Steelers vs. Rams Review

Wow. Just, wow. I mean, the Penguins won a shoot-out after letting the Bruins back in the game and Pitt beat Duke in overtime. That's awesome.

Throw in the fact that the Steelers won and I wouldn't be surprised to hear this morning that Pittsburgh got an Arena Football team and that the Pirates traded Jack Wilson for Alex Rodriguez. Just a great night for Pittsburgh sports. This is how Boston fans must feel every day.

I must admit that the Steelers game, given the fact that it was competitive way longer that it should have been, kept my attention away from the Pens and Pitt. And, I must also admit that I did an absolutely horrible job of switching back and forth between games, especially considering that I forgot the Pens were even playing and never bothered to figure out what station they were on (I have DirecTV, so I don't get Fox Sports Pittsburgh -- I get all the games that are on those channels, I just can't figure out where they are).

At any rate, not even Fast Willie's broken fibula can derail the sports high that I am on right now. And this is for more reasons than the simple fact that we went 3-0 last night.

So, let's forget the fact that this was a 7 point game at the beginning of the fourth quarter. Let's forget that we still struggled in the red zone. Let's forget the fact that we needed an interception return for a touchdown (Uh oh... Ike learned to catch) and a fake punt (I knew that we'd be happy we drafted the Sepulverizer) to beat the freakin' Rams. Let's forget about the fact that the run defense and the pass defense both struggled on the same night. Let's forget about the fact that we couldn't run the ball early. Let's forget about the fact that Ben got sacked four times by a team with one of the worst defensive lines in the NFL. Let's forget about the fact that St. Louis lost five starters to injury this year on the offensive line and our vaunted zone blitz scheme only sacked Marc Bulger once. And, really, let's forget about Jim Haslett's hair. It's just too freaky.

Did you forget about all that yet?

Okay. Good.

Now that we're thinking clearly, I'm gonna say something crazy: Fast Willie breaking his leg might be the best thing that could have happened to this team all season.

Think about it:

1. If he didn't get hurt, he was on pace to carry the ball 366 times this season. Then you add the playoffs. He probably would've had 450 carries if we make it to the Super Bowl. That's a lot. Ask Jamal Anderson. Ask Larry Johnson. And they're bigger guys than Fast Willie.

2. He was one of the reasons we were crappy in the red zone. We figured, "Hey, why give the ball to Najeh? Willie's the one that got us here. Let's give it to him." Now, with Carey Davis and Najeh Davenport in there, we'll actually have guys that are good by the goal line. Did you see how easy Najeh made that one TD look? Get used to that. Struggling in the red zone is one of the many issues for this team. Looks like we went a long way towards solving that with one, little injury.

3. I suspect that Willie's knee was not right all year. In the Jets game especially, he seemed to lack the ability to make a quality jump cut and break the play to the outside. He had a bunch of yards this year because he had a bunch of carries. He wasn't as effective this year as he was in 2005 or 2006 and I think a big part of that was that his knee was bothering him. At least I hope that's why he wasn't as effective this year.

4. The other reason that Willie needed fifty-eleven carries to get to 1,300 yards is that our offensive line hasn't been opening up big holes for him like they have in past seasons. They're just not playing as well this year, not attacking the line of scrimmage like they used to, and not blowing people off the ball. I love Fast Willie and, while this may seem like an attack on him, it isn't; I'm just being logical. He doesn't have good vision and if there isn't a big hole for him to run through, he tends to run into the back of his blockers and hope for the best. Big, fat guys like Davenport and Davis get more yards than little guys like Willie in those situations. Those extra two or three yards give us more options when we get to third down.

5. Speaking of third down... Ladies and gentlemen... VERRON HAYNES! I was driving into work this morning with Weidman and we had the following exchange.

