As always.

Totally agree re Smith and Sweed.

And it seems that Tomlin noticed the punting as well. He basically called it awful and indicated that Ernster is gone. Curiously our back-up punter is James Harrison, who has been reported to boot the ball over 70 yards in practice. Although that only happened once when someone pasted a picture of Brady Quinn on it. More often than not he grabs it in his teeth and starts biting it.

I think the defense was too excited at the beginning of the game, like everyone was expecting 12 sacks and 5 turnovers. After the somewhat embarrassing TD drive, they settled in. We didn’t have any huge plays; everyone just did their job and the result was 6 straight 3 and outs. I have to commend the Bengals OC, their rookie OL’s and Fitz for keeping at least a little pressure on our offense.

In general though, this was the mythical “Steelers football”. We ran stubbornly, and passed effectively without turning the ball over. We imposed our will over the course of the game, and for the 2nd straight game we held the ball for 35 minutes. We effectively had 3 straight scoring drives of over 50 yards in the middle of the game, and we wore down an improving Bengals defense to put the game away.

The only times I remember Ben even getting hit were when we took off with the ball. He also got rid of the ball better and didn’t take too many chances (although there were 2 close int’s).

The offense we’ve seen in our last 2 games is built around taking care of the football, keeping our defense fresh, and wearing down opponents. This is a blueprint for an offense that can successfully complement our defense. To put it another way, we might be developing an offensive identity we can win a Super Bowl with. It’s basically a slightly more pass oriented version of the traditional Steelers offenses, which makes sense because we have a better QB than those offenses did. Still, we’ll have to continue to perform when we play better defenses. It was nice to see the plan work against more of a man-to-man defense than we saw against the Colts or Chargers. The defenses get better every week until it culminates with the Ravens and Titans, so we’ll see pretty soon if our offense has the chance to put something together in the playoffs.

A few other observations:

- Gary Russel did everything he was asked to do last night. I thought his 4th down plunge was incredible, since there was no hole. He powered his way there. Last week he just ran up big holes in the gut. He even made a tackle on ST.

- Yay dong int for Pola!! Only a DPOY candidate could do that!!!!

- Aaron Smith, our best pass defender.

- FWP, Keisel, Holmes. Did anyone else get injured? The announcers never mentioned FWP’s injury, and I was thinking, boy, they’re really sharing the carries today… oh no… we never share carries… what’s wrong with FWP? Holmes probably had a concussion, and will be back in a week or two. No idea about the rest of those guys though. Fortunately, we have some capable backups, especially at DE. If FWP misses more time, I’d like to see Moore and Russel share the load. Russel has earned more PT by his ST’s and short yardage work. He really could be a battering ram type of back.

As always, poignant observations Blitz. Re your comments and some of my own. Sorry if I seem a little negative after a W but it was a sloppy game (in sloppy conditions);

1) Thought both units (O & D) came out very sluggish. D got it together quick. O took all night. While 45 above states we seem to be gaining an O identity and I greatly respect his opinion, I am not sure I see it. Against a team that is 1-8 and injured Arians script failed miserably through 3 quarters. Can’t give O line an A because they opened no holes until late after fatigue and injury struck Cincy. Steelers D is playoff caliber.

2) Kudos to Fitz and a banged up O line with no 85 to throw to. If the Bungals fire Marvin Lewis and LeBeau is ready to retire (gosh I hope not!) I would hire Lewis to coach the D.

3) Jeff Reed is money. Steelers were getting nothing out of their K game when they invited a bunch of post college kickers into Heinz to show their stuff. They found Skippy. It can happen! What is the FO waiting for? I have been banging on Ernster since training camp remembering this ex Brownies first (and last) game of 2007. He didn’t cost them the game last night but will down the road against better competition if the Steelers don’t make a move. You mean no one else can hold? Ward can’t? Putrid punting! Let the tryouts begin. My kingdom for a Craig Colquitt or Bobby Walden!

4) 7 was awesome in the wind. I wouldn’t say that if the Bengals had held the couple INT thrown right to them but they didn’t and I will. Moore is O MVP. Biggest FA pickup since Farrior in 04. Why isn’t Aaron Smith in the Pro Bowl every year?

5) He has time but Limas Sweed has shown me nothing. He seems very timid out there. He didn’t pick up the 1st down near the goal forcing the Steelers to go 4th and 1 (praise Russell!) screwed up the punt at the half and then got flagged for the out of bounds block. Dude better wake up and improve. As great as the 07 draft looks the 08 draft appears weak. Lots of time to change that opinion but right now looks like FO whiffed in 08.

They had a segment on some kind of “one wish” premise where they asked players from both teams what they would wish for if they got ‘one wish.’ As you could imagine most of them focused on this game or on health but something that jumped out at me was the difference between TJ Doucemanzadeh and Hines Ward answer. (I’m going from memory so this isn’t word for word but you’ll get the idea).

Ward – Just want to win this game, just want to be 8-3.
Doucheman – Just want to make it through the season healthy so I can get paid in March. (he’s a free agent after this season)

If anyone watching the telecast wanted to know the difference between the Steelers and Bengals, they learned it right there. We play for pride, desire and an unbelievable need to win. They play for money and personal comforts.

bad punting can hurt a defense more than anything. One can not keep asking a defense to make stops on short fields, it simply won’t happen all of the time. Surely there has to be a guy somewhere than can punt the ball more than 30 freaking yards. Bad special teams lose games, it was always my biggest problem with cowher’s teams. Norm johnson anyone? Josh Miller? One reason why he only got one ring.

