Your 2015 Pittsburgh Steelers...

[RelocatedPatFan]

Eh.

Chandler's not the best blocker.

Let's see what BB and staff can do to coach him up. I'm thinking he'll be a better blocker than the TE (who shall not be named).

 

[FourierSeries]

Steelers seem to think they know how to slow down Gronk.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...nk-they-know-how-to-slow-rob-gronkowski-down/

Good luck with that.

 

[TommyD4207]

Steelers seem to think they know how to slow down Gronk.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...nk-they-know-how-to-slow-rob-gronkowski-down/

Good luck with that.

Well, guess who's on the guest list for Da Club?

 

[RobertWeathers]

I'm sure that they can slow him down.

The question is can they slow him down an entire game.

3 games 21 catches on 24 targets 309 yds and 4TDs say otherwise.

 

[lillloyd]

Steelers seem to think they know how to slow down Gronk.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...nk-they-know-how-to-slow-rob-gronkowski-down/

Good luck with that.

Gotta love PFT.

Here's the full quote from Shazier...is it really BB material to say that *if* a couple of things go right, they might be able to slow him down "a little bit"?

"You have to mess up their timing and get in his face with pressure, then I feel we can slow him down a little bit."​

 

[TommyD4207]

Gotta love PFT.

Here's the full quote from Shazier...is it really BB material to say that *if* a couple of things go right, they might be able to slow him down "a little bit"?

"You have to mess up their timing and get in his face with pressure, then I feel we can slow him down a little bit."​

You're forgetting which bulletin board you're talking about here.

 

[lillloyd]

Offensively, it is pretty simple, get to Brady or expect to allow 30 points. Even with lots of questions around the outside receivers, NE is so dominant in the middle of the field that Pitt will get steamrolled if they don't knock Tom on his ass. The good thing for Pitt is that the OL might be the biggest offensive question mark and it isn't clear if NE will have a legit rushing attack for game 1.

I'm pretty much booking NE for somewhere north of 30 points....In fact, I'd go so far to say that 'holding' NE to 30 in this scenario would be a pretty good outcome for this defense.

3) For this week, who knows? I won't be surprised if Lewis, despite his size, gets a lot of early down work. That kid is stronger than he looks and runs with endearing ferocity. Lots of people keep pointing to Bolden, but I thought he looked terrible in the preseason, frankly, and his resume doesn't inspire too much confidence even beyond that.

I liked Lewis in Philly; I just thought he was behind some good backs there. Who has the 3rd down back duties locked down (if anyone?) And whatever happened with James White, is he in the mix at all? (My wife is a UW grad...he got a lot of press early with NE but then seemed to disappear?)

You are my favorite troll, Lloyd. Hopefully you understand that I use that term endearingly.

LOL I will take that as a compliment. (I'm not sure if I'd be able to 'troll' even if I tried

 

[TommyD4207]

I'm pretty much booking NE for somewhere north of 30 points....In fact, I'd go so far to say that 'holding' NE to 30 in this scenario would be a pretty good outcome for this defense.



I liked Lewis in Philly; I just thought he was behind some good backs there. Who has the 3rd down back duties locked down (if anyone?) And whatever happened with James White, is he in the mix at all? (My wife is a UW grad...he got a lot of press early with NE but then seemed to disappear?)



LOL I will take that as a compliment. (I'm not sure if I'd be able to 'troll' even if I tried

White made the 53, will probably have some role spelling as 3rd down back, and probably lead back at times. Last year he was a practice squadder/inactive guy, so he's moving up in the world.

I think (and this is just a guess) that Dion Lewis would be the regular 3rd-down back, and Blount would be the lead back when he returns. Who will be starting Thursday is an open question, although conventional wisdom has it between Bolden and Lewis. We'll see what they do.

I'm not sure about the Patriots putting up 30 necessarily. The Patriots 1st team offense has been about as dysfunctional as the Steelers have been to this point. And it's supposed to be raining. We'll see.

 

[lillloyd]

My guess/hope:
- Gronk and Chandler turn out to be more disruptive than anyone hoped for, make TDs look easy
- Pitt's offense looks busy and productive all night, but at around 50 minutes into regulation everyone looks up at the scoreboard and they've only mustered 10 points.

It will be very interesting to see how they attempt to slow down Gronk. Our ILBs are quick and fast, and pretty good in coverage, but Gronk is another animal entirely. Theoretically this was one of the reasons we drafted Shazier in the first place, to use his speed and athleticism to cover RBs out of the backfield, along with TEs. But even if he can stay with Gronk from a coverage perspective, he may not be physical enough at the catch point. I don't think we're unique here in that we really have no good answer for him; he's just a coverage nightmare.

Your second point is a fair one - Pitt's scoring rate didn't really match up with their yardage totals. We'll be without Bryant as well, our best RZ target. When you get past Bryant, we pretty much have Heath and a bunch of smurfs (albeit very talented ones in the Red Zone.

 

[lillloyd]

Collins will win some and lose some with Heath but also will be asked to pass rush and be taken off that assignment at times. Easley has his coming out party big time this game and abuses Pitt's backup center as does Collins when he attacks the A gap. Ben is hard to bring down but will be going down a lot this game. He will also make big plays happen cause he is Big Ben. Just how it is.

I've been thinking about how the teams will try to pressure Brady and Ben, and how aggressive they will likely be in doing so.

Here are some interesting facts about Brady and Ben vs pressure and the blitz (most numbers from PFF):

• The conventional wisdom is that you *have* to get pressure against these guys to have a chance; however out of 39 QBs with a minimum of 200 dropbacks, Roethlisberger was blitzed the third least percentage of the time (Rodgers was blitzed the least), and Brady was blitzed the 8th least.

