SteezBros in Vegas

The SteezBros will be in Vegas over the weekend for the game. The Steelers seem to play crazy postseason games when the SteezBros travel to Sin City. During the 2004 season, the Jets missed two game winning field goals, enabling the Steez to steal a win in overtime. During the 2005 season, Jerome Bettis fumbled. Enough said. At least, the Steelers won both games.

The family will be at the Bellagio sports book to watch the game on Sunday. I might be hiding in the hotel room.

Keep it in the family

The last time the Steelers won the AFC Championship at home was against the Indianapolis Colts in 1995. The quarterback of that team? Jim Harbaugh.

This week we play the Baltimore Ravens. The head coach? Jim's older brother John Harbaugh.

Here's to hoping we treat big brother the same way we treated Jim back in the 90's.

AFC Champs: Look to the QBs

The Steelers' struggles, especially at home, in the AFC Championship game are well documented. Since 1994, the team is 2-4 in the game preceding the Super Bowl. Frequently, the Steelers were favorites in these games and all of the losses helped to brand Bill Cowher as a big game choker. However, one needs not look much further than the QB match ups to realize that Pittsburgh was regularly outmatched at the most important position in the game.

1994: Pittsburgh vs. San Diego

QB matchup: Neil O'Donnell vs Stan Humphries

Pittsburgh was a double-digit favorite in this game at Three Rivers Stadium. Steelers TE Eric Green was so confident that he started discussions for a Super Bowl rap video. Midway through the 3rd quarter, Pit was leading 13-3 and the defense was suffocating Humphries and the Chargers. But, Humphries came back with two 43 yard touchdown passes and Neil O'Donnell couldn't get the ball to Barry Foster on 4th down.

Stan Humphries was a solid pro. His career was less illustrious than Neil O'Donnell, but neither of these signal callers would go on to hall of fame careers. The Steelers flat-out choked in this game.

1995: Pittsburgh vs Indianapolis

QB matchup:Neil O'Donnell vs Jim Harbaugh

A year after the meltdown at home against San Diego, the Steelers once again hosted the AFC Championship game. The Colts were on a miracle run of their own. They snuck into the playoffs with a 9-7 records, but Jim Harbaugh, Marshall Faulk, and company beat the Chiefs in Arrowhead Stadium to advance to Pittsburgh. Trailing 20-16 with five seconds left, the Colts had the ball at the Pit 29 with time for only one more play. Harbaugh's hail mary appeared to be caught, but was dropped at the last second by Aaron Bailey.

In another match up of crafty veteran QBs, O'Donnell survived against Harbaugh. The Steelers clearly had a better team, but Harbaugh had some magic to keep it close.

1997: Pittsburgh vs Denver

QB matchup: Kordell Stewart vs John Elway

Do I really need to explain? Kordell against Elway. A Steelers punch line vs one of the best of all time. The Steelers outplayed the Broncos, but couldn't overcome Kordell's mistakes. Kordell turns the ball over four times. Broncos advance and Elway wins his first Super Bowl.

2001: Pittsburgh vs New England

QB matchup: Kordell Stewart vs Tom Brady/Drew Bledsoe

At the time, Kordell was the more experienced quarterback. Little did we know that this quarterback mismatch is almost as lopsided as Kordell vs. Elway. The Steelers were clearly the more talented team, but thanks to two New England special teams touchdowns and a late drive by Bledsoe, after Brady got hurt, New England was able to pull it out. Kordell throws two late interceptions and the Kordell Stewart era soon comes to an end.

2004: Pittsburgh vs New England

QB matchup: Ben Roethlisberger vs Tom Brady

Big Ben was 14-0 in his rookie season, but he was still a rookie going up against a two-time Super Bowl champion. Roethlisberger threw 3 interceptions, while Brady was nearly perfect. Despite the loss, Steelers fans were excited to finally have a quarterback worthy of playing in a big game. But still, Brady vs Big Ben (and Belichick vs Cowher) was a mismatch too big to overcome.

2005: Pittsburgh at Denver

QB matchup: Ben Roethlisberger vs Jake Plummer

For perhaps the first time on this list, the Steelers finally have the better quarterback. Even though the team was on the road, the superiority of the quarterback made all the difference in getting the Steelers over the hump. Big Ben and Cowher get their first rings.