Looks like I’m one post late, so I’ll echo elirock’s comment. . . Ernster has to go. Said it last week and i’ll say it again- There has to be someone out there that can do better than this guy. He’s gonna cost us a close game down the stretch.

Also, a very interesting comment was made during the NFL Network broadcast and I wanted to see what others thought (perhaps fanpost worthy). They said that in talking with Arians, he said that he had to remove about a quarter of the playbook with Heath Miller out. REALLY Is that odd to anyone else?

Ok. 8-3 with 10 days off.

This is the beginning of finding out what the Steelers can really do. We all know the tough games are ahead. Good thing they have 10 days off to look for a new punter, because the Steelers can’t keep giving teams great field position. I think that’s worse of a situation than the so-called “missing offensive identity”. They need to have teams go 80 yards or whatever against the best D in the NFL. That’ll wear out offenses!! By the same token, once the Steeler D stops a team at around the 25-35 yard line, they can be in such a better place for the O to go. All basic stuff of course, but even though the Steeler gets frustrating, I seem to get more annoyed at the Steelers alway starting at their 20 and other teams starting at the 40!

Please please please I hope they find a better punter!!! Maybe Berger’s legs have healed with two weeks off. By the time the next game starts it’ll be almost a month off. Can they bring him back, or is he IR for the season?

Presumably, Bryant will be back on the street as soon as Townsend and BMac are healthy (this week?). There won’t be room for him on the bench. Gay is looking good and will press a healthy Townsend for the nickel spot. Let’s face it, BMac is gone next year, and Gay will probably be starting at CB with Townsend in the nickel.

offense:
if i’m arians, or tomlin, or anyone on the steelers sideline, i say this to Ben:

find 86 and throw the ball to 86. if you can’t find 86, find 83 and throw the ball to 83. if you can’t find 86 or 83, then run.

hines and heath should each have 5-10 catches per game. i know they each dropped a ball last night, but they definitely have the best hands on the team, and they both run solid routes. Ben needs receivers he can depend on right now. nate is still pretty raw as a wr. santonio…it just doesn’t seem to me like his head’s in the game on every play (as collinsworth said “he has talent that only a few guys in the league possess, he just needs to grow up.”) and sweed’s a rookie.

just get the ball to hines and heath.

thank God for MM, and welcome to the team Gary Russell. Keep McHugh and dump Davis. Stapleton looks like he’s a gamer which means Simmons is expendable (but of course we’ll keep him).

And speaking of expendable: Arians, i officially fire you. go away.

defense:

aaron smith = heart and soul of defense. i don’t believe i’ve ever seen a de work as hard as he does. he fills gaps as well as anyone in the league. he NEVER takes a play off. he’s strong as hell. he’s smart (ie…3 batted balls at the line of scrimage). and he gets dirty. by no stretch of the imagination does aa smith have hall of fame numbers, but there’s no doubt that steelers fans will hold him in similar respect to guys like Greene, Greenwood, Stautner, etc…this defense would not be nearly as sound as it is without him. and, i doubt casey hampton would have ever made a pro bowl without aa smith.

william gay – sign him. 5 years.

troy polamalu – no comment

woodley/harrison/timmons – relatively quiet. why? because they HAVE to be gameplanned AROUND. they weren’t contained last night, they were avoided. and farrior/foote did a GREAT job doing the dirty work in the trenches.

farrior – more like Warrior

that’s all i got, it’s quittin time. here’s to 8-3.

“STEELERDOMINATION” you took the words right out of my mouh. I have been saying this all year, we need to incorporate more screen plays. Moore is so much of a threat when used in a screen play. Every time we use it we get about 15-25 yrds out of it. Its a good 3rd down play because Bens already expecting the blitz.

As for the Bengals game, I did expect it to be close to a shutout but nonetheless, a win is a win. I think the Steelers have a good chance to go to Superbowl 43 because if you look at the AFC, the only teams we have to worry about is the Colts and Titans in the playoffs. Personally, IMO the Titans are not as much of a threat, they get by in their games and they are playing teams with losing records. I think that the Colts with their continuous “audible-calling” offense will be more of a threat in the playoffs but if we stick to a zone defense and layoff the man-to-man on Peyton then we could come away with the victory.

I hope it will be a Steelers vs. Giants SB. 43

1) Because I got some last-minute tickets as a gift, I arrived late, just in time to witness the Bengals touchdown. Fortunately the defense clamped down (until garbage time, but then Troy’s pick put an end to that).
2) After Ernster’s fourth or fifth punt, with boos raining down on him from the fans, I saw him walk slowly to the sidelines. Tomlin had his back turned directly away. For a moment I stopped booing and felt really sorry for the guy — an entire stadium hating him, coach giving up on him — but c’mon, the dude has just not been getting the job done by any stretch of the imagination. We cannot afford this kind of play down the stretch.
3) The hit on Holmes caused the entire crowd to gasp. I couldn’t believe that Holmes was walking afterwards or that there wasn’t a flag on that play (actually, sadly, I can — while not the officiating wasn’t as one-sided as the Chargers game last Sunday, and I can’t totally avoid a “homer” frame of mind, it seemed to me the refs were again predisposed to calls against us).
4) The crowd loved loved loved seeing Heath back in the action.
5) Not sure about the comments on this board about swirling winds — I was in row W on the lowest level, and while it was cold all night the winds were never an issue. At several points during the game some snow fell lightly down and blew around — it was beautiful, like being in the middle of a snowglobe. But I don’t think the winds were ever heavy enough to affect the trajectory of a thrown football. However, I’d attribute some dropped passes (and dropped interceptions, thankfully) to the cold.
6) The game was closer than my friend and I had expected, but a win is a win. The ten days of rest will be good to heal up and look for a punter.