Despite getting Steelers fans excited early with a 7-0 lead, the Cleveland Browns did exactly what we expected them to, which was eventually lose to the Baltimore Ravens 20-10.
The win for the Ravens puts next weeks game in pretty simple terms – the Steelers need to beat Cleveland in Cleveland to make sure they wrap up the #2 seed in the AFC as well as the AFC North title.
Now the Steelers can still win the #2 seed and the North if the Ravens find a way to lose to the other bottom-feeder in the AFC North – the Bengals. That game will be in Baltimore, and if you think it can’t happen, remember that the three-win Bengals entering Sunday have beaten the Ravens already this season.
But the easiest thing for the Steelers to do is for them to just come out, take care of business against a Browns team that is 5-10 and has lost 5 of their last 7, and not have to worry about help from others.
“We’ve got a lot of pride in our offense,” Browns OL John St.Clair said about playing the Steelers next week. “We just want to keep it moving and play as hard as we can.”
With a rookie QB the Steelers have already seen once, a running back that was held to 35 yards, and a defense that has given up the past three weeks a total of 541 yards rushing (that’s an average of 180.3 yards per game), the Steelers should be able to run at will, and walk out of Cleveland with the #2 seed and the AFC North Title.
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DrGeorge
December 26, 2010 at 5:38 pm
Ah, Matt — if only they would run, “at will” or otherwise. But if Arians was content with less than 100 rushing yards against Carolina, my guess is that he won’t bother against Cleveland either. Instead, he and Ben will again rely mostly on the pass against the Browns, and the aerial circus should be enough to win. But the failure to perfect the power rushing game for the playoffs in these final two games will come back to bite us against better teams.
mark
December 27, 2010 at 10:14 am
Agreed DrGeorge. Sadly, I think the Steelers will sweat this one out as the Browns will play like its a SuperBowl. The Steelers should be considering this a playoff game, as a loss to a team they should handle with so much as stake doesnt bode well for the tournament. I doubt Troy has a uniform this weekend but in reality, it shouldnt matter against the Browns. Run the ball and stop the run is the recipe to beat the Browns and a fast start might have the Browns looking for a place to lay down and wait for the draft.
Lone Wolf
December 27, 2010 at 11:22 am
Steelers can’t run the ball on anyone with this OL. They only ran for 4 yards per carry against Carolina and that was with Mendenhall’s big run to open the game.
Arians had no problems running the ball when he had Smith and Faneca on the left side. The Steelers were leading the league in rushing when Parker got hurt. Arians has to try and call plays behind arguably the worst OL in football. I would like to see him actually get to call plays with a talented OL but I guess that won’t happen because Colbert and Tomlin can’t figure out how to fix the OL.
Jay
December 27, 2010 at 2:18 pm
Really?!? This O-line is a bunch of road graders, dude! Their strength IS RUNNING THE BALL. Any line comprised of dudes who were by and large not drafted high as ours is, has better run blocking ability than pass blocking!!!! Why do you think O-Linemen go high in the draft, for their run blocking ability?!? LOL! They go high because they can protect the QB in a Pass happy league! This o-line has big, gnarly dudes whose appetites are throttled, not sated by Bruce Arians! And Whisenhunt was the OC for the majority of Fancea and Smith’s tenure. Are we gonna have to start issuing homework on here?!?
Mike
December 27, 2010 at 7:49 pm
If they are such a bunch of road graders like you say, then why don’t we run more effectively? If run blocking is their strength, it shouldn’t matter if you are calling the plays. A talent like brute strength and force used in a man on man match up should be as effective regardless of who is the OC. There is no trick to it. It’s body on body. Yes, these players are big uglies that might resemble road graders, but unfortunately they are also unathletic, sloppy, and mistake prone. The front office needs to increase the level of talent on the line. Fanaca was a true run blocker drafted for that reason. Smith was always injured and not worth the second round pick used to draft him.
