More photos » by Gene J. Puskar - AP

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One game short of the mid-season mark, the Pittsburgh Steelers find themselves with a 5-2 record and tied for the lead in the AFC North Division with Cincinnati.  Stopping to reflect during the bye week, the glass is definitely more full than empty.  Steeler Nation yearns so much for perfection, sometimes it harpoons whatever shortcomings the latest game delivers.  Utopia would have the Steelers passing for 375 yards, rushing for 175, shutting down opponents defensively and not committing turnovers every single game. 

The NFL is not Utopia.  Last I checked, those other guys get paid handsomely, have full coaching staffs, high-tech facilities and don't buy into the Steelers having their way all the time.  We've lost fourth-quarter leads, given up kickoff returns, missed field goals, dropped passes and at times not blocked or tackled very well.  These maladies are a part of life in the NFL.  While we cannot insist on avoiding them, we can hope that shortcomings can be corrected as opposed to having insufficient personnel.  I believe the former as opposed to the latter and thus, hope springs eternal.

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Most of Steeler Nation already believes that Hines Ward has earned his way into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  Outside the Nation, the ballot box is not so stuffed.  In fact, you'll find many who debate that more work needs to be done.  I have been in more than a few cat fights with rivals who hate us, hate Ward, and refuse to give Hines his due.  So be it for the moment.  Their time is running out.

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This oh-so-eloquent excerpt comes from a recent fanpost.

Can the Steelers just be a bit smarter about play calling during crucial times of the game when it behooves them to take the time off the clock and Mendenhall has proven himself to be quite capable of handling the load...........34 needs the ball 20 times a game MINIMUM!!!!  good grief!!!

There was additional griping about the number of running plays called in other games this season. I'd agree that it made little sense how few runs were called against the Cleveland Browns considering the flow of that game and the success that the running game had been having the previous week and earlier in the contest against the Browns. But against the Vikings yesterday, the way the game unfolded dictated how many carries Mendenhall received. Let's take a look at every last play and drive Pittsburgh had yesterday to get a better understanding of how the flow of the game limited the number of touches he had.

Drive #1:

Analysis: Obviously Pittsburgh has to throw on 2nd and 3rd down there after the 8 yard sack on 1st down. Not an ideal way to start the game offensively, but promising I suppose that Mendenhall's first carry was so successful.

Drive #2:

Analysis: Again, Arians doing just fine trying to get Mendenhall involved early. A screen pass to him followed by a run on 2nd and 11. Mind you, Arians isn't famous for running on 2nd and 11. Then on 3rd and 8, what can you do but pass? Nice start for the Vikings defense as the Steelers offense feels their way around unsuccessfully.

Drive #3:

Analysis: Oh my God! We didn't run the ball! And he moved right down the field for the first score of the game. Had it not been for Heath Miller's pass interference on the opposite side of the field where the touchdown occurred, the Steelers would have had the game's first touchdown and a 7-0 lead. This was a nice drive, partly set up by the nice reverse call to Wallace. When you run against the Vikings, you're usually not going to have much success in between the tackles where the two Williamses are collapsing everything. Well done by the Steelers offense here.

By the way, if you ask me, that's a great rule about receivers setting picks for their teammates. There's already way too many built in rules favoring the quarterback and the passing game. No need to give them one more by allowing them to set screens for one another. Too slippery a slope.

Drive #4

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More photos » by Gene J. Puskar - AP

13 days ago: A Pittsburgh Steelers fan cheers from the upper deck of Heinz Field during the first quarter of an NFL football game between the Minnesota Vikings and Pittsburgh Steelers in Pittsburgh, Sunday, Oct. 25, 2009. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

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Wow, the Pittsburgh Steelers find a way to win for the fourth consecutive week. The defense hadn't really won a ballgame for the Steelers this year, and on Sunday they again had their struggles defending the pass. But for the first time all season really, Dick LeBeau's defense came up with multiple game-changing plays that dictated the outcome. Here's some preliminary thoughts about the 27-17 victory.

* There are still some troubling issues with the Steelers defense, but the good news is that they're starting to make some of the big plays that they weren't making to start the year. Through the first five games of the season, the Steelers had forced just 4 turnovers. The past two weeks, Pittsburgh's defense has  6 takeaways. The two turnovers Dick LeBeau's defense created today were not just run of the mill takeaways either - both were returned for touchdowns. And both came in the 4th quarter with the Vikings on the march. LaMarr Woodley got things started by taking a Brett Favre fumble 77 yards for a score. Keyaron Fox then intercepted a muffed catch by Chester Taylor and took it the other way for a game-clinching 82 yard score. Credit to the D for stepping up and making a play when their backs were against the wall, but color me still concerned about how much this defense continues to bend in the passing game. It didn't break today but it most likely will unless they can make things much, much tougher for those opposing quarterbacks who are disciplined, experienced and accurate enough to dink and dunk their way down the field.