2008: Pittsburgh vs Baltimore

QB matchup: Ben Roethlisberger vs Joe Flacco

This match up clearly favors Big Ben and the Steelers. Ben is in his third AFC Championship game and is 6-2 in his career in the playoffs. Flacco is a rookie that's carried by a strong running game and a defense that forces turnovers. Who knows if we willlook back at this game as the start of a brilliant career by Flacco or if we'll look back and say that Pittsburgh won because of clear superiority at the quarterback position.

Praise for Coach Zierlein?

I'm normally a big fan of Mike Florio from the Sporting News and ProFootballTalk.com, but his recent article, 10 moves that shaped the Final Four, gives praise where praise isn't do (see below). Yes, the Steelers just played a great offensive game against the Chargers and the O-line played extremely well, but one good game doesn't erase a season's worth of poor coaching. Giving credit to Larry Zierlein for coaching the weakest link in our team is preposterous. We won in spite of our offensive line, not because of it.

8. Zierlein makes chicken salad.
With a suspect offensive line in 2007, the Steelers didn't do much to improve it in the offseason. Alan Faneca walked away as a free agent, and nearly $7 million was committed to underachiever Max Starks. The only new arrival was center Justin Hartwig, who at the time of his signing was viewed as an unnecessary luxury, given the presence of Sean Mahan. In the draft, the Steelers watched seven tackles go in the first 21 picks, doing nothing to move up from No. 23 to snag one of them.

So offensive line coach Larry Zierlein worked with what he had, and got them ready to play. When Marvel Smith was lost with a back injury, Starks was there to unexpectedly keep things moving in the right direction. And after beating out Mahan for the starting job at center, Hartwig anchored the line with 16 regular-season starts. Though the line allowed 49 regular-season sacks (fourth-worst in the league), they played their part in more than a few late-game victories, holding things together long enough to open up running lanes and/or buy time for quarterback Ben Roethlisberger to make key throws. So while what was expected to be a major weakness for the Steelers hasn't exactly been a strength, the offensive line under the leadership of Zierlein has helped, not hindered, the team's unexpected return to the brink of the Super Bowl.

Tough Decisions: Dissecting two controversial calls

Mike Tomlin made two controversial calls against the Chargers. Here we take an in-depth look at them both to see if Coach Tomlin made the right decisions.

Fake Punt on 4th and 1

The Situation: The game was tied at 7 midway through the second quarter. Both teams were struggling to move the ball. Pittsburgh faced a 4th and 1 near midfield.

The Decision: The Steelers attempted a fake punt. The ball was snapped to the up man, Ryan Clark. Lawrence Timmons pulled from the outside, but was too late to block the Ravens pressure up the middle. Clark lost 4 yards and the Chargers took over with great field position. After gaining one first down, the Chargers kicked a field goal to take the lead 10-7.

The Reasoning: Mike Tomlin talked about the decision after the game and explained that he wanted to send a signal to his team that he would play aggresively. Tomlin also wanted to give his offense a spark, since, up to this point, the offense had been held scoreless.

Our take: Typically, fake punts and trick plays are called around midfield. If they work, the offense is very likely to score points. If they don't, the defense has a chance to get a three and out without surrendering points. The Chargers were obviously prepared for the fake punt and it seemed like Tomlin made a poor decision with the call.

At this point in the game, the Steelers were winning the field position battle and the defense had held the Chargers offense to 22 yards in their previous four drives. Traditionally, the Steelers would punt and hope to get the ball back in good field position. It's not the aggressive play, but it certainly seemed to make sense at this juncture.

If Tomlin wanted to play aggresively to show confidence in his offense, I would have preferred that he went for it on 4th and 1 with the offense. The team had success early with the running game and was winning the physical battle. I think the better aggressive play would have been to send the offense on the field, not to try a trick play that hasn't been used all season.

Although the play failed and San Diego scored points, the Steelers offense played incredibly well for the rest of the game, scoring touchdowns on four of their next five possessions. The fake punt was widely criticized after the game, but Jason Whitlock at foxsports.com wrote this in his NFL Truths column:

Memo to Boomer Esiason: Mike Tomlin's fake punt worked.
Where Boomer Esiason saw an ill-advised fake punt, Jason saw a move that sparked the Steelers' offense. At the time of its implosion, I hated Tomlin's second-quarter fake punt. The Chargers blew it up and used the good field position to score a quick field goal. By the time Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh offense responded with their first scoring drive of the game, it was clear that Tomlin's gamble paid off.

