Steelers Today – A Pittsburgh Steelers blog

The Steelers’ schedule is about to get interesting.  On Sunday, they face the undefeated Minnesota Vikings.  Then after a bye week, they must face the currently undefeated Denver Broncos.

Steelers fans have been longing for a true measure of how good their team is.  They’re about to get it.

The last time the Steelers faced two undefeated teams in back-to-back games was in 2004.  The Steelers defeated the undefeated Patriots, ending their 21 game winning streak, and then defeated the undefeated Philadelphia Eagles the following week.  They were the only NFL team in history to ever achieve that feat so late in the season.

Getting a win this week won’t be easy.  The Vikings are a team that is very similar to the Steelers.  In recent years, the Vikings have been a team that primarily depended on a strong running game and strong defense to win games.  However, this year they find themselves with a suddenly potent passing attack led by a brash, gunslinger quarterback.  Sound familiar?

The Vikings’ potent running attack is led by Adrian Peterson, one of the best running backs in the NFL.  Peterson leads the NFL in rushing, and he torched the Baltimore Ravens’ defense for 143 yards last week. Peterson’s combination of size and speed will pose a daunting task for the Steelers’ defense.

After struggling in the passing game with QB Tavaris Jackson for the last several years, the Vikings’ passing attack is suddenly revived after the addition of legendary quarterback Brett Favre.

Vikings QB Brett Favre

Steelers fans know how great a season Ben Roethlisberger has been having so far.  Yet Favre has a higher passer rating and has thrown for more touchdowns than Roethlisberger.  Think about that for a moment.

The Vikings defense was the only defense in the NFL that allowed fewer rushing yards than the Steelers last year.  The Vikings’ run defense ended the 2008 season ranked #1 in the NFL, while the Steelers were ranked #2.

Are you starting to see the similarities between these two teams?

Fortunately, the Steelers are starting to come into their own.  The offense is on fire behind the arm of QB Ben Roethlisberger.  More importantly, the Steelers’ running game is finally starting to show signs of life.

Since inserting Rashard Mendenhall into the starting lineup, the Steelers’ running attack has been noticeably better.  Mendenhall seems to be more capable of getting the tough, short yardage that Willie Parker often struggled to get.

Based on Mendenhall’s performance the past 2 weeks, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin has decided to name Mendenhall as the starter for the foreseeable future.  “Rashard has earned the right to take the majority of the snaps as we move forward”, said Tomlin.  This is welcome news to many Steelers fans who had been calling for Mendenhall to replace Parker in the starting lineup.

Steelers RB Rashard Mendenhall

While both teams have potent offenses, the real difference in the game should be the Steelers’ defense.  The Steelers defense is among the best in the league.  They are strong against the run and the pass.  Contrarily, while the Vikings defense is stout against the run, they have proven to be vulnerable to the pass.  The Vikings are ranked #24 against the pass.  That’s not a good thing when you are about to face the NFL’s leading passer (I still can’t get used to saying that about a Steelers’ quarterback).

I predict that the Steelers will bring the Vikings winning streak to an end by a score of 24-17.

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In an impressive display by both the offense and the defense, the Steelers defeated the Cleveland Browns for the 12th consecutive time.  A home crowd at Heinz Field saw the Steelers defeat their longtime rivals by a score of  27-14

The big news of the game was the return of Steelers safety Troy Polamalu.  Polamalu has been out since suffering a knee injury during the first game of the season.

Polamalu made his presence known almost immediately when he intercepted a pass from Browns’ quarterback Derek Anderson.  Unfortunately, he came down hard on his knee when making the interception, and came up limping.  This gave Steelers fans a scare, but Polamalu stayed in the game.

Polamalu wasn’t the only member of the defense that had a good game.  Linebacker Lawrence Timmons recorded 2 sacks during the game.

The entire Steelers defense played well as they held the Browns to only 197 net yards for the game.  The defense was accountable for only 7 of the 14 points scored by the Browns.  The other 7 points came on a 98 yard kickoff return by Joshua Cribbs.

