Loose Slag from The Still Mill
- I'd mentioned in this column last week, about the oddest fact from the win over Cinci being that, once the Stillers scored to take a whopping 4-point lead at 5:12 3Q, RB Rudi Johnson did not touch the ball the remaining 20 minutes of the ballgame. Bizarrely enough, Indy mimicked that stupidity this past Sunday. Edge James had just 3 carries in the 2H. To be sure, once the Stillers bulged the lead to 21-3, his running opportunities were lessened, but before the Stillers scored that third TD, the Dolts had two 2nd-half possessions. James had 2 carries on the first; and none on the 2nd, a series in which Peyton Womaning ran for his life and was nearly safetied. With the score 14-3 during those two 2nd-half possessions, the Dolts could have very easily afforded to have James tote the ball. And it's not like James was getting rebuffed at the LOS. In the 1H, he carried 10 times for 47 yards, or 4.7 yards per crack. His 2 runs on that 1st drive of the 2H netted 3 and 3 yards, which isn't overly shabby. His 3rd and final carry was the 3-yard plunge in which he easily bulldozed James Farrior for the TD.
- One thing you can bet about the Doncos -- they won't make the same mistake as Cinci and Indy. They had the #2 running attack in the league, and when Anderson gets tired, they simply insert the smaller but faster Tatum Bell.
- I'm a bit surprised at all the fretting about the Pola "overturned" INT. Had the INT stood, it would not have iced the game. Here's the deal -- that INT occurred at 5:26 of the 4Q, and it would have given the Stillers the ball on the Indy 48. Given what occurred in the 2H, the Stillers would have plunged the ball twice, then either plunged 1 more time or tried a safe pass. That may have chewed 2:00 of clock. (The 4-play Stiller drive at 4:20 4Q, including the punt, chewed only 1:51 of clock.) Had Indy gotten the ball back at, say, 3:20 4Q, that's plenty of time -- as Indy showed rather easily -- to march down for a TD, and then attempt an onsides kick in order to boot a tying FG.
- If you guzzled beer after beer while watching this game, and/or you haven't rewatched the tape of the game, then spare me any more bullshit about what a "great game" Joey Porter had. The man was a big zero, until he got 2 DONG sacks in the final 1:30 of the game. Indy ran right at Big Joey, with enormous success, yet every time Indy ran to the right, Haggans and company shut down the run. When a blocker was assigned to him, he did jack dick in the pass pressure department. Yes, at times, Porter was flexed out to help provide underneath coverage on the slot receiver, but to go 59 minutes of the game and do nothing, and then your 2 biggest plays come when you're totally untouched and unblocked, does not constitute anything close to a "monster game".
- Speaking of Porter, for those who think that Porter had a game equal to that of Dwight Freeney, let me dispel the difference in what each man did. Freeney faced at least 1 blocker on EVERY play, and oftentimes had 2 blockers (ie, a FB or TE helped out). He manhandled and whipped Marvel Smith so badly that Smith's ass was blistered and bloody by game's end. Even when he was double-teamed, Freeney The Freak fought through and put pressure on the QB. Big Joey Porter, on the other hand, did nothing the entire game, until grabbing 1-1/2 sacks at the end of the game, both coming on plays in which he was entirely UNTOUCHED and UNBLOCKED. If you can't discern the difference in what these 2 players did on Sunday, please visit a site more suitable for your intelligence level, such as SteelersGayNation.
- My esteemed colleague, Steel Phantom, hit the nail on the head in his pre-game analysis, as follows (bold added for emphasis):
"To win, the PS will have to take the crowd out of the game. To do so, they�ll have to score early. There is no reason to expect they will run the ball effectively, not in the early going. Therefore, they�ll have to throw to move it. In other words, SOP per our season long rush charts.
- From my pre-game analysis, this:
"The game will come down to this: how well can Pittsburgh's dime defense limit Manning's passing, and how well will Edge James be able to run the ball against that same dime defense? And, how well will Manning audibilize against the package defenses?"
and:
"Troy Pola vs. Peyton Manning. Pola lines up everywhere, and has been the team's best blitzer this season. Problem is, he's a SS and is one of the team's best pass defenders. Every blitz by Pola leaves this secondary at risk with a vacant hole. How well Manning reads Pola's blitzes, fake-blitzes, and other stunts, will be instrumental in the outcome of this game."
