Week 13 vs Saints

[ATL96Steeler]

7-4...is one game off my expectation thru 11 games...still smh @ the Bucs loss...we've split with CLE & BAL...okay imo.

Coming off the bye, the Saints come to town as a really helter skelter team like the entire NFCS.

Whose hurting? Well Gilbert sprained an ankle this week in practice and is not likely to go...Adams will probably start. Troy, Shark are ready to go...apparently Ike has been given to okay to play, been practicing fully...don't know if he will start or not, but knowing Lebeau...look for Ike to start...McLendon is out again...I hope McCullers gets more snaps...see why below...Allen broke a thumb, and is out, and Shazier had something else happen,,,ankle I read and he's questionable...starting to become a concern there.

Jarvis Jones has been given the clearance to practice, and coach Butler says they want to take it slow, but that's good news.

This game...the Saints have had trouble stopping the run most of the year, and it reared it's head again last week vs BAL...they will be keying on Bell early I'm sure. If Haley is smart he will keep it balanced early and then pound Bell later in the game...Cameron Jordan is the only true standout on the front 7 imo...of course former Steeler Lewis will anchor their back 4 and probably matchup vs AB. But a lot of of gaps in between those stand outs...the Steelers OFC should go north of 24 this week.

They better because on OFC, the Saints can still score with the best in the league...weather is going to be nice actually, so I'm curious to see how it goes. Lebeau should be preaching HANDS UP on the DL...Brees is 6' at best...he's good at finding passing lanes, but you can make him less accurate over the middle if he has to go over outreached arms and McCullers being 6'-7" could be a factor.

Saints are a desperate team after losing 3 in a row, but I'm picking the Steelers at home this week...I don't see enough pass rush to bother Ben, unless he decides to hold it for 5 sec...Saints don't have a real productive NT either, but they're not great tackling behind him in the games I've seen.

Steelers 27-20.

What say you?

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

First off… Thank god this game is a home game

This has the makings of a decent matchup for the Steelers. On offense they are facing a good secondary with a porous run defense. If Haley can establish a balanced offense to keep them from stacking the box then Bell is going to feast. The Saints' starting ILB is injured which opens things up even more. I have a feeling that AB is going to see a lot of Lewis this week with Byrd/Vacarro over the top. Luckily the Steelers have too much talent to allow them to double cover AB all game long. Ben needs to spread the ball around to keep the defense honest, as usual! As for the defense… Looks like they are gaining strength… As ATL stated, Ike, Polamalu, & Shamarko are all ready to go. Not sure what JJ's status is other than he's been practicing. If he sees the field then it will be in a limited fashion to see how his wrist responds to it. Matchup wise this isn't as much a problem as once thought. Only Colston & Stills are at 100%. But as anyone knows, Graham doesn't have to be in order to exploit secondaries. Mitchell & Poly need to bring their A-games. Also having Ike back can put Gay back in the slot where he plays better. Should be a boost! D-line will need to honor gap assignments or Ingram will find lanes all day.

From here on out the Steelers need to be in "must-win" mode. The AFC race is too tight right now, and they need to stack wins to separate themselves from the 7-4 pack. Again, thankfully this is a home game… I picked the Steelers to take this one.

 

[Muddler]

Nice analysis guys.

I predict a Steeler victory but more so because they need one than anything based on any sort of objective analysis of the two teams. Saints are a desperate team that's fully capable of making some big plays which has been our undoing in the past. Like Face - I'm very glad it's a home game. They've had two weeks to get ready for this one. The Saints D is very soft as proven last week against the Ratbirds. Ben, Leveon and the rest of the offense must come out sharp from the get go and put up points early and often.

 

[Cali Steel]

Looking for another 6 TD performance from Big Ben......

 

[SJ20]

Not sure where to go with this team. Something is missing. Steelers had the bye why the Saints had a short week. Feel bad for the Steelers alumni who had to watch that garbage. Really thought the Steelers would win this one.

Seems like Ben was off a bit after his throwing hand made contact with Lofton. Bell had a solid game. Heath was good. Wheaton still can't get going. Heyward-Bey is a waste. Like to see Moore get involved more. The offense left a lot of points on the field. Not a great game from the Offense.