While the Steelers defense turned in an excellent performance, the real heroes of the game were quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers offense.

Steelers TE Heath Miller

The offense accumulated 543 net yards of offense.  Nope, you didn’t read that wrong.  I did say 543 yards of offense.  That is a not a very Steeler-like output, but these are not your father’s Steelers.  As Big Ben is so fond of telling reporters, this Steelers offense is primarily a passing attack. 

As if to prove the point, Roethlisberger passed for 417 yards and 2 touchdowns.  Even more unbelievably, Roethlisberger finds himself leading the NFL in passing yards.  Roethlisberger is ahead of such prolific passers as Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, Philip Rivers, Kurt Warner, Tom Brady, and Brett Favre. 

Big Ben has also completed more passes of 20+ yards than any quarterback in the NFL this season.  This is a testament to the incredible receiving weapons that the Steelers have armed Roethlisberger with.  Both Hines Ward and Santonio Holmes had over 100 receiving yards for the game.  Tight end Heath Miller also contributed 80 receiving yards, and rookie Mike Wallace had 50 yards.  Nope, these are definitely not your father’s Steelers.

To cap off an already great day, the Steelers got further help from each of their division rivals.  While the Browns were losing to the Steelers, the Baltimore Ravens lost to the Minnesota Vikings and the Cincinnati Bengals lost to the Houston Texans.  This leaves the Steelers tied with the Bengals for 1st place in the AFC North.

So the Steelers beat the Browns and are in first place in the AFC North.  Sounds pretty typical to me.  Wouldn’t you agree?

October 5, 2009
By Donald Starver

“Awesome, Awesome,Awesome, WHAT?!?, phew!!”
-Pam Prinz (via Facebook)

I don’t think that I could have summarized Sunday night’s game any better than Pam Prinz, one of my friends on Facebook, did in the above quote.

The Steelers played 3 awesome quarters, then tried to blow the game in the 4th quarter before finally pulling out a victory in the end.  “Phew!!” is right.

For the third consecutive week, the Steelers have suffered a 4th quarter meltdown which leaves fans asking “what is wrong with the 4th quarter defense?”

With 2 minutes remaining in the third quarter, the Steelers led the Chargers 28-0, and most Steelers fans thought the game was in the bag.  After all, if the Chargers hadn’t been able to score in the first 43 minutes of the game, what could they possibly do with only 17 minutes left in the game?

But these are the 2009 Steelers, and they don’t seem to be satisfied unless they’ve left their fans on the verge of cardiac arrest.  So they found a way to let the Chargers back into the game.

After leading 28-0 with 2 minutes left in the 3rd quarter, the Steelers found themselves up by only 7 points with 2 minutes left in the 4th quarter.  Huh?

It took a field goal by Jeff Reed with 48 seconds remaining in the game to finally put the game safely out of reach and allow Steelers fans to breathe a sigh of relief.

Despite the close score, the Steelers were once again dominant.  They held the Chargers and their star running back LaDainian Tomlinson to a total of 16 rushing yards.  That’s right, 16.

The Steelers outgained the Chargers with 516 total yards versus only 270 for San Diego.  They also dominated the time clock, holding the ball for a full 40:20 while only allowing the Chargers 19:40 total time of possession.

But the real story of the game was Rashard Mendenhall.  After being benched last week because he didn’t know his playbook, Mendenhall got the start due to an injury to Willie Parker.  Mendenhall took advantage of his opportunity by rushing for 165 yards on 29 carries.  More importantly, many of those yards came on tough, physical runs between the tackles, something the Steelers had been unable to do up to this point.

RB Rashard Mendenhall

Mendenhall’s rushing success made things much easier for Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who threw for 333 yards and 2 touchdowns.

The Steelers win, combined with a Baltimore Ravens loss to the New England Patriots, leaves the Steelers only one game out of first place in the AFC North.

The AFC North leading Ravens and Cincinnati Bengals have to play one another next week, so if the Steelers can defeat the Detroit Lions, they will gain ground on at least one of their AFC North foes.

