Three Rivers Burgh Blog

Penguins Game 51 Recap - Leafs 1, Penguins 0

2012-02-01T22:13:00.002-05:00

For what the game was like last night the game tonight was a polar opposite. Last night there were seven goals scored and almost 80 shots and tonight there was only one goal scored and significantly less shots on goal. The result was also a little different as the Penguins fell to the Leafs on the backend of the home-and-home 1-0.

There really wasn’t a lot to this game. The Penguins were pretty bad defensively but tonight it was totally different as the defense came out and looked much smoother. Deryk Engellend was out with an injury so Ben Lovejoy was thrown back into the mix and played a pretty nice hockey game. Paul Martin bounced back pretty well and overall the Penguins did a nice job of putting a shell around Brent Johnson.

Sadly for BJ the Penguins offense was held in check and couldn’t get anything going. They did have some scoring chances but they missed the net on many of its shot attempts and then even clanged the pipe three different times. For as much good luck as the Penguins have had over the eight game winning streak it all really ran out tonight. It happens.

Some quick thoughts:

-For as bad as BJ has been this season he was nothing like that tonight. He really came out and shut the door and did everything he could to get the Penguins the win. The only thing he didn’t do was pitch a shutout and you can’t really blame him for that. Your offense has to score for you to win and the Penguins couldn’t do that. This should give HCDB some confidence in Johnson to play him a little more in the second half and that will be nice.

-Kris Letang was all over the place tonight. I wouldn’t classify Letang as a physical player but if you watched the game tonight you wouldn’t have thought that. He was throwing the body around and making some pretty big hits.

-It was back to the clutch and grab era in Toronto tonight. If you know anything about me you know that I don’t think officials determine the outcome of games but those officials tonight were pretty bad. They weren’t bad just against the Penguins, they were bad overall. You could do whatever you wanted in the neutral zone and interfere as much as you want. The “slash” on Kris Letang was laughable and thinking that Chris Kunitz goal was good (which got righted via replay) was bad as well. No idea what game these officials were watching.

-Chris Kunitz got another goal taken away. Not sure who tweeted it but rumor is that it is the sixth goal this year that Kunitz had taken away. To be fair it was a good call (replay made the call) and it shouldn’t have been a goal but still that has to be some kind of record for a season.

-The Penguins had 23 missed shots and 25 shots total. That is a lot of missed shots.

-The Penguins penalty kill was out of its mind tonight. They successfully killed all four penalties against them and really made it look easy.

Penguins will need to get back on the winning ways against Boston on Saturday afternoon.

Penguins Game Day 51 - @ Toronto Maple Leafs

2012-02-01T17:30:00.000-05:00

Toronto Maple Leafs

7:30 p.m., Air Canada Centre, Toronto, Ontario

Well this seems like a pretty quick turnaround now doesn't it? The Penguins played the Leafs just about 20 hours ago and brought home a win they probably didn't deserve. They were outplayed for a majority of the game, but it didn't matters as they gutted out two points. The Leafs are fighting tooth and nail for that final playoff spot so if you think tonight is going to tone down a little bit you are out of your mind. I expect this to be an up and down hockey game and it should be fun to watch.

Don't look now but the Penguins are only five points behind the Rangers and two points back of the Flyers (albeit both teams have games in hand on the Penguins). I am not saying that the Penguins are going to win 20 games in a row and run away with the Atlantic Division but a couple weeks ago we were wondering if this team was going to make the playoffs. Oh how a few wins, or eight, can change the complextion of a season.

Interesitng note that I found while I was wasting some time today looking at the standings: Only five teams in the Eastern Conference have a positive goal differential: Boston +70, New York +35, Pittsburgh +26, Philadelphia +19 and Toronto +3. Pretty impressive for the Penguins to be the third best in that statistic considering all they have went through this season. This should also go to show how good Marc Andre Fleury has been because the defense hasn't been that great this year.

The season series (Tied 1-1):

October 29, 2011 - Toronto 4, Pittsburgh 3

January 31, 2012 - Penguins 5, Leafs 4 (SO)

The Penguins probables (via Seth at Empty Netters):

Forwards
Chris Kunitz - Evgeni Malkin - James Neal
Pascal Dupuis - Dustin Jeffrey - Tyler Kennedy
Matt Cooke - Richard Park - Steve Sullivan
Colin McDonald - Joe Vitale - Colin McDonald-*

Defense
Brook Orpik - Kris Letang
Paul Martin - Zbynek Michalek
Matt Niskanen - Ben Lovejoy

Goaltender
Brent Johnson

The Leafs probables:

Forwards
Joffrey Lupul - Tyler Bozak - Phil Kessel
Clarke MacArthur - Mikhail Grabovski - Nikolai Kulemin
Matthew Lombardi - Tim Connelly - Colby Armstrong
Joey Crabb - David Steckel - Mike Brown

Defense
Dion Phaneuf - Gunnarsson
John-Michael Liles - Cody Franson
Jake Gardiner - Luke Schenn

Goaltender
James Reimer

The stats:

Penguins Game 50 Recap - Penguins 5, Leafs 4 (SO)

2012-01-31T22:50:00.001-05:00

Some nights you come out and play like your hair is on fire. Some nights you come out and play like you just woke up 30 minutes before game time. For 50 minutes the Penguins played like the latter and were dominated by the visiting Leafs. Too bad for the Leafs that the Penguins played the last 10 minutes like their lives were on the line.

The Penguins were dominated for the better part of 50 minutes. It really wasn’t pretty. The Leafs were getting odd man breaks almost every other rush down the ice and the Penguins defense was nowhere to be found and when they were around they were throwing the puck away creating the odd man breaks.

With the Penguins trailing 2-1 the Leafs pretty much put the game away with a pair of goals 19 seconds apart to make it 4-1 with 13:33 left in the game. People were leaving the building and things were in a bad way. That all changed when Steve Sullivan picked up a puck and blasted a shot past Jonas Gustavsson to make it 4-2. OK, a little momentum for tomorrow night.

They did much better than that. After the Penguins go the one and only power play of the night (only the 12th penalty in the last 12 games for the Leafs) Joe Vitale worked his ass off in front of the net and beat Gustavsson to cut the lead to one with five minutes left in the game. Things stayed that way the rest of the third even though the Penguins were brining the heat but things didn’t look good. The Penguins never score with the goalie pulled.

With MAF out of the net and under a minute left the Penguins went to work. The puck only left the zone for a brief second but the Pens got the puck right back in. Steve Sullivan worked the puck from the point to James Neal on the right dot. Neal fired a one-time shot that was off the mark but hit Evgeni Malkin in the chest and deflected into the goal. Just an unreal ending. 6.6 seconds left and the game was tied. What a time to be alive.

Overtime was a mad house. Sullivan pretty much held the puck for the entire overtime period and the Penguins were all over the place. If overtime was 10 minutes instead of five the Pens would have won in OT. They went a shootout and MAF was brilliant, stopping all three shots. Malkin scored a shootout goal. Five straight times he’s scored in the shootout. Remember when he was bad at this stuff.

Honestly during the final five minutes of this game I didn’t move. When MAF left the net I had goose bumps and when the puck went into the back of the net I threw my hands up in the air and screamed. This was what playoff hockey is about and it was only in game 50.

I gotta give the Leafs credit, they are a fun team to watch. They have some guys that can really move and get the puck and they really pack the defensive end when they get everyone back. Goaltending seems to be the real down on the team, especially tonight, as Gustavsson really melted down the stretch tonight but it really wasn’t all on him. The Leafs were floundering the final 10 minutes of the game and it cost them.

It is not too often that a goaltender can give up four goals and still probably deserve to be the number one star but that is exactly what Fleury did tonight. He made 35 saves but honestly if he wasn’t in net this would have probably been an eight goal night for the Leafs. I talked about how the Leafs were getting odd man breaks like every other rush and MAF was there to stop nearly every single one of them. It was great to watch. Not sure there are many better goaltenders in the league right now. Just a brick wall.

While MAF was great the defense was not. The pairing of Niskanen and Engelland were pretty bad all night and the pairing of Martin and Michalek were pretty bad as well. As you know I am a pretty big Martin supporter but he was pretty terrible tonight. Out of position and just didn’t look good. Granted, this was the first game off a lengthy break so there must be some time to shake the rust off but that should be only attributed to tonight. They must be better tomorrow.

You can’t say enough about how good Steve Sullivan was tonight. Sullivan has been a little frustrating this year when he passes the puck one too many times and passes up some great looks at the net but he might have played his best of the season tonight. He showed up for the full 60 minutes and completely took over the final 10 minutes of the game and the entire overtime session. Just a really great effort form him and the team fed off that.

Tyler Kennedy needs to show up. No idea where he has been.

Just a really gutty effort by the team. They were down and out and they were not showing and signs of coming back. To be honest I was relegated to the loss when they scored those back-to-back goals. Games like this are bound to happen to teams every once in a while. What is really amazing about this is when your team has a “game like that” and still wins it you know you have something special going on. Eight wins in a row and they are still looking strong.

Penguins will be back at it tomorrow night against the Leafs.

Penguins Game Day 50 - vs. Toronto Maple Leafs

2012-01-31T16:49:00.000-05:00

Toronto Maple Leafs

7:00 p.m., CONSOL Energy Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

The Penguins are finally back after the All-Star break and doesn't it seem like it's been longer than a week since they have played their last game. Well don't fear because the Penguins are going to be playing a ton of hockey this week so you will be thrust right back into it. Tonight kicks off a home-and-home for the Penguins and Leafs before they play another back-to-back games this weekend against the Bruins and Devils. Wouldn't have it any other way.

The Leafs are coming in fighting for a playoff spot. Currently they sit in ninth place in the East and have the exact same number of points as the Devils, who are in eighth place.

Jonas Gustavsson has started in 10 of the last 11 contests and is actually playing some pretty decent hockey although he is not exactly what you would call a stable goaltender if you asked many of the Leafs fans that are out there. Joff Lupul should be a pretty familiar name as he was a Philadelphia Flyer and has always played pretty well against the Penguins. This year he is playing really well for the Leafs as he leads the team with 52 points and 32 assists. Phil Kessel is also pretty good even though he looks like that chubby kid that everyone makes fun of but you are still friends with.

MAF is going to be in net tonight. Shocker. He has played in like every single game this season but I would expect that his workload is going to be a little lighter the second half with a ton of back-to-backs.

The season series (Toronto leads 1-0):

October 29, 2011 - Toronto 4, Pittsburgh 3

The Penguins probables (via Seth at Empty Netters):

Forwards
Chris Kunitz - Evgeni Malkin - James Neal
Pascal Dupuis - Dustin Jeffrey - Tyler Kennedy
Matt Cooke - Richard Park - Steve Sullivan
Colin McDonald - Joe Vitale - Colin McDonald-*

Defense
Brook Orpik - Kris Letang
Paul Martin - Zbynek Michalek
Matt Niskanen - Deryk Engelland

Goaltender
Marc Andre Fleury

The Leafs probables:

Forwards
Joffrey Lupul - Tyler Bozak - Phil Kessel
Clarke MacArthur - Mikhail Grabovski - Nikolai Kulemin
Matthew Lombardi - Tim Connelly - Nazem Kadri
Joey Crabb - David Steckel - Mike Brown

Defense
Dion Phaneuf - Luke Schenn
Carl Gunnarsson - Mike Komisarek
Jake Gardiner - Cody Franson

Goaltender
Jonas Gustavsson

The stats:

Four Pirates On MLB.com Top-100 Prospect List

2012-01-25T23:53:00.000-05:00

Tonight on MLB Network they unveiled the top-50 prospect list while giving out numbers 51-100 online and the Pirates were rewarded with four selections. The Bucs had three prospects in the top-50 and then one more player in the 51-100 category to give them four total prospects. On the MLB Networking breakdown they finished with three top-50 prospects which tied for the second most in all of baseball.

The Pirates prospects included Jameson Taillon (8th), Gerrit Cole (11th), Starling Marte (40th) and Josh Bell (69th).

What was pretty interesting is that MLB.com broke down the list into points. They gave 100 points to the number one prospect, 99 points for the number two prospects and so on and then added up all the points for those positions. The Pirates finished third overall with 276 points which trailed only the Mariners and Royals who finished with five and four prospects, respectively.

To put this list in a little more prospective the Pirates only had one prospect in the 2010 top-50 and only one in the 2009 top-50. I think it is pretty easy to say that the Pirates minor league system has come a long way in the past couple of years.

Here is the MLB.com breakdown of the Pirates prospects:

Jameson Taillon - Taillon uses all of his 6-foot-6-inch frame well on the mound, with a good downward plane, which should allow him to keep the ball down in the zone and continue to generate groundouts. He has a plus fastball that touches the upper 90s that he can maintain deeper into starts. His curve is a plus pitch, and his second breaking ball, a slider, can be as unhittable at times. He has a good feel for the changeup and just needs to throw it more to give him four outstanding offerings, all of which he can throw for strikes. With the gloves coming off in 2012, he should be able to become a more complete pitcher.

Gerrit Cole - With the exception of a rough outing in the Rising Stars Game, Cole avoided overthrowing and opening his front side too much, the pitfalls that caused him to be hittable at times during his junior year at UCLA despite plus stuff across the board. He can reach the upper 90s easily with his fastball, even registering some triple digits, and sits at 95-96 mph deep into starts. He throws a hard slider in the upper 80s and even his changeup is a power pitch. All three are plus offerings, and he can throw all for strikes. He was catching too much of the plate at times last year at UCLA, but when he’s repeating his delivery correctly, he keeps things down in the zone, making him even tougher to hit.

Starling Marte - Marte has always shown an ability to hit for average, and he proved he can do it at a higher level, winning the Double-A Eastern League batting title in 2011. Improved plate discipline will help that even more. He started to grow into his power as well and there could be more as he matures. He has the speed to be a successful basestealer but needs to work on cutting down his caught-stealing rate. With more work, he’ll be a good basestealer, and he is an excellent defensive center fielder with more than enough arm to move to a corner if needed.

Josh Bell - Bell was one of the best high-school bats in the 2011 Draft class but was deemed unsignable until the Pirates took a shot and got an above-slot deal done in the second round. He is a legitimate switch-hitter who has plus hit and power tools from both sides of the plate. He has an advanced approach at the plate and will work counts and draw walks along the way. He played center field in high school, but with average speed, he’ll probably move over to a corner spot, where he should be an above-average defender. He has the arm, and certainly the bat, to profile well in right field.

It was also really interesting to note that when they talked about Gerrit Cole they brought up the comparison with his UCLA teammate Trevor Bauer. I think the breakdown of this was great by the analysts on the show when they said that Cole was drafted as more of the prototypical pitcher with the size and the power and while he needs some work they Pirates would be able to get him in the system and work on those things. They talked about the drafting of Bauer was a win now move because he can come up and pitch immediately. The difference between the two according to Jonathan Mayo was that Cole probably has a much higher ceiling that he can attain, but it would take a year to tweak some things, while Bauer is about as close to his ceiling as he is going to get. So while you are looking at Bauer saying that the Pirates could have had that arm in the majors now the Pirates might have, and probably did, looked at it as they didn't need a pitcher for this year (they weren't going to compete) so they could go with prototypical guy with the higher ceiling rather than going for the right now guy with Bauer. You can agree or not with what the Pirates did but that was a really nice explanation from Mayo as to why the Pirates went with Cole over Bauer.

This has to make you feel good as a Pirates fan. I mean for much of my lifetime they have been starved of any sort of tanagble talent in the minor league system. Sure they had Andrew McCutchen and more recently Pedro Alvarez but they have never had more than two or three really top end talented players that people would look at and give any respectability to. They do now. Bash Neal Huntingon and Frank Coonley all you want but you can't deny that they have did wonders with the sytem. Sure it might be a little top heavy but look at what they had when they took the job, Brian Bixler? I mean if you want to bash them that is fine but give them a little bit of credit for what they have done.

When you watch shows like this it gets me pumped up that outside people are really thinking highly of what the Pirates have and while they might not be players that can come up and get the Pirates in the hunt this year but they will hopefully be ready when the Pirates themselves are ready to compete.

I know this might seem like empty enthusiasm but it is a step in the right direction and it gets me excited about baseball season.

Chris Hoke To Retire

2012-01-25T16:18:00.000-05:00

Word coming out of Steelers camp is that Chris Hoke is going to hang it up after 11 years with the Steelers and the retirement presser will come tomorrow (Thursday).

Word of a backup nose tackle retiring usually wouldn't make a ton of news but when you are a member of one of the best defenses in the league that runs a 3-4 and depends so heavily on the nose tackle to get the work done then this begins to be news. Hoke's job wasn't to get tackles or sack the quarterback, but it was to stop the run and eat up blockers to keep the lineman off the linebackers so they could make the tackles and headlines.

Hoke was an undrafted free agent that the Steelers signed in 2004, a few years after they drafted Casey Hampton in the first round. It wasn't easy but Hoke was able to crack the roster and he has paid huge dividends in making the Steelers a Super Bowl contender more often than not.

When you talk about defensive guys you usually talk about tackles and sacks. Over Hoke's 11 year career he only amassed 83 tackles and two sacks but it goes way beyond that. What he did do was play in at least 14 games a year for 10 years and would have been 11 years if he didn't suffer a neck injury that required surguery and really forced him to retire. He was a mainstay on the line and if you ask anyone that watches the game of football you will really hear what Hoke meant to this Steelers teams.

When Casey Hampton went down in 2004 Hoke stepped in and helped the team win a Super Bowl. Some will say that you are only as good as your weakest line, and Hoke was never that link.

What will go unnoticed is how good of a person Hoke was. There might not have been a happier guy and when you heard him talk in interviews or even just saw him on the sideline or on the practice field you knew he loved what he was doing. He wasn't a nice guy on the field, and he shouldn't have been, but that is a different story. When you hear about how he used to start fights at practice just to catch the eye of the coaches you should understand that was his on field persona. This was a great guy on the field and an even better guy in the locker room and as a person.

I guess the gist of this isn't to tell you he was a great guy and made a few plays, but to really try and illustrate how good of a player and human he was. Most people will roll their eyes if you talk about a backup nose tackler retiring but for what Chris Hoke brought to the Steelers it deserves that talk and for you to smack that person who rolls their eyes in the face.

Good luck to Hokie in his retirement and I hope he enjoys it.

Marc Andre Fleury's Overtime in St. Louis

2012-01-25T12:38:00.002-05:00

Great find by Seth over at Empty Netters with a video from YouTube of Marc Andre Fleury's overtime last night.

Pretty easy to say he stole the show last night. Three times the game could have easily been over if not for MAF.

Enjoy.

Penguins Game 49 Recap - Penguins 3, Blues 2 (SO)

2012-01-24T23:30:00.000-05:00

The few weeks heading into the All-Star break there were some big games and some emotional moments. Tonight they were playing their toughest competition and they were able to come out with two points, albeit in a shootout, and extend the winning streak to seven games.

The Pens played some pretty good hockey early on and built up a two goal lead on scores from James Neal (non All-Star) and Steve Sullivan and things looked pretty good. The Blues battled back like champs though and really got better as the game went on. They tied the score with a pair of Patrik Berglund goals, one of which was on a penalty shot five minutes into the third period to tie the score.

If you remember the earlier game this season between these two teams really had a physical battle and tonight was no different. The Penguins and Blues exchanged blows during the game and really were playing on that clean/dirty line the whole night and it really led to a physical battle that was entertaining to watch. Officially the Blues outhit the Penguins 32-27 but most of you know how I feel about the hits statistic but this was a really gritty game which luckily comes on the brink of a week off.

Maybe the best part of this game was the overtime period. If there was ever a time you wanted to see the NHL go to a 10 minute overtime instead of five it was this game. If you weren’t on the edge of your seat then you weren’t watching the Pens/Blues game. Each team was back and forth getting scoring chance after scoring chance. If not for Marc Andre Fleury this game would have been over in favor of the Blues.

Speaking of Fleury he was outstanding. I mean he has been great the past two weeks but tonight he was on another world. He finished as the number one star of the game and it really wasn’t even close if he should have been named it. He made 32 saves and at least 6-8 of those were jaw droppers including three in overtime that should all be tied for the top play on SportsCenter tomorrow morning. I actually saw some people bashing on Fleury during the game to Seth from Empty Netters and while I thought those people were kidding I came to find out they weren’t. I have no idea what games those people watch of MAF but he is the team MVP as of right now. As good as Evgeni Malkin and James Neal has been MAF has been that good and maybe better. Just a treat to watch him right now. One of the best in the league.

While Malkin might not have scored a goal and had his six game goal scoring streak snapped he did get a goal in the shootout. It was pretty sick. He is pretty much doing whatever he wants right now and it is working.

James Neal continues to make even more of a mockery of the NHL All-Star game than it already is. He now has 27 goals on the season and isn’t in the mid-winter classic (yea, I made that up). He was stopped in the shootout but he was outstanding all game and was tied with Malkin with a team-high six shots on goal. Pretty funny to think back when we were thinking it would be great if Neal would score 30 goals. He has 27 at the break. Man.

Paul Martin gets ridiculed a good bit for his play which is a direct result of his $5M salary he is getting played but on the Neal goal he really made it happen. He fought the puck off a Blues defender and got it to Neal from behind the net for him to get a great scoring chance. Overall though Martin didn’t play very well as he was beaten a few times off the puck but luckily MAF was there to pick him up. Not sure what is up with Martin lately but he has been pretty up and down as of recent. I think he will be good going forward but it is just frustrating sometimes.

Matt Cooke might be making some news, but not in the right way. It was near the end of the game and he was going into the corner and semi shoved Barret Jackman into the boards. Here is the video:

In my opinion (and only seeing one replay) it didn’t look as bad as it did in real time. Jackman sort of turned his back at the last second and sort of threw himself into the boards. Sure, Cooke did extend his arms but he did not leave his feet or even come close to hitting Jackman in the head and while it was called boarding I just don’t see how it was a terrible hit. It might get looked at because of Cooke’s past and I guess I wouldn’t be surprised if he got some supplemental discipline but what do we really know?

The Blues are a pretty good hockey club. While they toe the line in their physical game they have a ton of talent and I think this really showed where the Penguins were as a team after the six game losing stream and the following winning streak (now at seven). They have strong goaltending and some really talented forwards who can move the puck and skate pretty well. It was an entertaining hockey game and one in which I wouldn’t mind seeing more often.

Hopefully the Penguins can enjoy some time off and get their legs back under them because they have a home-and-home with the Leafs next Tueseday/Wednesday. All-Star game is this weekend, I guess. Actually I have no idea when it is. All-Star games are dumb.

Penguins Game Day 49 - @ St. Louis Blues

2012-01-24T18:00:00.000-05:00

St. Louis Blues

8:00 p.m., Scottrade Center, Saint Louis, Missouri

This will be the final game before the All-Star break and while I think it is imporant to get the week off (for Marc Andre Fleury) but I think the Penguins want this break to be pushed back a little bit. I think that the biggest monmentum killer in sports is halftime/period break but one of the other ways to kill momentum is to have the All-Star break which for the NHL is smack dab in the middle of the season.

This might be the biggest test of the past couple of weeks as the Blues are as hot as they come. They are 8-1-1 in their last 10 and that only loss came last night against the Red Wings when they lost 3-1. This is going to be a huge task as they face one of the best goaltenders in the league in Brian Elliot as he leads the league in goals against average (1.68) and is second in save percentage (.937). While he has been one of the best he has given up three goals in four of his last six starts but that doesn't guarantee anything if you are the Penguins.

The Penguins haven't been too shaby either going 6-0-0 in their last six games and riding the back of Evgeni Malkin who holds the points lead and also is third in the league with 26 goals, which is only six goals back of Steve Stamkos for the NHL lead. Oh yea, non-All-Star James Neal also has 26 goals.

Marc Andre Fleury might play every game the rest of the season. Dude has been a rock in goal and a huge reason the Penguins are where they are in the standings (6th) despite having a brutal six game losing streak. As I said before I don't agree with playing MAF in each of these games where the Penguins played five games in eight days but I guess stacking the wins will make it a little easier to swallow.

Should be a really fun game between a couple of teams that are playing some great hockey right now.

Season series (Penguins lead 1-0):

November 23, 2011 - St. Louis 3, Pittsburgh 2 (OT)

The Penguins probables (via Seth at Empty Netters):

Forwards
Chris Kunitz - Evgeni Malkin - James Neal
Pascal Dupuis - Dustin Jeffrey - Tyler Kennedy
Matt Cooke - Richard Park - Steve Sullivan
Eric Tangradi - Joe Vitale - Craig Adams

Defense
Kris Letang - Brooks Orpik
Zbynek Michalek - Paul Martin
Deryk Engelland - Matt Niskanen

Goaltender
Marc Andre Fleury

The Blues probables:

Forwards
David Perron - David Backes - T.J. Oshie
Vladimir Sobotka - Patrik Berglund - Matt D'Agostini
Jamie Langenbrunner - Jason Arnott - Chris Stewart
Chris Porter - Scott Nichol - B.J. Crombeen

Defense
Carlo Colaiacovo - Alex Pietrangelo
Barret Jackman - Kevin Shattenkirk
Kris Russell - Roman Polak

Goaltender
Brian Elliott

The stats:

Penguins Game 48 Recap - Penguins 4, Capitals 3 (OT)

2012-01-22T16:46:00.000-05:00

Remember earlier in the year when the Penguins played like no overtime games and we could count on a game being completed in 60 minutes? Well, not anymore. The Penguins went to overtime today with the Capitals which marks the third time in the last four games where they gave the fans some free hockey. Instead of winning the game in a shootout they decided to end it in overtime when Evgeni Malkin beat Michal Neuvirth just a minute and a half into the extra session.

The Penguins got on the board in a fast way with a pair of goals 1:01 apart. Kris Letang scored a power play goal just eight seconds into a Dennis Wideman penalty and then James Neal sniped one past Neuvirth directly off a faceoff win by Evgeni Malkin. Honestly it looked like this was going to be a route with how the Capitals have struggled and how good the Penguins have been but that wasn’t the case. As much as the Penguins dominated the first period the Capitals controlled the second period and tied the score up with goals from Brooks Laich and Alex Semin while the Penguins only managed five shots.

Alex Ocechkin came out and gave the Caps the lead just 1:08 into the third and you would be kidding if you didn’t feel that “here we go.” The Penguins have been known to play great hockey at the onset and then let teams back into the game and lose games they probably shouldn’t but that wasn’t the case today.

The Pens bounced back and got a James Neal goal, his 26th of the season, with 13 minutes to go in the third on some great work by Malkin. He split three Caps players into the board to win the puck and then got it to James Neal who went top shelf on a pretty remarkable shot. Just a great all around play by that line.

