The D is simply awesome and who doesn’t love Nate Washington right now (I’ve been on his bandwagon for a while).

This is while watching a 141k justin tv link in which I had to rely on visual cues in order to determine the outcome of every play for the most part, but there were some gems!

• One of Campbell’s last sacks was that bone jarring one near the end of the game, I think it was Harrison on that, practically body slammed Campbell into the ground near a goal line (?), I could see Campbells helmet bounce 2 or 3 times when he hit.

• Some penalty by an offensive player on our side which resulted in Tomlin Fit of Rage™ moment, where even though a 141k connection I could see him mouthing the words “WHO!! WHO!? WHO?????”

• When one of the redskins receivers caught a pass for a sure-fire first down- except that the D pretty much brought him BACK, denying the first down.

• Hines Ward’s “almost” touchdown, when he was fighting to get in, but it took 2 or 3 redskin defenders to drop him right by the goal line.

When I saw Portis on the sidelines, sans helmet, I immediately thought of Carlton Banks:

What a Defense! Championship caliber! Kudos to the players and LeBeau.
Tomlin opened the game with a botched on side kick that really put the Steelers in a hole. Ben’s early INT put them deeper. The D simply would not be denied and kept the Steelers hanging around until they would right the ship.

The D was again led by a stifling front 7 that shut down league’s leading rusher Clinton Portis and picked off QB Campbell twice while sacking him 7 times. The pressure was relentless. Campbell looked like Ben against an NFC opponent! Woodley and Debo Harrison led the way but even Timmons, Farrior and A Smith joined the sack party. If you thought Potsie Farriors 11 tackles last week were impressive he had 13 this week! That and a tipped pass in the end zone on 4th down to keep the Redskins sans touchdown. Ty Carter filled in admirably for injured Ryan Clarke and ended the game with a pick. Polamalu was all over the field. Taylor was steady and Townsend has his best game oif the year with a INT and several key passes defended and much pressure provided on the blitz. Game ball for the D.

Offense was mostly inept for the first half. Ben was under constant pressure and regularly missed recievers as Arians bumbling game plan seemed to lack cohesion (again) and design. FWP was back. He lacked some explosion but still ran hard and gained 70 yards and a TD. Steelers should have run more early. Holmes looked rusty and the O line looked confused in the first half. Ben scored a late TD on a keeper to forge a 10-6 halftime lead but hurt his bad shoulder on the plunge and gave way to back up Byron Leftwich. Lefty sparked the offense to 2 long TD drives in the second half. Lefty looked cool calm and collected finding Nate for 50 on his first pass and Moore, Holmes (TD) and Ward on several key third downs. Game ball to Leftwich for pulling the Steelers fat out of the fire and delivering victory with his right arm. I think Ben is a better QB but Byron is healthy from inactivity behind the pourous Steelers line and looked healthy completing 7/10 for 129 and an almost perfect 145 QB rating. Mewelde Moore was again a key to victory after being ignored by Arians in the first half. His big 3rd down catch and run set up the Steelers last TD and helped ice another W for the Steelers.

Kudos to FA LB Andre Frazier who led a special teams squad which tackled well all night and blocked a punt. New long snapper J Retkovsky got roughed up repeatedly and may have blew a snap on a extra point that Reed missed but otherwise played valiantly for a guy selling tires up until Tuesday. It was good to have FWP back at RB so Moore could return kicks. He didn’t look any better than Dookie Davenport but the potential is there to break one.
Indy up next. Run the ball, possess the clock and keep Manning off the field. Play some D and knock Peyon around a little. Let Debo play the Joe Porter role. Hopefully Ben is healthy but if not Lefty looks ready to go. 6-2 looks good. 7-2 looks better! Go Steelers!

I just posted this in the other thread and it covers some of what you talks about. Here it is anyway:

This is seriously one of the best defenses I’ve ever seen, and what does it for us is balance. Somehow, this defense is both safe and aggressive. Honestly, I don’t know if we’re as brutal against the run as the Ravens have been at times, but to be that good against the run, while getting such great pressure, and being so sound in the secondary… it’s unreal. Against the run, we’re now 2nd in ypc, 3rd in total yards, and our long of 22 is best in the league. In the passing game, we’re first in sacks, YPA, YPG, and longest play (35 yards). We’re 5th in QB rating. Here’s some notes from the game:

- Portis, the NFL’s leading rusher, the guy who has been able to run on every team he’s played, was held to 51 yards, 22 of which came on 1 play. That run shouldn’t be discounted, but Portis is the steady engine of their offense and he was getting 2 yards a carry for most the of the day.

