A Trend I Don't Want To See Continue

Before you say anything, yes, I understand this recap of the Sunday night game is occurring five days late and in roughly 38.5 hours the Steelers will be back on the field against the Detroit Lions. What can I say? Making out with Lord Stanley has put me behind schedule. Getting some always does that to me.

At halftime of this game, I told my wife that after successive weeks of nail biting losses in games we should have won, it was nice to have a game where there wasn't any pressure. The Steelers had completely dominated the San Diego Chargers in every facet of the game and were comfortably ahead by three touchdowns. This was the type of score I expected against both Chicago and Cincinnati but unfortunately we just didn't get it done. But now here we were against some people's preseason pick to win the Super Bowl and we were smacking them around with the biggest pimp hand this side of Andre the Giant.

But then the fourth quarter happened. What the fuck? The Logan fumble for a touchdown was a fluke that I can somewhat forgive. But after the Steelers drove immediately down the field after the fluke touchdown to take another three touchdown lead, the defense just completely collapsed. Four plays resulted in a touchdown then after recovering the onsides kick it only took three plays to score another one. So in a little over a minute the defense gave up two touchdowns. That was unheard of last year but now it is starting to be common place, which is a trend I do not like to see. They have two games now to correct these problems and get back to their stifling defense from last year.

Time to see what did work and what didn't work. Here we...go!:


WHAT DID WORK

Rashard Mendenhall had a career game with 165 yards on 29 carries and 2 touchdowns. The benching seemed to have gotten the message to him that he has to work hard all week in order to play. He was running hard to the hole and only did his stupid spin move once. When you add in his two catches for 26 yards, he accounted for 38% of the team's offensive production. That's pretty impressive. If this is what the Steelers saw when they drafted him, he might not be a bust. But I'm not convinced yet and will need to see similar efforts, especially the next two weeks against weaker opponents.

Ben Roethlisberger had a very solid outing. He completed 79% of his passes which upped his league leading completion percentage to 73.2, ahead of such established accurate passers like Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, and the Golden Calf (who isn't even in the top 10 after 4 weeks). Big Ben passed for 333 yards and 2 touchdowns while making the Chargers defense look like a practice squad team. Another big thing was the fact he didn't throw an interception unlike the first three games. Being accurate and not turning the ball over usually means you come out the winning quarterback.

I couldn't be happier that they are using Heath Miller more. Enviro couldn't be happier because Miller is on his fantasy football team. Miller caught 8 passes for 70 yards and two touchdowns. He already has half as many catches as last year and only needs one more touchdown to match his output from last year. If they continue to throw to him 8 times a game, he is going to have a career year.

Hines Ward had another 100+ yard game after hauling in 8 passes for 113 yards. He's another guy who might end up with a career year if he stays on this pace.

How important is Mewelde Moore to this team? He can run, he can block, he can catch, and now he can even throw. Although I hated the option call based on the situation of the game, I can marvel after the fact that it worked.

Chris Kemoeatu was a beast. Best game I've seen him play.

James Harrison finally got on track with two sacks and a forced fumble. Much has been made about Harrison not getting to the quarterback this year, but he is still on pace to get 12 sacks. He had 16 last year but his previous high was 8.5 so if he lands somewhere in the middle I think that is all you can ask from him.

The run defense was stout, only allowing 16 total yards. They are approximately third in the league right now in run defense, behind Baltimore and Miami.

Gotta give props to Jeff Reed for nailing a difficult 46 yard field goal to reestablish a two possession game.




WHAT DIDN'T WORK

What the hell happens to our defense in the fourth quarter? They gave up 10 points to Chicago and lost. They gave up 14 points to the Bengals and lost. And now they give up 14 points (the other touchdown was a special teams error) to the Chargers and barely hang on? Is Troy Polamalu really that important? This shit needs corrected fast.

Now that Harrison has started to do stuff, when are LaMarr Woodley, James Farrior, and Lawrence Timmons going to start getting to the quarterback? Those three only have 1 sack between them (Farrior) and really need to start doing something.

Stefan Logan's fumble that resulted in a touchdown was unfortunate. He has to learn that the situation of the game determines how he should handle return duties. When you are up by three touchdowns with less than 13 minutes to go in the game, just go down. There is no need to fight for yards, especially when the offense had been moving the ball up and down the field at will all game long.

Ryan Mundy's fumble on the onsides kick was just as costly as Logan's. There was no one around him when he fubbled it and just like Logan's, it lead to a Chargers touchdown. I have to put a little of the blame on the coaching staff too since they didn't have the hands team out there and wasn't prepared for the kick. Coaches have to realize the situation of the game too and it almost cost them.

I still hate Carey Davis.

Is it me or are Pittsburgh teams getting penalized a lot more than there opponents? The glaring call to me was the one on Harrison when the Chargers were driving for their fourth touchdown. Harrison and Gates did get tangled up, but that occurred at the 15 yard line and the ball landed at the 6. There is no way Gates would have made up 9 yards to catch that ball so the flag should have been put away since the ball was uncatchable. I guess Harrison is allowed to get held on every down but incident contact on a guy as big as Gates warrants a flag. The referees are a joke.



A win is a win I guess, but could you try not to make it so close next week guys?

Go Steelers.