The overtime was really just the Penguins toying with the Capitals and then putting them out of their misery. First it was Kris Letang skating with the puck for about 40 seconds with nobody able to take the puck off him then it was Malkin who did the same thing in the offensive zone which led Paul Martin keeping the puck in on a pinch and then getting the puck to James Neal who shot the puck wide of the net and Geno picked up the puck off the boards and ended it. What an ending.

When Neal struggled last season I think everyone kind of knew it might take some time and he would eventually get things going but I don’t think anyone had this in mind. He now has 26 goals and maybe getting to 40 isn’t so ridiculous after all. What might be more impressive about James Neal is the unreal chemistry that he has with Evgeni Malkin. Those two just know what each other is going to do and the most impressive play by those two came in the third but it didn’t result in a goal. Neal and Malkin were on a rush and Neal was at the blue line and gave a pass to Malkin who was pretty much directly in front of him and as the pass was coming from directly behind him Malkin was able to get a one-time shot on net. Most might not remember this but not a lot of players and teammates can do that kind of stuff and make it look so easy.

Talking about Malkin I probably shouldn’t need to say this but he is the best player in the league and I don’t really think it is close anymore. He had three more points tonight and the game winner, but much more than that he has been working his balls off to get loose pucks and put his teammates in positions to succeed.

Chris Kunitz might not have a ton of points on a night-to-night basis but he is just as important to the top lines success than Neal and Malkin. That might seem ridiculous to say but he is the one that is the grinder on that line and he is in front of the net which was huge on Kris Letang’s opening goal on the power play. Don’t overlook what Kunitz means to this team.

What is the best way to get over a six game losing streak? Go on a six game winning streak. Really nice job by the team as a whole to not go into full panic mode when they were on the losing streak and now they are pretty much back where they were before the streak. There is no panic in the team and that starts from the top with Disco and resonates through with the leaders of this team. Brooks Orpik stepped up and called out the team and Malkin put the team on his back and everyone is contributing. It is really fun to watch.

I guess I will touch on the Ovechkin hit on Zbynek Michalek. Here is the hit in case you didn’t get to see it:

I mean should we really be surprised that OV did something like this? Throughout his career he has made hits like this with nobody telling him that he couldn’t do it. It will be interesting to see if he gets slapped with a fine but I wouldn’t hold my breath. I think if Michalek got hurt this would be a different story but until that happens I don’t see this being made a big deal of. Luckily Michalek is OK (that we know of) but these are the kinds of hits that are supposed to be out of the game. It will be interesting.

The Penguins get a day off tomorrow before they take on a really hot St. Louis Blues team on Tuesday. That should be an outstanding game.

Penguins Game Day 48 - vs. Washington Capitals

2012-01-22T10:41:00.001-05:00

Washington Capitals

12:30 p.m., CONSOL Energy Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

This finishes up a three game in four day stretch for the Penguins and after two shootout wins they are looking for a clean sweep over a struggling Capitals team. The Capitals team has only scored five goal in its last four games and has been shutout two of the last three games. Just not good times for the Caps but that doesn't mean that the Penguins shouldn't pick up two points today.

I think a lot of people are really off the ledge about the Penguins missing the playoffs but Washinton, as of right now, is in the eight spot, but just barely. Getting a win over them would further separate themselves from that number eight spot while pushing the Capitals down.

Marc Andre Fleury is in net for the start and this will mark the 21st straight game that he will play in (started 19 of those games including today). A lot of work for the Flower but I guess you can't really break up his good play in the five game winning streak. He did give up four goals to Montreal so hopefully he gets refocused for this one.

The season series (Washington leads 2-1):

October 13, 2011 - Washington 3, Pittsburgh 2 (OT)

December 1, 2011 - Pittsburgh 2, Washington 1

January 11, 2012 - Washington 1, Pittsburgh 0

The Penguins probables (via Seth at Empty Netters):

Forwards
Chris Kunitz - Evgeni Malkin - James Neal
Pascal Dupuis - Dustin Jeffrey - Tyler Kennedy
Matt Cooke - Richard Park - Steve Sullivan
Eric Tangradi - Joe Vitale - Craig Adams

Defense
Kris Letang - Brooks Orpik
Zbynek Michalek - Paul Martin
Deryk Engelland - Matt Niskanen

Goaltender
Marc Andre Fleury

The Capitals probables:

Forwards
Alex Ovechkin - Marcus Johansson - Troy Brower
Mike Knuble - Brooks Laich - Alexander Semin
Jason Chimera - Jeff Halpern - Joel Ward
Matt Hendricks - Cody Eakin - Mathieu Perreault/Jay Beagle

Defense
Karl Alzner - Dennis Wideman
Dmitry Orlov - John Carlson
Roman Hamrlik - Tomas Kundratek

Goaltender
Tomas Vokoun

The stats:

Penguins Game 47 Recap - Penguins 5, Canadiens 4 (SO)

2012-01-21T00:17:00.000-05:00

After the Penguins win last night in New York it would have been very easy for them to come out and lay and egg against a bad team tonight. For two periods that is exactly the way the game played out and every time the Penguins got within a goal the Habs were there to push another goal past MAF.

Things just felt like they weren't going to fall but then the third period came around with the Penguins down 4-2 and Dustin Jeffrey and Evgeni Malkin tied it up to force overtime and Geno scored the only goal in the shootout to bring the Penguins winning streak to five games as they head into another game with Washington on Sunday.

Malkin was outstanding. The Habs put their top defensive pair on him and for the most part they did their job. Malkin only had one shot before he buried the tying goal with less than three minutes in the game. Any time you needed a big play you look toward Malkin and he has been coming through every single time. Nobody is better in the NHL than him right now.

Jeffrey has had problems with a torn ACL last season and is just coming back from injuries this year and it was only a matter of time before he broke out. He is kind of that unsung guy that is a good all around player and tonight he came through with two beautiful goals and added an assist. I talked about the secondary scoring a few games ago and it has come up huge the past two games. Jeffrey is just another example of how good this team can be if the secondary guys are on. It's a great thing to watch.

Kris Letang logged almost 29 minutes of action and was great. His first goal was a thing of beauty and it really looks like he hasn't missed a beat. What an unreal player.

Marc Andre Fleury started this game which if you read the pregame knew that I thought this wasn't the best idea. You almost have to think that MAF isn't going to play against both the Caps on Sunday and Blues on Tuesday so it should be interesting to see how HCDB handles it. As I said on twitter I trust his judgement but MAF is logging a ton of games so far and you have to wonder how they feel about their backup goaltending situation.

Whatever. PK Subban sucks. I don't like the Habs. Good for them.

Bring on the Caps.

Penguins Game Day 47 - vs. Montreal Canadiens

2012-01-20T17:12:00.000-05:00

Montreal Canadiens

7:00 p.m., CONSOL Energy Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Coming of the huge win last night at MSG the Penguins are going to have to get their minds right when they come back to the CONSOL to take on a struggling Montreal team. I guess struggling would be an understatement for Montreal. They are better than only two other teams in the East (point wise) and nothing has gone right. Do I feel bad? Hell no.

The Penguins are playing some good hockey but this is the second night of back-to-back games so hopefully the CONSOL crowd gives them a little something to put pep in the step. This will be Kris Letang's second game back since getting smashed in the teams last meetup. That meetup was a Penguins win where Letang came back for overtime and beat Carey Price. Maybe that is why Price isn't in goal (I know that's not why).

This is also the middle game in a series where the Penguins play three games in four days ~~so Marc Andre Fleury is going to get the rest that he desperatly needs~~. ~~Get him fresh for Sunday against Washington and~~ hopefully the Penguins can pull off a fifth straight win. I am pretty surprised that MAF is playing, not going to lie. He is playing some good hockey of late so hopefully this means a win.

The season series (Penguins lead 2-0):

October 20, 2011 - Penguins 3, Canadiens 1

November 26, 2011 - Penguins 4, Canadiens 3 (OT)

The Penguins probables (via Seth at Empty Netters):

Forwards
Chris Kunitz - Evgeni Malkin - James Neal
Pascal Dupuis - Dustin Jeffrey - Tyler Kennedy
Matt Cooke - Richard Park - Steve Sullivan
Eric Tangradi - Joe Vitale - Craig Adams

Defense
Kris Letang - Brooks Orpik
Zbynek Michalek - Paul Martin
Deryk Engelland - Matt Niskanen

Goaltender
Marc Andre Fleury

The Canadiens probables:

Forwards
Rene Bourque - Tomas Plekanec - Mike Blunden
Travis Moen - Lars Eller - Andrei Kostitsyn
Erik Cole - David Desharnais - Max Pacioretty
Mathieu Darche - Scott Gomez

Defense
Josh Gorges - PK Subban
Hall Gill - Yannick Weber
Alexei Emelin - Raphael Diaz
Tomas Kaberle

Goaltender
Peter Budaj

The stats:

Bruce Arians To Retire

2012-01-20T11:51:00.001-05:00

Today it was announced that Steelers offensive coordinator Bruce Arians will retire and not return to the team next year. This isn't something that is a shock, today, as we probably knew this was going to happen from a few days ago when it was hinted that BA would not be back.

I really covered a lot of this a few days ago when I talked about BA probably not coming back so if you would like just click the link and read that over real quick.

I might be one of the few people that actually like BA and didn't mind him as the offensive coordinator of the team but that is not the sediment across Steelers Nation. I heard some people saying that BA lost the Steelers games through his tenure but in the same respect he won them a ton of games more than he lost.

I do not like him not being back next year but you really can't fault a guy for retiring, especially if it is for health reasons like last year. There is some talk that he was forced to retire as the Steelers really didn't want to "fire" him but who knows. Not sure if I buy that. Anyways, I wish him all the luck in his retirement.

There are a lot of names being thrown out there by fans. It will be interesting to see if the Steelers decide to stay in house or go outside. Some sediment (I used that word twice already?) that Randy Fichtner might be in line to be the offensive coordinator after serving on the staff as the quarterbacks coach. It was also rumored that Kirby Wilson was in contention before his terrible accident that leaves him in critical condition in the hospital. As always Coach Wilson is in our prayers and we all hope for a speedy and healthy recovery. There are outside guys but there are too many to name. Mike Tomlin and some staff will be at the Senior Bowl so I assume they will talk to people there.

Gonna be a different type of off season.

Penguins Game 46 Recap - Penguins 4, Rangers 1

2012-01-19T22:39:00.001-05:00

Going into Madison Square Garden and getting a win is a tough thing to do but all the Penguins did was go into MSG and beat the Rangers 4-1 behind unreal performances from Marc Andre Fleury and Evgeni Malkin. The Penguins haven’t beat a ton of good teams this year but this was a time that they got a much needed victory over a really strong team. Feels great.

The Penguins played a strong game for 60 minutes and while the Rangers came on strong in the second period the Penguins shut the door in the third period when they scored three goals, including an empty netter, to get out of New York with a big victory.

The first period was all Penguins all the time. They were outshooting the Rangers 8-0 about half way through the period and were up 1-0 on a Chris Kunitz goal just 3:16 in. Kuntiz won a battle for the puck along the boards and fed it to a wide open Paul Martin who got a good chance off that Henrik Lundqvist stopped but Kunitz followed the play up with a roof job for the lead. Great play by Kunitz.

The Rangers then got the next six shots of the game and MAF was holding the fort. Thje Penguins finished up the period with six of the next eight shots. It was really a dominating period for the Penguins and it was a much needed one against a good team. We have all seen this movie though, the Penguins play a solid first period and then just get waxed in the second and third. Not this time.

The Penguins held the fort in the second period even though the Rangers tied it up. Meh. The third period was a different story. Just over two minutes into the period the Penguins got a three on one and Richard Park beat Stunnedqvist on the short side. The Penguins usually struggle with those odd man breaks but Park buried it this time.

Evgeni Malkin pretty much put the game on ice around five minutes later. Kris Letang threw the puck around the boards and Marc Staal tried to kick the puck out of the zone and totally missed. Luckily for the Penguins Malkin was there, picked up the puck and rocketed a backhander past Lundqvist where mama keeps the cookies. Sick goal.

Malkin iced it with an empty netter. Money.

Letang was back for his first game since November and looked like he didn’t miss a beat. I knew how good he was while he was out but you really didn’t understand how much the Penguins missed him till you saw him play tonight. He is one of the smoothest hockey players in the league and while the Penguins said they were going to manage his minutes they had him out there for 24:17 which led the team. Just a really great performance for Letang and it made a huge difference for the team.

Evgeni Malkin is just on an unreal pace right now. He is the best player on the ice every night and with his two goals tonight still leads the scoring race. He has scored something like six of the Penguins last eight goals and when the Penguins need a huge play or a huge goal he is right there. You really can’t say he isn’t the best player in the game because he is. Not many players can do what he does on a night in and night out basis. In his last six games he has eight goals and two assists and he really just can’t be stopped.

As good as Malkin was tonight my first star of the night goes to Marc Andre Fleury. He made 30 saves on 31 shots and never gave the Rangers much of a chance. When MAF is on there really isn’t too many goaltenders better than him and as of recent he has been outstanding. Without him the Penguins would be in some trouble. He has played in the last 19 games (17 starts) and has been as solid as can be. Malkin and Neal are getting a ton of credit, and deservingly so, but MAF is the real reason this team is playing so well and didn’t falter with all the injuries.

The Penguins got some clutch secondary scoring from Richard Park. The Penguins have been so hinging on Malkin and Neal so much that they really didn’t need the secondary scoring but they needed it tonight and got it. A clutch goal from Richard Park that was created Matt Cooke and Deryk Engelland scored what ended up being the game winning goal and it was all good. Joe Vitale and Pascal Dupuis played a real solid game and the fourth line was all over the Rangers.

This was a total team win for the Penguins. With Kris Letang back in the lineup they were finally able to have the core group of defenseman playing the same game and with the third and fourth lines rolling they were able to open up some more ice for the high profile players which lead to a big victory over the Rangers. Paul Martin and Zybnek Michalek played unreal hockey tonight and you can just tell they felt more at ease with their defensive teammates all there with them. Let’s not kid ourselves this is a good Rangers team and the Penguins were able to pretty much control the flow all night. Feels great.

Montreal in like six minutes.

Penguins Game Day 46 - @ New York Rangers

2012-01-19T17:00:00.000-05:00

New York Rangers

7:00 p.m., Madison Squre Garden, New York, New York

Good and bad news coming out of the morning skate for the Penguins as we learned that Arron Asham will be out with concussion like symptoms. Asham missed the game on Tuesday night because of an "illness" but that turned into a concussion just like it did earlier in the year with Zbynek Michalek. Just add him to the concussion list.

The good news is that Kris Letang is returning the to lineup tonight after not playing a game since late November when he got his bell rung in Montreal. The Penguins are getting back its best blue liner and it should help out the Penguins a ton. I am not sure if he is going to log a ton of minutes but any time you get a top pair defensive guy you are going to be better.

Ben Lovejoy will take a seat tonight in favor of Letang. Sucks for Lovejoy because he is playing pretty well but so are Matt Niskanen and Deryk Engelland so it puts a capable defense man on the outside looking in. With the way injuries and things go it will be important to have that number seven d-man waiting because he will need to be used at some point.

The Rangers are coming in playing some great hockey as they are 7-3-0 in the last 10 games and a full 10 points ahead of the Penguins with a game in hand. This is a huge test for the Penguins and while this is far from a "must win" game it would be nice to finally crack the win column against the Rangers, especially in MSG.

Season series (Rangers lead 2-0):

November 29 - New York 4, Pittsburgh 3

January 6, 2012 - New York 3, Pittsburgh 1

The Penguins probables (via Penguins Report):

Forwards
Chris Kunitz - Evgeni Malkin - James Neal
Pascal Dupuis - Dustin Jeffrey - Tyler Kennedy
Steve Sullivan - Richard Park - Matt Cooke
Eric Tangradi - Joe Vitale - Craig Adams

Defense
Brooks Orpik - Kris Letang
Paul Martin - Zbynek Michalek
Deryk Engelland - Matt Niskanen

Goaltender
Marc Andre Fleury

The Rangers probables (via Seth at Empty Netters):

Forwards
Brandon Dubinsky - Brad Richards - Ryan Callahan
Carl Hagelin - Derek Stepan - Marian Gaborik
Ruslan Fedotenko - Brian Boyle - Brandon Prust
Mike Rupp - Artem Anisimov - John Mitchell

Defense
Ryan McDonagh - Dan Girardi
Michael Del Zotto - Anton Stralman
Marc Staal - Stu Bickel

Goaltender
Henrik Lundqvist

The stats:

Bruce Arians Future In Pittsburgh. Retire? Returning?

2012-01-18T23:35:00.000-05:00

The headline might seem like this is an instance of Bruce Arians being let go and not having his contract renewed by the Steelers. Sure, that might be it but we might have seen the last days of Bruce Arians on the sidelines for the Steelers as word from Gerry Dulac is that Arians might not return because of retirement (or not getting his contract renewed).

I can actually hear people in Pittsburgh planning the parade route for the second that BA announces his retirement/doesn't get renewed. Personally I don't think Arians has been that bad, but I think I am in the minority on this. Sure he runs the bubble screen a lot and the red zone efficiency has been less than desirable but what team is 100% happy with their offensive coordinator? I doubt too many.

I have always had the thought that coaches are overrated in the realm of game day. Bruce Arians could call 50 bubble screens in a row and if all of those screens go for 20+ yards you would probably say that "BA really went with what is working and attacked a weakness of the defense, what a coordinator." On the other hand if one of the passes fails because a receiver drops the pass with nothing but green grass in front of them it would be a terrible play call. Sure there could be times that one play would seem to work better but the players on the field largely determine how good a coordinator is.

Listen, if BA wants to retire because of health reasons then nobody can really blame him. As the article from Dulac says he did think about retiring last year because of health so this might have been a long time coming but this should be no reason for people to be happy. BA took over in 2007 and got the Steelers two Super Bowls and has helped Ben Roethlisberger become one of the best quarterbacks in the league. I guess that is pretty terrible for a coordinator, huh?

I think either way it goes where BA doesn't return it is going to be bad for the Steelers. Roethlisberger is entering the prime of his career and the last thing you want to do is throw a new coordinator in his lap, especially if that is someone he has never worked with before. I don't know about you but I don't want Ben having to go through an entire year trying to figure out a new offense when these are supposed to be his best years. It is no secret that BA and Ben got along well and BA was alright with Ben calling plays in the game running the no huddle and it worked. The Steelers were winning and while they weren't scoring 30 points a game like the Patriots they were winning playoff games and division titles. Give me that every day of the week.

If this is a situation where BA retires he deserves it. He has done a lot of good things for the organization and stepped in when Ken Whisenhunt took the head coaching job in Arizona and has helped this franchise continuing to win games. Sure most people don't like the guys but who can really sit here and say that any other team doesn't have it any different? What fan base doesn't roast their offensive coordinator throughout the season. If Arians does leave he should get some respect for what he has done here. Dealing with a patchwork offensive line and a lack of big play receivers (until recent) isn't easy but the Steelers still win. Give the guy some credit. Whether you like it or not he will be missed.

None of this is official and it is all just here say so stay tuned to see what happens.

Penguins Game 45 Recap - Penguins 2, Hurricanes 1 (SO)

2012-01-17T22:27:00.001-05:00

The Penguins found themselves in an up and down hockey game that resulted in their first overtime contest since November but was able to best the Carolina Hurricanes 2-1 in the shootout. Two points it two points and when you are giving up that extra point to a team that isn’t going to make the playoffs then you can deal with that. The Penguins were all over the ice and really playing some good hockey.

Things weren’t that great early on as the Penguins were behind the eight ball just 2:11 into the game when Jamie McBain scored from the slot to give the Canes a 1-0 lead. Really ugly play by Paul Martin on the play which led to people wanting to cut him on the spot. No idea.

The Penguins played some really great hockey in the period, which translated into the entire game, but their hard work paid off late in the first period when Evgeni Malkin tied the game at one. Matt Niskanen and Martin got assists but this was all Malkin. Malkin took a puck that was deflected off his shins from Eric Staal and beat Cam Ward short side, top shelf, in a window that was just bigger than the puck. No idea how he did it. Ward has nightmares about Malkin the night before Pens/Canes games.

The Pens won the shootout when Geno and James Neal threw goals past Ward and MAF made a sick toe save to clinch the win.

Quick hits:

-This was the most physical game that the Penguins have played in some time. Joe Vitale was right in the middle of it and from start to finish he was laying the lumber. No idea how you can make Vitale a healthy scratch for some time.

-Brooks Orpik laid the hit of the season on Jeff Skinner:

Skinner was down and out and this was his second game back from a concussion and it didn’t look good as you can see from the video. Skinner was back to the game after about 10 minutes but that doesn’t mean anything. The Hurricanes better hope that Skinner doesn’t have any concussion related symptoms after that hit. It’s going to look really bad on the Hurricanes and the ATC staff if he does. Could mean huge ramifications for them if this is true. Either way there is no way Skinner should have been back in that game. Orpik also got a penalty for the hit. Interference. The official thought the puck was away but evidently after seeing the replay the official apologize to Orpik.

-Deryk Engelland and Tim Gleason threw down. It was unreal.

-Marc Andre Fleury has been a brick wall lately. He gave up the early one on a defensive breakdown but made tough saves look pretty routine the rest of the game. This has been his best full season so far in his career and with the injury situation the way it has been he has answered the bell and played some great hockey.

-Pascal Dupuis might have been the best player on the ice tonight for either team. On the Penguins there might not be a single player who works harder than Dupuis. He might have had 100 chances tonight but just couldn’t get one to fall but his continued hustle and gritty play created those chances for himself and his teammates. Unreal work by Duper. He should have been one of the three stars tonight.

-Malkin has been nothing less than dominating. Also the chemistry between him and James Neal is so ridiculous it isn’t even funny. Neal is not going to be playing with Sidney Crosby when he eventually comes back and if he does it will be a huge mistake.

Whatever. Bring on the Rangers and Habs on Thursday and Friday.

Penguins Game Day 45 - vs. Carolina Hurricanes

2012-01-17T17:00:00.000-05:00

Carolina Hurricanes

7:00 p.m., CONSOL Energy Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Today is the first day of a busy week for the Penguins. Starting today the Penguins will play four games in six days, three of which will be played in the friendly confinds of the CONSOL Energy Center. The Penguins have played three pretty good games over the past week so hopefully that will continue tonight against a below average Carolina team.

The Penguins are getting healthier as Kris Letang practiced with the team today. While he will not be in the lineup tonight he is going to be back very soon. I would anticipate he won't be back until after the All-Star break but that is creeping up on us quickly.

The Pens have scored 10 goals in the last two games which includes four by Evgeni Malkin and three by James Neal. MAF has played much better lately and will get the start again for the Pens. They are playing for their playoff lives now, even though it is just over the mid point, so stacking points against bad teams is a must.

I hope I get to hear a Cam Ward chant.

The season series (Pittsburgh leads 2-1):

November 12, 2011 - Carolina 5, Pittsburgh 3

December 3, 2011 - Pittsburgh 3, Carolina 2

December 27, 2011 - Pittsburgh 4, Carolina 2

The Penguins probables (via Seth at Empty Netters):

Forwards
Chris Kunitz - Evgeni Malkin - James Neal
Pascal Dupuis - Dustin Jeffrey - Tyler Kennedy
Matt Cooke - Richard Park - Steve Sullivan
Eric Tangradi - Joe Vitale - Craig Adams

Defense
Paul Martin - Zbyenk Michalek
Brooks Orpik - Deryk Engelland
Matt Niskanen - Ben Lovejoy

Goaltender
Marc Andre Fleury

The Hurricanes probables:

Forwards
Jiri Tlusty - Eric Staal - Tuomo Ruutu
Jussi Jokinen - Jeff Skinner - Alexei Ponikarovsky
Andreas Nodl - Brandon Sutter - Patrick Dwyer
Brett Sutter - Tim Brent - Anthony Stewart

Defense
Bryan Allen - Tim Gleason
Derek Joslin - Jamie McBain
Jay Harrison - Justin Faulk

Goaltender
Cam Ward

The stats:

Penguins Game 44 Recap - Penguins 6, Lightning 3

2012-01-15T17:43:00.002-05:00

Well guys, I am back. It was a long week of work and I didn’t get to follow much of the Penguins during that time but now that I am back home and finally starting to get a little deeper into the past couple of games and things are good. Today was no different. The Penguins dominated today against the Lightning but had to hang on. I know it’s tough to say a team had to “hang on” when they win 6-3 but it was a weird game.

Not too bad when you have a guy like Evgeni Malkin that can take over a game after letting a substantial lead slip away. After the Lightning tied the game at three, after being down 3-0, Malkin went on to score a natural hat trick (which included an empty net goal) and just took over the game and put the team on his back. You gotta love watching stuff like that.

During the Penguins six game losing streak they scored six goals. In the last two games, both wins, they have scored 10 goals. It’s nice to score more than one goal a game.

This game was really all Penguins all the time through two periods. They scored two first period goals, by James Neal and Richard Park, and the Lightning went into the intermission with only five shots. Just dominating play. The second period was much of the same with the Penguins outshooting Tampa Bay 15-8 and they held on to a 2-0 lead.

After James Neal got on the board again with a power play goal things got interesting. In just under a five minute span the Lighting tied the game and with about 13 minutes left in the game things did not feel so well. Then it happened. Right after the Tampa third goal Dominic Moore starts to chirp Malkin. Hard. So bad that James Neal had to skate over and take over Malkin’s spot on the left and Malkin moved over to the right. Bad move by Moore. Malkin scored a goal in less than a minute and then almost two more minutes after that. Ballgame.

Malkin has been outstanding all year and is now only one point off the league lead in points after the five point game. This was just another dominating game but the difference here was that he really just took it upon himself to win the game. He told the team to get on his back and he would carry them to a win. So much fun to watch when Malkin gets like that. With as much as the Penguins have struggled to score goals and get a flow going these past two games have been so important. They are back on the right track and hopefully this can propel them as they get more players back from injury.

James Neal has been so good this year. He scored a couple of power play goals and this year is almost the complete opposite of how things went for him last season. The bad angle goal he scored in the first was shot from the goal line and when things are going well they are going well. He now has 24 goals on the season which is only three goals off his career high, for a season. I would assume he is going to surpass that since this is only game 44. He stays healthy he probably hits 40.

Today it was the big guns scoring the goals for the Penguins but what has changed recently is that the secondary players are starting to find their groove and contribute in a big way. This Penguins team is much different when you have to worry about Tyler Kennedy and Richard Park scoring. It opens up a lot more offensively.

Brooks Orpik has been playing some really good hockey lately and really leading this team from the blue line. I think he gets out of position when he tries to go for the body and the big hit (as he did today) but overall he has played some good hockey over the recent past.

Interesting to note that of the six Penguins goals today three of them were unassisted and only six players recorded points. Not very often do you see that few players record a point in a game where the team scores six times.

Lost in all the good today was the Penguins getting dominated in the faceoff circle. They only won 33-of-70 face offs and two of the worst today were Malkin who was 9-of-29 (31%) and Dustin Jeffrey who was 6-of-18 (33%). Craig Adams was the only player who won more face offs than he lost (8-of-11).

