SB Nation User Blog: SteelerBuddha

Making sesne of this mess

SteelerBuddha — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 21:22:43 -0000

OK, I admit it, I am in no position to write a solid fanpost right now, but I do want to vent a bit.

After all I just gave up my Sunday afternoon - which I really, really needed for work, to watch this team play on a crappy little internet stream.

I had originally planned on not watching. I considered this a fool proof plan. If we won the game, then no biggie - it's the Raiders at home in a must win situation, really no chance they come out flat and blow it. On the other hand, if by some strange break of events they did manage to find a way to lose, then I knew I wanted no part of watching it.

Anyway, good plan - poor execution. Sort of like Dick Lebeau's defense in the fourth quarter. Like a fool I watched. Now it's 5:00 and I haven't done a shred of work, and I am feeling mad. Real mad.

What can you possibly say about losing to the Raiders at home? I will give to the Raiders that they are playing much better football since they benched Jamarcus Russel - and they have beaten two teams with better records than the Steelers - but let's be honest - I don't think many of us thought the Steelers were going to blow a must win, at home, in December against a 3-8 team. But this ain't your 08 Steelers. So what happened.

1. Same old same old - but worse. Sadly, with the lone exception of Special Teams (welcome back Anthony Madison) every single thing that contributed to this loss has been a regular pattern for the 09 Steelers. In what has become one of the strangest patterns I've seen from a football team in my life, the Steelers consistently outplay the opposition for 3 quarters and manage to lose the game in the fourth. Part of that comes from not closing out in the first three, but really what it comes down to is not getting it done when the game is on the line.

What made this loss more stunning was the severity of the defenisve melt-down in the fourth quarter. It was infact the second time this season the Steelers have given up 21 points in the fourth quarter. The first time, in San Diego however, it was hard to fault the defense. This time the 21 was entirely a failure on the defensive side of the ball. What's more to put it into perspective Oakland had not yet scored 21 points in a game this entire season - not once!

2. The Defense - In the wake of this game there was a ton of chatter on the boards about firing Bruce Arians. Let me be clear, I am all for it.I think Bruce Arians called yet another uninspired game, left points on the field, asked big Ben to do too much, etc. etc. But let's also be clear, Bruce Arians is NOT THE REASON the Steelers lost this game.

The collapse here was a defensive collapse pure and simple. Now, don't get me wrong, I am not suggesting that we fire Dick Lebeau. That would be stupid. But I do think it's some time to do some serious, serious soul searching about what's happening on these fourth quarter chokes. I think a very large part of this is on the players, but I also think Lebeau's legendary status has insulated him from criticism. You will notice that after three quarter of domination - it seems that Offensive coordinators are simply figuring out how to solve the Steelers come the fourth quarter. If it happens once or twice during the season you shrug it off. But six times? You have to start asking questions.

Having said that, I think that it's fairly clear that, Lebeau is missing his weapons in Troy, McFadden and Smith and is playing with a secondary that is untalented and uninspired at this point.

Let's start with the secondary: Ike Taylor, far from being the shutdown corner that he was last year, has made tons of big mistakes in coverage. Costly PI penalties, poor reads such as letting Murphy take the inside with no safety help and of course his hands are so bad you wouldn't allow him to play right field in little league.

William Gay, is much worse. We have watched Gay's struggles throughout the year. This game was simply embaressing. On almost every play that we saw him, Gay was sitting on his but, having slipped on the field. Now granted it's a bad field and I think that we should recognize that as part of the culprit in the poor secondary play. Still all in all Gay was going against two guys who had barely NFL experience. Higgins and Schilens between them had 13 catches this season for a total of 149 yards. Today going mostly against Gay they tallied 7 catches for 108. Murphy tallied another 4 catches for 128 yards - not sure how many of those apart from the big 75 yarder came against the safeties and how many against Ike.

I am not sure what else to say without watching the game again.None of the safeties looked good, and I didn't see much of Desehea out there. It's clear that this team misses Troy in a big way, but that kind of drop off is simply not acceptable. This was the Raiders not the Colts and we were facing Brad Gradowski throwing to a bunch of no name recievers not Manning, Brady or Brees.

One thing I will say in defense of the Steelers Seconday is the Gradowski did a great job of extending plays and making guys miss. In some ways he was just as effective as Ben on a good day at making something out of what should have been an easy sack. Still in that situation you would hope that Lebeau does a good job of making adjustments in the fourth quarter to make sure that we stay on top.

3. The offense. While this loss is clearly the fault of the defensive collapse in the fourth quarter, the offense and the coaching are also culpable. In the first 3 quarters the Steelers left a minimum of 9 points on the board, enough to put the game fairly under control. Let's look at each of those plays.

4th and 1 inside the ten and the Steelers elect to run a QB sneak. It's hard to fault Tomlin for taking this gamble. He wants to be agressive, he wants to set the tone. Still anytime you leave points on the board in the NFL it should be considered a fairly big failure. I won't say that it was the wrong call, but it did prove to be very costly. Prognosis - Tough call, but the Steelers played the odds and lost.

The Ben interception. Driving late in the 2nd quarter the Steelers found themselves on the Raiders 16 with 300 minutes left. With plenty of time to throw Ben made a bad read and a bad throw for Hines in the back of the endzone. It's not at all clear what Ben saw on that play but the ball was Behind Ward and picked off by Eugune who Ben never saw on the play. It was simply a careless play and it cost the Steelers at least 3 points. Prognosis: Ben has to take much better care of the ball inside the 20.

The last play was the Ben Sack on 3rd and 6 at the Oakland 25. This is the kind of play that has been killing us all year, and that Ben and the Offensive line and Arians simply have to account for better. If Ben had somehow managed to pick throw the ball away on this play, Reed has a very managable 44 yard field goal. Instead, he is forced to try a 53 yarder into the open end of the stadium. The miss set's up great field position for the Raiders and leads them to their first TD of the game.

I see this game killing sequence as a tragic failure on the part of three people, Ben, Bruce Arians and Mike Tomlin. Let's start with Arians. We are on the 26 with an opprotunity to put up points to start the fourth quarter. This is one of those situation where the coaching staff has to make smart situational choices. You absolutely want to get the first down, but you simply cannot afford to not pick up the field goal. There are only two unaccaptable results here - either a turnover or a sack that drives you out of range. It's hard to know what the play call was, but it certainly seemed like a pass that was going to take a couple of second to develop.

For his part Ben (and the O-Line) simply fail to recognize the blitzer before it's too late. I would have to see the play again to know who is really to blame, but I can't help but think that Arians did not give his guys a chance to succeed by dialing up that kind of play. Ultimately, you also have to question Tomlin's decision to let Reed kick from that spot. Once again it seems that tomlin is playing his gut and not the safe, smart and sometimes unpopular percentages. At that point I think you have to punt.

