The Pro Football Writers All-NFL Team was announced today and Pittsburgh Steelers center Maurkice Pouncey and safety Troy Polamalu both made the team. Pouncey and Polamalu also earned Pro Bowl selections for their play in 2011 as well as first-team All-Pro honors. Below is the PFW/PFWA 2011 All-NFL team OFFENSE QB Aaron Rodgers - Packers RB Maurice Jones-Drew - Jaguars RB LeSean McCoy - Eagles WR Calvin Johnson - Lions WR Wes Welker - Patriots TE Rob Gronkowski - Patriots C Maurkice Pouncey - Steelers OG Jahri Evans - Saints OG Carl Nicks - Saints OT Jason Peters Read more [...]

There are just 5 days left in the 2011 Pro Bowl voting and the latest update of votes shows that Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Mike Wallace has fallen out of the top 10 since we last updated on December 1st. Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger remains in the top 10, but has slipped down to 10th place in overall votes with 745,835. Center Maurkice Pouncey still leads the AFC center voting with 301,423 votes and safety Troy Polamalu leads the AFC safety voting with 191,550. Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers leads all vote getters with 1,263,045 votes and New England Patriots quarterback Read more [...]

There are 3 weeks of Pro Bowl voting left now and Steelers wide receiver Mike Wallace is 8th overall in total overall votes with 575,821. He is second in the AFC receiver race behind Wes Welker of the Patriots. Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is right behind Wallace in overall votes in 9th place with 565,378 votes received. He is however behind the Patriots Tom Brady as far as the AFC quarterback voting goes. Brady has 873,424 votes. Center Maurkice Pouncey leads the AFC center race with 228,297 votes and safety Troy Polamalu leads the AFC safety position with 146,989 votes. Make sure you Read more [...]

The offensive line breakdown report from the Sunday night game against the Baltimore Ravens is now complete and I had to even do this twice because of the tremendous grades that I gave the first time through. This was by far the best the offensive line has played as a unit all season and the best against the Ravens in some time. All 5 starters scored in the 90% range and that is just unheard of. The sack allowed on 3rd down however in the redzone can't be ignored though as it was a huge play in the game and the Steelers had to settle for a field goal because of it. Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger Read more [...]

The game release for the Steelers game against the Colts is up in PDF format on steelers.com and these are always good pre game reading. The Steelers defensive participation chart against the Seahawks is up as well as the offensive line breakdown report from the game. Practice squader Dorin Dickerson announced on Twitter he would be having thumb surgery today and that explains him being placed on the practice squad injured list. The Ravens on Tuesday reached agreement on a five-year, $61 million deal with defensive tackle Haloti Ngata. Tuesday was the deadline for a deal or Ngata would Read more [...]

The last pack of stats I have for the Steelers 35-7 loss to the Ravens in week 1 are the passing and rushing stats of the various personnel packages that the Steelers used on offense this past Sunday. As you can see in the stats below, the Steelers did not have much success passing the ball with 4 or more wide receivers in the game which was 19 plays. Combined on those 19 plays, Ben Roethlisberger was 6 of 14 for 73 yards with 1 interception, 1 touchdown. He was sacked 4 times and scrambled once. Of course the other 2 interceptions did not help his other stats with at least 1 running back and 1 Read more [...]

It was not pretty to watch several times, but below is the offensive line and blocking report for the Steelers 35-7 loss on Sunday to the Ravens. The Ravens defensive front might be one of the best in the league and they are solid at holding the point of attack against the run that allows the linebackers to make plays. They kept heavy pressure on passing downs and disguised blitzes and stunts very well. Here we go with a player by player breakdown from week 1 and their grades. TOTAL POSPLAYER PLAYSGOOD BAD% GOOD LT Jonathan Scott 614615 75% LG Chris Kemoeatu 615110 84% C Read more [...]

I did not get too many of my observations in the game recap yesterday as I wanted to go back through the game a few times to pick it apart more. I watched it again a few times last night while doing some charting and here are a few notable observations and not many of them are earth shattering as to what my eyes saw live. The pass rush on the edge was just not there and the Ravens did a great job picking up the blitz with all everything fullback Vonta Leach and the young Ravens tight ends also blocked much better than I thought they would have. You can not give any quarterback that much time Read more [...]

The Steelers lost Sunday 35-7 to the Baltimore Ravens in week 1 of the 2011 season and it was not pretty. The Steelers offense turned the ball over 7 times and the defense allowed 6 explosive plays of 20 yards or more in the loss. The Ravens tight ends and running back Ray Rice caused havoc for the Steelers on the day as Rice rushed for 107 yards and chipped in another 42 yards in catches. The Ravens tight ends had 7 catches for 104 yards and one touchdown on the day and Anquan Boldin added 4 catches of his own for 74 yards and a touchdown. Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco finally got a win against Read more [...]

The Steelers have not had great overall success as a whole running the ball on the Baltimore Ravens this year, but have managed to split the 2 games against them this season. In the two games this season, the Steelers have averaged just 2.79 yards per carry this season on 48 carries by a running back, as shown in the table below. All of the limited success the Steelers have had on the ground against the Ravens has come by running to the right. Steelers Rush Offense Against Ravens In 2010 Total vs Ravens TOTAL Left End Left Tackle Left Guard Middle Right Guard Right Tackle Right Read more [...]

Below is the play by play break down of the offensive line from the Sunday afternoon week 14 game versus the Cincinnati Bengals. It is merely a pass or fail grade on if I think the lineman did his job or not. It also should be noted that we go under assumptions that we know what the assignment on each play was and sometimes it is not obvious. We have to grade on what we see and go from there. We added small notes to each play as well. As always if you disagree with any play, do so respectfully in the comments and give your reason so I can go back through and re-watch your disagreement. Although Read more [...]

Several have asked for a recap of the offensive line rankings through the first 3 quarters of the season that is now in the books. Our offensive line rankings are the most read weekly post that we put out and we continue to bring what you request. Below you will see we first brought over the half way totals from this post here after 8 games. Below that are the totals though all 12 games thus far in the 2010 season. Below that is the game by recap of the total scores of each lineman that are ranked by best to worst game. You can click on each opposition link to go that particular grading page from Read more [...]

The Steelers allowed 3 sacks Sunday afternoon against the Baltimore Ravens and we have the breakdowns of all of them below in animated gif form. If you click on any of the images, you can see the full size replay on NFL.com. If you missed are offensive line breakdown grading against the Ravens, you can read the grades here. On the 1st sack and famous broken nose sack, Haloti Ngata attacks the A gap between Ramon Foster and Maurkice Pouncey after Pouncey looks to help left, first. Flozell Adams has his hands full with a speedy Terrell Suggs, but the damage is done by Ngata and Suggs just helps Read more [...]

NFL PR guy, Greg Aiello has confirmed that Ravens linebacker Jameel McClain has been fined $40K for his hit on Steelers tight end Heath Miller in last nights game. Also being fined is Ravens nose tackle Haloti Ngata, who will be docked $15K for a hit on Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger that resulted in a broken nose for Roethlisberger. Neither player was penalized on the field for either hit. Both fines were termed illegal blows to head of a defenseless player. Read more [...]

Below is the animated gif that links to the video replay of Ravens Haloti Ngata sacking Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger as he hits him in the face, giving the QB a bloody and perhaps broken nose. Baltimore was not flagged on the play and Ben returned the next series and never missed a snap. The medical staff did a great job getting the blood flow stopped in a hurry. Read more [...]