A new dawn, a new season and a new era. It seems like I’ve been waiting forever. As most of you know I have not been a Cowher fan for many a season. I like him as a person, but not as a coach. So now it is with an open heart that I look forward to a new era. Mike Tomlin will captain this era and has a lot of tradition to uphold. As an assistant coach under Dungy at Tampa Bay he learned the old Cover 2 defense first used by his new team in the 70’s. Bet you didn’t know Dungy stole the defense. This was a cause for some concern on my part at his hiring. Still is, he used it a lot on Sunday against the Saints. If the cover 2 is to work well you have to bring some heat or you will get picked to death. The Steelers of the 70’s had a front 4 (The Steel Curtain) who could bring heat, not so sure the Steelers of the new era can do that running a three/four cover 2. Let’s not forget that Sunday was pre-season. Although a win is a win and the Steelers looked great even with water logged eyes. Ben only played one series, yet he looked composed and ready to play. Diving the team to a touchdown set up with a perfect 54 yard pass to Cedrick Wilson. Wilson looked in mid-season form all night. Batch played a great game as did St. Pierre. The big offensive difference is it looks like our new offensive coordinator Bruce Arians is going to concentrate more on passing then running. He showed a lot of four wide-outs and no back. This resulted in a few sacks and is a new concern for me. Great teams can pound the ball. We’ll see. I have to admit that over all the entire offensive line look tough, the sackes were more cover sackes then a break down. For the first time in a long time I like the way the defensive backs look. They were all over the field and on the backs of the receivers all night. It’s hard to name anyone as a lot of players were being used. I’ll get more specific as the season unfolds. Over all for a pre-season game we look great and as a side note the post-gazette reported that Tomlin is the first Pittsburgh coach to win his first pre-season game in 42 years, a great start!
One more note from the post-gazette, Joey Porter needs knee surgery and will probably miss at least two weeks.
To anyone that asked I have said that this year is a toss-up. If the Steelers win eight games it will be a good season. Anything else a real plus! Your comments.
Next game: August 11 vs Green Bay
1 comment:
What a great idea this is! And your review of the game was excellent. You know that I am going to rip off all of your commentary to impress friends at Notre Dame with my knowledge and expert analysis of Steeler football, don't you? If you're up for it, you could also throw in a little ND analysis - we're in for another tough season. In any event, I am very glad that you have joined the list of Family Bloggers (now we have to get Karen Ann and maybe G & G). Jerusalem is grand and Liz and I had an excellent reunion yesterday - we can't thank you enough for making this possible. Will write a post on our site tonight about our reunion. Love, your nephew
Post a Comment