Steelers matchups

[Mile High Shack]

I've been thinking about what other people said last week about the 3-4 and how we struggle against it mostly with a huge NT

Kimo Vanolhofen (sp???) sure isn't even close to 350, he looks about 290 or so, I think Nalen can handle him nicely, which will help in our pass protection.

I see Mike Anderson playing most of the game as well, especially on passing downs, he makes better decisions in the blocking game, we will need that since Pitt trys to disguise their blitzes.

I think our oline matches up really well against the Pitt Dline and our TEs could wreak havoc on their safeties.

Lelie could have a huge game if Jake is on his game.

Our defense matches up well against the Steelers as well......we stop the TE better than any team left playing. That is a huge weapon to take away from Big Ben......Hines Ward will get some catches, just like every other receiver, but I think Champ can hold him out of the endzone.

The only thing that worries me is our blitzing and having Willie Parker escape out of the backfield on some screens....that part is really worrying me

[Mediator12]

Casey Hampton is the nose Tackle, not Von Oelhoffen. He is a good Nose, but not Jamal Williams or Vince Wilfork Good. Aaron Smith at the other DE is very active too. The front three is not where the Steelers are the best. It is the athleticism of their Four LB's and the Wild Card blitzing Gambling Polumalu. Steelers bring pressure with Polumalu or keep him back to make the Hot Read and Jump it. Jake has to get a different Hot Read away from Polumalu this week. Shanahan has to give him a option away from Polumalu or those Blitzes will be devastating.

Also, they need to Run strong at the Blitzes and get big Running plays. That will slow down the Blitz better than Completing passes. If they Run off tackle more and then Challenge the CB's to make tackle's they could get a bunch of things to open up later with Misdirection. I was really surprised they failed to run any counters or the Counter Pitch versus NE overpursuit to keep the responsible.

[Mile High Shack]

oh, I just seem to remember Von Olhoffen in the middle, my bad

I think Pitt will stop us a lot and we will have a lot of 3 and outs, but as long as we don't have a bunch of turnovers, I think our D can hold them enough so our O can generate enough points to win this game

You do have to account for Palamalu, but I trust Shanny and his offense, I think he'll design a few wrinkles the Steelers haven't seen yet

[Broncoman13]

I think we could have more success running the ball against Pitt b/c of their LB's athleticsm. If they over pursue the cutback lanes could open giving us a better chance at running the ball. The Pats LB's on top of being a bit slower are more disciplined in general. Couple that with the Pats having a much better DL than the Steelers and I think we may be able to run better. Still, our running game hasn't clicked in quite a while it seems. It's worriesome to me!

[Rascal]

I was really surprised they failed to run any counters or the Counter Pitch versus NE overpursuit to keep the responsible.

I was as well but I figured it was because they were too slow to move much so they wouldn't have been out of position (maybe disciplined as well but I prefer to insult them).

[Mile High Shack]

I think we could have more success running the ball against Pitt b/c of their LB's athleticsm. If they over pursue the cutback lanes could open giving us a better chance at running the ball. The Pats LB's on top of being a bit slower are more disciplined in general. Couple that with the Pats having a much better DL than the Steelers and I think we may be able to run better. Still, our running game hasn't clicked in quite a while it seems. It's worriesome to me!

we had like 197 yards rushing in San Diego

we also had like 170 yards rushing vs. Oakland

:)

[Broncoman13]

Anybody concerned with the Steelers "trick" plays. I love our secondary but they are very agressive against the run and the passes in the flats. I'm a little concerned that one of the Steelers little trick plays could catch us being too agressive.

[Mile High Shack]

Anybody concerned with the Steelers "trick" plays. I love our secondary but they are very agressive against the run and the passes in the flats. I'm a little concerned that one of the Steelers little trick plays could catch us being too agressive.

I'm not too worried about the trick plays b/c our D is fast enough to blow a lot of those double passes up

but the screen to Parker scares me

[Old Dude]

Factoid:

Since 2001, thirteen teams have had to play three straight road games. Only one managed to win all three: the Jaguars, who won three straight road games against losing teams in 2001, and who did it against three losing teams again this year (beating the Titans, Cards and Browns from Nov 20 to Dec 4).

Frequently, the toughest game in the set turns out to be the third one. This year, for example, the Bucs were on the third leg of a three game road trip when the Pats smashed them back on December 17, 28-0.

Counter-factoid:

The Steelers actually have a better record on the road this year (8-2 and still counting) than they did at home, where they went 5-3.

[defenseman]

The steelers are tough. Don't for a second believe Cowher won't pull out the stops, including abandoning the run to a point if necessary. I do believe however, that the key to this game will be denver's ability to handle the screen pass when it occurs and Cowher's ability to call the draw at the absolutely most devastating time. Stop those two plays in general consistently in addition to limiting the steelers ability to run, and I believe the broncos move onto the the super bowl...dman

[Octavias]

Casey Hampton is the steelers NT. Teams have, by my count, single blocked him all of a dozen times this year (including twice on Sunday) every time he has pushed the center into the backfield. Shanahan will double block him all game even with a center who should have been all pro. He is that good.

