Ernster Cut, Berger Back

The Paul Ernster cut watch is over. The Steelers have re-signed Mitch Berger and parted ways with Ernster. We went from one punter who could only kick it 30 yards to a punter that has two bad hamstrings. Also check out some facts you may not have known about our D-Coordinator, Dick LeBeau, courtesy of Peter King:

1. His 171 consecutive starts at cornerback for the Detroit Lions between 1959 and 1972 is an NFL record.

2. He played pickup basketball at Ohio State with Bobby Knight, who has called LeBeau one of the 10 finest athletes he has encountered in his life.

3. He served as a stunt double for Michael Caine in a 1970 war movie called Too Late The Hero.

4. He calls his 95-year-old mother, Beulah LeBeau, in London, Ohio, every day.

5. He had holes-in-one seven days apart.

Tendencies on 3rd and short

One of my biggest pet peeves about this Steelers offense is it's tendency to be in the shotgun on third and short. Blitzburgh, at Behind the Steel Curtain, analyzed the Steelers tendencies on 3rd and short. His post is so good I copied it below:

I had to investigate the Pittsburgh Steelers tendencies on 3rd and short yardage situations. It seemed to me that we threw the ball ALL the time on 3rd and short, but I wasn't entirely positive. So it was a bit tedious, but I went through the play-by-plays of every game this season and charted what we did each time we faced a 3rd down with 2-4 yards to go. Why did I selected 2-4 yards? Well, I thought it was the appropriate range. Even the most passy happy teams run on 3rd and 1 first of all. And while I think an occassional run should be sprinkled in on 3rd and 5-6 type situations, I think we all generally agree that that's a passing down.

But in the 2-4 yard range, we're basically just needing to get our very modest season average of about 3.5 yards per carry to get a new fresh set of downs. I tried to summarize all the data both in the headers and in a table below so no need to make any sort of calculations for yourself. I did that, and when you see what Bruce Arians has been up to on 3rd and short this year, you may just grow some even stronger opinions about the way our offense has been managed in certain regards and at certain times this year.

WEEK 1 (1 run, 3 passes):
3-4-HOU46(9:09) (Shotgun) B.Roethlisberger scrambles right end pushed ob at HST 29 for 17 yards (Z.Diles).


3-3-HOU22(7:10) (Shotgun) B.Roethlisberger pass short middle to S.Holmes to HST 13 for 9 yards (J.Reeves).


3-2-PIT39(3:07) B.Roethlisberger sacked at PIT 27 for -12 yards (M.Williams).


3-2-PIT28(6:15) W.Parker right tackle to PIT 32 for 4 yards (CC.Brown, Z.Diles).


WEEK 2 (0 runs, 3 passes)
3-4-PIT25(12:04) (Shotgun) B.Roethlisberger pass short right to S.Holmes pushed ob at PIT 41 for 16 yards (E.Wright) [M.Adams].


3-2-PIT49(10:18) B.Roethlisberger sacked at PIT 40 for -9 yards (sack split by C.Williams and N.Sorensen).


3-4-CLE30(8:11) (Shotgun) B.Roethlisberger pass incomplete short left to S.Holmes (E.Wright) [S.Rogers].


WEEK 3 (0 runs, 4 passes)
3-4-PHI45(6:38) (Shotgun) B.Roethlisberger pass short left to H.Ward to PHI 39 for 6 yards (L.Sheppard).


3-4-PIT39(7:49) (Shotgun) PENALTY on PHI-M.Patterson, Defensive Delay of Game, 5 yards, enforced at PIT 39 - No Play. (Shotgun = about to pass)


3-3-PHI49(6:00) (Shotgun) B.Roethlisberger sacked at PIT 45 for -6 yards (J.Parker). FUMBLES (J.Parker) [J.Parker], RECOVERED by PHI-B.Bunkley at PIT 45. B.Bunkley to PIT 45 for no gain (H.Miller).


3-2-PHI13(1:08) (Shotgun) B.Leftwich sacked at PHI 22 for -9 yards (sack split by D.Howard and D.Klecko).