Tomlin called the fake because he wanted to spark his stalled offense. Big Ben and the O had done nothing. The botched fake and three-point deficit created a sense of urgency that snapped Big Ben out of his funk. You could see that by halftime when Esiason wasted breath criticizing Tomlin for the risky play. Pittsburgh's offense was lethal after the fake punt

Goal line plunge on 4th and 1

The Situation: The Steelers were winning 21-10 at the start of the 4th quarter. The team had a 4th and goal at the 1, after Gary Russell was stopped for no gain on a 3rd and 1 run.

The Decision: Mike Tomlin decided to go for the touchdown and called a fullback dive with Carey Davis. Davis bobbled the hand off and was stuffed for no gain. The O-line got little movement, but Davis lost power when he tried to get a handle on the ball.

The Reasoning: A touchdown in this situation would have given the Steelers a virtually insurmountable 28-10 lead with one quarter to play. It was another example of Tomlin's aggresive nature. He was playing to win the game.

Our take: Typically, I'm a big fan of playing aggresive football on 4th and inches. But in this case, I was hoping for a more conservative approach. My argument was more about momentum than it was about aggresion. A field goal would have given the Steelers a 14 point lead with less than one quarter to play. At this point, the Steelers defense was well rested. The fans were loud. Momentum was clearly in our favor. I thought that a 14 point lead, with the #1 rated defense and an enthusiastic home-field crowd sounded pretty good with 14 minutes left to play. If the Steelers went for it and got stopped (not an unrealistic proposition since the team is 3-12 on 4th down), it would shift momentum and energize the Chargers team. I definitely endorsed the safe play.

However, unlike the fake punt, I don't think Tomlin made a bad call here. There were logical reasons to play for the touchdown. This was the aggressive call. A touchdown puts the game out of reach. He put trust in the offense and hoped that success would put the 4th down woes of the regular season behind them. Even if unsuccessful, San Diego gets the ball on the 1 yard line and has to drive 70 yards to even get into field goal range. So, the reasons for Tomlin's decision were there. I was just more concerned about momentum and running out the clock, than going for the jugular. In this case, I'll agree to disagree.

Even though Carey Davis was stopped short of the goal line (I strongly disagree with the decision to give Davis the ball), the defense stopped the Chargers, the Steelers got the ball back and subsequently scored the game icing touchdown.

Summary
Despite the failure of both play calls, I welcome the aggression from the coaching staff. This attitude served the team well and the offense came out with a confidence that hasn't been seen all year. Let's just hope the aggresive play calling against the Ravens is well calculated, as opposed to reckless.

Polamalu injured before Chargers game

It turns out that the reason Troy Polamalu had such a quiet afternoon on Sunday was likely because he was injured. This from the Post-gazette:

All-Pro safety Troy Polamalu has a calf injury and he will tread lightly in the early practices this week. Coach Mike Tomlin revealed today that his star strong safety was injured in pregame warm-ups Sunday. He was not introduced before the game with his teammates because trainers were attending to him. Tomlin did say that all indications are that he will be fine for Sunday's AFC championship game against Baltimore at Heinz Field.

Bring on the Ravens

After an embarrassingly long break, SteezBros is back for the playoffs. Hopefully, we can return as strong as the Steelers did on Sunday.

The Steez picked a good time for their best offensive performance of the year. There was a sense early in the game that things might be different for the offense when Bruce Arians called three consecutive run plays to open the game. The result: 22 yards and two first downs. Despite the rushing success, the offense was held scoreless until the very end of the first half due to repeated failures on third down. Big Ben led a 77 yard touchdown drive with less than two minutes left in the half, highlighted by an incredible 41 yard completion to Hines Ward. Pittsburgh got the ball back after halftime and proceeded to drive 66 yards, capped by an 8 yard Heath Miller TD reception, that effectively put the game out of reach at 21-10. The team added a Gary Russell TD and a late Willie Parker TD to finish off the streaking San Diego Chargers.

Count me as one of the many Steelers fans that didn't see this offensive outburst coming. The team looked like I hoped they would at the start of the season - a reliable running game, a play action passing game, and Big Ben regularly converting third downs. The reason for the success was undoubtedly the great play of the offensive line. The O-line has been the weakest link of this time all year, but they played like stars on Sunday. They repeatedly pushed around the Chargers defense in the running game. Ben Roethlisberger was only sacked once. The line wasn't confused by stunting defensive players and Mewelde Moore did a nice job in pass protection. Willie Parker also played one of his best games of the year, showing lateral quickness that has been missing since his he injured his knee and a willingness to run hard between the tackles.

