But I hope our offense doesnt score too easily throughout the season.

Haha, just kidding. Seriously.

You said it though: ‘controlled explosiveness’. If Moore is what I think he can be catching the ball, I think Ben might need to resist the temptation to go for a huge play, when he can keep the chains going, defense on the sidelines, etc with something more safe.

We’ll see. Conjecture baby! Love it. My juices are officially flowing again, even though its just preseason.

Btw, I’ve edited this post a few times. There’s more stuff and some changes, so re-read and look where its obvious I’ve changed if you’d care.

Good stuff all night BlueGrass. Like your views on the game. Plenty for me to learn from ya, so keep showing up.

So I just moved from New York to Philadelphia, and had the pleasure of watching the boys at the Fox and Hound a Steeler Fan dominated sports bar in the heart of Center City Philadelphia. I would say that the Steeler fans well outnumbered the Eagles fans but the latter were definitely present. It was amusing to watch the back and forth, even during the first pre-season game. The Steeler fans, myself included just just loved that first drive. (what’s not too love?). The Eagle fans seemed annoyed. The guy next to me yelled a giant f-u to Dawkins for blowing the coverage. The woman sitting at the table next to him, assumed that he was a Steeler fan and promptly told him to go f himself. This errupted into a nasty back and forth that had me shaking my head in amusement and disdain.

Needless to say we heard about it when McNabb managed a touchdown. The Eagles fans were confused when it was pointed out to them that they were facing our second string defense.

Anyway, all in all it was a lot of fun to watch the game, although, I would have preferred to watch it next to the computer so I could enjoy the fine scholarship of BTSC.

I have a couple of thoughts and questions:

Dixon did not look very poised or calm out there. Is it me or does he have a very funky delivery? It also seems that he did not have a ton of arm Strength. He seems to move really well, but it wasn’t exactly confidence inspiring to think of hims as our number 2 QB.

Qudos for Sweed for catching everything that was thrown his way, even though Dixon almost killed him on the 3 yard reception up the middle.

I thought Mundy looked really good, although, it was hard to tell how he did in coverage. He seemed to hit hard though.

Tony Hill looked lost. And slow.

Timmons looked like a beast. Is it me, or did he grow big time during the off season. I liked watching him run with the wr. It made me warm and happy.

This is probably a stretch, but I thought Kyle Clement played pretty well. He had a couple of plays were he seemed to get good penetration on his guy. Hard to tell, without seeing the tape.

I could not get a read on Prince or Paxson. McBean seemed to move well. Nick Eason had some nice penetration, seemed to get near the QB a couple of times.

O-line 1st and 2nd string seemed to do a very good job running the ball. Some breakdowns in pass protection, but that seemed to be mostly 3rd string (Tony Hill). The Batch play was a busted play not to mention that Batch wasn’t exactly thinking when he took off like a fullback…..

The Post Gazette reported that Brian Leftwich is being flown to Pittsburgh this morning for a physical.

Not sure how I feel about that.

I thought Dixon did a good job under alot of pressure. Almost every time he dropped back the pocket was collapsing. Given that he’s an extremely gifted athlete with (dare I say it) Kordell Stewart elusiveness, and only a rookie I wasn’t surprised to see him scrambling. The good thing was that his passes were on target (mostly) and he managed to throw out of bounds to avoid a sack (good decision making). I think he’s going to be a good player as he develops.

As for Leftwich…If he was still a player he would already be in somebody’s camp. I saw Brian St. Pierre playing for Arizona two days ago. With Matt Leinart and Kurt Warner already locked up at number 1 and 2, maybe they can work something out with AZ. Doubtful, but worh a try. He’s familiar with the team and would get a chance to be #2. Considering that he’s never been much more than a #3 its a step up.

Was also in a few plays running off at the mouth, nice to see since porter has been gone, i was at the game and caught a few glimpse of him talking smack, Prince also i watched a couple times and he was giving a good effort on few plays and then would not make any kind of penetration.

