Steelers vs. Chargers Preview

Okay, I'm sorry. The Steelers took a bye, so I took a bye. And then I went to Boston. And thought about the fact that the Patriots were somehow able to win three championships in four years. And got depressed. But I'm back.

Overall:

Too many people use the phrase "must win" too early in the season. It annoys me. That being said, Sunday night's game is a must win for the Steelers.

They need to keep pace in the division. I happen to think that we'll beat Cincy in Cincy at the end of the year. I happen to think that the Browns will be pushovers again and we'll win both those games. I'm not sold on the Ravens. That means a 5-1 division record. Furthermore, it means that a win Sunday puts us 2 games behind the Ravens and 1 game behind Cincy. And if the Ravens lose to Denver on Monday night like I think they will, that puts us 1 1/2 games behind the hated Ravens. One win vs. Cincy in Cincy, two wins against the Ravens, a 5-1 division record, and the fact that the schedule gets a lot easier after this all adds up to us winning the division. Provided we don't have too many in conference losses. Guess which conference San Diego plays in?

Offense:

We need to be able to throw the ball because we ain't gonna find much space running it. The Chargers DBs are pretty damn bad, their linebackers suck in coverage, and they don't create us much pressure as 9 sacks against the horrid Raiders would lead us to believe. Their front seven is really, really, really, really good at stopping the run. Ask Jamal Lewis how good they are.

Since we're not going to be able to run the ball, especially early on, we need to throw deep on their nancy little DBs and hope to make some plays. Cedrick Wilson needs to catch a freakin' pass. Hines needs some touchdowns and not just because he's on my fantasy team. Santonio Holmes could actually be successful. And we've got that Heath Miller guy.

We have the talent on offense and they don't have the talent in the secondary. We need to take advantage of this and make them friggin' pay. We had a bye week to work on timing issues and for Ward's hammy to get better. If we can't throw on these guys, we're pretty well screwed for the game and the season.

That's because if we can't throw on them, we're not going to beat them. If we can't throw on them, we pretty much can't throw on anybody, so we're screwed there. If we don't beat them, we're 1-3, don't have a bye to get everyone healthy late in the year for another magical playoff push, and we're several games back in the division. Last in the division, in fact. Tied with Cleveland. Anyone want to be tied with Cleveland for last in the division? At any point in any season? Me either. Hopefully, the Steelers don't want to be in that situation either.

Defense:

We need to stop three things on defense: LaDanian Tomlinson, LaDanian Tomlinson, and LaDanian Tomlinson. If he breaks some big runs, it's over.

The only issue is that we can't be so concerned with the man some heartless bastards with poor memories call L.T. that we forget about the rest of the offense. The Ravens were really concerned with Tomlinson early in the game on Sunday and ended up getting burned worse than a near-sighted crackhead. Then Marty started playing Marty Ball, listened to Tomlinson when he told him to take him out of the game in the last eight minutes, and relied on a shitty pass defense to protect a four point lead. Other than that, great job by Mr. Schottenheimer.

We can't expect to get that lucky again this year. We need to line up and make Philip Rivers beat us. But, we can't give him a stick to hit us with by paying too much attention to Tomlinson. Roethlisberger's already out to prove that San Diego made a big mistake by passing on him. I mean, the 27-6 record and the Super Bowl ring, that's a start, but Ben likes to beat the teams that passed on him. So we should enable him to do that. The only issue is that it's not Rivers vs. Roethlisberger. It's the Steelers vs. the Chargers. And Marty vs. Cowher. Two very similar teams that don't really use the quarterbacks they plunked high draft picks on.

What I Think:

Big Ben and Rivers aren't going to decide this game. One thing is going to decide it: How close it is in the fourth quarter. If it's close, our guys and our coach will be the difference and we'll win. If we get blown off the ball early, Cowher learned how to protect a lead from Schottenheimer, so we're screwed.

Best way to avoid falling in a hole early: DON'T DO THE SAME STUPID SHIT WE'VE DONE THE LAST TWO GAMES. That would be, primarily, giving up on a successful game plan because one bad thing happened.

If someone drops a pass or Ben throws a pick early, don't move away from the playaction, rolling the pocket, throwing to the tight end and hitting receivers deep game plan that worked early in the games the last two. Stick with it for Christ's sake. You spend all that time putting it together, why flush it down the toilet when things get a little bumpy?

And... Najeh Davenport or Duce Staley need to carry the ball. I don't care if they're on the sidelines, walking with the ball from one side of the field to the other. If they get in the freakin' game, that changes everything. Fast Willie gets more touches on screen passes and other pass plays out of the backfield. Cowher doesn't pass too much with a lead because he's afraid of wearing Parker out. And we can start to wear down the defense with some big fat guy that deals out punishment instead of taking it.

Cowher needs a fat man carrying the ball. The Steelers need a fat man carrying the ball. Please, for the love of God, give a fat man the ball. Otherwise, I start getting visions of 2003. And we all know how that turned out.