View topic - Stillers-Lions Postgame Analysis and Grades

[StillMill Profile]

Stillers-Lions Postgame Analysis and Grades has been posted by Still Mill at Stillers.com.

[SoCal Stiller Profile]

The Steelers have made some bad personnel decisions of late, but the one they got right was Brown. Could you imagine if they had signed Wallace instead of Brown? I watched a couple Fins games and he actually is playing worse there than he did with the Stillers.

Mill, I thought Mclendon had a better game than you gave him credit for. He was providing good upfield push for much of the game and ran down a few other plays from behind. I actually like what I'm seeing out of both Mclendon and Heyward on that line. If we can just figure out the other side and the MLB not named Timmons we will be solid up the middle again.

BR7 showed again why you don't:

1. Trade him
2. Rebuild
3. Give up on the season

[isfry Profile]

Good, thorough job, Mill. I agree with almost all of your analysis except, of course, the complete lack of credit for the defense in the second half. I also think you might have gone a little easy on Clark. It seemed to me that he bit on the underneath route (when he was the only deep help) which allowed Megatron to get one on one on the 78 yd TD. Yes, Ike still should have made the tackle, but Clark holding his position probably means that pass never gets thrown. He seemed to be out of position more than once, actually, in my view. I thought a C+ or whatever you gave him might have been a little generous. He did, however, redeem himself a bit in the fourth with a couple of good pass defenses, if I recall correctly.

As for the defense overall, and the DC analysis, yes, it started to drizzle a little more. Yes, the Lions are a dome team. They also, however, came into this game with the third ranked passing offense in the league, fourth overall offense. Moreover, half of their six wins on the season came on the road, outdoors, including a win two weeks prior in Chicago. They were then rewarded with a bye week, which should have had them rested and ready. Furthermore, they also had time (twice as much) to game plan for an outdoor game with potential weather, which they presumably did. It might just be possible that the defense for the Steelers actually had something to do with the Lions lack of production in the second half.

I am aware that Stafford missed a couple easy ones. So did Ben. Whoever your DC is, those points don't count. Sorry.

[isfry Profile]

Heck, even Haven had the Lions ranked seventh overall in the league coming into yesterday. Pretty good win for the bumblebees.

[Pommah Profile]

What a maddening team. No TV coverage where I live, so I followed on the internet while doing chores Hey, first quarter Steelers up 14-0. hey, 1st half, Stillers down 27-20. I quit paying attention and went to get the leaves raked, thinking we were well on our way to PGH's 4-12 prediction.

Most teams don't have a megatron. Reminds me of when people thought Culpepper was good (sorry folks, it was Randy Moss). The only team left on our schedule with anything close is the bungles. If we play like it looks like we did yesterday, as flawed as that was, we should be able to win out, depending on whether Rodgers is back for game 15. Because pretty much everybody in the AFC sucks.

But what are the odds of that?

By the way, anybody catch the video of James Harrison's intc return? Maybe that guy should have been a running back.

[pinpon Profile]

Nice job Mill! Well said, about Cleveland being a trap game. Steelers have played down to the level of the opponent under both Cowher and Tomlin. Next two weeks are basically elimination games for Steelers and opponent. Let's see how this shakes out!
Good win! Lions gave away a lot, but for once we weren't the team making all the mistakes.

[isfry Profile]

If we play like it looks like we did yesterday, as flawed as that was, we should be able to win out, depending on whether Rodgers is back for game 15.

I agree, Pommah. Looking it over, the Steelers actually kinda control their own destiny, despite how horrificly the season began. IF the Steelers win out (and I am well aware that is a HUGE "if", but they played well enough for three quarters yesterday to beat anybody left on their schedule, even if Rodgers is back) but IF the Steelers win out (which includes beating the Bungles in Week 15) they win the North. Counting out the Rats and the Brownies, this is how the remaining schedules compare for the Stillers and the Bung-holes.

Stillers:
At Browns (entirely winnable as long as we don't look past it)
At Ratbirds (gobble gobble)
Home for Fins (who are 2-3 on the road - worth a fifteen yarder to see Clark level Wallace with a cheap shot)
Home for Bungholes (all four of their losses have come on the road)
At Packers (without Rodgers this is a road apple, with him its still winnable - Pack doesn't look the same)
Home for Brownies (where we could essentially be playing for the North title)

Bung-holes:
BYE
At Chargers (as I said above, Cincy's four losses all came on the road, plus Chargers are coming off three tough losses (one close one to Denver) by an average of six points)
At Colts (I don't see any way for the bungles to win this one)
At Pit (see above)
Host the Vikings (even the bungles win this one)
Host the Rats (all of Baltimore will likely have packed it in by then)

So, even if the Bungles beat SD next weekend (which I predict won't happen), they are never gonna beat Indy in Indy. With that loss and the loss to us, the Bung-holes finish 10-6. We win out and finish the same but (unless I am incorrect) the tiebreaker after head to head (which we will have split) is division record which (in this utterly fantastic scenario) we would have over them, 5-1 to 3-3.

Thus, all we have to do is win the next six games on the schedule and we win the division. Ta-da!

[SoCal Stiller Profile]

I agree isfry. The last wildcard spot is entirely winnable as well. Every week the right teams lose to keep us within reach. Also, it seems like the Steelers are getting healthier (or adapted to new positions) while other teams are starting to hit the injury bug hard.

If Steeler defenders keep cracking WR's and TE's at the LOS like they did in the second half on Sunday, isfry's scenerio is possible. If Dick goes back to the softee coverage then we are screwed.

I thought we would be talking about the draft by now with the way the season started, but here we are talking about the playoffs. This season is nucking futs!

[isfry Profile]

I thought we would be talking about the draft by now with the way the season started, but here we are talking about the playoffs. This season is nucking futs!

It also doesn't hurt that we are a little bit nucking futs ourselves...