Pittsburgh Steelers (6-3) @ Kansas City Chiefs (2-7) - Getting To Know Pittsburgh's Week 11 Opponent
by Blitzburgh on Nov 20, 2009 7:55 AM EST
40 comments
It's been a few weeks since we had a little Q&A with the SBN blog of the Pittsburgh Steelers upcoming opponent. Let's get back to it with a few questions from me for Arrowhead Pride, an immensely fast paced and popular blog. Considering just how sorry the Chiefs have been the past two years, it's remarkable just how vibrant and heavily populated a site Chris Thorman and his brother Joel (who I exchanged these questions with) have built. My questions to Joel's answers should be up on AP at some point soon. - Blitz -
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BTSC: Matt Cassell hasn't quite played like a quarterback worthy of the big free agent contract he got this offseason. Tell us a bit about how he's played and what Chiefs fans think his potential is as the rest of the roster on offense improves moving forward.
Arrowhead Pride: Cassel's hasn't played the best season in '09 but I think to a degree that was expected. There was no way he was going to match the numbers he put up in New England so I think that was an unrealistic expectation. The fact that he hasn't imploded in a situation with so many things going against him is impressive. He's not putting up the numbers yet but when the rest of the offense catches up to him he should play well.
BTSC: The Chiefs are 1-0 without Larry Johnson. Granted it was a win over the Raiders, but sometime the old adage 'addition by subtraction' is oh so true. Are the Chiefs better off without LJ from a 'chemistry' standpoint. Perhaps more importantly, might the Chiefs be better offensively without LJ? I wrote recently that I thought the Redskins would be better without Clinton Portis - the reasoning being that their offense is designed aournd him to be a workhorse; and he's just not capable of shouldering that load anymore. My initial hunch is that the Chiefs might be the same way. Thoughts?
40 comments | 1 recs |
Week 11 NFL Picks
by Blitzburgh on Nov 20, 2009 12:42 AM EST
8 comments
We've got some more Pittsburgh Steelers/Kansas City Chiefs content coming before their Sunday matchup at Arrowhead Field, but on to my weekly picks. Been doing so well I figured I'd continue on.
Pittsburgh Steelers (6-3) @ Kansas City Chiefs
- This would be a signature win for the new Todd Haley regime, but I don't see it happening. In fact, I like the Steelers to come out angry and play a ferocious and clean game on both sides of the ball. Here's to hoping special teams holds up their end of the bargain. I like Pittsburgh to win big.
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A Reason For Every Super Bowl Championship Why Steelers Fans Should Relax
by Blitzburgh on Nov 19, 2009 12:47 AM EST
69 comments
This isn't really a state of the union type post, just several reasons why I feel pretty darn good about the Pittsburgh Steelers and their chances at at least returning to the AFC Championship game this year. Do I believe this year's team is as good as last year's? I think they can be. They're just not there yet. And of course, a rash of injuries in the next 6 weeks could derail the team's chances of even making the playoffs, let alone making a return trip to the Super Bowl. Assuming though that the Steelers don't lose multiple players of Harrison, Ward, Big Ben or Polamalu's caliber, I like their chances just fine of playing playoff football games in January. Here's six reasons, one for every Lombardi Trophy resting in the organization's trophy case.
1) The defense is rounding in to form and should continue to do so. The Steelers shot themselves in the foot at the end of last Sunday's loss against the Bengals - James Harrison's penalty immediately comes to mind; the inability to bring down Bernard Scott on first contact hurt too. We're not used to seeing the Steelers have opposing teams close out games against them with the running game. Cincinnati didn't exactly do that like we did to Denver the previous Monday, but they certainly increased their chances of holding on to the slim lead by gobbling up some clock and forcing the Steelers to score a TD to win rather than just get a FG to tie.
Anyway, the defense still played very, very well for much of the game. Now if the special teams wouldn't stop handing away points, and if the offense would just get back to executing in the red zone like they were to start the year.
