They were only up 2 scores (assuming successful 2-point conversions) It’s not just that example, but in general. He shows emotions with his face, kind of like a fan. That’s one of things that I always laughed at regarding Phillips. When the Cowboys did something stupid, Phillips gave that “WTF? What in the hell just happened?” look. Dude, it’s your team! You’re responsible for everything that your players do on the field.
Similarly, Tomlin doesn’t protrude any of the emotions of a head coach that is taking ownership for the successes and failures of his team. Sure, he has to trust his coordinators. But he doesn’t seem to be in touch with every play and decision, unlike someone like a Belichick who you can tell is completely tuned in to every play.
Hentor, I was thinking of a few plays later when they cut to the sideline and Troy went up to Lebeau with the most hangdog look and Lebeau gave him a hug and a pat on the shoulder. Some teams let the superstars get away with anything; it’s nice to see the respect the players have for their coach. Felt a bit voyeuristic to me though; I was glad they cut away.
ESPN is reporting that Troy Polamalu is out for the Jets game with a leg injury from his touchdown last week. It used to be that someone missing a game didn’t concern me so much until last year when Troy missed almost the entire season and I got to see first-hand how valuable he is to the defense.
Damn.
I still think Pittsburgh is going to win, but Troy has made one clutch play after another in the past few weeks when the Steelers needed one, and I don’t know who’s going to step up and take care of business this week.
That’s rough but the Jets are exactly the kind of offense they should be able to handle without Troy. Timmons can handle the Tight Ends. The Jets’ run blocking is excellent but even without Polamalu and Smith they can get by. Woodley and Timmons are at a different level vs. the run than the last time they were hobbled by injuries.
The other injury news of concern is that Heath Miller regressed on his last concussion test. He could have been key in this game both for his blocking and his ability to take advantage of the injuries in New York’s lineup; they are missing safeties as well.
If they can get pressure Sanchez will make poor reads and throw some lame ducks. I think that will be key in this game, especially against a team on a downslide who have something to prove.
Wow, double whammy! I expected them both to play. I saw a report that Miller was already cleared to play earlier this week. I was wondering why they kept Troy in the game last week after he hobbled off after the TD. He continued to move very gingerly the rest of the game, and of course, he still came up big. I agree that the D should be able to handle the Jet offense. Sanchez looks lost and sounded really bad in an interview this week. He’s typically very open to questions and gives detailed responses. This week, he was relatively terse and dismissive. He didn’t seem to like Ryan’s comments about possibly benching him last week. The Jets should be ripe for the picking, but these are exactly the kinds of games that threr Steelers make a bit too interesting.
It’s unbelievable that Ben isn’t even on the injury list this week:
I think Miller was cleared to play earlier this week, or at least passed that round of tests and was assumed to be on his way to playing. Matt Spaeth is OK in the spread sets but I’d rather see Johnson in there if we’re going to go after the Jets’ safeties in the run game. In the passing game you might as well leave him in to block and try to leak him out into the soft zones once in a while. The only way he’ll be open is if they have to double-team Wallace. Actually that could be the case if Revis’ hamstring is still gimpy. It would be beautiful to see the offense get in gear.
That’s a lot of injuries…yeesh. I really need them to win this one. Not just because the Birds are knocking but I live in Jets Country and I will have to hear about this game until the next time they play if the Steelers lose.
In a lot of ways this should be a good match up for them. A running team with a QB who can be pressured and makes bad reads = good for our D. Their secondary can negate our receivers and there isn’t a team in the league who can’t pressure our line. If Ben plays the way he has and they open enough holes to get a little something on the ground, that could be enough. A big play on special teams would be a BIG help.
The latest update on Heath Miller is that it will be a game time decision. He practiced Friday and if he feels OK after warm-ups on Sunday it will be his call.
You know, sometimes I think I shouldn’t say anything at all. Oh, well.
The thing that really infuriated me was the safety. Are you joking? Whoever called that play should be shot. But for that they could have tied it up with a field goal. How incredibly asinine that was.
Anyway, they’re still in 1st place through some tiebreaker (or so CBS lead me to believe) and they have Cleveland and Carolina to close it out so they ought to still get the 2nd seed. But man, I wanted them to have this win.
A safety. It still blows my mind how bad that call was. Damn.
That was a good game. The safety was a serious WTF moment, though. Both teams fought it out through the driving snow…just like an NFL game should be in December.
The Jets punted and downed it at the 2-yard line. Pittsburgh had all 3 timeouts and the 2-minute warning to drive the length of the field, as they have so many times before.
First play: handoff a little more than a yard deep in the end zone. They never made it out.
I understand the desire to run out of the end zone, but they played it like they could afford to lose yards, just a casual handoff instead of the runner taking it tight and hitting the line at full speed. And they paid for it. You’ll see it on the highlights, you can count on that.
ESPN is reporting that the NFL called the Steelers earlier today after the game and told them that via various arcane and incomprehensible tiebreaker rules that wouldn’t make any sense to any of us, the Steelers clinched a playoff berth.
Now all they need to do is beat Cleveland and Carolina and they get the 1st round bye without any help.
Also can the whole, “The Refs are in the Steelers’ pocket” meme please go away? Apparently when you play the Steelers, it is legal to grab and hold a player’s jersey to slow him down.
A few quick thoughts about the fifty minutes of the game that I did see:[ul]
[li]Matt Spaeth blocked quite well today and of course caught a touchdown pass that had a lot of mustard on it. Not a bad day at all for him.[/li][li]The backs also blocked very well today. They picked up the blitzes well and then did a good job slowing their guys down as well. Our line needs all the help they can get. Scott was the only one who appeared to struggle a bit.[/li][li]Troy who? OK, the secondary didn’t play that well but Clark played better on the strong side than he does at FS and Mundy was surprisingly good. I thought Will Allen would have been next on the depth chart. Very pleased with what I saw there even though we lose a lot of run support without Troy. [/li][li]As much as it sucks to lose, this is a short week and with the improvements we saw today and Polamalu, Miller, and Aaron Smith hopefully in good shape for the playoffs we could be in nice position for a late season run. I like the decision to hold these guys out for now.[/li][/ul]