Mike
December 27, 2010 at 7:34 pm
Jay man, you gotta lighten up a little bit. LW makes some good points. We do have one of the worst offensive lines in football. I don’t think has as much to do with where you pick offensive linemen as it does hitting on the ones you draft. Jason Lisk on The Big Lead did a great analysis of drafting Olinemen. HIs conclusiion was that picking offensive linemen in the first round did not necessarily translate into successful good offensive lines. I will say to my dying breath that the reason our Oline gives up a lot of sacks is because of Ben and the reason we do not run the ball well is because of scheme and game planning.
jay
December 28, 2010 at 5:28 pm
Where in my blog do I say this group is GOOD?! NO WHERE! Let me clarify (for Christ’s sake)…This group is made to run block as opposed to pass block IF YOU WERE CHOOSING BETWEEN THE TWO! They obviously, however, are not that good at either. But you could make a strong argument that if you were to go to a smashmouth set, then this group of guys would most likely fare better than the wide open scheme BA employs….BB won the super bowl and HE is the reason BA wants to light it up through the air! BA is trying to make them into a bunch of pass protectors because he has BB. Pittsburgh isn’t paying BB $100 mil to hand the ball off. You could opine that it works out for us because of BB and that the alternative may be to have an average Joe QB behind this offensive line with a smashmouth philosophy and we still would not do that well as we saw with Neil O’Donnell in years past. The current NFL has passed by (no pun intended) THIS TYPE of o-lineman and if there is a remaining niche for THIS TYPE of O-Line, it is run blocking. Cowher (smashmouth mentality) drafted most of these guys (Starks, Kemo, Colon, Essex) to match up with his philosophy, not to speculate that he would be leaving and the rest of the league, including the future OC, would become pass happy! I agree we need to run the ball more effectively, not necessarily more often but there are times in the game when it seems more prudent to run more often and BA abandons it. I agree that BB should be asked to win games in lieu of manage them given his current skill set and contract. But please, give him athletic O-Linemen and if you choose to stay with this type, I only ask that the Steelers run more frequently because that best suits this o-line’s skill set; doesn’t mean they’re good at it, just better than the inverse which is pass blocking. Read what is written and not the tone, please.
DrGeorge
December 28, 2010 at 5:05 pm
I didn’t intend my comment on Arians’ disdain for the rushing game to become a referendum on the O-line, but since that’s where the conversation has headed, let’s consider the O-linemen taken in recent drafts: M. Pouncey (1st), 2010, a future All Pro; Chris Scott (5th) 2010 hasn’t played due to injury; Kraig Urbik (3rd), 2009, never developed and was traded in 2010 to Buffalo for J. Scott; A.Q. Shipley, 2009, 7th, cut before season; Tony Hills (4th) 2009, plays rarely; Cameron Stephenson (5th) 2007, rarely played and cut 2008. That is the entire field of O-lineman taken in the draft since Tomlin assumed the head coaching job. Colon, Kemoeatu, Max Starks, and Trai Essex are from 2006 or earlier under Cowher, and two of them are injured. Pouncey is the only standout lineman drafted in four years.
Our O-line has suffered from years of neglect in the draft, and then suffered again from injuries to both tackles and occasionally Kemoeatu, who were considered the best lineman we had at the time. Coach Kugler has had to reconfigure this line repeatedly due to those injuries and the frankly awful play of J. Scott. Adams isn’t much better. He was out of football. At age 35, he probably couldn’t start on any other playoff contender. We took him out of desperation when Colon got hurt.
So LoneWolf is right, our line is barely above average. It is big, but slow-footed, inexperienced in playing together, and asked to do things not consistent with its talent level. But Jay and Mike make valid points too. This line is good enough to run the ball better. Ben’s insistence on holding the ball and Arians’ play calling makes the line look worse than it is.
Physically, this line is better suited to run blocking than pass blocking, but it is mostly being used for the latter in Arians’ scheme. Other playoff teams are more balanced. They sport 2 or 3 power runners and have an ability to run against any defense, and the TV commentators acknowledge the ability to run the ball makes those teams more effective at passing the ball. A better OC could take our existing line and use it, as Cowher did, to set up the pass, control the clock, minimize our line weaknesses, and take the pass rush off Ben R. Doing so would actually make Ben more effective. That approach is what Arians should have done and didn’t do all season long.
So the issue isn’t whether Arians would look better if the line were better. The real issue is what has Arians done to adapt to the line he has. That is the obligation of any coach. Adapt to your talent.
This O-line isn’t great, but it is good enough to get the job done, if it were only used properly. Arians simply isn’t so inclined.