Welcome to another glorious season of Steeler Football BSTC! Veterans will (hopefully) remember me, while this is the first time I've seen many of the newcomers.  Work and school will do that for you. While the Steelers defense was on the field the first half I took a ton of notes (I had an obligation which prevented me from note-taking during the second half), and will put those notes into a chart, and hopefully try to make sense of them to demostrate the dominance of the defense (try saying that 3 times fast!).

As this is the first time I've done this, there will be some bumps in the road to go over and some kinks to work out; I realize writing this I could use more information, such as total TOP for an opposing offense's drive, how many people rushed the QB, what coverage (man or zone), and hopefully I can get who's rushing/dropping into coverage (it's a lot of info to get down while watching the game live!).  But like I said, the first two weeks or so I'll consider a pre-season of sorts.  Any comments/suggestions/criticisms will be most welcome! Regardless, glad to see you all here and ready for another great season, and let's get into it, shall we?

*Play numbers in bold indicate a first-down play; play numbers in italics indicate a 3rd-down play; play numbers in both indicate a goal-to-go situation; play numbers underlined indicate a 4th-down play.*

Drive 1.  Starting Point: Titans 2 yard line. 13:00, First Quarter.

Play     Formation          Total Yardage          Tackler(s)               Play Type          Credit                    Other Notes

(1)           3-4                           (-1)                      Gang                          Run         

(2)           3-4                           (5)                       Polamalu                  Pass         

(3)           3-4                           (-4)                      Polamalu          Stretch-Run     +1 Troy for R'R skills      3 'N Out for the D

Total Field Position Change: 0 yards total.

Drive 2.  Starting Point: Titans 11 yard line. 8:28, First Quarter.

Play     Formation          Total Yardage          Tackler(s)               Play Type          Credit                    Other Notes

(1)           3-4                          (32)                      Polamalu               Run             -1 Woodley (missed tackle)  

(2)           3-4                          (20)                      Polamalu               Pass           -1 Polamalu (Zone)

(3)           3-4                          (3)                        Clark                       Run           

(4)           3-4                          (--)                        2 Defenders          Pass

(5)           2-4-5                      (--)                        Polamalu               Pass

(6)           ST FG                     (--)                       N/A                           FG                                                     37 yard FG Miss

Total Field Position Change: From Titans 11 to Steelers 18; 71 yards total.

Drive 3.  Starting Point: Titans 26 yard line.  4:49, First Quarter.

Play     Formation          Total Yardage          Tackler(s)               Play Type          Credit                    Other Notes

(1)            3-4                      (10)                        Farrior                     Pass                  -1 Harrison (biting on P.A.)

(2)            3-4                      (N/A)                                                       Illegal Formation Penalty (Titans); 1st and 15

(3)            3-4                      (4)                          Harrison                 Pass

(4)            3-4                      (2)                          Gang                       Run                     +1 Smith (contain)

(5)            2-4-5                  (9)                          Farrior                     Pass                   -1 Pass Rush

(6)            3-4                      (5)                          Gang                       Pass                   -1 Fox (missed tackle)

(7)            3-4                      (INT)                                                       Pass                  +3 Polamalu (coverage, INT, SHC)

Total Field Position Change: From Titans 26 to Steelers 49; Polamalu INT occurs at Steelers 5, runback to Steelers 20; 54 yards total.

Drive 4.  Starting Point: Steelers 44 yard line (Ben INT).  0:06, First Quarter.

Play     Formation          Total Yardage          Tackler(s)               Play Type          Credit                    Other Notes

(1)           3-4                        (1)                          Gang                       Run                  

(2)           3-4                        (12)                        Fox                          Pass                  -1 Woodley (missed tackle)

(3)           3-4                        (-1)                Hampton/Harrison        Run                  

(4)           3-4                        (--)                          Woodley                 Pass                 +2 Woodley (pressure, knockdown)

(5)           1-5-5                     (-10)                      Farrior                     Pass                 +1 Farrior, +1 Pass Rush, +1 Coverage

Total Field Position Change: From Steelers 44 yard line to Steelers 42; 2 yards total. 

Drive 5.  Starting Point: Titans 28 yard line.  7:14, Second Quarter.

Play     Formation          Total Yardage          Tackler(s)               Play Type          Credit                    Other Notes

(1)           3-4                     (--)                            Keisel/Harrison      Pass                 +1 Pass Rush

(2)           3-4                     (4)                            Fox                             Run

(3)           1-5-5                 (8)                            Townsend                Pass                 -1 Pass Rush

(4)           3-4                     (2)                            Gay                            Run

(5)           3-4                     (N/A)                        Illegal Formation on the Titans; "Pass Interference" on Troy (Offsetting)

(6)           3-4                     (12)                         Gay                            Pass                 +1 Woodely (pressure)

(7)           3-4                      (--)                           Smith                        Pass                 +1 Smith (pressure)

(8)           3-4                      (3)                           Gang                         Run

(9)           1-5-5                  (8)                            Polamalu                 Pass                -1 Polamalu (P.F.F.)

