A Bunch of Jagoffs Coming to Town

The Steelers might want to continue to throw short passes to guys like Heath Miller until the offensive line gets healthy.

It seems like every Sunday, the music stops and a different set of offensive linemen grab a seat and get their chance to start for the Steelers.  This Sunday will be no different.  Marcus Gilbert was declared out of this week’s game versus the Jacksonville Jaguars.  The Steeler offensive line will look like this from left to right:

Max Starks, Doug Legursky, Maurkice Pouncey, Ramon Foster, Jonathan Scott

Mewelde Moore, Aaron Smith and James Harrison will also ride the pine this weekend.  Casey Hampton looks doubtful right now so expect the defensive line to look like this:

Brett Keisel, Chris Hoke, Ziggy Hood with Steve McLendon and Cam Heyward seeing significant playing time. 

It has been interesting to see the change coming at defensive line.  Smith, Hampton and Keisel have relied mostly on a power/bull pass rush where they literally shove the offensive linemen into the backfield and QB.  Ziggy Hood and Cam Heyward have that kind of power but they also have a lot more quickness.  Ziggy was literally all over the field last Sunday in pursuit of running backs running the ball and wide receivers catching short passes.  Heyward was unstoppable on multiple plays getting into the backfield and forcing Matt Hasselbeck to throw the ball before he wanted to. 

There were several plays last week which featured inside linebacker Chris Carter, the Steelers 5^th round draft pick out of Fresno State.  As the season rolls on, expect to see more of him and possibly Stevenson Sylvester in the lineup spelling James Farrior and Larry Foote.  Both Foote and Farrior are in their 30’s which means “old” in the NFL (to Warren Sapp it means “finished as well). 

Big Ben will continue to wear his boot to protect his left foot (wasn’t that the name of a movie?) and hopefully he will be as accurate as he was last week (sans the last pass before halftime).  Rashard Mendenhall will be back in the lineup and Bruce Arians, the Steeler offensive coordinator, stated that Mendy is his man.  This coming even though the Steelers had their best running output of the season last week via Isaac Redman and Jonathan Dwyer.  Arians never disappoints.  When something is going right, he immediately stops doing it.  I still expect Redman to get several touches and, if Mendy struggles, Redman could get half or more of the carries.

The Jacksonville Jaguars used to be a strong and intimidating team.  They had huge and nasty defensive linemen like John Henderson and Marcus Stroud.  Now, they are rebuilding that defense and, in the process, are giving up 23 points per game.  Now that’s not bad (12^th in the league) but when your offense only scores 11.8 points per game, it could hurt your chances of making the playoffs.

The offense is “led” by rookie quarterback Blaine Gabbert.  Gabbert was thrown into this debacle after the Jags unexpectedly cut their starting QB David Garrard and Luke McCown displayed his best Luke McCown impression during weeks 1 and 2.  Now I don’t have all of the details but the story goes like this. The Jags said that they expected to have Garrard as their starting QB this season.  One morning, less than a week before the start of the regular season, Garrard was making an appearance in downtown Jacksonville to encourage fans to buy season tickets.  Just a few hours later, the Jags cut Garrard and sent him packing.  Now if you knew you were going to cut your star QB, why would you send him on a public relations campaign to generate season ticket sales?  All I can say is CLASSLESS.  That’s what this organization always has been and it always will be as long as Wayne Weaver is the owner of the franchise. There are other incidents with this franchise like when they signed a former Steeler backup QB for the week they played the Steelers.  They pumped him for as much knowledge about the Steelers as they could get, then cut him the day after the game.  JAGOFFS, I tell you!

The best player on the team, without question, is Maurice Jones-Drew AKA pocket Hercules.  He can run, he can catch and he can knock your teeth out with a block—right Shawne Merriman?  Is Merriman still suspended for juicing? 

At any rate, I’m not going to mince words here.  Even though the Steelers have a bunch of guys banged up or just plain injured, this should be a reasonably routine win.  I know my fellow superstitious Steeler fans, I just jinxed us.  But if the Steelers can’t play as well this week as they did last week against a much better opponent, then maybe the Steelers aren’t that good this year. 

I would love to hear your thoughts on the game and the team.  Feel free to leave comments on the blog.  Thanks for reading!  And remember, no matter where you go in this world, you’re ALWAYS in Steeler Country!

