The 8th Annual Steelers March to the Super Bowl Thread

The Game Room
361

Its funny…the offensive line was blamed for the flameout last season, along with a lack of a true deep receiving threat once Chris Henry got hurt against the Ravens (and subsequently died). The Bengals attempted to address this area in FA (Owens, Bryant…and the Bryant thing was a debacle) and in the draft (Jordan Shipley, Jermaine Gresham, both keepers) but they didn’t draft much in the way of talent in the trenches on either side of the ball outside of Carlos Dunlap with our 2nd pick (DE…not even making the field much so far this season).

The Bengals offensive line, despite not having much in the way of pure talent besideds Whitworth at LT and potentially Andre Smith at RT (another LONG story of fatness and lack of desire) is a patchwork of has beens and never was guys, and our defensive line lacks talent across the entire board. Geathers recorded a 10 sack season in 2007 and has been invisible since his new contract, Tank Johnson is decidedly average (and is out for this game), Antwan Odom is always injured and now suspended, Peko isn’t a world beater at all and the backups aren’t doing squat either. We have exactly SIX sacks through seven games as a defense, and at least one of those came from a safety blitz. Its really unreal given their overall fourth ranking last year.

Our linebackers are mostly shit too. Dhani Jones looks nice in a bowtie and travelling around the world but he’s old and slow. Maualuga is an overpursuit machine and easy to re-direct out of a play and is awful in coverage. Keith Rivers is just a quiet, quasi-productive LB that was a 1st round pick…he’s nothing special. Our best LB may be Brandon Johnson, whom will see some time tonight…aggressive, always around the ball, makes plays…we’ll see.

Our secondary is hampered by a severe lack of talent at both safety positions. Our best defensive players are Leon Hall and Jonathon Joseph, both starting corners, but Joseph gets nicked up every year and misses games, and now that Pacman is gone (who was playing surprisingly well in both the secondary and in the return game especially) our depth at that position kinda sucks.

Our playcalling on offense is befuddling…if I see another 3rd and 2 shotgun formation where we throw the ball attempting a big gain rather than just moving the chains I will scream. Bob Bratkowski the OC has just GOT to go. And I don’t think Marvin can fire him as he’s a Mike Brown guy. And speaking of Marvin, he’s become a lame duck. I think the players know he’s not going to come back so there’s a lack of motivation in my opinion.

What in the fuck happened to our running game, our supposed strength from last season? Farts in the wind, I tell ya.

This team is foundering from a lack of leadership from above and a lck of talent on defense. It isn’t Carson Palmer or the wideouts (other than Chad dropping an obscene number of balls).

We’ll see…

362

Jesus Mary Mother of God that game was close.

You know, it’s just like the Steelers to put their fans through that. Blowing a 20-point lead? At least they didn’t go into the Prevent. Unbelievable.

But a win’s a win. Marv, polish up your resume. I hear that Dallas and Minnesota might be hiring…

363

Why do I feel more comfortable when the opposing offense has a 1st and 10 than when it has a 2nd and 20, with this team? And it’s like this every year.

364

I know, right?

Every year they do this to us fans. I’d like to say it’s not right, but it’s paid off 2 years out of the last four, so what the hell.

365

I feel for you, having the #1 defense in the league occasionally giving up first downs.

hug

366

Oh, spare me. They lost 7 games (and missed the playoffs) in exactly this manner last year, by a grand total of 28 points. 4 points per game average, and most (5) were because El Jefe choked the game clincher away. Tonight was a bad reminder of that.

This year they have so far managed to pull those sorts of games out. A matter of inches, indeed.

367

Damn, now we have to go 8-0 the rest of the way.
:smiley:

368

This is painful to say but…the Steelers are overrated. I see an awful lot of fans with their heads in the sand IMO. Don’t get me wrong, the team doesn’t stink but the play of the o-line last night will NOT be good enough to beat the Patriots next week. They had an off game against Cleveland (not to detract from the Browns performance, they played well). They aren’t going to be off two weeks in a row.

I really like what Sean Kugler has done with these guys and Maurkice Pouncey has been a breath of fresh air. There are big problems though. Starks and Adams both struggle with edge rushers and the interior guys both struggle with their assignments on twists and stunts. Trai Essex gets zero push in the running game. The 22 double has been so successful because they can help Essex long enough for Mendenhall to get a read and blast through the hole. Legursky didn’t play any better but I do like him in the heavy goal line set they used. Adams gets good push on the ground unless he’s assigned to the inside guys (which he usually is when they run left). The Steelers have traditionally preferred to run right and with this line they don’t have much choice since the right side is going to give up backside pursuit every time.

I know I’m be overly pessimistic for a fan whose team is 6-2 but we still have half a season left and we’re far enough in to know what we have.

I’m not too worried about the defense. I love that they maintained pressure late in the game last night rather than sitting back and giving up the underneath routes. Really, between the extremely bad lame duck int that Ben threw and then a series of bad penalties, the Bengals got about fifty yards for free. They missed Aaron Smith last night for sure. It was a good move to rush James Harrison from the weak side. I don’t worry about Dick Lebeau. We still have plenty of weapons on defense.

369

I hate when the Steelers play in Cincinnati. Well, most of the time anyway. I do love those games that go the way they are supposed to, and you get the obligatory shots of those huge dumbass escalators full of people heading for their cars midway through the fourth quarter.

But there are a lot of times that no matter how bad the Bengals are, the Steelers manage to blow it down there. I was frankly shocked that we’ve only given up two 10 point leads to them over the years. My recollection is that the Bengals are always liable to pull a game out against us, usually by hanging around and hitting some ridiculous rainbow pass with a circus catch right toward the end of the game.