Penguins Game Day 44 - @ Tampa Bay Lightning

2012-01-15T11:30:00.000-05:00

Tampa Bay Lightning

1:00 p.m., Tampa Bay Times Forum, Tampa, Florida

The Season series (Tampa Bay leads 1-0):

November 17, 2011 - Tampa Bay 4, Pittsburgh 1

The Penguins probables:

Forwards
Chris Kunitz - Evgeni Malkin - James Neal
Pascal Dupuis - Dustin Jeffrey/Joe Vitale - Tyler Kennedy
Matt Cooke - Richard Park - Steve Sullivan
Eric Tangradi - Craig Adams - Arron Asham

Defense
Paul Martin - Zbyenk Michalek
Brooks Orpik - Deryk Engelland
Matt Niskanen - Ben Lovejoy

Goaltender
Marc Andre Fleury

The Lightning probables:

Forwards
Steve Downie - Steven Stamkos - Martin St. Louis
Dominic Moore - Vincent Lecavalier - Brett Connolly
Ryan Malone - Nate Thompson - Teddy Purcell
Pierre-Cedric Labre - Tom Pyatt - Dana Tyrell

Defense
Pavel Kubina - Eric Brewer
Matt Gilroy - Brett Clark
Bruno Gervais - Brendan Mikkelson

Goaltender
Dwayne Roloson

The stats:

Penguins Game Day 43 - @ Florida Panthers

2012-01-13T19:09:00.001-05:00

Out at work so you won't get the typical pregame. Actually this pregame is going to be like a few sentences.

Crosby isn't going to be playing but he did stay skating with the team today. Good times.

The Pens have lost six straight games. Really bad times.

Pens win tonight.

Penguins Game Day 42 - @ Washington Capitals

2012-01-11T16:39:00.001-05:00

Washington Capitals

7:30 p.m., Verizon Center, Washington, D.C.

The season series (Tied 1-1):

October 13, 2011 - Washington 3, Pittsburgh 2 (OT)

December 1, 2011 - Pittsburgh 2, Washington 1

The Penguins probables:

Forwards
Chris Kunitz - Evgeni Malkin - James Neal
Eric Tangradi - Pascal Dupuis - Tyler Kennedy
Steve Sullivan - Richard Park - Matt Cooke
Arron Asham - Joe Vitale - Craig Adams

Defense
Paul Martin - Zbynek Michalek
Brooks Orpik - Deryk Engelland
Matt Niskanen - Ben Lovejoy

Goaltender
Marc Andre Fleury

The Capitals probables:

Forwards
Alex Ovechkin - Brooks Laich - Troy Brouwer
Alexander Semin - Marcus Johansson - Mike Knuble
Jason Chimera - Jeff Halpern - Joel Ward
Matt Hendricks - Mathieu Perrault - Jay Beagle

Defense
Karl Alzner - John Carlson
Roman Hamrlik - Dennis Wideman
John Erksine - Dmitry Orlov

Goaltender
Tomas Vokoun

The stats:

Penguins Game 41 Recap - Senators 5, Penguins 1

2012-01-10T22:09:00.001-05:00

Just brutal. Again. The Penguins got smoked by the Senators 5-1 at the CONSOL tonight. Granted Ottawa is now 9-1-2 in their last 12 games, which they have beat the Penguins twice, but tonight was just brutal.

Not too much to say about this game. Nothing looked right and the Penguins were all over the place. Brent Johnson got the start in net and was yanked after only 22 minutes and giving up three goals on eight shots. Last season Johnson was a brick wall behind Fleury but this year he has just not had it. Granted all of this is far from his, or MAF's, fault but he just looks awful in net.

Evgeni Malkin finally put one past Craig Anderson in the second period, but that was after four goals by Ottawa. There was just no jump after the second Ottawa goal and things just went down the tank really fast.

Ben Lovejoy has been good all year but he was terrible tonight. He was embarrassed on the first two scored by Ottawa, one by Chris Neil. Vomit.

Eric Tangradi was pretty bad tonight too. No idea what he was doing on Ottawa's fifth goal.

The Penguins are still in the playoffs as of now but really it's way too early for that stuff. This was game 41, the exact halfway point of the season. If you think the season is over already then just stop watching. There is a lot of hockey to be played. Sure, the Penguins have only earned four points in the last seven games but just as quickly they could earn 10 in the next seven and this is a moot point. Like I said before being a fan is about the ups and downs and you have to be able to handle that.

I think the Penguins will be alright in the long run, just hard to see that right now but this team has talent. I know some people might want to see a huge trade but in reality that won't change the problems we have now, just have to keep playing hard and good things will happen. Stay the course.

Washington in like six minutes.

Penguins Game Day 41 - vs. Ottawa Senators

2012-01-10T17:10:00.000-05:00

Ottawa Senators

7:00 p.m., CONSOL Energy Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Penguins back in business tonight and they are hurting. Jordan Staal is going to miss four to six weeks with a banged up knee and word is that Paul Martin isn't going to skate tonight with an illness which is probably true since they called up Simon Despres about an hour ago.

There is good news though as James Neal will be in the lineup as will Craig Adams and possibly Dustin Jeffrey. Neal was thought to be out "weeks" with a broken foot but it turns out that when he got an MRI it proved to not be a break that the x-ray showed. Who knows. Some people aren't buying that but stuff like that does happen. He took the morning skate today and said it actually feels good in a skate and it hurts a lot worse when he walks. It is just a bone bruise (if you believe the Penguins) so it will just be pain tolerance and he will not injure himself further by playing.

With all the bad news the Penguins got over the weekend today was just filled with good news. No word on Jeffrey playing but I bet he wouldn't. Kris Letang also skated hard for the second consecutive day which means he did not suffer any setback from his concussion. Maybe things are starting to work out a little better? I won't hold my breath.

Actually really excited for the game tonight. No idea why. Let's get it.

Season series (Tied 1-1):

November 25, 2011 - Pittsburgh 6, Ottawa 3

December 16, 2011 - Ottawa 6, Pittsburgh 4

The Penguins probables:

Forwards
Chris Kunitz - Evgeni Malkin - James Neal
Eric Tangradi - Pascal Dupuis - Tyler Kennedy
Steve Sullivan - Richard Park - Matt Cooke
Arron Asham - Joe Vitale - Craig Adams

Defense
Simon Despres - Zbynek Michalek
Brooks Orpik - Deryk Engelland
Matt Niskanen - Ben Lovejoy

Goaltender
Brent Johnson

The Senators probables:

Forwards
Milan Michalek - Jason Spezza - Colin Greening
Erik Condra - Kyle Turris - Daniel Alfredsson
Nick Foligno - Zack Smith - Bobby Butler
Kaspars Daugavins - Zenon Konopka - Chris Neil

Defense
Filip Kuba - Erik Karlsson
Jared Cowen - Sergei Gonchar
Chris Phillips - Brian Lee

Goaltender
Craig Anderson

The stats:

Steelers Wild Card Recap: Broncos 29, Steelers 23 (OT)

2012-01-09T21:35:00.001-05:00

If you come to this blog often, hell even if you don’t, and read the headline I think you know what this is. This is the recap of the final game of the Steelers 2011 season which consequentially was an early end to the Steelers Super Bowl hopes. While a lot of people might not have had the Steelers in the Super Bowl there was no clear favorite in the AFC and it was pretty much up in the air for what was thought to be the three favorites in New England, Baltimore and the aforementioned Steelers. All good things must come to an end, however, and after a 12-4 regular season it is easy to see why people had high hopes, but only one team can be left standing in the end.

I am going to get into end of the year stuff and personal decisions in the next couple of weeks in a season wrap up but this is just going to be solely focused on the game against the Broncos. Not sure when I will get to the post season stuff but it will come as my work and personal schedule permit. OK, who are we kidding, it just depends on my work schedule.

The game overall wasn’t pretty for the Steelers. Sure, they came back and forced overtime but this went in the same way as all their games did against competition that was below them. They played down to their competition and this time they weren’t able to snatch the victory. Even at the half when the Steelers were down 20-6 I still felt pretty good that they were going to be able to come back and get the win and until I saw Demaryius Thomas sprint past Ike Taylor and Ryan Mundy I really thought the Steelers had it. They didn’t, overconfidence and brashness did them in along with some poor play from one of their top defenders and an offense that couldn’t get going. It leaves you at a loss for words and scratching your head but isn’t that what sports do a lot? Should we be surprised though? Look at Pitt football and basketball and the situation the Penguins are in. It’s bad times in the city right now. Hide Andrew McCutchen.

Here are some thoughts on the game:

-Although it really didn’t seem like it at the time the two field goals the Steelers hit in the first half really came back to haunt them as they scored six points instead of 10 or 14. With the way Denver’s offense was playing coming into the game making it a two touchdown game would have been huge in the first quarter, but it didn’t work out like that. Actually, the Steelers dominated the first quarter of football. They held the Broncos to only eight yards of total offense and I thought the game was going to be a route. The Steelers, however, couldn’t find the end zone either time and it killed them at the end.

-Maybe the biggest play of the game happened in the first Broncos series of the second quarter. Denver was playing on its own 18 yard line and was in a 3rd and 12 after an a catch by Eric Decker was ruled incomplete after a review. On third down Tebow was flushed out of the pocket and hit Thomas downfield for 51 yards and a first down. Ike Taylor got beat, bad and that opened up the floodgates that would never close. Two plays later Tebow hit Eddie Royal for a touchdown. Vomit.

-I guess we can’t go much farther in this recap without talking about how bad Taylor was in this game. He was beat time and time again and the two biggest plays of the game happened on his watch. The first was the Thomas catch I talked about above and the second was the final touchdown where he was matched up with Thomas and gave up an 80 yard touchdown pass on the first play in overtime. As you know I am one of the biggest Taylor supporters around and I still am. What he did during the regular season was Pro Bowl caliber even though he got snubbed. This was his worst game of the season and one of the worst of his career and unfortunately it happened in the playoffs. Ken Laird threw out a stat today that during the first 10 games of the season Taylor gave up 211 yards. Yea, Taylor should probably be cut for one bad game. If you really think Taylor should be cut then stop reading now and get off the internet and reevaluate your life and don’t talk about football for a long time. It was a bad game, but it is a statistical outlier in what was a superb season.

-The other thing we need to touch on is Tim Tebow finally stepped up and took advantage of things in the passing game. He led the Broncos to four scoring drives in the second quarter in four straight drives. It was the first time the Steelers have given up scores in four consecutive drives since the 2007 season and it killed. After he hit Royal for the touchdown he ran one in from eight yards out. He threw for 316 yards on only 10 completions. That is 15 yards per attempt and almost 32 yards per completion. The Steelers dared him to throw the football and for him to beat them and he did. I didn’t give him much of a chance to beat the Steelers but he proved me wrong and I will eat my crow. Do I think that he is a good quarterback? No, I don’t, but he is winning football games and beat the Steelers in the playoffs. That gets my respect.

-There were some good things about the game. Isaac Redman stepped up in a big way and ran for 121 yards on 17 carries and was the horse of the ground game. I thought Redman was going to play well but I didn’t envision him dominating as much as he did. The line was doing a nice job of blocking and he made the them pay with some good, hard, runs. If the Steelers could have got on top more it could have been an even better day for Ike but alas the Steelers were forced to throw a bit more than they probably wanted to which limited his carries. Should be fun to see him next year.

-Ben Roethlisberger actually played a pretty nice game for a guy who was supposed to be too banged up to even walk on Wednesday the week of the game. The first half wasn’t great for Ben, and to be honest it was pretty much the second quarter, but he had a really solid second half and almost was the reason the Steelers came back and won the game. He threw a brutal pick in the second quarter that led to a Broncos field goal which was after the back-to-back touchdowns so that sucked but the 31 yard strike he threw to Jerricho Cotchery to tie the game was vintage Ben. He moved in the pocket well and actually pulled it down and ran a few times. Much more than I thought he could do but it all came up short. When the Steelers got the ball with a little over a minute left and the score tied I thought it was over. All the Steelers needed was three points and Ben is the guy you want under center. There was a brutal delay of game call and then Ben took a sack he shouldn’t have and the Steelers went into overtime. You know how that went. Overall with the way Ben’s ankle was I think he played pretty well but the overall like of 22-fo-40 and 289 yards isn’t typical Ben.

-Heath Miller was the best player on the field last night for the Steelers. His numbers aren’t flashy with five catches for 60 yards but he was a complete tight end last night. On most of the big runs that Ike Redman got you can see Heath Miller out in front throwing a key block to break things open. He was all over the field. Another thing that might get overlooked is the fumble he recovered at the end of the first half. The Steelers were in field goal range but the shotgun snap went over Ben’s head and Miller was able to cover it up. If he doesn’t hustle back and cover the football up and the Broncos get it then they turn that into a field goal. Huge swing on a bad play.

-The injury situation if you are a Pittsburgh sports team is pretty dire. Already without a couple of key players the Steelers lost two defensive lineman in the first quarter when Casey Hampton was forced out with an ACL injury and Brent Keisel was sidelined with a groin injury. That left the Steelers with only three down lineman for the rest of the game and that was Steve McClendon, Cam Hayward and Ziggy Hood. Those three had no rest on defense for a team that was used to rotating d-line guys and that might have forced the Steelers into playing the safeties in the box a little more to stop the run. Later in the game Max Starks busted up his ACL so the Steelers were down three important guys and none of them would have probably been available for the rest of the playoffs so that would have just added to the list of banged up guys.

-I talked about the Steelers losing because of arrogance and I will explain now. Going into the game the mindset was to make Tim Tebow beat you through the air. That was a good game plan because he proved that he wasn’t able to do that in the past and with the experience and skill the Steelers have it shouldn’t have been a problem. It was. Tebow made some great throws through the air but the Steelers did not change. The Steelers went a lot of cover zero, which is man to man with no safety help, and the Steelers were having a really hard time covering that but time and time again Tebow was able to expose it. While Mike Tomlin said that the first play of overtime, and final play of the game, wasn’t cover zero it basically did. The Steelers ran an inverted cover two on that play which is basically a cover zero and Tebow knew that if he stuck the throw it was a touchdown. It was. The Steelers were arrogant in their approach and didn’t change when Tebow proved that he could take advantage of it. The Steelers got zero pressure on him and that can be just as much blamed on Dick LeBeau as the play on the field. You have to set up your players for success and last night the Steelers didn’t really do that. The coaches and decision weren’t all of the problem but it definitely was part of the problem.

I could go on for a lot longer about this but there really isn’t much more to say. The Steelers defense didn’t show up to play last night and gave up 447 yards to an offense that is below average at best. They let Tim Tebow beat them through the deep ball which is something the Steelers never give up. Make no mistake about it though, this was a total team loss by the Steelers. The coaches, offense and defense are all responsible for some portion of this loss and I don’t really think you can point out one player and say they were the reason, as much as you might want to. I know people want to bang on Ike Taylor but let’s not get ridiculous. He should not be cut and should be back. He was great all year and you can’t judge an entire season off of one game. That is silly.

All in all the Steelers had a good year. They didn’t get it done in the playoffs but that stuff happens. The Broncos were the better team on the field and the Steelers didn’t come to play. There is a small margin for error in the NFL and the Steelers found that out the hard way. This team is going to look very different come next year and it should be interesting to see what the Steelers do in the offseason. Just remember that it was a good year. 12-4 wins you the division most years, but it didn’t this year. 12-4 is a great year regardless of getting knocked out by the Broncos. We are spoiled as Steelers fans and isn’t it nice to expect to go to the Super Bowl every year and it be realistic? I wouldn’t trade it for any other team.

One last thing I want to touch on has to deal with the fans. Remember these players that we cheer for every Sunday are real people too. They have lives outside of football and they make mistakes. I saw a lot of people really going after certain players after the game and everyone just needs to cool it. Football at the end of the day is just a game. The sun still came up today and the 2012 season will be here in no time with another chance to bring home that seventh trophy. If you are one of those people that did that then I don’t even want you to be a fan of the Steelers or associate yourself with this great franchise. When you do shit like that you sound like a child and it is embarrassing so just don’t say anything if you want to say stuff like players should be thrown out of the plane or you hope certain players get hurt. Just don’t be that person that gives Steelers fans a bad name across the league. Basically, don’t be an idiot.

I would also like to thank everyone for coming on the blog and following me on twitter this season. I may not have always agreed with everyone but I can always find great discussion and incite and I hope you can do the same by coming here. It was a hell of a ride and I already can’t wait for the 2012 season.

Steelers Wild Card Prelim Recap: Denver 29, Pittsburgh 23 (OT)

2012-01-08T20:57:00.002-05:00

Well that really wasn't the ending we thought was going to happen was it? The first overtime game with the new NFL overtime rules and all the Broncos did was take the first play and go 80 yards for a touchdown. I don't have a ton of time for what I thought of the game so I just wanted to throw up a few key points before I completely forget everything. Full recap will come tomorrow or Tuesday.

-Ike Taylor might have played his worst game as a Steeler. I am the biggest Taylor supporter as anyone out there but tonight was brutal. He gave up big play after big play and really looked lost. It was easily the worst game of the season for him. Bad games happen, it just sucks it happened in the playoffs.

-Hats off to Tim Tebow. I bashed him pretty hard in the preview and all he did was come out and throw for 316 yards and the game winning score in overtime. While it wasn't pretty he got the job done and also ran for 50 yards. I will eat my crow. Big ups.

-Heath Miller was outstanding tonight. It wasn't just catching the football it was running the ball as well. He was outstanding in his blocking assignments and made big plays all the time.

-The Broncos were just a better football team. It was really remarkable the Steelers were able to be in this game with how bad they played. This defense never gives up big plays and that is all they did today. Not having Ryan Clark proved to be bigger than anyone else thought.

-Ike Redman was also good today. I still think Mendenhall is the best back on the team but situations like this make you wonder how a running back gets selected in the first round, ever.

-The Steelers were banged up, but that is what happens when you are as old as the Steelers are, especially on defense. Kiesel and Hampton went down in the first quarter and the defense had the Steelers had only three down lineman. Bad times.

-I love Mike Tomlin and he is the coach of this team for a long time to come but his clock management is bad. The Steelers left a lot of points on the field before both halves. Sucks.

-This team is going to look a lot different next year. Should be a lot younger.

-Lastly I am always and will always be a Steelers fan. 12-4 is nothing to sneeze at. It was a good year, just a bad way to end it.

Like I said I will get a recap out in the next couple of days. Leave your thoughts in the comments if you want to see something covered.

Neal Breaks Foot, Staal Out 4-6 Weeks. What's Next?

2012-01-08T14:12:00.001-05:00

Well, just when you think things can't get much worse, they do. Around lunch time today we learned that James Neal will be out "weeks" with a broken foot and Jordan Staal will be out 4-6 weeks with a knee injury he sustained on Friday night against the Rangers. Also heard over the twitterverse is that Craig Adams was banged up in practice with a knee injury and from those that were at practice it didn’t look good.

The Neal injury was really a surprise. He was having a breakout year after struggling with the Penguins last season and he was one of the main offensive threats along with Evgeni Malkin but right now at best you can expect Neal back in three weeks. Neal has 21 goals and 36 points this year and a team-high 10 power play goals and 165 shots. Staal is the Penguins do-it-all guy and a huge guy on the PK. He has been having a great year goal scoring wise with 15 and 21 points in over 20 minutes of ice time a game. No idea. Adams might not show up on the score sheet a lot but that doesn’t mean he can’t make an impact. He is the grinder that works in Disco’s system and a great all around player who has three goals and five assists so far this year.

What can you expect from here? Well right now you have to bring up probably an entire line from WBS. For a team that is fighting for a playoff spot halfway through the season it is going to be amazingly hard to get into the playoffs when injuries like this keep happening. You are looking at a second line of Dupuis, Cooke and Kennedy and I don’t even know what to think.

Some people are talking about Ray Shero making a trade to try and sure things up but I am not sure that is the answer. This is not a Stanley Cup team and with the uncertainty of Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang you just can’t expect them to make that Cup run by bringing in a piece or two. You just have to hope that the Penguins can ride the storm out for a while and hopefully a handful of these guys can come back at once and make a run at a playoff spot. I do think that Shero can make some deals but I can’t imagine them giving up a lot trying to go for broke on a big name player, it just doesn’t make sense. Giving away a ton of substance for a big gun for one year when half your team is hurt just isn’t good in my opinion and I am sure Shero understands that too. This team is pretty young and still amazingly talented. If this was an older team you could push this idea but it just doesn’t make sense now.

What these injuries do is give Eric Tangradi a shot to show that he can be a capable NHL caliber player. I don’t really think that the Penguins and Tangradi see eye-to-eye and I just don’t think he is a great fit for the Penguins system. He has played in 20 games in his NHL career and has three points (1+2) and hasn’t been able to show me anything on why he should stick on the roster. He has a lot of potential but that doesn’t score goals and that won’t keep you in the NHL. This might be his last chance to prove to people in the Penguins organization that he should stick on this team/organization and if he fails I think that he could be gone by the deadline. While he has only played 20 games total I think he is going to be up for much of the next month so this will be the extended time where he can showcase his talents.

Another thing that is going to be interesting to follow is the Sidney Crosby situation and how quickly he can come back, or if he is going to be back this season. There seems to be some divide among people who think the Penguins have done a bad job of keeping people informed about Crosby’s situation and how close he may be. I have to disagree with that notion and for the people that say the Penguins owe it to the fans I would ask, why? As Rich from This is Getting Old said on twitter the only thing that the Penguins owe the fans is the product on the ice. Nothing else. Telling the fans any progress on the injury situation really doesn’t change anything or make the injury heal quicker so what is the point? Rick from the Pensblog also made a great point when he said that if the Penguins are giving up all this information for the fans what is to say that rival GM’s, who he might be trying to deal with, won’t take advantage of that and take advantage of it? The fans are owed nothing by the franchise. All I want is wins and however they take care of business is good by me. They are pretty good at it.

What say you? Leave it in the comments.

Here We Go Steelers.

Penguins Game 40 Recap - Devils 3, Penguins 1

2012-01-07T22:08:00.001-05:00

Being a sports fan is a tough thing to do. Even when you live in a city like Pittsburgh where there is a wealth of success there is still that rollercoaster from game to game and week to week depending on how your team is doing. Right now this feels like the Penguins are on the Pitfall at Kennywood. Just really bad times. The Penguins dropped its second game in eight days to the Devils and after scoring the first goal they got beat pretty badly in the 3-1 loss.

Really just looked like the Pens had nothing to give tonight and after the Devils go their second goal on a Ilya Kovalchuk power play goal to give them a 2-1 lead you just knew the Penguins weren’t going to be able to climb out of that. Even though that goal came early in the second period this just smelled like the game last night against the Rangers and it pretty much became a carbon copy of that.

What is so hard about this is when the Penguins get down they don’t seem to make any adjustments. The Penguins system is really good when you are even with a team and when you are ahead but when they get behind you can’t just continue to grind teams down. It hasn’t been working lately and it is frustrating.

The Penguins outshot the Devils 42-27 and like last night got some pretty good opportunities but they just couldn’t find the back of the net. They won 34 of the 55 face offs but couldn’t get anything generated. The first goal from Evgeni Malkin was nice but that was pretty early in the first period and another was nowhere to be found.

Ben Lovejoy continues to play some pretty damn good hockey and Matt Niskanen played pretty well but it was really just a meh performance all the way around. I don’t have much else to say about it, but that is that. I don’t think anyone played particularly bad tonight but there just wasn’t that spark that this team needs to get things on a roll. The Penguins have not been good against top competition the past month and that has to turn around if they want to dig themselves out of this.

All that being said we are not even half way through the season. The Penguins are still in the playoffs as of today, albeit right at the edge, but this is far from full on panic mode. Teams go through bad streaks through the season and while this one is a little longer than we might like it happens to every team. There are no excuses here, the Penguins are playing bad hockey, they just have to get their minds right and get that one win and go from there. One game at a time, one period at a time. I know people say that we aren’t healthy, but that is no excuse. Does it suck? Yea, it does suck but it happens. You have to be able to overcome. This is not the end of the season. The season is so far from over it isn’t even funny.

Everyone just calm down a little bit and step down from the ledges. It isn’t fun to watch but it can’t get much worse than this. A lot of season left. Buckle up.

Penguins Game Day 40 - vs. New Jersey Devils

2012-01-07T17:00:00.000-05:00

New Jersey Devils

7:00 p.m., CONSOL Energy Center, Pittsburgh, Pennslyvania

Season series (Tied 1-1):

October 22, 2011 - Pittsburgh 4, New Jersey 1

December 31, 2011 - New Jersey 3, Pittsburgh 1

The Penguins probables:

Forwards
Chris Kunitz - Evgeni Malkin - James Neal
Matt Cooke - Pascal Dupuis - Tyler Kennedy
Richard Park - Joe Vitale - Steve Sullivan
Steve MacIntyre - Craig Adams - Colin McDonald

Defense
Brooks Orpik - Matt Niskanen
Zbynek Michalek - Paul Martin
Deryk Engelland - Ben Lovejoy

Goaltender
Marc Andre Fleury

The Devils probables:

Forwards
Zach Parise - Adam Henrique - Ilya Kovalchuk
Petr Sykora - Patrik Elias - Dainius Zubrus
Tim Sestito - Steve Zalewski - David Clarkson
Eric Boulton - Ryan Carter - Cam Janssen

Defense
Bryce Salvador - Adam Larsson
Henrik Tallinder - Mark Fayne
Matt Taormina - Kurtis Foster

Goaltender
Martin Brodeur

The stats:

Penguins Game 39 Recap - Rangers 3, Penguins 1

2012-01-06T21:56:00.002-05:00

Seems like I haven’t been on here for the Penguins recap in some time. Oh, yea, that is because I haven’t. Well, I am not here with good news, the Penguins dropped another one to a upper echelon team losing to the Rangers at the CONSOL Energy Center. Just bad times for the Penguins lately. This is the Pens’ third straight loss while the Rangers are rolling on a four game winning streak.

It seems like every Penguins loss I talk about the same thing. I could probably just copy and paste the line “the Penguins started off fast in the first period and just lost interest and really got handled the rest of the game.” It was that kind of game tonight for the Penguins as they dominated the hockey game for the first 18 minutes but unfortunately this is a 60 minute game.

Like I said the first 18 minutes of this game was all Penguins. They were up 11-1 in the shots but all of that changed in the last two minutes. The Rangers got a few shots and with a little over a minute and a half to play and then they won a faceoff and threw a puck at the net and Brad Richards was there to clean up the garbage. Going into the intermission was a gut shot to the team, in my opinion, for how badly they dominated but were still tied. It was all Rangers from there.