I’m in California and had to watch the game at a bar that was playing Philadelphia’s satellite feed. I had to suffer through their commentators fawning over their team every time they made a tackle (Mendenhall and Sweed tackles). Nonetheless, I was thoroughly enjoying watching my Steelers play.

My observation of Bloom was that he didn’t really have much of an opportunity to showcase himself. Almost every punt he received was either high and short or in the end zone. I’m not a fan of his and could care less if he makes the team but I don’t think he’s had a real chance yet. I’d like to see him return a kick off and then we’ll know what he’s capable of.

Missed the first half (I’ll catch the replay on NFL Network Sunday morning) but caught the second. I thought Dixon had potential. I think his arm was lacking on the long completion that was called back because of holding on a G to be cut. I don’t think we want to go into the season with Dix as #2 and am actually rooting for Leftwich to be in shape and signed as #2 QB until Batch returns. Leftwich might know something about the Jax offense that will help the Steelers beat them this year.
I was impressed with Bruce Davis. I saw him rattle Feely a couple times and he seemed to be playing with intensity. I also have always liked Anthony Madison. Aside from when 20 was in the game he looked like the best DB on the field in the second half. He is a keeper. Bloom didn’t impress but didn’t have a chance. Punter worries me in a HUGE way.

on the idea that he and Arians know each other. I thought he was with Minnesota, but he isn’t listed. He could be a decent stop gap.

The team looked good out there to kick off the ‘08 campaign.

Among the rookies and newer players on the team I thought Mendenhall looked like a stud out there, what an addition to the team he will be if he can produce big time while spelling Parker. The opposition will not want to tackle Mendehall late in games, or try to chase a fresh FWP. If the Steelers can wind out the clock to end games in ‘08 – look out.

Sweed made a couple great grabs, he is a player and looks to be completely healthy. Dixon may be a player too.

Timmons blew my mind defending that pass in the corner of the endzone, as did Mundy with his big hit. Woodley’s starting ‘08 where he left off last year rushing the quarterback with that spin move on his way to drawing a penalty. Fox looked good as well.

I thought Drummond made something happen with his punt return without making me hold my breath fearing a muff. Ernster did well imo including his double duty kickoff into the endzone.

Hopefully Mundy’s leg is okay, you hate to lose Batch for any period of time but love the way we went down – making a play, something out of nothing.

Those are the new players I noticed the most, they look to be huge contributors to our team. I am pumped about this year – schedule notwithstanding.

Here we go Steelers, Here we go

Based on what I’ve seen, it looks to me like pretty much the whole rookie class of 2008 has a chance to stick with the team this year. The least productive rookie was Tony Hills, but fortunately for him the Steelers are short handed at tackle. I’m betting he makes the practice squad because no other team will try to sign him to their active roster.

Bruce Davis, Mike Humpal and Ryan Mundy are all gamers and should contribute on either special teams or the practice squad (I’m betting special teams for all of them). Sweed and Mendenhall are bonafide future stars and will contribute immediately. I’ve got to hand it to GM Kevin Colbert, he didn’t draft strictly for need and went with the best available player. So far I’ve got to say the young talent pool is promising and the future is bright.

I’ll take that bet that Colon is a better tackle. The coaches won’t play him with the first team in the preseason. He’s a decent swing tackle, but not a starter. I want him to be good, but the reporters in camp have said on a couple occasions that Colon has looked better. The fishy business is that he was give that much money.

Agreed about Dawkins. He got owned. He either wasn’t trying very hard or has really dropped off. I might be worried if I was an iggles fan. Also agreed about Hampton. The d looked soft, but if he’s in decent shape, he should give them a boost. I don’t think anyone will argue about who is the better pass rusher, though.

Here are the things that stuck out to me from the game. Some of these will parallel what many of you have already said:

—The first thing I was most interested in was the OL. As I see many have already said, the OL was surprisingly good in this game. I watched Mahan pretty intently, and he seemed to be doing a real good job of holding the center of the pocket. Also, he and the guards (Kemo and Simmons?) worked well together on double teams. Also, later in the game, Hartwig also did a good job of holding the center of the pocket. I don’t remember a single time that either of them allowed the DTs to get a big push up the middle in the QB’s face.

