It's a tough Monday to be at work. Between the holiday's and a big Monday night matchup between the Steelers and 49ers, I'm betting plenty of Steelers fans will have issues focusing today. With that in mind, here are 10 thoughts I have on tonight's matchup between Pittsburgh and San Francisco on Monday Night Football.
1. It looks like Ben Roethlisberger will play. This is good and bad. I think winning tonight and hopefully clinching a first round bye in the playoffs is important. But it's not worth injuring the $100m QB over. Assuming the Steelers get the 5th seed in the AFC, the first round matchup shouldn't be too difficult. They are likely playing the AFC west winner. If Big Ben is getting beat up early and often and too injured to scramble, I'm taking him out.
2. The 49ers gave up pass plays of 60, 53 and 46 yards last week against John Skelton and the Arizona Cardinals. The gameplan will likely call for Roethlisberger to get rid of the ball quickly, but San Francisco is beatable deep.
3. San Francisco has injury issues of their own. Patrick Willis, the best inside linebacker in the game, didn't practice all week and is likely out tonight. LT Joe Staley hasn't practiced with contact all week after suffering a concussion last week. Looks like he might go though.
4. The 49ers have allowed 18 sacks in the last three games. While it would be nice to have James Harrison available (especially if Staley is out), look for LaMarr Woodley to have a big game.
5. Alex Smith's QB ratings the last three games: 61.1, 142.3, 62.3.
6. Here's a whale of a tidbit: San Francisco hasn't allowed a rushing touchdown yet this season. They are the league's top defense against the run. The Steelers don't rely on the run too much anymore and don't expect that to change tonight.
7. Pittsburgh has been potent on their first offensive drive, scoring touchdowns in six of their opening posessions. Again, the 49ers haven't allowed an opening drive touchdown all year long.
8. 49ers with ties to Pittsburgh: TE Nate Byham, LB Navorro Bowman, CB Shawntae Spencer, P Andy Lee.
9. Even if the Steelers lose tonight, they could still win the division. The Steelers finish the year playing two cupcakes: St. Louis and Cleveland. Baltimore plays Cleveland and then ends the year at Cincinnati. The Ravens have been an awful team on the road for much of the year and could easily lose that season finale against a Bengals team that will likely be playing for a playoff berth.
10. Prediction: 49ers 20 Steelers 14
Great stuff from Ed Bouchette today on the Steelers and former Pitt coach Todd Graham:
The Steelers practically threw a party when they heard that Pitt coach Todd Graham quit. That goes from the top to the bottom, from those who work in the offices to the coaches and every-day workers who came into contact with Graham and his staff in the building.
They described Graham as an arrogant man who had no use for anything the Steelers might have offered, and they say he resented having to share the building and the indoor practice field at the UPMC complex with them.
While the Steelers and Panthers had always shared the same cafeteria at the UPMC complex, Bouchette said that Graham put a stop to that, creating a new cafeteria for Pitt on the other side of the building. Graham worked extra hard to not take advantage of Pitt's great setup with the Steelers, who are happy to help the local college team in any way they can.
Former University of Pittsburgh head football coach Todd Graham has jumped ship for the gig at Porn Star Arizona State University. Graham, in one season with the Pitt Panthers, went 6-6 while dealing with players he didn't recruit trying to run an offense he wanted to run, plus a bunch of injuries at key positions.
Well, that isn't good enough for Graham, and he has officially jumped ship for all the hotties in the desert. Citing the "best interests of his family," Graham broke up with his team via a mass email. Breaking up over text, yeah, that's classy.
The current state of Pitt football is unknown. Is Tino Sunseri really a terrible quarterback? He made strides under Dave Wannstedt (who was probably right all along) and not just hit a wall, but completely combusted under Graham. Who was at fault for that? Sunseri obviously wasn't Graham's ideal QB (hence Graham's open dislike of him) but you can't totally absolve the coach of that kind of drop-off either. When you comebine Tino's decline with the season-ending injury to Ray Graham, plus the generally banged up offensive line, there was really no way Pitt was going to succeed this year anyway.
And rather than recruit some players and try to rebuild a team in a city that would rabidly support one, Graham
left his 6-6 mess for another 6-6 mess in Arizona. And he was already en route to Tempe when he broke the news. At least Rich Rodriguez called a meeting and told his staff face-to-face.