Brandon Dubinsky scored a shorthanded goal three minutes into the second period on a feed from Ryan Callahan on a 2-on-1 and then Derek Stepan scored a goal in the third period when Marc Andre Fleury came out to play the put near the left circle and whiffed when he tried to backhand it away from Marian Gaborik and the puck went right to a defenseman (forget who) and as they tried to clear it gave it right to Stepan who threw it into the empty net.

Outside of Boston (who is on another planet right now) the Rangers are the best team in the Eastern Conference and they are going to be there till the end. Even thought they were outshot 38-21 they were in total control and Hendrik Lundqvist was outstanding in completely shutting the Penguins down. The goal he gave up to Lovejoy was pretty soft but after that he was spectacular. It’s not as if the Penguins didn’t get any chances, they were just stopped by Lundqvist and a lot of those chances were prime scoring chances. He was named the number one star tonight and it was most deserved.

The Penguins had another disallowed goal tonight. Might lead the league in that category. It was a James Neal shot that beat Lundqvist and looked clean at real time but on the replay you can see that Kunitz did run the interference. I think what got called is Kunitz kicking Lundqvist’s stick out and really throwing him off balance. I could see it being called a goal but no problem with it being waved off. You can bump into the goaltender, just can’t do it.

Some more bad news out of Penguins camp when Jordan Staal went down with a knee injury. Late in the third period Staal went knee-to-knee with Mike Rupp and went down in a lot of pain. It didn’t look good on the replay and Staal couldn’t put any pressure on it as he skated off the ice. It didn’t look like it was anything intentional by Rupp in away way but that doesn’t make the injury any less serious than what it might have been. Just add it to the list of injuries.

Just not good times for the Penguins. They play the Devils in like five minutes and then need to step up in a big way and get three points.

Steelers AFC Wildcard Game Day - @ Denver Broncos

2012-01-06T20:49:00.000-05:00

The Steelers finished the season 12-4 and second in the AFC North but yet has to travel to Denver who finished only 8-8 on the season as they won the AFC West. A lot of people might not agree with the playoff system and how they reward home field advantage for the Wild Card round but I have no problem with it and now the Steelers will have to win a mile above sea level if they want a rematch with the Patriots or Ravens.

The storyline in this game is easy. It is Tim Tebow against the Steelers defense. It is Dick LeBeau, one of the best defensive minds in the game, against a guy who defies all the odds and wins despite below average, some might say terrible, quarterback play.

This has all the makings of a blowout with the way the Broncos backed into the playoffs and have looked like a bottom five team in the final three weeks of the season but you don’t play the game on paper, you play it on the field. The Steelers are without faults as they are really banged up and we are not only talking about Ben Roethlisberger’s ankle.

These are the playoffs and it is a one and done scenario. You lose and you aren’t playing until the 2012 regular season and you don’t want to be on that side of the field after this slate of games is done this weekend. This is what the players play for, a chance to win a Super Bowl championship and these are two of the 12 teams that are still in it.

Let’s get into the preview with the stats first:

Last Week:

Pittsburgh 13, Cleveland 9
Passing: Batch - 23/40, 221 yards, 0 TD, 0 INT
Rushing: Redman - 19 carries, 92 yards, 1 TD
Receiving: Brown - 6 rec, 90 yards, 0 TD

Kansas City 7, Denver 3
Passing: Tebow - 6/22, 60 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT
Rushing: Hillis - 28 carries, 145 yards, 0 TD
Receiving: Thomas - 3 rec, 34 yards, 0 TD

All-Time Record vs. Denver: 10-16-1 (3-3 Playoffs)

Nov. 9, 2009 - Pittsburgh 28, Denver 10
Oct. 21, 2007 - Denver 31, Pittsburgh 28
Nov 5, 2006 - Denver 31, Pittsburgh 20
Jan. 22, 2006 - Pittsburgh 34, Denver 17
Oct. 12, 2003 - Denver 17, Pittsburgh 14

Offense (rank in NFL)

Total Offense
Pittsburgh: 372.3 yards/game (12th)
Denver: 316.6 yards/game (23rd)

Passing
Pittsburgh: 253.4 yards/game (10th)
Denver: 152.1 yards/game (31st)

Rushing
Pittsburgh: 118.9 yards/game (14th)
Denver: 164.5 yards/game (1st)

Points
Pittsburgh: 20.3 points/game (t-21st)
Denver: 19.3 points/game (25th)

Defense

Total Defense
Pittsburgh: 271.8 yards/game (1st)
Denver: 357.8 yards/game (20th)

Pass
Pittsburgh: 171.9 yards/game (1st)
Denver: 231.5 yards/game (18th)

Rush
Pittsburgh: 99.8 yards/game (8th)
Denver: 126.3 yards/game (22nd)

Points
Pittsburgh: 14.2 points/game (1st)
Denver: 24.4 points/game (24th)

Hit the jump for a closer look at the Denver Broncos

Quarterback

If you were born yesterday, or haven’t watched SportsCenter in the past six months then I guess I should tell you who the quarterback is for the Denver Broncos. That man’s name is Tim Tebow and you will be seeing and hearing a lot of him leading up to the game. Tebow took over for Kyle Orton who was relieved of his duties when the Broncos were 1-4 in order to see what the Broncos had in Tebow and to please the fans. Orton was then traded to Kansas City and proceded to beat the Broncos in week 17. No idea.

OK, back to Tebow. Truth be told he is not good at the quarterback position but somehow he gets wins. Down the stretch Tebow went 7-4 despite completing over 50% of his passes only twice during those 11 games. On the season Tebow has thrown for 1,729 yards for 12 touchdowns and six interceptions. He is only completing 46.5% of his passes for a mere 6.38 yards per attempt average. Not very good from the quarterback position.

Tebow is coming off a pretty bad game where he only completed six passes for 60 yards and was picked off one time and in his pass three games he is 30-for-73 for 439 yards, one touchdown and four interceptions. Yikes.

Tebow is not your traditional quarterback and relies heavily on the Broncos top ranked running game while playing more of the college triple option offense. Tebow actually is more of a running back than a quarterback in the true sense of the world and has carried the ball 122 times for 660 yards and six touchdowns. That gives him a pretty healthy 5.4 yards per attempt and adds the the running attack. He has rushed 10 or more times in six games this season and three times in the last four weeks. He has one 100 yard game this season and has ran for 50 yards or more six times. If the Steelers are not careful he will break tackles as he is a big quarterback so they have to make sure to line him up and tackle well.

Tebow has a defensive-adjusted yards above replacement (DYAR) number of -137 which gives the value of the players performance compared to replacement level, adjusted for situation and opponent and then translated into yardage. He also has a defensive-adjusted value over average (DVOA) of -18.3% which represents value, per play, over an average quarterback in the same game situations. The more positive the DVOA rating, the better the player's performance. Negative DVOA represents below-average offense. To put those numbers in some more context the DYAR number ranks 39th among the 47 qualified quarterbacks and his DVOA ranks 37th. The quarterbacks that most resemble Tebow in terms of those numbers are Tyler Palko, John Beck and Sam Bradford. Woof. The simple version of the two is that DYAR represents a player with more total value and DVOA represents a player with more value per play.

Since Tebow is such a threat to run the football we can also look at his DYAR and DVOA as a runner since in the triple option he will be doing some of that also. To my surprise Tebow ranks very low among quarterbacks who qualify, which would be 41 of them. His DYAR of -29 is 39th and his DVOA is -16.8% which ranks 34th. Can someone explain to me again why I should worry about him? Nowhere can I find a “he just wins” stat and that is pretty meaningless since he has sucked and lost his last three games. His biggest wins this year are against either the Chargers or Jets. Um, OK, I am done with that.

Running Backs

Like I said in the Tebow piece, the Broncos are riding the running game and defense to winning these football games. The Broncos lead the league averaging just over 164 yards per game and they are averaging 4.8 yards per carry which is very impressive. Going into the season everyone (including myself) thought that this was going to be Knowshon Moreno’s team (I drafted him for my FF team) but turns out that didn’t work. Moreno has been hurt and only has 37 carries on the season. What was key was the offseason addition of Willis McGahee and he has carried this team on his back.

McGahee has 1,199 yards on the season on 249 carries which translates into a 4.8 yard per carry average. A really nice season while rushing for four touchdowns and 10 rushes of 20 yards or more. I am going to be 100% honest with you I thought he was too old and washed up to make it work, even in Denver, but I was wrong. He is coming off a monster game against the Chiefs where he carried the ball 28 times for 145 yards which was his seventh 100 yard performance of the season.

McGahee is no stranger to playing against the Steelers as he was a member of the Baltimore Ravens and has seen this team in the playoffs before. He hasn’t had much success against the Steelers in regular season games as he has a 3.5 yard per carry average in eight games with about 34 yards per game. He does have five touchdowns but he has never really been a threat to the Steelers. In the AFC Championship game a few years ago he did play one of his better games against the Steelers when he rushed for 60 yards on 20 carries and scored two touchdowns.

McGahee ranks just outside being a top-10 back according to Football Outsiders so this confirms that he has been a pretty effective part of the Broncos success this y ear. He ranks 12th with a 159 DYAR which is right ahead of Ray Rice and Arian Foster and his has a 7.0% DVOA which is only two spots behind rushing champion Maurice Jones-Drew. Not too shabby. Where McGahee struggles, however, is his success rate at 47% which puts him at 26th among qualified running backs. Success rate represents the player's consistency, measured by successful running plays (the definition of success being different based on down and distance) divided by total running plays. What the success rate is good for is comparison with the DVOA. With McGahee’s higher DVOA and lower success rate that indicates that he mixes longer runs in with runs that he gets stuffed at the line of scrimmage. So it seems to be a crap shoot as to what you might expect from McGahee from carry to carry.

I talked about the rest of the run game with Tim Tebow above as he is the team’s second leading rusher. Not too much more to add. Lance Ball is the third leading rusher on the team with 96 carries for 402 yards and a touchdown and adds a little bit to the run game. Ball is a more between the tackle runner as he is a pretty thick player standing at only 5’9 but weighing 215 pounds. Ball has only carried the ball 10 times or more twice this season but you might expect to see him touch the rock anywhere between five and 10 times.

Wide Receivers

Tebow isn’t that great at throwing the football but, truth be told, he doesn’t have a lot of targets to throw to. Early in the season they traded his best target, Brandon Lloyd, to the St. Louis Rams which left the Broncos with very little in terms of skill on the outside.

Eric Decker is the leading receiver in terms of receptions (44), targets (95), yards (612) and touchdowns (eight). The problem with Decker is that he just hasn’t been that good, at all, down the stretch. Last week against the Chiefs he only made one catch for five yards and did not make a single catch the week before against Buffalo. He has one game where he has over 100 yards and that was in week two against the Bengals and hasn’t scored a touchdown in his last five games. Over those last five games he has seven catches for 85 yards and no scores. The last three games he has two catches for 27 yards. This is the Broncos leading receiver folks.

Decker doesn’t stack up well in advanced metrics and isn’t even the best receiver on the team in either DYAR or DVOA. Decker ranks 66th among qualified receivers in both metrics with a DYAR of 24 and a DVOA of -9.4%. He also has a catch rate of 46% even though his effective yards (646) outweigh his standard yards (612). Effective yards are basically translates DVOA into a yardage figure which basically means that Decker has played better than his yardage stats would indicate, but not by much.

Demaryius Thomas is the second best pass catcher for the Broncos even though the second year player from Georgia Tech only has 32 catches for 551 yards. While he doesn’t have a lot of substance in his numbers he is the receiver that can stretch the field, even if Tebow can’t get him the ball down the field. Thomas leads the team with a 17.2 yard per catch average and averages over 50 yards per game, which is also tops on the team. He has four touchdowns and is tied with Decker with nine catches of 20 yards or more.

Thomas grades out better than Decker, albeit not that much better, in most advanced metrics. Thomas is 62nd in the league with a DYAR of 42 and is also 62nd in DVOA at -4.9%. Unlike Decker, Thomas actually has a lower effective yards (506) than traditional yards (551) which probably means he is overachieving a little bit.

Outside of those two there really isn’t too much to get excited about (I mean are those two players exciting) but I might as well mention tight end Daniel Fells who has 19 catches for 256 yards and three touchdowns. He isn’t anything that is going to blow you away ranking 31st in DYAR and 26th in DVOA among 47 qualified tight ends.

Offensive Line

From left to right the Broncos read as Ryan Clady, Zane Beadles, J.D. Walton, Russ Hochstein and the fill in for Orlando Franklin which could be Tony Hills. This is a very young offensive line with Clady, Beadles, Walton and Hills all have between two and four years of experience while Hochstein has 11 years.

The Broncos rank 11th in the league with an adjusted line yards (ALY) of 4.19. Adjusted line yards (ALY) is a formula takes all running back carries and assigns responsibility to the offensive line based on the following percentages: losses: 120% value, 0-4 Yards: 100% value, 5-10 Yards: 50% value, 11+ Yards: 0% value. These numbers are then adjusted based on down, distance, situation, opponent, and the difference in rushing average between shotgun compared to standard formations. There are two main statistics that deal around the line of scrimmage which can tell you a lot about the line. The first is power success which is the percentage of runs on third or fourth down, two yards or less to go, that achieved a first down or touchdown. Also includes runs on first-and-goal or second-and-goal from the two-yard line or closer. The Broncos ranks near bottom of the league with a 56% power success (26th) but they make up for that by ranking 9th in the league at a 17% stuffed percentage. Stuffed rank is the percentage of runs where the running back is tackled at or behind the line of scrimmage. The Broncos might not be converting a ton of the third and short situations but they are one of the most consistent in the league in at least gaining something, especially on early downs.

Denver might be pretty good at running the football but they are one of the worst in the league at protecting the quarterback. The offensive line gave up 41 sacks on the season which isn’t near the league leader (54, Arizona) but when you look at the Broncos’ adjusted sack rate this gives you a different look into their sack rating. Adjusted sack rate gives sacks (plus intentional grounding penalties) per pass attempt adjusted for down, distance, and opponent. Denver ranks 29th in the league at 9.2% which is well above the NFL average of 6.7%. I am sure it is much harder for the Denver offensive line to know where Tebow is because he moves around in the pocket a lot but with Harrison and Woodley on the field you know they have to be licking their collective chops at the opportunities they could have.

Denver makes its living running the football to the right side of the offensive line as they post ALY’s that rank second off the right tackle (5.09) and fifth off the right end (4.51). This is going to be interesting to see how they do against the Steelers on this since they are missing its starting right tackle for the duration of the playoffs. Consequently the Broncos do run the ball to the right side more to the left side. They run a combined 14% off the left end/tackle while they run 12% of the plays off the right tackle and 6% off the right end.

Defense

During the six game winning streak that Denver had a lot of the praise was going to Tim Tebow during what was referred to as “Tebow Time.”That referred to Tebow playing like he was a high school JV quarterback for three and a half quarters and then making a drive or two in the fourth quarter. What didn’t get a lot of pub was that the Denver defense was giving him a chance by keeping games close. The defense was much more the reason this team is in the playoffs than Tebow is. They have a couple of pass rushers that can get to the quarterback and if they can create turnovers (which they haven’t done this year) they can give the Steelers a run for its money considering the Steelers are pretty banged up.

I know I talked up the Denver defense a good bit in that first paragraph but they have been nothing but average all year. Overall their defense ranks 19th with a 6.4% DVOA (remember negative is good for defense) and they have pretty much stayed true to that with a weighted defense of 6.2% which ranks them 18th. Weight defense is adjusted so that earlier games in the season become gradually less important. It better reflects how the team was playing at the end of the season. This actually leads the Denver defense to have the best variance of any defense in the NFL of 1.6% so I should think we should know what to expect on Sunday.

The Broncos actually mimic its offense when it comes to defense where they struggle against the pass and do a pretty nice job against the run. The Denver pass defense ranks 24th against the pass with a DVOA of 15.8% while its run defense is a little better than average (13th in NFL) with a DVOA of -4.1% so the defense isn’t great in any one facet but they are definitely much better against the run than they are the pass.

Linebacker Wesley Woodyard is the team’s leading tackler with 97 total tackles (67 solo) from his linebacker position but doesn’t have a sack this year but has forced three fumbles. He has only made five tackles in the last two games and hasn’t had a double-digit tackle game since week two against the Bengals.

D.J. Williams is second on the team with 90 tackles (70 solo) and has been a mainstay in the Broncos defense for the last eight years. He has five sacks on the year but has been kept off the board the last three weeks after having a two sack game against the Bears on December 11.

The real heart of the defense for the Broncos are the two pass rushers in linebacker Von Miller and defensive end Elvis Dumervil. Miller has had a sensational rookie season with 11.5 sacks and 64 tackles but has been battling a busted up hand that requires him to have a cast on his right hand (I think). His play hasn’t been very strong the last three weeks with only two tackles and no sacks. Before the last three games (all Denver losses) Miller recorded at least half a sack in five straight games and 10 of 11 games in the middle of the season so needless to say he is dangerous. Max Starks is going to have to be on his A game with Dumervil as he has 9.5 sacks and at least a half sack in eight of the last nine games. These two players are going to give the Steelers fits and you can bet they are the key points in the defense.

Champ Bailey and Andre Goodman are the corners for Denver and both have over 10 years of experience, each. Each also have a team-high 10 passes defended and a pair of interceptions. The safties are a different story because the Broncos will likely be without veteran Brian Dawkins who has a neck injury. Rookie Quinton Carter could be joined by either David Bruton or Rafeal Bush who have a combined three years of experience so while the corners have a ton of experience you really can’t say the same about the safties so look for the Steelers to take advantage of that.

Thoughts:

-Both of these teams are not very good at creating turnovers. The Steelers are ranked dead last in the AFC with a -13 turnover differential and the Broncos are right on their tails with a -12 turnover differential. One of the only ways I see the Steelers losing this football game is by turning the ball over multiple times and having Denver score a touchdown off either a turnover or special teams play. Tebow has put the ball on the ground each of his last five games and he has throw a good number of picks down the stretch so this would be a prime opportunity for the Steelers defense to play takeaway and if that happens there is virtually no chance of the Broncos winning the football game.

-Could the injury situation get any worse for the Steelers? Maukice Pouncey and Mewelde Moore have been ruled out for the game after both were thought to be in while Ryan Clark was ruled out because of his sickle cell trait. Ben Roethlisberger came out and said that he tweaked his ankle against the Browns and on Wednesday told the Denver media he was only a five (on a scale of 10) but I think that was a lot of gamesmanship. All things told the Steelers are not in good shape health wise. Add to that list that Rashard Mendenhall has his torn ACL so the Steelers are relying on a practice squad signing to be the third running back this weekend. Yikes. If the Steelers can overcome this and get a few of the guys healthier for next week (pending a win) then it will be a huge week.

-Selling out on the run early and forcing the Broncos into third and long situations is going to be huge for the Steelers early success. For Denver if they are in a third and five or six they will still run the football for first downs and with how good their running game h as been they can make that work. However, the Broncos rank 30th in the league converting only 31% of their third down opportunities. If the Steelers can consistently stop the run they are going to make Tim Tebow throw the ball on third and medium and third and longs and with a 46% completion percentage they are going to be able to get off the field. The Steelers defense is letting opponents convert at just over a 38% rate so this should be a big part of the game.

-With the injury to Ben Roethlisberger it has raised an interesting question on how far the Steelers can go into the playoffs. I found it interesting that I was watching NFL32 while I was in the gym the other day and they were talking about if they should have sat Ben against Cleveland to get him healthy for the playoffs and the two NFL players that were guests on the show (I can’t remember off hand who they were) but they agreed with Ben playing. The reason was that they thought Ben was going to need to learn how to play with the injury and how he can compensate for things he can’t do with a bummed ankle. They one said they had the same injury and had to play thought it in the playoffs and said sitting one week wasn’t going to make a big difference for Ben because the first time he tweaks it that week will go out the window. I have had a high ankle sprain before as part of my football career and I can tell you a week or two doesn’t really make a difference, it takes the offseason to get right and that won’t happen until after the playoffs for Ben. He was high on his throws and his balance looked off but if you watched the game you could see that the second half of the Browns game was much better than the first half and that is due to shaking off the rust and getting an idea of how he has to compensate for the injury.

-Word on the street is that the Broncos might be working on getting Brady Quinn some snaps in the game for a few packages. I personally have no idea how having Brady Quinn in the game is going to help the Broncos get better but I guess they could try and do that. Sure, Quinn is a better option throwing the football but he is not nearly mobile, at all, so while you improve one part of the quarterback position you really hurt the other. Let’s also not act like Quinn was ever a good quarterback so really I think the Broncos might be trying to throw shit on the wall and just seeing if something is going to stick. That or they are just trying to confuse the Steelers to make them prepare for something else.

-Speaking of preparation the Steelers are going to have to do a lot of that for this game. Now I know you are probably thinking that the Steelers are going to mainly have to prepare for Tebow’s style of play but I am thinking of preparation that is a little deeper than that. It is no secret that the Broncos are the heavy underdog in this game and nobody is really giving them any kind of chance to win this game. What does that mean exactly? That means that the Broncos are playing with house money and with nothing to lose. They are going to pull out all the stops because they are supposed to lose this game. The Steelers are going to have to be on the lookout and expect all the trick plays and reverses as well as special teams tricks such as fake punts and reverses on the kickoff returns. While the Steelers might not see this or even give up a big play to one of them it will still open up other parts of the field if the Broncos decide they want to try this a few times. We all see the times that receivers come around for fake reverses on inside handoffs well if the outside contain has to stay and extra half second respecting that reverse every time then they might be a half step slow getting to the inside ball carrier who bounces it outside and that can be the difference in a touchdown and a two yard gain.

PREDICTION – I just don’t see the Broncos having enough to win this game. I think for them to come out of the game with a win they will have to finish +3 in the turnover department and they have proved this year that they don’t play takeaway too often. If the Steelers can jump out to a 10 point lead after the first quarter then they should roll. I actually have a feeling that Ben is going to light it up and that he isn’t as hurt as he made it seem earlier in the week but I wouldn’t be surprised if this was a lower scoring game. Steelers win this 20-10.

Hit it.

Penguins Game Day 39 - vs. New York Rangers

2012-01-06T17:00:00.000-05:00

New York Rangers

7:00 p.m., CONSOL Energy Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

The Rangers are one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference and are coming off a pretty impressive win at the Winter Classic. Lets hope they have some sort of lapse tonight as the Penguins have had some major struggles against the top teams in the league and they could really use two points since they are eight points back of the Rangers in the Atlantic Division.

The Rangers have a loaded roster that only gets better with the return of Marc Staal. It is also going to be a little harder to hate said roster after watching 24/7. I hate the Rangers more than anyone but 24/7 did a nice job to show that these guys are humans and that they are likeable people. If they were playing in New York it would be much easier to hate these guys but I dunno, it's going to be, different.

This will be Mike Rupp's first trip back to Pittsburgh since being a part of the team before signing with the Rangers in the off season. After giving Jagr the salute and scoring two goals against the Flyers and with his continued support he already got from Pittsburgh I would expect him to get a loud ovation from the CONSOL faithful.

Good news for the Penguins today as they welcomed Kris Letang back to the ice and they will be skating with Paul Martin on the ice tonight along with his shutdown partner Zbynek Michalek should make for a better blueline. Michalek did not skate today because evidently he was hit with a puck in practice tomorrow but I would anticipate him playing.

Richard Park should also be in the line up as will call up Colin McDonald.

The season series (Rangers lead 1-0):

November 29, 2011 - New York 4, Pittsburgh 3

The Penguins probables:

Forwards
Chris Kunitz - Evgeni Malkin - James Neal
Pascal Dupuis - Jordan Staal - Tyler Kennedy
Matt Cooke - Richard Park - Steve Sullivan
Craig Adams - Joe Vitale - Colin McDonald

Defense
Brooks Orpik - Matt Niskanen
Zbynek Michalek - Paul Martin
Deryk Engelland - Ben Lovejoy

Goaltender
Marc Andre Fleury

The Rangers probables:

Forwards
Artem Anisimov - Derek Stepan - Marian Gaborik
Brandon Dubinsky - Brad Richards - Ryan Callahan
Carl Hagelin - Brian Boyle - Ruslan Fedotenko
Mike Rupp - John Mitchell - Brandon Prust

Defense
Ryan McDonagh - Dan Girardi
Michael Del Zotto - Anton Stralman
Marc Staal - Stu Bickell

Goaltender
Henrik Lundqvist

The stats:

Troy Polamalu AFC Defensive Player of the Week

2012-01-04T10:03:00.002-05:00

Troy Polamalu was rewarded for one of his best games of the year against the Browns by being rewarded as the AFC Defensive Player of the Week for week 17.

Polamalu was all over the field as he broke up three passes to go along with two tackles and he also intercepted a pass.

The highlight of Polamalu's day might not have been any of the things I mentioned above but might have been just a tackle for loss he had on Browns quarterback Seneca Wallace. Troy timed the snap count (as he is one of the best in the league at doing so) and got between the center and guard and tackled Wallace before he was able to hand the ball off to Peyton Hillis. It was originally ruled as a sack but was later changed as a tackle for loss. I guess you can't get a sack on a running play. Unreal.

Polamalu is playing some of his best football of the year down the stretch for the Steelers and having him healthy and playing like this will be key for the playoff run coming up. The common demoninator in all of the Steelers Super Bowl runs has been getting plays from Troy so hopefully he can create some more of those turnovers.

This is the fifth time in his career that he has won the AFC Defensive Player of the Week award

Polamalu is the fifth Steelers award winner this year and follows Antonio Brown who was named Special Team Player of the Week after the Steelers 35-7 win over the Bengals. LaMarr Woodley who won teh AFC Defensive Player of the Month in October. Ben Roethlisberger also won the AFC Offensive Player of the Week award after week eight against the Patriots and week four against the Tennesse Titans and also joins Rashard Mendenhall who won the award after a week six win against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Steelers Game 16 Recap - Steelers 13, Browns 9

2012-01-01T22:13:00.001-05:00

The Steelers finished up the 2011 regular season with what seems to be a typical Browns/Steelers game that was played in some bad weather and it was low scoring but just like always the Steelers came out on top 13-9 and with a Baltimore win over Cincinnati they will be traveling to Denver as the number five seed for wildcard weekend.

Overall this game just had a really weird feeling to it and for most of it there really wasn’t much flow and it seemed as if a Steelers player was getting hurt every other play. Bad times for injuries. Ben Roethlisberger played after missing last week and he was rusty for much of the first half and couldn’t get the offense going as they were only 1-of-4 in the red zone. The defense came to play, yet again, and gave this team the chance it needed. This is the same defense that has given up 10 points or less seven times this season and only given up 48 points in the last six games. As I have said before there are zero style points in the NFL and a win is a win so I don’t care. 12-4 is a pretty damn good season and the Steelers are going to the postseason, again.

