Kevin Colbert, the Pittsburgh Steelers GM, catches up on some much needed rest during the NFL free agency period.
Meanwhile, Daniel Snyder, Redskins owner, is calling a press conference at 3pm to announce his latest $30 million signing:
Congrats to Adam for his MMAmania gig! His UFC info is interesting and original enough to be published anywhere, and I'm glad he's linking to it here.
But...on to Steeler Football. With only 6 picks in this draft, the Steelers will have to be creative in dealing with major depth issues. Special Teams stinks because their young players stink, and their DL suffered greatly when Aaron Smith went down. And we all know their Oline is a mess, in part due to the signing of Sean Mahan to play center, when indeed he could do no such thing.
The proverbial "Steeler Way" is just not working anymore, especially with "developing" defensive linemen...hey, why don't we get one that can play right away?
On the offensive line, Faneca is gone and the Steelers transition tagged Max Starks, a curious decision because a Transition Tag can be "poison pilled" with a contract clause that makes it unacceptable for the Tagging team to match the offer. (For example, a few years ago the Vikings inserted a clause that Steve Hutchison from the Seattle Seahawks would get a certain amount of guaranteed money if he wasn't the highest paid offensive lineman on the team. Well, he was the highest paid Minnesota player, but Seattle had T Walter Jones, who was being paid more than Hutchison. So Seattle couldn't match the offer.
Another curiousity is that a franchise tag is only $500,000 more, and can't be poison pilled.
Will Starks be poison pilled? Well, he won't sign before free agency, that's for sure, so there's a chance. Last year he was jerked around by the coaching staff, who insisted on starting short-armed Willie Colon at tackle, when he could be better used at guard. Hopefully the front office will sign Starks and Colon will move to guard to replace Faneca.
And here's hoping they sign a FA lineman who's better than craptastic Sean Mahan.
The Tomlin era is still establishing itself, but the Steelers are built to win now, with a franchise QB, so it will be interesting to see how 2008 plays out.
Oh wait, maybe that's me saying it. With the allegations that the Patriots videotaped the Rams Saturday pre-game walkthrough before the Super Bowl back in Ought Two, many feel that gave the Patriots the advantage they needed to win this close game. If they did videotape it, I recommend banning Belichick for life. He got his already. However, let's also remember that the Coach on the other side of the field cared more about proving a point than actually winning:
The Super Bowl loss at the end of the 2001 season seems to be the turning point for Martz's offensive insanity. Remember, that game was "The Greatest Show on Turf" against a young, 6th round QB and a team that was supposed to lose by two scores. Belichick's Patriots dared Martz to run - they lined up in the nickel defense all game and said, "bring it." Martz, of course, never ran the ball and the rest is history. Thereafter, seemingly proving my case, Martz said that he should have passed the ball MORE during the game. If insanity is doing the same thing over and over all the while expecting a different result then this game produced the emergence of Mad Mike Martz.
While I do think that the all of the aging Patriots' linebackers are on HGH and I wish they'd get busted for it, just because I hate the Patriots, you really have to wonder if there's anything wrong with Human Growth Hormone, besides making your head really big, like Barry Bonds or David Boston.
Come to think of it, you don't hear the horror stories about steroids that much either anymore, like a Shane Courson or Lyle Alzado whose heart collapses, or the story in this book about the guy who got so hyped on 'roids he ran out into the middle of an intersection and tried to stop a car.
Meanwhile, there ARE horror stories with football that don't involve performance enhancing drugs, like this one:
Invited in by his wife Autumn, she finds the man she came to see sprawled on a couch, unable to stand. Although the house is cool, he is sweating profusely and can't find a position, seated or prone, that doesn't cause him grotesque pain. Every so often his huge body jerks in spasms of head-to-toe agony. The fits, when they come, turn him as white as the walls and send unself-conscious tears down his cheeks. It's DeMarco at 35: dirt-poor, broken, and in a headfirst spiral, taking his wife and children down with him.
The visitor, Jennifer Smith, takes a look around and can scarcely believe her eyes. "There was no food in the house, and I mean none -- not a box of mac and cheese or a can of tuna," she says. "Brian and Autumn hadn't eaten in a couple of days and between them had 75 cents. Total."
And the public has been deeply conditioned to think of these drugs in sinister terms, at least when it comes to sports: Any athlete using them is a cheater. Meanwhile, short-statured kids are prescribed HGH injections, AIDS patients get testosterone to combat their wasting away, and baby boomers take related compounds to stay young. A simplistic, good-and-evil judgment of these substances won't continue to hold.
