Steelers Lab

Yinzers,

The "experts" said that the Steelers would be lucky to win any of the four games without Ben Roethlisberger. The "experts" said the Steelers defense is depleted and old. The "experts" said Chris Johnson would be too much for the Steelers to handle. Who was in the right? Your Pittsburgh Steelers and your MSM team. Dennis Dixon started the game last week, but left with a knee sprain in the second half. Meanwhile, the new era Steel Curtain with Lamaar Woodley, James Harrison, Lawrence Timmons, James Farrior, Larry Foote, Brett Keisel, Aaron Smith, Troy Polamalu and the other defensive players that rotated into Dick Lebeau's erotic (that's right, erotic) defenses on Sunday, showed why Pittsburgh is successful. The defense had 7 take-aways including 4 fumble recoveries and 3 interceptions. Still the best parts of the game were the pile-driving of Titans' QB Vince Young and the fact that the "experts" were all about the Titans defense, though the Steelers held last year's rushing champ to 34 yards. Chris Johnson came into the game having rushed for 100+ yards in every game last year...except the ones against Pittsburgh and Baltimore. Charles Q. Batch finished off the game and the Steelers are 2-0.

On Sunday, the Steelers travel to Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Florida to take on the rebuilding Buccaneers. The "experts" are calling this a battle of "unlikely unbeatens." I will tell you why that's not true for the respective teams. For the Steelers: the Steel Curtain. Defense wins championships even if your offense is struggling to score points, as the Steelers offense is. With only two offensive touchdowns-one of which was in overtime-the offense is average at best without Ben Roethlisberger. But if you can hold your opponent to under 14 points every game, you can win on field goals alone. As for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, they simply have had two practice games so far, playing the Cleve Brownies and the Carolina Panthers. Josh Freeman, however, is developing into a decent, dual-threat quarterback and Cadillac Williams is simply a beast to bring down. But they still have not faced a test yet, so they're 2-0.

For this weekend's contest, Cadillac Williams is questionable and "@#$%^&* soldier" TE Kellen Winslow 2 is probable. Winslow is the first option for Freeman on offense, mostly because his receiving corps has not stepped up to prove that he can trust them. If Cadillac cannot play this week, it will be a long day for the Buccaneers' offensive line and Josh Freeman against the ruthless attack of the Steel Curtain. If they want to move the ball, they will have to throw short and intermediate routes underneath the Steelers' zone coverage and get the ball out of Freeman's hands as fast as possible. On offense, time is a premium commodity when you're playing the Pittsburgh Steelers.

On defense, the Buccaneers are relatively stout, statistically. Their strength this year has been in pass coverage, allowing less than 200 yards per game, but they have not faced a decent quarterback and receivers yet. The only thing that can be said about the Buccaneers' run defense is "needs improvement." They allowed the Browns to rack up 104 yards on the ground and allowed the Panthers to rush for 119. Granted, the Panthers have "thunder and lightning" in Deangelo Williams and Johnathan Stewart, but neither opponent has an offensive line to speak of. Arguably their most key player on defense, safety Tanard Jackson, will be out for the rest of the year, after violating the league's substance abuse policy. It will be interesting to see what they can do with Rashard Mendenhall and Isaac "Redzone" Redman coming through the line.

For the Steelers, Charles Q. Batch will get the start this week. Word on the street is that Byron Leftwich is healthy enough to play, if needed. Lefty suffered a knee injury in the last preseason game and has not played since. Dennis Dixon is still recovering from his knee sprain that he suffered in last week's win over the Titans. Look for Bruce "Run, Run, Screen" Ariens to stick to his "run, run, screen" mantra this week to keep the wily vet in some kind of rhythm, but I trust that Charles can make the plays. The only part of his game that disturbs me is whether or not he can hit the speed demon Mike Wallace in-stride far down field. Rumor has it that Max Starks will be ready to go on Sunday, coming off an ankle injury. The offensive line still needs work in my opinion, but they have done just enough to get by. Getting Starks back will help the left side tremendously. Trai Essex is still not practicing, but look out! Big Snack was taking full reps this week at practice.



Casey Hampton will most likely be back in the lineup on Sunday, staring over the line of scrimmage saying "Hey Josh Freeman, I'ma eatchu." It will be interesting to see what the legendary Lebeau does this week after the great success he had last week by rotating fresh bodies into the lineup on defense. The Steelers are the deepest they have ever been on defense and it showed last week when they never lost a step with all of the substitutions. The defense has taken all of the criticism to heart and is playing with a chip on its shoulders...and I love it. The Steel Curtain is back, baby! The key this week will be not focusing too much on one area. The Buccaneers will need to pass to score points, but if the D focuses too much on the pass, Cadillac Williams is dangerous enough to make them pay. The solution: keep playing like you did in the first two games. Look out, Tampa, here comes the Steel Curtain.

Game time is 1:00 pm EST on CBS and KDKA.

In other news, the Pittsburgh Penguins put on quite a show in the inaugural game at Consol Energy Center, routing the Detroit Red Wings 5-1. “That’s an unbelievable crowd for preseason,” said Ryan Craig, who had two goals in the game. “The building’s full and 20 seconds in they’re chanting ‘Let’s go Pens!’ It made it exciting and it showed in our play.” (from penguins.nhl.com) Pittsburgh has the greatest fans in all of sports and our teams appreciate it very much. Keep it up Yinzers and even if you get taken out of Pittsburgh, don't let the Pittsburgh get taken out of you.

Here we go,
B Brog