Here are some quick points from the game:

-Roethlisberger played for the first time since the Monday Night game against the 49ers and you could tell that he missed some action. He was off his mark and didn’t have any flow to his game at the beginning but by the time the second half rolled around it looked as if he got his legs under him and started looking more like the old Ben Roethlisberger. To be honest I don’t think there was much to notice about his high ankle sprain and he was moving around pretty well. Before the game he said he was only about 65% (not really sure how you get that number) but he was able to avoid the pressure and make plays out of the pocket. He should rest it a good bit of the week and be even better. He was still a bit tentative to run with the football, as he had a few chances to, so hopefully some more rest will help that out. Overall Ben was 23-of-40 for 221 yards today. That 5.5 YPA is pretty low for Ben so it clearly wasn’t his best game.

-I talked about injuries in the opening and there were a few of them and almost all of them were minor except for running back Rashard Mendenhall. In the second quarter he took the ball off the right tackle and as he was reaching the sideline he fell down without being hit and immediately grabbed his knee and it doesn’t look good. Word from the Steelers is that they fear it is his ACL and that would put him out for the playoffs and a question mark to start the 2012 season. Nothing is confirmed until he gets an MRI tomorrow morning but it doesn’t look good.

-The Steelers are now going to now turn to Isaac Redman which is what they also did today. He was pretty good running the ball 19 times for 92 yards (4.8 average) and scored a touchdown but gave away two fumbles in the fourth quarter. Now, the fumbles lost didn’t hurt the Steelers but you can’t do that stuff and you have to hold onto the football when you have the lead in the fourth quarter. He was strong though running the ball and while it is going to hurt big time to miss Mendenhall I think this might not be as terrible. Mendenhall is the best back on this team but Redman has ran the ball well this season and today. It will be interesting to see how he can handle the full workload against a better defense but I am not worried. I am also not sweating the two fumbles as Redman hasn’t shown me that he is prone to putting the ball on the ground. Stuff like this happens and he will most likely pass closer attention to it next time.

-Antonio Brown continues to be outstanding for this team. Right now he is the best receiver on the team and he was targeted 10 times and made six catches for 90 yards and was sure handed all day. Brown was named the team MVP earlier in the week and he did not let that go to his head and was outstanding again today.

-In what might have been the last regular season game as a Steelers receiver he became the eighth player in NFL history to catch 1,000 passes. He needed to catch five passes and he caught exactly that many. While the 1,000th catch was on a shuffle pass that lost three yards it is truly a great accomplishment for a guy that will probably find himself in the Hall of Fame. I said about it in the preview and in the 2011 reflection post I did last night but I hope people don’t remember Hines for just this year alone but for entire career. He is arguably the best Steelers receiver ever and he has had an unreal career.

-What might be the most encouraging thing about the game today was that Troy Polamalu looks dominating and healthy and that is going to be key as we go into the playoffs. Troy takes the defense from decent to great and the things he can do on the field are stuff that no other player can do. He had three passes defended and a pick today and tackled Senaca Wallace before he was able to hand off the ball to Peyton Hillis. Unreal stuff he can do.

-Lawrence Timmons also had a really nice game today. I didn’t get a chance to rewatch any of the game and am only going off of what I saw live but it was a pretty nice performance from LT. He led the team with six tackles, all solo, had a sack and a pass defended. He was pretty good in coverage and really improved his play as he has struggled for much of the year.

-Ryan Clark was very good, again, for the Steelers. Most people talk about Troy when they talk about Steelers safeties but Clark has really played a nice season and really let’s Troy freelance and do what he needs to do. Typically it is not a good thing to have your safeties making a ton of tackles but Clark is leading the team in tackles and had a sack and a quarterback hit and just was an all around good game for Clark. It is going to be interesting in the coming days to see if Clark is going to play in Denver. Clark had a near death experience in Denver when he was diagnosed with the sickle cell trait that caused him to lose some organs and 30 pounds, ending his season. He did not play the last time they were in Denver in 2009 but did practice in the elevations and Mike Tomlin will sit down with doctors to see if he will be able to participate. I personally think that Clark will play since he was cleared to do so the last time but I would more than understand if he decided to sit out.

-Will Gay didn’t play a particularly good game. They really picked on Gay and his coverage wasn’t that great even though he did have a couple passes defended he just wasn’t he normal self. He also had a chance to make a tackle in the backfield late in the game and completely whiffed. Gay is typically a very good tackler it just seemed to be one of those games. He will be alright.

-How Ike Taylor didn’t make the Pro Bowl is beyond me. Greg Little came into the game as the Browns top threat and that meant that Ike Taylor spent much of the game shadowing him and once Little went to Taylor Island he wasn’t seen again. Little was targeted five times in the game and didn’t catch a single pass. Taylor was outstanding as he has been all season and him not being in the Pro Bowl is a true travesty.

-The Steelers might not have put up a bunch of points but they dominated the Browns from a statistical standpoint. The Steelers held the ball for just over 39 minutes and outgained the Browns 360-240. The Browns didn’t pick up its initial first down until the second quarter and only chalked up 72 yards on the ground and 44 of those were from quarterback Seneca Wallace. The Steelers also converted half of their third downs (8-of-16) and held the Browns to only 58 total plays and 4-of-14 on third down. It was a really great job by the defense and if they could have converted a few more times in the red zone this could have been really ugly.

Well it was a great regular season and get ready for the post season. The Steelers will travel to Denver to play the Broncos on Sunday at 4:30 p.m. Get ready.

Anything I missed? Let me know in the comments.

Happy New Years and 2011 Thoughts

2011-12-31T19:03:00.000-05:00

I was planning on doing some sort of 2011 review where we look back at the sports year and talk briefly about what happened with all the sports teams in the city but I got sidetracked (by a nap and Penguins game) and here a few minutes before I am walking out to ring in 2012 with some friends (and beverages) I figured I should at least put something up as I have been majorly slacking the last couple of weeks with posts with any substance to them. So here is a quick cap of some of the highligths, good and bad.

-It was a miserable year for the Penguins organization. It all started last year at the Winter Classic with Sidney Crosby and since that time he has only played in nine games (I count the Tampa game) and the Penguins were bounced out of the playoffs in the first round by the Lightning. The injury bug was unreal over the calender year and it isn't getting any better. The Penguins are at the top of the league in man games missed this year but through all of that Dan Byslma has got this team playing pretty good hockey and if they can ever get healthy for more than a few games this is going to be a scary good team. Hell, they are already good.

-You can't go the miserable route without talking about the two big colleges in the area which are Pitt and Penn State. I think we all know what is going on with Penn State as that will be in the news for a long time and we haven't even heard half of what has gone on. At Pitt the football program has another sub par year and the coach that just came in 10 months ago is now gone and Pitt is on its like fourth coaching hire in the last year. Really bad time for the Panthers.

-Talk about bad time for the Panthers do you wonder if Jamie Dixon and that team can ever get over the hump and be the true national contender that Pitt has thought they could be. This year they were bounced by a Butler team that went on to the Final Four in the worst way possible. A gut punch of a loss that still hurts to think about. In 2011 the Panthers have struggled and are coming off back-to-back losses to Wagner and Notre Dame coupled with the loss of its top recruit because he wasn't getting enough playing time. Jamie Dixon is one of the best coaches in the land so the last thing I am is worried about where the program is going. The regular season was amazing for the Panthers last year but they tailed off at the end and it wasn't a fitting end for what was a pretty damn good team.

-The NFL and NBA really threw things for a loop in 2011 with both lockouts. These were bitter lockouts that pushed into the preseason for football and for the regular season for basketball and it wasn't pretty. You knew they were going to come back but I think we all learned a little something about the business portion of the sports world. When people were saying that these athletes were being paid to play a game they love that is true, but this is also their career and they fought for what they thought they deserved.

-The Steelers were the Steelers in 2011. They started 2-2 and everyone was saying they might not make the playoffs but they went through the 2011 calender year 11-4 and can earn a first round bye. Ben Roethlisberger is having the best year of his career (arguably) and the young talent that is on this team is going to be fun to have around in the future. The city is spoiled with the success on this team and nothing short of a Super Bowl is considered a good season. While I sometimes get uptight about that kind of stuff I like that people expect a Super Bowl every year. It's a great thing to be a part of.

-In other Steelers news it has gone a tad under the radar but Hines Ward might not play another regular season game for the Steelers after the game tomorrow. Ward's play has totally fallen off the cliff this year but his career as a whole has been outstanding. He is in the Steelers record books all over the place and he is one of the best overall receivers in the game and is looking at a HOF career. Don't let the disappointing 2011 season overshadow what he has meant to this franchise.

-The story in Pittsburgh over 2011 could easily be Sidney Crosby but you can't discount what the Pittsburgh Pirates did. They were in first place after the All-Star break and baseball was back in Pittsburgh. Hell, just thinking about the Mike McKenry home run walk off is giving me chills right now. The Pirates didn't have a ton of talent on that team but they gave the city the first bit of winning they haven't seen in some time. Sure, they went into a major tailspin to end the year and that sucked, really bad, but you weren't expecting them to get into the playoffs or even contend for anything. It caught everyone by surprise and it was one of those times where the entire city was "living in the moment". I am a huge baseball fan and watch them regardless but that feeling you got when they were rolling and you were getting ready to watch them play, looking forward to the games, was something that a lot of the younger fans have never seen. The Pirates aren't going to contend in 2012 (if they do I would be surprised) but you can't discount what they did for this city for the few early months this year.

I just want to wish everyone a Happy New Year. If you are going out please be safe and if you drink please call AAA for a ride in the Pittsburgh area. I want to thank all of you who read the blog and follow me on twitter. You guys are what makes this so enjoyable and while I don't always agree with everyone that is what makes this so rewarding. We get to watch some incredible sports teams in this city and while 2011 wasn't a great one overall for our sports teams a lot of cities would say this was one of their best years. We are spoiled and it is awesome.

Be safe everyone and please feel free to put some of your best moments of 2011 in the comments section.

Penguins Game Day 38 - @ New Jersey Devils

2011-12-31T14:22:00.000-05:00

New Jersey Devils

3:00 p.m., Prudential Center, Newark, New Jersey

One of the best YouTube's ever:

Zach Parise is still my favorite non-Penguins player.

You know Petr Sykora is going to score today.

Marty Brodeur is going to give up an unreal soft goal today and may melt down. It will be awesome.

The season series (Penguins lead 1-0):

October 22, 2011 - Pittsburgh 4, New Jersey 1

The Penguins probables:

Forwards
Chris Kunitz - Evgeni Malkin - James Neal
Pascal Dupuis - Jordan Staal - Tyler Kennedy
Matt Cooke - Joe Vitale - Steve Sullivan
Arron Asham - Craig Adams - Steve MacIntyre

Defense
Brooks Orpik - Matt Niskanen
Simon Despres - Zbynek Michalek
Deryk Engelland - Ben Lovejoy

Goaltender
Marc Andre Fleury

The Devils probables:

Forwards
Zach Parise - Adam Henrique - Ilya Kovalchuk
Petr Sykora - Patrick Elias - Dainius Zubrus
Mattias Tedenby - Travis Zajac - David Clarkson
Eric Boulton - Tim Sestito - Cam Janssen

Defense
Henrik Tallinder - Mark Fayne
Bryce Salvador - Adam Larsson
Anton Volchenkov - Kurtis Foster

Goaltender
Martin Brodeur

The stats:

Steelers Game Day 16 - @ Cleveland Browns

2011-12-30T15:07:00.000-05:00

It almost seems like yesterday that people were wondering if there was going to be a full NFL season. The owners were being dicks and the players were bitching on twitter that they weren’t getting their fair shake. It was bad times. Then they finally signed a new CBA that most people still are asking questions about and we were back on it. The season started and nobody knew what was going on and how it was going to happen. How were the Steelers going to get under the cap? How would the Steelers answer after losing in the Super Bowl? Are the Steelers too old? Why didn’t the Steelers draft a lineman?

All the Steelers did was answer with an 11-4 season going into the last game. Ho hum. A lot of good times and a lot of bad times this season with injuries in between. With all that being said the Steelers are in the hunt for a first round bye and a possible top seed in the AFC if a few chips fall for them on Sunday. While some people thought the season was over when they were 2-2 this is a football team that is going to the playoffs, again, no lower than the five seed with a possible 12 wins. Just an unreal ride.

Wouldn’t it be fitting if the Steelers and Ravens were playing for a chance to win the AFC North on the last day of the regular season? Hell yea that would be awesome. Too bad the Steelers and Ravens played both their games against each other before either team played the Bengals or Browns. Terrible job by the NFL scheduling committee or whoever does that.

Instead the Steelers will be playing the Browns and the Ravens will be playing the Bengals and the AFC North will be decided after both of those games. But enough about that. Just a few weeks ago the Steelers were able to squeak out a win over the Browns when Ben Roethlisberger got hurt and many thought he would be done for the season.

This shouldn’t be very interesting game as the Browns are a pretty bad football team with little to play for a week after almost beating the Ravens. I can’t imagine their spirits are very high but they are competitors and beating the Steelers would be one of the highlights of a dismal season. The Steelers need to come in, take care of business and then see where it goes from there.

Let’s get to the statistics:

Last Week:

Pittsburgh 27, St. Louis 0
Passing: Batch - 15/22, 208 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT
Rushing: Mendenhall - 18 carries, 116 yards, 1 TD
Receiving: Wallace - 4 rec, 82 yards, 0 TD

Baltimore 20, Cleveland 14
Passing: Wallace - 19/33, 147 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT
Rushing: Hillis - 24 carries, 112 yards, 0 TD
Receiving: Little - 4 rec, 40 yards, 0 TD

All-Time Record vs. Cleveland: 63-56 (2-0 Playoffs)

Dec. 8, 2011 - Pittsburgh 14, Cleveland 3
Jan. 2, 2011 - Pittsburgh 41, Cleveland 9
Oct. 17, 2010 - Pittsburgh 28, Cleveland 10
Dec. 10, 2009 - Cleveland 13, Pittsburgh 6
Oct. 18, 2009 - Pittsburgh 27, Cleveland 14

Offense (rank in NFL)

Total Offense
Pittsburgh: 373.1 yards/game (11th)
Cleveland: 292.1 yards/game (29th)

Passing
Pittsburgh: 257.0 yards/game (9th)
Cleveland: 194.8 yards/game (23rd)

Rushing
Pittsburgh: 116.1 yards/game (16th)
Cleveland: 97.3 yards/game (28th)

Points
Pittsburgh: 20.8 points/game (20th)
Cleveland: 13.9 points/game (30th)

Defense

Total Defense
Pittsburgh: 273.9 yards/game (1st)
Cleveland: 330.5 yards/game (10th)

Pass
Pittsburgh: 172.2 yards/game (1st)
Cleveland: 184.0 yards/game (t-2nd)

Rush
Pittsburgh: 101.7 yards/game (9th)
Cleveland: 146.5 yards/game (30th)

Points
Pittsburgh: 14.5 points/game (2nd)
Cleveland: 19.6 points/game (6th)

Hit the jump for a closer look at the Cleveland Browns

Quarterback

Not really sure who the Steelers are going to see under center on Sunday afternoon but if the concussion to Colt McCoy was anything like he said it was then I would expect Senaca Wallace to make his second straight start and finish out the season for the Browns. If you don’t remember McCoy was knocked silly a few weeks by James Harrison which earned him a one game fine. Here is a look at it again:

Well, Wallace started last week and wasn’t very good but did put his team in a position to win the game. He also played the week prior against the Cardinals, a game in which the Browns lost in overtime, and wasn’t too much better in that game. Overall on the season he is completing 59% of his passes (66 attempts) for 390 yards two touchdowns and only one interception. Even though he has a pretty small sample size he only has a 5.91 yard per attempt average and had only 4.46 yards per attempt last week against the Ravens.

This is Wallace’s ninth year and he is in his second year with the Browns after starting his career with the Seahawks. Over his career he has completed 60% of his passes for a 6.41 yard per attempt average with 31 touchdowns and 17 interceptions so when you look at his stats this season he is really on the same plane as his career despite the small sample size in 2011.

Wallace is a very athletic player that can create time for himself and extend plays. If you don’t break down he is quick enough to make a move and scramble to find his target. Although he does have great athletic ability he isn’t really a running quarterback but he does bring a different dimension to the game than Colt McCoy does. Wallace has been a life long backup and actually does a pretty nice job in relief. He isn’t as bad as many of the backups on most teams so it gives the Browns something off the bench. He can throw the ball with some decent accuracy in the passes under 15 yards but much like McCoy he is not really good at getting the ball down the field so that actually plays into what the Steelers like to do which is not giving up the big play.

In limited action Wallace has a 57 defensive-adjusted yards above replacement (DYAR) which gives the value of the players performance compared to replacement level, adjusted for situation and opponent and then translated into yardage. He also has a defensive-adjusted value over average (DVOA) of 1.4% which represents value, per play, over an average quarterback in the same game situations. The more positive the DVOA rating, the better the player's performance. Negative DVOA represents below-average offense. For some comparison McCoy has a 104 DYAR (30th in the league) and a -8.0% DVOA (30th) to see where Wallace ranks among Browns quarterbacks. The simple version of the two is that DYAR represents a player with more total value and DVOA represents a player with more value per play.

Running Backs

Peyton Hillis is the main back for the Browns this season but due to some injuries and poor performance Hillis hasn’t been very good this year when you look at what he was able to do last season. Only eight times this season has Hillis carried the ball 10 times or more and only once has he gone over 100 yards. Interestingly enough Hillis’ only 100 yard came came last week against the Ravens when he touched the ball 24 times for 112 yards but was unable to find the end zone. Actually Hillis has only found pay dirt three times this season when he scored twice against the Colts in week two and once against the Cardinals two weeks ago.

In the Thursday night tilt against the Steelers on December 8 Hillis was a nonfactor with only 10 carries for 25 yards and only a long of eight yards. He was pretty frustrated on the sidelines especially after he was stuffed on a third and goal play on the Browns very first drive which led to their only points of the night.

Hillis used to be pretty productive out of the backfield with 15 catches in his first three games but since then he only has six catches in his other six games so I doubt that he is going to be looked at a ton out of the backfield as Wallace has only competed three passes to him the last two weeks for nine yards.

Hillis ranks 26th in the league with a DYAR of 78 which is just behind Steven Jackson who tore the Steelers up on Sunday. He actually ranks a little better in terms of DVOA at 24th among qualified running backs at 2.9%. For where he ranks in terms of DYAR and DVOA he actually has a pretty good success rate at 56%. That number represents the player's consistency, measured by successful running plays (the definition of success being different based on down and distance) divided by total running plays. With his higher success rate and lower DVOA that represents that Hillis gets the yards that he needs on a given play but isn’t going to go over and above and get more yards.

Montario Hardesty has the second most carries on the team (86) but is only carrying the ball at a 3.1` yard per attempt clip with only 268 yards and hasn’t rank for a touchdown or for a rush of 20 yards or more. Not good. Hardesty hasn’t carried the ball since the Thursday night game against the Steelers when he has 11 carries for only 24 yards and a long of five.

Chris Ogbonnaya is the other back that records a significant amount of carries with 76 carries for 340 yards and a touchdown. He has a 4.5 yard per carry average but didn’t record a carries in the last two weeks and had two carries against the Steelers for 31 yards which included a 28 yard scamper. Ogbonnaya will catch the ball out of the backfield as he has 23 catches on the season with the Browns in only 10 games with three games of five catches so you can’t ignore him in that aspect. It is also interesting to note that he will be facing the Steelers for the third time this regular season. Before coming to the Browns he was on the Texans roster and carried the ball one time for four yards in the Texans win in week three. You don’t typically see things like this.

Wide Receiver

The receiving core for the Browns hasn’t changed much since the last time these two teams played a few weeks ago and by “hasn’t changed much” I mean they still aren’t very good. I am sure there is more to this than the receivers themselves being bad as they have Colt McCoy and Senaca Wallace throwing to them but when your best option at wide out is Greg Little or Josh Cribbs then you really have a problem. Maybe the Browns can resign Braylon Edwards so he can drop crucial passes.

Little leads the team, far and away, in receptions with 61 and targets (116) but only has 709 yards to show for it and two touchdowns. Also in those 61 catches is only six catches of 20 yards or more. His 11.6 yard per catch average is only fourth on the team so he isn’t much of a threat down the field. Again I must preface this with saying that neither McCoy or Wallace is getting the ball down the field with any consistency so that isn’t going to help but at some point you have to have at least a threat of going deep.

Little has been targeted 46 more times than Ben Watson and has 24 more catches than him as he is second on the team in both categories. While Little has the most targets and catches he isn’t even the team’s most valuable pass catcher. He ranks 76th among all qualified receivers with a -25 DYAR and 75th with a -15.4% DVOA which mean he adds nothing of substance while having a catch rate of only 53%.

The other receiver that the Browns sort of rely on is Josh Cribbs, I guess. Cribbs is an excellent return man but really marginal at the receiver position with only 34 catches on the season for 427 yards and four touchdowns. There have only been two games this season where he has caught over three passes and has yet to catch more than 56 yards in a single game. He does lead the team in catches of 20 yards or more but who knows. Cribbs ranks 47th in the league with a 98 DYAR and 32nd with a 9.0% DVOA so he is far and away the most productive pass catcher even though he might not do it very often. Cribbs did return a punt back 84 yards against the Ravens last week so the Steelers will have to keep an eye on him in the special teams game.

Tight end Ben Watson is another top target for the Browns quarterbacks as he has 37 catches for 410 yards and two touchdowns this season. The Steelers have been hurt by the tight end this year but those tight ends have been the more WR type of tight ends and the athletic ones, Ben Watson is not that. Last time out against the Steelers Watson only h ad two catches for 11 yards so he wasn’t overly productive. On the season Watson ranks 40th among qualified tight ends with a -14 DYAR and 38th with a -10.3% DVOA. Not very impressive.

Offensive Line

From left to right the Browns read as Joe Thomas, Jason Pinkston, Alex Mack, Shawn Lauvao and Tony Pashos. Pinkston is a Pitt product and is from the Pittsburgh area and is starting in his rookie season while Mack and Lauvao have three and two years of experience, respectively and Pashos is the long tooth of the bunch with nine years of experience. Thomas is far and away the headliner of the offensive line as he is in his fifth season from Wisconsin and is a Pro Bowl selection this year. He is one of the best tackles in the game and the Browns really got a gem when they drafted him.

Overall Cleveland is right around average in the league (19th) with a 4.01 adjusted line yards (ALY) which is a formula takes all running back carries and assigns responsibility to the offensive line based on the following percentages: losses: 120% value, 0-4 Yards: 100% value, 5-10 Yards: 50% value, 11+ Yards: 0% value. These numbers are then adjusted based on down, distance, situation, opponent, and the difference in rushing average between shotgun compared to standard formations. Where the offensive line excels for the Brown is getting positive yardage on their carries. They rank tops in the league in stuffed percentage which is the percentage of runs where the running back is tackled at or behind the line of scrimmage. The Browns are only getting stuffed 15% of the time which is a full percentage point better than the second place team, San Diego.

The Browns also are middle of the pack in power success at 63% which is good for 16th in the league. Power success is the Percentage of runs on third or fourth down, two yards or less to go, that achieved a first down or touchdown. Also includes runs on first-and-goal or second-and-goal from the two-yard line or closer.

The Browns do not have much success at all running to the perimeter of the football field with only a 2.01 ALY off the left end which is more than two yards less than the league average (4.18) and 31st in the league while they are dead last in the NFL running off the right end with an ALY of 1.47. They do have the most success right off the right tackle with an ALY of 4.71 which is above the league average of 4.24.

While the Browns are terrible at running to the outside they don’t try it very often as only 6% of the time (4% to the left, 2% to the right) running to the outside while they run up the middle or off the guards 66% of the time. They are almost identical running off the tackles as they run off the left tackle 14% of the time and 13% of the time off the right tackle.

When talking about protecting the quarterback the Browns rank 15th in the league with an adjusted sack rate of 6.5% which gives sacks (plus intentional grounding penalties) per pass attempt adjusted for down, distance, and opponent. The Browns have given up 37 sacks on the season which is only three less than given up by the Steelers so you can see about what they are dealing with in pass protection along the offensive line.

Defense

Just like the last time we previewed the Browns their defense isn’t as terrible as teams like the Patriots and Colts and Saints but they still aren’t a great defense. Overall they have a 10.3% DVOA which ranks them 23rd overall while also sitting at 23rd in weighted defensive DVOA at 11.8%. Weighted DVOA is adjusted so that earlier games in the season become gradually less important. It reflects how the team was playing by the end of the season. So as you can see while the Browns defense is ranked the same they have slipped a little down the stretch. The pass defense ranks out higher than their run defense, but it isn’t anything substantial. The Browns are 20th overall on pass defense at a 12.7% DVOA while the run defense is near the bottom with a 8.2% DVOA (28th). I think this is important to note because the Browns actually rank highly in terms of pass defense by raw yardage but that is deceiving because teams rush over 33 times a game on them which is the second most in the league while they face the fewest pass attempts per game at just under 29. When you wonder why I use DVOA so much this is why. Raw numbers only tell you so much.

D’Qwell Jackson leads the defense with 145 tackles (107 solo) while having 3.5 sacks and an interception. The last time the Browns played the Steelers he recorded 13 tackles and a sack which was his first sack since week three of the season. Defensive tackle Ahtyba Rubin is second on the team with 74 total tackles (49 solo) and is also in a tie for second on the team with four sacks.

Pitt product Jabaal Sheard is the top pass rusher for the Browns and is the only player on the team with more than four sacks. Sheard was actually held without a sack against the Steelers the last game out but is on a streak where he has five sacks in his last six games only getting shutout against the Steelers and Ravens. Phillip Taylor has four sacks while both Chris Gocong has 3.5 sacks.

Joe Haden is the top corner on the team and has a team0high 19 pass breakups but does not yet have a pick while he will be working with Sheldon Brown on the other side who has two picks and 12 passes defended. Mike Adams and Usama Young are the safeties where Adams has three picks and Young has one.

Thoughts:

-It looks as if Ben Roethlisberger is going to be starting the game in Cleveland. Word is that Ben has been feeling a lot better this week after not playing against the Rams and that he is walking around and moving without a limp. The Steelers said earlier in the week that they were looking to get Ben 20-25 snaps in the game just to get him fresh for the playoffs but with his improved movement I think we might be looking at a regular scenario for him to play the entire game. Not really sure if he needs to do that but if the Steelers were to somehow get the bye that would be a lot of sitting and no playing for him so I guess I don’t mind this as much if he is that healthy. I do not want him out there at all of the injury could get worse that might put his status in question for wild card weekend if it comes to that.

-The Steelers also expect to get back Maurkice Pouncey and Emmanuel Sanders after they have both missed some significant time so that is a huge plus for the offense. LaMarr Woodley is expected to sit and not play while Mewelde Moore and Doug Legursky will also be out for the Steelers.

