Steelers Vs. Seahawks: NFL Week 2 Game Notes

by Michael Bean on Sep 14, 2011 6:14 AM EDT in Steelers Pregame Coverage

Okay, it's time to start thinking about the Pittsburgh Steelers Week 2 opponent, the Seattle Seahawks. Pete Carroll's squad tried to make a game of it in San Francisco last Sunday, but ultimately shot themselves in the foot with two special teams coverage gaffes late in the fourth quarter that crippled any chance of a comeback. I watched a fair amount of the game and was both somewhat impressed by the tenacity of their defense, as well as decidedly unimpressed by the effectiveness of the offense. I'll elaborate more throughout the remainder of the week, spotlight several players I feel are worth keeping an eye on Sunday, and breakdown how I think the Steelers will go about their home opener Sunday afternoon, but let's first take a quick look at the two team's series history, as well as a few stats and game notes to begin the pregame coverage of Pittsburgh's Week 2 matchup with Seattle.

SERIES HISTORY + Game Notes:

	SEAHAWKS	STEELERS
SERIES LEADER	8-7
STREAKS	4 of past 6
COACHES VS. OPP.	Carroll: 1-2	Tomlin: 1-0
LAST WEEK	L 33-17 at 49ers	L 35-7 at Ravens
LAST GAME	10/7/07: Seahawks 0 at Steelers 21. Pittsburgh RB Najeh Davenport scores 2 rushing TDs & QB Ben Roethlisberger passes for 206 yards & 1 TD.
LAST GAME AT SITE	10/7/07
BROADCAST	FOX (1:00 PM ET): Kenny Albert, Daryl Johnston, Tony Siragusa (Field reporter). SIRIUS: 139 (Sea.), 93 (Pit.). XM: 226 (Pit.).

STATS

PASSING	Jackson: 21-37-197-2-1-78.3	Roethlisberger: 22-41-280-1-3-52.9
RUSHING	Lynch: 13-33-2.5-0	Mendenhall: 12-45-3.8-0
RECEIVING	Baldwin (R): 4-83-20.8-1 (T3C)	Wallace: 8 (T3L)-107-13.4-0
OFFENSE	219.0	312.0
TAKE/GIVE	-3	-7
DEFENSE	209.0 (1C)	385.0
SACKS	---	Woodley: 1
INTs	---	---
PUNTING	Ryan: 48.9 (3C)	Sepulveda: 52.8 (3L)
KICKING	Hauschka: 5 (2/2 PAT; 1/1 FG)	Suisham: 1 (1/1 PAT; 0/0 FG)

STEELERS:

Club has 6-0 recorded in September at Heinz Field under head coach Mike Tomlin.
Pittsburgh has won 8 consecutive home openers, 2nd-longest active streak in NFL. The Steelers are gunning for their 6th straight win vs. NFC at home.
With win, Ben Roethlisberger would record 70th win in 4th-fewest starts (100) among QBs who began their career in Super Bowl era. In only regular-season game vs. Sea. (10/7/07), Roethlisberger completed 18 of 22 passes (81.8 pct.) for 206 yards with 1 TD & 120.8 passer rating.
Including SB XLV, Rashard Mendenhall aims for 7th consecutive game w/ rush TD vs. NFC.
Hines Ward earned SB XL MVP honors with 5 rec. for 123 yards (24.6 avg.) with 1 TD in last game vs. Seahawks. Ward (11,769) needs 66 rec. yards to surpass Hall of Famer Don Maynard (11,834) for 20th in NFL history.
Dating back to 12/19/10, Mike Wallace looks to extend consecutive game streak with 100+ receiving yards to five (102, 104, 105, 107).
Heath Miller had 13-yard TD catch in last game vs. Sea (10/7/07). Miller (289) needs 11 catches to become first Steelers TE with 300 career.
James Harrison (49) needs sack to become 5th Steeler w/ 50 career.
LaMarr Woodley recorded 40th career sack last week