The defensive ends are great against the run, they just tie up blockes vs the pass.

the real trick is which linebackers/safties are going to be rushing each down. At least one is rushing each down and typically one is blitzing, even against the run.

They sometimes can be caught on the cutback, but if that begins to happen they usually adjust with a delayed run blitz from a safety.

The Safeties are a great duo, much is said about them, the CB's are very fast and quick, but drop a lot of INT's. If Plummer is willing to challenge thier coverage, he may force some big plays, but then again it could also be the game that the ball doesn'y fly through their hands to the recievers.

[fontaine]

Casey Hampton is the steelers NT. Teams have, by my count, single blocked him all of a dozen times this year (including twice on Sunday) every time he has pushed the center into the backfield. Shanahan will double block him all game even with a center who should have been all pro. He is that good.


Is that why he's off the field on nickel packages? He's a very good run stopper, but not as good as what we've faced already in Dallas, SD twice, and Pats twice.

The defensive ends are great against the run, they just tie up blockes vs the pass.

the real trick is which linebackers/safties are going to be rushing each down. At least one is rushing each down and typically one is blitzing, even against the run.

I agree. Foster our RT, isn't someone that I have a lot of confidence in when it comes to sealing off the perimeter especially since we don't have great blocking TEs either. If House was still around it would be a different story.


They sometimes can be caught on the cutback, but if that begins to happen they usually adjust with a delayed run blitz from a safety.


Yes, but I think Denver's mobile OL especially Hamilton and Lepsis are too good and will effectively block the delayed run blitz before it has a chance to develop. Bell's speed on the outside will also be great here.

The Safeties are a great duo, much is said about them, the CB's are very fast and quick, but drop a lot of INT's. If Plummer is willing to challenge thier coverage, he may force some big plays, but then again it could also be the game that the ball doesn'y fly through their hands to the recievers.

Plummer will have the option of dumping it off to Anderson or Kyle Johnson in the flat like he has had an most passing downs and this is a key weakeness of the steelers which haven't done well all season long against pass catching RBs.

[freak6]

What was the #1 thing the Broncos were worried about vs the Packers in SB 32. Leroy Butler. He used Sharpe on the left side of the line alot to counter what the Packers wanted to do with Butler. This time they got Troy Palumalu right. Trust Shannahan to counter what Pittsburgh tries to do with him by using some new formations, throw some wrinkles into the gameplan just to take advantage of Troy. I really think we need to keep stretching the field, the Steelers corners are SUSPECT.

The Mastermind is in command.

[WolfpackGuy]

Shanahan will have something up his sleeve. Our running game isn't what a zone-blitzing team wants to see. We catch them napping out of position or over pursuing with Bell back there, it's 6. While Plummer isn't a sitting duck like Manning in the pocket, I expect a lot of moving pocket and bootleg type plays when we do pass.

[ludo21]

The Steelers DL is like the PAts on passing downs. They tie up blockers and let their LB's get the sacks. We did a pretty good job against the PAtriots, so i think e can do it again.

Like has been said, they wild card is Polamalu, he does a lot of different things.

[bloodsunday]

Casey Hampton is the nose Tackle, not Von Oelhoffen. He is a good Nose, but not Jamal Williams or Vince Wilfork Good. Aaron Smith at the other DE is very active too. The front three is not where the Steelers are the best. It is the athleticism of their Four LB's and the Wild Card blitzing Gambling Polumalu. Steelers bring pressure with Polumalu or keep him back to make the Hot Read and Jump it. Jake has to get a different Hot Read away from Polumalu this week. Shanahan has to give him a option away from Polumalu or those Blitzes will be devastating.

Also, they need to Run strong at the Blitzes and get big Running plays. That will slow down the Blitz better than Completing passes. If they Run off tackle more and then Challenge the CB's to make tackle's they could get a bunch of things to open up later with Misdirection. I was really surprised they failed to run any counters or the Counter Pitch versus NE overpursuit to keep the responsible.
The other thing Pittsburgh has to be cautious about is Jake's mobility. Blitzing like wild men (particularly up the gut) is not as effective with a mobile QB. They maybe more apt to blitz of the edge and force Jake into the pocket. When they got pressure up the gut, Manning (and the Cincy QBs) was a sitting duck.

I'm guessing that about the time Pittsburgh went up 14 - 0, Shanny already had a game plan in mind. If this game comes down to tactics and schemes, then I LOVE our chances as we have the mastermind against the minimind. While Cowher (and assistants) had a great game plan last week, I would guess they started working on that about the time they lost to Indy the first time as they knew then they would meet again. He won't have that luxury this time.