-I expect the Steelers to get after the Browns on the run game to set up the play action pass. So far this season the Steelers have done things in reverse and used the passing game to set up the run but with the resurgence of Rashard Mendenhall I think that the Steelers can expose the Browns poor run defense and really take control of this game. With Roethlisberger banged up it would be nice not to have to rely on him to make a ton of throw like they did in the 49ers game so if they can gash the Browns like they did the Rams then I think we don’t really have much to worry about.

-It would be nice to see a few turnovers in this last game of the season heading into the playoffs. The Steelers rank 25th in the league with only 10 interceptions and rank 30th in the league with four fumble recoveries. The Steelers have done a pretty bad job of forcing turnovers and it would be nice to give the offense a short field to put some points on the board.

-As you probably know this game could have huge implications on the AFC seeding if the Bengals were able to defeat the Ravens. The Ravens/Bengals game is taking place at the same time as the Steelers/Browns so you are going to have to have the channel clicker in hand to be flipping back and forth but a loss by the Ravens coupled with a Steelers win would give the Steelers a first round bye and the second seed. The Steelers could earn the top seed in the AFC with a win along with a Ravens loss and a loss by New England to Buffalo. If I were going to put a figure on it I would say that there is a 65% chance that the Steelers will be the number five seed but with how the Ravens play on the road you really have no idea what they are going to do so I wouldn’t put it past them to lay an egg and give the Steelers a chance to win the AFC North.

-The Cleveland offense hasn’t been very good all year. They only average 292 yards per game which ranks them 29th in the league and the Steelers defense is holding opponents to only 273.9 yards per game which is tops in the league. The Browns are going to have to be creative to try and make some things happen. It may sound funny but I think that Seneca Wallace gives them a better chance of beating the Steelers than McCoy would. As I talked about when I broke down Wallace I pointed out that he is more elusive than McCoy and while he might not be able to throw the ball down the field neither could McCoy. Wallace doesn’t run the football a lot but that is definitely an option if he is on the perimeter.

-One spot that the Browns actually play pretty well at is special teams. With a guy like Josh Cribbs there is always a chance that a kick or punt can be brought back for a touchdown and if the Browns are going to win this game they are almost certainly going to have to pull a special teams touchdown out of its bag of tricks. The Browns rank 10th in the league with a 1.4% DVOA and a 1.7% weighted DVOA which only ranks them 12th in the league. The Browns have a one of the best kick return DVOA’s in the league (6.7%) and they have a 1.7% DVOA on punt return. Needless to say the Steelers will have to be on top of the coverage units to keep the Browns in check as the Steelers have positive DVOA’s in the kicking game (8.9%) and punting game (2.9%). The kickoff coverage team ranks third in the league so that should be good to neutralize the Browns.

PREDICTION: The Steelers win this game even if Ben doesn’t play the entire game. The Browns have zero playmakers on offense and I don’t see them scoring enough to beat the Steelers. The last time these two teams played they only scored three points. The Steelers win this one fairly easily and I can assume that some of the players will be checking on the Ravens score in the second half. Steelers 24, Browns 10.

Hit it.

Penguins Game Day 37 - vs. Philadelphia Flyers

2011-12-29T16:49:00.000-05:00

Philadelphia Flyers

7:00 p.m., CONSOL Energy Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

For a lot of people this has been a game that has been circled on the calender (both figuratively and literally) since the schedule came out before the season. If you are looking for tickets then you better be willing to vastly overpay to see one of the best Penguins of all time, Jaromir Jagr, and a key piece to the Penguins 2009 Stanley Cup run, Max Talbot, return to Pittsburgh for the first time since joining the Philadelphia Flyers over the off season.

If you follow me on twitter (which, why wouldn't you?) you probably know how I feel about these two guys returning to Pittsburgh tonight. While I expect there to be a massive amount of booing (for at least Jagr) that is something I wouldn't be doing. Talbot was a staple of this Penguins team for some time and if it wasn't his gritty play on the ice it was the funny (albeit sometimes sick) stories of him partying on the Southside. He got offered a boatload of money by the Flyers and he took it. He was overpaid for a job that he wasn't very good at for the most part but I can't get mad at a guy who took the money, even if it was to play for Philadelphia. It was a business decision and I can respect that as I would not expect him to be mad at me for moving to a rival company if they doubled my pay. As I said before the rivalry thing is brought into the Talbot situation and he was viewed as a traitor. I have said it a few times but rivalries are much more important to the fans than they are to players. If it was that important to the players then Talbot wouldn't have signed there just like Asham wouldn't have signed with the Penguins.

When talking about Jagr it is really murky. He didn't leave Pittsburgh on the best terms when he went to Washington and was hated when he came back to the Mellon Arena as a Ranger he was booed every time he touched the puck. After he played in Europe for a few years Penguins fans really got back on his bandwagon to get him back to the Burgh and Jagr made it seem like he wanted to be back. You all know how things went this off season and that brought back a ton of hate.

First let me tell you that I don't have a problem with people booing. You bought the ticket and you can do what you want but I will not agree with it. Jagr is probably the second best player to put on a Penguins sweater. Ever. He has done so much for this city that it is hard to put into words. Would it had been nice to have JJ back this year? Hell yea, but again he was a free agent and thought he had a better chance in Philadelphia. Also during the whole time where there was #jagrwatch and the media largely blew it out of proportion like Jagr was definitely coming to Pittsburgh and when he didn't the anger was already in place. Not for me though. I don't think anything could happen where I would boo Jagr, but that is just me. When people think of Jagr they think of him as a Penguins player. I still think of the times I got to see him growing up and watching the highlights of the stuff I was too young to remember.

All in all I would rather the booing be for the Flyers and not just for Max and Jags. This game is much more than those two, this is against the Flyers and they are ahead of the Penguins in the standings and a win is more important than anything else. Eff the Flyers. Lets Go Pens.

The Flyers can be a scary good team even without Chris Pronger. They score a ton of goals and while their top goaltender, Ilya Bryzgalov, hasn't been playing well they will start Sergei Bobrovsky who plays very well in Pittsburgh and overall holds a 2.17 GAA and a .926 save percentage in five games.

Claude Giroux is an absolute monster for the Flyers and is one of the best players in the game right now. He is paired on a line with Jagr who has been very good all year. It is going to take a great game from the defense and Marc Andre Fleury.

The Penguins have been playing well winning the last four games while the Flyers are 7-3-0 in the last 10 games. Evgeni Malkin is hot as he has 18 points (6+12) in his last eight games where he has registered a point in each of those games. James Neil also has an eight game streak where he has 11 points (7+4) and has scored in his last four.

The season series (Philadelphia leads 1-0):

December 8, 2011 - Philadelphia 3, Pittsburgh 1

No idea why a single highlight of the game isn't on YouTube.

The Penguins probables:

Forwards
Chris Kunitz - Evgeni Malkin - James Neal
Pascal Dupuis - Jordan Staal - Tyler Kennedy
Matt Cooke - Joe Vitale - Steve Sullivan
Arron Asham - Craig Adams - Jason Williams

Defense
Brooks Orpik - Matt Niskanen
Simon Despres - Zbynek Michalek
Alexandre Picard - Ben Lovejoy

Goaltender
Marc Andre Fleury

The Flyers probables:

Forwards
Scott Hartnell - Claude Giroux - Jaromir Jagr
Matt Read - Daniel Briere - Wayne Simmond
James van Riemsdyk - Maxime Talb - Jakub Voracek
Brayden Schenn - Sean Couturier - Harry Zolnierczyk

Defense
Kimmo Timonen - Braydon Coburn
Matt Carle - Marc-Andre Bourdon
Andreas Lilja - Andrew Meszaros

Goaltender
Sergei Bobrovsky

The stats:

@Benstonium Steelers Renegade Video

2011-12-28T12:58:00.001-05:00

Benson from Benstonium.com came out with a really nice video (as always) of the Styx's classic Renegade that is used in the second half at Heinz Field to pump up the crowd. If you have no idea what Renegade is all about then you need to read the primer I did back in August of 2010 about it.

Anyways after you read that you can then check out the clip that Benson did. It is truly one of the best Renegades video on the internet and you won't be disappointed that you watched it. It is exclusive to the Benstonium.com Facebook page so just click this link and like the page (which you should have done already) and then watch the video. Good stuff as always.

Here We Go Steelers.

Five Steelers Named To Pro Bowl

2011-12-28T12:48:00.001-05:00

The Steelers were honored last night with five selections to the 2012 AFC Pro Bowl squad which is going to be back in Hawaii after not having the game there last season. The Pro Bowl is going to be played January 29th although I would doubt that a ton of people are going to be watching, especially if the Steelers make the Super Bowl and none of the players will be joining.

The five Steelers representatives are Troy Polamalu, Ben Roethlisberger, Maurkice Pouncey, Mike Wallace and Antonio Brown. It is interesting to note that Antonio Brown was voted to the team as a kick returner while Pouncey, Polamalu and Wallace will be starters in the game. James Harrison, Ryan Clark and LaMarr Woodley are alternates for the game and if the Steelers don’t make the Super Bowl I would expect that all three of them would be in the game with drop outs and injuries.

Here is the release from the Steelers with the complete breakdown of each of the players that will be in the Pro Bowl.

None of this was too much of a surprise for me except for maybe Antonio Brown. While he was very deserving to get into the Pro Bowl I just didn’t think he had enough to get in as a wide receiver as Wes Welker, A.J. Green and Brandon Marshall deserved to be in the game ahead of Brown. Brown finished third in the league with a 27.7 kick return average and was ninth in punt returns with a 10.8 average but I think that his receiving stats helped him get into the game.

If there was a snub for the Steelers it would be on the defensive side of the ball. The Steelers, while they are not nearly as dominant but still a very good defense, only has one representative while teams like the Patriots have two defensive reps. Give me a break. I think Ryan Clark probably deserved to be in the game as he has had a great year but if there is one player that should be in the game it’s Ike Taylor. Someone broke the stat out on twitter last night, and I forget who it was so please forgive me, but Taylor is getting thrown at a little over two times a game and only gives up about 30 yards to the receiver he is covering. Taylor covers the top receiver each game and shadows them. He doesn’t get the love he deserves because he doesn’t intercept passes but his job is to keep the best receivers on the other team from catching passes and that is exactly what he does.

Overall a nice pull for the Steelers. Hopefully they don’t play.

Here is the full AFC and NFC Pro Bowl rosters.

Steelers Game Day 36 - vs. Carolina Hurricanes

2011-12-27T17:24:00.000-05:00

Carolina Hurricanes

7:00 p.m., CONSOL Energy Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Cam Ward scored a goal last night. True story.

The Penguins haven't played in like 18 weeks. The Pens are riding a three game winning streak.

The season series (Tied 1-1):

November 12 - Carolina 5, Pittsburgh 3

December 3 - Pittsburgh 3, Carolina 2

The Penguins probables:

Forwards
Chris Kunitz - Evgeni Malkin - James Neal
Pascal Dupuis - Jordan Staal - Tyler Kennedy
Matt Cooke - Joe Vitale - Steve Sullivan
Arron Asham - Craig Adams - Jason Williams

Defense
Brooks Orpik - Matt Niskanen
Simon Despres - Zbynek Michalek
Alexandre Picard - Ben Lovejoy

Goaltender
Marc Andre Fleury

The Hurricanes probables:

Forwards
Drayson Bowman - Eric Staal - Chad LaRose
Alexei Ponikarovsky - Jussi Jokinen - Tuomo Ruutu
Jiri Tlusty - Brandon Sutter - Patrick Dwyer-*
Andreas Nodl - Tim Brent - Anthony Stewart

Defense
Tim Gleason - Jamie McBain
Jay Harrison - Justin Faulk
Jaroslav Spacek - Bryan Allen

Goaltender
Justin Peters

The stats:

Steelers Game 15 Recap - Steelers 27, Rams 0

2011-12-26T14:11:00.003-05:00

As I talked about in the preview this game really shouldn’t have been close and even without numerous Pro Bowl players the Rams just weren’t very good and that is exactly what it was in a pretty easy 27-0 win over the Rams on Christmas Eve at Heinz Field. I was fortunate enough to be at the game and if I saw the same thing you did on TV then it was pretty easy to see that the Rams are in bad shape and probably will not win next week when they play the 49ers.

Since it is the holiday weekend here are a few quick points from the game:

-Charlie Batch was called on to start for Ben Roethlisberger and did a pretty nice job overall. I know Ben said that he was going to play and wanted to play but it was more than the right call to sit him for this game and they should sit him again next week. Batch is the “game manager” of the backup quarterbacks and did just that. He was an efficient 15-of-22 for 208 yards but was not able to throw a touchdown pass. He did throw a pick but I am not really sure how much you can blame that on Batch as Antonio Brown slipped and fell down leaving the defensive back as the only person in the area to catch the ball. Other than that Batch was elusive and broke out of a few would be sacks and even hit Mike Wallace for 46 yards that was ruled down at the one yard line.

-While Batch was pretty efficient he wasn’t as good converting third down opportunities as you would like him to be. The Steelers were only 1-of-7 on third down and that is not going to win you very many football games. It didn’t hurt the Steelers in the end and was sort of masked by a great running game and great red zone play (3-of-4) so I guess we can look past it.

-Speaking of the running the game the Steelers got it done again on the ground. They only ran the ball 28 times but went for 169 yards good for a 6.0 yard per carry average. Over the last four games the Steelers have gone for 130 yards or more. Not too shabby for a team that couldn’t run the football. Rashard Mendenhall continues to run the ball well. It seems like I say this every preview and ever recap that he has been running the ball hard the past month, but it has been the truth. He ran the ball 18 times for 116 yards and scored a touchdown which included a 52 yard scamper to set up a touchdown while also catching a 35 yard pass to set up a field goal. He looks confident and poised so I would keep feeding him the ball next week. Ike Redman was pretty good also with 35 yards on eight carries and John Clay got his first professional carry that resulted in a 10 yard touchdown.

-The defense pitched the shutout but it really wasn’t anything too impressive. They did not force a turnover and for the first time in a few games they were able to be run on. While the Rams couldn’t throw the football to save their lives they were able to get the ground game going thanks to Steven Jackson. Jackson ran the ball 24 times for 103 yards while the Rams ran for 164 yards total on the day. Only Ray Rice and Arian Foster have ran for over 100 yards against the Steelers this year and those were both in wins so I guess the idea that the Steelers got a shutout win makes this a little easier to swallow.

-Like I said before the defense didn’t force any turnovers and this was only a shutout because Josh Brown missed two field goals. The Black and Gold did get to Kellen Clemens three times but it would be really great to the Steelers to get a couple of picks or force a few fumbles. As we get ready for the playoffs the Steelers are going to see some good football teams and if they want to get past the Ravens or Patriots the defense is going to need to get on that next level. We have seen them play takeaway before this season so we know they can do that but a strong defensive finish would be huge against the Browns.

-Overall Kellen Clemens was as bad as we thought he was going to be. I think it was a little bit of the Steelers and a little bit of Clemens but it was bad. He only completed nine passes for 91 yards on 24 attempts. If you are pulling out the calculator that is a 3.8 yard per attempt average. That is terrible. Clemens gave the Rams really no chance and if the Steven Jackson wasn’t as good as he was then this could have been much worse. The secondary played a pretty nice game and that is in stark contrast to the way they were looked at last year and even at the beginning of this year.

-The Steelers have the Browns in the final week of the season. It was originally scheduled for a 1:00 p.m. start but has been flexed to a 4:15 p.m. start. Please change your plans accordingly. Right now the worst the Steelers can finish is in the fifth spot of the playoff race. If the Ravens lose to the Bengals and the Steelers win then they can earn a first round bye by being the number two seed. There is a scenario where the Steelers can be the top seed in the AFC but they would need a Ravens loss and a New England loss (against Buffalo) coupled with a Steelers win. Not saying that these scenarios can’t happen but those are the three spots the Steelers will be able to occupy as the playoffs.

The Steelers are now 11-4 and have had a pretty nice season. The Browns aren’t a great team so we should be looking at a 12-4 team when some people thought this wasn’t even a playoff team coming out of the lockout. Should be a wild finish for playoff seeding and hopefully the Steelers can get some help to win the AFC North and get the Wild Card weekend off.

Happy Holidays From TRBB

2011-12-25T08:45:00.001-05:00

Just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and happy holidays. I hope everyone has a great time with their families and loved ones. Thank you all for the continued support and visiting the site. Also I know I say this a lot but thank you to all the troops who make holidays like this so safe and possible for the country.

Now go watch A Christmas Story and Christmas Vacation all day and eat as much ham as possible.

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas

Penguins Game Day 35 - @ Winnipeg Jets

2011-12-23T16:58:00.000-05:00

Winnipeg Jets

8:30 p.m., MTS Centre, Winnipeg, Manitoba

Seriously no idea who's playing tonight. Evidently Paul Martin and Zbynek Michalek might be back in the line up but nobody really knows.

Canada sucks.

The season series (Winnipeg leads 1-0):

October 17, 2011 - Winnipeg 2, Pittsburgh 1

The Penguins probables (seriously, no idea):

Forwards
Chris Kunitz - Evgeni Malkin - James Neal
Matt Cooke - Jordan Staal - Tyaler Kennedy
Steve Sullivan - Joe Vitales - Pascal Dupuis
Jason Williams - Craig Adams - Arron Asham

Defense
Matt Niskanen - Brooks Orpik
Simon Despres - Alexandre Picard
Ben Lovejoy - Brian Strait

Goaltender
Marc Andre Fleury

The Jets probables:

Forwards
Evander Kane - Alexander Burmistrov - Blake Wheeler
Andrew Ladd - Nik Antropov - Kyle Wellwood
Tanner Glass - Jim Slater - Antti Miettinen
Tim Stapleton - Chris Thorburn - Eric Fehr

Defense
Tobias Enstrom - Dustin Byfuglien
Mark Stuart - Zach Bogosian
Johnny Oduya - Ron Hainsey

Goaltender
Ondrej Pavelec

The stats:

Steelers Game Day 15 - vs. St Louis Rams

2011-12-23T13:08:00.000-05:00

After a tough loss the Steelers are back in action quickly as they take on the Rams at Heinz Field. Nothing like some football to kick off the Christmas holiday and from the looks of things this should be a game that the Steelers can win on their home field.

The Rams come in with two wins on the season with one of them coming over the high powered New Orleans Saints earlier in the season. While they did beat the Saints they have struggled pretty badly over the recent past, losing to the Bengals last week.

St. Louis doesn’t have much of an offense and its defense is pretty average so there isn’t too much to be scared at but in this league any team can truly win against any other. One more loss for the Steelers will put them out of the running for a first round bye so they need to take care of business.

Let’s look at the stats.

Last Week:

San Francisco 20, Pittsburgh 3
Passing: Roethlisberger - 25/44, 330 yards, 0 TD, 3 INT
Rushing: Mendenhall - 15 carries, 64 yards, 0 TD
Receiving: Cotchery - 5 rec, 93 yards, 0 TD

Cincinnati 20, St. Louis 13
Passing: Clemens - 25/36, 229 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT
Rushing: Jackson - 18 carries, 71 yards, 0 TD
Receiving: Jackson - 9 rec, 72 yards, 0 TD

All-Time Record vs. St. Louis: 7-15-2 (1-0 Playoffs) (2-1 while they were in St. Louis, 0-2-1 as the Cleveland Rams and 5-12-1 as the LA Rams)

Last Five Meetings

Dec. 20, 2007 - Pittsburgh 41, St. Louis 24
Oct. 26, 2003 - St. Louis 33, Pittsburgh 21
Nov. 3, 1996 - Pittsburgh 42, St. Louis 6
Sept. 12, 1993 - LA Rams 27, Pittsburgh 0
Oct. 29, 1990 - Pittsburgh 41, LA Rams 10
Team Stats

Offense (rank in NFL)

Total Offense
Pittsburgh: 372.9 yards/game (12th)
St. Louis: 285.3 yards/game (30th)

Passing
Pittsburgh: 260.5 yards/game (8th)
St. Louis: 185.9 yards/game (27th)

Rushing
Pittsburgh: 112.4 yards/game (17th)
St. Louis: 99.4 yards/game (26th)

Points
Pittsburgh: 20.4 points/game (22nd)
St. Louis: 11.9 points/game (32nd)

Defense

Total Defense
Pittsburgh: 276.9 yards/game (1st)
St. Louis: 359.7 yards/game (21st)

Pass
Pittsburgh: 179.6 yards/game (1st)
St. Louis: 206.3 yards/game (8th)

Rush
Pittsburgh: 97.2 yards/game (6th)
St. Louis: 153.4 yards/game (32nd)

Points
Pittsburgh: 15.6 points/game (2nd)
St. Louis: 24.7 points/game (25th)

Hit the jump for a closer look at the St. Louis Rams

Quarterback

Going into the season this was supposed to be a really breakout year from Sam Bradford. If you are in a fantasy football league I bet you had a person who waited on a QB and still took Bradford way too high as their top QB and sad to say that did not work out well for them (or you in some cases). Bradford’s season was cut short due to a high ankle sprain and he was shut down for the season last week and yielded to Kellen Clemens. Yes, that Kellen Clemens. He is still in the league. I know, I know, no idea how he’s still in the league.

The quarterback situation in St. Louis has been pretty horrid all season. They have played three guys as the position (A.J. Feeley is the other) and those three players have combined for a 55% completion rate and only eight touchdown passes. This is week 15. Eight touchdown passes. They average about 186 yards per game and have a pedestrian 6.0 yard per attempt average. Man. Not to help the situation but they were also sacked 49 times. I will touch on the sacks a little later but no idea how this team has won two games.

Clemens has his first playing time of the season last week in a 20-13 loss to the Bengals and actually didn’t do all that poorly. While he only averaged 6.36 yards per attempt he completed 25-of-36 passes (69%) and didn’t throw an interception. He has 229 yards on the day and while that is not great it is well above the average of Bradford or Feeley.

Clemens hasn’t had any significant playing time since the 2009 season when he was with the Jets. He played in 10 games that year and also played in 10 games in 2007 as a member of the Jets. Overall he has played in 26 games and has 1,915 yards, six touchdowns, 11 interceptions, six fumbles and a completion percentage of 54. Um, yea, not too great their Kellen. He only threw two passes last year.

Not much more to say on this. He is going to throw the ball underneath a ton to a bunch of average at best receivers.

Running Back

The running back core for the Rams is the deepest and most talented part of the roster. They employ three backs that have had success in the NFL but when the only thing you have is a couple good running backs, and nothing else, it is going to be really tough for you to win.

The workhorse for the team is Steven Jackson. Jackson is 34 yards away from a 1,000 yard season and is averaging 4.4 yards per carry. He has a team-high five touchdowns on the year and five runs of 20 yards or more. Since a three week span back in early November when Jackson ran for 159, 130 and 128 yards he has been pretty average. Last week against the Bengals hr ran 18 times for 71 yards and the week before he went 20 times for 63 yards and a score. He has only those three 100 yard games but nothing over 75 yards since.

Unlike the past few running backs the Steelers have played Jackson is one that will come out of the backfield and catch a good bit of balls. On the season he has 39 catches for 294 yards and is coming off a game where he had nine (!) catches for 72 yards. With Clemens as the new signal caller I would expect Jackson to be the main check down at Heinz Field. He has five games this year with four catches or more and nine games with three or more catches. Be aware.

Jackson ranks 31st in the league among qualified NFL running backs with a defensive-adjusted yards above replacement (DYAR) of 43 which basically gives the value of the players performance compared to replacement level, adjusted for situation and opponent and then translated into yardage. Jackson also ranks 33rd with a -3.5% defensive-adjusted value over average (DVOA). This number represents value, per play, over an average quarterback in the same game situations. The more positive the DVOA rating, the better the player's performance. Negative DVOA represents below-average offense. I will be referring to both stats in the post but the simple version of the two is that DYAR represents a player with more total value and DVOA represents a player with more value per play.

Cadillac Williams is the former Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back that serves as the primary backup for the Rams. He has 302 yards on only 71 carries this season but has yet to find the end zone. Williams is a capable back and is in his first year with the Rams. He had 3,677 yards in six off and on years with Tampa Bay with is best coming in 2005, his rookie year, when he ran for almost 1,200 yards. Since them he had a pretty decent season in 2009 with 823 yards but is clearly not the main back he once was.

This season Williams filled in the first three games when Jackson was down with some injuries and did an OK job then. Since then he is a backup and has a high of eight carries a couple of weeks ago against the Seahawks. Outside of that game Williams has three carries or less in five other games. I don’t expect to see him get the ball a lot. Last week he only had three carries for 16 yards. Jackson is the work horse. In limited action Williams posts a DYAR of 39 and a DVOA of 4.9% which is much better than Jackson but you also have to figure that Williams is getting minimal carries, at best.

The stat sheet says that Jerious Norwood is on the Rams roster but I doubt you see him in the game for more than a couple of plays. Norwood came to the Rams from Atlanta but hasn’t been productive in the least bit. More of a third down back type player he had huge years for Atlanta in 2006 and 2007 but has barely seen the field with only 24 carries for 61 yards and hasn’t made a catch yet. Not worried.

Wide Receivers

Just as the quarterback position is going for the Rams the receiver position isn’t much better. There are a lot of guys who have names who catch passes for them but just like half of their team, or more, you probably haven’t heard of them or couldn’t even make them out of a lineup of all homeless people.

The Rams top target is newly acquired receiver Brandon Lloyd who came to St. Louis via the Denver Broncos. Lloyd was brought over because the receivers were so bad that they just needed someone with some actual talent for Bradford to throw to. In nine games with the Rams Lloyd has 42 catches for 554 yards and four touchdowns. Overall on the season he has 61 catches for 837 yards and four touchdowns with a long of 44 yards. Actually Lloyd is a very sure handed receiver but with the talent around him I am actually surprised he has that many catches. He is a viable target but no someone that would scare me enough that could beat a team if he is covered one-on-one. Not even sure if Ike Taylor is even going to shadow him (he probably will, and should) or if they will just stick Ike on one side of the field.

Lloyd ranks 68th in the league with a DYAR of 14 and has a pretty bad DVOA of -11.3% which is good for 71st in the league. When looking at other players with his advanced statistics he is right around what Hines Ward gives to the Steelers. Hines Ward has not been very good at all this year but ladies and gentlemen this is your top threat from the St. Louis Rams.

Other targets for the Rams include third year pro Brandon Gibson who has 35 catches for 410 yards and a touchdown while having five catches of 20 yards or more and Danario Alexander who has 21 catches for 370 yards and two scores with seven catches for 20 yards or more. Both Gibson (17 DYAR, -9.3% DVOA) and Alexander (15 DYAR, -8.9% DVOA) have better advanced numbers than Lloyd. What a mess. With the quarterback situation the way it is in St. Louis and a pedestrian group of receivers I would expect the Steelers to sell out to stop the run and make these guys beat them. If you have read my previews all year you know that I don’t usually hammer opponents too bad because they are professionals and can get the job done, I mean why would they be in the league if they couldn’t, but it is really tough to look at this and think for a moment they could beat up the Steelers secondary.

