Steelers Today – A Pittsburgh Steelers blog

No, you didn’t read that headline wrong.  The Steelers did actually manage to dominate a game, and also keep it close.  Sounds crazy, doesn’t it?

The Steelers had almost twice the total yard that the Jaguars accumulated.  They outgained them 315-68 in the first half alone.  They held the Jaguars to only 76 net passing yards for the game.  They sacked Jags’ QB Blaine Gabbert 5 times.  Rashard Mendenhall rushed for 146 yards.  Sounds like total domination, right?

Most sane people would read the paragraph above and assume that the Steelers won 28-3.  Or perhaps they’d assume that the Jags had been kept off the scoreboard completely.  Maybe 31-0.  But that wasn’t the case.  Believe it or not, the Steelers barely won.  The final score was 17-13, and the Jaguars had a chance to win on the final play of the game.

So how did a game that should have been a blowout turn into a nailbiter?  The answer lies in the second half statistics.  After racking up over 300 yards on the Jags in the first half, the Steelers were held to only 70 yards in the 2nd half.  Steelers’ quarterback Ben Roethlisberger only completed one pass in the 2nd half.  That’s right, one.  And to make matters worse, he was sacked 3 times in the second half.

It isn’t often that a quarterback finishes a half with more sacks than completions.  In fact, prior to this game, I would have assumed that it was impossible.  But Big Ben proved me wrong.

That was really the story of the game.  The Steelers suffered from schizophrenia.  In the first half, they were a determined, prepared team that was set on winning an important game.  And in the second half they were a tentative, unprepared team that seemed like they were trying to lose.

Perhaps the Jaguars made some amazing adjustments at the half.  But shouldn’t the Steelers have made adjustments to the Jaguars adjustments?  Instead, they appeared to be completely inept for the final 30 minutes of the game.

A win is a win, and we have to be happy any time the Steelers can leave with a victory.  But to be honest, this was one of the least satisfying wins I can remember.

The Pittsburgh Steelers take on the Jacksonville Jaguars this weekend at Heinz Field.  This renews an old rivalry from the AFC Central Division.  The Steelers and Jaguars had one of the fiercest, and most physical, rivalries in the NFL back then.  In fact, Steelers/Jaguars was, at that time, the equivalent of what Steelers/Ravens is today.

But those days are long gone.  The current Jaguars have a 1-4 record, and seem to have been completely declawed.

The Jaguars are the final game of a 4-game stretch against the AFC South.  The Jags would likely be in last place in the AFC South were it not for the injury that has kept Peyton Manning out of the Indianapolis Colts’ lineup.  Without Manning, the Colts are winless, and are one game behind the hapless Jaguars.

The problems for the Jaguars started when they decided to cut starting quarterback David Garrard during training camp.  In Garrard’s place, the Jaguars are starting rookie quarterback Blaine Gabbert.

It’s difficult for any rookie quarterback in the NFL.  But when you play for a team like Jacksonville that is almost totally devoid of offensive talent, it makes things doubly difficult.

Gabbert is averaging only 152 yards per game passing.  That’s REALLY bad.  In fact, it’s the lowest average of any starting quarterback in the NFL.  And to make things even worse for Gabbert, he’ll be facing the Steelers’ defense which is ranked #1 in the NFL against the pass.

Fortunately for Gabbert, he will have the option of handing the ball off to running back Maurice Jones-Drew.  Jones-Drew is one of the best runners in the NFL.  He’s ranked 4th in the NFL in rushing yards, and he’s having a much better season than any of the RB’s the Steelers have faced so far.

“There’s probably no one in football that means more to their team than Maurice Jones-Drew, in terms of the things he’s capable of doing and the things he does,” said Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin. “When you watch him on tape, he’s a very physical runner. He has great vision, power and speed.”

We know that the Steelers have had difficulty stopping the run this season, so Jones-Drew should provide a challenge for them.  Thankfully, the Steelers seemed to remember how to stop the run last week.  If they play like they did last week, then stopping Jones-Drew will be a real possibility.  But if they play like they played prior to last week, then they may be in for a long day.

Fortunately for the Steelers, Aaron Smith is still hurt, so Ziggy Hood will get the start at left defensive end.  Ziggy’s presence strengthens the Steelers run defense, and it also seems to help LaMarr Woodley.  Both of those players will need to have a solid game in order to stop Jones-Drew.