* This defense is going to continue to need big plays like that if they hope to repeat as AFC North champions. The defense is still struggling against the pass otherwise. Brett Favre threw for 334 yards and the Vikings converted a very healthy 9-of-18 on 3rd down. Minnesota had three drives of 13 plays or more which helped them win the time of possession battle by almost 14 minutes.

* Wacky stat of the game #1 - Total plays:  Minnesota 78, Pittsburgh 49.

* Wacky stat of the game #2 - Minnesota 1-5 TD efficiency in the red zone; Pittsburgh 0-3.

* Wacky stat of the game #3 - Minnesota 16 first downs through the air; Pittsburgh 14 total first downs.

* William Gay had 8 tackles on Sunday, increasing his season total to 30. Only James Farrior, Ryan Clark and James Harrison have more tackles. In case you were wondering, I don't necessarily think this is a good thing. I tip my hat to Gay for playing hard and for making some nice plays in each of the Steelers first seven games, but there's no doubt in my mind that he's the weak link not only in the team's secondary, but the entire defense as well. Teams are going right at Gay most weeks, hence the high tackle totals. And they're definitely making him pay when he gives his man too big a cushion. I don't have the exact total on me, but there were at least four or five plays where Favre quickly slung the ball out to the wide receiver that Gay was defending. Again, I'm not disgusted with the way he's playing or anything. It's just he's not nearly as physical as the player he is replacing, Bryant McFadden. I said I was worried about his play before the start of the season more than anything else with this team. That sentiment has not changed for me one bit.

* I still miss Anthony Madison on special teams. The Steelers surrendered yet another kickoff return on Sunday. There were plenty of people responsible for Percy Harvin breaking off the 88 yard kickoff return, but perhaps none more than Jeff Reed. Reed not only didn't force Harvin back to the middle of the field - which is definitely rule #1 - but he also just gave his best matador impersonation by meekly flailing at Harvin as he ran by him. Bad, bad stuff from Reed.

* To his credit, Reed had a nice day kicking the ball. Both of his field goal attempts were relative 'chip shots' (39 and 27 yards), but his kicks looked crisper and an improvement over how he had been kicking the ball earlier in the year, even on his made attempts.

* A tough day for the Steelers offense. Pittsburgh mustered just 259 total yards, by far their lowest output of the season. However, the Steelers did average 5.3 yards per play, not a shabby number. The problem was settling for two field goals in the red zone and a Rashard Mendenhall fumble inside the 5 yard line. That's a lot of points left on the board. Credit the Vikings defense though - they took Hines Ward out of the game for the most part, bottled up the run for much of the afternoon, and did a superior job of not letting Big Ben break free from would-be sacks.

* Anybody else notice how many deflections the Vikings had at the line of scrimmage? I'm not sure of the number but it seemed like there were at least three or four balls batted down by Vikings defensive linemen. That rarely happens with the 6'5" Ben Roethlisberger. A job well done by them.

* I'd like to break down the play with pictures in the near future since we have a couple of weeks before the next game, but Big Ben's touchdown strike to Mike Wallace at the end of the 1st half was gorgeous. The pass was thrown with plenty of zip, but it also had just the right trajectory to fall over the Vikings first line of defense in the secondary and down in to Wallace's breadbasket before the last line of defense could get to #17. A truly perfect throw by Big Ben.

* Not to sound overly negative, but I haven't been that impressed by Daniel Sepulveda. He's been fine and a decided upgrade over what the team was getting from the punting game last year in his absence. But he's no Mike Scifres or Shane Lechler. I've still yet to see him really boom or place a punt that made me say 'wow'.

* Bet you didn't know that it was the first time in NFL history that there were 3 touchdown returns of at least 75 yards during the 4th quarter of a game. It was awesome watching the Steelers defense block for both Woodley and Fox on their respective runbacks. Percy Harvin on the other hand didn't need much help on his touchdown.

* I have been extremely impressed by the way Santonio Holmes has been playing during the Steelers four game winning streak. Santonio only had 2 receptions for 59 yards, but he continues to impress me in the running game and blocking down field for his fellow WRs after the catch. Hines has clearly rubbed off on him, and I'd imagine that both he and Hines are having the same effect on rookie Mike Wallace. It was unfortunate that Holmes didn't get his TD reception in the 1st quarter when Heath Miller was called for pass interference.

