The Steelers are going to have their hands full with the Colts on defense Sunday.
Not only has Indianapolis allowed just four third down conversions in 41 attempts in their past four games, they have 21 sacks.
Amazingly, the Colts have gotten those 21 sacks from 11 different guys. The Steelers have 10 sacks as a team.
@ Of Indianapolis' 19 touchdown passes this season, 14 have gone to the running backs and tight ends.
That doesn't bode well for the Steelers.
Though Pittsburgh has allowed just 10 touchdown passes this season, six of those have gone to opposing running backs and tight ends.
@ Marcus Gilbert, Steve McClendon and Ryan Shazier did not practice for the Steelers on Wednesday, but they did have a surprise partial participant in cornerback Ike Taylor.
Taylor, out the past four weeks with a broken forearm, was able to go through some position drills and did some running today.
A timetable hasn't been set yet for his return, but he's getting close.
The only way Colts are going to lose if they lay an egg in Heinz Field by playing lousy football, being over confident, and it happens. Sometime law of averages come into play, they are not going to win every game. On the paper they are much more superior team except for maybe WR and RB position.
ReplyDeleteIMHO, Indy is the team that is most different on the road and at home. They have nice wins over Balt and Cincy, but those were in their friendly dome, not on the turf that will surely be a mess after all the rain and Pitt playing on Sat.
ReplyDeleteI think the catalyst for the colts has been their defense. their 5 game win streak has included 3 sacks or more for each game while they only tallied 1 sack in their first 2 games (both losses). they have 11 sacks at home (in 4 games) and 10 sacks on the road (in 3 games).
ReplyDeletehowever, you also have to consider the QB's they have played. bortles, Whitehurst, Fitzpatrick were all wins totaling 12 sacks and 4 int's. now, they did beat both flacco and Dalton, but I have never held either in high opinion with flacco being the better of the two. as adamg pointed out, both of those games were at home, so that helped.
the majority of their sacks come from the LB's blitzing. this is heath miller's game, imo. #7 has to be able to get the ball out to his hot reads and miller. I don't see the steelers offense doing well if miller doesn't make a handful of catches over the middle.
Marc you hit the nail on the head. If Ben utilizes Heath, Bell and maybe Archer for some short, hot reads in blitzing situations, the Steelers can put a lot of pressure on Indy. I like our chances.
ReplyDeleteWoodley out for the season, how do you like the release now?
ReplyDeleteI think most people were in favor of his release?
ReplyDeleteI look for the Steelers to get the ball out of Ben's hands quickly.
ReplyDeleteYou're right about the Indy defense being different on the road. They have allowed 8 TD passes, six have come on the road.
Shazier, BTW, was a partial participant yesterday. I knew that but have to go with what they put on their official report. They amended it later in the evening, but I wasn't near my computer at that point.
It looks/sounds like bell needs to run off the left side, and yes Ben needs to get the ball out quick!!!
ReplyDeleteLuck is going to get his, I just hope we play our lanes and not get beat deep. Having a couple fresh bodies in rotation will be good to see and having Watt the week before challenged our line and they looked good, so confidence should be sound.
Maybe we will see Adams as an xtra tight end / full back on the goal line..
Zeke
If we continue to sit in that soft coverage giving them a 10 yard cushion, it's going to be a long day watching Luck pick us apart while they march to the red zone at will.
ReplyDeleteI want to see blitz's from everywhere early and often to disrupt Luck's rhythm.
dale,
ReplyDeletedo you think McCullers will get greater share of the snaps this week than last?
It appears the Colts use a three receiver set about half the time, so you're probably only looking at 30 or so snaps for the nose tackles in this game.
ReplyDeleteMcCullers got 10 snaps last week compared to 18 for Thomas, so that's about the same sample size. Don't see it changing all that much
separately, Emmanuel sanders is having a great year and you have to be happy for him. it got me thinking though about how the steelers have drafted WR's recently. since they drafted sweed in 2008 they have drafted:
ReplyDeleteWallace, sanders, Antonio brown, Clemens, wheaton, Justin brown and Bryant.
that's a pretty darn good crop. personally, I think wheaton is going to be very good and Justin brown will be a respectable #2/#3 someday. kudos to whoever has been the talent evaluator for WR's the last 6 years.
Toney Clemons... I had to think a while to remember him... Even though it was just a couple of years ago. Was it 2012 he was drafted?
ReplyDeleteYou're' right though, that's a decent group after Clemons.
Clemens was a 7th round pick in 2012.
ReplyDelete