This is perhaps a touch brazen considering we've got the resurgent Dallas Cowboys coming to town. But I think I'm already convinced. The Pittsburgh Steelers are the team to beat in the 2008 version of the American Football Conference. I actually think the NFC is the tougher conference this year, but that's a topic for another day. But in the AFC, I don't see a team that we shouldn't beat come playoff time. 

Why?

It pretty much comes down to this to me. In a year where there are no dominant teams, the question for me becomes then: 'which team does their best thing BETTER than other team's best thing?' In other words, which team of the AFC contenders (Tennessee, Indianapolis, New York Jets, Miami, Baltimore, Denver, New England) has the most dominant attribute. Well, I'd say that Indianapolis has the best QB, and that goes a loooong way. But their offense has been inconsistent at best, and largely disappointing more realistically. Tennessee certainly sports an impressive defense, but they went on that nice winning streak at 100% full strength injury wise. They're not nearly as deep as Pittsburgh. The other teams? Meh.

One might ask, well what differentiates Pittsburgh's defense from that of Baltimore or Tennessee? Those defenses are fantastic, no doubt. Ours is better though. Let's take a look at some of the numbers.

It's absolutely remarkable how good the defense has been. Don't get me wrong - we're still going to have to evolve and improve on offense and avoid any sort of meltdowns by our offensive line or by Big Ben. But if things keep trending like they have on offense - which is in the right direction - then I think it's reasonable to say that we're the team to beat in this conference. Now, that could look like a foolish statement come next Sunday. The Cowboys are coming to town and they sport a pretty nifty offense that's beginning to gel again now that Tony Romo has returned from injury. We'll see what happens, but regardless, they're not in the AFC. In our conference, I see fewer teams that have the offense that also have the type of defense to give us fits. 

Anyway, unlike last year when the Pats simply outclassed the league for the first 19 weeks, and unlike recent years before that when the Colts offense was just that much better than everybody else's, I see no standout team. I see a bunch of teams with certain flaws and strong assets. Of those teams, I think the Steelers sport the most impressive strength in the league on either side of the ball.

And it happens to be one that is thought of as one that 'wins championships.'

I can't wait to find out if I'm correct.

Go Steelers!

I'm a bit late to the party due to a busy schedule the past day, but a couple more thoughts son the Steelers impressive 33-10 victory over New England yesterday.

* One thing I have not seen emphasized or discussed amidst the undeniably sweet euphoria of thrashing New England on the road is the fact that we had issues in the red zone again. On our first trip there, we were faced with a 1st and 10 from the NE 11. Definitely a tough situation in this league, but we failed to punch it in on the goal line and had to settle for a FG from the 3 yard line. Jeff Reed would have two more attempts of 25 yards or fewer. There's not much to find fault in yesterday on either sides of the ball or in the coaching department, but it'd be nice if our redzone offense (goal line in particular) kept pace with the rest of our development on offense.

* We still have not given up a 300 yard game in the __________. What's supposed to be in the blank? The passing game? No, no. We haven't given up a 300 yard game. Period. In fact, we've yet to surrender more than 290 yards in a single game this year. That's just ridiculous. I really hope you're appreciating just how historically amazing this group has been.  And if this defense continues to force turnovers, look out. It's going to be awfully tough to beat us if we continue to get +2 or better in the turnover department.

* It's been discussed, but the offensive line deserves a tip of the cap for their performance yesterday. Gaping running lanes at times, more than adequate pass protection. Limited penalties. Great stuff.

* We have a new leader in the clubhouse! Troy Polamalu is leading the NFL in Interceptions with 6. That's three straight games (all victories) with an INT for P.

* James Harrison is easily the best value in the entire National Football League. He makes just a pittance compared to Joey Porter with better production. I love Peezy, I really do. But ever notice how he has to force the spotlight on him when times are good whereas James Harrison just goes to work reigning terror on opposing offensive lines and quarterbacks? We best lock up Harrison this offseason. Care to imagine what he'd do against our tackles? Me neither. Get it done front office!

* The Pats were 1/13 on 3rd downs. WOW. I don't care who you are, you can't win with that number, even without all the turnovers. Describe it for us Big Ben:

"It was unbelievable," Roethlisberger said. "You just get to the sideline, put your coat on, your hat on, and, all of a sudden, you're ready to go back on the field."

 * Quietly, very quietly, the Steelers have proven they are capable at doing something they weren't able to do last year: win against solid teams on the road. We still travel to Baltimore and to Tennessee, so no time for the team to feel too good about itself. Of the remaining things I still am concerned about with this team though, over confidence and lack of focus is not one of them. I think this game may be just the jolt of confidence needed to convince the group that, yeah, they have what it takes to polish a few more things, get on a roll, and not look back. 

