Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Good News and Bad News: Steelers vs Jaguars

I tried to get started on writing this a number of times yesterday and really couldn't come up with an angle.  It's basically the same story as it was against the Seahawks and the Colts: The Steelers won, they did some things well, but it's not as though there was any catharsis behind the victory.  Week 5 against the Titans was a catharsis game.  They took out all the frustration and anxiety of the season out on an opponent that thought they had a chance to win, but didn't know what hit them.

Unlike most situations, you root for the bully when they're your team.  It's a guilty pleasure, because everyone still gets paid regardless of the outcome, you just hope no one gets seriously injured.  If your team beats another team senseless, there's a sense of satisfaction and relief.  You're satisfied that you follow a good team and you're relieved that there isn't a fourth quarter/Hail Mary situation like we had on Sunday.  When you expect your team to crush the other team, you're unsatisfied and worried if they don't.  I would say that I'm dissatisfied with Sunday's performance, but I'm not worried.

The Jaguars are a young team and they'll improve.  One of the steps toward improvement is not giving up.  They didn't give up in the second half and everyone was pretty much expecting them to.  I think the second half was more a result of improved effort and execution by Jacksonville than the Steelers slacking off, not being a good team, or not executing properly.  Ben Roethlisberger was off all game, it's just that it was windy in the second half, so that made it look like he took a nosedive.  There were plays to be made, the Steelers just didn't make all of them.  What they did do is make enough plays to win, which is sufficient, even if it's not satisfying.

I'm not worried because the plays were there.  Those plays only need to be made eventually and consistently, not every time.  If a team hit every big play that was available to them, they'd be unstoppable.  I'm not looking for unstoppable, I'm looking for great.  Great means making more plays than you miss.  Roethlisberger may have another "off" game this season, but he won't be this far off very often.  And, even though he was off, he still managed 8.7 yards per attempt and 16.7 yards per completion, and I will take that.

I'm not worried because I'm actually starting to believe that the offensive line will come together and be a good unit.  That's provided they have the same five guys in the starting line-up for consecutive weeks, which hasn't happened yet.  The good news is that they've played fairly well the past few games even though there have been a lot of injuries.  I think the pass protection continues to be consistent and the running game continues to improve.  As he showed, Rashard Mendenhall can do a lot of damage if there's solid blocking in front of him.  He's their best option.  Isaac Redman and Jonathan Dwyer wouldn't have scored a touchdown in the first quarter with the same blocking.  They would've gotten stopped at the one or two yard line and I think we all know how dicey things have been for the Steelers inside the five the past few years.

I'm not worried because William Gay and Ike Taylor have been playing quite well.  Ryan Clark has stepped up his game.  Troy Polamalu has been much more controlled the past two games, but he hasn't lost any of his explosiveness.  More importantly, he passed concussion tests this week, so he should be available for Steelers West.  Brett Keisel made a triumphant return to the line-up.  LaMarr Woodley is playing out of his mind, which makes up for the fact that James Harrison is out.  Farrior and Timmons are much improved, though Timmons looks like he still has room to improve.

The only thing that concerns me is turnovers.  They've done a better job of protecting the ball the past couple of weeks, but they're still not taking it away.  Forcing two turnovers in six games is not getting it done.  As I've mentioned before, turnovers can be the result of tipped passed and lucky bounces, but you also make your own luck.  That's why they call it forcing turnovers.

But, they're also 4-2 after six games and only half a game behind the hated Ravens for the division lead.  Now is not the time to panic.  There will be plenty of time for that later.

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