(10)         3-4                      (5)                           Taylor                        Pass

(11)         3-4                      (-1)                          Hampton                  Run                  +1 Hampton

(12)         1-5-5                  (--)                           Gay/Farrior               Pass                +1 Farrior

(13)         ST FG                (--)                           Smith           31 yard FG Blocked    +1 Smith, +1 ST

Total Field Position Change: From Titans 28 yard line to Steelers 16; FG Blocked and recovered at the Steeler 17 yard line; 55 yards total.

Drive 6.  Starting Point: Titans 28 yard line.  1:15, Second Quarter.

Play     Formation          Total Yardage          Tackler(s)               Play Type          Credit                    Other Notes

(1)          2-4-5                    (--)                           Taylor                      Pass                 +1 Taylor (coverage)

(2)          2-4-5                    (57)                          Mundy                    Pass                 -2 Clark (missed tackle, coverage/angle)

(3)          2-4-5                    (12)                          N/A - TD                 Pass          -1 Taylor (coverage), +1 Harrison (pressure)

Total Field Position Change: From Titans 28 yard line to Steelers Goalline (TD); 72 yards total.

Observations:

• Most of the time was spent in the 3-4; from what I remember there was mostly a 4-man rush in some way, shape, or form.  3-man rush was occasionally seen, as was the 5- and 6-man rush.
• The Nickel Package is the 2-4-5; Smith and Keisel lined up at DT, with the OLBs as DEs, and the ILBs in their usual place.  This formation will be an INSTANT KO once Timmons comes back and resumes his destruction of the universe.
• Early in the 2nd Quarter the defense lined up in what I'm going to call a 1-5-5; Smith (or on occasion I'm assuming Keisel, once Timmons is healthy) lines up in a 0 technique with the 4 LBs and Keisel jumping and moving around from stand-up positions, where some will blitz and the others will drop upon the snap. This leaves the OL guessing as to who is going to rush and who is going to drop, and also enables the Steelers to move defenders around where they want them, similar to last year when they would sometimes put Harrison and Woodley or Woodley and Timmons on the same side and blitz them both.  This flexibility enables the Steelers to really set the offense up nicely and hopefully not end mankind as we know it.
  
• Another variation on the scheme above which, sadly, was seen in the second half and definitely the 4th Quarter (and was even mentioned by the announcers), thus was not recorded by myself, was essentially a 0-6-5, where no one had their hands on the ground and there was a mass of moving Steelers around the LOS.  In the specific instance I'm remembering, Keisel dropped, Farrior, Fox, and Harrison all slammed hard inside, with Harrison and Fox twisting, and Woodley sprinting around RT.  Farrior bulled through the weakside A gap, being pushed/held by both the C and G before finally forcing an errant throw by Collins, as he had to step up into Farrior to avoid the free-running/barely-being-contained-by-an-overmatched-RB Woodley from his right.
• It seemed as though the Titans were hitting big plays on mid- to deep-outs and square ins; the outs were indicative of a lackluster passrush and the ins were quick, dumpoff type things that avoided a quick rush.  Chalk it up to good scouting of the Steeler D, a veteran QB Collins (who, at the end of the night, had his first loss against the Steelers...which, WTF?), whatever you want to say.  The D bent but never really broke.
• Troy Polamalu...man, what can you say other than D'OH! when he got hurt.  All over the field, another sick interception (SHC above is 'superhuman catch'), and a PI penalty which was a terrible call...we Pittsburgh fans are lucky to be watching two greats on the field for us: Ben on offense and Troy on defense.  More often then not, as these men go, so too do the Pittsburgh Steelers.  Get well soon Troy...maybe Hines can lend you his hyperbaric oxygen chamber.
• Aaron Smith continues to be a rock for this defense, always doing what is asked of him, being fundamentally sound, and coming up huge when needed. As much of an underrated player as one can be while seemingly always being talked about.
• Though relatively quiet on the stat sheet, "Deebo" had another good game, applying pressure and keeping contain well on running plays to his side, though I did grade him (perhaps) a little hard for biting on a play-action fake while blitzing.  Speaking of the stat sheet...

Overall +/-

Smith +3

Polamalu +2

Farrior +2

Woodley +1

Harrison 0

Taylor 0

Fox -1

Clark -2

-------------------------

Pass Rush: 0

Coverage: +1

Special Teams: +1

I have to admit, these will get better the longer I do them, especially as I can find multiple drive summaries online after the game and thus do not have to write everything down.  As I said in the opening, this will be much improved for the Bears game recap; this was simply working out the kinks.

Hopefully you enjoyed this and got something out of it; it is definitely interesting for me to watch and record what happens.  Again, comments/concerns/suggestions/advice will be greatly appreciated and openly welcomed.  Thanks for reading, BTSC!