BTSC Monday Morning Notes
by Michael Bean on Aug 31, 2009 5:22 AM EDT
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Happy Monday Steeler Nation and all the rest checking in on this last day of August. I just returned from four days in Denver at a dual bachelor party for two old friends. Was tempted to plug in but ultimately was happy to have shunned the internet and my cellphone for the weekend. A few thoughts on this and that to start off the week - the final week of the 2009 NFL preseason. September 10th is rapidly approaching, no longer some far off date in the future that seems impossibly far off.
* Let's start off with a few thoughts from the Pittsburgh Steelers 17-0 shutout over the Buffalo Bills Saturday night at Heinz Field. How about Ben Roethlisberger's return to action?!? Good stuff. Not that too many - if any at all - were worried about Big Ben heading in to this season. Nevertheless, it's always excellent to watch Big Ben when he's in rhythm and has the offense humming. Roethlisberger finished 15/19 for 168 yards in one half of action before Mike Tomlin decided he'd had enough work for the night. Steelers fans are simply blessed to have one of the best in the business under center. And to think we've likely not even seen the best of him yet...
* Steelers quarterbacks threw the ball 31 times on Saturday - Roethlisberger 19; Batch 9; Reily 3. They were collectively sacked just once. That's good stuff from the Steelers offense live in the passing game.
* Now, in the running game, the line's play was a bit less deserving of adulation. The Steelers play calling became overwhelmingly vanilla after they scored 17 2nd quarter points and continued to stifle Buffalo's fledgling offense. And there were a few holes opened up at various points in the game. For the most part though, the line was only so-so in the running game. Rashard Mendenhall finished with 48 yards on 16 carries, but 13 of those came on a single run, meaning he had just 33 on his other 15 carries. Isaac Redman wasn't much better, finishing with just 31 yards on 13 carries.
* I did, however, like what I saw from Mendenhall. Besides his fumble deep inside Buffalo territory of course. If you recall, fumbling was a mounting issue for him last preseason. Let's hope we're not seeing something similar materialize with him right now. I doubt we are, and if not, I think we should feel pretty good about what he's going to add to this offense, with or without a healthy Willie Parker complimenting him in the backfield.
* Tip of the cap to the front office for bucking its trend of not re-signing aging players like James Farrior. The veteran linebacker got what's his financially. The team, meanwhile, continues to reap the benefits of having him on the roster. On Saturday, Farrior returned a Trent Edwards interception 22 yards for a touchdown. I imagine he'll come up with similarly momentum-changing plays when the regular season starts next week. He's a special player in so many ways.
* If this defense can stay healthy at several positions in particular, look out. I'm still a bit nervous about William Gay and the pass defense, particularly if the pass rush is somehow slowed down a bit, but that's a conversation for another day. But that preoccupation isn't a huge one for me. For the most part, it's hard for me to see any way that this defense isn't one of the league's top two or three defenses in all significant statistical categories. On Saturday, Buffalo was held to 55 yards in the 1st half. They turned it over once and picked up just two first downs against the Steelers first-string defense.
* Stefan Logan continues to make it impossible for the organization to not strongly consider keeping him on the 53-man roster. Logan returned 5 punts on Saturday night for an average of 15.8 yards per return. The leading punt returner last year, Roscoe Parrish, averaged 15.3 yards per return. We'll see. The moment of truth for Logan and his future with the Steelers is coming quite soon. Congratulations to him for making the most of his opportunity and putting himself in this situation at all.
* There's a few key bodies that need to heal up a bit before the regular season starts two Thursdays from now at Heinz Field against the Tennessee Titans, but for the most part, the Steelers have avoided major injuries during training camp and in the first three preseason games of 2009. Fans can breathe a sigh of relief now knowing that the top-line guys on both sides of the ball won't play much, if any, in the team's final preseason game. It's customary for teams to not play their starters much in the fourth and final preseason game. They instead are content not risking an unnecessary injury. Let's get Santonio Holmes and Willie Parker feeling better and get this party started. So far, so good.
* More from me later, but I wanted to at least get a few thoughts out there after stepping away for a fun (and overly expensive) long weekend. I hope to have plenty more time in the coming weeks as we inch ever closer to what we all have been waiting for not long after the Steelers won an unprecedented sixth Lombardi Trophy last February - the return of NFL (regular season) football.
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good to hear from you, blitz
and i agree with most of your thoughts. those of you who remember me from last season may remember that i’m a bit of a worrier when it comes to the black and gold, so i really agreed with your sentiments about the pass defense. i’m concerned that it’s weaker than we realize. i think we are often able to counter-balance the weakness by a very strong pass rush (or even just the threat of a strong pass rush, which gives QBs happy feet), and this is a real benefit to our corners. don’t get me wrong, i love our safety play, but i’m concerned about our corners and the times when our linebackers are dropping back into coverage.
look, don’t crucify me here, just remember that i need something to worry about!
...die trying
http://www.agentorangerecords.blogspot.com
This discussion was happening a lot towards the end of last season when we were talking to fans of teams we don’t normally play. The perception amongst almost everyone is that the corners play better because of the pass rush. What is often lost in this conversation is that there were a lot of coverage sacks last year. Woodley and Harrison got to the QB at times lightning quick, but a lot of their sacks came after the ball should have been released. They made the most of it because of their motors, but without QBs having to progress through all of their reads and still finding nothing, their numbers would have been a lot less gaudy last year.
This year is not last year though. McFadden is out and we have a new starting CB. Sure he split time last year towards the end, but he was not the starter. Furthermore, by slotting him into the rotation we open up a weakness at our #4/#5 CBs. The top 3 CBs have looked great so far, I’m worried about what happens when we get spread out.