• The reason? Both QBs punished teams consistently for blitzing:
  • Brady ranked 3rd against the blitz (which I believe does not take into account whether the blitz actually resulted in a pressure), and 4th against pressure, in 2014.
  • Roethlisberger was 8th against the blitz, but #1 against pressure...and the latter stat wasn't close. Per PFF he finished 28 points higher in terms of QB rating than the next best QB under pressure, and was the only QB with a higher rating against pressure, than without pressure, in the league.

• So maybe the alternative is to simply lay back and play it straight -- just avoid blitzing and flood the passing lanes, with a full complement of back-end defenders all game?
  • Predictably, Brady was surgical in 2014 in the no-blitz scenario: he ranked 8th out of all NFL QBs when the defense sent no blitzers. So against Brady, it's a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation: blitz, and get crushed for it...don't blitz and get systematically taken apart.
  • So how was Big Ben against a no blitz scenario in 2014? This result is probably surprising for people who haven't seen him operate in Haley's offense. Roethlisberger was #1 in the league when he *wasn't* blitzed, and by a fair margin. (While it's true he still extends plays from time to time, Roethlisberger plays mostly from the pocket nowadays.)

Bottom line: you're probably screwed against either QB, no matter what approach you take.

Of course, no QB is immune from pressure that actually gets home. Both Pitt and NE may have issues with their interior OL in this game, and both Roethlisberger and Brady struggle with interior pressure. PFF states that Brady is in the bottom 3rd of the league when dealing with inside pressure, and certainly Ben struggled mightily when Baltimore's big DTs consistently beat up our interior OL in last year's playoffs. Given the home crowd and New England's superior pass rushers, I'd probably bet that NE gets home more often than Pittsburgh Thursday.

I have no real conclusions to draw from all this, other than I thought it was interesting stuff

lillloyd

 

[Wheelman]

Gotta love PFT.

Here's the full quote from Shazier...is it really BB material to say that *if* a couple of things go right, they might be able to slow him down "a little bit"?

"You have to mess up their timing and get in his face with pressure, then I feel we can slow him down a little bit."​

That is how your Steelers beat us in 2011. They played press man across the board mostly.

 

[TommyD4207]

That is how your Steelers beat us in 2011. They played press man across the board mostly.

That was not one of Bill O'Brien's better moments.

 

[Wheelman]

That was not one of Bill O'Brien's better moments.

The refs screwed us twice in that game though. Gronk had a TD but they didn't count it. so we lost 1-2 minutes which would have been very useful. And Polamalu totally slapped the ball into the endzone. That should have been a penalty too.

 

[lillloyd]

That is how your Steelers beat us in 2011. They played press man across the board mostly.

Yup, we played press with Cortez Allen on Gronk a fair amount of the game. Allen's our only CB with any real length to him.

TBH I always felt the key to the 2011 game was the element of surprise -- we showed a defense we don't typically play, and NE didn't adjust in time.

But the real issue was that was the year when your defense simply couldn't get off the field (we held the ball what, 40 minutes?). I think it was 2:1 yards and 2:1 ToP that game...it was less about the Pitt D that game as it was the NE defense just really struggling.

Obviously the NE defense then to now is night and day. But it will be interesting to see if they try Allen (who had a rough year last year -- arguably the 2011 game was one of his best as a pro) on Gronk again.

 

[goheels22002]

Uh, did I mention that our current WR3 is Darius Heyward-Bey?(!)

You did, but did we mention that the Patriots #3 CB is Bradley Fletcher? 4-wide and 5-wide sets will give Big Ben plenty of unproven corners to pick on, if the Pittsburgh O-Line can give him time. Also, the Steelers should run at Chandler Jones' side, especially with Hightower on the field. Hightower is not physically strong the way he used be. He's got lots of work to do to get back to being a thumper.

Your assessment of the Steelers needing to be effective in the interior offensive line is the key to the game. If they can hold off a deep, diverse and fast Patriots interior group, they have a good chance of being in this one in the fourth quarter. If the Pats can collapse the pocket and move Ben towards the Patriots' outside pressure (Jones, Sheard, Ninkovich, Collins), he's in for a long night. If Ben can step up in the pocket, he can pick apart the Pats' secondary.

 

[lillloyd]

So....Any update on Stork?

(This is my effort to keep at least one thread on the 1st page related to the actual game...there, I've done my part

 

[juny]

So....Any update on Stork?

(This is my effort to keep at least one thread on the 1st page related to the actual game...there, I've done my part

Sucks that your team will be the first to face an EXTREMELY angry Pats team and home crowd.

 

[lillloyd]

Sucks that your team will be the first to face an EXTREMELY angry Pats team and home crowd.

Yup, those reports today did us no favors to be sure. But at this point, how much angrier can NE/BB/Brady actually get? As I said elsewhere, Brady's enough of a competitor that he'd probably play just as 'angry' without any of this going on.

I'm on record saying I think Pitt will lose (and likely, big). But I'm anticipating that the post-mortem written by the media will be something like, "You shouldn't have made Tom mad!"...when actually Brady is always mad in-game (lol). If we get blown out, it will probably have a lot more to do with continuing defensive breakdowns and talent issues at safety, than it will with a couple of Tuesday media reports.

I'm just mad because we basically had all of *two days* to actually discuss the GAME. Ugh.

 

[juny]

I'm just mad because we basically had all of *two days* to actually discuss the GAME. Ugh.

All of NE wished the media focus was on the game too. (i'm predicting a closer game, 28-20).

 

[juny]

Erik Scalavino @E_Scal


#patriots starting C Bryan Stork (concussion) is the only player not practicing. His status for Thursday's opener doesn't look good.