- Jason Campbell, this year’s David Garrard, threw 2 picks, was sacked 7 times by 6 different players, and averaged 4.8 ypa. At no point were the Redskins close to completing a long pass.

- The Redskins managed 6 points on two 3 and out drives that started inside our 40.

- 221 total yards is a pretty poor showing from an offense, but if you consider that the Redskins got OVER HALF THEIR YARDS on two 4th quarter drives when they were down by 17, it’s a lot worse.

- By ESPN’s count, the defense recorded 13 deflected passes. THIRTEEN. That’s ridiculous. Campbell didn’t choke DA style (poor throws) so much as we just hit every WR and took a swipe at every ball. THIRTEEN!!!!

Unreal.

I agree that Ben needs rest and recovery time, but make no mistake about it, he is and should be the starter for the Steelers. Leftwich had a good game and he is a solid quarterback but given opportunities with a very good Jacksonville football team, he didn’t get the job done. Over a long stretch of time Ben has proven he is special. Leftwich can fill the gaps better than any backup in the league but Ben is the present and the future of our football team.

On another note, I’ve gotta tell you I really loved the tackling in last night’s game. Both defenses did an excellent job of wrapping up the ball carrier and preventing the extra yards. Nowadays in the NFL there is a tendency to try to get the big hit, or in some instances (the bungles) they just don’t tackle worth a sh*t. Kudos to both teams for a great clinic on how to play defense.

Number of redskins 1st downs in 1st half – 3

Redskins first 3rd down conversion – 5:21 in the 3rd quarter.

A few games ago we weren’t showing a punt block very often.

Against the skins we not only showed a punt block but overloaded and went through with it. We really should try to block punts more often. Our punt return game is not very good to begin with, and our special teams guys are so damn athletic. I’d be very curious to see how our return team does with an aggressive approach when they get the punt off. A full speed attack with one guy back when they’re deep like that seems to me like it would really lock there guys up blocking. Our return team sucks at blocking, clearly, so maybe we should play to their strengths. We have a bunch of hungry defenders – use them as such and stop pretending they can block.

Rewatching the punt block: Beautifully designed. Here’s how it goes.

Anthony Smith (I think) crowds in from the outside to block the punt. The far left of the skins line sees him coming and has to pay attention. Exploiting this, frazier and timmons cross at the line of scrimmage. The man trying to get frazier is doubly confused by smith coming in from the outside and frazier burns him. The guy who is supposed to pick up either frazier or timmons gets confused by what looks like one of our favorite inside blitzes and is burned by both. One thing to note is that Timmons may very well have blocked the punt himself if frazier didn’t. They were both monsters barreling down on that one, but I’m glad we didn’t have to find out if his hand was going to be over the balls trajectory.

ron jaworski said it best last night at the end of the game: “it doesn’t matter who this team plays, or where they play them, this defense will keep them in the game. this is a championship defense.”

this is arguably the best steelers defense we’ve had in the last 10-15 years, maybe longer. we have two lbs on their way to the pro bowl. a safety going to the pro bowl. and then a handful on “no-name,” under the radar lineman, lbs, and dbs that may not have the impressive stats, but who i guarantee are game-planned for every week by opposing offenses (aaron smith, james farrior, ike taylor). we’re 6-2, and both loses sit squarely on the shoulders of our offensive line, o-coordinator, and qb. against the heralded nfc east, even though we’re 1-2, we’ve allowed just 42 points in 3 games (14 pts p/game)…that’s 2 tds, 8 fgs, and 2 safeties…all while the offenses has turned the ball over 7 times. that is definetly “steel curtain worthy.”

after last nights performance, it is more evident than ever….we need to figure out what’s wrong with the offense. if ben is not healthy, then leftie needs to start (by the way…game ball goes to leftwich…outstanding poise, leadership, and execution last night…in my eyes, he earned the colors last night) because this offense is not executing with ben right now, and they’re only winning because of the defense. this defense is the best in the league (even better than the titans) and IS good enough to shut down ANY offense in any stadium on any stage. so, offense, ben, arians….FIGURE IT OUT, because the defense sure has.

also, dick lebeau…please don’t retire, ever.

Unsurprisingly, the steelers now have the #1 ranked defense according to football outsiders AND according to yardage per game.

Admittedly I was hoping the steelers would do something crazy like hold the skins to under 150, which it looked like they could do, but still. Damn.

we can consider cutting Hines Ward. Im with u RomanEl…he’s just too valuable to cut and means more to the team than his numbers indicate. The guy epitomizes what the Steelers are all about! I can just see him now, running around decleating our defensive players and getting up smiling it about it…It would kill me to see that! LOL. He just has to retire a Steeler.