Weidman: Now that Willie broke his leg, who are we going to get to replace him?
Me: Most likely Verron Haynes. And it's about damn time.
Weidman: Is he still out there?
Me: Yep. They held a tryout with him a few weeks ago.
Weidman: He was on the team last season, right? Why didn't we keep him?
Me: I have no fucking clue. Near as I can tell, he must've had a threesome with Tomlin's sister. He's our best third down guy, a great blocker, and he had a hell of a pre-season. I don't know why we cut him.

Even though we've been pretty damn good on third down, we miss Haynes. The offensive line misses him because he waaaaaaay better at picking up blitzes than Najeh. The team misses him because he somehow always found a way to pick up 7 yards on 3rd and 6. Think about it: That flare pass that Heath caught on 4th and 7 in the Jacksonville game is a play that would've gone to Haynes if he were on the roster. And, nothing against Heath, but Haynes would've found a way to get 8 yards on that bad boy.

I'm not saying Verron Haynes is the Second Coming or anything. There's probably an actual reason that the Steelers cut him and he's no more than an emergency guy and a third down back... But, hey! That just happens to be exactly what we need at this point.

So, pretty fuckin' please. With sugar on top. Sign Verron Haynes.

6. Did you see how well the guys up front were blocking after Willie went down? There were a few times where Marshall Faulk could've come down from the booth and gained 20 yards through those holes. Sometimes injuries can cripple a team. Sometimes, though, they can bring everyone together. You know that Faneca, Smith, Mahan, Simmons, and Colon had a little meeting and said, "Okay. Willie ain't coming back. We've got a closet pooper and a dude named Carey. The only way we're getting anything on the ground is if we destroy these guys up front." And, that'll be their attitude for the rest of the season. Success in the running game is equal parts talent, attitude, and determination. We can't do anything about the talent deficit and the fact that Faneca's thinking about scheduling a connecting flight in Phoenix on his way to Hawaii, but the other two things were lacking to this point in the season. You got the feeling that the offensive line would get to the end of the play and say, "Really? Willie didn't score on that one? Aw, crap. Guess we gotta go back to the huddle." But, I think we've got the attitude and determination back.

7. (I realize that I'm rambling, but this all sort of came to me this morning.) What do Davis, Haynes, and Davenport all have in common? They're all excellent receivers. Or, at least, they're all better receivers than Willie. Or, at least, the coaching staff thinks they're all better, so that means they'll actually use the running back in the passing game. Since Arians seems to have forgotten that Heath is on the roster, teams have had a really easy time game planning for us. Stop the receivers from getting deep, tackle them if we try to do anything cute (or something other than having them sprint down the field and wave their hands), and don't worry about the tight ends or the running backs catching the ball. When we play teams that suck (like, say, the Rams), we can get away with this strategy because we have better players. When we play good teams (like, say, the Patriots or the Jaguars, or any of the other five teams that are going to the playoffs), we can't get away with this strategy because they have good players, too.

So, I'm going to hit you with some insider information and analysis here: Giving the other team's defense more things to game plan for is a good thing. If we can start working the running backs and the tight ends into the passing game, we'll be in good shape for the playoffs.

8. Along those lines, giving the other team three guys to worry about as opposed to one guy to worry about is a good thing. Think about how worried we must've been about the two-headed monster of Fred Taylor and Maurice Jones-Drew. Worked out pretty well for the Jags, right?

9. I was going to try and stretch this to ten points (I originally only had four when I started writing this), but I think I ran out of gas.

10. Maybe not! I was getting pretty hammered by the third quarter last night and wanted to find out something about Najeh. Can't remember what it was now, but the point is that I Googled him. So, if you haven't already, install the Google Toolbar.

Go to the Google Toolbar and type in Najeh. The search options it gives you are hilarious. Weidman and I were laughing about it the entire second half.

Um... I think that's it.

Ten days to rest up for the hated Ravens. Watch the scoreboard this weekend. If the Browns or Titans lose, we're in the playoffs. Of course, I'd rather that the last game of the season actually mean something, but the important thing is to qualify for the post season.