Why might the Steelers be in trouble tomorrow?  Let me explain:

Richardson has done a nice job so far during his Rookie campaign. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-US PRESSWIRE

Trent Richardson

Most of the Steelers Defenders are either injured, playing hurt, or simply calcifying before our eyes this year.  In addition, this unit is coming off of their most physically demanding outing of the year to this point, and to their credit played some of their best football in close to two years.  Although the Ravens are not tomorrow’s opponent, Pittsburgh will have a tall-order in front of them in the form of Trent Richardson and must find a way to contain the talented and bruising Rookie Back.

Richardson has been Cleveland’s work-horse this year, and has performed quite well over his first 10 games when one considers the inexperience around him on the Offensive side of the ball.  On the season, Richardson has already rushed for 670 Yards on 180 Carries and scored 5 Touchdowns on the ground.  In addition to Richardson’s impact as a runner, he has also been quite the effective weapon as a pass-catcher out of the backfield too.  Richardson has already caught 37 passes for 289 Yards, and scored 1 Touchdown through the air.  In fact, Richardson has been one of Quarterback Brandon Weeden’s most favorite target this year, and is actually tied for 2nd on the team in total times targeted in the passing game (51).  The Steelers have had their fair share of issues in the past containing versatile Running Backs (Ray Rice, Maurice Jones-Drew, etc.), and might expect to see a steady dose of Richardson tomorrow if the Browns elect to take some pressure off of Weeden.

Piss-Poor Special Teams Play/Josh Cribbs

To say that Josh Cribbs has been a “Steeler Killer” over the course of his career would be an absolute disservice to him and the performances he has put on against the Black & Gold over the last seven years.  Although Cribbs has been a “Swiss Army Knife” over his career, he has done the most damage against the Steelers as a Kick and Punt Returner in 14 total games.  Overall, Cribbs has bedeviled Pittsburgh’s coverage units in the return department to the tune of 42 Kick Returns for 1,063 Career Yards and 3 Touchdowns, and put up 17 Punt Returns for 189 Career Yards to boot.

Unfortunately for the Steelers, their Kick and Punt coverage units have been inconsistent and extremely undisciplined this season.  To witness these units take Points off the board because of stupid penalties (Antonio Brown, Oakland Game) and give the opposition free points with sloppy coverage (Jacoby Jones, Last Week) has been painful to watch.  Overall though, these units have been sub-par when they have not committed penalties and have simply tried to execute.  Through 10 games, the Steelers’ Special Teams have allowed the 4th most Kickoff Return Yards (904),  the 9th highest Kickoff Return Average (25.8), and the 10th Highest Punt Return Average (10.9).  All of this is bad news for the Steelers, because Cribbs enters tomorrow’s game as one of the N.F.L.’s most successful returners so far in 2012.  Cribbs ranks 3rd in Kickoff Return Yards (887), 6th in Yards per Kickoff Return (28.4), 3rd in Punt Return Yards (330), and 5th in Yards per Punt Return (13.2), and is always a threat to score when he gets the ball in his hands in the Return Game.

Steelers Defense & Their Turnover Trouble

If the game is indeed tight tomorrow, the Steelers Offense might need an extra possession or two to secure either insurance points for their Defense, or points to simply stay in the game from a competitive standpoint.  Takeaways however have not been this 2012 Defense’s strong suit, and meaningful Turnovers have eluded this group over the year’s first 10 games.

So how bad has it been for the Steelers’ and their inability to record Takeaways?  Well, Pittsburgh ranks Tied for 30th (9 Total) in the Takeaway department this season.  But if that was not bad enough, the Steelers have not scored a Defensive Touchdown since Week 3 of the 2011 season, and were unable to force one single Turnover last Sunday night against the Ravens.  With their 3rd and 4th string Quarterbacks now 1st and 2nd on the depth chart, the Steelers Offense will be in no way the well-oiled machine it was with Roethlisberger in charge.  On the road, and likely in inclement weather at “The Mistake By The Lake,” every possession will extremely crucial for this Offense to either play for field position, and most importantly, put points on the board to win.