Here's the defense's number through 10 games (league rankings in parenthesis)
Points per game (team total): 17.4 (6th)
Points per game (defense only): 12.7 (1st)
Yards per game: 277.4 (2nd)
Rushing Yards/G: 69.3 (1st)
Passing Yards/G: 208.1 (12th)
3rd Down %: 41 % (24th)
Sacks: 25 (t-4th)
Interceptions: 8 (t-16th)
Forced Fumbles: 8 (t-18th)
Fumbles Recovered: 5 (t-20th)
69 comments | 5 recs |
Don't Come Around Here No More, Phil Simms
by Blitzburgh on Nov 18, 2009 5:37 PM EST
26 comments
I know I'm not alone on this one, but it dawned on me that the Pittsburgh Steelers never seem to play well when CBS sends its top commentating team of Jim Nantz and Phil Simms to call Pittsburgh's games. So just for kicks, I went about checking the NFL TV Distribution Maps from the past three years to see just how well or poorly the Steelers have fared with Simms on the call during the Mike Tomlin era. It's not pretty (playoffs not included).
Week 3, 2009: Pittsburgh at Cincinnati - Loss
Week 11, 2009: Cincinnati at Pittsburgh - Loss
Week 10, 2008: Indianapolis at Pittsburgh - Loss
Week 11, 2008: San Diego at Pittsburgh - Win
Week 15, 2008: Pittsburgh at Baltimore - Win
Week 16, 2008: Pittsburgh at Tennessee - Loss
Week 10, 2007: Cleveland at Pittsburgh - Win
Week 1, 2007: Pittsburgh at New York Jets - Loss
Week 14, 2007: Pittsburgh at New England - Loss
Week 17, 2007: Pittsburgh at Baltimore - Loss
3-7! No good. Heck, they've only lost 13 games in the past three season.
Go away Mr. Simms! And Jim, stick to the Masters and March Madness and we'll have no issues. Capiche? Cool.
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BTSC Comcast Weekly Redzone Update - Week 10 Edition
by Blitzburgh on Nov 18, 2009 3:56 PM EST
4 comments
On to our weekly red zone update post. Many thanks to Comcast for sponsoring BTSC and the other SBN football blogs this season. Their Red Zone Channel continues to received rave reviews so if you find yourself frustrated watching out of market games and are missing more football than you should each week, check out the channel and consider at least catching each and every play league wide inside the 20 yard line.
On to the numbers.
Week 10 Red Zone Efficiency
4 trips, 4 FGs
2009 Cumulative Red Zone Efficiency:
31 Trips; 15 TDs; 13 FGs; 1 missed FG, 2 turnoves - 48.3 % TD efficiency (-7.3%) 90.3 % scoring efficiency (+1.4%)
The Steelers performance in the red zone was devastating on Sunday. Even one successful trip inside the Bengals 20 and Pittsburgh likely wins and captures first place atop the AFC North. Their struggles continued though and now Bruce Arians must go back to the drawing board and rethink his play-calling strategy in the area of the field where the windows are smaller to throw the ball. Ben's touchdown throw to Hines Ward against the Broncos was a thing of beauty, but even it required perfect execution to avoid being deflected by a Broncos defender. Not sure what the answer is but the Steelers better get it figured out sooner rather than later. Despite the issues though punching it in to the endzone, Steelers fans can at least feel good about Jeff Reed's kicking this past month and a half after his struggles earlier in the year.
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BTSC Mid-Week News and Notes
by Blitzburgh on Nov 18, 2009 3:16 PM EST
12 comments
Happy Wednesday all. Sorry for my absence - been dealing with the same frustrating computer problems. Not good. I'm up and running though so let's get to some news and notes about the Pittsburgh Steelers as we loom closer to Sunday's important game with the lowly Kansas City Chiefs.
* First things first - the first action by Coach Tomlin to try to fix the team's special teams. Longtime reserve linebacker and special teams mainstay Arnold Harrison was released on Monday. Taking his place will be 2008 undrafted rookie linebacker Donovan Woods, who was brought up from the practice squad. Our own datruth4life was on this one following the Steelers defeat on Sunday. He mentioned that Woods willingness to go head hunting on special teams will hopefully rub off on Patrick Bailey - an undrafted free agent from last year as well that's not been nearly as good in year two as he was last season.