I talked before about how Steven Jackson would catch passes out of the backfield and he is the team’s fourth leading receiver so there is that.

Offensive Line

From left to right on the offensive line it is Mark LeVoir, Jason Brown, Tony Wragge, Bryan Mattison and Harvey Dahl. It is a pretty experienced line as everyone but Mattison has between five and seven years while Mattison is in his second season. As I said before they struggle mightily to protect the quarterback and are near dead last in the league DVOA rushing offense.

The Rams overall offense ranks dead last in the league with a -24.0% DVOA and still ranks last in weighted DVOA (-25.9%) which is adjusted so that earlier games in the season become gradually less important. They have a -22.1% DVOA for their running offense and -10.5% DVOA in their passing offense which both rank 31st in the league. They have an adjusted sack rate of 9.1% which is 27th in the league and that gives sacks (plus intentional grounding penalties) per pass attempt adjusted for down, distance, and opponent.

The Rams are 29th in the league with a 3.73 adjusted line years and are just as poor running the ball in short yardage and goal to go situations. They rank dead last in the league with a 39% power success which is the percentage of runs on third or fourth down, two yards or less to go, that achieved a first down or touchdown. Also includes runs on first-and-goal or second-and-goal from the two-yard line or closer. They improve to 20th in the league in stuffed percentage which is the pPercentage of runs where the running back is tackled at or behind the line of scrimmage where they rank 20th at 20%. Still not very good out of the offensive line for the Rams.

When St. Louis does run the football they are one of the most successful in the league running over the left end. They rank fourth in the league with an ALY of 5.07 to the left side. Not sure how much stock you can put into that as the left end is where they run the football the least at 8% of carries. The Rams run the ball off up the middle/to the guards 43% of the time which is their favorite spot even though that is 7% the NFL average for that spot. Running in that spot is the worst for St. Louis as its ALY is 3.72 which is only 27th in the league. The Rams rank no higher than 23rd in the league in ALY to any of the other three spots on the field.

Defense

While the offense is one of the worst in football the defense is actually pretty average and we can consider them “good” when you use them in comparison to their putrid offense. St. Louis ranks 19th in the league with a 6.7% team defensive DVOA (remember negative is good for defense) as they rank just below Cincinnati and Denver who are supposed to have really good defenses. They actually rank out a lot better in weighted DVOA with 1.0% which is 15th in the league. They are playing better of late and do remember that they beat the Saints earlier this year and held that club to only 21 points.

Linebacker James Laurinaitis leads the team with 120 total tackles (90 solo) and has three sacks, seven passes defended and two interceptions. Laurinaitis is in his third year out of Ohio State and really is the leader of that defense. He has been very consistent throughout his early career, never missing a game and having at least 100 tackles in each of his three seasons. Right now he has exactly as many tackles as his rookie year in two less games so this is the guy that the Steelers are going to have to get a hat on.

Chris Long is one of three players with five or more sacks and when I say “or more” that is a direct reflection on Long. He is in his fourth year out of Virginia and he leads the team and is tied for fifth in the NFL with 13 sacks. This isn’t like some players who get sacks in bunches in one game and really go off the grid for a few games. Long only has four games this season where he hasn’t recorded a sack and has at least one in seven of his last eight games. His high is three (in the win over the Saints) so he is dangerously consistent.

Both Robert Quinn and James Hall each have five sacks on the season. Hall hasn’t been overly active this season but three of his five sacks have come in the last six games. I won’t go out and say that he scares me but if you completely ignore him he can make you pay. Quinn hasn’t had a sack in the last three games from his defensive end position but is having a decent year as a rookie. He ran off a streak having a sack in four of five games before being blanked the last three contests.

The defense doesn’t create a ton of turnovers (much like the Steelers) as they only have 11 interceptions and six fumble recoveries. Nobody on the team has more than two interceptions led by Laurinaitis, Quintin Mikell and Josh Gordy each with two. Mikell is going to be the one to really create a turnover as he has forced five fumbles while he also is second on the team with 78 tackles (65 solo).

To touch on the pass defense the Rams actually do a nice job ranking 14th in the NFL with a 7.1% pass DVOA but that might be a little deceiving as they are only thrown on average 31 times per game which is fifth lowest in the NFL. On the other side the Rams are not very good at stopping the run as they hold a 6.2% DVOA which is 25th in the league. They are run on almost 32 times per game which is third most in the league. That might make the numbers a little off balance but I am not really sure how the Steelers will attack that. It is also interesting to note that five Rams corners have been placed on IR throughout the season and a few other have been banged up so it hasn’t been good times for the secondary. Also interesting to note that the Rams are the best in the league in pass defense on the tight end with a -21.7 DVOA against them.

The Rams hold the 22nd best run defense according to ALY at 4.17. They do rank much better with a power success of only 54% which is eighth in the league but they drop off suddenly in stuffed rating at 21st in the league 18% which means that when running backs get the ball they are most likely going to be able to get back to the line of scrimmage.

St. Louis does an excellent job of getting to the quarterback with 36 sacks on the season and a 7.9% adjusted sack rate. That puts them at sixth in the league and with the Steelers looking at starting Charlie Batch they might be able to tee off on what will amount to be a statue in the pocket.

Thoughts:

-Let’s not mess around and act like this is going to be a tough game because this is a game where the Steelers should be able to win even without Ben Roethlisberger. The Rams have two wins but after all the digging through all the numbers and all the stats and I am shocked that the Rams have two wins. Add to that that their franchise quarterback is on the shelf with an ankle injury and you just don’t have a lot to hang your hat on. A lot of times a mediocre offense can be pulled a long by a great defense (San Francisco for instance) but in this case the Rams only have a marginal defense with a good pass rusher. Not really sure I see a lot of scenarios where the Steelers lose.

-The Steelers might be without a lot of players on Christmas Eve. Word is mixed on if Ben Roethlisberger is going to play and after Thursday, the supposed make or break day, we learned that LaMarr Woodley was limited in practice and Maurkice Pouncey didn’t even practice after being a full participant on Wednesday. I said it before but if it was up to me all three of those would sit. I know Ben has been really hard headed about not quitting on his team but having him as healthy as possible for the playoffs, which could be in wildcard weekend, is most important. I know I said last week if Ben could get through the 49ers game I would like to see him play but the ramifications of winning that game was way different than the two teams that they will be playing. I would like him to sit but I have this strange feeling he will be out on the field.

-The Rams do not stop the run well and the Steelers have been running the ball pretty well over the last four or five games. Rashard Mendenhall has been running with a newfound toughness and ran pretty well against the best run defense in the league, the 49ers. The offensive line still has been a musical chairs sort of situation but they have run blocked pretty decently. I would expect the Steelers to stick to the run a little more than against the 49ers.

-An interesting sidebar of this game is that we might be seeing the final game of Hines Ward’s career in a Steelers uniform at home. With the Steelers not certain to get a home playoff game this could be the last time that he will line up at Heinz Field in the Black and Gold. While Ward has said himself that he doesn’t plan on retiring it might be a situation where Ward is not brought back. He has dropped to the fifth receiver spot with a lot of young kids ahead of him and in a huge prime time game he only played eight snaps in San Francisco. A lot of people probably wouldn’t care if Ward was back or not next year but if you sit back and think about his entire career it is really hard to think about him not being a part of the Steelers. While his play has taken a steep decline this year he has been an amazing part of this team. When the time comes I will have a more in depth piece about what Hines Ward meant to the Steelers but if you are watching the game just take a moment to reflect on how good he has been and what a big part of the team, and city, he has been.

-Not too much else to say on this game. Just get the win.

PREDICTION: Steelers are going to win this game. I don’t need to explain myself. Steelers 24, Rams 13.

Hit it.

Game 34 Recap - Penguins 3, Blackhawks 2

2011-12-20T23:17:00.001-05:00

The Penguins welcomed a really good Chicago Blackhawks team to the CONSOL Energy Center and came out with mostly great performance earning two points in regulation against a team that led the NHL with 46 points and are loaded with talent. The win broke the Hawks five game winning streak as they came in 8-1-1 in their last 10 before this game.

The first two periods were all Penguins all the time. They built up a 3-0 lead with goals from Chris Kunitz (power play), James Neal and Tyler Kennedy. All three goals were set up by Evgeni Malkin and they looked like they were going to cruise to victory. Too bad nobody told the Blackhawks they were supposed to lay back. The Blackhawks took it to another level in the third period and dominated that period, scoring two goals and ringing two pipes. They were brining it and had a two man advantage after pulling the goalie and getting a power play on a Neal trip but Marc Andre Fleury decided he wanted to be a big deal again and shut the door.

MAF was pretty outstanding tonight. He made 36 saves on the night but saved his best for the third period when the Hawks came out buzzing when they were leading out an extra forward on the breaks and beating the Penguins into the zone and getting great chances. They put two past him but he was a brick wall the last half of the third period. MAF hasn’t been overly great recently but he really snapped back to form.

Chris Kunitz continues to be outstanding. He scored a huge power play goal to open up the scoring and just continues to play great hockey. Much the same can be said for Pascal Dupuis and Matt Cooke but these are the kind of guys who are pushing the Penguins to wins and when teams are putting all their energy to stop Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal and James Neal these are the guys who are coming through with big plays to get the team points.

Speaking of Malkin how good has this guy been? After tonight he is now the leader in the league in points and is averaging 1.44 points per game. Malkin has had multiple point games in 9 of his last 14 and collected 25 points in those games. While he didn’t have a goal tonight he set up all three and made an unreal pass on the Kunitz goal. Those that were saying that Malkin just isn’t the same player is just dead wrong right now.

Deryk Engelland might be the next Penguins defenseman to miss some time but not because of injury. He gave a hit to a Blackhawks player and his forearm/elbow made contact with the head and you could argue that he left his feet. I would imagine he will be suspended a game or two.

I do not get into the hits stat too much because in a regular season game it really doesn’t mean much but the Penguins outhit the Hawks 30-11. Pretty physical for the game. The Penguins also won 37-of-60 faceoffs including one with 2.5 seconds left in the third period in the defensive zone. It was a huge advantage tonight.

Game again on Friday against the Jets.

Penguins Game Day 34 - vs. Chicago Blackhawks

2011-12-20T16:32:00.000-05:00

Chicago Blackhawks

7:00 p.m., CONSOL Energy Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Maybe the best Lange call ever:

Boom.

The last time they met:

February 20, 2011 - Chicago 3, Pittsburgh 2

The Penguins probables (according to Seth over at Empty Netters):

Forwards
Chris Kunitz - Evgeni Malkin - James Neal
Matt Cooke - Jordan Staal - Tyler Kennedy
Steve Sullivan - Joe Vitale - Pascal Dupuis
Eric Tangradi - Craig Adams - Arron Asham

Defense
Brooks Orpik - Matt Niskanen
Simon Despres - Deryk Engelland
Alexandre Picard - Ben Lovejoy

Goaltender
Marc Andre Fleury

The Blackhawks probables:

Forwards
Jeremy Morin - Jonathan Toews - Patrick Kane
Patrick Sharp - Marcus Kruger - Marian Hossa
Michal Frolik - Dave Bolland - Bryan Bickell
Andrew Brunette - Jamal Mayers - Viktor Stalberg

Defense
Duncan Keith - Brent Seabrook
Nick Leddy - Niklas Hjalmarsson
John Scott - Steve Montador

Goaltender
Ray Emery

The stats:

Steelers Game 14 - 49ers 20, Steelers 3

2011-12-20T11:48:00.001-05:00

Losing 20-3 on Monday Night Football on a week where if you win you basically clinch the top seed for the entirety of the AFC playoffs is not fun. The Steelers were manhandled at Candlestick Park last night and while Candlestick had its own problems the Steelers were worse. Now, I might sound a little down but this wasn’t a case of the Steelers just not showing up, this was an outstanding performance by the 49ers and they are no scrubs, they are now 11-3 and holding one of the top spots in the NFC. This recap will be brief. Short week and there really isn’t much to say.

-A lot of people are going to be playing doctor today as Ben Roethlisberger had noticeable pain in his left ankle and that pain probably did not help in the three interceptions that he threw. ESPN Next Level also brought out a stat after the game that showed that Ben was only 4-of-14 throwing the ball down the field 15 yards or more and he threw all three of his interceptions in that zone. What was pretty key in that is the transfer of weight in his throw and not following the whole way through. He was 21-of-30 in throws under 15 yards so he was affective but it just wasn’t enough. I thought that if Ben was able to go he should play last night. Obviously in hindsight that was a bad decision but I am still sticking with my gut that he should have been in there. Maybe he shouldn’t have been in there down 17 late in the game when it was over, but that is another story. Right now, and before the game last night, I thought they should sit down Ben the next two weeks and get that ankle as healthy as possible before the playoffs. He wasn’t great overall last night but he did make some really tough throws and battled the entire game. You can blame him, but I’m not going to.

-The Steelers offense as a whole really wasn’t terrible last night. They converted 8-of-14 third downs and gained almost 400 yards of total offense and rushed for 4.4 yards per carry. All of that is pretty solid against one of the best defenses in the league. The problem was twofold for the Steelers: 1) turnovers and 2) field position. The Steelers moved the ball pretty well in the early going but the two interceptions by Roethlisberger were just brutal for the Steelers flow of the game and they led to six points for the 49ers. The field position game was terribly lost by the Steelers and this was because of 49ers punter Andy Lee. He is one of the best in the game and averaged almost 48 yards per punt and pinned the Steelers inside the 20 four times last night. It is hard to go 90 yards and score in the NFL and the Steelers had to do it all night.

-The offensive line was pretty decent at the beginning of the night but really fell apart late. San Francisco’s stud outside linebacker Aldon Smith brutalized Max Starks and put Ben in the turf. He also had seven, SEVEN, quarterback hits. Unreal.

-Stopping the run is what the 49ers are good at but the Steelers actually did a pretty nice job running the football. As a team they ran for 84 yards but that was only on 19 carries. It seems a little curious that they only ran the ball 19 times despite the success but they are the coaches and they know way better than I. Rashard Mendenhall continues to play really good football as he ran 15 times for 64 yards. I don’t know what happened five weeks ago but those last five games he has really ran with passion and ran hard. A lot of people think he dances too much and doesn’t like contact but last night he was putting his shoulder down and trying to get that extra yard. I like what I saw from him and the running game as a whole.

-One thing that I am kind of used to is when the game is over Steelers fans always talking about what the Steelers did and not what the other team did well. Sometimes it is the Steelers fault that they lose games more than it is the other team but that was not the case last night. The 49ers defense is tops in the league in sacks, turnover margin and scoring defense and they were on top of their game even without stud linebacker Patrick Willis. While Roethlisberger threw the three picks and fumbled once it was more of a product of the 49ers defense forcing the turnovers. San Francisco has an outstanding special teams unit and they pinned the Steelers deep and made them drive on that great defense to score. They are going to win that battle more often than not. The Steelers played some sloppy football which included, but was not limited to, nine penalties for 72 yards, but last night was more the 49ers winning than the Steelers losing.

-On the flip side the Steelers defense was good, but not great, last night. They held the 49ers to only 287 yards and 4-of-13 on third downs but they didn’t register a single sack and only one quarterback hit. Alex Smith didn’t make a ton happen but he dinked and dunked the hell out of the Steelers defense. The Steelers will let you do that and wait for you to make a mistake but Smith didn’t make that mistake which led to the final result. You got to have pass rush and not having James Harrison and having LaMarr Woodley still not playing full games because of the hamstring was an uphill battle.

-This loss is not the end of the season. The Steelers are now 10-4, the same with the Baltimore Ravens. The Steelers play the Rams and Browns while the Ravens play the Browns and Bengals. Baltimore is a pretty bad road team and has to travel to Cincinnati the final game of the season. The division title is not out of question. I know some people last night told me that the Ravens wouldn’t lose to the Bengals but I assume those are the same people that said the Ravens wouldn’t lose to Tennessee, Seattle or Jacksonville. A lot of time left in the season. The Steelers are playing two pretty bad teams to finish it out and will probably finish 12-4. At the beginning of the year I told you 12-4 would be how the Steelers went would you give a shit if they lost to the 49ers on the road? No. They are in the playoffs and at worst will have to travel to Denver to play the Broncos. It could be a lot worse.

-I will say right now that I don’t think Ben or LaMarr should play the rest of the regular season. The Steelers will probably play in the wildcard weekend so get them two good weeks of rest and try to be as healthy as possible for when the games really matter. They should be able to beat both of those teams.

-It wasn’t pretty last night but losses happen. Is it frustrating that they lost the way they did? Hell yea. Is the season over or is this team not one of the best ones in the AFC? No. The Texans are playing with its third string quarterback, the Patriots have one of the worst defenses I have ever seen and you saw who the Ravens lost to this year. Why wouldn’t the Steelers be right there? They lost to the Ravens twice (supposedly one of the best teams in the AFC), the 49ers (currently the number two seed in the NFC) and the Texans at full strength (again, top team, right). Pardon me if I still think the Steelers are right there in the AFC.

Short week. Go take a nap and get ready for the Rams.

Steelers Clinch Playoff Spot

2011-12-18T16:05:00.001-05:00

While the Steelers didn’t play yet this week they were able to clinch a playoff berth with some losses by AFC teams around the league. At 10-3 the Steelers are the second team in the AFC to clinch a spot in the post season as Houston won the AFC South last week.

The Steelers had a few different scenarios to capture a playoff berth but they got in with a loss by Tennessee. The Titans were taken down by the Colts for Indianapolis’ first win of the season.

The Steelers are still in a situation where they can win the AFC North but they will need to win out the rest of their games and have the Ravens lose one more contest. The Steelers play at San Francisco, vs. St. Louis and at Cleveland to end the year while the Ravens are at San Diego, vs. Cleveland and at Cincinnati to finish the year. It is going to be up in the air but it should be a wild finish.

With one more win, or a Jets loss, the Steelers will at least be the number five seed with one the loss by Tennessee. This is a pretty big thing as it might set up the Steelers a little better in the divisional round if they are the five seed rather than the six seed as well as letting them play whoever wins the AFC West which it seems as if nobody wants to do.

Baltimore and New England can also clinch playoff spots with wins today or a combination of losses from other teams but as of now it is only the Steelers and Texans in the playoffs as of right now. It’s a great place to be.

This is the 27th playoff appearance for the Steelers and the eighth time since 2001 that they will be in the playoffs.

Penguins Game Day 33 - vs. Buffalo Sabres

2011-12-17T16:57:00.000-05:00

Buffalo Sabres

7:00 p.m., CONSOL Energy Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Honestly, it's getting bad and hard to watch. The Penguins called up Carl Sneep and Jason Williams from the AHL. Sneep has never played in the NHL. Unreal. I didn't get to watch the game but I guess Paul Martin was banged up. This is getting out of hand.

Who knows if there will be a recap. You guess is as good as mine.

Season Series (Buffalo Leads 1-0):

October 15, 2011 - Buffalo 3, Pittsburgh 2

The Penguins probables:

Forwards
Chris Kunitz - Evgeni Malkin - James Neal
Matt Cooke - Pascal Dupuis - Tyler Kennedy
Steve Sullivan - Joe Vitale - Arron Asham
Steve MacIntyre - Craig Adams - Eric Tangradi

Defense
Paul Martin - Deryk Engelland
Matt Niskanen - Brooks Orpik
Simon Despres - Alexandre Picard

Goaltender
Marc Andre Fleury

The Sabres probables:

ForwardsThomas Vanek - Paul Szczechura - Jason Pominville
Tyler Ennis - Derek Roy - Drew Stafford
Luke Adam - Paul Gaustad - Zack Kassian
Cody McCormick - Matt Ellis - Marc-Andre Gragnani-*

Defense
Robyn Regehr - Andrej Sekera
Christian Ehrhoff - Jordan Leopold
Brayden McNabb - Mike Weber

Goaltender
Jhonas Enroth

The stats:

Steelers Game Day 14 - @ San Francisco 49ers

2011-12-17T12:00:00.000-05:00

Monday Night Football. James Farrier was on Rome is Burning on Thursday afternoon and was asked if after all this time in the NFL if he still gets fired up playing in prime time and he went on for a few minutes talking about how he, and the team, still gets unreal pumped for prime time games. The whole nation is watching you and you are the only game on TV. The Steelers haven’t played since last Thursday and I am sure they are chomping at the bit to get back on the field.

Coming into the season if I told you that the 10-3 Steelers would be going to San Francisco to play the 10-3 49ers what would you have said? You probably would have bet me a ton of money that the 49ers weren’t going to be this good and that this game might have just been the first step of a Steelers trip to the top of the AFC and clinching up the AFC North. Fact is that the Steelers are going to need some help to win the AFC North and they will have to win out while the 49ers are fighting for home field advantage after already winning the NFC West. There are usually a few teams each year which come out and surprise you and this year it is the 49ers.

It should be a fun game to watch because not too often over the past couple of years can we play an NFC team this late in the season that was actually good and already in the playoffs. I would imagine that the 49ers are going to be geeked up for this game after the loss to the Cardinals and the 49ers are calling for a Red Out for the game tomorrow. You know there are going to be some terrible towels flying around and hopefully they can be heard on the TV.

Let’s get to the stats.

Last Week:

Pittsburgh 14, Cleveland 3
Passing: Roethlisberger - 16/21, 280 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT
Rushing: Mendenhall - 18 carries, 76 yards, 0 TD
Receiving: Brown - 5 rec, 151 yards, 1 TD

Arizona 21, San Francisco 19
Passing: Smith - 18/37, 175 yards, 0 TD, 0 INT
Rushing: Gore - 10 carries, 72 yards, 1 TD
Receiving: Crabtree - 7 rec, 63 yards, 0 TD

All-Time Record vs. San Francisco: 9-10 (0-0 Playoffs)

Last Five Meetings

Sept. 23, 2007 - Pittsburgh 37, San Francisco 16
Nov. 17, 2003 - San Francisco 30, Pittsburgh 14
Nov. 7, 1999 - Pittsburgh 27, San Francisco 6
Dec. 15, 1996 - San Francisco 25, Pittsburgh 15
Sept. 5, 1993 - San Francisco 24. Pittsburgh 13

Team Stats

Offense (rank in NFL)

Total Offense
Pittsburgh: 371.6 yards/game (11th)
San Francisco: 309.0 yards/game (26th)

Passing
Pittsburgh: 257.1 yards/game (9th)
San Francisco: 182.1 yards/game (29th)

Rushing
Pittsburgh: 114.5 yards/game (17th)
San Francisco: 126.9 yards/game (7th)

Points
Pittsburgh: 21.7 points/game (19th)
San Francisco: 23.6 points/game (12th)

Defense

Total Defense
Pittsburgh: 276.1 yards/game (2nd)
San Francisco: 305.1 yards/game (5th)

Pass
Pittsburgh: 179.1 yards/game (1st)
San Francisco: 234.5 yards/game (18th)

Rush
Pittsburgh: 97.0 yards/game (6th)
San Francisco: 70.5 yards/game (1st)

Points
Pittsburgh: 15.2 points/game (2nd)
San Francisco: 14.0 points/game (1st)

Hit the jump for a closer look at the San Francisco 49ers

Quarterback

If I were sitting down and making a list of quarterbacks that didn’t scare me I think that Alex Smith would firmly make that list. Now don’t get me wrong Smith has quarterbacked this team to a 10-3 record but he isn’t doing that by going out and completing a ton of passes or putting the team on his back. There is nothing wrong with that except for the fact that if you shut down the run game or the defense doesn’t have the best game then you are going to struggle. The case in point would be the contest that Smith had against the Ravens on Thanksgiving night where he was forced to throw the football and just couldn’t get anything done.

Smith is coming off a pretty tough game against the Cardinals where the 49ers fell 21-19 and this was one of those games where Smith was forced to throw the football. He had a season-high 37 attempts and only was able to complete 18 of them for 175 yards and didn’t find the end zone. Without making you do any math that works out to a season low 4.73 yard per attempt average and 49% completion percentage. That is not going to win you many games and against a pretty average Cardinals defense that might have 49ers fans worried.

Overall Smith is completing just under 62% of his passes which is pretty average and also had a 7.17 yard per attempt average which ranks 16th in the league among qualified quarterbacks. He isn’t going to get het ball down the field and he only has a season long pass of 56 yards. While he isn’t pushing the ball down the field a lot he is taking care of the football as he only has five interceptions on the season. A lot can be said about not throwing for a lot of yard or taking the “check down” approach but if you aren’t turning the football over then you are going to give your team a good chance of winning. Smith has not thrown more than one interception in a game this season.

While passing yards aren’t the end all be all of making the offense run you typically run into a 300 yard passing game at some point in the season. Not Alex Smith. He only has three games this season where he has thrown for more than 250 yards with his season high being a 291 yard performance in a one point win over Philadelphia. On the other side of that he has seven games this year where he has failed to throw for more than 180 yards. Woof.

When we look at the advanced stats we see that Smith is about average in those also. He ranks 15th in the league in defensive-adjusted yards above replacement (DYAR) at 491 which basically gives the value of the quarterback's performance compared to replacement level, adjusted for situation and opponent and then translated into yardage. Smith also ranks 15th with a 8.4% defensive-adjusted value over average (DVOA). This number represents value, per play, over an average quarterback in the same game situations. The more positive the DVOA rating, the better the player's performance. Negative DVOA represents below-average offense. I will be referring to both stats in the post but the simple version of the two is that DYAR represents a player with more total value and DVOA represents a player with more value per play. Smith is about average in both situations. Not too scary in my book.

Running Backs

The ground game is what has propelled this football team all season and coupled with a really strong defense this is a really good football team where they don’t need their quarterback to do a lot and try to win games through the air. The mainstay in the 49ers ground game is Frank Gore and is showing that he is one of the best backs so far this season. He already had reached the 1,000 yard mark with 1,054 yards on 234 carries for a healthy 4.5 yard per carry average.

When looking at Gore’s year it is really a roller coaster ride with highs and lows that come in streaks. Gore struggled to start the season as he couldn’t even get more than 60 yards rushing and had a yard per carry average less than 3.0 and only had a long run of 16 yards and scored a mere one touchdown.

After the struggle of the first three games Gore really became the back that most expected him to be this year with five straight 100 yard rushing games and scored a touchdown in all but one of those games. The big game was a 15 carry, 141 yard performance against the Lions. During those fives games the 49ers won all five of them as he averaged over 5.5 yards per carry in each of those games.

Since then Gore has yet to run for 100 yards and his final two games have gone for 72 and 73 yards. He only has one touchdown in the last six games and in his last four he is only averaging 3.9 yards per carry. Not really as strong and in turn they have lost two of the last three games.