Final Thoughts

Am I crazy for saying that the Browns are primed to pick up a “W” against Pittsburgh for only the second time since 2003?  Possibly.  But you know what readers?  I smell a “Trap Game,” and I would not be shocked if the Steelers are looking ahead to next week’s do-or-die contest against the Ravens in Baltimore.  The aforementioned factors and weaknesses I described above have cost Pittsburgh at pivotal times this year, and I believe that the Browns have the personnel to exploit these weaknesses with Big Ben on the sidelines.

The Browns gave the Ravens everything they could handle only three short weeks ago in Cleveland (they led in the 4th Quarter), and have been a competitive team all season long.  While the Browns’ season might be lost (2-8), what better way for this team to inspire hope, faith, and ecstasy amongst their fanbase than to deliver a victory over their long-standing rivals?  The signal of “blood in the water” has gone out to the rest of the League with Pittsburgh’s Pro Bowl signal-caller on the sidelines, and the Browns could be the next in line to take advantage.

Readers:  Will the Browns pull the upset?  Or will the hobbled Steelers take care of business?  Share your thoughts’ below.

Stats Courtesy of Pro Football Reference.com

Here we go again.

In their never-ending quest to ruin the greatest sport on earth, the NFL has decided to crack down on hitting.  “Wait,” you may ask, “Isn’t football a game of large heavily muscled men slamming into each other at a high rate of speed?”   Yes it is.   But the NFL is doing their best to remove as much contact from a contact sport as possible.

James Harrison was fined $75,000 for his knock out blow on Cleveland’s Mohamed Massaquoi last Sunday.  It was a thing of beauty, a vicious yet perfectly clean hit.   The fact there were no flags on the play confirms that it was well within the rules.   Harrison was simply doing what players are taught to do from the time they first strap on a helmet.

Predictably, Browns fans were in an uproar over that play and Harrison’s equally clean leveling of Josh Cribbs. They even circulated a laughable petition whining because their incompetent players got jacked up.  I’m not bothered by that since it’s pretty much to be expected.   Losers cry when they lose and there are no bigger losers than the Cleveland Browns.

What upsets me is the media seized on Harrison’s actions, as well as several similarly violent hits this past weekend, and blew the issue entirely out of proportion.   The unbearable weekend wrap-up shows all beat to death a similar theme of,  “Something must be done!”   Naturally, the image conscious NFL sprang into action in the worst possible way.

The league’s chief of football operations, Ray Anderson, has declared from this point forward suspensions will be handed out for “dangerous or flagrant hits.”

Let’s analyze that wording a bit.   What exactly is a “dangerous” hit?   Call me crazy but isn’t a 275 monster crashing into you at full force a tad dangerous?  So basically every tackle is a dangerous play.  Now let’s look at the word “flagrant.”  A flagrant foul by definition is something which is obviously illegal.  If Harrison’s tackles were so clearly illegal, why did seven officials keep their flags in their pockets?

James Harrison was fined for playing the game the way it should be played.   Head coach Mike Tomlin called the plays, “Legal hits. Not fineable hits. He played good football.”  Harrison said it would be “a travesty” if he were fined.   Since the ruling came down, his agent has said he was going to appeal this miscarriage of justice.   Seventy-five grand is a decent chunk of change but I ordinarily wouldn’t worry about it because Harrison is paid to destroy and these annoying little fines are just the cost of doing business.

What does worry me is the prospect of some day losing our star linebacker for one game, possibly more, due to a suspension.   The Pittsburgh Steelers already lost their quarterback for a month as a result of an arbitrary and totally unwarranted suspension.  Now we’re facing the prospect that the next time Silverback clobbers the daylights out of somebody, he could miss games over it.   What’s worse, we’ll never know when that line is crossed because the rule is so vaguely worded, nobody has any idea what’s legal and what’s not.

James Harrison is 110% in the right on this one.   Not only were both his plays perfectly acceptable, the fact his fine is unreasonably high when there were far far more egregious rule violations last Sunday is ridiculous.  The only reason the league repeatedly comes down on him for playing football the way it should be played is they don’t find him marketable.  He doesn’t like interviews and he doesn’t like the spotlight.   Maybe he should start acting like a clown for NFL Films and on commercials like Ray Lewis so the the NFL would stop giving him these big fines.  In the meantime, the league’s punishment policies continue to be a joke.

