Late afternoon games suck. Not only was the general Pittsburgh viewing area subjected to Cleveland's high-flying 6-3 win over Seattle, but by the time it was over you were so disillusioned with football that you almost weren't interested in the Steeler game. But let's be real, it's a Steeler game, and all Steeler games are a good thing.
*Disclaimer: I assume the Cardinals are made up entirely of Kevin Kolb, Larry Fitzgerald, and people who were last relevant in like 2006, like Joey Porter, Clark Haggans, and Todd Heap, because the time zone difference makes them think it's four years ago there.
The Steelers were at home resting last night, but they still came away with a big victory. The lowly Jacksonville Jaguars pulled of a miraclous win at home over the Baltimore Ravens. The Jaguars didn't score a touchdown, completed only 9 passes and fumbled the ball 4 times.....yet the Ravens could only muster 7 points of their own and lost 12-7.
The Ravens loss puts them in a virtual tie with the Steelers and the upstart Bengals -- all three teams only have two losses.
Baltimore fans have to be frustrated. The Ravens played one of their best games in years against Pittsburgh in week one, but have played two awful games since against Tennessee and Jacksonville. They also have blown out a couple solid teams -- Houston and New York Jets. Week to week, the Ravens seem to be a completely different team. Both of their losses have been on the road and their only road win is against the Rams. That bodes will for the Steelers/Ravens tilt at Heinz Field in a couple of weeks.
I tend to nitpick and get frustrated with the Steelers when they play poorly and win. The games against Indianapolis and Jacksonville are two good examples. But watching an AFC heavyweight like Baltimore drop two winnable games definitely makes me rethink the Steelers 'ugly' wins.
Pittsburgh has their share of problems: injuries galore, lack of a consistent running game and an awful turnover margin. But the Steelers are no more flawed than Baltimore or New England or San Diego or any other AFC team at this point in the season. After one of their worst performances in nearly three decades to start the year, the Steelers really are in great position at this point in 2011. If they can win 2 out of the next 3 games, the Steelers will likely control their own destiny the rest of the way. I'll take that.
Time for a preview of today’s game in Arizona using all the advanced statistics I can find. First, here’s a recap of last week’s win over Jacksonville. There are two links below: the Advanced NFL Stats win probability graph/box score and QuantCoach’s coaching stats for the week.
Steelers 17, Jaguars 13
Coaching Stats
Ben Roethlisberger led the Steelers with 0.32 Win Probability Added, Lamaar Woodley was second with 0.22, and Brett Keisel was third with 0.13. Woodley led with 6.0 Expected Points Added, with Mike Wallace (5.3) second and Rashard Mendenhall (4.5) third. Daryl Smith led the Jaguars in WPA with 0.12, and Paul Posluszny led in EPA with 4.7.
The gap in coaching was a lot more than the gap in score. The statistic representing how well the Steelers offense coached vs. the Jaguars defense ranked 8th, but the statistics representing how well the Steelers defense coached vs. the Jaguars offense was by far the best of the week. The Steelers dominated the game, it just didn’t show up in the final score because of the “prevent offense” the Steelers seemed to run.
Follow the jump for all the advanced stats and today’s preview! no comments
I kind of figured this was going to happen shortly, but it is sad nonetheless: the Steelers placed longtime DE Aaron Smith on injured reserve today, ending his 2011 season and mosty likely his career.
Smith had sat out the last 2 games with a foot injury and has had injury issues the last three seasons, tearing his rotator cuff in 2009 and his triceps in 2010.
While he never put up lofty sack numbers, Smith was one of the league's best defensive lineman against the run and the Steelers considered him their greatest defensive end in the three-plus decades of running the same defensive system.
Here's an interesting tidbit on Smith from the Trib's Dejan Kovacevic:
What will resonate most for me – at least for the short term – are two words Smith spoke to me after a rough outing a month ago in Indianapolis. Well after the game’s final snap, as much as a half-hour later, he looked up at me while putting on his shoes and said, “I’m tired.”
While the Steelers are stocked with two young, solid defensive ends in Ziggy Hood and Cam Heyward, it is hard not to view Smith's injury and likely retirement as the first of many key components of the Steeler past two championships to ride off into the sunset.
Here's what SI's Peter King wrote about Smith when he placed him on his all-decade team for the 2000s:
He's the upset pick of the team. But the mostly anonymous body of work over the decade makes the 1999 fourth-round pick a worthy choice. The Steelers were the top-rated defense three times in the last half of the decade, and the 6-5, 298-pound Smith's ability to shed blocks as a 3-4 defensive end and stop the run was a vital part of their success. "He can't be blocked," defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau said. Well, almost.