I also want to give credit where credit is due. Bruce Arians, you called your best game of the year. You stuck with the run. You mixed formations. You called deep play action passes and stayed aggressive even with a big lead. You controlled the clock. You kept your QB clean, two weeks after sustaining a spinal cord concussion. You actually called two running plays on 3rd and and 4 (both would have worked, one was negated by penalty). Nicely done. Now please, if you want to save your job, put together a game plan for Baltimore that plays to this team's strengths.

Most importantly, Big Ben looked sharp. For one of the few times all season, Ben had a nice pocket and significant time to throw. He was accurate and decisive. The ball was coming out of his hand with more zip than I've seen all season and he threw several deep balls that were oh so close to being perfect. His best throw of the game was the deep ball to Nate Washington that resulted in a pass interference. Nate was double teamed, but the ball was placed so perfectly that had it not been for Eric Weddle grabbing Nate's arm, Ben would have ended up with a 220 yard, 2 TD game (which would have earned him some media publicity) instead of the 180 yard, 1 td game. If Ben and the offensive line play this well in the following weeks, this team will bring home its 6th Lombardi trophy.

IMO, the defense didn't play up to its unbelievably high standards. The defense showed little resistance to the Chargers opening drive that took 4 plays to score a touchdown and quieted the home crowd. After that drive, the defense tightened up and played better in the first half, only allowing a field goal that mostly resulted from bad field position. I know that the majority of the Chargers points and yards came in a meaningless 4th quarter, but I'm still worried that this defense peaked mid-season and is on the decline. There seemed to be openings in the passing lanes for Philip Rivers. The Chargers scored a quick TD after the Steelers took a 28-10 lead, when the defense knew that all it needed to do was force a time consuming drive. The Chargers points and yardage were further inflated with another meaningless touchdown drive later in the 4th. Rivers had more than 300 yards passing, the first time the Steelers allowed this all year. Keep in mind, this happend with San Diego's offense only playing for three quarters (the Chargers had one offensive play in the 3rd quarter). Ike Taylor struggled to cover Vincent Jackson and Chris Chambers.

On the positive side, the defense allowed only 15 yards rushing to Darren Sproles. It has also been rumored that Troy P. , who had a very quiet day, had a stomach virus and an injured calf, which would explain some of the weakness in the secondary.

Mike Tomlin did a nice job preparing the troops this week and held the team together after a fast start by the Chargers. The team played with intensity and was the only home team of the weekend that looked well rested, as opposed to rusty. The team also had a nice game plan that was more reminiscent of the 2005 Super Bowl team, than the 2007 version. Coach Tomlin has done a nice job all year. Let's see if he can have more playoff success early in his career than Bill Cowher did.

With the Ravens coming into town next week, I'm expecting a bloody battle between two hated teams. More to come this week.

Quick hit thoughts:

• Carey Davis is terrible. He is a poor blocking fullback, a poor runner, and brings nothing to the passing game. He was stopped one yard short of a first down on two receptions, gained nothing on another reception, and was stuffed at the goal line on 4th and one. Why did he get four touches this game?


• Who saw that punt return touchdown coming? It was a key play that changed the momentum of the game. My biggest fear for this game was the special teams match up. Turns out I was dead wrong. Although we did allow a long return to Sproles.=
• The advantage of having a bad punter is sometimes the punt will hit an opposing player in the head.


• Big game from Keisel. The week off must have done some good for his injured calf.


• The Steelers were stuffed again on 4th and goal from the one. Hopefully this doesn't kill us later in the playoffs.
  
• Willie Colon: is it that hard to line up on the line of scrimmage?
• Lamarr Woodley is back. Two huge sacks in this game. Although he might see a fine for his late slam of Rivers. I would disagree with the fine, but it was awfully similar to a fine he got earlier this year.


• James Harrison gets held more than any player I've ever seen. This is from Ben Riley, a writer for Football Outsiders and not a Steelers fan: : "Did anyone else notice that James Harrison was getting held on virtually every play in the fourth quarter? In fact, I don't think I saw a clean block on him the entire game."