Steelers vs. Bears Review

Basically, everyone was hating on Jeff Reed early in the week, then they eventually let up on him. A bit.

The last time he missed two field goals in a single game was 2004. I can't remember him ever missing two field goals in a row. I can't remember him ever missing two field goals in a game. Now, he looked awfully upset and rattled in the fourth quarter, so my hope is that this meltdown is not going to destroy his psyche for the rest of his career.

Remember Mike Vanderjagt? Sure, Peyton Manning called him a drunken kicker. But, most Steeler fans remember him as the guy that hooked a 46-yard field goal in the 2005 playoffs so bad he almost hit the goal posts on the opposite side of the field. After that kick, the Colts signed Adam Vinatieri and released Vanderjagt. Vanderjagt then went on to struggle in Dallas, he got released after a few games in 2006 and he has never played football since.

Before that shank, he was the most accurate kicker in the history of the NFL.

So... let's hope Reed doesn't go the way of the Vanderjagt. I was shocked and mortified when he missed the first kick. I was completely awestruck when he missed the second. At no point was I upset. Jeff Reed has been one of the most reliable, accurate kickers in the league since he started with the Steelers. He's automatic at Heinz Field, which is where the three points come from in the Vegas line.

Okay, yes. He had a job to do and he didn't. But, how about these guys (through two games, not just the fourth quarter of one game)...

1. In 2008, the defense forced 29 turnovers and had 51 sacks. Thus far, they have forced two turnovers and have three sacks. Need some more turnovers and sacks out of the defense.
2. Need some more big-time game-changing plays on defense in general. This is where we miss Polamalu. Every time the ball hung in the air a little too long, every time a ball was batted, every a pass fluttered, I expected Troy to come flying in out of nowhere and snag it. But, the ball always fell harmlessly to the turf. The popular opinion when Troy got hurt was that the Steelers would miss his leadership. They have plenty of leadership on defense, but they have a shortage of crazy since Troy went down. They need to bring the crazy back.
3. They've gained 665 yards and scored 27 total points. If you add in the six points they would've scored had Reed connected, that's 33 total points. That's not gonna do it.
4. They failed to convert on 3rd and 4, 3rd and 1, and 3rd and 2. On all of those plays, they passed the ball. On two of them, Roethlisberger got sacked. It's trued that we converted on 4th and goal from the one after we failed on 3rd and goal from the four, but, uh, that's still not gonna do it.
5. Fast Willie has lost his jump cut, a great deal of his vision, and his killer instinct. Remember Mendenhall's 39 yard run? Fast Willie would've gained 12 yards on that run. He would've cut inside inside of bouncing outside and wouldn't have finished the run as strong as Mendenhall did. This isn't an endorsement of Mendenhall, it's starting a trend of indictments of Fast Willie. Tomlin's a stubborn guy, so I give Parker until the bye week. If he doesn't show his old self by then, Mendenhall is the man.
6. Santonio Holmes dropped four passes on Sunday. That's a lot of lost yardage.

Good news is that we gained 105 yards on 22 carries (4.8 yard average). Even if you take out Mendenhall's long run as an outlier, that's still 76 yards on 21 carries (3.6 yard average). Not outstanding, but considerably better than we did against the Titans.

More good news: We've proven we can move the ball. We've proven we can convert on third and long. These are areas where most teams struggle. If we can stop struggling with the easy stuff and keep excelling at the hard stuff, we'll be good to go.

And, one last piece of good news: Two of the hardest quarterbacks to sack the last couple of years have been Jay Cutler and Kerry Collins. Could just be we had a bad draw in that regard. Also, the Titans don't tend to turn the ball over and the Bears seemed to be playing it safe. Against a familiar foe like the Bengals, we may surprise ourselves.

It's not time to give up on the season, it's not time to give up on the offense or the defense (special teams still long strong despite a fumble by Stefan Logan late Sunday), and it's definitely not time to give up on Jeff Reed.

If he doesn't give up on himself like Vanderjagt did, we should be good to go.