Along those same lines, I see a lot of dinking and dunking happening this year. Our CBs like to play with a cushion and teams are scared to death of the pass rush. We’re going to see a lot of short passes this year, bank on it.
Willie Colon - top 2 RT in the NFL
I am personally
More worried about depth at Safety as opposed to corner play. Carter had a very solid year last year, but he has never been a star. Both Troy and Clark have spent a significant amount of time on the bench in the past three years. The idea of Ryan Mundy or Carter starting multiple games worries me. I would like to see Ratliff or Townsend get some plays in the final pre-season game at Safety just to get them comfy.
by SteelerBuddha on Aug 31, 2009 12:55 PM EDT up reply actions
Not so sure...
I’m not convinced Ben is “in rhythm and has the offense humming.” Was I the only one who noticed that he was routinely throwing behind his receivers? Yes, his stats were good, but Limas Sweed (!) made two really nice grabs, and Hines Ward pulled one in that was horribly behind him as well.
I am worried that an off-season of golfing does not have Ben’s arm strength where it needs to be. And… this was Buffalo — not Baltimore. Or even Tennessee. If Ben plays like that in the opener, we start the season 0-1.
Mendenhall looks OK to me. Gay looks fine. Timmons worries me a little against the run. It was encouraging to see a holding call when an offensive lineman had Deebo collared around the throat. I like our defense a lot better if they are going to start calling that one…
I saw the same thing but
on most of those throws Ben was throwing it around a LB and to a spot. I’m going to look at that again when I rewatch the game tonight.
William Gay
I am not concerned about him at all. He played a lot last year and performed as well as or better than McFadden. No reason to worry about him.
Besides, the Steelers have pretty fantastic corner depth.
I wrote about W. Gay in a fanpost in the weeks before we lost McFadden. In the comments, SteelerBuddha includes some stats from Football Outsiders. There was little to no drop-off in our defense when Gay subbed for B-Mac. Coach Dad is also quoted saying that Gay took as many snaps as B-Mac during the season. (Obviously, Gay was in the nickle for many of them.)
My current hope is that Gay (2009) is as good as McFadden (2007). My future hope is that Gay improves this year with more experience in his primary role. After one year with our coaches, he was solid enough to replace a starter last year. That suggests he learns well. By week 6 this year, he could become the player we hoped for in McFadden.
I think he’ll be better than McFadden of 2007 and 2008. We give McFadden a lot of credit, but he didn’t exactly set the world on fire as a DB.
Agree
Totally forgot about that post. I think that Gay has some decent upside in pass protection. He appears to have good instincts to the ball and has not been a liability in the running game or bringing guys down in open space.
by SteelerBuddha on Aug 31, 2009 12:57 PM EDT up reply actions
He's
is getting picked on a lot at the begining of games but is making plays. That tells me two things; one no one thinks it’s to there benifit to throw at Ike; two they are testing Gay. The good news is testing him now will make him better in two weeks.
rashard, william . . .
i am very lukewarm on mendenhall . . . i am always wary of running backs that come from a spread formation in college . . . they get lots of yards while not having to run between the tackles . . . william gay is going to be fine . . . the way the rules are today, almost any cornerback is going to be in trouble if there is no pass rush . . . by the way, looking at our schedule . . . i’m thinking 12 to 14 wins this year . . .
Didn't catch the game but
I did see Mike Wallace give one of the worst efforts in downfield blocking I’ve seen from a Steelers WR in a long time. On that broken “Ben” play where he rolled out and flipped the ball to Miller, Miller would have scored a TD if Wallace had just stood in the CB’s way. I guess he’s still a rookie.
Anyway, while I think we may have a terrific pass defense (hello interior pressure on 3rd downs) I’m concerned that our rush defense will take a step back. Hampton is declining, and even Aaron Smith hasn’t looked great this preseason. Timmons will have some growing pains as an every down LB (although I think he’ll be fine in the long run), and as much as I like Hood, I don’t think he’s ready to be a force against the run this season.
If we had an offense that could control the clock and put up some points, the rush defense wouldn’t be a huge concern, but with our offense’s struggles over the past few years likely to carry into this season, I’m uncomfortable assuming that our defense can do what it did last year.
charity standing orders
It was nice to see our rush defense return for the bills game, but beating up the Bills OL is not too difficult.
Willie Colon - top 2 RT in the NFL
Were they better? The first half stats still weren’t great, and I saw at least a couple of decent runs (although one was largely sprung by a great block by a WR on Troy).
charity standing orders
Random thought...
Supposedly, the refs will have a new focus on holding calls. Deebo being the main cause for O-lines to accrue those calls, our D might see more plays run up the middle. Offenses may not be able to lean on their left tackles quite so hard.
I agreed
My number one concerned is the run defense. Timmons hasn’t looked good. He will be better but is going to take some time. Hampton has played fine but I wonder if he and Aaron Smith can take it for the extent of the year.
Teams are going to run right at the gut of this defense and dink and dunk a lot, this is the only way to attack this defense.
If the offense managed to get a lead we are going to be fine, but teams like Tennessee and Baltimore are going to test the middle of this defense time after time.
If Ward saw the non block
he’ll take Wallace out to the blocking sled himself and take care of that.
If Ward didn’t see it, Tomlin I’m sure did and he’ll tell Ward.
Problem solved.
Rush defense
I wouldn’t worry about that unless we start seeing disturbing trends in the regular season. Well established units generally go very vanilla in their approach in preseason. It’s the teams with new coaches, coordinators, or many new starters that use more of the playbook in preseason to get the players to learn it.
For ideas on statistical analyses, email me at wolfpacksteelersfan@gmail.com.
by WolfpackSteelersFan on Aug 31, 2009 6:35 PM EDT up reply actions
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