All in all in a game where you throw for nearly 300 and run for over a 100 you should be able to smile as an offense - so give BA and Ben some credit. But in the end it's hard to ignore that when things really counted, with the ball deep in the opponents side of the field, Ben, BA and Tomlin collectively managed to leave a whole bunch of points on the field. Points that likely would have won the game.

Conclusions on the wall:

Well, I think I am more or less done venting.

I will say this. It's a perplexing team. I think that if you look at it objectively, this team is really more talented on offense than the team that won last year.

On the defensive side of the ball, it's clear that the absence of McFadden and Troy, and to a lesser extent Aaron Smith have hurt this team a tremendous amount. Without them we have simply been incapable of making the plays that would have been the margin of victory.

One of the most troubling questions for me remains - are we being out-coached? While Bruce Arians has been our favorite whipping boy for two seasons here, I think the bigger question is are we losing the mind battles with opposing OC's in the fourth quarter or is simply a matter of not having the weapons to fight against the pass rush. I do think it's more of the latter, but I don't think that this can be put entirely on them. Before you shout me down, I think LeBeau is a genius, but I do think that the defense he runs requires a much better secondary than he has - and it's showing in a big, big way this season - and he has failed to adjust for this. As I said above, 21 points against the Raiders in the fourth is simply an embarressment.

I don't yet know what it means for the future, but I think it's pretty clear that this team is on life support right now. The strangest thing is that it's dying in large part from self-inflicted wounds. The Steelers have simply been out played and out coached in the fourth quarter of games against inferior opponents.

I can't help but wonder if William Gay has seen his last game as a starter this year. I think that if we lose to Cleveland (and yes, it absolutely can happen) or even if we don't we may see a big shake-up in the secondary.

Good news in dark times

SteelerBuddha — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:58:31 -0000

Good news in dark times

I thought this good news, coming to us via the onion, would help put a smile on people's faces here. By the way if the imaginary stats in the article are right, then we lag well behind Pittsburgh school children with our persistent Steeler Dyslexia.

Redemption Song - The Rashard Mendenhall Story?

SteelerBuddha — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:01:17 -0000

Let's take a trip back in time for a moment.

The day is, April 26th 2008.

You, like me, are glued to the TV waiting for the Steelers to draft in the first round. At the time most mock drafts and much of the fan base had us taking a tackle in the first round. A few had us taking Jonathan Stewart, a big bruising back out of Oregon, to compliment Fast Willie Parker. Others among the fanbase were hoping we would take a big bruiser on the defensive side of the ball.

After an early run on Defensive linemen, we watched a run on O-linemen. Ryan Clady, Brandon Alpert, Chris Williams, Gosder Cherilus, Sam Baker and Jeff Oteh all come of the board between pick 12 and pick 21.

In total 7 O-Linemen and 6 D-Line men were taken by the time that we picked 21st pick. What's more Jonathan Stewart, was gone - taken by Carolina with the 13th pick.

Amidst all of this a young guy by the name of Rashard Mendenhall was quietly sliding down the board. Mendehnall had been predicted as a 10-20 pick in most mocks. A lot of people had him going to the Cardinals. Many others to the Bears or Panthers.

When the Cowboys came on the clock with the 22nd pick it seemed likely that they would grab Mendenhall. Instead they took a speedster by the name of Felix Jones.

Like many fans, I was both excited and a bit stumped when the Steelers grabbed Mendenhall with the 23rd pick.

via i.cdn.turner.com

Fast forward a year and half. It's the week leading to the fourth game of what is shaping up to be a disappointing start to the season for Both Mendehnall and the Steelers.

The Steelers are 1-2 having failed to run the ball in two disappointing losses and one scary win. Mendenhall is coming off a week in Tomlin's non-existent dog-house, after being benched because of his lack of attention to details.

In his year and a half long NFL career he has played a total of 7 games. He has never carried the ball more than 10 times. He has never gained more than 39 yards.

During two training camps he has struggled to hold on to the ball. He has already received a bad rap, because following an injury early in the season, he disappeared during most of the teams 2008 championship run, preferring to take hip-hop dance classes (great pictures in this link) rather than spending time working out with his team mates.

via www.post-gazette.com

(Mendenhall's struggles holding on the ball caused the coaches to give a $100 award to anyone who managed to get a fumble out of him)

via media.collegepublisher.com (It's much easier to enjoy these pictures after watching Mendenhall hurdle the NFL competition in the past 5 weeks)

The fan base was up in arms. Much of the frustration came pouring out during training camp 2009. Mendenhall looked healthy but failed to make many splash plays during the pre-season. During that time many of the fans rallied behind a hard hitting UDFA by the name of Issac Redman. When Redman was cut from the final squad many were apoplectic. For some it was clear that this guy had out hustled Mendenhall. A couple of irritating posters on this site, spent most of the season refusing to mention Mendenhall without talking about his "skirt".

But it wasn't just the fan base who is screaming for Mendy's head. At the start of the 2009 season, no less of an authority than Jerome Bettis officially called out Mendenhall. In a scathing piece where he tossed pretty much the whole team under the proverbial Bus, Bettis said of Mendenhall "I haven't seen him - Period"

A couple weeks later, Ron Cook one of the post-gazette's usually level headed columists used the B word to describe Mendy, and for that matter the whole 2008 draft. In a scathing piece Cook said this among other things about Mendy.

This guy is supposed to be a professional? He certainly doesn't look like one.

How can Mendenhall let his teammates down like that? How can he let himself down?

Is he not smart enough to realize the opportunity he has with the Steelers?

As if that weren't enough, Cook finished his assessment of the young back's performance by writing "Shame on Mendenhall" . I for one, thought it was an absolutely awful piece and said so at the time, but it certainly reflected the mood of much of the fan base.

In the week leading up to the San Diego game, many were calling it a make or break game for the young 2nd year player.

I for one remember thinking this was rather unfair. Up until that point in his career, Mendenhall had a total of 26 carries for 84 yards. To put that into context that's 13 less carries than former bust Cedric Benson had against his former team in one game two weeks ago.

What made all of this even more frustrating was just how damn good the rest of Mendy's draft class had been. With the exception of McFadden (you can always count on the Raiders to produce busts), the rest of the class has been nothing short of exceptional. More on them in a bit.

