Ask a Steelers Fan - The Final Preseason Game

Well it is hard to tell. Our QB situation this off season has been such an odd one. We’ve had 3 guys all trying to get snaps with the first team offense. We cannot give Ben 0 snaps because he won’t be with the team for at least a full month. But if we give him too many we are really hurting our chances to win some of those first four games. So, a complete guess would be we see Ben with 2 series at the most.

The 2nd string OL looked awful against Denver. Leftwich went 0-4 and that was because he was running for his life on every drop back and if you know Lefty, he cannot run. As a whole I would say they are bad. However, individually a couple of the guys are stepping up. Tony Hills(OT) and Kraig Urbik(C/G), two players many of us had written off our 53 to start camp, are getting better and better every week. Our back up RT, Jon Scott is bad. Ramon Foster a G had some good playing time last year, but I haven’t seen much out of him this year.

I think (even prior to Sunday) that Leftwich is the better choice. Lefty should start and Dixon should come in as a ‘change of pace’ QB to give the opposing defense a few confusing looks. Also, it makes DCs have to put some effort into scheming for him.

Anyway, about Dixon. I think he is a great athlete and has potential. However, mentally his game is not solid yet. He doesn’t make the greatest decisions and he goes through his progressions slowly or not at all sometimes. That leads him to get tunnel vision occasionally and not look off defenders (resulting in a pick like he threw in Denver). The kid got to take snaps with the 1s Sunday and looked bad. Unfortunately, our OC, who sucks, did not play to his strengths and tried to transform him into a strict pocket passer which he clearly is not.

Mewelde Moore comes in a lot on 3rd downs because he has very good hands. Also, BTSC favorite Isaac Redman has made huge strides since last season and should spell Mendy nicely on occasion. Look out for our ‘pony’ backfield where both Redman and Mendenhall are in. It worked very well against Denver.

The only possible issues I see are the CB opposite Ike Taylor and the speed of Farrior and Foote at ILB. Last year, the problem at CB was compounded by many things: a lack of depth, no Troy Polmalu, bad depth behind Troy, etc. This year we have more depth at CB and Troy looks healthy. I was a bit worried about Troy before the Denver game, but he looked top speed, in on ever play Troy. There was one play where he basically threw the TE out of the way to get to the ball carrier.

Research is not your strong suit. Midgeville was 20.

Check it out, a Red Wings fan.

Not to be confused with the NFL’s Lombardi Trophy the ‘Lombardie trophy’ is awarded each year to the professional athlete who best exemplifies a public restroom pickup line.

Honestly we talked about it for about 2 days and we were done. You’re going to be a busy guy of you have defend Ben against all jokes. Besides, we have better things to talk about…like Thursday game

1. The biggest thing the Steelers did to improve the OL was draft Maurkice Pouncey. The kid has been an absolute stud so far. He takes leaps and bounds every week at the position and has pushed out a veteran at the spot. If you do not know the Steelers well, that is a big deal. The last rookie to start was Heath Miller in 2005 and the last time a rookie OL started was in 2002 with Kendal Simmons. Anyway, with Adams we had no choice. Colon was our best OL last year and losing him hurt a lot. We had to bite the bullet and take the best OT available to help our team and keep our QB alive.

2. Isaac Redman has made huge strides since last year. I believe he makes the team as the #2 back.

3. Duke? Booooooooo. I am a Terrapin alum. Patrick Bailey isn’t much. A good STer. He doesn’t seem very likely for the final 53

This is the first fan base I’ve run into that knows anything about Redman. Hopefully we’ll use him this year, our OC is opposed to running the ball in any effective measure.

I see a team you don’t sleep on, that’s for sure. You all have a very good running tandem and a great line. I have never seen Moore or any of your WRs outside of Smith play so I cannot speak much of them.

To be honest, I do not know a ton about your team.

Your left side pass rushers should have a nice game.

This kid is going to have a big year. He is fast as hell and can clearly get deep as seen by his league leading 19.4 ypc last year. So far this season he has looked great in his short and intermediate routes as well. We are asking a lot of him and I have a really strong feeling about him.

Maurkice Pouncey
As I stated above, Pouncey is everything the FO thought he could be when they drafted him. Casey Hampton, a NT who has faced many Centers, said generally you see a C who is either strong and slow or small and quick. However, he has been shocked how both strong and fast Pouncey has shown to been. If OL could ever win awards I think that he would have a good shot at winning offensive RotY

Dwyer came into camp a bit out of shape and then got injured early. While injured, there were reports that he seemed uninterested at practice and did not pay attention much. You would think a rookie who is injured would want to soak in as much information as possible since he cannot be out there.

