers have already beaten the Ravens twice this season.  Now they’ll have to do it a third time if they hope to move on to the Super Bowl.  As they say, “three’s a charm”.

On the NFC side, the Arizona Cardinals defeated the highly favored Carolina Panthers to move on to the NFC championship.  Former Steelers coaches Ken Whisenhunt and Russ Grimm will lead the Cardinals to the NFC championship game for the first time in……….. well, it’s been so long that I don’t think anyone really remembers the last time it happened.  Suffice it to say that it was a looooonnnng time ago.

Finally, the Philadelphia Eagles ousted the defending Super Bowl champions, the New York Giants, to move onto the final four.

The Steelers-Ravens and Cardinals-Eagles will meet next week to determine which two teams will meet in the Super Bowl.  Stay tuned.

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It’s Sunday morning, and I can’t wait until game time. I feel like a kid on Christmas Eve waiting for Santa to arrive.

The weather forecast for Pittsburgh calls for temperatures in the 20′s, but later in the game, the wind chill should make it feel like 18 degrees. That’s perfect Steelers weather. The team has been practicing outdoors this week to acclimate themselves to the conditions. Everybody is healthy, and the Black and Gold is ready to kick some Charger butt.

On the other hand, the Chargers come limping into Heinz Field. LaDainian Tomlinson isn’t going to play. Antonio Gates is hurt (although he is going to play). And Darren Sproles is about to find out that running against the Steelers is a lot more difficult than running against the Colts.

That leaves Philip Rivers as the Chargers’ best hope for victory. Rivers is the NFL’s highest rated quarterback. However, he had his worst game against the Steelers.

Rivers, who was born in Alabama, played all of his childhood football through high school in the warm climate of Alabama. He went to college at North Carolina State, where he played in warm southern temperatures. After college, he went directly to the Chargers and their tropical southern California environment. So basically, we have a kid who has never had to shovel a driveway, has probably never built a snowman, and probably doesn’t own a good pair of winter boots, being called upon to lead the Chargers to victory in chilly winter conditions. That’s like asking an African lion to join a pack of polar bears on a walrus hunt. He’s going to be completely out of his element, and probably won’t excel.

Kickoff is at 4:45PM ET. It’s going to be a good one.

Here we go Steelers, here we go!!!!

In other news, the Baltimore Ravens defeated the Tennessee Titans yesterday 13-10. I predicted that was going to happen here (scroll all the way down to the end of the article).  I never root for the Ravens.  Never.  In fact, few things make me happier than seeing the Ravens lose.  But on this occasion, I wanted the Ravens to win.  The Steelers had a tough time against the Titans.  Contrarily, we’ve beaten the Ravens twice this season.  Given the choice, I’d rather play the Ravens.

I know that some Steelers fans will say that we shouldn’t avoid tough challenges.  Others will say that we should want to play the Titans so we can get revenge for their little towel stomping episode.  To all of that, I say “phooey”.  This is not the time to be proud.  This is the time to be pragmatic. 

I don’t care about revenge.  At least not right now.  Yes, the Titans did stomp on a Terrible Towel.  And they’re going to pay for that.  But not now.  Now is not the time for that.  The only thing that matters right now is winning another Lombardi Trophy.  And in my opinion, playing the Ravens is a more favorable path to that goal. 

If we played the Titans, we would have to play in their house.  But now that the Titans are eliminated, any opponent that we play leading up to the Super Bowl will have to come to our house.  If we can take care of business today, the road to the Super Bowl goes through Heinz Field.  That’s huge.

So bring on the Chargers.  And if things go the way that they should, bring on the Ravens.  In our house.  Beating the Ravens 3 times in the same season will be sweet.  Real sweet.

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