Tomlin knows what the Steelers need

[LZ-Steel]

Rex J Steelman wrote:

<quoted text>
I'd like to agree with you, but I'm afraid that the dropoff between Smith and ANY mere mortal might be a steep one. Tomlin said Hood "isn't ready to come out of the oven yet," but I think they'd better turn on the broiler. I'm not as confident about Eason.

Hey, I won't disagree there's gonna be a drop off. But I think it'll even out because of our substantially easier schedule and improved offense. Smith is the best DE I've seen on the Steelers in decades. He'll be missed. But we have other guys who can step up in his absence. Aaron won't be with us forever. Its about time we starting thinking about a possible replacement...and now presents as good a time as any.

[Bob Roberts]

LZ-Steel wrote:

<quoted text>
Hey, I won't disagree there's gonna be a drop off. But I think it'll even out because of our substantially easier schedule and improved offense. Smith is the best DE I've seen on the Steelers in decades. He'll be missed. But we have other guys who can step up in his absence. Aaron won't be with us forever. Its about time we starting thinking about a possible replacement...and now presents as good a time as any.

that will be ziggy hood and perhaps sunny harris on the other side. the big question is who will fill in for hampton and hoke. they are both around the same age and we need someone in the wings.

[Bill in Cranberry]

Rex J Steelman wrote:

<quoted text>
I'd like to agree with you, but I'm afraid that the dropoff between Smith and ANY mere mortal might be a steep one. Tomlin said Hood "isn't ready to come out of the oven yet," but I think they'd better turn on the broiler. I'm not as confident about Eason.

Last season Eason and Kirsche stepped their game up and played very well IMO. Frankly, I was surprised. They will need to do that again. Aaron Smith is a huge loss, but I'm still optimistic.
I still think I would rest Troy against the Brownies tho. With Smith out for the season...it would be devastating to lose him again. Does that make sense??? C'mon 7!

STEELERS ROCK !!!

[Bob Roberts]

Bill in Cranberry wrote:

<quoted text>
Last season Eason and Kirsche stepped their game up and played very well IMO. Frankly, I was surprised. They will need to do that again. Aaron Smith is a huge loss, but I'm still optimistic.
I still think I would rest Troy against the Brownies tho. With Smith out for the season...it would be devastating to lose him again. Does that make sense??? C'mon 7!
STEELERS ROCK !!!

I'm with you on that one Bill. Why risk it against the browns? of course we don't know how his knee feels but my gut tells me that one more week of practice would be the best case scenario. maybe they will only play him in situation defensive packages. leave the run stuffing to carter, he's good at it imo.

[Jopa-n]

Bill in Cranberry wrote:

<quoted text>
Last season Eason and Kirsche stepped their game up and played very well IMO. Frankly, I was surprised. They will need to do that again. Aaron Smith is a huge loss, but I'm still optimistic.
I still think I would rest Troy against the Brownies tho. With Smith out for the season...it would be devastating to lose him again. Does that make sense??? C'mon 7!
STEELERS ROCK !!!

You might be right about Troy if he's not better than 75%. The problem they have if they sit him for the Browns is that he would come in stone cold against the Vikings in a must win game.
It's a tough call. I'd like to see him get some playing time before the Viking game but not if there is any danger of him messing up his knee for good.

[JW Smooth]

Bill in Cranberry wrote:

<quoted text>
Last season Eason and Kirsche stepped their game up and played very well IMO. Frankly, I was surprised. They will need to do that again. Aaron Smith is a huge loss, but I'm still optimistic.
I still think I would rest Troy against the Brownies tho. With Smith out for the season...it would be devastating to lose him again. Does that make sense??? C'mon 7!
STEELERS ROCK !!!

Bill, I have a question for you. Is it true with Aaron Smith out for the rest of the yr, the black & gold are done?

[Bill in Cranberry]

JW Smooth wrote:

<quoted text>Bill, I have a question for you. Is it true with Aaron Smith out for the rest of the yr, the black & gold are done?

No doubt that our great warrior, Aaron Smith is down and out for the rest of the season, but the Steelers are not a team to lay down for anybody. C'mon 7!

STEELERS ROCK !!!

[Jopa-n]

Scott Brown of the Tribune has a great column today on the Steelers and how they use pressure, or in some cases don't use, in order to be successful.
Interesting that Lebeau responded by saying you can't do it all the time because all that teams have to do is max protect. I'm sure that's true to a point- nothing is good when it's exactly the same thing over and over. Sort of like letting the QB stand back and chip away at the defense over and over. Score 7 either way- what's the difference?
I would like to see more pressure applied but in various ways througout the game. The perfect compliment from the opposing QB at the end of the game being: "We knew they were coming, they blitzed alot. We just could not tell who and where they were coming from on any given play. We'd slide blockers over, they'd come from the other side, we kept people in, they had nobody to block but someone still got there."
Ultimate bliss.

