The Steelers wrapped up their practice preparations on Friday and will now travel out west to take on the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday. The week ending injury report from Friday is out and as expected, defensive end Aaron Smith (foot), nose tackle Casey Hampton (shoulder), linebacker James Harrison (eye) and guard Doug Legursky (toe) did not practice and have been ruled out this week. Nose tackle Chris Hoke (neck) did not practice for a third straight day and is listed as doubtful. Steve McLendon will likely make his first start at nose tackle on Sunday regardless if Hoke dresses. Linebacker Jason Read more [...]

The Steelers Thursday injury report is out following practice and unfortunantly there are a few new names on it. Center Maurkice Pouncey (elbow), linebacker Jason Worilds (quad) and running back Rashard Mendenhall (knee) were all added today as being limited. Worilds is trying to fight back from the quad injury and apparently had a setback today. The Pouncey and Mendenhall injuries are new and happened today. Nose tackle Casey Hampton (shoulder), linebacker James Harrison (eye), guard Doug Legursky (toe), defensive end Aaron Smith (foot) all were out again today and not expected to play Sunday. Read more [...]

Below is the defensive participation chart for the Steelers week 6 game versus the Jacksonville Jaguars this past Sunday. Both Ziggy Hood and Brett Keisel were forced to play 58 non-penalty snaps each this week thanks to Chris Hoke going down early with a stinger. Hood is young enough to play that many snaps, but Keisel can not be expected to play that many snaps a game going forward and continue to be as effective as he has been up until this point. Steve McLendon logged 30 snaps after Hoke left. 15 of the 61 non-penalty snaps the Steelers were in the dime or big nickel if you want to call Read more [...]

It's Wednesday and that means the Steelers got their first official practice in today for the upcoming road game this Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals The first injury report of the week is out and it shows that defensive end Aaron Smith (foot), linebacker James Harrison (eye), nose tackle Casey Hampton (shoulder), guard Doug Legursky (toe), wide receiver Mike Wallace (hamstring), nose tackle Chris Hoke (neck) and wide receiver Hines Ward (not injury related) all sat out practice today. Smith, Hampton, Harrison and Legursky are all not expected to play this week. Hoke says he feels a little Read more [...]

I have gone back through the game to do my initial breakdown and start some charting. Here are my expanded observations not mentioned in the game recap of the Steelers win over the Jacksonville Jaguars. Up and down opening defensive series. LaMarr Woodley had key sack to stall the drive. At first I thought Mike Tomlin should have challenged the sideline catch by Jason Hill, but slowing it down, it would have been tough to over-turn. Great first series by the offense, good tempo, good blocking and good execution. Mike Wallace held block just long enough for Rashard Mendenhall to bounce outside Read more [...]

The Steelers started off good against the Jacksonville Jaguars, but could not put them away as the they escaped with a 17-13 win at Heinz Field today. Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was 12 of 23 on the day passing and missed several easy throws as he finished with 200 yards passing. His lone touchdown pass went to Mike Wallace on a 28-yard pass in the second quarter. Running back Rashard Mendenhall returned from a one game absence and had 146 yards on 23 carries and a touchdown. His afternoon also included a 68 yard run and did not looked bothered by his hamstring. The Steelers defense Read more [...]

Mike Tomlin held his post game press conference following the Steelers 17-13 win this afternoon at home against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Tomlin said it was great to get the win but not the type of finish they were looking for. Obviously they will take it. Tomlin acknowledges they did not play the style of football they like to play in the second half. Did not get off the field enough and gave them an extra possession on the roughing of the punter and the offense was not good enough on 3rd downs to sustain drives. Tomlin gave a post game injury update and said Doug Legursky suffered a dislocated Read more [...]