While the numbers will say that Gore is having a nice season he nearly ranks dead last in both DYAR and DVOA, ranking 35th in both statistics. His -5 DYAR and -9.2% are only above Daniel Thomas, Thomas Jones and Chris Johnson this season and just below Peyton Hillis who has been pretty bad this season. Gore also ranks 33rd in the league with a 42% success rate which represents the player's consistency, measured by successful running plays (the definition of success being different based on down and distance) divided by total running plays. What seems like a good year by the raw numbers turns out is not an overly productive year.

Gore’s backup is rookie Kendall Hunter out of Oklahoma State and so far this season he’s carried the ball 82 times for 322 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Hunter has one game this season where he has carried the ball more than 10 times and that was in a win over the Cardinals on November 20th when he had 27 yards on 11 carries. Hunter will probably see some time against the Steelers and should get anywhere between six and nine carries. He has one game over 50 yards rushing and that was when he went for 65 yards on nine carries against the Bucs way back in early October. Typically when you think of the backup running back you think of a change up guy that can catch the ball out of the backfield but Hunter only has 11 catches on the season so I wouldn’t expect too much out of him in that aspect. Hunter also sports a 1 DYAR and a -8.8% DVOA so I wouldn’t worry too much when he gets into the game.

Receiver

Three years ago the 49ers took Michael Crabtree out of Texas Tech and so far he hasn’t played up the ability. Last year he made only 55 catches for 741 yards and six touchdowns. This year he’s already matched the 55 catch total but only has 668 yards to show for it while only catching two touchdown passes in 12 games.

Crabtree is a physically gifted player but still looks as if he is still trying to figure out the receiver position. Granted, it doesn’t help to have Alex Smith throwing you the football but he only has one game where he has more than 100 receiving yards and only has four separate games with more than five catches. On a typical day Crabtree is going to make five catches for about 60 yards and judging by his two total touchdowns he isn’t going to be a huge threat in the red zone.

Last week Crabtree had seven catches but was largely limited to only 63 yards. When the 49ers played the Ravens on Thanksgiving he had six catches for only 54 yards and no scores. In between that he made only four catches but it was for 96 yards and a touchdown against the Rams. I am not going to say the Rams don’t have a good secondary, but the Rams don’t have a good secondary. I would expect Ike Taylor to be on Crabtree for much of the game and after a few so-so games it would be great to see Ike bounce back.

Crabtree is the highest ranking 49er on the advanced stat metrics but he is still way down on the list. HE ranks 46th among qualified receivers with a 79DYAR and is even worse with a -1.4% DVOA which is good for 49th in the league. Not very solid as your number one wide out.

The most dangerous pass catcher on the team isn’t even a receiver. Tight end Vernon Davis is really a freak specimine from the tight end position and might be the best athelete on this 49ers team. In the past two seasons he has caught over 900 yards and over 50 catches. In 2009 he caught 13 touchdown passes and last year he caught seven. This year he has 49 catches for 548 yards and five touchdown catches. A modest year yardage wise but is still a threat to beat you if he gets matched up on a linebacker. He only has one 100 yard day which was in week three and combined in the last three weeks he has 10 catches for 102 yards so he use has been neutralized to some degree.

Davis doesn’t stack up all that well against his peers as he ranks 19th among qualified tight ends with a 43 DYAR and a worse 22nd in DVOA with 2.4%. Davis does rank a little bit higher on the list with a solid 72% catch rate but his overall value this season isn’t where you would expect it to be after two really solid seasons the past two years. I wouldn’t sleep on Davis though as he can make a few plays that wreck havoc on the defense.

Josh Morgan (who?) and Ted Ginn are the third and fourth leading receivers, respectfully, but don’t really scare me a whole bunch. Morgan has only 15 catches on the year for 220 yards and a touchdown and Ginn has 206 yards on only 18 catches. Nothing to see here.

Offensive Line

From left to right the 49ers line reads as Joe Staley, Mike Iupati, Jonathan Goodwin, Adam Snyder and Anthony Davis. Davis and Iupati are both second year guys while every other member of the offensive line has more than five years of experience with Goodwin have 10 years under his belt. Despite the experience on the line they are not all that solid protecting Smith. San Francisco ranks 29th in the league with an adjusted sack rate of 9.1% which gives sacks (plus intentional grounding penalties) per pass attempt adjusted for down, distance, and opponent. The 49ers have given up 39 sacks on the season which when put in perspective is two more than a Steelers offensive line that has almost a new combination ever week.

Running the football hasn’t been overly good at running the football where they rank 24th in adjusted line yards (ALY) which is a formula takes all running back carries and assigns responsibility to the offensive line based on the following percentages: losses: 120% value, 0-4 Yards: 100% value, 5-10 Yards: 50% value, 11+ Yards: 0% value. These numbers are then adjusted based on down, distance, situation, opponent, and the difference in rushing average between shotgun compared to standard formations. San Francisco’s ALY is 3.89 which is just below the Browns running the football.

The 49ers also aren’t running the ball very well in short yardage and goal to go situations as they rank 20th in the league with a 20% stuffed ranking which is the percentage of runs where the running back is tackled at or behind the line of scrimmage. They are even worse in terms of power success (Percentage of runs on third or fourth down, two yards or less to go, that achieved a first down or touchdown. Also includes runs on first-and-goal or second-and-goal from the two-yard line or closer.) where they rank 31st in the league at 47%. Not good for the 49ers.

The 49ers don’t have a tendency when running the football but they do like to get out on the edges. A total of 27% of the team’s runs are off either the left (15%) or right (12%) ends and they are only one of 12 teams that have 10% or more of their runs going off each ends. The 49ers are right below the league average as they run up the middle or off the guard 45% of the time (NFL average 49%) but they do favor running to the left tackle (17%) than the right tackle (11%). They are only one of nine teams to run for at least 10% in each of the five zones on the offensive line according to Football Outsiders. That is a pretty balanced run attack and even though they aren’t particularly successful they can keep the defense guessing.

The 49ers have the most success running off left tackle Joe Staley where they rank fifth in the league with a ALY of 4.68 which is well above the league average of 4.08. They are also successful running off the right end where there 4.95 ALY is fourth in the league and well over a yard over the NFL average. They do struggle running up the middle where they rank 31st in the league with a ALY of 3.33. This could be a reason they struggle so badly in short yardage situation.

Defense

The San Francisco 49ers might not be all that capable on offense, especially if the run game isn’t going, but the defense can more than make up for it as they can get after the quarterback and create turnovers. The 49ers have three players with six sacks or more and have 32 as a team and they have intercepted 18 passes with two players having five each and recovered 13 fumbles. Creating short fields for the offense is key for this team and nothing does that better than forcing turnovers.

Overall the 49ers have the third ranked defense according to their DVOA at -11.5%. Remember that with DVOA positive percentages represent yards so on defense you want to be negative so you can see they have been very good this year. They also rank fourth in the league in Weighted Defensive DVOA at -11.1% which is adjusted so that earlier games in the season become gradually less important. This just shows that the 49ers defense has not just beat up on teams early in the year with the lockout holding the offenses back but they have been consistent down the stretch playing great defense. The 49ers are best against the run in the entire league with a -34.4% DVOA and ninth against the pass at 2.5% so all around there doesn’t seem to be a huge weakness to the team.

Former Penn State linebacker NaVorro Bowman is the leading tackler on the team from his linebacker position with 113 tackles (88 solo) on the season. Bowman was a pretty solid linebacker in the tackle department through the first half of the season but has really tailed off since he blew up with 15 tackles against the New York Giants on November 13. Since that time he has played in four games and had three, nine, six and three tackles in those games with the nine tackle game coming on Thanksgiving day against the Ravens. He hasn’t recorded a sack yet this season but has recovered three fumbles and defended six passes.

The heart and soul of the defense is linebacker Patrick Willis but there is a huge question on whether he is going to be able to play in this game. He has a hamstring injury which is real touch and go and he didn’t play last week so it should be interesting to see if he can get back into the lineup against the Steelers on Monday night. He is now in his fifth season and the first four years in the league he has over 125 tackles and with two sacks this season he has 17 in his career and 12 forced fumbles (four in 2011). He is a freakishly athletic linebacker that makes plays all over the field. He might not have the huge sack numbers or force the most turnovers or have the most tackles (93) but it will be a huge advantage to the Steelers offense if he doesn’t play.

Outside linebacker Aldon Smith has been the main pass rushing threat for the team this season as he ranks eighth in the NFL with 10.5 sacks and forcing a pair of fumbles. The rookie from Missouri has three sacks in his past two games and has four different games with more than one sack. This will be the guy that the Steelers need to maybe chip with a back but he won’t be the only guy that can get to the quarterback. Opposite outside linebacker Ahmad Brooks has six sacks on the season while defensive tackle Justin Smith has 6.5 sacks to give the 49ers a trio of pass rushers that could feast on the offensive line if they are not on point.

The defensive backfield is led by free safety Dashon Goldson and Carlos Rogers who each have five interceptions on the season while Rogers leads the team with 15 pass defended and has scored the team’s only defensive touchdown on the season.

The defensive backfield can be had as they aren’t great in the secondary but as I spoke above a good pass rush can change that in an instant. According to DVOA the 49ers are pretty average against wide receivers where they rank 11th with a 9.4% DVOA against the opposing top receiver and 10th with a -19.6% DVOA against third and fourth receivers. Where they buckle down a little bit is against an opponent’s second receiver where they rank sixth in the league with a -18.1% DVOA. Those are pretty average numbers but I think this might be a little misleading depending on who you would classify the number two receiver for the Steelers. I would assume that Football Outsiders use Mike Wallace as the number one receiver on the team due to ranking second in DVOA and DYAR among qualified receivers so that leaves Antonio Brown who ranks 23rd and 16th, respectively, in those areas. Brown has been hammering teams and while this might depend on who the quarterback is the Steelers have a deep WR pool that can make you pay no matter who is the number one or two receiver.

The San Francisco defensive line has the second best ALY among teams at 3.49 only behind the Bears while ranking as the top team in terms of power success against (36%). In short yardage situations it is very hard to run against the 49ers but they don’t do a great job at tackling runner behind the line of scrimmage. While it is very tough to get that one or two yards against them you have a pretty decent chance of gaining positive yards on any given run play. They rank 29th in the league with a 16% stuffed rate which is key for the Steelers, especially if Ben Roethlisberger doesn’t play, because the Steelers can’t afford to be in second or third and long plays.

Thoughts:

-The big question entering the game is the status on Ben Roethlisberger. As you [probably] know Ben has a high ankle sprain in his left foot that he hurt in the first half of the Thursday night contest against the Browns. He did come back and finish the game but was very limited in what he could do and after sleeping that night the ankle has tightened up and he was still in a walking boot as of Thursday. Bruce Arians said that it was going to be a true game time decision to whether Ben would play as they will see how his mobility was in pregame warm-ups and then decide from there if he was going to play or not. A high ankle sprain is usually at least two weeks and can be as many as six so this would really be pushing it for him to get out there any play. To be honest if he doesn’t play this week then I don’t see him playing next week and at that rate I would hold him out against the Browns on New Year’s Day just to keep him fresh for the playoffs.

-If Ben can’t go then it is going to be Charlie Batch’s game to win or lose. Dennis Dixon is going to be the backup and according to Arians he will only see time in the game if Batch gets hurt. Since 2009 Batch has only attempted 53 passes so it’s not like he has been a lot of action in his time so I am not really sure what to expect. He did start two games last year while Ben was suspended and actually played some pretty good football. He completed nearly 60% of his throws for 352 yards and three touchdowns in his brief stint as quarterback. I would think that Batch isn’t going to be asked to be the savior of the offense for this game and any other game he might start to end the season but just taking care of the football would be huge in my book.

-That being said the running game is going to have to play even more a part of the game even if Roethlisberger is able to play. On the year the Steelers are averaging almost 115 yards per game which ranks 17th in the league but in the last three games they are averaging over 130 yards per contest. Over the last three games they are running the ball almost 30 times per game so they are getting to it. The 49ers are a great run defense so this isn’t going to be easy like it was against the Browns but if the offensive line can get the run game going it will be very good. Like I said they need this even if Ben is playing because if he does play he is not going to be mobile by any stretch of the imagination so the threat of play action is going to be a must. After not starting out the season so hot the Steelers rank 10th in rush offense with a 7.8% DVOA so it will be interesting to see how they attack the 49ers.

-The Steelers defense is going to have to get some pressure on Alex Smith and stop the run. Smith hasn’t played great football this season but if you let him sit back there and not get touched he will eventually find someone open, but that goes with any QB. I know both of those statements see like “duh” type of statements but with how good the 49ers defense has been the Steelers can’t afford to give up huge chunks of yardage to Smith or get lax in the run defense. I don’t think they would do either but it still must be said. The Steelers have been getting after the quarterback at a pretty decent clip with 30 sacks and the eighth best adjusted sack rate in the NFL at 7.6%. Some people have got on the Steelers for the lack of pressure but the second half of the year they have really ramped it up and played some good defense.

-In close games it usually comes down to the little things and that usually is whichever team doesn’t turn the ball over, plays solid special teams and doesn’t commit stupid penalties. San Francisco ranks 26th in the league with over seven penalties a game for over 62 yards. The Steelers on the other hand are 16th in the league with just over six penalties a game with just under 54 yards of penalties. The Steelers have been a little penalty prone in the recent past with 12 in their game against the Browns and over seven a game in the last three. If they can keep things in check and play a clean game it will go a long way in giving them a chance to win, no matter who plays.

-This game could have a totally different complexion depending on the Baltimore Ravens game. Not saying I don’t want the Steelers to win but if the Chargers are able to take down the Ravens the night before on Sunday Night Football then this game is uber huge for the Steelers to win in order to be in the driver’s seat for the AFC North and possibly the top seed in the AFC playoffs. If the Ravens beat the Chargers then I think it is easier for me to swallow Ben not playing because I don’t see the Ravens losing after Sunday night even if the Bengals have something to play for. I am not saying that the Steelers have to play Ben if the Ravens lose but it is pretty interesting to think about. If the Ravens lose then I don’t think you should play Ben even if he is healthy enough to go out there and do most things. Just isn’t worth it to be in the long run. The Ravens game is interesting because you know the Steelers players are going to be paying attention to that and if the Ravens do lose they are going to come out even more fired up.

PREDICTION – This is going to be a real tough game for the Steelers and an even harder on to pick because of the uncertainty of a lot of key players for the Steelers. That being said I think the defense is going to go out there with something to prove and create a few turnovers. They are going to force the 49ers to throw the football to win and I don’t think Alex Smith is going to be able to beat a team of the Steelers quality on his own. I also don’t think that Charlie Batch is going to be able to do a whole ton but I think he can do enough to win. Steelers 20, 49ers 17.

Hit it.

Penguins Game Day 32 - @ Ottawa Senators

2011-12-16T17:30:00.000-05:00

Ottawa Senators

7:30 p.m., Scotiabank Place, Ottawa, Ontario

Honestly no idea on who is going to play for the Penguins. Everyone is hurt. No Gonchar for the Sens tonight along with no Milan Michalek (tied for league lead in goals scored) the Sens will also be short handed. Eric Tangradi will probably get into the lineup tonight.

The Sens are only a .500 ball club but the Penguins themselves are only 5-4-1 in the last 10 contests and have fallen behind the Rangers and red hot Flyers (9-1-0 in last 10). I have said it many times before but it's only December and as long as they are around the hunt for a division championship in March I can't complain. They are struggling but every team struggles at some point in the year. Hell, look at the Bruins to start the year. They were brutal before not losing a game in like two months.

Also interesting to note that Chris Pronger has been ruled out for the rest of the season AND the playoffs for the Flyers. He has severe post concussion symptoms and while this is not related to this game it is related to the overall view of concussions now in hockey. If you could put together a team of players that were out with concussions or head injuries you would win the cup. Tough times for the NHL and it will be interesting to see how they try and fix this going forward. You can't have all your top players sitting out for long periods of time. Changes probably need to be made. I am not sure what those are but I would hope that the NHLPA and the league are getting started on those internal discussions now.

The season series (Penguins lead 1-0):

November 25 - Pittsburgh 6, Ottawa 3

The Penguins probables:

Forwards
Chris Kunitz - Evgeni Malkin - James Neal
Pascal Dupuis - Jordan Staal - Tyler Kennedy
Steve Sullivan - Joe Vitale - Matt Cooke
Eric Tangradi - Craig Adams - Arron Asham

Defense
Paul Martin - Deryk Engelland
Brook Orpik - Matt Niskanen
Alexander Picard - Simon Despres

Goaltender
Brent Johnson

The Senators probables:

Forwards
Colin Greening - Jason Spezza - Daniel Alfredsson
Nick Foligno - Peter Regin - Chris Neil
Kaspars Daugavins - Zack Smith - Erik Condra
Zenon Konopka - Jesse Winchester - Bobby Butler

Defense
Chris Phillips - Brian Lee
Jared Cowen - Erik Karlsson
David Rundblad - Matt Carkner

Goaltender
Alex Auld

The stats:

Todd Graham Leaves Pitt

2011-12-14T16:07:00.000-05:00

As you know here at the TRBB I don't do a ton of Pitt stuff but from time to time I will put something together about the program and today is one of those times as a story broke earlier this morning that head football coach Todd Graham was leaving Pitt and heading to Arizona State University.

On the surface this shouldn't shock a lot of people. Coaching turnover in college football is part of the DNA of the sport and we see a lot of times where coaches go to a place in order to get to some other job that they really want to be at. Todd Graham has done this throughout his whole career and that makes it even more of a less shocker that he is gone after one year. Coaching changes happen and Graham said that this was what was best for his family and I think this is a job that he has wanted for some time. Should I, or anyone else, tell him what he should and shouldn't like or what job he should take? I don't think so. I wouldn't want someone telling me where I have to work and that I have to be happy in that job. If this was the only thing we were dealing with than that would be one thing, but it isn't.

When you leave a job or you move to another city there is a respectable way to do it and then there is a way that makes you look like a jackass. Todd Graham took the latter and decided it was the best way to go. Earlier in the year in a team meeting he told the student-athletes that he was going to be here and that he, and the staff, had a five year contract and that they were going to be here. Good, that is what people like to hear, someone that will honor the contract they signed and start to build something here at Pitt. Instead Graham sent an e-mail to the director of football operations today and told him to forward a message onto his players. The players found out they will be playing for a new coach via text message. Technology everyone. This is a pretty embarrassing way to leave a program and you have to feel back for the kids in this situation and if you follow any of them on twitter you really see what they are going through. Sad to see.

Graham brought a "high octane" offense to Pitt this year which was completely radical from the pro style offense the team ran the year before and needless to say it was a rough year. Pitt went 6-6 and two of those wins were against teams that me, you and 18 other guys would be able beat. It wasn't impressive but he didn't have the kids to run the system he wanted to. Not saying the Panther players didn't play great this year, they did, but they just aren't the typical players you might find in a run and gun system like Graham wanted to run.

A lot of people during the season were not happy with Graham and how he ran the team and the results on the field. I was willing to look past that as it was only one year with a totally different system. I knew it was going to be a few years before we really got a good look at what Pitt could be in this system, but we won't have to wait very long. Most people look at this and might see it as a good thing that Graham is gone and maybe they can get back to the basics on the field but this goes way beyond the on the field stuff.

What really is going to be interesting is off the field stuff, in my eyes. The Panthers have a pretty decent recruiting class coming in and how many of those kids are going to be willing to commit to a school with no coach and a school where they had four head coaching announcements since 2010. I am sure Graham recruited for his system so those kids have to be wondering what they are going to be getting themselves into. Hopefully Pitt can keep as many of these kids as possible but this has to be one of the main headlines from this announcement today.

Another nugget that is being talked about is if athletic director Steve Pederson is going to survive the latest coaching blunder. Like I said this is the fourth coach in the last few years for the Panthers and you have to wonder if Pederson is able to hire a quality coach after all of this. While this situation is different I wouldn't be shocked to see this cost him his job. While a lot of people are slamming on Pederson for the Graham departure this can hardly be pinned on him. When you hire a guy and give him a five year contract you expect him to be here for five years. I can bet that nobody expected Graham to leave after nine months and this can hardly be put on anyone. For those looking to get rid of Pederson you have to look at the big picture. I read a lot of people saying that Jamie Dixon is a big fan of Pederson and he might be one of the reasons that Dixon is still at Pitt. Not saying they should keep Pederson for that reason but there is always different angles to look at.

Overall I really don't have a problem with Graham leaving. As things come up about how he treated players and his overall attitude at times I think we can say that this may be a blessing in disguise but that doesn't mean it won't kill the program in the short term. He said this was a family decision and I can't really bag him for that. Maybe he is lying (it wouldn't be the first time) but if it really is the best for him and his family then how can you knock that. Coaching changes happen all the time and this isn't the first, or the last, of this type. If he didn't like it here then it wasn't going to be for the long term anyhow. Word is now coming out that he was putting feelers out at Kansas and Texas A&M so he probably wasn't going to be here much longer the way this was going. I can't tell a person to love their job but I am a person that would try to honor the five year commitment I made. That's just me though.

I do have a problem with HOW he left the program though. Be a man and get in front of your kids and tell them you aren't coming back because there is something better. You told them you were going to be back and you jet a little while later they at least deserve to hear that from you. It was a chicken shit way to duck out on the team you coached and jumping from school to school like this. No idea how you answer a recruit when they look you in the eye and asks you how you can speak on commitment when you as the coach can't do the same thing.

Pitt fans are mad and frustrated. I am frustrated. Having four coaches in a few years isn't fun but it is what it is. You might not want to hear this but Pitt probably isn't the most desirable place to coach football. The team constantly gets thrown over the coals and you are lucky to get a half full stadium. Couple that with a conference move and it is going to be hard to get that big time coach that a lot of people want. Like I said before this stuff happens and Pitt will overcome it. They have a lot of important decisions to be made and the 2012 season will go on.

There are a lot of ways you can go with the next coach. I have see people talk Tom Bradley and Jim Tressel but I don't think either is a great option. At a time where you have struggled to find the right guy the last thing you want to do is bring in someone with baggage. Bradley is more than qualified but he is still in the middle of the PSU investigations and Tressel has his own problems. Would you want to hire Bradley and then find out six months down the road he had a part in all of this? What a nightmare. I am not saying that I think Bradley was a part of it but what if he was? I am sure they will look at local guys and national guys but I would expect Pitt to go a little off the radar to hire the next guy, I would.

This has certainly been a shock to a lot but life moves on. This might be a good thing in the end. Only time will tell. Hail to Pitt.

Game 31 Recap - Red Wings 4, Penguins 1

2011-12-13T22:05:00.001-05:00

What started off pretty well for the Penguins ended pretty bad for them as they fell to the Red Wings 4-1 at CONSOL. It wasn’t a bad game by the Penguins but it just wasn’t good enough as the Red Wings just waited for their opportunity and pounced on the Penguins.

The Penguins dominated for a great part of the first two periods of play as they held the Wings to only 13 shots on goal and frustrated them by clogging up the neutral zone and limiting their chances. It only lasted a little while as the Wings took the final lead of the game on a power play goal from Johan Franzen five minutes into the third and then it was put away by a good two on one from Daniel Clearly with under five minutes left. Just not good times.

The Penguins had some chances but rather than putting the puck into the net they were hitting the iron. Evgeni Malkin was the best Penguin on the ice tonight and he registered nine shots on goal and scored the Penguins first goal with just over four seconds left in the first period. After missing the morning skate we didn’t know if he was going to play tonight but it was obvious that he was fine as he was all over the ice tonight. Really great display from Geno and when I talk about the pipes that were hit he accounted for two of those. With the score 2-1 he came down the right wing and clanged one off the far post which could have given the Penguins a ton of life. He also had a chance to give the Penguins a 2-0 lead on the power play but as the puck trickled by Wings goaltender Jimmy Howard and hit the far post and stayed out of the net. Just frustrating.

The Wings were really good tonight though and you can’t take that away from them. Pavel Datsyuk was really good tonight and scored a pretty sick backhander to tie the game at one off a turnover and then assisted on the power play goal to give the Wings the lead for good as he blocked a Matt Cooke clearing pass and got the puck to Franzen.

The Wings then continued their game and just didn’t the Penguins much of a chance. The Pens had a few power plays where they looked really good but Jimmy Howard was up to the task and so was the Red Wings defense. Just frustrating. That being said it is only December and there is a lot of season to go. The Penguins have struggled recently and could really use a few game winning streak to get things back on track. They are still in good shape with the great start they had so I am not overly worried.

The final thing I will talk about is ROOT Sports. During the baseball season I wasn’t a huge fan of everything they did but I understood all of it from their standpoint. During hockey season they haven’t been very good, missing face offs and having the camera leave the puck to watch players on the bench and miss scoring chances. It isn’t good but I don’t really complain much. Tonight they missed a goal. Nobody who was watching ROOT got to see the Franzen goal because ROOT decided to go to commercial instead of sticking with the live play. It was pretty embarrassing. What made it worse was pretending like it didn’t happen and not apologizing or even acknowledging the mistake. Acknowledging it and making a brief statement would have went a long way because mistakes do happen. Just not sure how you run a live event and let that happen. Whatever.

Penguins are back on the ice Friday against the Senators. Hopefully they can get back on the winning track.

Penguins Game Day 31 - vs. Detroit Red Wings

2011-12-13T17:00:00.000-05:00

Detroit Red Wings

7:00 p.m., CONSOL Energy Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

The Pens got on the winning track with a big win against the Islanders but the injury news has not been good since then. Since that time the Penguins have annoucned that Sidney Crosby has had some problems come up and he will be "out indefinitely" while we learned today that both Jordan Staal and Evgeni Malkin will be game time decisions. Staal is a "lower body injury" as he has been in the past so I expect him to play and Malkin actually missed the morning skate today and nobody is really sure what is wrong.

Other than that the Wings are in town so that should be fun. Hopefully MAF can bounce back after a shaky performance against the Islanders with a strong one against the Wings and bring hom a win.

The last time they met:

March 21, 2011 - Penguins 5, Red Wings 4 (SO)

The Penguins probables:

Forwards
Chris Kunitz - Jordan Staal - James Neal
Matt Cooke - Pascal Dupuis - Tyler Kennedy
Steve Sullivan - Joe Vitale - Arron Asham
Jason Williams - Craig Adams - Steve MacIntyre

Defense
Paul Martin - Deryk Engelland
Brooks Orpik - Matt Niskanen
Alexandre Picard - Simon Despres

Goaltender
Marc Andre Fleury

The Wings probables:

Forwards
Johan Franzen - Pavel Datsyuk - Todd Bertuzzi
Valtteri Filppula - Henrik Zetterberg - Jiri Hudler
Dan Cleary - Darren Helm - Chris Conner
Drew Miller - Justin Abdelkader - Tomas Holmstrom

Defense
Nicklas Lidstrom - Ian White
Niklas Kronwall - Jonathan Ericsson
Jakub Kindl - Brad Stuart

Goaltener
Jimmy Howard

The stats: