Steelers-Broncos Review: Defense shines without starters Tuesday, November 10, 2009

The Steelers pounded the Broncos 28-10, and the winning margin would have been wider if not for a couple stupid turnovers when the Steelers were rolling.

Ryan Clark, Lawrence Timmons, Travis Kirschke, and Aaron Smith (IR) were out for the Steelers but the defense didn't miss a beat. Last time we lost DE Aaron Smith to IR in 2007, the defense crumbled. I've been impressed this year, and that's without Ziggy Hood getting much playing time. Nick Eason sured up the DL. The average age of our defensive line is 32, and features guys that have had unremarkable careers. Tomlin, LeBeau and John Mitchell have done incredible jobs there.

The linebackers have come on strong the past couple weeks. I would like to have Timmons healthy but Keyaron Fox is proving he deserves a starting spot too. It's a great problem to have. Harrison was steady as always and LaMarr Woodley is finally waking up from his first half slumber. I'm not sure what Woodley's problem has been. Maybe he had some life-problems that disrupted his play emotionally. He was much better last night. The tackling by everyone on defense was almost textbook perfect.

And of course Tyrone Carter played great in Ryan Clark's absense. We'll be hearing lots from the media this week about what a great "replacement" Clark was, but the national media doesn't realize that Tyrone Carter spends a lot of time on the field even when Clark and Polamalu are both healthy. He's a steady veteran, and Clark's position is obviously more replaceable than Troy's. Good thing since Clark is a free agent after the season. But expect Ryan Mundy, not Carter, to take over starting duties in 2010.

Roethlisberger and Ward continued their dominance, Rashard Mendenhall has (thankfully) proved me wrong, Santonio had a great game and Mike Wallace would garner rookie of the year consideration if Percy Harvin wasn't tearing it up in Minnesota. But the story of the offense has been the offensive line. These guys are so improved from last year. They are now a strength and a component of the team that can be relied on. Max Starks deserves to start in the pro bowl at left tackle.

The special teams have regressed to 2007 quality, but overall the Steelers are playing great football right now and look better than the 2008 Steelers who dominated on defense but were often impotent on offense. A lot of that has to do with Mendenhall, who still has room to improve but has effectively ended Willie Parker's career.

No time to rest, though, as the Steelers face the division-leading Cincinnati Bengals in five days. I have confidence that the Steelers are the better team but they need to play their best football to make sure they don't give Palmer and his troops a chance at the end like last time around. It's the most important game of the season by far.

Hats off to Brandon Marshall, who cannot be contained. The rest of the Broncos did not impress. The defense looked good in the first half and fell apart. Worst of all, in post-game quotes the Broncos sound like they're merely conceding that the Steelers are a great team and are not pointing the finger at themselves and the ways they need to improve to be true contenders. It looks to me like the true AFC contenders are the big three (NE, IND, PIT) plus the Steelers' little brothers in the AFC North (CIN, BAL).

Steelers-Titans Review: Overtime Saves Hines Friday, September 11, 2009

A few quick thoughts on the Steeler-Titan game:

That was a damn good game, a real regular season classic. It was the quintessential NFL regular season game and representative of the reasons why I love the NFL.

Analysts, even ESPN guys, are starting to properly understand Big Ben and what he brings to the table. Pump-fakes, avoiding sacks, improvising, always looking for the big play... You can't really rank him among the other quarterbacks because he's a whole different breed. Of course he's not as quick a decision-maker or as good at timing as the other top guys, but he's a superman in ways no other quarterbacks are.

Of course, what allowed him to lead TWO game-winning drives last night was AWESOME protection by the O-Line. Kudos to them on those last two drives. What I said in the preview yesterday was right on: If he makes only one big mistake, we'll recover and win. One mistake, no more, and the Steelers win.

The punting and return games were as good as advertised and enormous improvements on last year. Steeler fans all over the world were thanking God for Stefan Logan and Daniel Sepulveda.

Contrasting those improvements, the run protections and short-yardage games looked worse than ever. 40% of the problem is the play of our offensive line. 10% is Willie, who may not be the old Willie. But I think the biggest part of the problem is playcalling. I don't know if it's Tomlin, Arians, or both. But if the run isn't working, plunging up the middle over and over isn't going to solve it. We need more creative plays. It's no mystery why Ben is so good when behind at the ends of games: they go to the no-huddle and he calls the plays himself.

By the way, Collinsworth did an awesome job doing color. I was never a Madden-hater but at this point in their careers Collinsowrth is a big improvement. I actually enjoyed his comments.

Finally, the big question mark is Troy and how long he is out. I'm willing to take an extra loss or two here in the next month or so to make sure he is 100% healed, because the difference between an 80% Polamalu and a 100% Polamalu is significant. Anyway, though, what an incredible first quarter! It was 11-on-1 out there, and the 1 was winning.

I'll give the officiating a B+. The P.I. on Troy was bogus, but everything else was fair, and yes, Harrison is that good that he causes OTs to backup a yard and risk taking a penalty. I'd guess Tomlin made the refs aware of this problem beforehand.

I'm already rolling my eyes preparing in advance to hear complaints about NFL overtime, especially from the college football fans here in Columbus. Perhaps I'll post on this at lunch.

In closing, I'll say I'm not totally sold on the Titans and for now I'll stand by my 3rd-place AFC South prediction. I think they match up well with the Steelers offense and that helped them. They won't stop Indy and Houston as easily, especially without Haynesworth.