Steelers Run Into The Wrong Saints

Ben setting up for his lethal back body drop on Will Smith.

Otherwise occupied by various other blogging jobs from pregame Sunday night until, well, just a few minutes before 11 p.m. on Monday night. Without getting into too much detail about the blog slog, I haven't had a ton of time to post a recap here. Your bated breath is appreciated.

By now everyone has had time to digest or vomit in the face of the disgusting display of offense the Steelers put on in the Superdome. I've seen it compared to the game in Cleveland last season, but I'd say is apt. In that game, the Browns kept bringing the house and the Steelers couldn't burn them, mostly because Arians elected to pass into heavy wind gusts with poor blocking schemes.

There's not much blaming wind inside the dome, but Arians didn't do a great job of designing quick throws to counteract the blitz. Of course, Ben deserves his share of blame for holding the ball in some situations, but there's only so much a quarterback can do when a offensive coordinator calls for slow-developing pass patterns when a defense is sending six rushers.

It doesn't help that Pittsburgh didn't get any lucky breaks on offense, either. Emmanuel Sanders foolishly slapped away what would have probably been a Hines Ward touchdown on a 4th down attempt in the 3rd quarter.

Blerg.

After Antwaan Randle El's touchdown was overturned, Rashard Mendenhall got the ball over the plane two plays later, but he was ruled short. The Steelers should have challenged, but didn't, claiming they didn't get a good review angle after the game.

But wait, I thought the refs bended over backwards to award Steelers touchdowns at the goal line. Guess I'll have to glom on to some other conspiracy. Got any good ones about the reserve vampires?

Credit to Drew Brees. He had a monster second half and responded to what could have been a killer fumble forced by Bryant McFadden to put the Steelers away when Heath Miller gave the ball back.

A couple other rants before I get some much-needed sleep:

- We all know the pass coverage blew in the second half. I wonder if sending more elaborate blitzes, as Cleveland did the week before to force turnovers might have been more effective.

- Emmanuel Sanders has been a decent fourth receiving option and looked solid as a return guy, at least when he isn't putting the ball on the ground. There were excuses that his first fumble was the result of a head shot and the second is because he was hit from behind. I'm willing to accept the first, but unexpected hits are no excuse for dropping it on kick returns. Will be interesting whether Antonio Brown will get another shot if that persists.

- Mike Wallace made one big catch over the middle, but the Saints taking away the deep ball with safety help contributed to tightening up the Steelers offense. Hopefully this will force Arians to expand his role beyond streak patterns. That isn't to suggest that was all Wallace was doing on Sunday night, but it certainly seemed that way on pass plays of longer than six yards or so.

- Get fucked, Jeff Reed.

-Get double fucked by a chainsaw, Leigh Torrence. Of course, everyone is carrying on again about how James Harrison is dirty and horrible for a late hit on Drew Brees. It was dumb, don't get me wrong, but while Harrison will be fined for his hit, Torrence seems likely to get nothing for his helmet-to-helmet shot on a defenseless Hines Ward in the first half. Wasn't this what the NFL was supposedly guarding against now. Goddamn, Goodell's enforcement is completely predicated on media pressure.


- Polamalu didn't exactly have his best game. His missed one tackle in the open field on Julius Jones and guessed wrong on coverage on a play that ended up going for 50 yards. Like Heath Miller's fumble, it's an unfortunate rarity that you hope doesn't reemerge in another big game.