I like having Mike Wallace! Ben should have hit him on that long TD pass, and there wouldn’t have been any angina.

Speaking of big anginas, how about Ocho Sinkhole? I loved seeing him get chased off by the O lineman. Was last night the beginning of the drama implosion, or has he behaved that way all season long? My wife pointed out that it would be classic if he was traded to a team that had retired the number 85.

Gruden is a great element of that announcing team. I of course loved what he had to say about the fines against James Harrison.

Aside to SenorBeef - wow, you think very highly of your own football analytic skills. Good for you!

370

I share your concerns. I think Ben still seems way too jumpy back there, even when he’s not being significantly pressured. I think the game plan was a little less suggestive of those concerns than against the Saints, but then again the Bengals are not the Saints.

From a glass half-empty perspective, we were 6 and 2 at this point last year.

From a glass half-full perspective, we were 6 and 2 the season before that. I liked the outcome of that season a bit better.

371

Maybe it’s a good time to resurrect Bill Cowher’s favourite saying, “it is what it is”. :smiley:

372

None of my claims require any specialized knowledge. I’m saying McCoy’s sacks were self created (if you hold the ball for 6 seconds after the snap, and run outside your tackle suddenly giving the blocked defender a clear path to you and you get sacked, that’s not a failure in protection) and most of his yards came when the Steelers were playing looser coverage when the Browns were 2+ scores down. I don’t need to be Bellichick to observe these things. I’m implying Doors has either lax observational skills or low football knowledge, rather than me having exceptional knowledge.

373

Well 3 Steelers got concussions this week. that should give them even more rapport with their fans…and Bradshaw.

374

Hehe, that was a good one.

375

Harrison better look out, he’s probably going to be fined and suspended!

376

That would make an interesting sitcom.

Wife is home making dinner and Harrison walks in early.

“What happened honey?”
“I got suspended from work for being too good?”
“Again?”<Laugh track>
“Yeah, and I got fined.”
“That’s okay honey, your Fathead royalty check came in today.”
“Excellent. Thank goodness for a Fathead.”
“Yes, I love you dear.”<Laugh track> “Did you pick up milk and eggs on the way home?”
“I tried to, but the stock boy held me.”
Her head canters to the side. “Harrison!” <Laugh track>

377

I’ve never liked Ocho’s antics, and I do believe that its time for him to go, along with Bob Bratkowski, our horribly predictable and unable to adjust OC and MArvin Lewis. Mike Brown also needs to recuse himself as the GM of the team because he’s horrible at it, and he needs to hire more scouts, as we have one of if not the smallest scouting department in the NFL.

I actually thought that was a high point in the game when our LT Whitworth sent his sorry ass to the sidelines for being a whiny cunt. He doesn’t seem to understand that when TO is playing as well as he is and Chad is busy dropping passes like crazy and freelancing routes that Palmer isn’t going to look his way as often as he used to.

Fuck that guy, I hate him. I wanted us to trade him to the Redskins a couple drafts ago when they were offering a 1st rounder and a conditional 3rd for him. Now we’d be lucky to get a 4th rounder. We were stupid not to make that trade.

378

Now THAT was freakin’ funny! :smiley:

379

I’m not as concerned as some of you. Yes, there are questions on this team, but I don’t think there’s as much to worry about as some. The offensive line played poorly, you say HongKongFooey? Well, half the line was hurt for a good part of the game, and we still managed (essentially) a 100 yard rushing game and pretty good time for Ben for the most part. If one more lineman had gone down when Pouncey was out, Spaeth would have played tackle.

As to the comeback, yeah, it was gut wrenching. However…should have been dead except for an absolutely fluke lucky play on that 3rd and long, where the pass was tipped at the line, tipped at the receiver and fluttered into the receivers arms…big break and it went against the Steelers. Nevermind the fact that the second touchdown in the 4th was an absolute GIFT from the refs. I didn’t see the Adams penalty, but I assume that was deserved…but the roughing the passer was garbage, and the pass interference penalty that put the ball on the 1 was horrendous. That’s 35 free yards right away.

Not that the Steelers didn’t get breaks too…with Lewis wasting a challenge on the long pass that was complete then fumbled out of bounds (clearly a catch), so he didn’t want to challenge the Ward touchdown immediately after (which was clearly shy of the goal line by a few inches). Though, it could be argued that the Steelers possibly go in after that, but who knows?

My biggest concern is how inconsistent Reed is this year. He used to be extremely clutch, but this year he’s all over the map. Drills a 53 yarder, but pulls a 46 yarder to seal the game. Been doing that a lot, and it’s worrisome.

380

Against the Bengals. That’s the problem. Injuries are part of the game and totally understandable. The problem though is that it’s two of our starters, Adams and Essex, who are the biggest concerns. Isaac Redman wouldn’t have been stuffed in the backfield from the 1 last week if Adams was able to cut off the 3-technique who blew up the gap. He struggled last year on Dallas’ left side and he’s struggling this year on our right side. Put our line in any other city and Pouncey is the only guy likely to keep his job, maybe Starks if he moves over to the right. Kemoeatu and Starks are at least capable of a journeyman effort but Flozell Adams isn’t suddenly going to get fast feet. They’ll have to keep running blasts and doubles. The elite teams defense are going to find ways to counter it though and those are the teams we have to be able to beat to get to the Super Bowl. No the sky’s not falling but there are concerns and I really hope the coaches are able to overcome them. We already know Arians won’t adjust his scheme unless Tomlin forces him to. I think Kugler’s the key here, he seems to have a decent plan in place that suits the skills of the linemen. That’s exactly what he didn’t see from Larry Zierlein last season.