Not much to predict this week as far as inactives go against the Jacksonville Jaguars with 7 Steelers players listed as out on the Friday injury report. Let's have a look at the injured players, how long each may remain sidelined and who benefits by them being down. Here are your 7 inactives for Sunday. DE Aaron Smith - Smith suffered a mid foot sprain against the Texans back in week 4 and this will make the second straight game he has missed. The Steelers did not miss him last week as Ziggy Hood played well back on the left side as Brett Keisel returned last week to take back over his right Read more [...]

The Steelers wrapped up practice preparations on Friday for their Sunday home game at Heinz Field against the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Friday injury report is shaking out pretty much as expected as defensive end Aaron Smith (foot), linebacker James Harrison (eye), guard Chris Kemoeatu (knee), nose tackle Casey Hampton (shoulder), linebacker Jason Worilds (quad), tackle Marcus Gilbert (shoulder) and running back Mewelde Moore (ankle) have all been ruled out on Sunday. Doug Legursky will start in place of Kemoeatu once again at left guard, Lawrence Timmons will start in place of Harrison at right Read more [...]

Steelers punter Daniel Sepulveda joined 93.7 The Fan yesterday to talk about the fake punt against the Titans this past week as well as what happened on the blocked punt later in the game. While we are talking punters, former Steelers punter Jeremy Kapinos worked out for the Jaguars this week, but was not signed. Kapinos reportedly has also worked out for the Patriots and Ravens since his release following the preseason. Chris Hoke was also on the radio this morning to talk about the his performance against the Titans ad the improvement in the run defense this past week. He gives his keys to Read more [...]

Below is the defensive participation chart for the Steelers week 5 game versus the Tennessee Titans this past Sunday. The Steelers really mixed things up this week due to the injuries. The first thing that jumps out is that Chris Carter got on the field this week for 15 non-penalty plays. Lawrence Timmons flipped over to left outside linebacker for some work in addition. Surprisingly, no Stevenson Sylvester snaps. Chris Hoke got all of his good days work done on just 26 plays. Ryan Mundy saw a season high 45 snaps thanks to the dime package Dick LeBeau used this week. Brett Keisel returned Read more [...]

After the game against the Texans, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin did not mention the shoulder injury suffered by nose tackle Casey Hampton during his press conference and also omitted him last Tuesday as well when he met the media. It was not until last Wednesday when Hampton showed up on the first injury report for the Titans game that Hampton had something wrong with him. I wrote it off as just needing a day off, but Hampton went on to miss Thursday and Friday in addition and was subsequently ruled out for the Titans game. Chris Hoke filled in admirably for Hampton against the Titans and Read more [...]

Season 2, Episode 28 of The Terrible Podcast is up and David Todd is back in the lead chair and we get right into the Steelers 38-17 win over the Tennessee Titans yesterday at Heinz Field. David was at the game and fills me in on the atmosphere at the game before we start breaking it all down. We talk extensively about the big spark that Chris Hoke, Max Starks and Isaac Redman provided yesterday and how the yardage gained by Redman was deceiving. We were both worried about Hoke after the first play from scrimmage, but he rebounded to have one of the best games of his career. We not the big return Read more [...]

I just finished up going through the game again and below are more observations from the Steelers 38-17 win over the Tennessee Titans this afternoon. I understand the reason why Mike Tomlin put the defense out on the field to start the game but I do not agree with it. I get the message he is sending, but really would rather the offense take the ball instead. Just saying. The defense got off to a rough start on the very first play by the Titans as Chris Hoke was cut block and Chris Johnson went off left tackle for 21 yards. It was 1 of only 3 explosive plays allowed on the day however and Read more [...]

The phrase of the week was, "hacked off" and the Steelers played just that way in their 38-17 win against the Tennessee Titans today at Heinz Field. The Steelers established the run early and mixed in various short passes on their way to compiling 435 yards of total offense. Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger threw a career game high 5 touchdown passes with two going to Hines Ward and one each to Mike Wallace, Heath Miller and David Johnson. On the afternoon Roethlisberger was 24 of 34 for 228 yards. His lone interception came late in the first half on a hurry up play that looked full of Read more [...]