Ordinarily I’d feel very confident when the Steelers have back-to-back games against the lowly Detroit Lions and Cleveland Browns.  However, I know that this year’s Steelers team will find a way to make both of these games exciting to the very end.  That’s not a good thing in my opinion, but I’m starting to get used to it.

Now where did I put my heart medicine?

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September 19, 2009
By Patrick Cartwright

This week the Pittsburgh Steelers travel to the windy city to face the Chicago Bears.  Here are what I believe to be the keys to a Steelers victory.

1.  Pressure Cutler – As you may have seen last Sunday, Jay Cutler isn’t quite the savior of mankind that all of Chicago thought he was when they traded for him a few months back.  Funny what a four-pick game will do to a quarterback’s sterling reputation.

Regardless, the reason the Chicago faithful are pining for the days of Kyle Orton is simple; Green Bay put constant pressure on Cutler.  He was hurried and frantic all day long.  When he had the time, and the coverage allowed, he was able to throw the deep ball, but that wasn’t nearly as often as the Bears would like.

More than this, however, the pressure and defensive scheme limited Cutler’s ability to put the ball in the hands of two of his biggest playmakers; running back Matt Forte and tight end Greg Olsen, who was bracketed for practically the entire game.

The bottom line is, against the Packers’ much improved defense, there wasn’t much to look at in the passing game.  I’ve read at least two or three articles attributing a lot of the Bears’ ineptitude to Green Bay’s new 3-4 defense.  That the Steelers play the same style of defense, and are the best in the league at it, does not bode well for Cutler.  He should be running for his life all afternoon.

2.  Run the Ball…and then Pass like Hell – Steelers football is dead.  Before you pass out or send a bunch of hate mail, let me explain; Steelers Football, as defined in the Myron Cope’s Official Terrible Dictionary, is “Run the ball, run the ball, run the ball, and play good defense.”  Which is what I suppose they still do, because if the Steelers ran the ball on three consecutive tries, they would most likely end up punting.

I’ll say it right now; the run game is going nowhere.  It hasn’t been any good for over a year now; yet Ben Roethlisberger has been better than he’s ever been in his career.  Throw the damn ball.

Throw the @#$&#% ball!!!

I know the arguments.  You have to run the ball the set up the pass.  Ben already takes too many sacks.  The offensive line is terrible.  Wallace is a rookie, Sweed is undependable, Ward is too old, and Santonio might be high.  I get it.  To which I reply: The offense has looked fantastic in the 2-minute drill. They did last year. They did against Tennessee last Thursday.

The best running back we have right now, as far as I can tell, is Mewelde Moore, who seems to be valuable because he’s the only one who can catch a pass out of the backfield.  Slow Willie isn’t getting it done anymore, and I have yet to see something from Mendenhall to make me think he’s the Next Big Thing at Steelers running back.  Oh, and he still fumbles a lot.

Joe Flacco put up 300+ yards and 3 TDs last week.  Joe Freakin’ Flacco.  And you’re not going to want to hear this, but the Ravens have a much better running game than the Steelers do.  Hell, I’d trade all three of our current running backs for Ray Rice.  So please, please, sacrifice the notion of “Steelers Football”, or for the second time this decade, “Steelers Football” is going to be synonymous with following a Super Bowl win with a mediocre season.

3.  The middle of the field is your friend – If you haven’t heard, Bears middle linebacker/Old Spice pitchman Brian Urlacher is out for the season with a dislocated wrist.  Yes, he’s old-ish.  And yes, he had back problems.  But if you think Urlacher isn’t a difference maker, you’ve just come back from a Jamacian vacation with Ricky Williams.

With Urlacher gone, that leaves a hole in the middle of the field to be exploited.  So how about throwing about, oh I don’ t know, a thousand passes to Heath Miller?  Dear Baby Jesus, why do they not throw to Heath Miller more often?

But I’m getting away from myself.  Heath, or perhaps Hines Ward, should be able to take advantage of Urlacher’s absence.  Then, when they cheat players toward the middle, its long bomb time to Santonio or Mike Wallace.