Although it was unlikely that the coaching staff would have given up on Mendenhall if he had a bad game against San Diego, it's hard to imagine that a large part of the fan base wouldn't have completely turned on the guy.

via 3.bp.blogspot.com (Tomlin has done a good job of keeping this young man positive and moving in the right direction)

In his second ever career start, and his first complete game Mendenhall rushed for 165 yards on 29 carries. In one game he eclipsed his career totals for carries, TD's and yards. Despite some lingering doubters he also went a long way towards silencing any talk of his being a bust.

After his 155 yard effort on Monday night against the league's number one ranked defense, the bust talk is fast being replaced by talk of him as one of the up and coming young running backs in this league.

In fact, since Rashard got the starting job, due to Willie Parker's toe turf, he has been great. During that 5 week stretch only two backs in the NFL have been more productive. That would be the sueprflous Chris Johnson who has averaged 122 yards a game at 6.6 ypc and Cedric Benson has averaged 108.8 a game at 4.1 ypc

Mendenhall has averaged 105.6 and 5.6 ypc. His worst game came against Cleveland when he ran 17 times for 62 yards. It was, in fact, the only time since becoming a starter that he averaged less than 5 yards a carry.

In today's Steelers Q and A with Ed Bochutte, a fan asked if the Steelers should pick up Larry Johnson. The bristly Ed Bocuhette was dismissive. saying that we would be stupid to get Johnson (I agree) because of his age and history of being a trouble maker. More importantly he added that that " Mendenhall is fast becoming one of the best backs in the league."

Bochutte is a cantankerous old crank but he is rarely a homer (he doesn't consider himself a fan) or hyperbolic. While his is sarcastic he it is rare that he is effusive with either praise or criticism. I take this statement as a sign of how high both the coaches and the serious analysts are on Mendenhall's potential.

via d.yimg.com

Now here is the scary part.

Pop Quiz folks. TE David Johnson was born in August of 1987. He is the youngest player on the roster. Anyone want to hazard a guess at who the second youngest is?

Yup. Mendenhall.

In fact of all the backs taken in the first two rounds of the past two years, only one Bonzi Wells (taken this year) is more than a month or two younger than Mendenhall.

Some, like the amazing Chris Johnson, are as much as two years older. Add to that the fact that Mendenhall had significantlly less carries than all of these guys in college (see cgolden's breakdown in the comments section) you begin to get a sense of how his coaches view this guy. Not only is he good, but if he works at it, he has the potential to get a whole lot better.

Anyone excited yet? You should be.

From my perspective, one of the most interesting possibilities is that Mendenhall will get better catching the ball out of the backfield. Despite having good hands and looking good in space, we have seen almost nothing in the way of screens and short pass plays for Mendy. I imagine that as he get's more comfortable in the backfield and continues to improve with his blitz pick-ups you will see him becoming more and more of a safety blanket for Ben. If that happens it will open up the play action pass which will in turn open up even more running lanes for Mendenhall.

More than anything you really have to like the fact that since becoming a starter, Mendenhall has looked more and more comfortable at finding the holes. "Slow to and fast through (the hole)" is one of the timeless catch-phrases coaches use when describing how they want a runner to approach the line. In the past couple of weeks we have seen Mendy do some very nice work finding and running through holdes against two of the better defenses in the league.

Two main question marks hover over Mendy's future at this moment. First does he run too high? And second does he protect the ball? It's hard to know what to make of these two issues right now. The second is coachable, the first may not be. I am not sure about the issue of pad level. Have their been other backs who run with a rather high pad level, who have great success? Weigh in with your thoughts.

via a.espncdn.com (someone has to teach the young guy where the football belongs)

via www.post-gazette.com (Mendy's tendency to run with the ball held high and out and his generally high pad levels have raised questions about his future)

The game against Cincinnati

This Sunday the Steelers the Cincinnati Bengals come to our house, owning sole possession of first place in division. It is important that the Steelers find an appropriate welcome for such esteemed guests. Mendenhall has a good chance to be part of the welcome committee.

Let's start with the running back match up. The starting at RB on the other side of the ball is a guy who knows a thing or two about being labelled a first round bust. Cedric Benson is having a wonderful year for the Bengals and may be one of the biggest reasons these guys are 6-2 and not 2-6. Add to that a Bengals defense that is currently statistically (and only statistically) better than the Steelers defense and you have an intriguing match up, to see who is real and who isn't.

Personally I think the Steelers will win this one, and Mendy will shine.

If not for a costly Limas Sweed drop in the endzone, the first game would likely have been a laugher. The Steelers had an 11 point lead before Polamalu's absence allowed the Bengals to claw their way to an improbable victory. Since then the Steelers have re-gained Polamulu and Mendenhall. The Bengals meanwhile have lost both Odom and Henry for the season. You cannot ignore the fact that the Steelers will be without Aaron Smith their best DE for the better part of a decade, but the truth is that he might have been playing hurt during first game - and Nick Eason and Ziggy Hood have filled in nicely in his absence.

Either way it looks to be a great game another nice chance for Mendenhall to make his mark on the league.

BTW here is the breakdown of what the Mendenhall's draft class has done as running backs.

Name	Rushes	Yards	Yrds/Rush	Draft Round - Number
Darren McFadden	160	645	4.0	1st Rd (4)
Jonathan Stewart	271	1220	4.5	1st Rd (13)
Felix Jones	71	564	7.9	1st Rd (22)
Rashard Mendenhall	119	631	5.3	1st Rd (23)
Chris Johnson	395	2187	5.5	1st Rd (24)
Matt Forte	439	1679	3.8	2nd Rd (44)
Ray Rice	215	1079	5.0	2nd Rd (55)
Kevin Smith	376	1436	3.8	3rd Rd (64)
Jamaal Charles	96	509	5.3	3rd Rd (73)
Steve Slaton	384	1641	4.3	3rd Rd (89)
Tashard Choice	143	721	5.0	4th Rd (122)
Tim Hightower	221	682	3.1	5th Rd (149)
Justin Forsett	20	123	6.2	7th Rd (233)

Also for you consideration, a poll. I am less interested in the answers as I am in seeing a comparison of the answers from this week to the answers we would have gotten after week 3.

Poll

10 years from now Rashard Mendenhall will be considered:

The best back of his class and a great player

24 votes

One of the top three backs in his class and very good player

122 votes

One of the top five backs in his class and a good player

72 votes

An average player who never lived up to his pre-draft hype

8 votes

A total bust

1 votes

227 votes | Poll has closed

Anatomy of a play - Tyrone Carter Pick 6

SteelerBuddha — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:38:16 -0000

As we sit back and celebrate the Steelers 28-10 pounding of the Broncos, it's easy to forget the very tough fist half the Broncos played against us. Up until intermission, Denver dominated time of possession (19:16 to 10:44), yards (183 to 54), first downs (9 to 3) and third down efficency (56% vs. 40%) - pretty much every meaningful stat except the score.

