Steelers @ Titans: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly

I, along with the betting public and the national media, fully expected the Pittsburgh Steelers to be handed their first defeat today at the hands of the Tennessee Titans. After all, the Steelers were playing a tough team on the road with their 3rd string quarterback at the helm. Not to mention they would be facing the NFL's best running back and a quick, tenacious defense, much like their own, in the 92 degree Tennessee heat. However, as has been proven time and again with Tomlin-led Steelers teams, they are never better than when they feel disrespected and under-appreciated. The entire team obviously walked onto the field today with a chip on their shoulder and proceeded to take out their frustrations on the Titans for a solid 3 and a half hours.

Most casual fans would consider a game like today's to be mind-numbingly boring. I, however, thought the game was a thing a beauty. Steelers football at it's finest. My thoughts on the game follow below:

THE GOOD

SPECIAL TEAMS: Special teams coach Al Everest and Mike Tomlin obviously saw some vulnerability in the Titans kick return unit and wasted no time exploiting it. The reverse on the opening kickoff was executed perfectly by this unit and allowed us all to witness the explosiveness of rookie Antonio Brown. It appears that the Steelers may have collected 2 playmakers in this year's draft with the additions of Brown and Emmanuel Sanders. Daniel Sepulveda again had a solid day, averaging 43.5 yards on 8 punts. Dan the Man also made a punt return saving tackle in the first quarter. It's always nice to have a former college linebacker with a nasty mean streak for a punter (I never imagined I would buy a punter's jersey, but I am considering it). Finally, Skippy rebounded from his 3-5 performance last week with a solid 4-4 performance, including the 27 yard field goal with 4:59 left which more or less sealed the game for the Steelers. It also appears that Skippy made it out of Nashville without being arrested or smashing any bathroom towel machines. All in all, a good day for the special teams.

DEEEEEEFENSE: I turned on ESPN's NFL Gameday today only to find the 5 talking heads (as a sidenote, why on earth do they need 5 dudes to discuss every game? What should be an informative pregame show has turned into 5 guys shouting over each other for 2 hours in an effort to get as much airtime as possible. It gives me a headache) debating about whether or not Chris Johnson would break the 100 yard rushing milestone against the Steelers defense today. The consensus was that it was a no brainer that, although the Steelers defense was pretty good, there was no way they could hold CJ to under 100 yards. He was just too good. Boy, were they wrong (and almost right had the 80 yard TD run not been negated by a holding penalty). The Steelers held CJ to 34 yards on 16 carries. In 3 career starts against the Steelers, CJ has yet to eclipse 50 yards in a game, let alone 100. In 2 games this year, the Steelers have held 2 ALL PRO running backs to a measly 2.3 yards per carry. Most impressive today was the defense's ability to create turnovers. The defense accounted for 6 of the 7 Titans' turnovers. Polamalu's interception in the first quarter was HUGE, as it thwarted Tennessee's only REAL scoring opportunity in the first half. The announcers continually referenced CJ's ability to avoid the big hit. Well, I can tell you with full certainty that Mr. Johnson will have a difficult time getting out of bed tomorrow. The linebackers took turns dropping the hammer on CJ, delivering bone crushing hits throughout the game. Lawrence Timmons is currently on pace for 216 tackles this year. And he's likely the 4 or 5th best player on this unit. I think that pretty much says it all...

PHYSICALITY: Tomlin loves referencing his team's "physicality" in his weekly press conferences. Well, as referenced above, the Steelers walked onto the field today with a chip on their shoulder and took out their frustrations on the Tennessee Titans. As evidenced by the bench clearing brawl on the Steelers' first offensive drive, they were not to be F'd with (I think Hines Ward proved today that he would be extremely effective in a street fight. He somehow managed to rip Cortland Finnegan's helmet off and punch him in the face 3 times with one hand). The announcers, at one point, indicated that today's game was one of the more physical football games they had ever seen (obviously they haven't seen too many Steelers/Ravens games). Whatever the case, Mike Tomlin is clearly talented at getting his team ready and motivated to play in tough, hostile games.