Don’t make James Harrison angry.   You wouldn’t like him when he’s angry.

Displaying a balanced attack missing most of the first month of the season, the Pittsburgh Steelers crushed the hapless Cleveland Browns by a final score of 28-10.  Of course, the main storyline was the return of Ben Roethlisberger from his unjustified four game suspension.   Prior to the game, Ben was introduced to a rousing ovation from the Heinz Field crowd.  I have to admit to getting a little lump in my throat seeing the hero of Steeler Nation receive such a warm and appreciative reception from the people who love him.

Ben got off to a rough start, throwing a terrible red zone interception on his fourth pass of the game.  He would recover from this early setback to finish an impressive 16/27 for 257 yards and three touchdowns on the afternoon.  Ben, who told reporters he’d grade his performance “a B- or C+,” clearly had some rust to work off.  Several of his throws were way off-target or poor decisions which against a less pitiful team might have added another pick or two to his stat line.   But by the same token, he also could have easily had two or three more touchdown passes.  The most notable was when Mike Wallace, who seemed to be wide open all game (3 catches, 90 yards and TD), was standing all by himself on the 5 yard line late in the fourth but Ben sailed his pass out of bounds.

Despite some of the kinks which will be worked out in time, this was definitely a vintage Big Ben performance.   Shrugging off would-be tacklers, taking hits, scrambling away from danger to make a play…  The Steelers’ first two touchdowns were perfect examples of what Ben brings to the table.  First, he stood in the pocket and delivered a 29 yard strike to Wallace despite a Cleveland linebacker almost jumping on his back.  Then he zipped a crazy sandlot-style jump pass to Hines Ward, who broke through three lazy Browns to score.

Meanwhile, I don’t know who this guy standing on our sideline claiming to be Bruce Arians is but I like him.   Yesterday we saw pretty much the ideal fusion of Steeler Football with a modern day explosive passing offense.  The final pass/run split was 27/35.  And for those who didn’t see the game, you may think “Sure, we got up big and then ran the clock out.”   Actually, they ran quite a bit early in the game and, shockingly, stuck with it even when Rashard Mendenhall didn’t break off a huge run every third carry.   Despite falling short of another 100 yard performance (84 yards and 1 TD), Mendy provided nice balance while Issac Redman contributed a few short yardage pick-ups.

While the offense was shaping up, the defense were their usual dominant selves.  James Harrison was a one-man wrecking crew, making 10 tackles, notching two sacks, hitting the quarterback three more times, and registering two KOs.  I’m sure we’ll be hearing crybabies whining about Silverback demolishing Josh Cribbs and Mohamed Massaquoi with clean UNPENALIZED hits but that’s just the way the biased anti-Steelers media works.  Here’s a newsflash for you:  Football is a contact sport.  If you put your head down diving for yards or run across the middle of the field, you’re going to get drilled.  I’m sick of these idiots moaning every time someone is laid out.  If vicious hits are so bad, either tie ribbons around their waists and turn the NFL into flag football or else let the players play.

Giving credit where credit is due, Colt McCoy played a pretty damn good game under the circumstances.  He was intercepted twice but both were deflections, one bounced off the receiver’s hands and the second was deflected by Ryan Mundy.   Considering he was missing his two best offensive weapons, sacked 5 times, and knocked around several others, a final stat line of 23/33 for 281 yards made for a surprisingly solid afternoon for young Colt even if many of those yards came after the Steelers were comfortably ahead.

The Steelers secondary continues to be something of a mystery to me as I just don’t feel entirely good about what I’m seeing.  Bryant McFadden, in particular, has moments but also looks lost at times.  Whenever they go to a soft prevent type D, guys get behind him almost every time.  And Ryan Clark, who was picked on a lot by the Ravens, needs to stop thinking he’s Troy Polamalu.   He tries to lay a smack down on receivers instead of just tackling them and many times they bounce off and keep running.

But those are issues to worry about another day.   The bottom line is the Steelers have played five games and given up a grand total of five touchdowns.  Mix in a balanced offense which is only going to get better as Ben gets more in synch and you have the most complete team in the NFL.   With the Ratbirds going down in glorious flames, the Steelers find themselves a half game up in the AFC North.  All in all, the week couldn’t have gone better for the Black and Gold.