Not ready for prime time
by M. Stewart
The Pittsburgh Steelers had a chance Sunday night to show a national television audience that they deserved to be ranked among the NFL’s elite teams, but instead they showed why they aren’t.
This was a spooky game from the start. Pittsburgh showed up with the league’s leading rusher in Willie Parker to play against the league’s worst run defense, so what do they do? They bring a game plan that relies on the pass.
Even after the Steelers offensive line showed they were no match for their Denver counterparts, Pittsburgh stuck with the ass-backwards game plan, sending quarterback Ben Roethlisberger running for his life on nearly every down. If Ben were a smaller, less mobile quarterback, the Broncos would have racked up 15 sacks. In his desperation, Ben looked good throwing on the run, but it was in a constant catch-up effort—one that seemed doomed to fail because of serious problems on defense.
And what in the world was the coaching staff thinking when it decided to hand the Broncos nearly two minutes to get in position for the game-winning field goal? The running game was going fairly well, and with under two minutes left on the clock, you play for the tie and run out the clock. Instead, Ben throws a touchdown pass, daring the home team to score against a defense that had been an easy mark all night.
If a relatively weak team like Denver can run the ball up and down the field and put up 31 points, what’s going to happen when Pittsburgh plays a scoring machine like New England? It won’t be pretty.
Thanks to Baltimore’s loss to Buffalo, the Steelers retain first place in their relatively weak division. I still feel confident that Pittsburgh can make the playoffs, but most of the second half of the season will involve division play, and it remains to be seen if the Steelers are good enough to win those games as needed.
As of right now, Pittsburgh is definitely not ready for prime time.
The Pittsburgh Steelers had a chance Sunday night to show a national television audience that they deserved to be ranked among the NFL’s elite teams, but instead they showed why they aren’t.
This was a spooky game from the start. Pittsburgh showed up with the league’s leading rusher in Willie Parker to play against the league’s worst run defense, so what do they do? They bring a game plan that relies on the pass.
Even after the Steelers offensive line showed they were no match for their Denver counterparts, Pittsburgh stuck with the ass-backwards game plan, sending quarterback Ben Roethlisberger running for his life on nearly every down. If Ben were a smaller, less mobile quarterback, the Broncos would have racked up 15 sacks. In his desperation, Ben looked good throwing on the run, but it was in a constant catch-up effort—one that seemed doomed to fail because of serious problems on defense.
And what in the world was the coaching staff thinking when it decided to hand the Broncos nearly two minutes to get in position for the game-winning field goal? The running game was going fairly well, and with under two minutes left on the clock, you play for the tie and run out the clock. Instead, Ben throws a touchdown pass, daring the home team to score against a defense that had been an easy mark all night.
If a relatively weak team like Denver can run the ball up and down the field and put up 31 points, what’s going to happen when Pittsburgh plays a scoring machine like New England? It won’t be pretty.
Thanks to Baltimore’s loss to Buffalo, the Steelers retain first place in their relatively weak division. I still feel confident that Pittsburgh can make the playoffs, but most of the second half of the season will involve division play, and it remains to be seen if the Steelers are good enough to win those games as needed.
As of right now, Pittsburgh is definitely not ready for prime time.
posted by M. | 8:56 AM
4 Comments:
I wholly agree. Pittsburgh is a top-10 team, but not a top-5 team. There's a big difference between those tiers.
Hines Ward looked rusty out there. Ben looked good for the most part, but because of the horrendous pass blocking he was frantic in the pocket.
The story of the day is defense. We played soft all game. If you give up two straight 3rd and longs, you deserve to lose.
The middle was open all night should have kept throwing in the middle. Once Denver figured out how to stop that, go to the run and let Willie run free. The Steelers could be a top 5 team if they could only put together a game plan that will exploit the other teams weakness in their defense. And so far they haven't done that.
I was flipping between this game and the Indians game. No one in my household was happy Sunday night. As far as Andrea and I are concerned, there were no sports on Sunday night -- just reruns of The Sopranos.
I even asked my wife (rhetorically)"Where's the Steeler's offensive line? Did they stay in Pittsburgh?"
Then I asked myself (rhetorically) "Why is Kenny Lofton being held at third base? Did the third base coach bet on the Red Sox?"
When the Indians went up 3-1 I told my friend that the Red Sox would come back and take the series, and they did. I hate Cleveland and anything about Cleveland. They just can't seem to beat teams they are suppose to beat. They had Beantown right where they wanted them and just like that sad ass football team that sits on Lake Erie, THEY FREAKIN' BLEW IT. The Indians are the now the new MISTAKE ON THE LAKE. And that is just my opinion.
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