The NFL already lets some players use them (and no, we're not referring to the gaps in its testing program you could drive a stretch Hummer through). Behind closed doors, the league's drug adviser, John Lombardo, has granted waivers to players who have failed drug tests but then explained their medical need for testosterone. NFL spokesman Greg Aiello won't disclose names or reveal how many players have been allowed to pump synthetic hormones into their bodies except to say it's "a very small number."
In each case, he says, testicular disease was the medical rationale. It's a little-used exemption to the league's drug policy, but it's a precedent-setting one: Any player who can show that replacing hormones is critical to his continued health should be allowed to take them.
But in the late 1990s, UCLA neurosurgeon Daniel Kelly noticed that many of his head-injury patients suffered from symptoms associated with pituitary failure: depression, fatigue, anxiety, poor concentration. His findings, which he published in 2000, have led to at least eight studies on three continents, which together involved more than 600 subjects. Each study confirmed the link between traumatic brain injury (TBI) and a loss of hormonal function. The most common deficiencies in men were those of growth hormone, which occurred in 15% to 20% of cases, and of testosterone, in 10% to 15%.
But researchers in Turkey, in a 2004 study, found growth hormone deficiency to be "very common" among boxers. The sample was small, just 11 top male amateurs, but the results were striking because the number of boxers who may have had deficiencies -- 45.4% -- was so much higher than that of the general population, which is usually less than 5%. More recently, those same researchers published findings from a larger sample, this time 22 kickboxers; 23% showed growth hormone deficits.
You may have noticed that football players get knocked around too.
One argument against my post below (and yes, I know I am arguing with myself) would be that the Steelers have dedicated roughly the same percentage of picks toward the linebacker position as they did over an 8 year period of the 1990s (1992 on--13/82 vs 9/62 -- or 15.8% vs 14%). Plus, if you look at the Chargers and Cowboys, both of whom have the best 3-4 LBs in the business right now, they only picked 10/11 and 9 LBs in the 00's also. However, some of their LBs were "can't miss" prospects, like Merriman and DeMarcus Ware. The Steelers only took an LB in the first round in 07, and Timmons did not contribute right away (unlike Jon Beason of Carolina, who some argued the Steelers should have taken.)
However, my argument is based not on percentages but raw numbers. Based on the
1980s and 1990s draft numbers, it looks like you need roughly 17 picks per decade at the LB position to develop quality 'backers. While 9/62 is a similar ratio, it's not enough critical mass.
Another argument can be made that you shouldn't devote that many picks to one position, especially when there are needs at every position. Also, the Steelers had fewer draft picks, which is partly their own fault for trading some away. This is true, but again, the Steelers have wasted alot of draft picks on 2nd day, and even some on the first (Ricardo Colclough, Alonzo Jackson, I would argue Kendall Simmons, perhaps Anthony Smith, etc.) As a result, the Steelers have paper-thin depth, which was exposed not just on special teams, but also on the defensive line when Aaron Smith went down.
It looks like the real problem is that the whole Steeler draft process in the 00s has broken down, and the lack of drafting quality linebackers is a symptom of the problem.
You have heard me complain time and again about the lack of a Steelers pass rush, which, in my opinion has been exposed time and again since 2002, when the Raiders and Pats blitzed the Steelers with the spread passing game. The Pats threw 25 times in a row at one point during a 30-14 win (really 30-7, the Steelers scored a meaningless TD late in the game). The Pats did the same thing in 2007, except they threw it 33 times in a row. To me, though the worst loss was to Cincy in 2003, I think, when Jon Kitna drove the Bengals to a game-winning TD with less than a minute left. KITNA!!!!!!!!!!
In the Steelers 3-4 defense, the linebackers are supposed to make plays and sacks, while the DL are "two-gappers" charged with occupying blockers. Therefore, you can pretty much make a direct correlation between "poor linebackers" and "poor pass rush" in the Steelers scheme.
The Steelers built the LB core of their Blitzburgh D of the 90s almost completely through the draft:
Greg Lloyd: 6th round, 1987
Levon Kirkland: 2nd round, 1992
Chad Brown: 3rd round, 1993
Jason Gildon: 3rd round, 1994
Earl Holmes: 3rd round, 1996
Mike Vrabel: 3rd round, 1997
Joey Porter: 3rd round, 1999
Only Kevin Greene was a free agent acquisition. Also notice that none of these picks came in the 1st round, and most were in the 3rd.
Everyone knows the draft is a crapshoot, but the Steelers did pretty damn good from 1987 through 2001, picking up Clark Haggans and Kendrell Bell in 2000 and 2001, respectively. Then it went downhill. Maybe we did good in 2007 with Timmons and Woodley, but the jury is still out.
You can't be right all the time. But the draft IS a numbers game. The decline in the effectiveness of the Steelers pass rush (post 2001) roughly correlates to the Steelers' change of emphasis towards drafting for the Linebacker position. Thanks to NFL.com, you can track teams' yearly picks, all the way through their team history.
From 1980 - 1989, the majority of which the Steelers ran the 4-3 (they were the last team to switch to 3-4), the Steelers drafted 17 linebackers. Granted, these were 12 round drafts, so you had the opportunity to pick more players.
However, during the 1990s, which was 12 rounds from 1990 - 1992, 8 rounds in 1993, and 7 rounds from 1994 on, the Steelers drafted, yep, 17 linebackers. This number could be higher, because some players drafted were college DEs.
So how many linebackers have the Steelers drafted from 2000 on? Including college DEs intended for the LB position, through 7 drafts the Steelers picked 7 linebackers. Throw in Year 8 (2007) and you get 9 with Timmons and Woodley. For the Steelers to match their 80s and 90s totals, in 2008 and 2009 they would have to draft 8 LBs out of 14 rounds. Not going to happen, esp. with the need to rebuild the O-line.
I don't count Rookie Free Agent pickups, either; while it is possible to find gems, you are picking through a pretty big pile, mostly of guys not good enough to be drafted.
I guess you get what you pick for.
If you fast forwarded between UFC fights last night, you missed out on some real treats! More below.
What do you get if you combine the OC, Karate Kid, Rocky, and Fight Club?
Never Back Down. This movie is described thusly on IMDB:
At his new high school, a rebellious teen (Faris) is lured into an underground fight club, where he finds a mentor in a mixed martial arts veteran (Hounsou).The trailer I saw last night includes an Ed Norton lookalike, a training montage involving a black man and a white man running with an oceanic backdrop, and lots of exotic kicking. How much you want to bet the white man wins the race in the end, while learning invaluable lessons along the way?
Those of us watching the UFC last night were also treated to a "sneak peek" of the new Rambo, which involved Rambo urging his male and female companions to run, setting up a claymore mine and then running like hell. The bad guys (looking very North Vietnamese but actually Burmese) uncover the claymore at the last second before it explodes, destroying half the jungle (apparently one of those nucular claymores.)Lost in all the hoopla around Profootballtalk.com, and I like them, though I like them less of late, is the solid football reporting on Profootballweekly.com. They have a weekly section called "Audibles", with the disclaimer that: The following quotes are from NFL scouts, coaches and front-office personnel, speaking on condition of anonymity.
These quotes are always entertaining, if not wildly offbase.
Where I'm in the Amen Corner: (From Jan. 10)
“Every year there is an undrafted rookie defensive tackle who winds up starting. You can find those guys after the draft. … Tony (Dungy) gets the best out of those guys.”
“(Offensive coordinator) Bruce Arians is not a good fit for the Steelers. He likes to go four- or five-wide and pitch it around. That’s not Steelers football. The offensive line has gone downhill since Russ Grimm left. It’s lost its identity. I see the ship continuing to sink until they make some corrections.”Oh, yeah, that's why he had one of the slowest QBs in the NFL run a sweep on 3rd and 6. Because he likes to dink, and dunk.
“You win on defense with talent. You win on offense with coaching. If you have (good) players on defense and you can’t win — you’ve got a big problem.”
Let me be the first to say that in my extremely amateurish opinion Tony Romo did enough for the Cowboys to win on Sunday. After a 20 play drive that should have sapped the life out of the Giants, the Dallas D allows New York to drive for a tying touchdown with less than a minute left in the half. Then Patrick Crayton drops a ton of balls, and gives up on a deep fade on the last drive that ended up barely out of his reach, and the Dallas vaunted O-Line performed like a leaky sieve. Some knowledgeable football guys have vouched that Pro Bowl tackle Flozell Adams was ineffective because he was too gassed at the end of the game.
By the fourth quarter, the Giants' rush had whipped the massive Cowboy offensive linemen and unhinged Tony Romo, and Dallas was finished. It was like a 15-round bout in which the better conditioned fighter is left standing. Left tackle Flozell Adams, for instance, a highly effective pass blocker, but not what you'd call a finely tuned athlete, was in a state of near collapse toward the end. Andre Gurode, the center, was going through some weird problem with snapping the ball. And so forth.
I say the Steelers are one dominant pass rusher and a solid center away from being a championship team. You look at a team, and there are so many holes, but not all of them get exposed every game, or even exposed in critical ways. They are solid at QB/RB/TE/LB/DB, but need real help at OG/C/DL. The secondary rarely gets any help, and the Steelers have placed such a premium (or gotten awfully lucky) with centers that they have almost as few centers (Mansfield, Webster, Dawson, Hartings) as coaches in the Noll/Cowher span.
But then you have to factor in coaching, and the Steelers seemed determined to mess that up. After their amazing 1st drive down the field against Jax, you never saw them come out like that again, even though it worked. And Tomlin calling himself "a gambler who plays to win" doesn't make sense in the context of a) the 2 point conversion from the 12 and b) the turtle play on 3rd and 6 with the game on the line. Unless by "a gambler" he means someone who bets too much on long odds and too little on short odds. Which makes him a loser.
At the beginning of games, it's the players and how well they execute. At the ends of games, it's the coaches putting their players in a position to win. You can play the supposed percentages all you want, punt the ball and put it in the hands of the defense and make them drive the length of the field, or half of it, or only 30 yards because of a shitty punt--or you could go with the player with the hot hand and let them win it for you. Don't put them in a bad position, then blame them for not executing. Too much of that happens in the Steel City.
Read this despicable article blaming everyone but Peyton Manning for the Colts loss. Do you really think he needs another NFL journalist to wash his balls?
FACT: Peyton Manning killed a drive by overthrowing Reggie Wayne inside the 20.
FACT: On the last drive, Peyton went deep 2 plays in a row (which he also did in a playoff loss to the Steelers in 2005) when he had been eating up the Chargers on mid-range higher percentage passes.
Peyton surely wasn't the sole reason the Colts lost, but he must shoulder his share of the blame.
This article might make more sense if it was about Tony Romo. Patrick Crayton really let him down, esp. at the end when he gave up on a deep pass.
In 2004, the Steelers went 15-1 in the regular season and lost in the playoffs.
In 2005 the Steelers were 7-5 and went on a 7 game winning streak to take the Super Bowl.
In 2005 the Colts started out 13-0 and lost in the playoffs to the Steelers.
In 2006 they beat their longtime nemesis the Pats and won the Super Bowl.
Since 2004, teams that peaked in the regular season fizzed out in the playoffs, but the following year they peaked in the playoffs. Is that the case this year?
In 2006 the San Diego Chargers went 14-2 and lost to the Pats on a stupid play. They fired their coach, Marty Schottenheimer--known for choking in the playoffs and picked Norv Turner, known for choking, period. They started out 1-3 and finished strong, and guess what, they just knocked off the Colts.
But for my theory to become true, the NFL's worst head coach (Turner) must defeat the NFL's best coach (Billicheat). I think the Chargers are a bigger, stronger, and faster version of Jacksonville, who held their own against the Pats. Their offense just couldn't keep pace. Provided Rivers and Tomlinson are back, the Chargers have a chance...But will Norv fuck it up?
Let's say my theory holds true this year...well, that means the Pats will win next year. Here's hoping my theory dies a quick death post February 3, 2008.
Great article on the problems Mike Holmgren has had with his Tight Ends, a key element in the "West Coast" passing philosophy. (See this link for the real history of the West Coast Offense, which is the Sid Gilman/Don Coryell/Zampese/Turner/Martz vertical passing offense, not the "dink and dunk" that Bill Walsh came up with as a coach for the Bengals.)
Holmgren had Mark Chmura, in Green Bay, and Jerramy Stevens and Marcus Pollard in Seattle. Chmura was reliable and athtletic, apparently, though he had character problems too. Jerramy Stevens was big and fast but a notorious pass dropper, esp. in the Super Bowl against the Steelers, while Pollard "pulled a Northcutt" yesterday and fumbled a pass that led to a Green Bay TD, dropped a pass in the end zone, and later dropped another just for good measure.
I, Dennis Northcutt, am a wide receiver for the Jacksonville Jaguars. I used to play wide receiver for the Cleveland Browns. And to this day I just don't understand why it's so important to catch the ball.
Catching the ball is hard, I know this. Believe me, I've tried. It's hard on the QB, too. People look at me, and say, why did you drop that ball? And I look back at them and say, how many perfect pass patterns have I run, wherein I was wide open, that went unacknowledged? The pass didn't even go my way!! And no one goes back to David Garrard, or, say Tim Couch, and asks them, why didn't you see Dennis out there? That fly pattern was a thing of beauty! And they might say, in reply, well, we ran the ball that play, but my retort is one and the same: Change the play!
But the real change needs to be made at the NFL level. What if wide receivers no longer had to catch passes? What if the quarterback just had to hit the wide reciver? That would make things much easier, on the both of us. And defenses, too! Because if they hit the ball, then it's their's! What a beautiful game that would be, with me running free like a gazelle, concentrating on my movement, with no concern in the world to turn back into the lights and try to bring my useless claws to around that fragile pigskin. And think of the pigs too! Maybe we could play without a ball!
For I am the T-Rex of football.
Editor's Note: Dennis Northcutt is widely hailed by Steelers fans for the easy TD pass he dropped in the Steelers/Browns playoff game in 2002, a game the Steelers did not deserve to win because for some reason the secondary, led by SS Lethon "Lee" Flowers, could not but look up for the ball without falling flat on their asses. Northcutt reprised his pass dropping performance as a Jaguar last night against NE, dropping 2 passes, one of which would have enabled the Jags to score a TD instead of settling for a field goal.
Russian players, like other Europeans, were often regarded as "soft" when they started playing in the NHL because they weren't down with the NHL's long and storied tradition of dropping the gloves when a) the team needed a "spark" b) the game was boring c) the game was out of hand d) the goalie looked at me cross-eyed and b) during regulation time. But as we can see below, the Russians think fighting is pretty cool after all!
I didn't listen with sound, which I imagine is in Russian, but it looks like some footage replayed at different angles. I like the part where they are all standing around and then someone's like, "Hey guys, we never fight on other side of rink! Let's check out!" Plus, it's always good to see the fight instigators deliver the most vicious beatings.
(Hat Tip: Deadspin)
Cross-posted on Barrelhouse
But do prepare for a deluge of MMA and Pittsburgh Steeler turtling posts.
Hook these two up.
Luckily, they are both on the north side of 50. For those of you not in the know, Chris Evert was most known for losing to Martina Navritilova, and Greg Norman had some memorable choke jobs. For more on choke artists, see this ESPN article.
This is a GREAT article...money quote:
Part of the problem is 3-4 teams have more competition for players who exclusively fit the scheme. A quarter of the league’s teams are expected to run the 3-4 this season, including the Browns under second-year Coach Romeo Crennel — who helped make the 3-4 so popular with his success as defensive coordinator in New England.The way the Steelers do the 3-4, they draft a guy at DE or OLB and groom him for years—Aaron Smith, Brett Kiesel, Joey Porter, Clark Haggans, James Harrison. Do the Steelers have the people to replace these guys? At DL, definitely not. At LB, probably not, but you never know.
More teams are using it now than it any point since the mid-’80s. Just three years ago, only four teams used the 3-4.
“There was a time there when you could look at certain guys (who fit the 3-4) and say nobody else in the league is going to have this guy rated very high because he’s not a 4-3 end and he’s not a 4-3 ’backer,” Patriots Coach Bill Belichick says. “That’s not the case now.”
The other issue is unless a 3-4 team is scouting a player at Virginia or Texas A&M, it can’t see that player use the techniques required in a 3-4 defense. As NFL teams have warmed to the 3-4, colleges have cooled to it. That means almost every outside linebacker a 3-4 NFL team looks at is a projection
The fabled Steelers D got ripped to shreds last night by the Pats, in a scenario that was first documented by the, yep, New England Patriots way back in 2002. 25 passes in a row by Tom Brady let to a 30-14 win, where the last Steeler TD was in garbage time. Last night Tom Brady threw 33 times in a row -- the result, 34-13, Pats. Since Pittsburgh got exposed by the Pats 5 years ago, little has changed. The Steelers still don't have a dominant pass rush, and thus must take risks to get to the quarterback.
Meanwhile, Tony Dungy runs the Tampa 2, a base defense with a somewhat basic scheme that relies on pressure from the Front 4, allowing 7 players to routinely play coverage. Mike Tomlin, Steeler coach, is a Tampa 2 guy, but in deference to old lion Dick LeBeau (and probably owner Rooney's wishes), the Steelers have stuck with their 3-4 concept this year. In Dungy's defense, players dictate schemes, while in the Steelers defense, schems dicate the players. Here's my argument for why that should change in 2008.
Steelers 2008 Draft Needs: 3-4
3-4 DL depth: currently the Steelers have a quality front 3, Smith Hampton Kiesel. They have one quality backup: Hoke. The steelers need to find 2 3-4 DEs in the draft or FA next year.
