Steelers Today - A Pittsburgh Steelers blog

January 19, 2009
By Donald Starver

For the seventh time, the Pittsburgh Steelers will be playing in the Super Bowl.  Only the Dallas Cowboys, with 8 Super Bowl appearances, have been there more often.  But with a win, the Steelers will stand alone with 6 Super Bowl victories, the most in NFL history.

Like the highways in Pittsburgh, the road to Super Bowl XLIII was full of potholes.  The biggest pothole was the Baltimore Ravens.

After beating the Ravens twice in the regular season, the Steelers had the unenviable task of trying to beat them for a third time.  The Ravens were a team on a roll, and beating them was not going to be easy.

We predicted before the game that the team that avoided turnovers was likely to win the game.  This proved to be true.  Ravens’ quarterback Joe Flacco was the first rookie quarterback to win 2 playoff games, but the AFC Championship proved to be too large a stage for the promising freshman.  Flacco threw 3 interceptions, and ended up with a quarterback rating of 18.2 (no, that’s not a typo).  Flacco was also sacked three times.

Rookie QB Joe Flacco

The Ravens also had 3 fumbles during the game, but they only lost one of those.  Likewise, the Steelers had 2 fumbles and lost one.  Thus, the fumbles basically canceled one another out.  But the interceptions proved to be the deciding factor in the game.

As everyone expected, this was a defensive struggle which pitted the top two defenses in the NFL.  The Ravens proved to be very difficult to run on, as they held Willie Parker to just 47 yards on 24 carries.  That’s an average of only 2 yards per carry.

Fortunately, the Steelers’ defense proved to be just as stingy.  The Steelers held the Ravens to only 198 net yards from scrimmage.

The Steelers probably should have had several more scores.  A touchdown pass to Santonio Holmes was called back when the Ravens issued a challenge.  Later in the game, Ben Roethlisberger threw a sure touchdown pass to rookie wide receiver Limas Sweed.  Sweed, as has become his pattern, got great separation from his defender, but then dropped a pass that was right in his hands.  To make matters worse, Sweed was so embarassed because he dropped the pass that he faked an injury after the play.  The faux injury cost the Steelers a timeout.  The lack of that timeout prevented the Steelers from stopping the clock to bring in the field goal unit at the end of the quarter.  Hopefully, Sweed has learned that personal pride can cost his team dearly.

After allowing the Ravens to stick around far too long, the Steelers finally pulled away and won the game 23-14.

The final nail in the Ravens’ coffin was an interception by Troy Polamalu that he returned for a touchdown.  That was one of many great plays in the game by Polamalu. 

There were several scares in the game.  The Steelers lost wide receiver Hines Ward early in the game with a knee injury.  Ward is scheduled to have an MRI tomorrow.  The Ravens saw running back Willis McGahee carted off on a stretcher after a vicious hit by Steelers’ safety Ryan Clark.  Clark knocked himself silly on the play as well, but he was able to leave the field under his own power (although he was extremely wobbly while doing so).

It should be noted that the Steelers have given up fewer than 100 total yards rushing in their two playoff games COMBINED.  That’s some pretty stingy defense.

So now the Steelers move on to Tampa to take on the Arizona Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII.  That’s right, the Arizona Cardinals.  It must be snowing in Hell.

The Cardinals (also known as the Steelers West) defeated the Philadelphia Eagles 32-25 in the NFC Championship game to move on to their first Super Bowl.  The obvious Pittsburgh connections on that Cardinals team adds several storylines that are going to be beat to death by the media over the next two weeks.  You know, Ken Whisenhunt and Russ Grimm were candidates for the position that ultimately went to Mike Tomlin.  Larry Fitzgerald went to Pitt.  Several (most?) Cardinal players used to play for the Steelers.  Blah blah blah.  Yeah, I’m sick of hearing it already.

On to the Super Bowl.

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December 16, 2008
By Patrick Cartwright

I hate the Ravens.

I abhor and disdain them.

I loathe, despise, and detest them.

But I respect them.

