It is the final game of the 2011 regular season for the Pittsburgh Steelers as they look to beat the Cleveland Browns before they head into the playoffs. A Steelers win combined with a Baltimore Ravens loss or tie against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday would give them the AFC North title along with a first round bye. As I do every week, here are my 7 things to look for against the Browns as the Steelers look to finish the regular season at 12-4. Also included is my score prediction for the game. Healthy Hillis - Last week St. Louis Rams running back Steven Jackson ran for 103 yards on 24 carries Read more [...]

Below are the Pittsburgh Steelers coverage stats for their week 16 Saturday shutout win against the St. Louis Rams at Heinz Field. These stats are broken down by play and include down and distance, line of scrimmage, direction, yards gained, yards after catch, personnel the offense used, defensive package, number of pass rushers and whether or not the defense blitzed on the play. The pass defense in this game was as close to perfect as it gets and the longest completion of the 9 by Rams quarterback Kellen Clemens was for 17 yards and 12 of those 17 came after the catch on the pass to running Read more [...]

Although the play did not end in a sack, it was fun to watch Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison almost get a sack of Rams quarterback Kellen Clemens by using left tackle Adam Goldberg to do it with. Below is the breakdown of the play in pictures that shows just how strong Harrison is. Remember that Goldberg goes about 6'7", 305 lbs and Harrison around 6'0", 242 lbs. Roughly 7 inches and 63 lbs difference in the two. The situation is a 3rd and 7 from the rams 40 yard-line with 5:36 left in the first half. The Steelers are in their nickel defense and will rush 5 on the play as linebacker Read more [...]

The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the St. Louis Rams 27-0 Saturday at Heinz Field and improved their record to 11-4 on the season. I have made it back through the game again twice and here are my further observations from the game not included in the regular game recap. The opening stop of Rams running back Steven Jackson by Troy Polamalu, as he blew by the attempted block of wide receiver Danario Alexander, set the tone for the type of day he would have. Polamalu finished the game with 6 total tackles, second most on the team. he was all over the field Saturday. Ike Taylor would have had the Read more [...]

The Pittsburgh Steelers notched their second shutout of the season on Saturday at Heinz Field with their 27-0 win over the St. Louis Rams. The win moves the Steelers to 11-4 on the season and they remain in second place in the AFC North after the Baltimore Ravens held off a late charge by the Cleveland Browns today. Veteran quarterback Charlie Batch, who started in place of the ailing Ben Roethlisberger, was 15 of 22 passing on the day for 208 yards in the game. He had just one interception on the day on a ball intended for wide receiver Antonio Brown. Both Batch and Brown had slips on that Read more [...]

It seems like the Pittsburgh Steelers just returned back from blacked out San Francisco and now they must turn around quickly, lick their wounds and host the 2-12 St. Louis Rams today at Heinz Field. Starting quarterback Ben Roethlisberger will not start this game due to his bad left ankle, but could be in uniform just in case of emergency. The Rams are a very depleted squad and that certainly will be just what the Steelers need on a short week. As I do every week, here are my 7 things to look for against the Rams as the Steelers look to move to 11-4 on the season along with my score prediction. No Read more [...]

Season 2, Episode 59 of The Terrible Podcast is up and with David Todd lost out in Las Vegas after attending the Monday night game against the San Francisco 49ers, Nick Richetta takes over the co-host chair for us. Nick and I get right into the Steelers Thursday injury report as they get ready to take on the St. Louis Rams Saturday at Heinz Field. I get the thoughts of Nick as they relate to the status of Ben Roethlisberger and the other injured Steelers players going forward. I share my reasoning of why the Steelers might play Ben as it relates to possibly earning a higher seed in the AFC and Read more [...]

The Steelers 2011 season kicks off this Sunday and I have purposely waited until now to post a game by game quick look ahead at the Steelers 2011 schedule. The free agent moves and final roster cuts have taken place around the league and it provides a much clearer look at where teams are at that the Steelers will face this year. I will not go too much into depth with each game and will try to capsulize each. So many things can change the further you get into the season and you never can predict injuries that may occur along the way. With all of those disclaimers out of the way, here is a quick Read more [...]

John Clayton had a story that caught my attention the other day on ESPN.com in which he was trying to convey the notion that teams facing true 3-4 defense need bigger backs to get the job done on the ground. Clayton did preface this by saying, "To beat a 3-4 defense on the ground you need a bigger back, or at least a runner who can break arm tackles." I wanted to take a look myself at the running backs and fullbacks that ran against true 3-4 defenses in 2010 and see how accurate the big back compared to smaller back theory holds up. Clayton notes that 15 teams ran 3-4 schemes last season, but Read more [...]

The writing was on the wall that running back Willie Parker would go the way of free agency after the 2009 season. The Steelers had already anointed Rashard Mendenhall the starter and Wille still thinks he has what it takes to be a starter in the league. Parker, however has gotten the cold shoulder since the start of free agency. He had a visit with the Redskins early in March and was scheduled to visit Kansas City before Thomas Jones signed last week. The Redskins since have opted to sign Larry Johnson as well. Now on Thursday, FWP is scheduled to visit St. Louis. The same St. Louis where another Read more [...]