This week the Pittsburgh Steelers (7-3) travel to Ralph Wilson Stadium to play the Buffalo Bills (2-8) in what looks to be a very uneven match-up. The Bills are coming off a huge come from behind win against Cincinnati last week. While the Steelers simply embarrassed the visiting Raiders last week…even with 163 penalty yards working against them. Jump for our Week 12 predictions.
no comments(Note: Apologies for the weird update schedule lately. There have been problems with emails getting to and from each of our writers and we've lost an article or two, including this past week's pick'em standings. On top of that, Bam is taking a well-deserved vacation of sorts so we're down one administrator. We should have everything fixed up by the end of the week. -Brian.)
Ever since Jeff Reed’s struggles became noticeable this season, and especially with the news that he was released, I started wondering how well a replacement kicker actually performs, and whether Reed was performing worse than that. This post is the result.
The most tedious thing about a study like this is creating the data set. I went to Pro Football Reference (one of the best sites out there for traditional football stats) and compiled a list of all the kickers for the past six years that played a partial season and were not injured (checking for “not injured” led me to Wikipedia, which comes with the usual grain of salt, but I think I used common sense). Thus, I had a list of all the kickers from 2004-09 that either performed poorly or replaced either a poor performer or an injured kicker. Jump it for the chart and analysis!
no commentsNormally you don't have such a bad taste in your mouth after a 35-3 win. If you know anything about me, it's that I do my best to give referees the benefit of the doubt when it comes to questionable calls. But there was no question about the officiating today. The Steelers were not supposed to succeed in the eyes of Tony Corrente and his crew of referees. There is no other way to describe this, other than that the NFL is targeting the Steelers' brand of football as illegal or dirty. But this game also serves as my basis for not blaming referees for a loss, because in the absolute worst-officiated game we've seen ever, the Steelers were still dominant and won the game. If there were ever a game that was determined by bad calls, this would have been it, but it did not deter the Steelers. It would be nice to see the league come out again and rescind most of those calls like they did after the Bengals game, but what's done is done. The Steelers know they are a target for officials and the fans know it just as well.
Oh wait, I forgot the Steelers pay all the referees and get every call in every game. Jump for the recap.
no commentsTopics for this week's podcast:
Pats/Steelers beatdown
Gay love for Tom Brady
Jeff Reed's collapse
Music: Girl Talk - All Day
no comments
Today Steeler Nation bids farewell to their second-leading scorer in franchise history, trailing only Gary Anderson. We all have opinions about Jeffrey Montgomery Reed, most of them negative, but he still deserves recognition for what he has done with this franchise.
Reed had been known as "Mr. Dependable" at time during his career, making a name for himself by kicking field goals at Heinz Field for his entire career. It used to be that #3 would trot onto the field for a guaranteed 3 points. The past year or two will diminish his reputation in Pittsburgh, between his lack of production on the field and his alcoholism off it, but in the scope of history, he was still the kicker on two Superbowl teams and was named special teams captain year after year.
Unofrtunately, Reed's abilities appear to have faded. His kickoffs almost never make it inside the 10 yard line, he's missed 7 of 22 field goals on the season, and after the Patriots game, he let loose on, well... everything.
In case you didn't want to click that link, Reed talked to the media and blasted the turf, the fans, and the media. He says "if you're not perfect in this city, you're gonna hear about it." He's been complaining about the turf for 9 years, "but it doesn't matter." It does help that everything you read is negative, which is the media's fault.
It's a press conference like that that creates problems. How do you expect support when you talk about the fans like that? And you don't have to be perfect, but you can't be abysmal. And Reed has been. Anyone who was booing him was right to do so. When you make nearly $3 million to kick a ball, you should be able to swat a sparrow out of the sky with it. Or at least hit a giant square target from 50 feet away.
Jeff's little media meltdown coupled with his terrible performance this year (and last) have opened the door for Shaun Suisham, a ho-hum kicker from the NFC East with a career FG% of 79.1%. He'll be taking over the kicking duties for the rest of the season, and then the Steelers will presumably draft a new kicker this April.
I'd go into more detail about Suisham, but he's a kicker. We'll see what he's made of on Sunday when he gets his shot to Heinz Field's new golden toe.
no comments
Tom Brady and Bill Belichick simply own the Steelers. It doesn't matter who the supporting cast is around the duo. It doesn't matter if they were easily beaten by the Cleveland Browns last week. It doesn't matter if it is 2002 or 2010.
The faces change, but the game plan doesn't. Brady got rid of almost every pass quickly and accurately and picked the Steelers apart during a 39 to 26 win which was a lot more lopsided than the final score indicated. Anytime the Patriots ran the ball, they were doing Pittsburgh a favor. Brady could have put up 50+ points in this game if they went full-throttle for 60 minutes. This was the most points the Steelers have allowed in a game since the 2004 AFC championship game which was against...New England.
Even if the Steelers had limited Brady, it wouldn't have mattered. The offensive line was putrid and Ben Roethlisberger was a bit wild with his throws while the game was still within reach. At half, Brady had completed nearly 75 percent of his throws while Roethlisberger was muddling along at 35%. Hines Ward was knocked out of the game early as well with a head/neck injury. When they were able to move the ball, they stalled inside the 10 yard line, a surprise to no one. Jeff Reed even missed a chip shot field goal to pour salt into the wound. The fact that the Steelers were simply outclassed by a team that started 4 rookies on defense and gave up 34 points to the Cleveland Browns last week is pathetic. The Steelers have some serious issues on the offensive line right now and things aren't likely to get better anytime soon.
Lest I forget the coaching in this one too. Belichick might have cheated earlier in his career, but he clearly outcoached the Steelers in every phase of this game. The Steelers have more talent than the Patriots by a decent margin, but they couldn't match the intensity that New England had from the opening kickoff and the Steelers adjustments didn't seem to start working until Heinz Field was 3/4 of the way empty.
Jump the page for 10 other thoughts on the loss... no comments
This week the New England Patriots (6-2) come to town to face the Pittsburgh Steelers (6-2) in a game that is sure to have playoff implications, as well as putting the winner in great position to contend for home-field advantage throughout. Continue reading to see what our writers have to think bout his game and the rest of the Week 10 games. no comments
We exchanged some questions this week with Ricky over at Foxboro Blog. Our answers to their questions are posted over there. Jump it to hear Ricky's thoughts on the Pats gameplan for Sunday night, James Harrison and much more.
no comments
We've talked for a long time about doing a podcast and a couple of days ago we decided to just dive in. Here's the first edition of the Blitzburgh Podcast. We're still tinkering with audio quality and some of the technical stuff, but at least know we've got the ball rolling. A list of the topics are below.
1. Look back at Steelers win over Bengals on Monday Night2. Handing out some midseason hardware for Steelers MVP and worst player through 8 games
3. Non-kickers handling PAT duties: which Steelers would we call on?
4. Look ahead to Steelers/Pats
5. Are Thursday night games unfair?
Music for this week is "Computer" by State Shirt.
no commentsThis screengrab is two or three weeks old, but it comes from Chad Ochocinco's Facebook page. I have no problem at all with Ocho and think he's hilarious. He'a apparently a fan of Troy Polamalu too. He recently asked fans of his Facebook page to "like" Troy's page as well. Their Bungled response is below.
no comments