In fact, the Broncos looked solid on both sides of the ball and I for one was worried that our defense might be gassed having played nearly 20 minutes in the thin air by half time.

It's hard to imagine now, but the game might have turned out very differently if not for the Steelers third defensive TD in the 2 games, this one served up by the oft-maligned Tyrone Carter.

More about the play in a second, but I want to remind people that Carter at 5-8, 190 age 33 has often been the target of criticism and frustration from many in the nation, especially when he has to come in and replace our FHOF safety Troy Polamalu.

Carter will likely never live down his open field miss in the the Jaguars-Steelers play-off game in 2007, but for a long time that play has overshadowed the contributions of a smart and solid veteran back-up, not to mention good guy. For a bit more about Carter, check out this excellent profile the post-gazette ran on him a couple of weeks back.

via cache3.asset-cache.net

There is no question that the Tryone Carter Pick 6 was one of the biggest plays of the game. At that point the Broncos were up 3-0 with 13:01 left in the half.

Denver had been feeding the Steelers a steady stream of dink and dunk, that appeared to be sorely bending though not yet breaking the LeBeau defense. If not for a great play by William Gay in the red-zone on the Broncos first drive, they could have been out to a big early lead.

Kyle Orton would go on to complete 16 of 21 in the first half for a total of 163 yards. And the Steelers offense never really got it going in the first half.

Orton would only complete 7 of 17 in the second half and the Broncos would manage only 3 more first downs, while the Steelers, who had only managed 3 first downs in the first half would add 18 more first downs in the second half. Not too shabby.

Now let's look at the play.

Here is the full video of the play from NFL films

http://www.nfl.com/videos/pittsburgh-steelers/09000d5d81414d6d/Tyrone-Carter-Pick-6

Now let's break it down.

via lh3.ggpht.com

Let's start with the formations. The Broncos start this one with three receivers out to the left, the QB in the shotgun and one running back in the backfield. The Steelers seem to be in a classic LeBeau set. There are 5 guys on the line and two line backers in the box, plus one corner (William Gay) sitting outside on the empty side of the field. Notcie that the lone Steelers defender on the top of the screen - Ike Taylor is playing a full ten yards off his man. No one else is visible. That means that Troy and Tyrone are up deep upfield

via lh6.ggpht.com

The three Broncos receivers release, with Taylor, Troy and Carter still out of sight. As soon as the ball is snapped you begin to understand why this defense is so difficult to play against.

Until they go (and even after) you have no idea which of the 8 guys in and around the box are coming at the QB. In this formation, 5 guys go at the Broncos six leaving both middle linebackers, the two corners and the two safeties in coverage, but you just don't know who is coming till the ball is snapped.

As a side note, I think this is exactly the kind of formation that offenses including the Broncos have exploited for a lot of underneath stuff. This is the kind of stuff that come play-off time will turn in to a fascinating chess match between QBs like Peyton and Brady and LeBeau.

via lh5.ggpht.com

Notice where we are one second into the play. It's a bit difficult to know what is going on up-field, but at this point Orton does not yet have a receiver open. The Steelers have brought 5 guys against 6 Broncos. Buckhalter releases up field. You can see big Ziggy, leaving a trail of stardust as he runs hard at his guy. Kiesel is being double teamed (repsect!). Woodley is being well blocked and James Harrison is being (held around the neck) blocked by Ryan Clady.

via lh5.ggpht.com

Another split second later, you will notice that Silverback is completely around his man with a line to the QB and if not for an outstanding (stranglehold around the neck) block by Clady, Kyle Orton is eating dirt and smelling gorilla breath about a third of a second from now. Woodley is well blocked.

This is where it get's interesting, Chris Hoke, that would be your Nose Tackle peals off his block and goes to cover the running back. That, my friends is a LeBeau defense. Crazy like fox.

via lh5.ggpht.com

Another split second later and we end up with this look.

Notice that now, both Hood and Kiesel are double teamed. Clady is still (strangling) blocking Harrison, Woodley is trying a spin move to bet back on the inside. It looks like the protection aided by Clady's excellent lynching blocking of Harrison is going to give Orton all the time he needs to find an open man against the zone.

Notice that Hoke is hauling his 300 pounds around the field with a speedy little back.

via lh5.ggpht.com

Another split second later and Woodley is falling to the ground, essentially out of the play. It's hard to see here but the Broncos right tackle pulled a classic Rick Mahorn move on him. As Woodley backed in to him, the guy just fell down backwards, causing Woodley who was pushing his weight in to him, to go down to the ground as well. Dangerous, but effective.

Meanwhile Chris Hoke is running up field and getting a good bump on Buckhalter just inside 5 yards. Orton has nothing down field - he pumps and does not throw. Harrison is still being (affectionately hugged around the neck) blocked by Clady.

via lh3.ggpht.com

Here is where the Steelers get lucky.

Notice that Buckhalter has run in to the ref, essentially keeping him from clearing Hoke's coverage a split second earlier. Orton is still looking down field, but he is now staring down the very large Hood of a 2009 model Ziggy Steamroller, coming his way.

via lh4.ggpht.com

Orton releases to his check down, just as Ziggy plows into his midsection.

Buckhalter, who has lost a step because hitting the ref, is out of position. The ball is in the air here. You can barely see it, but it's hovering over the left hashmark at the 39 yard line. Carter meanwhile is moving his old butt toward the play.

via lh3.ggpht.com

This just tells you how fast everything is in the NFL. Notice where the ball is (42 yard line over the left hashmark), where Carter is (51 yard line) and where Buckhalter is (47 yard line).

It's hard to tell from the still that this won't be a nice gain over the middle instead of a pick six.

via lh5.ggpht.com

Carter catches the ball at about the 48 . Since Buckhalter is underneath at around the 45-46 at the time, it tells me that Tryone did not jump the route, but rather that Buckhalter was never able to make it to his spot because of a combination of great coverage by Hoke, great pressure by Ziggy and a spot of nice luck in the form of a screen by the official.

Any of this things doesn't happen and this could go for another one of those short gains up the middle that the Broncos have built their season on.

The only other thing I will add about the play is the Kiesel, who has spent the whole play occupying two Broncos linemen, essentially blocks both of them on the return. Once again he is showing Steeler nation what a man he is. He would go on to record two outstanding sacks and generally make Kyle Orton's life miserable.

Drawing Conclusions one the Wall

When all is said and done, this play is an interesting microcosm of what the Steelers do on defense much of the time.