WEEK 4 (0 runs, 3 passes)
3-2-BAL47(10:24) B.Roethlisberger pass short middle to N.Washington to BLT 35 for 12 yards (C.Ivy).


3-4-BAL38(4:17) (Shotgun) B.Roethlisberger pass short middle to S.Holmes for 38 yards, TOUCHDOWN.


3-3-PIT37(2:51) (Shotgun) B.Roethlisberger pass short left to M.Moore to PIT 43 for 6 yards (B.Scott).


WEEK 5 (0 runs, 2 passes)
3-3-JAC20(12:49) (Shotgun) B.Roethlisberger pass incomplete deep right to M.Moore.


3-3-PIT43(4:40) (Shotgun) B.Roethlisberger pass short left to N.Washington to JAX 45 for 12 yards (B.Williams). PENALTY on PIT-N.Washington, Unsportsmanlike Conduct, 15 yards, enforced between downs.


WEEK 7 (1 run, 2 passes)
3-3-CIN3(:51) B.Roethlisberger pass incomplete short right to H.Miller.


3-2-CIN44(10:02) B.Roethlisberger pass short right to M.Moore to CIN 44 for no gain (J.Joseph). FUMBLES (J.Joseph), ball out of bounds at CIN 45.


3-3-CIN13(8:36) M.Moore left end for 13 yards, TOUCHDOWN.



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Peter King: Give the ball to Gary Russell

Peter King, at CNNSI.com is demanding that Gary Russell gets the damn ball. In his Monday Morning QB column, King mentioned Russell, the current short-yardage back, twice. Here is what he wrote:

5. Pittsburgh (8-3). The only thing that can stop this team is its running game. Or lack thereof. If I'm Mike Tomlin, I'm giving Gary Russell some important carries Sunday in Foxboro. What a month the Steelers have coming up: at Patriots, home vs. Cowboys, at Ravens and Titans. They'll never make it with the kind of running game we saw Thursday night.

I think this is what I didn't like about Week 12:
a. Willie Parker looks like he's running scared. He ran tentatively against those mighty Bengals, tiptoed into holes and actually shied away from a big hit against Rashad Jeanty. A worrisome display for the Steelers, who should be playing feisty backup Gary Russell. Parker's dancing first-half runs Thursday night: 1, 0, 1, 4, minus-2, 1, 0, 6, 3, 1, minus-1. He's obviously favoring his bum shoulder and hamstring.

With Parker's injuries, I can't say that I disagree with King, but I think the offense should have some sort of rotation between Parker, Moore, and Russell. If Willie is healthy, he should get the bulk of the carries. But, if he continues to dance into the holes, Moore and Russell are capable of being productive players. I'd like to see Russell in some I-formation looks with McHugh as full back (not happening in an Arians offense) and Mewelde Moore in the spread looks. Let's just give Willie a light load until he heals.

And the Paul Ernster cut watch continues:
b. Paul Ernster should have been cut at halftime. Steelers would have been wiser to use James Harrison, that prize special-teamer, as the punter Thursday.

Ocho Cinco Deactivated

Chad Ocho Cinco has been deactivated for the game tonight according to ESPN. This is going to significantly hamper the small amount of momentum the Bengals were riding coming off the tie of the Eagles (at 1-8-1 any non-loss is great). The cold weather and flurries should help the 1-1-1 Steelers D. That is #1 overall, against the run, and against the pass. The Steelers are going to stop Benson and try to make Fitzpatrick and his perfec t Wonderlic Test beat them. I'll take Troy and Co. Troy has been a beast again this season. Also Silverback and Woody should have a big night due to injuries on the Cincy O Line. The only thing our D is missing is turnovers. We do not have enough of them although we did have a couple last week. Maybe this can be the game that our Offense finally finds a rhythm. Heath should play after missing a couple games from a high ankle sprain. This is a lingering injury and don't expect him to be 100 percent, but he is a premier tight end. Bruce Arians and Larry Zierlein need to be fired. There is no excuse that our offense is not in the top 10 in the league. Arians is getting a little better and we need to execute better but these assistant coaches stink. The Steeelers should win easy tonight, maybe not as big as last time but I say 27-6 Pittsburgh

Run to the left

I was sifting through some data at Football Outsiders and took a look at the offensive line statistics . The methodology seems quite complex and there are certainly items during a football game that cannot be quantified, but the stats paint a picture of the effectiveness of the guys in the trenches.