Prior to the Denver game Dwyer might not have even been on my PS. Now it looks like he has at least put himself in the conversation for the bubble of the 53 man roster. The bad thing for him is that he has looked horrendous in blitz pick up and blocking and has not showed (me at least) anything on STs. As of now, his spot on the roster is dependent on the potential the coaches see in him. Is he valuable enough to keep and have him not contribute immediately? Or do you risk him on waivers? Tough questions that I don’t know the answers too.

We cannot replace Holmes just by snapping our fingers. He was a great receiver, no doubt. However, I think we have enough options to replace him. We resigned ARE and Wallace has been working heavily on his short and intermediate routes. We also have two very promising young WRs who could fill the Wallace role from last year. Mendenhall and Miller are two great options as well if the other guys are struggling.

My only concern is that Lefty and Dixon cannot do what Ben does and the WRs are going to hurt from that the first 4 games.

See above.

Jaxon asked essentially that

he didnt really show what was expected of him and to some it looks like he lost his chance to Leftwich, me personally i think he should get one last shot this Thursday. people tend to think Dixon goes through his progressions too slow or has tunnel vision that or just makes bad decisions, and that he runs too much. other than last Sunday i was impressed, he has some good touch on the ball, hes capable of the deep bomb but for some reason avoids it (some sees this as another draw back) i see it as knowing his limits and not trying to force the ball there. Hes also very elusive which is a must behind our O-line, and can turn broken plays into 1st downs. To me his only draw back is he needs to learn, which can easily be fixed

Leftwich was the popular vote by the coaches in favor of him being a veteran and knowing the offense, all are very valuable and needed. much Leftwich has zero mobility in the pocket and behind our O-line could be a big problem. Leftwich has one hell of an arm that can be comparable to anyone of course this is after he sets his feet, and does his long windup with out getting touched. unfortunately the speed of his “fast ball” doesnt turn down whether its from 40 yrds or 5 yrds which makes it difficult for the WR to catch the ball, especially with our RBs and young WRs

Recently Charlie Batch has been talked up as well, im guessing some of this came from Batch’s performance against the scrubs in which he still threw a Int, it wasnt his fault but still why throw it there. Most will say last Sunday didnt have anything to do with their decision and that they have been on his bandwagon the whole time but i find that hard to believe. Batch is a wildy old vet that probably knows the offense better than anyone there and has been there longer too. for his age he can deliver, hes smarter than all 3 QBs combined and has better mobility than Leftwich. but dang it he is just way to old. People say if Favre can do it why not Batch, thats because Favre is superhuman and a freak of nature, Batch is not. Batch’s arm is pretty much shot and cant deliver the long bomb. Id feel like if we named him the starter, Batch would end up being the “virgin” sacrifice to the football gods in exchange for a successful season, then we would be back to square one with the decision, Dixon or Leftwich. sorry Charlie but you have clipboard duty till Ben comes back, then most likely Batch’s days as a Steeler will be over and will be released. with the option of having Batch “on call” if the worst were to happen to our QBs (knock on wood), or Batch will become an assistant QB coach

think of Wallace as a young Santonio Holmes without the ego and the weed, hes been know as a deep threat that can burn almost any CB in the league and the only way to stop him is have a safety over top, but he has been working his short and medium route running to fill the Holmes role left open, the Steeler have 2 #1s in their WR core

If we start Dixon, I wouldnt play Wallace at all. Dixon doesnt go through reads that well, and if his first read isnt there, he runs. He doesnt have the downfield arm to suit Wallaces speed, plus if he is in the game, calls will be run heavy and more short-throw based

With Leftwich in, I dont expect that gameplan to be much different, however he has the cannon to hit Wallace in stride at 50 yards, which hes already done once this preseason, but that rhythm that Wallace has with Ben isnt there.

Overall his production does take a hit with Lefty or DD at QB, but when Bens back, expect them to get back to last years form. Wallace gets open a lot downfield, so its not outrageous to think he could average between 7-8 points a game for you (depending on your format)

There is no bad blood there, so I don’t think its bad at all.

the last 3 times we played Denver, it was at Mile High. Next time they better play at our house, or there will be a serious, and hate laced E-mail heading to the scheduling guy for the No Fun League.