Pardon the absence late last week, PGH flew down to Miami for the Miami vs Florida State game this past weekend and had a few internet issues. A lame attempt to get a breakdown done in mid-flight on the laptop ended up turning into a pretty nice power nap.
Big Ben Drops Back To Pass......
* James Harrison gets held on every single play. On the plays where he doesn’t get held….he gets a sack.
* The speed on defense with new additions such as Timmons, Woodley, and McFadden starting at CB is awesome. Last season those dinks and dunks to MJD and quick passes over the middle of our D were going for big gains.
* I think Arians actually called a good game. He was aggressive, he went for the TD late in the game, he played to our strength (the passing game), and he got the ball to Mewelde Moore in space.
* Our Punt and Kick Return teams are worse than any return teams I have ever seen at the NFL level.
* The Steelers dominated this game and deserved to win. Thank God they did. A loss in this fashion to the Jags would have stung for 2 weeks. To beat Jax with a depleted lineup in their building was huge.
* It’s time to put some of the “sack blame” on Big Ben. He makes plays with his feet but he also refuses to throw the ball away out of bounds and he refuses to “tuck and run” for a first down. The OL push their men all over the backfield and never know where Ben is going to pop up. He pump fakes once or twice, steps up, steps back, looks like a deer in headlights…and either tosses a desperation completion or takes the sack as he drags defenders around on his legs.
* McFadden is playing great ball. To think this guy rotten on the bench for so long.
* Tomlin and the coaching staff absolutely HATE Max Starks. It seems he has dropped behind Trai Essex on the depth chart at Tackle?? wow.
* Finally we saw some 5 WR sets.
* We finally targeted Heath Miller and went to him with purpose on a few drives. Finally.
*Designed passes to the RBs as well (4 receptions by RBs)
* Arians must read PGH and the other Steeler sites out there.
* The backup Defensive Linemen played great. Kirschke, Roye, Hoke, etc…
* The Woodley & James Harrison combo is absolutely LETHAL.
* The personal fouls and unsportsmanlike conduct calls were getting way out of hand. The refs need to know when to swallow the whistle.
* Minus one return, the coverage teams were solid.
* Not a single person in Steeler Nation was surprised to see Rashean Mathis get an Interception.
* Is this the first time in 3 years we’ve been on National TV and the game wasn’t played on a muddy field in a driving rain storm?
Gotta love what the offense did with Mewelde!…however, I don’t understand why they’d take him out and replace him with Russell at times.
Leave it up to Nate to make a boneheaded play after looking like a prime target for much of the game….I’m still surprised he caught that td pass.
That Roughing the Chick call on Harrison was as bogus as it gets. The refs looked like a bunch of striped Mr. Magoos out there.
a few quick responses:
– well, it could be worse… at least santonio knows how to catch a punt (remember ricardo). but #10 needs to learn to run. forward. fast.
– al finally was about to address the playoff game hold against deebo that the NFL finally apologized about in april. but he didn’t say it because the 1st half ended. the nfl apologized, yet this was the iconic highlight they showed over and over again? i hate nbc.
– madden was pretty visceral on clark’s hit on matt jones. first, it wasn’t helmet to helmet. clark hit his shoulder pad. second, clark has to go up for that hit b/c matt jones is 6’6″, 7″ taller than ryan. third, no fine is coming. madden really hates the stillers, and it’s so evident in his broadcasts.
– every stiller fan knew jax was going to score to take the lead there. way too many drives without scores.
– kendall who?
This article brings up a good point. Why did the coaches take so long to make Mcfadden a starter? We hear about “training camp battles” every year but sometimes I think coaches don’t even allow any kind of compeition. Townsend hasn’t been victimized by other teams in recent years but he isn’t really a playmaker either. Now we are only going to get one good season out of Mcfadden before he goes to FA or we give him big cash.
Do the best players play or what? I also see this kind of thing happening on the oline as well. Willie Colon is horrible night after night and still keep his job. Last night alone I saw colon:
Get flagged for holding
Get flagged for a false start
Allow a De to come completely free, because Colon missed his assignment, and blow up a third down play. Forcing us to kick a field goal.
And this is against the Jaguars who haven’t been able to get pressure on anyone this year. Not to mention Colon was playing against a rookie who held out all of camp.
I never got this whole “Madden hates the Steelers” mentality that Steeler Nation has. I’m sure that he did as a coach, but I’ve never really seen it come through in his commentating. In fact, it seems like he has a man-crush on Big Ben.
Madden loves him some tough QBs. When Ben was hit on that one throw and was trying to run some clock out so as to let his arm get better, Madden got a boner right then and there. He loves it.
I didn’t get the picture for this article at first. I actually thought it was supposed to represent Ben having to take care of our whole offense like taking care of a bunch of little kids (ie our coaches).
But its actually just about people hanging all over Ben as he tries to throw, sometimes I over think things. LOL
haha…yeah, it’s a joke about Ben having to complete 1/2 his passes with guys wrapped all over him.
rewatching the game, anyone realize that the jags shot themselves in the foot with many dropped passes? several dropped passes on third down which would have kept drives alive. i’m feeling more pessimistic about this game. we didn’t lose, but i feel like we might have gotten away with one. two many drives without scores!
The offensive playcalling in the game was largely good, but it wasn’t to BA’s credit. The majority of the game was played out of the no huddle, with Ben calling the shots. When BA did call plays (e.g., goalline series at the end of the 1st half), they usually stunk.
The first 2 drives were all Arians, I believe, and minus a slip by Holmes, they were really good. The problem, IMO, is that this is just Arians showing he can beat bad defenses, when what he needs to show is that he can beat good defenses.
Lets use the bye week to make futile guess about the draft!!
I have seen mocks with us taking Alex Mack and a guard from OU but I cant remember his name.