—Second half OL – I have seen a few comments about the pocket collapsing on Dixon in the second half, but I distinctly remember two times that he seemed to be under pressure. Both of those times, I thought that the pocket was actually pretty good, but Dixon dropped way back and then ran around (sort of toward) the pressure. His athleticism allowed him to escape, but I thought he kind of moved into the pressure because he didn’t step up into the pocket. I may have missed something there, though.

—The next thing I wanted to see was our punt and KR coverage. I was hoping to see Humpal, Davis and Fox really show up in this, but I don’t think any of them had any STs tackles. Regardless the coverage seemed solid except for the KR where the returner muffed it, then picked it up and ran to his right for a good 35-40 yard return, IIRC. Other than that, I thought our STs looked good. I also thought Ernster looked pretty good. I must have missed the 30 yard shank in the 4th, but I remember Sepulveda doing that some last year, too, so I don’t know what to make of that.

—I loved seeing Timmons’ speed; he was actually cover a WR stride for stride on more than one occasion, IIRC. And, that tackle that he made where it looked like the player was in the open was great. I wanted to see a little more disruptiveness from him Woodley, but overall, both looked good. From the camp reports, I was hoping to see Woodley get to the QB at at least once or twice.

—Sweed looked great; he caught at least two really tough passes, the one where he had to jump for a 3 yard gain, and the other where he was falling down, but got his body turned around so his back was toward the ground and he caught it with his hands.

—The running game was really impressive for the first team offense. I really liked what I saw from Mendenhall. He made a few people people miss, broke a couple of tackles, and just looked good with the first team.

Overall, it’s hard not to be pleased with this game. Our first team offense scored a TD, our first team defense held their offense to a FG. After giving up the TD, our first team defense really stiffened. Especially, it seemed to me that the second team D did a better job of stopping the run up the middle than the first team D. And, Travis Williams redeemed his earlier mistake by making the game ending pass defence.

How’s it goin everyone?

Good observations Blitzburgh. I tend to agree with most of them.

One thing I noticed about Mendenhall. He needs to learn to lower the pads when a hit his coming before anything else or he won’t be playing very long. Had that been against a team like the Ravens during the regular season he would have had his head taken off by Ed Reed. yet I digress, he looked good otherwise. As a few of you have stated already more instinct, less analysis. It was his first game. Let’s cut him some slack.

Limas Sweed looked fearless to me. That’s great! But not need to go up top and fall on your face in the pre-season though… either way, that guy looks solid. As someone already said he had great positioning on some tough catches.

I think Leftwich will be fine as a backup. Remember… backup. He’s better than most backups in the league. Put it this way… we could be the Bears. And yeah he did beat us once or twice. Remember the wonderful display of Tommygun’s (HAHAHA!!! I just remembered that nickname… oh man…) wonderful display of ball handling prowess in the game against Jacksonville in 2005? I do. It was my birthday that weekend. Penn State lost to Michigan in the last second. I went to my first Pens game and they were beaten by Tampa Bay. The next day Maddox made it so that I am now banned by friends from watching sporting events on my Bday (last year the Steelers had a bye that week… thank god).

A side comment on the battle to snap to Ben: If Hartwig seems to be doing at least as good as (and if not better than) Mahan I believe he should get the job. For this reason alone…he’s bigger. In life, as in football, bigger is not always better. This time I say it is. Some of the most toughest/biggest games of the year come against teams with massive nose tackles/Dtackles men. Titans, Chargers, Patriots, Giants. I could be wrong on this, and even mentioning it really means nothing until we see him start Thursday. I’ll still go along with Blitz though, and say that give him a shot.

That’s about it for now.

ughhh… most toughest. sorry. My fingers apparently aren’t adept at proper English.