* Speaking of Mike Wallace - the rookie out of Ole Miss continues to earn the confidence and trust of his teammates and coaches. Wallace had 3 catches for 79 yards and a TD. Kevin Colbert and his army of scouts definitely found a keeper in #17. He's going to be a treat to watch over the years.

* My phrase for Mewelde Moore after we signed during the 2008 free agency period - 'one mans trash is another man's treasure'. Who would you rather have if you were Minnesota? A 30 year old Chester Taylor taking up nearly $4 million in cap room or a 27 year old Mewelde Moore who takes up less less than half the cap space that Taylor does. Moore is reliable and even keeled with his performance. Taylor is more up and down. It wasn't the easiest catch in the world, but on the play where Keyaron Fox returned the interception for a touchdown, the ball hit Taylor's hands. He's got to make that play.  Anyway, I'm just glad we have Moore on our side.

* Congratulations to David Johnson. The 7th round tight end out of Arkansas State caught his first career pass late in the 1st quarter. Good stuff David!

* I'll wrap this up for now, but a job well done by the Steelers defense against Adrian Peterson. AP had just 69 yards on 18 carries and was largely unable to do much against the stout Steelers rush defense. Peterson still had some nice runs and of course that beastly play in the passing game against William Gay, but you have to be impressed with the Steelers ability to contain him without Aaron Smith for the entire game and Lawrence Timmons for part of it. Kudos to guys like Nick Eason, Travis Kirschke, Ziggy Hood and Keyaron Fox for filling in admirably.

* Now it's Pittsburgh's turn for their BYE Week before heading to Denver to take on the Denver Broncos. I think it's a great time for the BYE. The team has lots to feel good about but plenty to work on. A little rest to heal up some aching bodies and then it's time for the second half of the season and hopefully another run at securing an AFC North crown and potentially even a 1st round BYE in this year's playoffs.

You know the routine. Let's convene and enjoy the seventh of our 17 to 20 precious weekends each autumn and winter when there's football.

Enjoy your Sunday at the game, with friends, family or God forbid, even at work.

Let's get that four straight W. Go Steelers!

Be blessed Steeler Nation.

More photos » by Jim Mone - AP

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It's a personal grudge-match for PZB; Steelers vs. the hometown Vikings. Far too many bets riding on this game, and perhaps it's because these are the two teams PZB hears about the most often, but it looks like two mirrored teams will be squaring off at Heinz Field. Both teams can make arguments supporting them having the best three-deep receiving corps in the league. Both have dominant edge pass rushers. Both have highly successful quarterbacks with reputations to gut out wins late. All signs point to this being a close one. Maybe it comes down to the kickers. At the very least, we know our kicker looks for fights as opposed to backing away from them.

Here's what our opponents are saying.

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Pardon the lack of posting the last day - busy day for me. Back to it though as Sunday's intriguing matchup between the Vikings and Steelers approaches. Earlier in the week we look at a pair of interesting matchups in the trenches - Jared Allen vs. Max Starks and Kevin Williams vs. the interior offensive linemen of the Steelers. There are plenty of other interesting individual and unit matchups, but because it's late in the week, I thought I'd instead just cover a broader and more random range of thoughts and notes about the upcoming game.

* The Minnesota Vikings have won 16 of their past 19 regular season games. That's pretty darn impressive. They've also won their last 8 regular season games. Considering that 13 of those past 19 regular season games came with either Tavaris Jackson or Gus Frerotte under center, it's pretty safe to say that Minnesota has put together a fairly well-balanced and talented team on both sides of the ball.

* The Vikings have also won their past six road games dating back to last year. Now granted, the three road wins for Minnesota this year have come against the Browns, Lions and Rams. But that still doesn't tarnish the accomplishment. It's not as tough as it once was, but it's nevertheless not an easy task to avoid having a slip up or two every so often away from home field.

* The Vikings offense is off to a torrid start - Minnesota has scored at least 27 points in all six of their games, and have eclipsed 30+ points in four of the six.

* Minnesota has faced two competent quarterbacks in 2009 - Joe Flacco of Baltimore and Aaron Rodgers of Green Bay. Flacco threw for 367 yards; Rodgers for 342.

* Jiminy Christmas - how good is Adrian Peterson? AP has led the league in rushing yards per game in each of his first two professional seasons (95.8 ypg in '07; 110 ypg in '08) and is on pace to for a three-peat in 2009 (104 ypg). I'll be watching nervously to see if James Farrior, Lawrence Timmons, LaMarr Woodley, James Harrison and Troy Polamalu are able to keep AP in front of them and not allow him to rip off any huge run(s).

* The top three completion percentages in the NFL through 6 weeks: 1) Peyton Manning (73.5 %)  2) Ben Roethlisberger (72.5 %)  3) Brett Favre (69.7 %).

* Brett Favre has never finished a season with a QB rating of 100 or higher. In fact, he's only had three season with a QB rating of 95 or higher. Big Ben meanwhile has three seasons with a 95 or higher QB rating, including one year where he eclipsed the century mark. Goodness, I love our quarterback.

* Since losing consecutive home games in the middle of last season, the Steelers have won 9 in a row at Heinz Field.

* The Steelers have the smallest point differential margin (+28) of any team that is tied for or winning their division through 6 weeks. That shouldn't come as any huge surprise - the Steelers haven't been able to blow any team out in quite some time (not counting Week 17 against the Browns last year), even though they are the defending champs and are sitting at a very respectable 4-2 thus far in '09.

* Phil Loadholt, meet LaMarr Woodley. The Vikings rookie right tackle has been pretty good so far for Minnesota, but he's a bit banged up and has been limited in practice for much of this week. Here's hoping Woodley has the breakout game we've been expecting out of him this coming Sunday.

* Bernard Berrian may lack the physical gifts of his teammates Sidney Rice or Percy Harvin, but it wouldn't surprise me if he has his number called quite a bit on Sunday. I'd imagine that William Gay will be defending him for much of the game and I'd expect the Vikings to call a lot of quick-hitting passing plays that don't allow the Steelers to really vamp up their pass pressure. Berrian may lack the explosiveness to burn the Steelers down the field, but he's more than capable of helping them grind out long drives and eat up precious game clock while Big Ben looks on.

Back to work for me. More soon.

Go Steelers!

More photos » by Don Wright - AP

I'm getting bombed tonight!

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On to our weekly red zone update post, sponsored by Comcast and their spiffy new Comcast's Red Zone Channel. If you don't mind, leave some commentary about the channel if you in fact have it. On to the numbers from this past week.

Week 6 Red Zone Efficiency:

4 Trips; 2 TDs, 2 FGs

2009 Cumulative Red Zone Efficiency:

21 Trips; 13 TDs; 7 FGs; 1 missed FG - 61.9 %  TD efficiency (-2.8%)  95.2 % scoring efficiency (+1.1%)

Not as successful a day for Big Ben and the Steelers offense this past Sunday. The two drives that ended with Jeff Reed field goals were the drives Pittsburgh had been finishing off the previous two Sundays. If they hope to knock off the Vikings and run their winning streak to 4 games, they'd be well served finishing off drives better than they did against the Browns in Week 6.

What an exciting weekend of football ahead of fans of the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Minnesota Vikings. Two of the NFL's most historic and storied franchises squaring off in an October showdown of teams with Super Bowl aspirations. I'm going to leave much of my analysis of the game for a bit later in the week, but I wanted to begin by laying out what some of the key matchups will be on both sides of the ball. From there, you all (and hopefully Vikings fans as well) jump in and lend your take(s). There's plenty of top shelf matchups in this one - both one-on-one as well as unit-against-unit.

We first looked at Jared Allen vs. Max Starks. 

Let's now move on to another pivotal matchup - defensive tackle Kevin Williams vs. the interior offensive linemen of the Steelers (Chris Kemoeatu, Justin Hartwig, Trai Essex). Defensive end Jared Allen gets all the publicity for his sacks and entertaining personality, but it's really Kevin Williams (and to a lesser extent Pat these days) that do much of the heavy lifting for Minnesota's defense clogging up running lanes and collapsing the pocket up the middle so that Allen can do his thing on the perimeter. Collectively, they make one heckuva front-four.

There's more.

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What an exciting weekend of football ahead of fans of the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Minnesota Vikings. Two of the NFL's most historic and storied franchises squaring off in an October showdown of teams with Super Bowl aspirations. I'm going to leave much of my analysis of the game for a bit later in the week, but I wanted to begin by laying out what some of the key matchups will be on both sides of the ball. From there, you all (and hopefully Vikings fans as well) jump in and lend your take(s). There's plenty of top shelf matchups in this one - both one-on-one as well as unit-against-unit.

Let's take a look, beginning with an important battle in the trenches between Minnesota's Jared Allen and Max Starks of the Steelers.

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