Obviously, Manning's audibles weren't all too great; and he was outfoxed by Pola, particularly on 2 near-INTs. (The 3rd near-INT by Pola was a ball that simply clanged off the hands of TE Bryan Fletcher.)
- Also, this from my pre-game: "If Indy brings up the kitchen sink to jam up the run, the Stillers will have to pass on early downs; running into the teeth of an 8-9 man front is the kind of macho bravado that Billy Cowher loves, but is, of course, sheer stupidity." Praise the Lord that Cowhard, for the first time in his long playoff coaching "career", eschewed the macho-bravado bullshit and hit the opponent where he was thin and soft !!
- It's amazing how many know-it-all's have contacted me, telling me "how wrong" I was in my pre-game. If you're one of them, here�s some simple advice -- go get some stones and start your own web site, and then publish your genius pregame analyses where everyone can review them before and after the game, rather than having your banal rantings buried on page 7 of a message board, or not placed anywhere at all. If you haven't got the stones to do this, then, please, by all means, keep hiding behind your keyboard & computer monitor, and stick a sock on it. Also, it's rather funny that none of these know-it-alls contacted me after the Jan. 2002 AFCC; nor after the playoff loss to Tenn. in Jan. 2003; nor after the AFCC in Jan. 2005. Why? They were probably too busy crying on their Billy Cowher poster�.
- Kudos to Benji for the game-saving tackle of Nick Harper after Tubby's fumble. Here's something to ponder -- would FS Chris Hope have made the tackle, or would he have done his infamous paw-grab at Harper's shoulder pads??
- Cowhard's playoff failures have all -- every one of them, in fact -- been replete with vanilla defenses and dull, unimaginative, ultra-conservative offensive gameplans that were doodled by 4th grade schoolchildren. Kudos to Cowhard for breaking that long cycle with an aggressive, hell-bent defense and an offense that fired the football to wide-open receivers.
- Lost amidst this playoff run is the bizarre, ongoing saga of the team's very best running back sitting on the bench each Sunday in street clothes.
- I honestly thought Peyton Womaning had outgrown his pussboy antics, habits, and instincts that had been so prevalent at Univ. of Tenn. and earlier in his NFL career. Wow, was I wrong. Triv and I rewatched this tape. From the very 1st series, in which there was very marginal pressure, Womaning was backing away from non-existent pressure and displaying happy-feet that would have made Fred Astaire envious. In the words of a former AFC North head coach, Manning looked "skittish" back in the pocket, and all in all, should be embarrassed for pussing out in such a big playoff game.
- DeShaun Foster busted his ankle and is obviously done for the playoffs, thereby diminishing the best the NFC has to offer. The other NFC team, Seattle, lost star RB Shaun Alexader -- arguably the utmost MVP of 2005 -- early in last Sunday's game with a concussion, and he's questionable this week. My gawd -- can Cowhard step into any more good fortune?? I half expect by Saturday that Rod Smith's wife will stab him with a barbeque fork or Mike Anderson will tear his ACL in practice.
- The O-line had zero false starts. Wasn't it nice that Billy Cowhard, the coaching genius that he is, decided to go with the silent count after eschewing it in the Nov. meeting?
- As I said in last week's Slag: "Now that Quincy Morgan has been placed on IR, here's who should be inserted into the game when the Stillers go 4-wide -- HEATH MILLER. Cowher, stupid as ever, actually sat Miller and inserted Sean Morey 3 days ago. Miller is obviously not a WR, but he was 2nd on the team in receptions; is a huge target; has terrific hands; and runs well after the catch. We know Cowhard's a moronic imbecile, but let's hope he has enough brains to LEARN from his mistake and gets Miller into the fucking ballgame!!"
- Triv mentioned on the board that he and I drained his Kegorator while working on the post-game analysis. Allow me to clarify. While I sipped some brew here and there, I was enormously busy typing away and poring through game notes. Meanwhile, Triv sat around guzzling beer like a thirsty nomad in the Mojave Desert. It wasn't until after I'd completed the analysis, some 3 hours later, that I could sit back and really enjoy a brewskie�..
(Still Mill and Stillers.com -- still the only nationally read coverage on the Pittsburgh Stillers that has accurately predicted the how's and the why's of 9 of the past 10 Stiller playoff games�.)