You have the bend but don't break philosophy - which gives so many of us heart burn, but is the trademark of this incarnation of the Steelers D. Remember how far-off the play our DBs were? There was not one guy withing 10 yards of a receiver. Most were about 20 yards away. You can't do that unless you have supreme confidence in your guys abilities to consistently make big open-field tackles.

You have the crazy LeBeau defensive fronts. Most plays you just have no idea which of the 11 men on the defensive side of the ball are going to attack the QB and which are going to drop back into coverage. Which is to say, when your 300 pound nose tackle is running 8 yards down field with a running back, that opens up some interesting options up-front. .

Want more proof? Look again at the final picture. It's hard to tell here, but I think that's either Fox or Farrior standing at the 40 yard line in coverage on either Gaffeny or Royal.

Frankly thinking about those guys trying to man up against a receiver that fast should give you a heart attack. And it would until you remember that somewhere back there, waiting and roaming like a dark, malevolent and hirsute shadow is one of the greatest whirling dervishes of a football player ever to play the safety position, a guy who is head and shoulders above all but a select few - Troy Polamalu.

via www.mediaincanada.com

7 benefits in one bottle? You could find worse descriptions of Troy's play.

If he remains healthy and dandruff free, I like our chances of doing good things.

Mazal Tov to Tyrone for two picks in one game. And thank God for Troy.

Another Exciting Fourth Quarter

SteelerBuddha — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 01:13:59 -0000

One more Sunday, one more set of minor heart-attacks, and just as importantly one more victory.

Like it or not, that's our Pittsburgh Steelers. What is interesting, is that in contrast to last year when the Steelers made an art of coming back, this team has played almost the entire season with a lead.

In fact when the Vikings scored a TD in the second quarter to take a 4 point lead, it was the largest lead any team has held on us this season. In our two losses Chicago and Cincinnati each held a 3 point lead for a total of 29 seconds combined. The Vikings second quarter lead lasted less than 5 minutes, and despite a series of furious and frightening rallies, the Vikings never tied or lead again.

As we move into the off week there will no doubt be plenty of debate about this team and it's chances to repeat. There is plenty of cause for optimism but also some obvious issues that need to be addressed. The most serious of these is our inability to put teams away. Before I look at the game, I just want to take a quick peak back over our shoulder.

Seven games into the season and our Pittsburgh Steelers are 5-2. For those of you wondering that's exactly where we were after 7 last year. The big difference is that last year game 7 was a painful loss to the Giants. This week we come off an important win against a previously unbeaten team and head into a much needed off week.

More after the jump.

At the very end of the third quarter with the Steelers leading and starting on their 24 yard line --- Rashard Mendenhall peeled off a beauty of a run for 17 yards. Following an incomplete pass on 1st down, Rashard had another nice run for 5 yards, setting up a crucial 3rd and 5.

Ben dropped behind good protection against the blitz and hit Santonio in full stride on a slant. Santonio made his man miss and tore through the Vikings secondary for 45 yards, before finally being brought down on the 9 yard line.

It seemed like the Steelers were poised to take control of the game, it also seemed that Mendenhall was just the man for the job. To that point he had picked up 69 yards on 10 carries - for a very healthy 6.9 average (nearly twice the average of the Adrian Peterson, AKA purple Jesus, AKA the best player in football)

What transpired started one of the strangest 15 minutes of football played in Pittsburgh in recent memory. It showed the best and the worst of the Steelers and frankly, its safe to say that it could have easily gone either way.

Instead of pounding his way to glory, Mendenhall inexplicably found himself back in Mike Tomlin's non-existent doghouse when he dove over the pile in a mis-guided attempt to pick up an extra yard or two.

The ball was poked loose and with it any dreams of putting the game away fast. Although I generally don't get negative in the game thread I couldn't help myself.

At the time I wrote "Why is it that every time the Steelers have an opponent on the ground with their foot on their throat, they always bend down and lend them a hand up?" Little did I know.

Apart from the Mendy, Fumble, there were two low points in the quarter for me. The first came at 10 minutes left in with Farve facing and 3rd and 18 from the Minnesota 29 yard line. Farve dropped back, got good protection and hit Rice on the sideline for 25 yards and the first down. I won't write much about the play, because I would really like to see the film on it, but I will say that even though the play ended up being close, Rice was wide open - and an earlier pass would have made it an easy gain.

Thankfully that drive was ended at the Steelers nine, when Brett Kiesel made a superlative strip of Farve knocking the ball loose from a solid three to four feet away. Lamar Woodley accompanied by a phalanx of Steeler blockers did his best James Harrison impersonation to take it back for 6. With the score at 20-10 and only 6 minutes left that really should have been the ball game.

But folks, this ain't your ball control never lose a lead Steelers.

For the second week in a row the Steelers followed a score by allowing a kick-off return for a touch-down. You get the sense that they might be spending some time on that in practice next week.

Again, I think the return deserves a post of it's own, but after watching it twice I am going to call two names. First, Jeff Reed. After brawling with Pittsburgh's finest during the week, Jeff Reed looked downright scared to make a tackle. In fact he looked like he was playing two hand touch.

The other man, who looked terribly out of position to me was our Kewian Ratliff. Despite having time and an angle he never even comes close to touching Harvin. I am kind of getting tired of noticing Ratliff when he messes up.

What happened next should not inspire Steeler fans. The offense got the ball back with a 3 point lead, and a chance to make a statement. Instead they managed a single first down on a Minnesota Penalty and were VERY lucky to not have the Vikings recover a Roethlisberger fumble inside field goal range.

The defense, was luckier still. After Adrian Peterson made William Gay look foolish and busted off a 29 yarder that should have secured a tie at the very least, the Vikings hit some bad luck. At 2nd and 3 on the Pittsburgh 19 Farve hit Chester Taylor in the hands with a short, safe pass. The ball flew up in the air, and Keryon Fox made an a heads up play to catch it. It's arguable wether he should have taken it to the house instead of falling to the ground, but 80 yards and 6 points later the Steelers had a hard fought, and somewhat lucky win.

On to other thoughts: :

The goal line stand. The defense has been much maligned for being soft this year, but their stand from the one inch line, was a thing of beauty. After stopping Adrian Peterson on 1st and 1 - and getting a penalty called, they stopped him again on 1st and inches. The Vikings respecting the two straight stops went for trickery and ended up with two incomplete passes and a field goal. Four plays from inside the one and four stops. A tremendous stand on the part of the D - with great effort by the whole crew - especially the linebackers who were very active in pass protection.