3-4 LB depth: Farrior is getting old, Foote is average. Timmons is not a 3-4 OLB, and will probably have to move inside. Woodley has shown flashes, but didn't paly much and is now injured. Haggans is average, J. Harrison is quality, and A. Harrison and A. Frazier are solid backups. Clint Kreiwaldt is only good for STs. At the very least, the Steelers need a pass rushing OLB who can also play well in coverage, which is kind of a funny requirement given how poor the existing Steeler LBs are in coverage.
Secondary: Because of the rules that favor the offense, pass rush becomes more important than coverage. Plus, there are maybe 3 shutdown corners in the league: Charles Woodson, GB; Champ Bailey, Denver; and the Oakland guy with the crazy name. Asante Samuel of NE could be considered too. The Steelers have big, physical corners who are often ineffective in soft zone coverage, as they are asked to play often in the 3-4. The Steelers shouldn't looke for a gamebreaker, but rather look for depth here.
2008 Steelers Draft Needs: 4-3
4-3 DL depth: Kiesel would stay at end, Smith would move inside with Hampton, and Woodley would put his hand down to be a full-time pass rusher. The steelers would need to draft a 4-3 DE and a 4-3 DT, with Hoke as the one quality backup. NOTE: I assume that a 4-3 is easier on the DL, because there are more of them, and they typically have one gap to play rather than 2. Plus, both Hampton and Kiesel can drop weight, which will make them quicker and more effective.
4-3 LB depth: 43 backers are SAM--or strongside linebacker, who is big, physical, and must jam the TE. the MIKE, or middle backer, should be quick and able to flow to the ball (in the Tampa 2 43 he must also be able to cover the deep zone down the field). The WILL, or weakside backer, is set up to be the star--he can roam in space and make plays. In the Steelers 43 system, Haggans plays the SAM, Farrior moves to back him up (he can also back up as MIKE), as he played OLB early in his career. If you want to run the Tampa 2 43, Timmons plays the Mike because of his speed and pass coverage skills. James Harrison must get on the field, but he doesn’t have the range to play a 4-3 Tampa MLB. He may have the skills to play WILL, but I can see a situation where Harrison plays inside and Timmons weakside OLB.
Final Analysis:
In the 43, the Steelers need 2 defensive linemen commonly available in the draft to "plug and play." They also would need a SAM backer and maybe a WILL, but as depth.
In the 34, the Steelers need 2 DEs who must be selected and then forced to add weight and then groomed for the position in 2 years. They also need to find a rarity: the OLB who can rush the passer effectively and play in coverage. They haven't had that player since Joey Porter in 2002.
So, in 2008, you can look for 2 DLs and one LB who can possibly play right away, or two DEs and one OLB that you need to groom for 2 years first. Given the way the game changes from year to year, I don't think the Steelers can afford to go this route again.
In a word, yes, or maybe. Actually I don't think so. This game has the makings of the Steelers Colts in 05 where the Steelers got blitzed 26-7. But remember, they came back in the playoffs and beat the Colts on their way to the Super Bowl.
Also, I read on one of the major sports sites that since the 38-7 cremation of the Ravens, where Big Ben had 5 TD passes, he has thrown 5 TDs and 5 INTs in the following 3 games. Not good.
Watching the Steelers week to week, I know these things: If they have a shutdown corner in Ike Taylor, I haven't seen it yet, but maybe it's more scheme than ability. If they have a pass rush that can get to the QB without blitzing, I haven't seen it yet. If they have an offensive line that can impose it's will on a defense, I haven't seen it yet.
Maybe they are holding back, playing possum, not revealing too much lest it show up on tape for Belichick to analyze. But obviously I haven't seen that yet.
Another thing that I haven't seen, that I wish I have, is Rookie LBs Timmons and Woodley playing bigger roles. Woodley seemed to show an ability to get to the quarterback off the edge, which the Steelers need like the Dolphins need a win. Timmons is fast, fast enough to be split wide on the punt team, and apparently has flashed enough coverage skills in practice that he may prove valuable in covering the New England TEs and RBs. But that's in practice.
But there's one thing I HAVE seen from the Steelers is inconsistency. Mental lapses, seemingly deficient gameplans and attention to detail, bumbling plays, and a knack for playing down to their opposition. Will they be able to get up for the New England megalith? I hope so. But if not, maybe if they meet again in the playoffs, things will be different. I would like to see that.
