Finally, the decisive moment is here and we get some real football on TV. I know that Ms. Jenny from Tennessee is excited to see her Titans just as we’re all excited to see the start of the NFL season. What a weekend ahead of us -- college football (I’ll be at the Delaware-Richmond game Saturday), then some classic NFL battles all day Sunday and straight through to Monday night. Starting off the 2009 season tonight is the big one, the Titans and the Super Bowl-champions Steelers. One more shout-out to Rod Woodson for his selection to the Hall of Fame. He’ll receive his Hall of Fame ring tonight at halftime, so congratulations to a great man and great player.
Before I get to the game, let me explain that opening weekend is the hardest time to get an accurate portrayal of things to come. The NFL is scheme-based, and the first three games of the season allow bad teams to hide behind protective schemes. But once there’s enough real tape to watch, the most talented teams prevail. So don’t read too much positively or negatively into your favorite team’s performance in September.
APTitans defensive lineman Jason Jones had a huge game against the Steelers last season. Can he duplicate that performance tonight?
Last year, the Tennessee Titans were 12-2 entering their Week 16 home meeting against the 11-3 Steelers. The Titans won 31-14 to secure home-field advantage for the playoffs. The Steelers led 14-10 in the third quarter, but the Titans scored the final 21 points in the game. Ben Roethlisberger was 25 of 39 for 329 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions, was sacked five times and had four fumbles (he lost two); Willie Parker was held to 31 yards on 19 rushing attempts (1.6 average). The Titans scored 21 points off four Steelers turnovers. Albert Haynesworth missed that game with a knee injury and was replaced by Jason Jones, who had 3½ sacks and three forced fumbles. So even though the Haynesworth talk will dominate the airwaves in predicting the outcome of the game, his absence is a moot point.
Big Ben is 9-14 career as starter when he has 31 or more pass attempts and 42-6 when he has fewer than 30 pass attempts. Five of his 17 career fourth-quarter comeback wins came last season as he was able to make key plays at key times in games. The Steelers had no real running game last year, and I’m not sure tonight’s game will provide any insight into the real Steelers ‘09 run game. Tennessee is tough for any team to run against, and the Steelers will probably struggle to get the run game going.
So what does all this mean? It means we’ll have a very good game, hard fought and physical -- in fact, very physical. There will be plenty of sore players after this one. Because of my football theory of building a winning team through the lines, I like the team with the best lines, offensively and defensively, which for me is the Titans (hear more on today's podcast). I feel that with Chris Johnson and the combination of tight ends the Titans have, they can match the great Pittsburgh pass rushing defense.
It will be a great game and a great start to the season. As Jackie Gleason used to say, “And away we go...”
Lombardi, can G. Lewis really be any better than B. Wade? Is this measurable in any way? I am sick right now for Bobby Wade. The man takes a pay cut to stay with the team, and they cut him for a player who has been traded for and then released. This, in my opinion, is a greater mis-step than signing an aging QB who is a marked improvement over the incumbent QB situation. Just like tonight's game was settled by special teams, but reported as another Ben R. miracle, the people who report and opinionate on NFL proceedings have lost me. I can hardly read the Post's coverage because people insist they know more than is relevant. The Steelers were outplayed by a wide margin this evening, but won the game due to a bad snap and the fact that NFL overtime rules are so unimaginative that under-qualified Navy rejects can spot the irregularities. Please return the sanity to our collective passion. Stop having the game we love decided by aging lawyers and people otherwise unequipped to keep up with a handful of the greatest athletes our our lifetimes.
MIke --
After watching last night's game, I think the most violent and physical teams in the NFL are: Steelers, Titans and Ravens. We all know how much you love NE this year, but seriously, I just I don't see them playing at the same physical level that I saw last night.
What a great game last night! Though my team LOST.... it was a nail-biter. If we (Titans) had a more special Special Teams Unit, we could have won that game!!!
Thing is - the Steelers didn't spank us this year like we spanked them last year, so it's easy to take a 13-10 overtime loss in Game 1. Ya know?
I hate that Polamalu got hurt. I really do. He's fun to watch... but he should have just fallen on the ball.
With Polamalu out, we couldn't take advantage of them because then BO SCAIFE got hurt. Our best pass-catching TE gets hurt and we have fat Crumpler and 4th string-Stevens in - which poses no threat at ALL... so the Steelers D could play our WRs closer. Lots of little intricacies in this game - any one of them turns the opposite way and we win.
GO TITANS. I'm proud of the way (most of) my boys in blue played last night.
"The Titans don't miss Haynesworth" is a nice storyline and a constant theme coming out of TEN's locker room, but I think you saw last night that they really do.
On the one hand they sacked Roethlisberger 4 times and stuffed the run.
On the other hand, the pass rush from the D-Line wasn't great and they got smoked to the tune of 16-18, 171 yards by Roethlisberger in the 4th Quarter and OT. TEN's ability to rush the passer with 4 was a huge part of their defensive success last year. Schwartz almost never blitzed, but he got pretty consistent pressure from his 4 man rush in 2008. Ben picked apart the Titans late. Yes, it was the end of a hard fought game... but I don't think the Titans D-Line will be getting any fresher going forward.
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Sep 10, 2009
07:20 PM
"Big Ben is 9-14 career as starter when he has 31 or more pass attempts and 42-6 when he has fewer than 30 pass attempts. "
When teams are losing they throw more. When teams are winning, they run more, to kill clock.
What you did here is confuse correlation with causation.