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

On the typical Sunday during the fall and winter, I am a prime candidate for a heart attack or stroke.

The reports of Hines Ward's demise were highly inaccurate.

On the typical Sunday during the fall and winter, I am a prime candidate for a heart attack or stroke. Being a Steeler fan isn't easy when your coach says, "Style points don't matter", which translates into--you can forget about winning by 2 touchdowns. Don't get me wrong, I am a huge Mike Tomlin fan, but it is nice to win with comfort once in a while. On Sunday, the Steelers manhandled the Tennessee Titans winning 38-17.

On their initial drive, the Titans amassed 69 yards and the Steeler defense looked poised to remain in their recent, human form. Over the next five drives, the Titans could only muster 49 yards. It seemed like Dick LeBeau set the bait by allowing the Titans their first drive, only to stifle them for most of the balance of the game.

On the other hand, the Steeler offense attacked its prey in a less than normal fashion. Gone were the 5 step drops, 40 yard throws and tiptoe-through-the-tulips running game and in its place was a surgical dismemberment via short, quick passes and punishing runs up the middle.  Yes, the prodigal Steeler running game found its way home in the form of Isaac Redman and Jonathan Dwyer. Redman ran like a man possessed, bulling his way through the teeth of the Titans' stingy defense for 49 yards. Jonathan Dwyer acquitted himself of the charge that he was a chubby, out of shape running back who, by the grace of God, was bestowed a roster spot in early September. Dwyer accounted for 107 of the Steelers 174 total rushing yards which included a 76 yard burst off right tackle. Even if you subtracted Dwyer's big run, the Steelers still averaged 3.6 yards per carry. That's pretty good when you have a patchwork offensive line facing the league's 8th best rushing defense coming into this week. The Steeler passing attack looked more like Brady to Welker than Big Ben to Wallace (or Brown or Sanders or Ward). Big Ben's big arm was rifling passes before the Titan defensive backs could react. The Titans never adjusted enough to stop the Steeler assault and a decisive win was in the books.

Dissecting the Dwyer Run

I went back and watched the Dwyer run several times.  This is the Steelers bread-and-butter play off the right side that tends to bust big runs. 

Marcus Gilbert—absolutely buried the defensive tackle.  The only thing that stopped Gilbert from blocking his man into the 3^rd row was Pouncey putting a Titan on the ground.  A+++ block

David Johnson—sealed the inside linebacker and then went downfield trying to hit more people.

Heath Miller—pushed the outside linebacker about 3yds downfield sealing the outside.

Doug Legursky—pulled and made an excellent trap block on the inside linebacker

Jonathan Dwyer—hit the hole fast and didn’t break stride until he was tackled at the 15yd line.

Here are some of my thoughts on other performances from Sunday:

Big Ben—excellent timing and decision-making.  Got the ball out fast and anticipated the receiver breaks.  Often Ben waits until the receiver makes his break and then throws the ball.  Sunday, he was on fire (except for the last pass before halftime which was picked off).

Isaac Redman—his desire to get the extra yard was Bettis-like and ignited the Steeler offense.  You almost never see him tackled by one guy.  That was 49 tough and admirable yards.

Hines Ward—after reading my blog last week, some Steeler fans said that I didn’t know what I was talking about when I said that the Steelers should throw short passes to Hines Ward.  They were right, I have no idea what I am talking about. 7 catches, 54 yards, 2 TD’s.  I hope I’m wrong right through the Super Bowl.

Heath Miller—he is the King of the middle of the field.

Doug Legursky—he’s a great backup but (unless he is playing hurt) he just can’t be a starter.  Great block on the Dwyer run but he gets pushed around too much.

Antonio Brown—I have a feeling that he will have 2 kickoff returns for touchdowns this season.  He’s close, reeeeeaaaal close.

Special teams—speaking of special teams, great job on the fake punt, I loved it.  But what’s up with the blocked punt, not getting the onside kick and allowing a kickoff returner to get to the 43 yard line?  Might need some extra practice this week. 

Brett Keisel—remember when I said that we were lacking a push from the defensive line?  The Deisel push is back!

Chris Hoke—played like a brick wall yesterday.  Excellent job.
Ziggy Hood—I saw Ziggy all over the field.  If he wasn’t making a tackle, he was pursuing the ball carrier until he was on the ground.

Lamarr Woodley—maybe I should call him out every week.  He was un-blockable.  Some people thought that he was playing poorly because his wallet was weighing him down.  Others said it was injuries to the defense that was taking him out of the mix.  Or that the opposing offense was scheming to get him to drop into coverage so that they would only have to worry about blocking Harrison.  Whatever it was, the Titans couldn’t handle it.

Troy Polamalu—if you just watched what Troy did yesterday, you can see why the Steeler defense isn’t the same when he’s not there.

Bruce Arians—last but not least is the man with the plan.  Bruce Arians was a maestro calling plays.  He had the offense establish the run and short passing game (the Titans had 8 and sometimes 9 in the box to stop the run) and then used play fakes to pass on deeper routes later in the game.  Ben looked as comfortable as he has ever looked in the pocket and the offensive line held up when not being asked to block for 5, 6 or 7+ seconds.  This is exactly the type of game plan that I mentioned in previous blog posts.  It helps the offensive line because they don’t have to hold their blocks as long, it helps Ben with timing and not getting hit and it keeps the defense on its heels not knowing where the ball is going to go next.  Bravo Bruce, don’t change a thing!

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 Getty Images