Steelers at Broncos - What to look for
This will be a toe-to-toe battle in the trenches with rushing offense pitted against aggressive defense, but the quarterbacks may hold the key. Both sides will look to establish the run early and if Mike Anderson or Tatum Bell of Denver, Willie Parker or Jerome Bettis of Pittsburgh gets on a roll his team will stick with him all the way. More likely, though, there will be a quaggy stalemate, with just the occasional dash to daylight.
Come third down, the pressure will be on Ben Roethlisburger or Jake Plummer to bail their running games out, with short passes. They will have to do it against masses of defensive pressure. They don't call the Steelers "Blitzburgh" for nothing, and they proved their reputation with five sacks of Colts trigger man Peyton Manning next week. Plummer is a more mobile QB, who favours the "waggle" play, faking the run in one direction then rolling out away from his offensive line with a sole receiver to throw to, so Pitt may think about sitting back in blanket coverage more and forcing him into throwing errors. Roethlisburger is at his best early in the count, and coach Bill Cowher has taken some pressure off him this year with more throws on first and second downs. On third he is more likely to look to tight end Heath Miller. He is big enough to stand up to defenders but not the most agile of passers.
If Plummer gets a slight edge over Roethlisburger, though, Pittsburgh's pass defense is better, especially the backfield. Denver have stars like John Lynch at free safety and Champ Bailey at corner but they ranked 29th in the league in pass defense during the regular season, in part because of their tendency to look for the glamourous interception rather than the percentage play. Here Pittsburgh are ideally equipped to take advantage, using a gadget play like the flea-flicker (where the QB has the ball pitched back to him after handing off to a back, with the defense biting on the run, and throws deep) or an option pass for receiver Antwaan Randle El, a college QB who is never far from the action.
Only New England in 1985 have reached the Super Bowl after three road wins. Pittsburgh are about to follow them all the way, with a 28-24 victory on a last-gasp play, if your heart can take it for another week.
(Season so far 13-6; playoffs 6-2)
NFLBriefing.com
Come third down, the pressure will be on Ben Roethlisburger or Jake Plummer to bail their running games out, with short passes. They will have to do it against masses of defensive pressure. They don't call the Steelers "Blitzburgh" for nothing, and they proved their reputation with five sacks of Colts trigger man Peyton Manning next week. Plummer is a more mobile QB, who favours the "waggle" play, faking the run in one direction then rolling out away from his offensive line with a sole receiver to throw to, so Pitt may think about sitting back in blanket coverage more and forcing him into throwing errors. Roethlisburger is at his best early in the count, and coach Bill Cowher has taken some pressure off him this year with more throws on first and second downs. On third he is more likely to look to tight end Heath Miller. He is big enough to stand up to defenders but not the most agile of passers.
If Plummer gets a slight edge over Roethlisburger, though, Pittsburgh's pass defense is better, especially the backfield. Denver have stars like John Lynch at free safety and Champ Bailey at corner but they ranked 29th in the league in pass defense during the regular season, in part because of their tendency to look for the glamourous interception rather than the percentage play. Here Pittsburgh are ideally equipped to take advantage, using a gadget play like the flea-flicker (where the QB has the ball pitched back to him after handing off to a back, with the defense biting on the run, and throws deep) or an option pass for receiver Antwaan Randle El, a college QB who is never far from the action.
Only New England in 1985 have reached the Super Bowl after three road wins. Pittsburgh are about to follow them all the way, with a 28-24 victory on a last-gasp play, if your heart can take it for another week.
(Season so far 13-6; playoffs 6-2)
NFLBriefing.com
posted by MG at
10:11 PM
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