[Bob Roberts]

hey guys a great look at mendenhall v parker in this article. confirms what we already know. mendenhall puts us in good second down positions averaging over 6 yards per carry on first down. parker is averaging under 3 yards per carry on first down.

http://nfl.fanhouse.com/2009/10/13/rashard-me...

[Bob Roberts]

another good page. someone put together a vid of all of hoods snaps against the lions. he doesn't look too bad, looks maybe a little hesitant. i can see why they will use kirschke and easson and hood to rotate in there. hood will come around imo. he just needs game time expereince. any thoughts?

[Bob Roberts]

JW Smooth wrote:

<quoted text>Bill, I have a question for you. Is it true with Aaron Smith out for the rest of the yr, the black & gold are done?

other teams will run to the right a lot with smith out. if you watch games where smith plays they usually run away from him. they go over to keisels side.

[Bob Roberts]

Jopa-n wrote:

Scott Brown of the Tribune has a great column today on the Steelers and how they use pressure, or in some cases don't use, in order to be successful.
Interesting that Lebeau responded by saying you can't do it all the time because all that teams have to do is max protect. I'm sure that's true to a point- nothing is good when it's exactly the same thing over and over. Sort of like letting the QB stand back and chip away at the defense over and over. Score 7 either way- what's the difference?
I would like to see more pressure applied but in various ways througout the game. The perfect compliment from the opposing QB at the end of the game being: "We knew they were coming, they blitzed alot. We just could not tell who and where they were coming from on any given play. We'd slide blockers over, they'd come from the other side, we kept people in, they had nobody to block but someone still got there."
Ultimate bliss.

with troy back and roaming the middle of the field i think we will see more sacks and less yards given up in these hurry up 4th quarter drives that are working so well against the steelers.

[JW Smooth]

Bill in Cranberry wrote:

<quoted text>
No doubt that our great warrior, Aaron Smith is down and out for the rest of the season, but the Steelers are not a team to lay down for anybody. C'mon 7!
STEELERS ROCK !!!

I was going by what happen a few yrs ago when he went down. Their run D went from like 70 yards a gm to 150!!

[Jopa-n]

Bob Roberts wrote:

<quoted text>other teams will run to the right a lot with smith out. if you watch games where smith plays they usually run away from him. they go over to keisels side.

That's why I'm not so sure letting Hoke maul the OG back into the backfield isn't a bad idea on first and 2nd downs. Who was it that played primarily for Smith when he went down in 07?

[Bill in Cranberry]

JW Smooth wrote:

<quoted text>I was going by what happen a few yrs ago when he went down. Their run D went from like 70 yards a gm to 150!!

Understood. Over here we all know what happened in 08. I'm saying that his replacements....Kirsche and Eason and hopefully Hood can effectively fill in without a significant loss in production which did occur in 08. We will see come Sunday. Cmon 7!

STEELERS ROCK !!!

[Bill in Cranberry]

I should have said 07. Kirsche and Eason played decent D in 08.

STEELERS ROCK !!!

[Rex J Steelman]

JW Smooth wrote:

<quoted text>I was going by what happen a few yrs ago when he went down. Their run D went from like 70 yards a gm to 150!!

Hey, Smoothie, I wanted to ask you something. It seems like every time I listen to "The Drive" on WTAE, Scott Paulson is calling the Rams the "Rush Limbaughs" and saying they should be wearing white hoods on the field. There's never any explanation of the joke, like everybody should know what he's talking about, but I have no idea what it's supposed to mean. Do you know what this is about?

[Rex J Steelman]

Jopa-n wrote:

<quoted text>That's why I'm not so sure letting Hoke maul the OG back into the backfield isn't a bad idea on first and 2nd downs. Who was it that played primarily for Smith when he went down in 07?

I'm thinking it was Kirschke, who they say is going to get most of the snaps now. I think in '07, though, Kirschke was battling some kind of injury of his own--back spasms or something.

[JW Smooth]

Bill in Cranberry wrote:

<quoted text>
Understood. Over here we all know what happened in 08. I'm saying that his replacements....Kirsche and Eason and hopefully Hood can effectively fill in without a significant loss in production which did occur in 08. We will see come Sunday. Cmon 7!
STEELERS ROCK !!!

You might be right. I did hear coach T say that Hood wasn`t ready to help yet!

[JW Smooth]

Rex J Steelman wrote:

<quoted text>
Hey, Smoothie, I wanted to ask you something. It seems like every time I listen to "The Drive" on WTAE, Scott Paulson is calling the Rams the "Rush Limbaughs" and saying they should be wearing white hoods on the field. There's never any explanation of the joke, like everybody should know what he's talking about, but I have no idea what it's supposed to mean. Do you know what this is about?

Rex good talkin to you. I really don`t want to get into that on here, but I can understand if the fans come to the game with bags on their heads!!