On the opposite side of the ball, the Jaguars actually have a pretty good defense.  They’re ranked #8 in the NFL.  However, they should have difficulty stopping the Steelers’ high-powered offense.  The Jaguars’ secondary is suspect, and I think they’ll have difficulty matching up with the Steelers’ speedy young receivers.

This game isn’t likely to stir up memories of the old AFC Central battles between these two teams.  But it should result in a win by the Steelers, and that’s all that really matters.

Steelers Today has hooked up with 31 other NFL bloggers from around the country to do a bloggers’ mock draft.  All 32 NFL teams are represented in the mock draft.

The mock draft is sponsored by Cleveland Browns blog No Logo Needed.  For more details on the bloggers’ mock draft, click here.

With the eighth pick of the 2009 NFL Draft the Jacksonville Jaguars select…

The Jags still haven’t adequately replaced Marcus Stroud so B.J. Raji could be an intriguing option at defensive tackle alongside John Henderson.

Raji had an amazing Senior Bowl.  He dominated everyone who tried to block him.  Much like Sedrick Ellis in 2008, Raji probably played himself into the top 10 with his Senior Bowl performance.

The Jaguars’ defense has been in decline of late.  Raji will help reverse that trend.

The draft results so far are shown below.  Click on the individual pick to read the blogger’s rationale for his selection.

1. Detroit Lions:  Mathew Stafford, QB (Georgia)
2. St. Louis Rams: Eugene Monroe, OT (Virginia)
3. Kansas City Chiefs: Aaron Curry, LB (Wake Forest)
4. Seattle Seahawks: Michael Crabtree, WR (Texas Tech)
5. Cleveland Browns: Rey Maualuga, LB (Southern California)
6. Cincinnati Bengals: Jason Smith, OT (Baylor)
7. Oakland Raiders: Jeremy Maclin, WR (Missouri)
8. Jacksonville Jaguars: B.J. Raji, DT (Boston College)

The Green Bay Packers are on the clock.

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The Steelers defeated the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday night 26-21. If you haven’t already read my post-game recap, click here.

In my post-game analysis, I take a deeper look at how the Steelers did during the game, and I analyze the game stats to better understand how the Steelers are doing.

Though the scoreboard made it appear that the game was a closely fought battle, that was not really the case. The Steelers dominated the Jaguars in most key aspects of the game. Let’s take a look at a few of them.

Offense

On offense, one of the key statistics that I like to look at is time of possession. This statistic helps to show how effectively an offense is driving against their opponent. For the game, the Steelers offense won the time of possession battle, controlling the ball for 33:23 versus 26:37 for the Jaguars. If we look closer, we will see that the Steelers really dominated the Jaguars in the first half. In the first half of the game, the Steelers held the ball for a full 21:15 versus only 8:45 for the Jaguars. That’s more than twice the possession time of Jacksonville. Anytime a team can control the time of possession, it highly likely that they will control the game.

In this instance, the scoreboard did not actually reflect the Steelers true level of dominance. The Jaguars intercepted Ben Roethlisberger on the Steelers first offensive possession. Rashean Mathis ran back the interception for a touchdown, so the Jaguars got 7 points before their offense had ever even taken the field.

The Steelers controlled the ball and marched up the field so effectively against the Jaguars’ defense in the first quarter that the Jaguars offense never even stepped onto the field until there was only 5:18 left in the quarter.

For the game, the Steelers accumulated 28 first downs as compared to only 14 for the Jaguars. More importantly, they finished the game with almost twice the net yardage of the Jaguars. The Steelers had 415 net yards for the game, as opposed to only 213 net yards for the Jaguars. That’s an advantage of 202 yards.

Rushing

Despite playing without their first, second, and third string running backs, the Steelers were very effective in the rushing game. In his first start since joining the Steelers, Mewelde Moore rushed for an impressive 99 yards on 17 carries. That’s a good day for any back, regardless of whether they’re a starter or a substitute.

Mewelde Moore averaged 5.8 yards per carry during the game. For perspective, Willie Parker is averaging 4.0 yards per carry, Rashard Mendenhall is averaging 3.1, and Carey Davis is averaging 1.8. Do you think that perhaps Moore is trying to show the coaches that he deserves more playing time?