What a player. If this is the end of the road for Smith, he should go down as one of the greatest defensive lineman in Steelers history.
Bizarre yet not totally unexpected news this afternoon: Troy Polamlu was fined by the NFL for using a cell phone during last Sunday's game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Polamalu was seen on CBS talking on a cell phone after he sustained a head injury. Polamalu said he was calling his wife to let her know that he was fine.
This is Roger Goodell's National Football League. A league where coaches can engage in a pushing match after the game and go unpunished but where a player is fined a large sum of money for letting a loved one know they are safe. I understand that what Polamalu did was against the rules and I wouldn't have a problem with the fine if Goodell & Co. played by the letter of the law with everything else, but they don't.
ESPN ran this great piece on Aliquippa before this past Monday's Jets/Dolphins games. Aliquippa, despite all its hardships, is one of the best football towns on the planet and it is always nice to see the Quips get some well deserved recognition.
It's shocking to think that two of the best cornerbacks in my lifetime both grew up in the same old mill town. The odds of that happening have to be astronomical.
While the Steelers didn't win the Super Bowl last year, the playoff run did help create one champion of sorts from Pittsburgh: Brett Keisel's beard.
Keisel's facial hair was one of the big stories during Super Bowl week and was even given a full profile piece by the New York Times.
Apparently, Head & Shoulders noticed and the beard is a co-star in a new commercial featuring Troy Polamalu and Hines Ward. Along with the wax muesem stunt, Head & Shoulders is really coming up with some awesome commercials with Polamalu. This Keisel commercial has to be my personal favorite of the bunch.
There was a whole lot of nothing in yesterday's game, it seems. The Steelers played hard on offense for 20 minutes and looked like they would cruise to an easy win. Unfortunately, they seemed to think so too and really took their foot off the gas for the second half. Still, a win is a win, and no one really played badly. Rashard Mendenhall had a terrific game, the defense only gave up one touchdown.
no commentsAfter an impressive first quarter, it looked like the Steelers would walk away from Heinz Field this evening with a blowout win over an awful Jacksonville Jaguars team. But the next three quarters didn't play out like that at all. Thanks to an anemic Steelers offense, lots of penalties, an injury to Troy Polamalu and poor tackling, the Steelers let the Jaguars back into the game and were barely able to hold them off 17-13.
Jacksonville got the ball down by 4 with 1:01 left in the 4th quarter with a chance to win the game. Brett Keisel had a big sack of Gabbert on the Jags first play which drained most of the clock. Still, the Jags had a chance with a last second hail mary from midfield, but the ball was knocked down by Ryan Clark and Ike Taylor. It is dissapointing that a home game against a rookie QB and a bad Jacksonville team came down to the last snap.
The Steelers offense managed only 3 first downs in the 2nd half and were outscored 10-0. Ben Roethlsiberger was uncharacteristically off-target with many of his throws and the offense suddenly couldn't produce much on the ground either.
Thankfully tfor the Steelers, young Blaine Gabbert was Roethlisberger's counterpart and he wasn't able to generate much offense all game long. Gabbert frequently missed open receivers as much as Roethlisberger. Maurice Jones-Drew had lots of success on the ground, but the early deficit forced the Jags to look down field during most of the 2nd half. It would have been interesting to see how many yards Jones-Drew would have ended up with in a different scenario -- he had 96 yards on 22 carries today.
The Steelers worst news of the day, though, came in the form of an injury to Polamalu. It looked like he took a knee to the side of the head while making a tackle and he missed most of the 4th quarter. If he does have a concussion, he could miss a few games.
I’ll be previewing today’s matchup against the Jacksonville Jaguars using all the advanced stats I can find. First, here’s a quick statistical recap of last week’s game vs. Tennessee. Follow the link below for Advanced NFL Stats’ win probability graph and other stats:
Ben Roethlisberger led the Steelers with 9.1 Expected Points Added (EPA), and Roethlisberger, Troy Polamalu, Daniel Sepulveda, and Ryan Mundy tied for the lead in Win Probability Added (WPA) with 0.11 (Yes, the fake punt was worth 11% to the Steelers’ chances of winning the game). Nate Washington and Cortland Finnegan led the Titans with 4.4 EPA, while WR Damian Williams led in WPA with 0.10.
Follow the jump for all the key advanced stats for today’s matchup! no comments
