Re: Smash Mouth Football Baby - Pittsburgh Style

[pandu86]

dopo Ernie Holmes ci lascia anche Dwight Wight, membro leggendario della Steel Curtain Defense e autore della prima safety della storia del SB (e primi punti della franchigia sempre nei SB)



ciao Mad Dog 

[azazel]

ciao.

[Jeremy]

RIP

[Pablets]

RIP, Mad Dog

[The Snake 12]

leggo solo ora.

un immortale 

[Whatarush]

E' presa da PFT, ma è anche off-season, quindi lasciatemela passare:

A source close to the Steelers notes that Darnell Stapleton has a good shot at being one of the club’s backup centers. Sean Mahan and Justin Hartwig are the top competitors at the position, but it is possible that one of those players could also be in the mix at left guard, where Chris Kemoeatu rates an edge to replace Alan Faneca but will be pushed for the job.

Insomma il progetto continua...stessa fonte, altro giovane che cresce bene:

Second-year TE Matt Spaeth has impressed in the Steelers’ offseason workouts, the way we hear it. Spaeth is likely to get considerable playing time in the team’s two-TE sets.

Nel suo anno da matricola 5 ricezioni per 34 yds e 3 TD...qualche drop su palloni semplici e tanto lavoro sporco ad aiutare la linea.
Questo dopo che Arians ci aveva rotto le palle tutta l'estate sul two/(o addirittura) three TE set.

Un altro che in questo periodo ha buona stampa è Dallas Baker: oggi un altro articolo del Tribune-Review che parla dei suoi progressi. In sostanza in allenamento acchiappa tutto quello che si trova a svolazzare nei pressi delle sue manine.
Un parco WR con Holmes, Ward, Sweed, Washington e Baker è altamente probabile   

RIP Mad Dog

[pandu86]

Un parco WR con Holmes, Ward, Sweed, Washington e Baker è altamente probabile   

e Willie "lolo" Reid?  :gazza:

[Whatarush]

e Willie "lolo" Reid?  :gazza:

Se la gioca con lo sciatore per il ruolo di ritornatore...ma se Tomlin decide di salvare un posto a roster e fa ritornare a MeMo anche i kick-off oltre che i punt, allora bye bye a entrambi. 

Diciamo che personalmente la pratica Willie "lolo" Reid l'ho già archiviata da un pezzo, almeno in versione ricevitore di possesso/erede di Hines...è stato bello crederci, ma è durato poco.  
   

[chinasky]

Auguri al DICO pandu-rocky! 

[Whatarush]

Per chiudere il discorso su "Lolo" Reid:

Holmes will get a chance to return punts this year after being denied the opportunity in 2007.
Other candidates to return punts and/or kickoffs are Jeremy Bloom, Rashard Mendenhall, Mewelde Moore and Willie Reid.

Tutti quelli già menzionati a parte Rashard che non pensavo fosse in the mix.

Gli OTAs primaverili si sono conclusi ieri. Appuntamento al 27 luglio, stessa spiaggia, stesso mare...Latrobe, VA
 

[pandu86]

Who's to Blame for the Steelers' Sacks




As the Steelers go through the offseason, the biggest concern of every Steelers fan in the country is the offensive line. Short of Ben Roethlisberger riding helmet-less on a motorcycle again, there's nothing that worries Steelers fans more than the idea of the Steelers offensive line getting blown off the ball again in 2008.

To get a better understanding of what went wrong in 2007, when Roethlisberger was sacked 53 times in 17 games, I went back and rewatched each and every sack of the 2007 season. It wasn't particularly fun, but it was pretty informative. We'll end up breaking down the sacks in countless different ways, but to start out this series, it's worth just spelling out who gave up the sacks.

But before we get to who's to blame, it's worth mentioning how the blame was metered out. Determining the man at fault for a sack is somewhat of an art more than a science. For each sack, I rewatched the play several times to note the amount of pass rushers, the type of pass rush (straight four-man rush vs. a safety blitz for example), where the pressure came from, and how long it took before Roethlisberger was hit initially. If one man was beaten initially to come in and hit or pressure Roethlisberger but another defender finished off the sack, I generally tried to credit the sack to the first man beaten, unless the initial rush had nothing to do with the sack (for example if an outside blitzer forced Roethlisberger to step up in the pocket, but he did and the rusher flew on by, but the center was then beaten for a sack, blame the center). And if two rushers shared a sack, or if a rusher flew between two uncovered offensive linemen, 1/2 sacks were awarded. If you have more questions about how I credited sacks, feel free to comment and I'll give more details.