Expected the Defense to struggle. A quarterback like Drew Brees will ruin a team who has below average cornerbacks. I pray we finally draft a good cornerback early in the draft and maybe add another through free agency. New season, same old story with the CB's. Really hope Keisel didn't tear something because that looked pretty bad. Troy could have another concussion. That makes me cringe every time he's involved in one of those blow ups. I thought Spence played well. Mike Mitchell continues to piss me off with his stupid penalties. What good is being our leading tackler if he's going to do that crap? Was looking forward to this game and the return of some of our players. This game turned out to be an embarrassment. I guess the Steelers can sweep Cincy and turn things around but I'm now not sure right now. This was tough.

 

[Muddler]

This team is what it is. Mediocre. It's not Tomlin, its not Haley or Lebau. Its Ben. If he plays well we can win, if he doesn't - we lose. Even before he got his hand dinged he was high or off target with many throws. He's lucky Robinson can't catch or he'd have had 3 more picks including a pick six. The final score wasn't indicative of the game. We were out of it at halftime. Saints defense just let us pad the stats when the game was out of reach. Its inexcusable to me to come out flat like that after a bye week with two weeks to prepare for a team against a mid level opponent at home.

Meaningless aside - When are they gonna cut that fat POS Cam Thomas? He is horrible.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

This team is what it is. Mediocre. It's not Tomlin, its not Haley or Lebau. Its Ben. If he plays well we can win, if he doesn't - we lose. Even before he got his hand dinged he was high or off target with many throws. He's lucky Robinson can't catch or he'd have had 3 more picks including a pick six. The final score wasn't indicative of the game. We were out of it at halftime. Saints defense just let us pad the stats when the game was out of reach. Its inexcusable to me to come out flat like that after a bye week with two weeks to prepare for a team against a mid level opponent at home.

Meaningless aside - When are they gonna cut that fat POS Cam Thomas? He is horrible.

Ben was awful today... It's been a long time since I've seen him be that off on his throws. The injury clearly had an affect for at least the 2-3 drives after it happened. You could see his hand shaking on the jumbotron when he was calling plays in the huddle. Glad he stuck it out, but he was still off from the get-go. Seems like it's been 3-4 weeks in a row that he hasn't been performing that well. Not sure what the deal is.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Quick analysis...

Not much is needed to explain the poor performance today. Ben didn't show up today. Just goes to show how important the QB's performance is to the outcome of each game. Case in point, Bell had close to 100 yards rushing and 160 yards receiving and they still lost! Wildly inconsistent play through all 4 quarters. Don't let the end stats fool you because he was able to pad his stats in the 4th quarter in garbage time. Ben's failure to manage the game clock at the end of the 3rd quarter was a bit of a head scratcher... The entire team was lined up and he just didn't snap the ball with 3-4 seconds left. One of the many shortcomings of the game.

Defense... Overall I think the defense was flat out gassed. The offense couldn't extend drives which put the defense on the field more. They did an admirable job through 2 quarters before the pass rush disappeared and Brees started dismantling them. Losing McCain & Keisel hurt. Blake was outmatched. Drew penalties in coverage which erased a big sack and "would be" stops. The secondary as a whole was very amateur. Gay blew a coverage on a backup TE for a TD. Taylor played decent, but still gave up a huge gashing TD to Stills after he slipped. Cam Thomas was absolutely horrid. Not sure why they even kept him in there over McCullers. He consistently failed to hold the point of attack which opened the entire defense up for Ingram to have a Thanksgiving feast.

All in all this team showed us exactly why they are losing to sub-500 teams. Just too inconsistent to develop any sort of identity. And at this point in time in the season it's fair to assume that they just don't have the postseason in them this year. It all rests on the shoulders of Ben though. If he shows up then this team has a fighting chance any given Sunday. With both BAL & CLE losing it gives them some leeway, but everything is on the brink now. Not sure what their chances are at this point though.

 

[element1286]

Sad they lost two practice squad DL and chose to keep a terrible Cam Thomas. It looks even worse now that they lost them just so they could play a no-future, hurt Kiesel in that spot. Don't understand their asset management.