* More soon from me on the offense, as well as a closer look at the sparkling resume of the defense this year.

It's been ten days since we've seen the Pittsburgh Steelers. Who knows what to expect on the road in hostile territory but I can't wait to find out!

You know the routine here.

Go Steelers!

BAL (-7) @ CIN   IND (-5) @ CLE   CAR @ GB (-3)   NO @ TB (-3.5)   NYG (-3.5) @ WAS   SF @ BUF (-7)   ATL @ SD (-4.5) Miami (-9) @ STL   KC @ OAK (-3) (battle of nevermore)   PIT @ NE (-1) (clash of the week)   DEN @ NYJ (-7.5)   CHI @ MIN (-3.5)   Monday JAX @ HOU (-3) 24-20

Enjoy your Turkey Day friends. Be it with family or friends. I didn't get to make the trek home to be with my family this year for the first time maybe ever actually (hey Mom! No way you're reading on Thanksgiving!). But I'll be showing some people what Thanksgiving in America is all about for the first time for them. Will be different and fun.

And we're not getting together until later out here on the West Coast, which means I may just be around watching some football to start my day for all those who might also be similarly stranded :)

Be well and let us all give thanks for family, friends, health...and why not, Steelers football!

The biggest addition to the New England Patriots defense this year, outside of Richard Seymour perhaps from injury, has been rookie LB Jerod Mayo. For those of you who participated in the first ever BehindtheSteelCurtain Mock Draft, you may remember that I was extremely high on Mayo. I had him going #8 to Baltimore in our little draft.   Turns out the Ravens wisely traded out of the #8 hole with Jacksonville, only to get their guy later in the first round with Joe Flacco.  New England was also able to trade down out of #7 to the #10 hole. They got some extra picks and still got their guy, even though most people had him projected about 8-12 spots lower than that. I do bring that up proudly because I definitely did see something out of Mayo when I watched him in college that couldn't quite be measured by a 40 time. But I'm happy to admit that not 2 sentences into my selection, I claimed I'm not sold on Matt Ryan! Whoops.

Anyway, from all accounts, Mayo has lived up to his billing. I could dig up numerous articles, but I'm hoping some Pats fans will just jump in and fill in the gaps when I say that guys like Tedy Bruschi have been very impressed with Mayo's work ethic and hunger to learn everything he can while his more veteran teammates are still out there succeeding largely on intelligence and experience.

But forget the intangibles, Mayo's productivity has spoken for itself. Mayo is 6th in the league in total tackles (89), 3rd in the league in solo tackles (70), and 1st in the league by a wide margin amongst rookies in total and solo tackles.  You can basically engrave his name on the Defensive Rookie Of The Year award right now.

Continue reading this post »

SBN's resident Steelers fanatic checking in in anticipation of this Sunday's contest between the Pats and the Steelers. I wrote just yesterday that the only matchup that I was truly concerned about was in the coaching department. Last year, as I'm sure y'all remember just swimmingly, Tom Brady and Wes Welker were able to hook up in the slot at least ten times in a row in the second half. A depleted secondary (there was a reason Anthony 'Guarantee' Smith was in the game after all!) forced us to cover Welker with a LB. Anyway, McDaniels and Brady saw the mismatch and exploited it time and again. On defense, Mr. Bellicheck lured us into abandoning the run too early despite our initial sucess milking the clock and moving the ball.

Why am I torturing myself like this??

Anyway, the Steelers are an interesting team in 2008. I bet you didn't know that the Steelers yards per play allowed on defense (~3.8) is the lowest number of any defense since 1978! That's insane really when you stop to think of it, given how much the game has changed in favor of the offense since then. LaMarr Woodley, Casey Hampton, James Harrison, Troy Polamalu, Aaron Smith (as good as Richard Seymour, just not as famous), and on and on. I'm fascinated to see if the Patriots will be able to keep their recent string of productive offensive outings going against the Steelers defense.

But more importantly for us Steelers fans, we want to see how our much maligned offensive coordinator Bruce Arians fares against the defensive genius Bellicheck. If we can find a way to do enough on offense, hopefully in innovative ways that we have not yet seen from our offense, then I think many of us will finally feel comfortable declaring the Steelers legitimate Super Bowl contenders.

If Ben Roethlisberger finds himself under constant duress and we fail to establish any sort of running game, well... For now we're just hoping that we have a statement game of sorts on the road in the hostile confines of Gillette Stadium against a Patriots team that knows exactly when to give it a little extra gas and gear up for a playoff run.