Oh, and it would also be a good time to bring back the fullback.

4. Chicks Dig the Long Ball – While the short middle of the field will probably open up, that shouldn’t discourage Ben from throwing deep.  The Bears defense has a significant weakness: their secondary is awful.  And where the secondary isn’t deficient, its injured.  Please, please, throw the long ball early and often, Bruce Arians.  Do it.  Don’t even think about it.  Do it.

5.  Don’t Screw Up – Honestly, the Steelers are the better team here.  I don’t think player-for-player, the Bears should be able to keep up with the Steelers.  But the Steelers have to be aware of the big play capability of this Bears team.

Jay Cutler has a cannon, and throwing the deep ball to a wide open receiver is something he excels at.  With Troy Polamalu out, there is a weakness to be exploited in the Steelers’ secondary.  If the safeties stay back  and don’t get beat by the long ball, the Bears will be unable to capitalize.

The same goes for the Bears’ run game.  Matt Forte may not have looked all that impressive last week, but he’s a strong runner that can not only wear a team down, but can break for a big play.  Thankfully, the Steelers have one of the best run defenses in the NFL.

Lastly, the O-line needs to be able to protect Roethlisberger.  The Bears showed improved play in their line and blitzing game last week against the Packers.  If Ben has time to throw, this game could be a blowout.  If not, it could be a long day for the Steelers offense.

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We are well into the second week of Steelers training camp, and I have to admit that it is getting to be a bit boring.  After all, it’s just practice.  Also, it is getting HOT.  The team was blessed with great weather for the first week of practice, but this week, the temperatures have risen.  It was over 90 degrees yesterday, and today is supposed to be the same.  Ouch!

Since practice is becoming a bit redundant, I thought I’d talk about something a bit different today.  As I look at all of the fans here at Steelers training camp, I see them wearing lots of different Steelers jerseys.  At a glance, it is very clear that Hines Ward, Ben Roethlisberger, and Troy Polamalu are the most popular Steelers.  Their jerseys are everywhere.  But based on his Super Bowl MVP, Santonio Holmes’ popularity has definitely increased.  I see lots of #10 jerseys here at training camp.  James Harrison’s popularity has also increased after his NFL Defensive Player of the Year season.  There are lots of #92 jerseys here at camp.

Looking at all of the jerseys got me to thinking about which players Steelers fans like most, and why they like them.  So I decided that it would be interesting to find out by asking my readers.

So my question is:  “Who is your favorite Pittsburgh Steelers player or coach, and why?”

Having been at training camp, I always hear the women screaming at Troy Polamalu.  Not a day goes by that someone doesn’t yell, “I love you, Troy”.  So if you ladies (or guys) like a particular player because you think he’s cute, don’t be ashamed to say so.

I’d like everyone to start their answer by saying “I like (fill in player’s name) because…”.  Okay, I’ll go first.

I like James Harrison because he is a hard worker.  Harrison got cut by the Steelers several times, but he never gave up.  Now he is a Pro Bowl player, and NFL Defensive Player of the Year, but he still works just as hard as ever.  Also, if there were ever a fight, I would want Harrison on my side. 

I like Aaron Smith because despite his quiet and humble demeanor, he is the best there is at what he does.

I like Tyler Grisham because the Steelers’ rookie isn’t as big, or as fast, or as talented as most of the other wide receivers in training camp, but he is out there giving 110% everyday.  He’s diving for balls and throwing nice blocks.  He probably won’t make the team, but he’s made a fan out of me.

#19 Tyler Grisham

Okay, those are my picks.  So who do YOU like?  You can pick one player (or coach) or you can choose more than one.  But tell us who you like and why.  Also, don’t worry about whether someone else has already picked your favorite players.  Tell us why you like him anyway.  I expect Troy Polamalu to get more than one vote, and he deserves it.

So go ahead and click on the button below to leave a comment.  Then tell us which Steelers player(s) you like and why.  I’ll print my favorite responses in an article later in the week.  Let your voices be heard Steeler Nation.

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