SEAHAWKS:

QB Tavaris Jackson threw 2 TD passes last week. In past 5 starts, has 3 games with 2+ TD passes.
RB Marshawn Lynch had 85 scrimmage yards in only game vs. Pit. (9/16/07 with Buf.).
RB-KR-PR Leon Washington has 7 career KR-TDs, 2nd most in NFL history. Had 138 total yards last week (104 KR, 27 PR, 7 rec.).
Undrafted rookie WR Doug Baldwin had 4 catches for 83 yards (20.8 avg.), incl. 55-yard TD, in NFL debut.
WR Sidney Rice had career-best 10 catches for 136 yards in only game vs. Pit. (10/25/09 with Min.). In past 4 vs. AFC, Rice has 25 catches for 456 yards (114 per game) & 3 TDs. In career, has 5 100-yard games. Has 146 career catches & 110 (75.3 pct.) have gone for 1st down or TD.
WR Golden Tate had TD catch last week, his 1st career TD.
DE Chris Clemons had sack in only game at Pit. (11/28/04 with Was.).
S Kam Chancellor had career-high 9 tackles last week

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Comments

Interesting stats and a good test for a team with some early question marks.

I’m looking forward to getting a better fix on how the Steelers actually are shaping up this season when we face Seattle. I don’t see how our offense can do anything but improve this week and I’m more concerned about the D. We need to stop Jackson and Company and hopefully get a couple TOs to set up the offense. We’re fortunate enough to be playing teams the next couple of weeks who’ve got some serious issues of their own. We need to take advantage and use these upcoming games to work ourselves into top form on both sides of the ball. By mid-season, we need to re-establish our identity.

by Billy52 on Sep 14, 2011 8:25 AM EDT reply actions

ESPN reports Gilbert officially gets nod to start

Don’t know if this was posted elsewhere, but I am excited to see what this kid has. If he doesn’t perform, at least he gets experience, but he could be a huge addition to the line if he learns and develops as the season goes on.

by Michael Uhlhorn on Sep 14, 2011 10:38 AM EDT reply actions

+7

by steeler fever on Sep 14, 2011 11:07 AM EDT up reply actions

He’s gotta learn at some point, right? Might as well be now.

by pistil_stamen on Sep 14, 2011 11:28 AM EDT up reply actions

One question

How come this game isn’t in Seattle? I thought that since the 2003 game was in Seattle and the ’07 game was in Pittsburgh, this game would be in Seattle. Is that not how it traditionally works?

by pistil_stamen on Sep 14, 2011 11:36 AM EDT reply actions

Not necessarily

I think that would make sense but it’s not always the case.

Consider that we host the patriots this year but we hosted them last year…

by Mechem on Sep 14, 2011 11:57 AM EDT up reply actions

Well

Last year was the year when the AFC North played the AFC East (playing in Pit in ‘04 in NE in ’07…continuing with the theme that is related to my question, playing in Pit last year). This year Pittsburgh plays them because of their respective 1st place finishes, and I’m not sure how they decide the h-a scheduling in regard to that. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time they have deviated from the H-A-H-A scheduling in regard to the cyclical divisional matchups since 2002…but I could be wrong about that.

by pistil_stamen on Sep 14, 2011 12:29 PM EDT up reply actions

Ok

I just went through the schedules since 2002 and this is the first deviation from the H-A-H (or A-H-A) format in playing the NFC teams. Granted, last season was the first of “cycle 3” versus the NFC teams (playing the NFC South in ’02, ’06 and ’10), but the schedule remained true to the expected format: at NO and TB and home vs. Atl and Car.

Yes, I have too much time on my hands, but I also thought it was interesting to note the change in scheduling and see if there was a reason for it. FWIW, Pittsburgh plays at Arizona this year, which they also did in ’07.

by pistil_stamen on Sep 14, 2011 12:43 PM EDT up reply actions

When the schedule came out they talked about why this happened although I can’t remember why..I will try to dig deeper.

by Frank Mineo (DYMS) on Sep 14, 2011 1:01 PM EDT up reply actions

this is the best I could find from another forum...nothing of real substance...

