The spark in the running game is making the difference. In years past, even when they gained big yards in the opening weeks it’s been more due to the defenses not being ready than with the run game being in gear. It’s always week 3 or 4 before they start to look like a cohesive unit. I think we’re seeing them all get on the same page right now.
Congrats to the Bengals fans. They never gave up and worked hard for the win.
:mad:
Can someone tell me why Sweed’s catch wasn’t considered a touchdown? Was it because he dropped it then? Even though he DEFINITELY did catch it? Or was that considered a fumble?
Can we close this thread now?
That was pathetic. To completely dominate like that for 3 quarters and then give it away like that at the end. Ugh. Why we were playing the secondary back during the final two drives was beyond me. Add to that a reffing crew that called everything touchy against the Steelers, while letting the Bengals hold James Harrison on every other play (Including taking him down by the throat when he had a straight line to Palmer), and it was just a bad game all around. I still can’t believe we gave it away like that at the end.
You have to maintain possession of the ball even after hitting the ground. They modified the rule for this season.
Well, bad performance, but can anyone doubt we were due for a game like this. The gameplan for several years now has been to aim for 20-25 points on offense and rely on the defense to bail everyone out. Teams have been gearing their teams up primarily to beat the Steelers and they are starting to have success. Second week in a row we have seen poor play from the receivers, which should be the strength of this offense behind Ben, cost us a game. Sweed dropped a touchdown, Holmes blew his assignment and it turned into an int and TD for their defense.
Also the second game we’ve seen with no pressure from the defense. That has to be planned. We’ll just have to trust Lebeau to see what’s coming there. I think they’re still preparing some other guys to step into the depth chart at safety but they don’t have the schemes down yet and that’s why Ty Carter is still there and the secondary is playing a soft zone to protect him.
There was a big bright spot today. Wallace looks like he’s a keeper. I see him as the 3rd guy now ahead of Sweed. He’s even playing better than Holmes right now. He doesn’t just run fast, he protects the ball well too.
Steelers can beat these guys next time they play but this type of play execution is nowhere near good enough to beat the Ravens at this point. They’re the heavyweights in the division until PGH proves otherwise.
Agree with everything you said, HongKongFooey…it was the little mental errors that killed the Steelers today. There’s no doubt in my mind the Steelers were the better football team today, but, like last week, you make that many mistakes, and it’s going to kill you. Hopefully we can shut down those mistakes here soon, otherwise this could be a much poorer season than it should be.
A funny thing happened on the way to the Superbowl. Steelers are tied with the Lions now.
They play each other in two weeks. We’ll have a pretty good idea by then how everyone’s fortunes have changed.
The Bengals stole one here. No doubt, but it’s time the ball bounced the other way for once.
I don’t think they stole it. Sweed gave it away in the endzone, Holmes gave it away by missing his read. He also dropped a pass; that wouldn’t matter so much if he hadn’t been making so many stupid mistakes lately. The Bengals persevered after some lacklustre opening drives and won the game by not making bigger mistakes of their own. Joseph didn’t just pick off that Holmes mistake he capitalized by taking it to the house. Steelers fans are going to spend the next week shitting on the ‘soft’ defense but we’ve seen this before. The team has built a strong, explosive defensive style - you can’t play that style for long stretches of time, that’s why it goes so well with a ground-and-pound, ball control offense. Guys like Polamalu, Timmons, Harrison, Woodley - they’re all strong, explosive players. It’s not realistic to try and build a defence around guys like that that plays soft zones. The Ravens are similar in defensive ability but tend to play softer in the middle of the field and increasingly ratchet up the pressure as you get closer to their end. Their current offense matches our defense better and our offense would pair better with their current style of defense. Oh well, you can’t have everything - the team started fairly slow in two of the last three super bowl years. Still no reason to panic.
How many stupid mistakes has Holmes been making lately? He was practically the whole Steeler offense the last two weeks.
Last week he caught five but dropped three. This week he dropped one and caused the int by missing his assignment. Maybe he’s a bit overconfident from last year’s success. Guys don’t forget how to catch footballs all of a sudden so I think he’ll be fine but he was the goat last week and the pick six hurt them a lot this week.
How do you know Roethlisberger didn’t make the wrong read?
It isn’t the first time Holmes has missed a read. The fans in the stands who were posting on the Steelers message boards posted about his reaction and that of the coaches as well. The coaches’ reaction is notable because Tomlin’s preference is to not make a big deal about mistakes during the game but to let guys atone for things themselves and address issues after the game. It sounded like Santonio got an earful after that one. I wasn’t there to see it myself of course so you have to take that stuff with a grain of salt. If it was a missed assignment Dale Lolley will have the inside scoop in his blog to set the record straight.
BTW, I don’t want to seem like I’m really down on Santonio Holmes. He’s bailed this team out of a lot of jams and Ben Roethlisberger out of many bad throws. I just don’t think he’s playing quite as sharp as he can right now. Limas Sweed on the other hand deserves to be out of the line-up following that last drop. He’s great at getting open behind the defense but drops way too many passes and it sucks the life out of the team. He needs to go. Shaun McDonald caught everything thrown at him in camp and deserves a shot as the fourth guy out there.
The team is plagued by poor execution right now. It looked like James Farrior missed a read on the big fourth-and-ten completion late in the game. As Steelers fans we’ve become spoiled because we’re so used to Farrior making that read and shutting it down.
I still maintain that there are 20 or 25 teams in the league that would love to trade places with the Steelers right now, 1-2 or not, and it’s not time to panic. The corners, Ike Taylor and William Gay, played outstanding in that game, the o-line is looking better, guys like Heath Miller and Hines Ward are playing their usual game. They were outplayed these last two games and need to buckle down. It happens. They aren’t going to go 16-0 every year. What I want to see now is big performances from the guys who are supposed to deliver big performances. The talent’s there, the coaching is there, the execution is lacking right now.
What, after 3 weeks? those two losses were defeats snatched from the jaws of victory. They could just as easily be 3-0.
I can’t say I’m happy about it, but I’m not down on them yet, and you shouldn’t be either because they’ll be there come playoff time.
Or 0-3. If you get to write off a stellar come-from-behind win against the Bengals, then I think you should be able to admit that the pendulum could have swung the other way against the Titans, too.
Either way, they’re 1-2, and you don’t get to dismiss that by saying “But they were ALMOST 3-0.” And yes, while it is only three weeks into the season, how do you see them matching up against the Ravens?
1-2 is not almost 3-0. it is 1-2, the same as the Lions. Week 5 ,the Lions will take them down to 1-4. It will not be almost 4-1.