Monday, November 05, 2012

Good News and Bad News: Steelers at New York Giants

Well, I guess they did overcome, despite the fact that I didn't think there was any way that they could.  That's the best news of all.  They overcame an emotionally charged, extremely talented Giants team on the road.  They overcame scheduling issues, a ten point fourth quarter deficit, some very questionable officiating calls in the first half, and an incredibly foolish decision to fake a field goal instead of going for the points (more on this in the "bad news" section.)

Aside from the fake field goal debacle, special teams actually came up huge in this game.  They out-gained the Giants 249-100 on punt and kick returns, Suisham converted his only field goal attempt, Drew Butler didn't have any of his punts returned, dropping two of four inside the 20, and there were no holding or block in the back penalties.  This was the first solid effort from the kicking game all season and I hope they build on this success the rest of the season, even if Antonio Brown misses significant time due to his ankle injury.

They dominated at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball.  Isaac Redman averaged 5.7 yards per carry and New York's backs averaged only 3.1.  Andre Brown and Ahmad Bradshaw are both quality players and keeping them to 68 yards on 22 carries is a huge win.  Eli Manning completed less than half of his passes for 125 yards, no touchdowns, and one interception.  The Steelers also managed to sack him twice, which is quite an accomplishment.  Not only had the struggled to bring down opposing quarterbacks thus far this season, Eli had only been sacked seven times in eight games coming into Sunday.

Victor Cruz was targeted 11 times and only caught five passes for 67 yards and no touchdowns.  Hopefully, that means that Ike Taylor is at least close to his 2011 regular season form and he's left the nightmares of the playoff game at Denver and the early season behind him.  Keenan Lewis had two huge penalties called on him (don't agree with the first one that went for 41 yards and set up the touchdown, but whatever), but I thought he played a great game.  He was pretty much everywhere, as was Lawrence Timmons.  Cortez Allen is vastly improved and LaMarr Woodley is starting to step out of James Harrison's shadow to become the focus of the pass rush.

They had a ten minute edge in time of possession, ran 69 plays to 48 for the Giants, were 6 for 13 on third down and New York was 2 for 10.  If you add in kick return yards and subtract penalty yards, they out-gained the Giants 479-242.

Even though the offensive line is still struggling in pass protection -- four sacks and a forced fumble returned for a touchdown on 34 dropbacks -- they're blowing up huge holes on the inside and Foster, Pouncey, and Colon deserve all the credit for that.  Paulson and Heath, as well as fullback David Johnson deserve a pat on the back as well.

It was a huge road win, a huge confidence boost, and they deserve a lot of credit for overcoming everything they overcame to pull out the victory.  It was the most complete game they've played in all phases thus far this season.

Bad news is that they only won by four points. 

All the stats I quoted earlier would point to at least a ten point margin of victory, if not two touchdowns.  Ike Taylor let an interception slip through his fingers in the end zone, though it would've been called back on the shoulder-to-arm penalty called on Ryan Clark.

Sure, the Giants scored a defensive touchdown and that's going to tilt things in terms of stats.  Yes, the two pass interference penalties on Lewis were each for 40+ yards.  Those were all big plays and New York made them.

The Steelers were also 2 for 4 in the red zone -- a problem area for them all year -- and they had three drives that started in Giants territory, but yielded zero points.  As they move into the second half of the season, they're going to need to improve their efficiency in the red zone and cut down on penalties. 

They appear to have gelled along the offensive line and should be at least good in that area if not great, so long as they can avoid injuries.  As much as I hate to agree with Phil Simms, he made a great point about the defense yesterday: They're finally starting to get healthy and a lot of their key players are returning to their old form.  Woodley has hopefully put his hamstring issues behind him.  Harrison's knee is improving.  Casey Hampton and Brett Keisel look like they're at 100%.  Larry Foote has been solid.  It looks like these two huge problem areas -- consistency on defense and along the offensive line -- are at least no longer problem areas and may even be turning into strengths.

They just need to keep finishing games, put the ball in the end zone when they get inside the 20, and avoid dumb penalties.

It's also concerning me that Mike Tomlin is "going with his gut" a little too much.  The fake field goal was a dumb idea.  Having Suisham try a 90 yard field goal in Tennessee was a dumb idea.  Going for two in Cincy was a dumb idea.  Fortunately, only one of those bad calls has cost the Steelers a game.

If he wanted to go for the throat and score a touchdown -- or at least a new set of downs -- he should've just handed the ball to Redman and taken his chances.  Redman averaged 5.7 yards per carry and gained 90 yards after first contact in yesterday's game.  Give him the ball and see what happens.  You have a much better chance of a running back that's primary responsibility is taking the ball and running with it gaining a foot and a half than you do pitching it to an awkward Canadian that usually just kicks the ball and watches other people make a play.

Then there's the fact that the kicker is seven yards behind the line of scrimmage when the ball is snapped.  He has to make up those seven yards before he gets to a point where he's actually gaining anything.  Weidman actually called the fake field goal and I thought he was a crazy person.  Turns out, both he and Tomlin were crazy.

Now, I love Mike Tomlin and I can never stay mad at him.  The decision didn't cost them the game and we all need to move on.  I'm just concerned that, moving forward, Tomlin's gut is going to cost us a game that's much bigger than this one.  He had his issues in Super Bowl XLV, he'll have his issues again.  His gut will write checks that the Steelers can't cash.  I just hope it doesn't come up wrong in a critical point in a bigger game.

But, HEY, the important thing is that they just scored a huge victory -- a game that I had penciled in as a loss at the beginning of the season -- and they appear to be on the right track, headed in the right direction.

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