Ask away about anything Steelers related! Me and my fellow Steelers diehards will be checking in. Enjoy your Turkey Days guys and gals :)

John Clayton thinks Bill Cowher will be in Cleveland next year. CRAZY! Wow. The rivalry may be heading to unprecedented new heights.

Listen here

I'm going to kick off my coverage of the Pittsburgh Steelers and New England Patriots matchup with just a couple quick thoughts, before opening it up to hear how some of you interpret the significance of this matchup. I'm curious because the NFL is interesting in that way. Winning is all that matters of course, and there will be several outliers each year that can skew things, but basically you find out things about your favorite team each week based partly on how they stack up against the various levels of competition in the league. You hang with the NYG, you feel good about yourself. You lose to a dumpy New York Jets and Cardinals team on the road, you realize your team has issues.

Anyway, I get the feeling that many people are viewing this game like last year's Patriots matchup. I don't really, even though we will have had similar records heading into both games (9-3 last year, 8-3 this year). New England is not necessarily who we must measure ourselves against though in the AFC. That was definitely the case last year, and we were essentially humiliated, particularly in the second half. This year? New England's just another team really, albeit one with great coaching, the best WR in the game, and other formidable play makers on both sides of the ball. We've seen though that we have what it takes to go punch for punch with the creme de la creme in this year's league. So I'm not viewing this game as a measuring stick for the team's overall potential moving forward.

Winning on the road is hard in this league. I wouldn't be devastated if we came up short on Sunday provided Ben Roethlisberger didn't play unintelligent football and the offensive line didn't have another Eagles-like meltdown. If it's merely a close, well-played game that we come up short in,  I'll just be disappointed we didn't get it done.  Not ready to nuke our chances for any sort of playoff run.

EXCEPT if...

We get demonstrably outcoached. That goes for both sides of the ball. There's no bigger fan and idolizer of Dick LeBeau than me, but last year was ugly. Granted, we were forced to put a LB on Wes Welker in the slot due to an injury ravaged secondary. But still, New England was literally able to toy with us for nearly 30 straight minutes, and that was after delivering a couple of huge plays in the first half.

I feel silly even bringing up anything related to our defense, so moving on to my more important concern.

Our offense. New England's defense can be had. Even in defeate, the Miami Dolphins put up 28 points, and Chad Pennington found soft spots in the Patriots secondary all day. They're giving up over 20 points per game, and are ranked 13th and 18th against the run and pass respectively. Again, I'm not asking for an offensive explosion, but I sure would like to see Bruce Arians and our offense keep the Patriots defense on their toes for at least part of the game on Sunday.

It won't be easy, and I think Arians can do it. He's had some ups and some downs this past two years. But for him personally, this is as big a moment as any to prove that he's capable of carrying his weight in the team's quest to add a 6th Lombardi Trophy to the case. Bill Bellicheck will be waiting. At least one step ahead.

Other than that one particular matchup in the coaching department, I just hope for good fortune in the injury department and an enjoyably entertaining game watching the Black and Gold. Go Steelers!

A rare link dump from me.

* Hmm, when I clicked on the headline of this story, I thought I was in for an interesting read. Instead, I'm not sure where the complaints come from. Oooh, Steelers fans heckle opposing fans and give soft old overly nostalgic frumps a hard time for leaving early. Big deal, right?

* One For The Other Thumb has its always creative and funny weekly injury report, replete with his world famous Photoshop skills on display.

* Matt Cassel just a product of New England's 'brilliant offensive system?' So says this article, who contends that even a guy like Cassel who hadn't started a game since high school is able to make plays and put up numbers in New England. Hmm. First of all, the Patriots have had multiple 'systems' since Tom Brady arrived on the scene in 2001. Secondly, I think having a fantastic offensive line and arguably the greatest playmaker in the game at WR helps more so than anything that offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels does or does not do.

* Here's SBN's Pats blog Pats Pulpit's recap of the Patriots 48-28 victory over the previously surging Miami Dolphins.

* Last year's New England game was truly the game where we learned that our defense, despite being very good, was not truly elite. At least not elite enough to trump the shortcomings we had on offense. This year our top ranked defense will again have a chance to make a statement against a New England offense that is still potent. Pressuring the QB will be imperative, and something tells me that they won't be able to exploit a LB with Wes Welker like they were able to do for the entire second half of last year's affair, but still, at the end of the day, our secondary is going to have to come up big. Ike Taylor is up for the challenge, and in his own words, he's tired of the secondary not getting any credit for its solid play:

"Our secondary doesn't get the credit it deserves," said cornerback Ike Taylor. "It's usually all about our linebackers. That's two years in a row we've been No. 1 and we still don't get the credit."

No time like the present Ike to make people take notice.