I can only fault Graham so much, though. After all, the weather is really nice in Arizona in the winter. They probably aren't as scrutinized as a team as football in western Pennsylvania is. There are usually some nice... sights to see in the area. (Pictured: A google image search for ASU)
In recent seasons with Dave Wannstedt at the helm, the Panthers were mired in mediocrity. Wannstedt is a solid coach and an excellent human being. He respected his players and the Pittsburgh native and Baldwin High School alum brought a mentality to the game that Pittsburgh fans could identify with. Unfortunately, a Power-I standard formation can't compete with today's high speed college football landscape. What was successful in the NFL in the 70s doesn't work in college today. That ended up costing Wannstedt his job.
When Graham came to Pitt, it was on the heels of the Mike Haywood scandal. Panther fans everywhere were desperate for anyone who would come in and bring some stability to the program. And Graham looked like the man for the job. He came to Pitt talking a big game, saying he was going to run his trademark "high octane" offense. Lots of spread formations, quick passes, lots of scoring. We were excited. We were ready for change.
It didn't work out. Graham didn't get the level of quarterback play he needed, and he wasn't shy about pointing it out to the media. RB Ray Graham was the beacon of hope for the Panthers all season until he tore up his knee during a game on some weeknight. Without a fearsome running game, defenses could focus on shutting down Tino Suneri, and with the state of Pitt's offensive line as the season wore on, that was really no challenge. Tino took a beating on the field and in the media. As fans looked forward to the arrivals of Chad Voytik and Rushel Shell, Graham was secretly looking forward to getting out of Pittsburgh.
Now with Graham gone, Pitt will look to hire their 4th coach in 3 seasons. What candidates are out there? A ton. We aren't college football experts here, so I'm casting my vote for Thomas Jefferson High School head coach Bill Cherpak, because I can. For actual serious analysis on Graham and his potential replacements, check out our Bloguin friends, Pitt Script Blog.
After today's announcement that James Harrison will be suspended one game for his helmet-to-helmet hit on QB Colt McCoy, I'm convinced the league has a personal vendetta against James Harrison.
Harrison is the first player to get suspended for a tackle since the Packers' Charles Martin got two games for a hit on Bears QB Jim McMahon in 1986. It's been 25 years since we've seen a suspension like this.
It's Goodell's first suspension for something that happened during play.
While I believe Harrison's hit is worthy of a flag and a fine, the reason he is being suspended has more to do with how he acts off the field than anything else. In the offseason, Harrison called Goodell a "crook and a puppet" and said "I hate him and will never respect him." Harrison has also been unapologetic for many of his hits. He didn't believe he did anything wrong when he hit McCoy last week.
Until the NFL starts suspending other players for hits, there will be a double standard in my mind for any of Harrison's greivances. The NFL has made him the poster boy for "dirty players" and they have wasted no time in strengthening that image this season. The McCoy hit was Harrison's first personal foul of the year. It's also a type of hit that happens several times a week in the NFL. Yet the NFL feels the hit, combined with Harrison's history, is the worst offense during a player committed in the NFL during the last 25 years.
This reminds me of the NHL's suspension of Pittsburgh Penguin F Matt Cooke last season. Like Harrison, Cooke was made the poster boy of dirty by the league. He was suspended 10 regular season games and 7 playoff games by the league late in the year for a hit against the New York Rangers. It was one of the longest suspensions in NHL history and unheard of at the time. The NHL, though, said it was the beginning of a new era in headshot enforcement so Penguins fans accepted the penalty, assuming it would be called evenly across the board.
Of course, that wasn't the case. The league went back to handing out short suspensions of a game or two while Cooke missed an eternity and watchted the Penguins fall during the opening round of the playoffs from the press box.
Most football fans and national media will praise the suspension today. Harrison obviously doesn't care about being fined and has shown no remorse. The only way to get through to him is to make him sit out a game, right? Not when you look at the history of the league. Players just don't get suspended for illegal tackles. If this is the beginning of a new era, so be it. Yet I would wager you won't see any other players suspended for a tackle the rest of 2011. Probably not in 2012 either. It might be another 25 years.