Mike Wallace - As you may have noticed from my recent post about Mike Wallace, I am a fan. In the post I compare his body of work in the first six games to that of other rookier Steeler wide receivers. At the end I asked people if they thought he would continue at his current pace, improve or decrease. Personally, I thought he would either stay at this current pace or decrease slightly. After watching his effort today, I am not so sure. He is sure handed and blazing fast.

Penalties - the arguments have already begun. No doubt if we lost we would be upset about some of the calls that didn't go our way. The same is true of the Vikings. I guess it's no consolation to them, to think of the tripping penalty as payback for the 500 times that holding has not been called on Deebo this year, or for the strange call for defensive holding on Miller in the first half. To be honest though, it's not our problem.

Mendy - Let's not get too excited about the drop. The rookie (we should still think of him as a rookie) made a stupid mistake, but it was the only one in a generally excellent effort. Mendy lit up the best run defense in the league for a 6.9 yard average on 10 carries. He could have and should have had more. He also did a generally good job of pass protection.

Moore - I love that guy. If you want to see something beautiful go re-watch the block he makes on a linebacker at the end of the Holmes 45 yard catch and run. He absolutely levels the guy. This picture does not do it justice, but it still makes me smile.

Ben - Did anybody else notice that Ben has been somewhat careless with the ball at times. I feel like there were at least 3-4 times when the Vikes had a very good chance at a pick, not to mention the fumble late in the game, that really should have been recovered by the Vikings. I have to say that I think it's a trend from the past three to four weeks. I think Ben has been quite lucky to not have many more INTs. It's hard to argue with the way that he is playing, but I wonder if we won't see more picks against good teams and good secondaries.

Casey Hampton and the D line - how in the world does a nose tackle get three offsides penalties? It's inexcusable. Having said that the defensive line did an amazing job holding Peterson in check and generating pressure on Farve. Kiesel was in the back-field all day. Ziggy Hood looked good filling in for Kirshke, I have a feeling that we might see more and more of him.

Line Backers: Fox - We are very lucky to have this guy as a back-up at inside linebacker. His pick was an incredibly heads up opprotunistic play. Deebo - was a beast.

Secondary: William Gay got picked on. He also made Adrian Peterson's weekly highlight reel. I am sure we'll be seeing replays of that one for the rest of time. Ike Taylor had good coverage, but simply missed the ball a couple of times.

Anyways, that's it for now.

Good night to all

Late Game Thread

SteelerBuddha — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 20:26:33 -0000

Another day, another heart attack.

The good news is, that like the cardiac kids of last year the Steelers found a way to win.

The stat hogs (Rivers, Brady and Manning) had great days. Ben didn't shine statistically, but we won one. It would be nice to have that and 400 yards in the air, but if you have to choose between the two it's a no brainer.

So on to the late games.

The important one for us of course is Cinci at Chicago - the two teams who beat us this year.

Obviously we are all Bears fans on this one.

Poll

Will the Bears beat the Bengals putting the Steelers in first place in the AFC Norde

Yes

52 votes

No

127 votes

Tie (good enough for us!)

2 votes

181 votes | Poll has closed

Second Half thread - Steelers Vikings 10-7

SteelerBuddha — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:56:09 -0000

First half lead.

Wallace playing great

Defense looking solid

Let's make this happen and finish like it's 2008

I think

that's

enough

letters?

Right?

Mike Wallace vs. Nate Washington

SteelerBuddha — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 19:07:34 -0000

Let me start with a quote. This comes from our fearless leader and solid football prognosticator Blitz.

It was written this summer as the Steelers began to contemplate their title defense in earnest. Blitz was writing a post projecting Santonio Holmes numbers for 2009. Before I give you the quote, here is Blitz's projections for Holmes' 2009 numbers.

72 Catches 1115 Yards15.48 Yards per catch

If you actually extrapolate Holmes numbers based on his current totals you would wind up with:

74 Catches 1168 Yards 15.6 Yards per catch

Now that we have established that Blitz sold his soul to the devil for the ability to make freakishly accurate stat predictions - I mean - knows a fair amount about football, let's look at what he had to say about the prospect of replacing Nate Washington.

I think Limas Sweed and/or Mike Wallace can fill the void left by Nate Washington just fine, but it's worth remembering just how much Washington forced defenses to remain honest with his ability to stretch the field vertically. Furthermore, Washington was more than just a decoy if you consider just how much Big Ben liked to look his way. Decoys only work if you semi-occasionally throw them the ball. Will Ben feel comfortable enough with Wallace or forget about Sweed's struggles last year and look their way enough to get Holmes and Hines Ward open at other times?

Let me translate here. Blitz thinks we won't miss Nate, but he isn't quite sure. Sweed's struggles have correctly made Blitz nervous and Wallace at this point is about as proven a commodity as Frank the tank Summers or Darius Heyward Bey.

Let me point out that Blitz was on the calm side of the continuum regarding his worry. In his article titled "Steelers 2009: The Top Five Issues They Face at Camp" Professional grouch reporter Ed Bouchette listed the receiver situation as number 1.

Here is what he had to say about replacing Nate. After praising Holmes and Ward (whose age worried many, myself included - woops) he goes on to lay out why we signed Shuan McDonald.

The ambiguous nature of what stands behind them is what makes this the most pressing issue as the team enters training camp. Their returning teammates behind them have seven career regular-season receptions between them -- Limas Sweed, pictured at right, has six and Dallas Baker has one. That is why the Steelers added veteran Shaun McDonald, who languished as a free agent until they signed him May 1, and drafted Mike Wallace in the third round.

McDonald, listed as 5-feet-10 and 183, had a nice season with Detroit in 2007 when he led the Lions with 79 receptions, 943 yards and 6 touchdowns. He will compete with Sweed for the No. 3 job opened when Nate Washington signed as a free agent with Tennessee. Sweed, their second-round 2008 draft choice, is the key. He is 6-4 and can add a new dimension to their offense. Wallace also figures to be in the mix somewhere.

Notice where Wallace is? Yup somewhere in the mix.

via blogbeckett.files.wordpress.com

A couple of months later and boy do things look different in Steeler Nation. Sweed has continued his struggles from last year and McDonald despite having a solid training camp and the best resume of the bunch was outclassed in terms of talent by both Sweed and Wallace.

Wallace on the other hand has gone on to do the unthinkable. He is having a great rookie year as a wide receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Let's go back to Blitz's quote. One of the things that Blitz touches on is how well Nate stretched the field. It was clear from the start that Sweed was capable of stretching the field, he was wide open on all those drops, it also seemed a fair assumption that Wallace with his sub 4.3 speed could out-run guys, but the much repeated assumption was that Steelers wide receivers take at least a year if not two or three to fully develop. Based on this most thought we wouldn't be able to rely on Wallace as much more than a really fast decoy.