COACHING: First, as previously mentioned, the play call on the opening kickoff return was beautiful. Dick Lebeau also had a specific plan in place today to stop Chris Johnson and put the game in the hands of Vince Young (who has never proven to be a capable NFL quarterback). Finally, Ariens and Tomlin did what they needed to do on offense to win the game. Namely, the game plan basically centered on not turning the ball over and letting the clock run out. The coaches understood that the defense could win this game with a small lead and they let them do it. You don't WIN games with your 3rd and 4th string QBs by letting them air it out, and the Steelers coaches certainly recognized this. Great job all around by the coaches. Cowher-ball at it's finest.

BAD

DENNIS DIXON: It's hard for me to be overly critical of a third-string QB. HOWEVER, I would think that he would be smart enough to realize that he may NEVER get another chance to start in the NFL again after today's game (unless, of course, he would have played lights out). For him to pull himself from the game with a "tweaked" knee (remember the X-rays came back negative) is simply mind-blowing. I realize that he suffered a devastating knee injury during his senior year of college. However, he had an opportunity handed to him that, only 6 months ago, was unthinkable and he PULLED HIMSELF OUT OF THE GAME. I'm sorry, but if I were in his situation the only way I would come out of the game voluntarily would be if my kneecap actually popped out of my leg and landed on the ground. Chances are we will never see Dennis playing QB for the Steelers (or any NFL team, for that matter) again.

OFFENSIVE LINE CONDITIONING: I understand that it was 92 degrees in Nashville today. However, Jonathan Scott, Chris Kemoeatu and Flozell Adams all had to leave the game at some point today due to cramping and dehydration. After 4 weeks of training camp and 2 weeks of practice in the regular season it amazes me that these guys could be this out of shape.


UGLY


OFFENSIVE PASSING GAME: The Steelers QBs combined to go 9-17 for 43 yards passing, with the longest completion being a 15 yard pass to Mike Wallace. Doesn't get much worse than that. Thanks again for being an idiot, Large Benjamin.

ANNOUNCERS: When Jeff Fisher elected to bench Vince Young in the 3rd quarter for Kerry Collins you would have thought, by listening to Solomon Wilcots, that Peyton Manning was entering the game for the Titans. Wilcots continuously praised Collins for his unbelievable poise and accuracy. On Collins' third pass he overthrew Nate Washington by a solid 10 yards, despite Washington being wide open. Wilcots somehow blamed Washington for the incompletion. On the ensuing play Collins again overthrew Washington, resulting in a Bryant McFadden interception. Once again, Wilcots blamed this play on Washington. Maybe Solomon Wilcots and Kerry Collins are BFFs or secret lovers. Also, at one point in the 3rd quarter, Kevin Harlan commented that we were unlikely to ever again see a performance as dominant as the Titan's defense was today. Apparently, he failed to realize that the Steelers were, at the time, holding the Titans to 3 points, approximately 150 total yards and had forced 5 turnovers to that point. Finally, as the Titans were preparing to kick an onside kick with :58 and ZERO timeouts, Kevin Harlan commented that the Steelers needed to recover the onside kick and get a first down. Unless the play clock has changed to 10 seconds I'm pretty sure that the Steelers could have lined up in the always beautiful victory formation and taken a knee, had they recovered the kick. I don't ask much from announcers. But, please, please, please just pay attention to the game. It can't be that difficult.

Other random thoughts

- Mendenhall ran hard for the second straight week. He SHOULD get his yards next week against Tampa Bay.

- Did Pouncey catch his brother's disease? I believe there were 3 botched snaps today. Otherwise, he continues to impress.

- Polamalu's superman play over the defensive line at the goal line was simply amazing. He does things that I've never seen anyone do in the NFL, ever.

- Randy Moss' catch in the second quarter against the Jets was one of the finest catches I've seen in some time.

- The Bengals have now won 8 straight AFC North games. Raise your hand if you saw that coming.

- Matt Schaub threw for 497 yards. 497 yards. 497 yards. 497 yards. 497 yards. Are you kidding me????