If it was any other player on any other team making that hit on McCoy, the punishment is likely a light fine. With Harrison and the Steelers (the only team to vote agains the current CBA), the penalty is the most severe in over two decades. There is a double standard.
Most Steeler fans would qualify as "James Harrison apologists." We're included in that. We don't think Harrison is going out onto football fields hoping to give someone a concussion or break somebody's neck. But Roger Goodell (along with most of the NFL) perceives him as a dirty player.
And Roger Goodell's perception has earned James Harrison a one-game suspension. It's the first suspension for a player making a "football play" (i.e. not intentionally stomping on or injuring an opponent) since 1986.
This marks the first time Goodell has suspended someone for on-field behavior, with Ndamukong Suh being suspended for stomping on a fallen lineman, and James Harrison's latest headshot will make him the first player to be suspended for something that happens between the whistles.
We all saw during Thursday's game, Harrison's big hit on Colt McCoy's face. McCoy had slipped out of the pocket and looked like he was going to run for the first down, before flipping the ball off to his running back. Harrison was already coming in for the hit. And he connected. Now, my first reaction was probably the same as yours. "McCoy was a runner! He looked like he was going to run with the ball! You can hit him!"
Like we said, we don't think James Harrison goes out with the intention to injure other players. But he also doesn't tackle responsibly. He should know by now that officials are going to get him for even the slightest infraction. If you're James Harrison, you have got to change the way you tackle. You simply can't go high on a player. You can't go for that big, dramatic hit. You have to learn to wrap up and tackle. The same thing goes for Ryan Clark.
James Farrior can do it. Troy Polamalu can do it. Brett Keisel can do it. Harrison needs to learn to do it. He hasn't yet, and he hasn't shown that he will. When Matt Cooke was suspended through the end of last hockey season, he watched film on himself and others to see what he was doing wrong. He changed his game. He stopped elbowing guys in the head. Harrison needs to do that. He needs to take a look at the tackles he makes and he needs to understand why they are dangerous.
That's what this suspension is about. It isn't a suspension because of the hit he put on Colt McCoy. It's a suspension for the hits he's put on everyone. On McCoy, on Brees, on Brady, on everyone. Harrison has made a lot of hits to head areas and he hasn't shown any willingness to stop. As much as we want to defend the man, it's time that he stand up and do something so that we don't have to.
Adam Schefter tweeted this today:
The NFL is considering suspending Steelers LB James Harrison one or two games for his helmet-to-helmet hit on Browns QB Colt McCoy.
There was some chatter earlier in the weekend that the NFL would determine that Colt McCoy had established himself as a runner and the helmet-to-helmet contact rule did not apply. I was expecting Roger Goodell to come down hard on Harrison, given the pair's history.
Another interesting comparison is Ndamukong Suh, a repeat offender who was suspended for two games after stomping on an opponent. I don't think anything that Harrison has done warrants the same same kind of punishment as purposely trying to injury an opponent after the whistle.
This had all the makings of a trap game. Or it would have, if we all didn't remember a stunning loss to the Browns on Thursday Night Football in 2009. After both teams scored on their opening drives, you settled in for a back-and-forth struggle for a win in the standings. Little did you know it would be the last scoring you'd see until Antonio Brown changed the headlines from "William Gay preserves the win" to "Steelers' offense shuts down the Browns." Jump for the recap. no comments
There's so many different storylines to talk about after this game. It's funny, because everybody (myself included) expected this to be a stinker of a game.
Ben Roethlisberger injured his ankle in the 2nd quarter and it looked like his season may be over. But in typical Roethlisberger fashion, he was somehow back on the field to start the 2nd half after x-rays were negative. He couldn't step into throws or scramble, but he found a way to help the Steelers scratch out enough offense to hold off the Browns and get a win.
Roethlisberger connected with Antonio Brown for a 79-yard TD pass that sealed the game with 2:52 left to go in the 4th quarter. It was a beautiful catch and run by Brown, who completely turned around and then outran the Browns secondary.
It was a great play that would have never happened if it wasn't for an even bigger one by William Gay. The oft-maligned Steelers corner continued to play big in clutch moments when he intercepted a Colt McCoy pass in the endzone with the Browns threatening to take the league with under 4:00 to play. Gay knocked a ball down in the endzone earlier as well. Another huge night for him.