Not as individuals.  On their defense, they have a linebacker who, more likely than not, was involved in a murder.  They have another linebacker that tells the media they put bounties on opposing players in order to injure them.  They have a player who spit in a kicker’s mouth.  And another player who so delighted in the fact that when he sacked Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger he “felt the breath leave his body”, that he felt the need to brag about it to the national media.  To call the Ravens a bunch of thugs would be unfair and offensive to thugs.

So how can a Steelers fan respect a group so heinous?  A group that I wouldn’t let inside my house without a national guard regiment present.  A group that makes my skin crawl.  A group that undoubtedly gets together in the offseason to drown kittens, strangle puppies, and plot to bring back the Macarena?

Because they play the game the way it should be played.

The Baltimore Ravens play the game with intensity and vitriol.  They run the ball down your throat.  They  trust their young , confident QB.  They control the clock.  And they play a punishing style of defense that leaves the other team’s offense battered, broken down, and wondering how much time is left before they can get on the bus and get the hell out of town.  They play good old-fashioned smash-mouth football.

Sound familiar?

It’s the exact same way the Steelers organization has played for the past 40 years, ever since Chuck Noll took a losing team and molded them into a dynasty.  And it’s the way the Ravens have played since the day that Art Modell pulled the midnight switch on Cleveland and bussed the team to the East Coast.  Just another reason to hate the Ravens.  They used to be the Browns.  But even so, you have to respect the way they go about playing the game, even if you don’t like it.  Even if you don’t like them.

The best enemies are always the ones that are slightly distorted reflections of the hero.  Wolverine and Sabertooth.  Green Lantern and Sinestro.  Spiderman and Venom.  It’s the same with the Steelers and Ravens.  They play the same style of football, and they play it the same way.  Both teams have a QB that has been a rookie phenom, playing well beyond his years.  Both have an All-World game-changing safety.  Each has an old man that just happens to be the most reliable receiver on his team.  Each has punishing linebackers who regularly put the opposing quarterback on his back.  Since the AFC North was founded in 2002, with the exception of the 2005 Bengals, only the Steelers and Ravens have won the division.  They have both won a Super Bowl this decade.  Ravens Coach Jim Harbaugh is in his first year at the position.  The Steelers’ Mike Tomlin has been at it twice as long, currently coaching in his second year.

If the NFL was a soap opera (and with the likes of T.O., Chad Ocho Cinco, and Pacman Jones in the league, who’s to argue that it isn’t?), the Ravens would be the Steelers’ evil twin.  Nobody knows the Steelers better.  Nobody plays them harder.  No other team has been as much a thorn in the Steelers’ sides as the carrion birds from Baltimore.

From a Steelers fan’s perspective, looking at the Ravens is like looking at the Steelers in a dirty, grungy, distorted mirror.  You don’t like what you see.  You don’t want to admit that what you’re looking at may well be everything you love filtered through a different light.  When you look at the Ravens, from an organizational and team standpoint, you’re just looking at a thugged-out version of the Pittsburgh Steelers.  Did the truth of that just make you throw up in your mouth a little?  Me too.

Like them?  No way.

Respect them?

You have to.  Right?

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December 14, 2009
By Donald Starver

Okay, I keep hearing people parroting the same crap, so I had to add my two cents to the conversation.  The “crap” that I’m talking about is this myth that seems to be circulating that implies that the Baltimore Ravens somehow have an advantage coming into this Sunday’s AFC Championship game against the Steelers because “It’s hard to beat a team three times in the same season”.

Who made up that lie?  The Steelers played (and beat) the Cleveland Browns twice this season.  If we played them a third time, is there anyone who would bet money on the Browns?  I didn’t think so.  We also played the Bengals twice, and beat them twice.  If a round three had been required, who do you think would have won?  Steelers.

The Steelers swept the AFC North this season, beating the Cleveland Browns, Cincinnati Bengals, and Baltimore Ravens each time they played them.  That’s six wins and no losses.  None.  Don’t you think that was a pretty loud statement of who reigns supreme in the AFC North?

Well, now the Steelers have to face the Ravens again.  This time more is at stake than just bragging rights in the AFC North.  This time they’re playing for a trip to the Super Bowl.  Much higher stakes.