There is good reason for this assumption. Since the 1970's the Steelers have had a handful of really good wide receivers and a number of high draft picks at WR. Here are there stats during for that group during their first year of playing football:

Name	Receptions	Yards	Yrds/Rec	Draft Round - Number
Lynn Curtis Swann	11	208	18.9	1st Rd (21)
Johnny Lee Stallworth	16	269	16.8	4th Rd (82)
Louis Adam Lipps Jr.	45	860	19.1	1st Rd (23)
Charles Everett Johnson	38	577	15.2	1st Rd (17)
Hines E. Ward Jr.	15	246	16.4	3rd Rd (96)
Troy Edwards	60	714	11.7	1st Rd (13)
Plaxico Jeffrey Burress	22	273	12.4	1st Rd (8th)
Santonio Holmes Jr.	49	824	16.8	1st Rd (25)
Limas Lee Sweed Jr.	6	64	10.7	2nd Rd (53)
Burnell Michael Wallace (through 6)	18	296	16.4	3rd Rd (84)
Burnell Michael Wallace (projected)	48	794	16.4	3rd Rd (84)

There are two hall of famers one FHOF and six first round picks on that list..

via thepulplist.com (These guys were pretty good)

via www.checkoutmycards.com (This guy started out good and went downhill fast)

Burnell Michael (60 Minutes) Wallace is essentially on pace to match if not beat them statistically. With a couple of good games in the second half he could have the most productive season ever for a Steeler rookie wide receiver. Not too shabby for a low 3rd round pick.

Now, let's look at how Wallace has stacked up against his rookie class:

Name	Receptions	Yards	Yrds/Rec	Draft Round - Number
Mike Wallace	18	296	16.4	3rd Rd (84)
Kenny Britt	19	289	15.2	1st Rd (30)
Mohammed Massaquoi	16	278	17.3	2nd Rd (50)
Percy Harvin	20	243	12.1	1st Rd (22)
Hakeem Nicks	12	235	19.5	1st Rd (29)
Austin Collie	20	228	11.4	4th Rd (127)
Johnny Knox	17	224	13.2	5th Rd (140)
Jeremy Maclin	13	193	14.8	1st Rd (19)
Julian Edelman	21	188	8.9	7th Rd (232)
Darius Heyward-Bey	2	19	9.5	1st Rd (7)
Michael Crabtree	0	0	0	1st Rd (10)

Again, at this early stage Wallace is pretty much at or near the top in terms of production for his rookie class (he has a game more than a couple of his opponents).

Finally let's look at the comparison between Wallace and the man whose job he took Nate Washington.

Probably the most relevant stat to start with is that Nate is being payed about 27 million dollars over 6 years while Wallace is making 1.7 over 3. If it wasn't for the money there would have been a very good chance that Washington would still be playing productive football for the Steelers. But the age of 26, with 3 productive years as a under his belt, Washington wanted to cash in.

Here is what he has done so far this season:

18 Catches 150 Yards 8.3 Y/C

via d.yimg.com (Silly Titans! Nate's fed up with 0-6 starts!)

Not only is Wallace putting up better numbers than Washington this year, but his projected totals are also better than Washington's totals for 2008, his best with the Steelers.

Now you may be inclined to argue that it's not a fair comparison to look at the numbers for two wide receivers on different teams. There is no doubt that Wallace is benifitting from the great years being had by Ward, Holmes, Miller and of course Big Ben, but this is obviously a cyclical argument.

It could just as easily be said that they are all benefiting from the big year he is having. Going back to Blitz's quote. Blitz was worried about having a guy who could not only run past the coverage, but do it in such a way that made defenses have to rethink their coverage schemes.

Through the first 6 games of this season, there is no doubt that Wallace is doing that. What's more he's making tough catches in the middle of the field in a way that Nate rarely did even in his fourth season as a Steeler.

via www.planetsteelers.com (It's the tough catches that make a difference - I wonder where he learned that?)

via www.steelersgab.com (no, not that guy? Not Mr. Smiley?)

via cdn.bleacherreport.com (maybe this guy helped a bit too)

As Mike Tomlin said so concisely, "The game is not to big for him"

Six games in to the season, it seems safe to say, that not only do we not miss Nate Washington, but that Wallace is already an upgrade and has the potential to be a whole lot more.

We'll finish with a poll just because I've never done one before:

Poll

Will Mike Wallace's Production during the final 10 games will:

Increase (50 plus catches/ 800 plus yards)

167 votes

Stay about the same (40-50 Catches/ 700-800 yards)

203 votes

Decrease (Under 40 Catches/ under 700 yards)

18 votes

388 votes | Poll has closed

Steeler Bar Google Map

SteelerBuddha — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 21:01:48 -0000

A couple months after the Super Bowl, I was brain storming with Blitz about possible features for this site. During the conversation we hit upon the idea of a google map for Steeler Nation. The main purpose of the map would be to help people find Steeler Bars - that is places to watch the game on Sunday.

In any case, it's testament to my laziness that it has taken me nearly 8 months to get this post up. However with some big deadlines looming on the school and work front, I figured this would be the perfect time to work on it.

I like to think of procrastination as a double edged sword. A sword that usually sits in the closet and isn't pulled out till the very last minute.

View Steeler Bars and Steeler Nation in a larger map">

Why a google map?

As many of you know the Post-Gazette has a great listing of Steeler Bars.

Why should we waste our precious time (or in some of your cases your employers precious time) re-inventing the list? There are two good reasons:

First, the Post-Gazette list is a fairly static list. You have to go through the PG to add or delete a bar. There is no additional information available about any of the bars - for example - do they have audio of the game? Are they a Steeler only bar or a big sports bar with the Sunday ticket etc.? With the google map YOU (that is all of Steeler Nation) will be able to go online and edit the list.

Second, you can't see the locations of the bars in the Post-Gazette list. In fact you can only search by state. With the google map you will be able to just type name of the city (or address) and see all the bars and landmarks around it.

How to add a bar or a landmark

First click on the link below. If you have a google account you should be ready to edit. If not you will need to create one. This is easy and should take all of two seconds. (You do not need G-Mail to have a google account)

Once you are on you can edit at will.

A couple of tips:

1. You can search for your bar by name on Google maps. Many of the bars already have business listings on Google maps. If you find it you can simply add by clicking "Save to MyMaps". Just make sure that you save it to the Steeler Bars and Steeler Nation map. You should be able to see it in the drop down menu.

2. If you can't find your bar on a search of google maps you can simply add it to the map by searching the address and then adding the address (along with the name) in the same way.