* The Kansas City Chiefs got a break out performance of sorts on Sunday from their second year speed merchant running back, Jamal Charles. The former Texas Longhorns star and collegiate sprint champion rushed for 100+ yards and 1 TD in KC's 16-10 victory over the Raiders. I thought that the Redskins would be better off without Clinton Portis for the time being; I think the same could be said of the Chiefs, who I think are now more explosive offensively with Charles than they were with Larry Johnson. Here's an article about Charles and how he will be a marked man by the Steelers defense on Sunday (scroll down to where it says BullsEye).
* Here's one more reason Jamal Charles will need to have a big game if the Chiefs hope to win at home against the defending champs: their top WR Dwayne Bowe has been suspended by the NFL for four games for testing positive for a performance enhancing substance. Arrowhead Pride, SBN's outstanding Chiefs blog, has the story.
* Safety Troy Polamlau is officially listed as questionable for Suday's game. Hmmm. I suppose that's great news - for a moment there I was convinced he was going to be out for quite some time, potentially even the whole year. I guess not. Whew. Polamalu has a mild PCL strain. The good news is that this is not related to the MCL injury he suffered earlier in the year. Thought he's listed as 'questionable', I sure hope he doesn't play this weekend and instead rests up for the following weekend when Pittsburgh travels to Baltimore. Frankly I don't think there's much of a chance he will play.
* I sure hope there aren't too many parallels between this season and the 2006 campaign, but remember the last time we played the Chiefs? We were in a much bigger hole than we are now, that's for sure. But the Steelers could stand to have a performance like the one they turned in that day three years ago.
* Football Outsiders has the Steelers ranked 31st in aggregate special teams play through 10 weeks. The worst of the four components? Obviously kick return coverage, where the Steelers rank dead last by quite a bit.
* Dale Lolley notes that Mike Tomlin has said that Travis Kirschke and Carey Davis will both practice today. Both have missed the past two games with injuries.
* And finally, Jim Wexell notes that the defense played pretty darn well in defeat on Sunday. In fact, as his article states to begin:
The last time the Steelers lost to a team that had fewer than 14 first downs, 218 total yards and didn’t score an offensive touchdown was in Oakland during the 2006 season
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BTSC Steelers Daily Six Pack- It's Not Over Yet Edition
by drinkyourmilkshake on Nov 17, 2009 5:57 PM EST
48 comments
IX-Troy Polamalu could miss as much as three weeks after tweaking his knee early during Sunday's game. The following article touches on a few other subject besides Troy's injury including some excellent criticism of Carson Palmer's statements after the game. The article also sheds a light on how frustrated the Steelers defensive players are with the consistently poor play of the Special Teams unit. Has anyone else noticed that the further along in Mike Tomlin's tenure the Steelers get the more consistent the verbiage and message from the players has become? It seems clear to me that the players are starting to sound alike and are takeing on the attitude of their coach more and more.
X-You think losing to the Bengals and Bears is rough for a Steeler fan? That's nothing compared to what Zack Heddinger, a Steeler fan, went through after the Steelers loss to the Bears on September 20th. Heddinger was rushed to the hospital after he was poisoned by a Bears fan that his friends had gotten into an argument with earlier at a bar. Heddinger claims the Bears fan offered him a drink as a peace offering and the drink had been poisoned with either anti-freeze or a toxic grain alcohol. The victim has lost his vision and is living with Brain damage now, but hopes to return back to work eventually. Note to Steelers fans; do not argue with Bears fans at a bar.
XIII-Ed Bouchette ended his chat today with the statement below that left me laughing, especially given that the questions in Bouchette's chat were very similar to the gripes heard around BTSC and other Steelers blogs I've seen:
Thanks, all. I think you came out flat today, though. Either that or it was fatigue or the fact I gave you all the previous week off. Please, between now and next Tuesday, practice your questions.
48 comments | 0 recs |
Arnold Harrison Released; Donovan Woods Promoted From Practice Squad
Back-Up Linebacker Arnold Harrison was released today and Donovan Woods was promoted from the practice squad. This is the first move in Coach Tomlin's efforts to try and improve the Steelers' lackluster special teams play.
3 days ago
Jett
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