The New York Giants and the New England Patriots square off tonight in Super Bowl XLVI as both teams look to capture their 4th Super Bowl championship. The game is also a rematch of the week 9 game earlier this season that the Giants won 24-20. It also is a rematch of Super Bowl XLII that the Giants won 17-14. Below are a few keys to the game along with my prediction. I have had a change of heart since my initial prediction in the Thursday podcast. Enjoy the game. The Gronkle - Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski will play despite his injured ankle. How effective Gronkowski is in regards to both Read more [...]

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 [...]

Steelers wide receiver Jerricho Cotchery joined 93.7 The Fan yesterday to talk about his expanding role on the team, how Hines Ward has helped him and how he likes running the no-huddle offense. I had Scott Brown once again on the latest episode of the Terrible Podcast and we talked about Ward, Emmanuel Sanders, Cameron Heyward and Al Woods along with several other Steelers players and topics. Wright Thompson of ESPN The Magazine has a great piece on displaced Steelers fans down in Houston and how they stay connected. Wide receiver Mike Wallace is currently ninth overall in Pro Bowl voting Read more [...]

The Steelers are 6-2 at the half way point of the 2011 season so I thought it would be fun to hand out some mid-season awards before they take on the Ravens tonight. I was going to post these Friday night, but thought it would be fun to poll Steeler Nation first to see what they think as opposed to just putting up my selections. Here are the links to all the polls I put up and I have my selections and reasoning below for each in addition. Best Offensive Lineman My Choice - Max Starks - Many would think this is a slam dunk award for center Maurkice Pouncey, but since Starks has returned, the Read more [...]

Here we go again! Steelers Ravens re-match and I do not think this game will let down the prime-time viewership. The Ravens really took it to the Steelers back in week as they ran away with a 35-7 win. The Steelers did not help their own cause in the game by turning the ball over 7 times. So many things have changed since week 1 as the defensive line has a different starter and the offensive line has 3 different pieces. The Steelers have key linebacker injuries, but also get back a few linebackers that have been out a while. Should the Steelers win this game, it will give them a firm 1 game lead Read more [...]

Below are the Steelers coverage stats for the week 8 Sunday afternoon game against the New England Patriots. They 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 big thing that sticks out this week is how good the defense did for the most part at not allowing many yards after the catch against a team that has made a living off it this season. On 24 completions the Patriots had 91 yards after the catch, Read more [...]

I have gone back through the Steelers game against the New England Patriots now a few times and jotted down some more observations that I did not include in the post game recap. I do this every week as it is impossible to see everything just one or two times through a game. Many will judge off of a stat sheet and it is what sets this site apart from the rest as we actually watch the games more than just one time. Here we go. The Patriots were so protective against the long ball early on that is opened up the middle of the field for Heath Miller and Ben Roethlisberger took it. The Steelers Read more [...]

Week 8 is here and it is indeed Patriots week as the Steelers come back home to Heinz Field to host the New England Patriots. The Steelers will once again be without James Harrison, Doug Legursky and Chris Hoke this week, while Hines Ward and James Farrior are looking less likely to play by the hour. While not a must win game for the Steelers, it certainly will not hurt things if they were to win this week and settle the score next week against the Ravens. It would give them the inside track at winning the AFC North based on the remainder of the schedule. As I do each and every week, here are my Read more [...]

Season 2, Episode 36 of The Terrible Podcast is up and Nick Richetta joins me again on the podcast as my co-host David Todd is trapped in an airport tonight on his way back to Pittsburgh. We open the preview of the New England Patriots game with a look at the injury report and whether or not it matters if Hines Ward sits down this week with his ankle injury. We both agree that if he does, that Emmanuel Sanders and Antonio Brown should be able to pick up the slack along with Jerricho Cotchery. Ben Roethlisberger and Bruce Arians probably have not been able to sleep all week thinking about the Read more [...]

The New England Patriots head into the Sunday game against the Steelers with a league best 350.5 passing yards a game average and they are tied for second in the league with a 9.1 yards per attempt. Lost in all of those great stats are the yards after the catch that the Patriots have racked up in 6 games this season. Of the 2,163 passing yards that quarterback Tom Brady has amassed this year, 993 have come after the catch. This is 46% of his passing yards this season. Leading the way of course in YAC for the Patriots is Wes Welker. Welker leads the NFL through week 7 with 392 yards after the Read more [...]

Season 2, Episode 35 of The Terrible Podcast is up and David Todd and I come at you smack dab in the middle of Patriots week. We actually open up by talking about the Ravens Jaguars game Monday night and how the Ratbirds do not look as scary right now as they did after beating the Steelers back in week 1. We move on to discuss the injuries headed into the game and discuss a few things Mike Tomlin hit on during his press conference on Tuesday. We look back and give some closing thoughts on the game last week against the Cardinals and start discussing the New England Patriots game this coming 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 [...]

It did not take Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger to recover as a fan favorite as he is ranked 5th overall in jersey sales according to new data released by NFLShop.com from the period running from April 1-Aug. 30. Troy Polamalu is the top rated Steelers player in jersey sales as he finished 3rd overall behind Aaron Rodgers and Clay Matthews of the Packers. In total there are six Steelers players in the top 20 as Hines Ward, Mike Wallace, James Harrison and Rashard Mendenhall also made the list. The Steelers edged out the Packers in overall jersey sales with the Cowboys finishing 3rd overall Read more [...]