Pittsburgh Steelers Post-Game Review: The Special Teams

Any chance we see more of Santonio on punt returns to try and give this inconsistent offense a much needed boost?

Word has it that the towel dispenser at Sheetz has filed a civil suit against Skippy and seven other Sheetz employees and customers who the dispenser’s attorney says tried to cover up the assault. The Sheetz manager is accused of saying “he buys a lot of gas here, and he’s a Steeler, so suck it up or we’re going to hand dryers.”

What can be said about the second half, too many mistakes and not enough effort by the deffense secondary. Look any qb goes for 9-10 it hits the flats, Hello tight man coverage not bump and run. Troy was missed out there it seemed like no communication and that resulted in the 9-10. Also to many STUPID penalties in our special teams. Willie be a man run north to south and put your head up so you can see the gaps and not your feet. O-line great job better than last weeks preformance.
keep it up next week because Odom is on a tear and you guys better be ready.

Agreed on Reed and Logan. Reed will step it up and be back. Logan, to me, hasn’t show much yet. I was at the Titans game and he looked somewhat tentative fielding punts. He was calling fair catches when he should have run with it. Is it inexperience? We’ll see. But if we need a safety in a week or 2 I’ll bet he’ll not dress on Sundays or they cut him. I’d guess he has 1-2 weeks left if he doesn’t start breaking punt returns.
BD

Logan did some good things yesterday. He’s shown that he can outrun just about any single defender. And he helps our field position just by being a threat, forcing the punter to kick toward the sideline, sacrificing distance for less chance for a return. But I agree that he may not be the answer we were hoping for. Before the game I think it was Sims who explained why Hester was such a dangerous return man. His point was that Hester had the speed to outrun almost any defender, and was also tough enough to run through some tackles. I suspect the lack of ability to break tackles may be Logan’s chief limitation. And if he fumbles again, he’s done.

So it’s not necessarily Logan, it’s just that the Bears ST had good coverage

While he might not have had a spectacular game yet (as he did in the preseason), Stafan Logan contributes a lot to the field position battle. His longer returns (better than last year’s disaster) has been able to combine with Sepulvada’s kicking to allow the opponents’ offenses to start from deep in their own territory. True, he has not had long returns and/or TDs, but the field position was key in the opener and should have been key in yesterday’s game. However, the defense blew it on the long TD drives.

Soldier Field is like the Heinz Field of the NFC in that it’s a waterfront stadium and the winds coming off the lake can be harsh and unpredictable. Add to that the wet surface, the fact that Reed had never kicked there, and the choppy playing field due to a concert earlier in the week and it’s just about the worst scenario possible.

I guess I’m making excuses for the guy but he deserves to be cut some slack. Gould’s familiarity with the Soldier was a big edge to the Bears yesterday.

By and large, I agree with the assessment and though I didn’t see the whole game (and this might be nitpicking), we can’t ignore the fact there were far too many penalties on the punt returns that I saw and yes, Logan put the ball on the ground on the final kickoff even though the odds of a miracle finish were pretty slim at that point.

jeff reed and his agent didn’t think the Steelers offer was big enough for him to consider, well, how bout gettin him to do his job. if this happens again, i think they should consider not bringing him back, especially since the training camp kicker was getting better

The field was wet, there was new sod layed on top of old sod (sound familiar?), and it was rainy. Shit happens. 1-1, bring on the Bungles!

The more violent team didn’t win, the one that made their field goals, didn’t turn the ball over and made clutch catches in the end zone yesterday won.

Still, the Bears had to play a perfect game to get this win. The Steelers have to make a change in the lineup for Carter this week ( I say insert K. Ratliff at SS), but I think they’ll be fine, particularly if this OL continues to improve.

All of the penalties on special teams. Seemed like every return play was called back for a blocking in the back penalty. Logan does us no good if we do that.

Where the hell is our two minute defense?

Reed was the hero of week #1 and the goat of week #2. I guess we can sort of know how the Titans felt after Bironas missed two against us in week #1. SUCKS!!!

Carson Palmer will shred this Pass D, much like what Cutler did but better. The Bengals have much better WR’s than the Bears and no way to hide Willie Gay or Ike Taylor this week. Troy P. can’t make it back soon enough. I guess we’ll see Timmons in the starting lineup for the first time on Sunday.

I still think K. Fox is a keeper, just not as good in pass coverage as Timmons but a better run defender. I think he’ll do fine as Farrior’s replacement when he hangs it up, whenever that will be.

Logan is fine. The penalties in the special teams game really hurt them yesterday. I think half-pint will break about 3 this season before all is said and done.