As a whole, the Steelers ended up with 129 net rushing yards versus only 38 net rushing yards for the Jaguars. Can you believe that? The vaunted Jaguars rushing attack was held to only 38 yards rushing. “Steeler killer” Fred Taylor rushed for a whopping 19 yards, while Maurice Jones Drew rushed for only 7 yards more than I did.

Passing

Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger recorded his first 300+ yard passing game of the season. In fact, it was his first game passing for over 200 yards this year.

In a game that was very uncharacteristic for the Steelers, the offense attempted 41 passing plays as opposed to only 26 running plays. It has long been believed that the Steelers are most effective when Big Ben only throws the ball 20-25 times per game. Personally, I’ve never subscribed to that theory, and I believe that Ben is one of the most under-utilized weapons in the NFL. In my opinion, you don’t pay a quarterback $100 million dollars and then hold him back from taking over games.

Roethlisberger had one of the most successful first halves of his career, passing for239 yards and 2 touchdowns by halftime.

Roethlisberger ended up with a passer rating of 100.6 for the game. That leaves him as the 9th ranked quarterback in the NFL, with a passer rating of 95.7. If you were to eliminate the terrible “sack-fest” that Roethlisberger suffered versus the Philadelphia Eagles in which his passer rating was a paltry 50.6, Roethlisberger would actually be the 2nd highest rated quarterback in the NFL, behind only Brett Favre. This is where Steelers fans expect Roethlisberger to be. While he has never been a prolific passer in terms of total passing yards, Roethlisberger has always been one of the most efficient quarterbacks in the league.

For the first time this season, Roethlisberger got everyone involved in the passing game. Hines Ward caught 7 passes for 90 yards, and 1 TD. Nate Washington caught 6 passes for 94 yards and 1 TD. Heath Miller caught 5 passes for 45 yards and 1 TD. Santonio Holmes had 4 for 65 yards, Mewelde Moore had 3 for 17 yards, and Gary Russell had 1 reception for -2 yards.

Hines Ward reached a milestone during the game by surpassing 9,000 receiving yards for his career.

Defense

Overall, the Steelers’ defense played an excellent game. As always, they are one of the top defensive units in the NFL. They are ranked #2 in overall defense (231.6 total yards/game). They are ranked #2 in rushing defense (66.8 yards/game), and 5th in passing defense (164.8 YPG).

The offense so dominated the time of possession (particularly in the 1st half), that they allowed the Steelers’ defense to be fresh for most of the game. In response, the defense turned in another Steeler-like performance.

While Jacksonville did score 21 points, one touchdown was scored by the Jacksonville defense. Another touchdown was given to the Jaguars as a gift from the referees. Ike Taylor was called for pass interference on a 39 yard pass into the endzone. If Taylor had not made contact with Matt Jones, there was little chance that Jones would have been able to actually catch the ball. Nevertheless, Taylor did make contact, and Jacksonville got the ball on the 1 yard line. On the next play, Maurice Jones-Drew ran it in for a 1 yard TD. If you take away the interception and the pass interference call, the Jaguars offense really only earned 1 touchdown against the Steelers.

Rushing Defense

38 net yards rushing. What more do we need to say? Total domination.

Passing Defense

David Garrard has been beating teams with his arm this season. The Steelers defense held him to only 200 yards passing on 18/32 attempts. Garrard finished the game with a passer rating of only 85.4.

Bryant McFadden had a tough time guarding Jaguars receiver Mike Walker (who?!!!). Walker caught 6 passes for 107 yards. Prior to this game, Walker had 6 receptions for 56 yards for the entire season. The Steelers can’t allow scrubs to have career games against them.

The Steelers’ linebackers continued their assault on quarterbacks. James Harrison and LaMarr Woodley are becoming the most feared LB tandem in the NFL. James Harrison, who is second in the NFL in sacks with 6.5 sacks, dropped David Garrard for 1 sack during the game. Not to be outdone, LaMarr Woodley, who is third in the NFL with 5.5 sacks, sacked Garrard twice.

The Steelers lead the NFL in sacks with 18 (tied with the Philadelphia Eagles). Harrison and Woodley alone have combined for more sacks than 22 NFL teams this season. Each of them has more sacks than such feared pass rushers as Mario Williams, Albert Haynesworth, Dwight Freeney, Julius Peppers, DeMarcus Ware, and Terrell Suggs.

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Ding! Dong! The streak is dead!!  That’s right, after losing about 200 consecutive games to the Jaguars (okay, maybe not 200, but it was a lot), the Steelers finally get a well-deserved victory.

