Last Weeks Result

• Denver 31, Pittsburgh 28
• Record: 4-2
• Standings: Sole possession of 1st in AFC North

Last Weeks Game Recap

While there is still a lot of football left to be played, this game had the feeling of a separation game for the Steelers. A win against the Broncos would have put the Steelers in firm control of the AFC North as well as added their name to the AFC contender list. With the loss, it places the Steelers right back in the middle of the pack in the AFC. I don’t want to take anything away from the Denver Broncos and their win. The Broncos have not been playing up to expectations, but they are still a talented team with an outstanding coach. I never did get comfortable with the fact that the Broncos were not a very good team.

That being said, Pittsburgh showed that they are decidedly not a championship team at this point. Right now the Steelers are a playground bully that can beat up on the weak sisters of the NFL, but can not win on the road against a quality opponent. In addition, the defense has yet to show me that they can step up and make a stop when it is really needed. These are two indicators that tell me that Pittsburgh is not prepared to by a contender at this point. We have not yet reached the midpoint of the season and hopefully the Steelers can work on these short comings and still make a play-off run. This is the true test of the coaching staff and it will be interesting to see how Tomlin responds. > more <

Last Weeks Result

• Bye Week
• Record: 4-1
• Standings: Sole possession of 1st in AFC North

Game Preview: Denver Broncos

When I looked at the schedule this year, I had placed the game at Denver as a catagory 4, or in other words as one of the tougher match-ups for the Steelers this year. Coming into this game at 2-3, the Broncos don’t look near as daunting as what I imagined. While their losses have been to good teams (Jacksonville, Indianapolis and San Diego), their wins have been come against mediocre teams and they have been extremely close.

While this may not be the level of match up that I originally predicted at the first of the season, I don’t think that the Steelers should underestimate the Broncos, especially at Mile High Stadium. I think that the Broncos are backed into a corner right now and I expect them to be well prepared for this game coming off of a bye. Mike Shanahan has always come off a bye-week well and after being demolished at home by the Chargers, this is going to be a Broncos team desperate to rid themselves of the bitter taste of that defeat. In addition, for whatever reason, the Steelers seem to struggle with the Broncos. The Broncos lead the series 12-6-1 and recently have won 4 of the last 5 games. > more <

Game Result
Week #5 (October 7, 2007)
Atlanta 13
Tennessee 20

Game Analysis
This is the first time I have every seen a team give the visiting team every opportunity to win the game and the Falcons still couldn’t get the “W”. It was almost like the Titans felt sorry for the Falcons and continued to give them turnovers to help them win, but the Falcons could not score in the red zone. Atlanta even blocked a punt, drove down to the Titans goal line and turned it over to lose the game. Joey once again had very little time to throw the ball. Even when he did, he had those indecisive happy feet and could not get the ball out of his hands. I am tired of watching these 2 yard dump off passes to the running backs and tight ends. I would like to see them start attacking down field a few more times during the game. But it is hard to run those long routes when you are scrambling for your life. The Falcons still cannot get the running game going and it isn’t going to get any easier now that Wayne Gandy is gone for the season. Now with two rookies on the offensive line, it is going to be a tough season for the Falcons backfield. On the brighter side, maybe it will be good to get the rookies some playing time together for the future. I totally disagree with the decision to replace Harrington with Leftwich at that time in the game. I could see if Atlanta was being blown out and they were trying to get Byron some snaps in a live game, but the Falcons still had a good chance to win this game. Byron looked good on his first pass of the game, but after that he was throwing souvenirs to the fans. He missed the rookie Laurent Robinson wide open in the end zone for a touchdown that would have tied the game. I am really impressed with Laurent and wished they would get him more involved in the passing game. Petrino says Joey will be the starter next Sunday versus the Giants. I think Petrino also needs to punt the ball more. Both field goal kickers are struggling from beyond the 45 yard line and when they miss, they are giving the opposing team good field position.
> more <

Last Weeks Result

• Pittsburgh 21, Seattle 0
• Record: 4-1
• Standings: Sole possession of 1st in AFC North

Last Weeks Game Recap

While I expected a win against Seattle, I was not expecting a shut out against one of the better offenses in the NFL. The Steeler defense exposed some fundamental weaknesses in the Seattle offense. The Seahawks don’t seem to have much of an interior running game and Alexander was really a non-factor in this game. The wrist may have been bothering him, but to be honest Shaun has not been the same back for several years. In addition, the Steelers went with no blitzing and a cover 2 scheme that completely confused Matt Hasselbeck. From the Seahawks perspective, I am sure that they will look into adjustments to prevent them from being shut out again. However, what this shows me from the Steelers side is that they were able to successfully break down film on an opponent and come up with a game plan to put their players in a position to win. > more <

Game Result
Week #4 (September 30, 2007)
Atlanta 26
Houston 16

Game Analysis
The Falcons proved on Sunday that they don’t need Vick or Schaub to win football games. Atlanta got Petrino’s first NFL win and their first win of the season at the Georgia Dome. Joey is showing all the Harrington Haters that all you need to do is complete passes and take care of the ball. In the past two weeks, Harrington has passed for almost 600 yards, 5 touchdown passes and no interceptions. The offense line continues to improve giving Harrington time to complete passes. The running game started to get going a little during this game, but the Falcons have yet to have a 100 yard rusher and are averaging under 90 yards a game. Atlanta is still struggling scoring touchdowns and settling for field goals. But when you have Morten Andersen, it is almost an automatic 3 points. With that being said, I was very disappointed with the play calling after the fumble recovery deep in the Texans territory. It seemed like Petrino really wanted to get his first win and was very conservative with his play calling. He called three straight running plays for a total of negative 5 yards. > more <

Last Weeks Result

• Arizona 21, Pittsburgh 14
• Record: 3-1
• Standings: Sole possession of 1st in AFC North

Last Weeks Game Recap

In writing about a loss, there are two tendencies I want to avoid. First of all, there is a tendency to justify or make excuses for the loss. Just to set the record straight, the Arizona Cardinals flat out beat the Pittsburgh Steelers. Arizona had injury woes, turn overs and other situations that they were able to overcome. On the other hand, the Pittsburgh Steelers were not able to do the same. The second tendency is to give a straight game report card of F for all phases of the game. In my way of thinking, both of these things disrespect the Arizona Cardinals and they deserve credit for this win.

Several things stand out about the Steelers offense in this game that are disturbing. Pittsburgh seemed to continually be in 3rd and longs. And by long, I mean 20+ yards. It is not surprising that the Steelers were only 5 of 15 on 3rd downs. Some of these 3rd and longs were created by the outstanding play of the Arizona defense, in both sacking Ben and getting penetration into the backfield on running plays. However, the miscues in handing the ball off and the continual penalties was inexcusable. I thought that Ben actually played a pretty good game. His ability to stay alive in the pocket continues to impress me. He is also putting some air under his long throws that he used to struggle with in the past. His first touchdown throw to Holmes was perfect and he just barely overthrew Nate Washington on another long ball seemingly. (In looking at the replay it looks like Nate slowed up slightly.) > more <

Last Weeks Result

• Pittsburgh 37, San Francisco 16
• Record: 3-0
• Standings: Sole possession of 1st in AFC North

Last Weeks Game Recap

Sorry about the delay in getting anything up this week. I was lucky enough to attend the match up between the 49ers and Steelers this week and it has been hard to get a review written up. I love visiting the Steel city and taking in a Steelers game live is something every Steelers fan should try to do.

And now for the game. This was another game that was probably closer than the final score showed. In fact, this game marked the first time this season that the Steelers have trailed this season. San Francisco drove the opening kickoff deep into Steeler territory before stalling and settling for a field goal. The ensuing kick off was returned by a touchdown by Allan Rossum and the rout was on… Well, not quite. The first half of this game was as competitive as any the Steelers have been in. It really wasn’t until the interception returned for a touchdown in the fourth quarter that this game seemed out of reach for the 49ers. > more <

Game Result
Week #3 (September 23, 2007)
Carolina 27
Atlanta 20

Game Analysis
Even though the Falcons lost this game, I was very impressed with the effort on both sides of the ball. The offensive line only gave up 1 sack and the wide receivers made some big plays. It goes to show that no matter who is under center, if you give an NFL quarterback enough time to throw the ball, they can complete passes and move the ball down the field. Joey had 361 yards with 2 touchdown passes and most important, no interceptions. He distributed the ball very well passing to eight different receivers and six of them having multiple catches and Harrington had a 70% completion percentage. Joey Harrington proved that even with all the criticism surrounding him the past week and with the Falcons bringing in Leftwich that he is and deserves to be the starter for this team and he should thank his offensive line for that. The offensive line really stepped up their pass protection in this game. Julius Peppers who usually is a Falcon sack master, did not get one sack and only had one pass block. The down side of the offense this game was the fumble by Warrick Dunn and the missed field goal attempt do to a bad snap and hold. With that being said, it was nice to see the football go through the yellow posts. Morten Anderson was perfect today on field goal attempts and extra points. The Falcons still had costly penatilies on kick returns and still need to finish off drives with touchdowns instead of field goals. Norwood had a couple of impressive kickoff returns. I only wish he could do punt returns also. Is it too late to get Rossum back? > more <

Last Weeks Result

• Pittsburgh 26, Buffalo 3
• Record: 2-0
• Standings: Sole possession of 1st in AFC North

Last Weeks Game Recap

While this game was really not as close as the final score (believe it or not), the first half had me a little anxious. The Steelers were able to drive the field 4 times in the first half and only come away with field goals each time. They had scoring drives in the first half of 58 yards, 73 yards, 56 yard and 57 yards, yet were only up by 12 points at half time. Then the Steelers allowed a long kick off return to start the second half to put the Bills in scoring range, as they started their first drive at the 32 of the Steelers. After giving up a few running plays, the defense finally held and the Bills settled for a short field goal from the 5 yard line. Suddenly the score was 12-3 and after dominating on both sides of the ball, the Bills found themselves clawing their way back into the ball game. > more <

Game Result
Jacksonville 13
Atlanta 7

Game Analysis
If the NFL only played 3 periods like the NHL, and neither team could kick field goals for points, the Falcons win this game. Once again, the story for this week is the passing game and kicking field goals. The Falcons offensive line is really struggling against teams pass rushing and blitzing. Defenses are stopping the run and the Falcons are finding themselves in a lot of third and longs and teams are just having a field day blitzing and adding to their sack totals. The Falcons gave up 7 sacks this week and gave up 6 sacks last week. Harrington has no time to throw the ball once they get into passing situations. Even when Joey has time to throw, he holds onto the ball too long. I don’t know if it is that the receivers are not getting separation from the defender or if Joey is having a hard time seeing the field. Either way you look at it, the results are the same — another sack. > more <