So without further delay, here's the chart of who gave up the Steelers 2007 sacks.

Player Sacks
Willie Colon 12
Kendall Simmons 10
Marvel Smith 7
Sean Mahan 6.5
Alan Faneca 5
Trai Essex 1.5
Heath Miller 1.5
Max Starks 1
Matt Spaeth .5
No One 8

As you'll note, Willie Colon wins the honors. Last year's right tackle Max Starks took the same crown in 2006, so it's safe to say that pass blocking at right tackle has been a problem for the Steelers in recent years. But Colon's cohort on the right side of the line, Kendall Simmons gave up nearly as many sacks. When you consider that guards usually give up significantly fewer sacks than offensive tackles, you could easily argue that Simmons performance was even worse.

Of Marvel Smith's seven sacks, three came in the regular season loss to the Jaguars, when a back injury forced him to leave the game. Take those away and Smith had a very solid year in pass blocking. Now the question is just whether his back injury is fixed by his recent surgery or if it will be a chronic problem throughout the rest of his career.

Considering how Sean Mahan is a giant punching bag for Steelers fans, I'm sure a lot of you are surprised he gave up only 6.5 sacks. Don't be. Mahan's biggest problems came in the running game. And as a center, 6.5 sacks is still what would appear to be a pretty high number. Against a standard four-man rush, the center is uncovered and only has to pick up a blitzer or help out in case of a twist or stunt. Against a three-man line, the center is lined up against a massive nose tackle who usually will be lucky to get a couple of sacks a year.

Ross Tucker, a former NFL offensive lineman who now writes for SI.com, explains it this way:

Most centers go through an entire season without giving up any sacks and are rarely credited with even being responsible for a pressure.


That's not Mahan. He gave up more sacks than Faneca and nearly as many as the team's left tackle. That's a pretty brutal performance, and pass blocking was his strength.

But what jumps out is that there's enough blame to go around. No one on the Steelers offensive line excelled in pass blocking consistently all year. Even Faneca, the Jets' new multi-millionaire, has been more and more susceptible to sacks in recent years.

If there is one group that may have gotten off lightly, it's the running backs. There were times on sacks where Steelers backs did not block well, but i didn't find one case where a running back's man was responsible for the initial hit. Considering the amount of plays where tight ends were kept in to block, Heath Miller and Matt Spaeth did pretty well, although Spaeth still has work to do in the running game.

And in case you're wondering, the no one category is for sacks on corner blitzes, overloads and all-out blitzes where no one could reasonably be asked to block the player credited with the sack. Those are cases where Roethlisberger and the receivers failed make a hot-read adjustment to get the ball away or in one case where Roethlisberger simply stepped out of bounds behind the line of scrimmage.

It is true that Ben Roethlisberger is sometimes worthy of blame as well because of his tendency to hold onto the ball. What we'll try to do in the next post is figure out how much of the problem lies with the line and how much is the fault of the Steelers QB.

[Strembald]

Ma tu pensi davvero che io abbia intenzione di leggermi tutta sta pappardella in inglese?

Ma per cortesia....La gente c'hanno molto da fare...

[pandu86]

Ma tu pensi davvero che io abbia intenzione di leggermi tutta sta pappardella in inglese?

Ma per cortesia....La gente c'hanno molto da fare...

il tuo QB dietro la nostra linea muore 

[Paperone]

Ma tu pensi davvero che io abbia intenzione di leggermi tutta sta pappardella in inglese?

Ma per cortesia....La gente c'hanno molto da fare...

fai come me, leggi solo il titolo e i numeri

[Strembald]

il tuo QB dietro la nostra linea muore 

K+ per la pacatezza della tua risposta ad una mera provocazione da offseason!!!

K- a paperone per dovere civico!