It’s a travel issue, we are already going to S.F and there is a NFL rule about teams from the east playing 2 games on the west coast (If I have it right) Arizona isn’t quite the coast and the Rams are coming to us therefore we play SF and AZ away and Rams and Seabags at home

by Frank Mineo (DYMS) on Sep 14, 2011 1:04 PM EDT up reply actions

don’t know if it is accurate or not

by Frank Mineo (DYMS) on Sep 14, 2011 1:04 PM EDT up reply actions

Nice

Thanks

by pistil_stamen on Sep 14, 2011 1:10 PM EDT up reply actions

I believe it's a two year or three year cycle

"He had no teeth, and he was slobbering all over himself. I'm thinking, 'You can have your money back, just get me out of here. Let me go be an accountant." I can't tell you how badly I wanted out of there."
- Denver rookie QB John Elway, on Jack Lambert, after Lambert and the Steelers knocked Elway out of his first game as a pro (1983).

by Han on Sep 14, 2011 12:21 PM EDT up reply actions

Bill Leavy

"It’s easy to lie with statistics, but it’s easier to lie without them." -Fred Mosteller
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by John Stephens on Sep 14, 2011 12:45 PM EDT up reply actions

He really kicked it, didn’t he?

by pistil_stamen on Sep 14, 2011 12:50 PM EDT up reply actions

Bill Leavy caused the Hindenburg to crash.

"It’s easy to lie with statistics, but it’s easier to lie without them." -Fred Mosteller
Follow me on Twitter

by John Stephens on Sep 14, 2011 1:01 PM EDT up reply actions

Aren't the Seahawks...

the last team the Steelers recorded a shut-out against?

"We'll continue to search for the ceiling"

by jacksteel on Sep 14, 2011 12:45 PM EDT reply actions

Had to take

a 3 day break from every sports media after what was the worst performance I’ve seen from a Steeler team in the last 20 yrs.. left me quite feeling as if the little train that could… couldn’t any longer… seemed quite obvious that with the exception of Ike, every A player we have on defense was beaten badly through out the game.. Especially troublesome to see just how our moving out of our bread and butter run game has had the effect of making our big play offense a non factor.. Ball control has been our ticket, moving away from it has put more pressure on our defense and continued to expose our weeknesses.. offensively and defensively…. not throwing in the terrible towel just yet, but this team not only has to over come its weaknesses, but also build some much needed confidence… heres hoping the Seahawks get that little train rolling again….

by OR69faithfull on Sep 14, 2011 12:50 PM EDT reply actions

Eager to see this game too

Thanks for the nod on the tenacity of our young D. We have high hopes for them over the next few years. Keep an eye on our safties, you may hear some talk about Earl being a young Troy. I don’t say that to incent a riot or imply that he’s there yet. He’s gaining momentum, playing lights out and is drawing some attention.

I hope your D does play very well. Most of us expect to lose this game anyways, so I’d like to see the line get even more experience from your great defense. TJ hasn’t really shown he can beat pressure, so we might as well see if we can either remove it w/ good scheming or maybe he steps up.

For what it’s worth, most of us are over the SB and accept we are in a different place now w/r/t the team. It’s a whole new team, staff and we are building from within or with young FA’s. I don’t listen to the media much, but suspect your team is getting ripped and labled all sorts of things after last week. You’ve got some great players and a very solid record of success. This lockout just affected everyone. I wouldn’t use this game as a bar for being successfull. But if for some odd reason, you lose to this young team – then you should worry. I doubt that will happen…

Good luck and lets hope the injuries don’t get either of us.

by GnarlyHawk on Sep 15, 2011 11:02 AM EDT reply actions