Photo courtesy of the AP

...most Steeler fans last longer in bed than the weekly starting offensive line for the Steelers

Not even Hawkeye and Trapper John could patch up the Steeler roster this week

The Tennessee Titans will visit Heinz Field on Sunday to play our Hometown Steelers.  The Titans are a much different team than in recent years.  Gone are Jeff “sunglasses at night” Fisher, LenDale “I fought the towel and the towel won” White and “Dream Team” member Vince Young.  The brash and whiny squeal of Fisher, a constant complainer to referees, has been replaced by the calm, cool and collected Mike Munchak.  Munchak was born and raised in Scranton PA and was an offensive lineman at Penn State.  Munchak continued his career in the NFL playing for the Oilers, then coaching for the Oilers and Titans.  The Titans have maintained a very business-like attitude so far this year, letting their on-field play do the talking.  Although they are only ranked 18^th in scoring (22 points/game), they have been efficient on offense.  Matt Hasselbeck is the new sheriff in town and he has been resurrected with a strong offensive line.  He is ranked 6^th, 7^th or 8^th in most passing categories but the key might be that he has thrown 8 TD’s and only 3 interceptions.   Chris Johnson has been very quiet this year, rushing for only 199 yards in 4 games.  But this week, he gets his fullback back in the lineup.  Ahmad Hall served a 4-game suspension for putting something naughty in his Cheerio’s.  He returns this week to lead Johnson against the Steeler defense.

 

The Titan defense is lethal, allowing only 14 points/game which is the best in the NFL.  They allow only 87 yards rushing and 212 yards passing per game.  Gone are the big mouth’s like Albert Haynesworth and Keith Bulluck and a more win-first, talk-later mentality is led by Barrett Ruud, Will Witherspoon and Jason Jones (who has had some great days against the Steelers).  Yes, Cortland “Andre Johnson’s beotch” Finnegan is still on the team and running his mouth.  Hopefully, a couple of teeth-rattling blocks from Hines Ward will shut him up.  The Titans have a handful of former Steelers on the roster, including: Chris Hope; Nate Washington; Anthony “I guarantee a win” Smith; and Patrick Bailey.

It, quite possibly, couldn’t be a worse time for the Steelers to play the best scoring defense in the NFL.  The first line in a Yahoo Sports article about the Steelers injuries started like this, “Counting the preseason, the Pittsburgh Steelers will have used nine different combinations of starting offensive linemen in nine games this season.”  And people wonder why the offensive line is playing poorly?  Heck, most Steeler fans last longer in bed than the weekly starting offensive line for the Steelers.  Here is this week’s list of casualties:

Max Starks will start at Left Tackle after signing this week

Doug Legursky will start for Chris Kemoeatu at Left Guard

Casey Hampton (shoulder), Aaron Smith (foot), James Harrison (facial surgery) and Mewelde Moore (ankle) are out of the lineup

Jason Worilds is out but no one can figure out how a guy who doesn’t play can be hurt all the time.

Rashard “twinkletoes” Mendenhall is listed as questionable (I think he could play but they want to give Isaac Redman the start). 

Big Ben will play with something resembling a steel-toe boot on his foot.

Following up my blog article on Monday, it was interesting to see Mike Martz, the Bears offensive coordinator (who just so happens to be Bruce Arians’ mentor), used a fullback last week to block for Matt Forte.  Forte had one of the best games of his career, rushing for 205 yards and catching 4 passes for another 23 yards.  Hmmmmm, I wonder what the Steelers could do if they had a fullback to block for our running backs?  Just in case you are scoring at home, the Steelers have won all 6 of their Super Bowl titles with a fullback blocking for the tailback.  Bruce Arians says that his offense does not have a fullback position.  Typically, tight ends are forced to block in place of fullbacks in the Arians offense.  One other offensive mention this week was interesting to me.  Ron Jaworski said that the lockout affected offensive line play most of all in the first quarter of the season.  He said that the timing and cohesiveness that is key to offensive line play has been a glaring weakness throughout the league this year.  Whether you like Jaws or despise him, you would be hard-pressed to find another analyst who watches more game film than he does. 

I spent a lot of time talking about the Titans and not much time about the Steelers.  That’s because I think we all know where the Steelers are right now.  They aren’t desperate for a win but you hate to lose home games to a conference opponent.  Those losses tend to bite you in the backside when it comes to making the playoffs and who plays where if you earn a berth.  Can the Steelers win this week?  Of course.  Will they?

Photo courtesy of Cacchieressa.tumblr.com