Unsurprisingly, the Steelers offensive line ranks 24th in run blocking and 30th in pass blocking. The O-line might be slightly better if the team wasn't without its best running back for most of the season and didn't have a quarterback that holds onto the ball too long. That said, these rankings are pretty consistent with what I've seen watching the games. One of the categories FO uses to rank O-lines is called "Stuffed." It's basically the number of run plays that go for negative yards or don't gain a first down on a 2nd (or 3rd or 4th) and short. (This is very simplified. Go to the site for exact calculation.) The Steelers are stuffed on 30% of its running plays, which is good for 31st in the league, ahead of only the Philadelphia Eagles.

The other statistic that interested me was the success of running plays by direction. When Pittsburgh runs left, it gains 5.65 adjusted yards to the left end (a run outside the tackles) and 4.77 yards to the left tackle. Both are in the top ten in the league. These figures are by far superior than running to the middle (3.91), to the right tackle (3.36), and right end (3.53). This is unsurprising. The Steez best run blockers are Max Starks and Kemo, who anchor the left side of the line. Kendall Simmons and Willie Colon are pretty terrible on the right side, where we struggle to run the ball. Darnell Stapleton is better than Simmons, but isn't a powerful run blocker. Among hard-core Steelers supporters, this is pretty much common knowledge. So based on these statistics, you would think the majority of carries would go left, behind the strength of the line. Well, you would be wrong. Right now, only 17% of carries are going left. 56% are going up the middle. 27% are going to the right.

Here is my attempt at reasoning why we run more to the right than to the left. Arians knows that the left side of the line is better. He knows that our opponent knows that our left side is better. Since the opponent knows, he should run to the right to surprise them. This seems to me to be Arians model of thinking. He would rather try to surprise than play to the teams strengths.

Replay Rules about to be changed

Per PFT and many other sources, changes are most likely coming to the NFL Replay System as a result of the last play in the Steelers-Chargers game Sunday. Anyone that saw the play was sure it was a touchdown. I still don't understand the ref's explanation for why it was called back. The change will allow the referee to return to the replay booth a second time if they still aren't sure about the call. As for the Steeer-Charger game, I think they should be allowed to retroactively change the score to what it would have been had the TD been allowed. (Full disclosure, I was affected in a handicapper league that uses spreads. I am sure there are a lot of gamblers that would appreciate a score change as well. Vegas would not.) In this instance, it was the last play of the game, the outcome was not affected, why not get it right whenever possible. Earlier in the season we had a botched call that did effect the outcome in the SD-Denver game. Some may argue that you would need to go back and change that score as well. However, you could not go back and change the score for that game. That play happened with some time left and plays happened afterward that still could have won the game for either team.

Look for these changes to take effect for the playoffs.

MCFAGG IS A RETARD

It's official. I always knew it but McNabb is retarded. Not only was he dumb enough to not know the rules of the league but he was also stupid enough to tell the media he had no clue and then made the comment of "... I would love to see what happens in the Super Bowl or the post season." Really? No, honestly? Wow. This shows what the state of the Eagles is. Fat Bastard should have his players completely prepared for every situation and clearly he doesn't. But then he doesn't know his kids are heroin addicts either. This obviously would affect the way McNabb played in the extra period and maybe the Eagles would have gotten a much needed victory if he knew the rules. The sad part is that he was in the league for the last tie. If I were in the Eagles upper management I would be very upset that I am paying someone millions of dollars to control my team that doesn't even know the rules of the game. Pitiful.