Coming into the game, Cleveland's rush defense was ranked 30th in the league in DVOA and the Steelers did a great job of pounding away at them, especially after Roethlisberger's injury. The tandem of Rashard Mendenhall and Isaac Redman went well over a combined 100 yards, though Mendenhall and the running game failed to score on four straight attempts from the 1-yard line in the 3rd quarter.
It was another "ugly win" for Pittsburgh, but given Roethlisberger's injury, it was great to see the Steelers come back and grind out their 10th win of the year.
A few other notes:
-B- Heath Miller had two catches on the night. He's now tied with Steeler great Elbie Nickel for the lead in all-time catches by a Pittsburgh tight end with 329. The Steelers tried a couple of times to get the ball to Miller a third time, but one catch was nulified by a holding penalty on Chris Kemoeatu and another pass Miller's way ended up being Roethlisberger's lone interception on the night. I was hoping he would get the record tonight, as the Steelers are away next week.
-B- Speaking of Kemoeatu, he saw a lot of action tonight after Maurkice Pouncey left with an injury. It was a horrendous showing for 68. I'm not sure the Steelers can continue to play him. Too many penalties.
-B- James Harrison was flagged for a helmet-to-helmet hit on McCoy in the 4th quarter and it was deserving. Harrison is going to get a huge fine too, I'm sure.
-B- Troy Polamalu had a typical Polamalu game. He misread a few coverages, but he also intercepted McCoy on a great read early on in the game. It was his first of the season.
-B- Steve McLendon is a heck of a football player. His mentor, Chris Hoke, must be proud.
Tough times at Heinz Field right now. Ben Roethlisberger appears to have injured his left ankle after getting sacked by the Browns' Scott Paxson in the 2nd quarter. The lower part of Roethlisberger's leg was rolled up on by Paxson and bent in a way that it isn not supposed to.
Roethlisberger walked off the field with assistance and wasn't putting much, if any, weight on his left leg. Backup QB Charlie Batch replaced him. 
Update:
Video of the hit has found it's way online as well...
Update 2:
Alex Flanagan from NFL Network reports that Roethlisberger had x-rays taken on his ankle and they came back negative. The Steelers still don't know the extent of the injury though. Probably won't for a few days. She also reports that Hines Ward is the Steelers backup QB in the 2nd half.
Update 3:
Now this is remarkable. Roethlisberger is playing in the 2nd half...after that. He's back!
-B- First off, if you are in Pittsburgh, you should be trying to go to the game tonight. The combination of a Thursday night kickoff, Pens/Flyers and a 'poor' matchup against the Browns has ticket prices around $60 lower than average. Our boys at TiqIQ can hook you up with some solid deals on E-Tickets.
-B- Mike Mayock on Colt McCoy:
"I think the thing I've been frustrated with and it's not really just about Colt, it's more about what's happening offensively, is that by my notes, 55 of the 70 throws have been within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage. Eight of them were between 11 and 20 and seven were 20 or more. I think it's really hard to evaluate a quarterback when he's not making the downfield throws."
Mayock also points out that McCoy is lacking a true deep threat, which makes it that much harder on him to throw the ball down field. The Steelers have Mike Wallace and Antonio Brown. Torrey Smith is a potential star in Baltimore. And the Bengals have AJ Green.
Interetingly enough, one of McCoy's favorite guys to throw to downfield is a familiar name to a lot of Steeler fans: Penn State grad Jordan Norwood.
-B- Here's a pretty far out there thread on if the Steelers should pursue Cleveland's Peyton Hillis as a replacement for Rashard Mendenhall in the offseason. You probably already know my thoughts on that.
-B- Good tidbit: McCoy is 0-7 in his career agains the AFC North.
-B- Cleveland's defense is around league average in pass defense DVOA (14th), but are 30th against the run. The Steelers haven't had a 100 yard rusher in several weeks (though, to be fair, Mendenhall hasn't had to do a ton of work lately either.) Tonight might be a good night to really establish a running game and get some momentum going on the ground. Nobody would be surprised if this one gets out of hand early so I'd suggest starting Mendy on all of your fantasy teams.