 

[ATL96Steeler]

This team is what it is. Mediocre. It's not Tomlin, its not Haley or Lebau. Its Ben. If he plays well we can win, if he doesn't - we lose. Even before he got his hand dinged he was high or off target with many throws. He's lucky Robinson can't catch or he'd have had 3 more picks including a pick six. The final score wasn't indicative of the game. We were out of it at halftime. Saints defense just let us pad the stats when the game was out of reach. Its inexcusable to me to come out flat like that after a bye week with two weeks to prepare for a team against a mid level opponent at home.

Meaningless aside - When are they gonna cut that fat POS Cam Thomas? He is horrible.

Spot on Muddler.

This team is not good enough at any phase to overcome a bad game by Ben.

I will add this...Ike was worse than Allen has played at any point this year.

When this team is hitting on all cylinders, they can beat any team in the league...when they're not, they can lose to any team in the league...that's the state of this team.

 

[ATL96Steeler]

Quick analysis...

Not much is needed to explain the poor performance today. Ben didn't show up today. Just goes to show how important the QB's performance is to the outcome of each game. Case in point, Bell had close to 100 yards rushing and 160 yards receiving and they still lost! Wildly inconsistent play through all 4 quarters. Don't let the end stats fool you because he was able to pad his stats in the 4th quarter in garbage time. Ben's failure to manage the game clock at the end of the 3rd quarter was a bit of a head scratcher... The entire team was lined up and he just didn't snap the ball with 3-4 seconds left. One of the many shortcomings of the game.

Defense... Overall I think the defense was flat out gassed. The offense couldn't extend drives which put the defense on the field more. They did an admirable job through 2 quarters before the pass rush disappeared and Brees started dismantling them. Losing McCain & Keisel hurt. Blake was outmatched. Drew penalties in coverage which erased a big sack and "would be" stops. The secondary as a whole was very amateur. Gay blew a coverage on a backup TE for a TD. Taylor played decent, but still gave up a huge gashing TD to Stills after he slipped. Cam Thomas was absolutely horrid. Not sure why they even kept him in there over McCullers. He consistently failed to hold the point of attack which opened the entire defense up for Ingram to have a Thanksgiving feast.

All in all this team showed us exactly why they are losing to sub-500 teams. Just too inconsistent to develop any sort of identity. And at this point in time in the season it's fair to assume that they just don't have the postseason in them this year. It all rests on the shoulders of Ben though. If he shows up then this team has a fighting chance any given Sunday. With both BAL & CLE losing it gives them some leeway, but everything is on the brink now. Not sure what their chances are at this point though.

Even shorter recap for me Face...the OFC had 2 early opportunities to put NO in a big hole and bogged down...they came away with FGs.

The DEF is still have big time breakdowns in the back 4...3 of Brees TD passes were to wide open players. I don't get that in week 13.

Whatever happens the rest of the way happens I guess, but this team as currently built is not ready to make any kind of serious run in the playoffs imo.

 

[ATL96Steeler]

Sad they lost two practice squad DL and chose to keep a terrible Cam Thomas. It looks even worse now that they lost them just so they could play a no-future, hurt Kiesel in that spot. Don't understand their asset management.

All while keeping a QB on the 53 that's clearly not going to factor in a game, this yr or next yr...if both QBs went down, I'd finish the game with Bell running a WC OFC before I played Landry.

 

[element1286]

All while keeping a QB on the 53 that's clearly not going to factor in a game, this yr or next yr...if both QBs went down, I'd finish the game with Bell running a WC OFC before I played Landry.

Very true, I can understand keeping three if you have a shaky two, but they don't.

Same goes for 6 WRs, one of the deepest positions in the NFL, and we need to carry Justin Brown so he can play WR5 and play some special teams. Or DHB at WR6. Pick one, no reason to have both.

 

[ATL96Steeler]

Very true, I can understand keeping three if you have a shaky two, but they don't.

Same goes for 6 WRs, one of the deepest positions in the NFL, and we need to carry Justin Brown so he can play WR5 and play some special teams. Or DHB at WR6. Pick one, no reason to have both.

