The Steelers head out west this week to take on the Arizona Cardinals after skating past the lowly Jaguars last week at home. Several key players remain out in Casey Hampton and James Harrison. Doug Legursky is also now sidelined in addition with a dislocated toe. The offense needs to keep their foot on the gas this week and the defense just needs to keep up what they have been doing the last few weeks. As I do each and every week, here are my 7 things to watch for this week against the Cardinals as the Steelers look to move to 5-2 on the season and come back home to Pittsburgh for their tough Read more [...]

Below are the Steelers coverage stats for the week 6 Sunday afternoon game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. 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. Outside of a few plays the Steelers pass defense was once again solid against rookie quarterback Blaine Gabbert allowing just 109 yards on 25 attempts. Ike Taylor gave up the touchdown to Jason Hill and almost gave up another big play had Gabbert Read more [...]

The Steelers have released two new versions of the Myron Cope Terrible Towel. One is Spanish version and the other a Halloween version. That Halloween version better not include the color orange. William Gay joined 93.7 The Fan yesterday to talk about the win over the Titans and what they’re looking to accomplish going forward. He also keys us in on positional meetings. Dale Lolley checks in with a good article on Antonio Brown and the weapon he has become on special teams as a return man. Ken Laird has the transcripts up from the Bruce Arians, Dick LeBeau and Al Everest sessions with Read more [...]

Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin was asked today during his Tuesday press conference about the unnecessary roughness penalty early in the game on safety Ryan Clark after a false start was called on Titans tight end Craig Stevens. Tomlin replied, "Your guess is as good as mine. I'm still trying to figure that out. I know that Byron Boston, who was on our bench, was blowing the whistle, but I don't know if any other whistles were being blown and that runner was running. It's unfortunate; we've just got to do a better job of continuing to emphasize the whistle in the game of football in my opinion." Read more [...]

Below are the Steelers coverage stats for the week 5 Sunday afternoon game against the Tennessee Titans. 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 Steelers pass defense was solid as they used quite a bit of dime in passing situations. On non-penalized plays, the Steelers allowed 29 completions on 49 attempts for a 59% completion percentage. While they gave up 262 yards passing, the defense Read more [...]

Steelers defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau had a great scheme on Sunday against the Tennessee Titans and he made sure it featured his best play maker in the lead role. I suggested in my 7 things to look for article that the Steelers should utilize Troy Polamalu down in the box more against the Titans in hopes of providing some run support and help out against the short routes of a tight end or a running back scheme. What LeBeau ended up doing was to break out the dime package (big nickel) and use Polamalu more as a dime back/linebacker on Sunday. The Steelers played their normal base defense 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 [...]

The Steelers return home on Sunday to play the Tennessee Titans after being on the road the last two weeks. The Steelers injury report is long with 4 starters already ruled out and a 5th one is possible depending on the status of Rashard Mendenhall. As I do each and every week, here are my 7 things to watch for this week against the Titans if the Steelers want to win the game. At the bottom is my score prediction and I will have my week 5 picks and predictions up for the other games later tonight. Run Red Run - At the time I write this, Mendenhall is still questionable with a hamstring injury. Read more [...]

The week 4 game against the Houston Texans figures to be one hell of a game and the Steelers will be forced to win minus two more starters on the offensive line as right guard Doug Legursky and left tackle Jonathan Scott are both listed as out on the Friday injury report. As I do every week, here is my weekly prediction of the 7 man inactive list for this week and due to the injuries and mid-week news, there is not much guessing that needs to be done this week. The official inactives will be released 90 minutes before kick-off and I will have those posted on site immediately after they are announced Read more [...]

The NFL TV distribution map for week 4 is up and it looks like most of the country will get the Steelers Texans game this week courtesy of CBS. Ken Laird has the transcript up from his Thursday Q & A with Steelers offensive coordinator Bruce Arians. Arians talks about how many big plays he usually has scripted for wide receiver Mike Wallace and also discusses the offensive line injuries, the strip sack play that was returned for a touchdown and the running back rotation. Mark Kaboly reports that cornerback Bryant McFadden has been running some routes at wide receiver to really test out the Read more [...]

Mark Kaboly is reporting via Twitter this afternoon that Steelers cornerback William Gay will once again get the start this Sunday at left cornerback against the Houston Texans in place of Bryant McFadden. Keenan Lewis will come in at the outside spot in nickel packages and Gay will slide inside to the nickel cornerback spot as he has done the last several weeks. McFadden seems to have lost his spot altogether after being hampered all season by a hamstring injury. Kaboly stated that McFadden will not play at all so that could mean he will be inactive for a third straight week. According to the Read more [...]

Below are the Steelers coverage stats for the week 3 Sunday night game against the Indianapolis Colts. 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. It is evident that the pass defense was good last night as they allowed less than a 50% completion rate and less than 4 yards per attempt. Ike Taylor was once again stellar as he was targeted 12 times and allowed just 3 catches on the night. There Read more [...]

Week 3 is upon us and the Steelers go on the road this week to play the Indianapolis Colts Sunday night. The final injury report of the week was released on Friday and I will now make my weekly prediction of the 7 man inactive list for this week. The official inactives will be released 90 minutes before kick-off and I will have those posted on site immediately after they are announced in the press box. QB Dennis Dixon - Not a tough one here as Dixon has been inactive for the first two games thus far this season. Ben Roethlisberger practiced fully all last week following the knee injury he suffered Read more [...]

The Steelers wrapped up their preparations on Friday for the Sunday night game against the Indianapolis Colts at Lucas Oils Stadium and have released their week ending injury report. Defensive end Brett Keisel (knee) did not practice again on Friday and has been ruled out for Sunday. Ziggy Hood will start in his place and rookie Cameron Heyward will back up Hood. Center Maurkice Pouncey (hamstring) practiced fully for the second straight day on Friday after being limited on Wednesday and is officially listed as probable. Pouncey should be able to go Sunday night baring a setback. Running back Jonathan Read more [...]

Season 2, Episode 20 of The Terrible Podcast is up and David Todd and make up for the short one Wednesday with a full hour today. We open with our Thursday interview with Phil Wilson, the Colts beat writer for the Indianapolis Star. Phil gives up his thoughts on the Sunday night game and tells it like it is. He updates us on the Colts injury situation and how he sees the Steelers attacking on both sides of the ball. Make sure to follow him on Twitter at @pwilson24 and read his pregame coverage on his blog at http://blogs.indystar.com/philb/. We thank Phil for the do-over as our Wednesday interview Read more [...]