For those of you who didn’t watch it, the Steelers traveled to Pittsburgh, Florida to play the Jacksonville Jaguars last night.  No, that wasn’t a typo.  I meant to say Pittsburgh, Florida.  Afterall, that’s what it looked like.  Fans in black and gold took over the stadium and made it feel like a home game.  Of course, that’s what Steeler Nation always does.  Nevertheless, each time I see it, it brings a tear to my eyes.  Even after the game, the NBC analyst were doing their post-game recap, but I had a hard time hearing them over the loud chorus of “here we go Steelers, here we go!” that was reverberating in the background.

As I said in my pre-game analysis, this was not going to be your average Steelers-Jaguars game.  Both teams came into the game banged up and missing key players.  Additionally, the Jaguars have been unable to run the ball this year, despite being a run-oriented team.  That held true last night, as the Steelers’ defense held Fred Taylor and Maurice Jones-Drew to a paltry 38 yards rushing.  I guess Fred Taylor isn’t a Steelers killer anymore.  Ha!

The Steeler came out smoking in the first half.  Mewelde Moore (or should I call him Franco Harris?) got the party started with a nice run on the very first play of the game.  Then things started to look shaky for the Steelers.  Ben Roethlisberger was sacked on the third play of the game (no surprise there, eh?), and he threw an interception to Rashean Mathis on the very next play.  Mathis ran it all the way back for a touchdown.  That quickly, the Jaguars were up 7-0, and their offense hadn’t even set foot on the field yet.

But after that, the Steelers offense got rolling.  Ben Roethlisberger started picking the Jaguars defense apart like Peyton Manning.  He marched the team up the field in a long drive that culminated with a touchdown pass to Heath Miller.

The Steelers’ offense was so effective at eating up the clock that the Jaguars’ offense didn’t even step onto the field until there was only 5:18 left in the 1st quarter.

The Jaguars got their second touchdown in the second quarter when Ike Taylor was called for pass interference on a 39 yard pass to Matt Jones in the endzone.  I said in my key match-ups article that Ike Taylor vs. Matt Jones was going to be one of the battles to watch.  Unfortunately, Ike lost this particular round.

After a Jeff Reed field goal and a TD pass to Nate Washington, the Steelers led at the half 17-14.  The Steelers first half performance was so dominant that going into the locker room at half-time, they already had 21 first downs as compared to only 4 by the Jaguars.  They had 300 yards of total offense, compared to only 49 total yards by the Jaguars, and they had 69 rushing yards versus only 15 rushing yards for the Jags.  And possibly most telling was the fact that Ben Roethlisberger had 239 passing yards and two touchdown passes at the half.  As we all know, it usually takes Big Ben two full games to accumulate that many passing yards.  But that’s what happens when a team’s first, second, and third string running backs are all injured.

Perhaps the most telling statistic was time of possession.  At the half, the Steelers had controlled the ball for a full 21:15, while the Jaguars only had the ball for 8:45.  Now THAT’s Steeler football.

The Steelers continued to have their way with the Jaguars in the second half, although adjustments by the Jaguars defense did slow down the Steelers’ passing attack.  After having one of the best halves of his career in the first half, Roethlisberger threw for only 70 yards the rest of the game, and ended up with 309 total passing yards.

While the Jaguars never were able to get the rushing attack going (they ended the game with only 38 yards rushing), David Garrard came alive in the second half and made it a game.  He threw for another touchdown pass and had the Jaguars up 21-20 late in the game.

The Steelers marched down the field and scored again on a touchdown pass to Hines Ward late in the 4th quarter, putting the Steelers up 26-21.  Coach Tomlin realized that Jacksonville’s next possession would probably be the last possession of the game, so he chose to go for the 2 point conversion that would insure overtime if the Jaguars scored a touchdown.  The Steelers failed on the 2 point conversion, leaving Jacksonville with a chance to win the game.

The Steelers’ defense held firm, and the Jaguars looked totally hapless on their final possession.  Time ran out, and the victorious Steelers went back to the locker room under a loud chorus of “Here we go Steelers, here we go!”.

It’s good to have the home crowd on your side.  Fortunately, Steeler Nation is so ubiquitous that every game seems to be a home game for our beloved Steelers.  Here we go Steelers!  Here we go!

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