3. Write something about the bars you know. Let us know if they have audio for the games, what the crowd is like etc. Be as brief or fancy as you like.

Overall Google maps is pretty amazing. If there is anyone who knows the program well and wants to add cool features that map, please do.

Some extra instructions here for anyone who is have a hard time.

View Steeler Bars and Steeler Nation in a larger map

What next?

So far, I have only put a couple of bars.

To start with, it would be great if everyone on here could just add a couple of the places that they know well. This is especially important if you live outside of Pittsburgh and go to a local place to catch the game.

I will be adding some of the ones from the Post-Gazette list as time goes on - anybody else who has time should feel free to add their own.

As the list grows, it will hopefully turn in to a comprehensive resource for Steeler fans around the world.

Landmarks apart from Bars

It might also be interesting to add certain landmarks. I am not sure exactly what that would entail, but essentially think of it as a way to put interesting Steeler things on the map. Maybe you know a place that has a 20 foot tall statue of Jack Lambert or a life sized wax statue of Franco Harris making the immaculate reception. That might be worth putting on the map. Perhaps a store front that someone really did nice

via farm4.static.flickr.com

A couple Simple Rules:

Although other stuff might come up only a few things strike me as potentially problematic.

1. Posting private information. If you know where Mike Tomlin lives, good for you, but keep it to yourself. There is no reason the rest of the world needs to know.

2. Wrong or misleading information. Not sure there is too much we can do with an open community, but let's all try to police it as best as possible. Be on the look out for information that looks outdated, wrong or misleading.

Mike'd up

SteelerBuddha — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:52:36 -0000

It's no secret that Steelers nation loves to hear Mike Tomlin speak. There might be no greater testament to this fact than the brilliant Tomlinism Tournament hosted by Maryrose at BTSC this summer.

Several months have passed since we voted for a winner in the Tomlinism Super Bowl. For those of you who have forgotten, that winner was

"Every day I walk by five Lombardi Trophies, not five rushing titles."

As Tomlin himself likes to point out, it's a new season with new challenges. And what you have to like about Tomlin, apart from the fact that the line now has to be changed to "Every day I walk by six Lombardi Trophies", is that he keeps coming up with new pearls of coaching wisdom.

Personally, I've come to think of Mike Tomlin as not just the coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, but as the coach of Steeler Nation. Each week he delivers a healthy dose of wisdom nuggets, in tasty snack sized packets. He's like a self-help guru for the football obsessed.

I thought it would be good to have an extra post up here to capture some of the new gold that's come our way since late June.

via l.yimg.com

Let's be clear. As the picture clearly indicates, Mike Tomlin does not suffer fools.

That's not to say he's overly tough with his players. He is no Parcells or Coughlin. He doesn't even yell like the chin. What he does is deal with issues head on.

Since arriving in Pittsburgh, he has deftly handled one personnel issue after another. Remember Alan Faneca's semi-open rebellion? Handled with class. What about Casey Hampton's exploding waist line? Check. Willie Parker's rushing title fantasies? The 5 Lombardi trophies quote squashed that contraversy before it could take off. This year we saw how Tomlin deal with Rashard Mendenhall's failure to study the play book. No doghouses, just action and the thoughtful words to back it up.

As Homer J. points out below, Tomlin is always in command of his language. He doesn't waste words or time. Here are some of my favorite gems from this year:

On the nature of emotion

Q: Were you worried when Troy came up limping?

A: I’ve learned to become a flat-liner. There’s a lot out there that’ll make your heart jump if you allow it.

We don't ride the emotional roller-coaster.

On dealing with obstacles, frustration and public urination:

Q: Is there a degree of frustration on your part in having to deal with this matter (Jeff reed hitting cops)?

A: I wouldn’t necessarily call it frustration. I acknowledge what comes with this job. I’d like to be 6-0 but I’m not. I don’t always get what I want in this business. It’s not something that’s pleasant. Anything that takes away from game preparation and game readiness is a distraction. Anything that sheds a negative light on this organization or its players is a distraction. It’s not something that’s pleasant, but I’m paid and paid well to deal with it, and I’ll do that.

On being ready,(particularly Ziggy Hood's ability to step in for Aaron Smith.)

He’s got a lot of talent. He’s not out of the oven yet, if you will.

On respecting the opposition

Q: Cleveland’s QB was 2-for-17 last week. I assume you’ll prepare for him the same way you did Jay Cutler who was coming off a bad game.

A: You know, you guys chuckled when I made that reference in regards to Cutler. There’s not enough respect for what professionals are capable of in today’s NFL, if you ask my opinion...As a matter of fact, I know just the opposite: Usually guys of his caliber do bounce back and respond with favorable performances, so we anticipate him being his best.

On work ethic and improvement

Q: How much better can Rashard get?

A: Boy, he’d better continue to do that...As long as he respects the preparation process and continues to come in here with a humble and willing-to-work demeanor like he has, I see no reason why he doesn’t continue to improve.

On "discussions" with the press and the public

Q: What about closing out games?

A: I’m always going to see room for improvement. I don’t get preoccupied with some of the discussions that we have, to be quite honest with you. There’s always going to be discussions, there are always going to be areas that need improvement. I haven’t answered a running game question here in a couple of weeks. I haven’t answered a protection question here in the last few weeks. The issue now is finishing out games in the fourth quarter. So be it. I just answer questions. As long as we find ways to win, I don’t have any problem with what we talk about.

On playing Legursky at Fullback and the nature of ability.

Availability is a good ability.

On challenges in football (and life)

Q: Are you worried about your vulnerable secondary late in the game against a great quarterback?

A: No, quite frankly I don’t. This is what you live for. Even when it’s bad in this business, it’s great. I can’t think of anything else I’d rather do. I think members of our secondary feel the same way. I know they’ll be chomping at the bit for the challenges of facing a guy the caliber of Philip Rivers. When you do what we do for a living, that’s what you love.

On excuses (when asked if losing a pro-bowl safety contributed to the defenses fourth quarter collapses)

I’m not going to dispute that, but at the same time I’m not going to use that as an excuse.

On the doghouse

Q: Is Rashard Mendenhall still in the doghouse? What steps does he need to make to see the field?

A: He is not in the doghouse. I don’t have a doghouse. A doghouse is something you have when you let things stew and you don’t take action. I intend to take action and I’m done with it.

On the nature of time:

Man, next Monday is so far away right now I haven’t even pondered that thought at this time. The world ends on Sunday, as far as I’m concerned.

On winning

I am always surprised when we don’t win.

I am sure there are many more out there. On a related note, I think that we should start taking the real gems and putting them up on Wikiquote. This may not be a project I can devote time to ( :.