When reporters asked Steelers’ head coach Mike Tomlin whether it’s hard to beat a team three times in the same season, Tomlin said “I personally don’t subscribe to that hocus-pocus.  What happened in the other games will have no bearing on the outcome of this game.  Each individual performance stands on its own.  We’re not buying into that”.   Good for you, Coach Tomlin!

While I can’t speak meaningfully about the mental state of any of the players who will participate in this game, I do know that all of them know that the Steelers won both of their previous meetings.  That’s got to help the Steelers, and it’s got to be a negative for the Ravens.

Just picture yourself back in third grade.  You’ve been challenged to a fight after school by the same bully who has already kicked your @$$ twice this semester.  Do you feel like you have an advantage because he’s already beaten you up twice?  Hell no!  You’re ready to piss your pants.  You know that your strategy of blocking his fists with your face won’t be any more effective this time than it was the first two times.  You may pretend to be confident, but deep down, you know that three is not your lucky number.

Some of you are probably saying, “this isn’t the third grade.  These are professional football players”.  Okay, I’ll give you that.  So let’s look at the history of professional football players who have found themselves in this situation.  Does a team that has lost to another team twice during the same season usually beat them the third time around?

To be clear, there aren’t many instances where that has happened, so the sample size isn’t very large.  In the modern era, it has only happened 18 times.  Of those, the team that won the first two games has won the third game 11 times.  It doesn’t take a math genius to see that the team that won the first two times usually wins the third.  In fact, the team that has won the first two games has won the third 61% of the time.  I’ll take those odds.

To make things even worse, the Ravens have to come to Pittsburgh to play the Steelers in their own stadium.  Sure, the Steelers have lost AFC Championship games at home before.  But that doesn’t mean that home field advantage is a negative.  It just means that they faced better teams on those days.  This time, that won’t be the case.  The Steelers have already proven that.  Twice.

Lastly, the Ravens are more banged up than the Steelers,  Terrell Suggs is hurt.  So is Ed Reed.  And Fabian Washington.  And Todd Heap.  And Samari Rolle.  And Le’Ron McClain.  And Willie Anderson.  And Derrick Mason.  Get my drift?

So can we please put this “it’s hard to beat a team three times in the same season” crap to rest?  The Steelers are going to beat the Ravens.  Afterall, three is a magic number.  And that’s no myth.

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I was reading some articles from the Baltimore media (boo!), and among the throng of biased, useless drivel that I had to weed through, I came across this.  It’s a poll by the Baltimore Sun to see who is the best player at each position, the Baltimore starter or the Steelers’ starter.

That is actually a pretty good concept, even though it will have no impact on the outcome of the game.  The team with the most talented roster doesn’t always win the game.  Just ask last year’s New England Patriots.  However, I had one HUGE problem with the poll.  It is being done by a Baltimore newspaper, and the people that they are asking are Baltimore Ravens’ fans.  I can just guess how that poll is going to turn out.  They’ll certainly vote Joe Flacco as being better than Ben Roethlisberger, and Derrick Mason as better than Hines Ward.  Well, I’ve got a solution to that obvious bias problem.  Let’s make it a bit less biased by adding some Western Pennsylvania spice to their poll. 

I took statistics in college, and I know that we will actually be helping them by reducing the bias in their sample set.  So let’s do our part to help the people of Baltimore to have a better poll.  You can cast your votes here:  Position-by-position poll.

For what it’s worth, there were actually some good matchups.  Ed Reed versus Troy Polamalu would have been a good one, but one is a strong safety while the other is a free safety, so they are not matched up.  But Terrell Suggs versus James Harrison is very interesting.  Or how about Haloti Ngata versus Casey Hampton?  Ray Lewis vs. James Farrior?  Hmmmm.

So that’s it.  This is a call for Steeler Nation to get out and rock the vote!

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As you’ve probably heard by now, Steelers’ linebacker James Harrison was named Defensive Player of the Year by the Associated Press.  This shouldn’t have come as a surprise to anyone.  Afterall, Harrison was the only defensive player to receive any votes for NFL MVP.

