Post-Cleveland thoughts

[mesaSteeler]

NFL from the sidelines
http://nflfromthesidelines.blogspot.com/
After hobnobbing around the NFL in the press boxes and sidelines, sports reporter Dale Lolley will let you know the insider scoop. Dale can also be heard on Tuesday nights throughout the season from 7 to 9 p.m. on WBGG 970-AM.
Sunday, January 02, 2011
Post-Cleveland thoughts

The Steelers played Sunday like a veteran team that new what it wanted and knew how to get it.

That first offensive play to Mike Wallace off of play-action was a message to the Browns: "What happened last year isn't going to happen again this time around."

© After a while, I started to feel a little bad for Colt McCoy in this game.

I wonder why McCoy's dad didn't call somebody on the Cleveland sidelines and tell them he wasn't going back out there?

For those of you who don't remember, that's what McCoy's dad did last year in his final game at Texas.

© I would have loved to have been in Baltimore when they kept showing the Steelers-Browns score.

Ravens coach John Harbaugh said he and the players would be keeping an eye on the scoreboard Sunday.

I can only imagine the reaction as the the scoreboard showed 14-0 at about 1:10 p.m.

© I think the Steelers like where they're at right now.

Though Pittsburgh is the No. 2 seed in the AFC playoffs, they will be about the last team that everyone talks about heading into the postseason.

New England will get a lot of hype and rightfully so. But Baltimore, Indianpolis, the Jets and even the Chiefs will be sexier stories.

The national media will forget all about the most recent AFC team to win a Super Bowl.

© I like the way the offensive line is protecting in front of Ben Roethlisberger right now.

Roethlisberger was not sacked on Sunday and did pretty much whatever he wanted to in the pocket.

© My Marvin Lewis-to-Pitt tip on this blog well over a month ago is starting to get some legs again.

A bigger surprise is this. Word has it that Tom Bradley is so fed up with things in State College that he would leave Penn State to come to Pittsburgh as Lewis' defensive coordinator.

© Here's the final fallout on who the Steelers will play in 2011 – assuming there is a season:

Home: Cleveland, Cincinnati, Baltimore, Jacksonville, Tennessee, New England, Arizona and St. Louis

Away: Cleveland, Cincinnati, Baltimore, Houston, Indianapolis, Kansas City, San Francisco and Seattle.

That's six playoff opponents - including Baltimore twice – with four of those games coming on the road.

Of course, the Steelers were 7-1 on the road this season.

[steeltheone]

What has Marvin Lewis done to suggest he is a good Head Coach? He Seems like a Norv Turner to me.

[TRH]

I was impressed with the OL pass protection as well, but since the Browns played so pathetically its a bit hard to get too excited. When your only really good protected games were against Cleveland and Carolina, i'd still proceed with caution....
--the 3 young receivers are really becoming exciting to watch..
--Ben's looking very comfortable
--secondary coverage seems to be pretty good
--Kiesel looking like he's becoming a force to be reckoned with again
--the running game is starting to worry me a little bit. I'm not sure if its the blocking or his running, but Mendy's getting stuffed way more than he should be
--no question Arians will be back next year for all the nay-sayers...its not even going to be a discussion/issue
--Wallace is starting to get noticed all over the league now. Really happy for him
--McCoy looked worse than he did in his debut which surprised me....i also noticed when things go bad, he can't keep any composure and gets "mad" easy. That doesn't fare well if you wanna be a star QB in the league

[cloppbeast]

I thought Ziggy played great. The spin move he used for his first sack was sweeeeeeet.

He may not be an Aaron Smith clone, but he's starting to look like he'll be a heck of a defensive end. He's got a different style about him, and a different skill set. Instead of just eating up blockers like most DEs in the 3-4, perhaps LeBeau should run plays designed for Ziggy to get pressure.

Game ball goes to Mike Wallace. I told my friend 2 weeks ago that Mike will end up being the Steeler's greatest WR ever. I know it's bold, but look what his talent combined with his determiniation has already made him in just his 2nd year. He hasn't even reached his full potentional yet either.....

[TRH]

I thought Ziggy played great. The spin move he used for his first sack was sweeeeeeet.

He may not be an Aaron Smith clone, but he's starting to look like he'll be a heck of a defensive end. He's got a different style about him, and a different skill set. Instead of just eating up blockers like most DEs in the 3-4, perhaps LeBeau should run plays designed for Ziggy to get pressure.

Game ball goes to Mike Wallace. I told my friend 2 weeks ago that Mike will end up being the Steeler's greatest WR ever. I know it's bold, but look what his talent combined with his determiniation has already made him in just his 2nd year. He hasn't even reached his full potentional yet either.....

yep. I forgot to mention Hood. He's turning into a pretty good player....could be a great one for years to come if this continues

[FanSince72]

Yeah, it was only the Browns but it was a solid win and as near to a complete game as I've seen in a while. We also got a chance to work Redman into things a bit more (maybe some playoff plans in the works?) and we opened it up pretty good through the air. Any win will help build confidence but this one was what it was supposed to be - a blowout and that was good to see.

The only negative I could draw from this (if you can even call it a negative) was just how differently the defense plays when Troy is in the lineup. On the one hand, it's great that he brings the extra dimension, but on the other hand it also shows just how ordinary we are without him and that puts too much emphasis on him being healthy and ding-free, which isn't good.

Overall, I like our chances from here on in and I hope that what I saw against the Brownies is an indication that we're beginning to peak, which couldn't come at a better time. :tt02:

[TRH]

the only negative that i didn't like was that in the 4th quarter we went to that g-damn "zone style defense" again and McCoy moved them right down the field. Our D stopped them the entire game...why do we keep using that???? We get burned with it every single time

[grward]

Its sad that we even mention a negative coming off a 41-9 whoopass ... however ... I have concerns about our running game. This allows the opponent to win the time of possession battle. With Cleveland it didn't matter (not even sure if they won TOP but at one point in the game they were leading in this stat). This it will matter with most of the playoff contenders. I sure hope the coaches get this corrected! It was the only weakness in our game IMO.

[Rick5895]

I thought our O Line did a great job in pass protection , but is struggling a bit in the run game, which is a concern.
Defense did a great job, Brett is an absolute beast, we will be very hard to lay against , even for the Cheats, with a healthy troy and if we get Aaron back look out AFC and NFC champ.

Did anyone else notice our O looked a helluva lot better with moore on the sidelines today. Redman was terrific in blitz pick up and is a better runner.