Yep...a lot of teams carry 3 QBs, but if the 3rd guy hasn't proven he belongs on a team yet, and he's never active...I think you can expose him on the PS more so than a DE that might be able to help you.

Shifting the topic...the staff is just too clingy to vets as we've said in the past...I didn't want to see Brett gone for the season, but imo this team isn't going anywhere with or without him...Tuitt needs these reps. Moat isn't anything special but Harrsion played nearly all the snaps yesterday. Same with Ike, and he was terrible yesterday.

 

[Muddler]

Yeah, both valid points about roster mismanagement. Landry Jones?? DHB?? These two have no present or future yet they keep them on the 53 and let players with potential get picked off the PS. Next one will likely be Howard Jones. Steelers have also been holding on to an outdated defensive philosophy that hasn't worked in 5 years and the chickens have come home to roost and are shitting all over the chicken coop. So many bad losses this year it's hard to pick the worst but this one ranks right up there. Off the bye week, 2 weeks to prepare, @ home and against a struggling team coming off a short week of practice. Pretty much gotta run the table to make the playoffs. Don't see that happening. Best case scenario IMO is we split with the Bungs but I see a loss @ Hotlanta. KC @ home is winnable if they can keep Jamal Charles in check but BB will be under pressure all day from their pass rush and might end up throwing that game away like he did against the Saints. One more year of 8-8?

 

[ATL96Steeler]

Yeah, both valid points about roster mismanagement. Landry Jones?? DHB?? These two have no present or future yet they keep them on the 53 and let players with potential get picked off the PS. Next one will likely be Howard Jones. Steelers have also been holding on to an outdated defensive philosophy that hasn't worked in 5 years and the chickens have come home to roost and are shitting all over the chicken coop. So many bad losses this year it's hard to pick the worst but this one ranks right up there. Off the bye week, 2 weeks to prepare, @ home and against a struggling team coming off a short week of practice. Pretty much gotta run the table to make the playoffs. Don't see that happening. Best case scenario IMO is we split with the Bungs but I see a loss @ Hotlanta. KC @ home is winnable if they can keep Jamal Charles in check but BB will be under pressure all day from their pass rush and might end up throwing that game away like he did against the Saints. One more year of 8-8?

Clearly the worst loss imo was TB...Brees is considered a top 4 (elite) QB...if you don't keep constant pressure or have great coverage, he will find the holes and make you pay.

Agree on Hojo and the scheme.

Playoffs...right now they just need to focus on beating CIN (who clearly should've lost as well yesterday).

 

[SJ20]

Steelers are the only AFC North team to lose to an NFC South team this season. And now it's happened twice.

 

[ATL96Steeler]

Steelers are the only AFC North team to lose to an NFC South team this season. And now it's happened twice.

Not good, but I think the NFCS (at least ATL & NO) have better teams than the records...AZ was squashed by ATL yesterday...granted no Fitz, but they were held to 1 OFC TD by the 32nd ranked DEF...CIN spanked NO last week, but only won yesterday b/c TB had 12 men on the field when they made a 21 yd completion that would've given them a 30 yd game winning FG.

SEA barely beat CAR 13-9.

I think the bigger issue is this is an up and down Steeler team...seems like they play their best under duress.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

I said it to a buddy of mine before the game... Any time the Steelers are "point-favorites" they are going to struggle lol.


If Hojo gets skyped off the PS then I will lose almost all faith in their personnel department. I agree with you guys that its ridiculous that they are keeping Landry & a WR6 on the 53 when neither sees the field, nor will they ever at any point this season. I think they are still remembering the scary days when Leftwich & Batch got hurt which thrust QB4 Dixon into the starting lineup lol. That was a frightening scenario! DHB is disposable because of J-Brown, but they only need 1 of the 2. J-Brown doesn't see the field anymore, and DHB is somewhat of a liability out there. Moats is serviceable as a backup but obviously just a journeyman. They need JJ to get healthy! He & Worilds can be the future. But Hojo could pay big dividends when or if JJ or Worilds go down or leave so they need to keep him.

 

[MISKO]

landry aint all that good either in my eyes