Despite the obvious logic of the choice of Harrison as DPOY, I have been hearing lots of negative comments about the selection.  Several commentators on ESPN and NFL Network have implied that the award should have gone to Baltimore Ravens’ safety Ed Reed.  Some have argued that Dallas Cowboys linebacker DeMarcus Ware should have gotten the award.  But the outcry has been far more noticeable for Reed.  This is probably due to the fact that Reed has been on a tear as of late.  He recorded two interceptions in the Ravens’ playoff game against the Miami Dolphins on Sunday.  He also had two interceptions in each of the Ravens last two regular season games.  That’s 6 interceptions in 3 games.  Pretty impressive.  But does it qualify Reed for DPOY?  No.

Let’s take a closer look at Ed Reed’s numbers.  Fans remember seeing Reed on SportsCenter returning interceptions for touchdowns.  It seemed like he was doing it all the time, right?  Wrong.  Ed Reed had two “pick sixes” during the regular season.  Two.  Not 6.  Not ten.  Two.  But “pick sixes” are a SportsCenter producer’s opium.  They can’t get enough of it.  So when one happens, they show it over, and over, and over, and over again.  Pretty soon we start to think that Ed Reed has twelve of them.  But he only had two.

We have to give credit where it is due.  Ed Reed did lead the NFL in interceptions.  He had nine.  That’s pretty impressive.  But six of those came during the Ravens’ last four games.  That means that for the first 12 weeks of the season, Reed had only 3 interceptions.  Not sounding so impressive anymore, is it?  After week 12 of the season, NOBODY was mentioning Ed Reed for any type of post-season award.

If you look at the entirety of the season, you’ll notice two things.  Firstly, you’ll quickly see that Ed Reed had a below average first 3/4′s of the season.  Second, you’ll notice that Steelers’ safety Troy Polamalu had a better season than Reed.  Let’s compare their numbers.  Reed had 9 interceptions, Polamalu had 7.  Reed had 25 passes defensed, Polamalu had 24.  Reed had two touchdowns, Troy had none (But he really had one.  The NFL acknowledged that the refs blew the call when the Steelers played the Chargers, and that Polamalu’s touchdown should have counted).  So overall, their stats look pretty similar.  But the area where Polamalu really blows Reed out of the water is in total tackles.  You know, the primary thing that defensive players get paid to do.  Reed ended the season with 41 tackles, while Troy Polamalu had 73.  That’s 32 more tackles than Ed Reed!  For the mathematically inclined among you, that’s 78% more.  Seventy eight #$%%^# percent!  Which would you rather have from a defensive player, 2 extra interceptions or 78% more tackles?

SportsCenter never talks about tackles.  Tackles aren’t sexy.  Instead, they want “pick sixes”.  They want 75 yard touchdown runs.  They want helmet shattering hits.  They want touchdown celebrations.  They want the spectacular.  They elevate style over substance.  But football is won by fundamental blocking and tackling.  It’s about substance, not style.  And Troy Polamalu’s season had more substance than Ed Reed’s.

So, not only was Ed Reed’s season not better than James Harrison’s, it wasn’t even better than Troy Polamalu’s.

I wrote an article called The Case for James Harrison as NFL MVP.  It can be found here.  In that article, I outlined all of James Harrison’s accomplishments this season.  Rather than rehash them here, I’ll let you go back and read that article.  Suffice it to say that Harrison’s season eclipses Troy Polamalu’s, and I’ve just shown that Polamalu’s was better than Ed Reed’s.  My fourth grade math teacher would write that relationship as follows:

James Harrison > Troy Polamalu > Ed Reed

So all of you Ed Reed apologists can climb back into the closet that you crawled out of.  Ed Reed wasn’t even the league’s best safety this season, much less it’s best defensive player.  James Harrison was, without a doubt, the best defensive player in the NFL this year.  Ed Reed had 3 great games.  James Harrison had an incredible season.

Congratulations Silverback.  You earned the DPOY award.  How about a Lombardi Trophy to complete the set?

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