Know the Enemy:  St Louis Rams

• When:  Thursday Dec. 20^th,  2007 8:15pm
• Where:  Edward Jones Dome,  St. Louis MO
• TV:  NFL Network ,  KDKA (local)
• Series:  Rams lead all time 17-6-2,  11-0-1 road,  Steelers won 5 of last 8
• Primetime:  Steelers are 3-4 on Thursday nights,  2-1 vs NFC in 2007

Has your mouth ever written a check your ass cant cash?  Anthony Smith has,  and the defense has cosigned for the 2^nd week in a row.  Once if by air (NE),  twice if by land (Jax).  One week after taking a 400 yd aerial beatdown to the hands of the Pats,  the Jags came in and put the proverbial exclamation point down by racking up well over 200 yds of offense on the ground and the Steelers surrendered the greatest single game rushing performance by an opponent an Heinz field by allowing Fred Taylor 147 yds and a score along with outgaining the Steelers in time of possession by nearly 15 minutes. Except for a 4 play possession at the end of the half,  Jax offense controlled the ball for nearly 15 minutes of clock time including a 20 play scoring drive.  The Steelers have failed to execute on each front again and now find themselves fighting for their playoff lives.  I’ll be the first to attest that there are no moral victories in football,  QB Ben Roethlisberger hit 7 different receivers and 3 TD’s en route to becoming the Pittsburgh Steelers all time franchise leader in TD passes with 29,  a mark set by Terry Bradshaw in 1978.  Fast Willie Parker recorded hid 8^th 100 yd game of the year and still continues lead the NFL in rushing yards. 

Week 16 puts us in primetime.  NFL Network !!!!  If the league schedulers knew in advance this would be a matchup of 2 teams that have surrendered a total of 87 sacks on the year,  it may have been a different matchup.  But since the game goes on,  We’ll make the trip to STL to face the beat up Rams led by Head Coach Scott Linehan.  The Rams have a very poor showing this year and were the 31^st team to notch its first win.  Don’t be fooled though,  this team is loaded at talent at the skill positions and have been hampered by injuries like no other.  Offensive lineman (LT Pace,  LG Setterstrom,  RG Icognito,  KR Dante Hall,  CB Tye Hill, LB Pisa Tinoisamosa,  DE Leonard Little) are amongst starters this team has had to put on IR.  QB Marc Bulger and RB Steven Jackson have both missed significant time due to injury as well but both will be healthy enough for this game.  The emotions of the Rams will run high in this game as the Isaac Bruce needs only 22 REC yds to surpass James Lofton for 3^rd all time and they will retire Marshall Faulks #28 Jersey at halftime.

The Offense:  led by OC Greg Olsen

The Rams have used 9 different starting OL combinations in ’07 with 3 starters on IR and have only surrendered one more sack than the Steelers on the year.  That’s pitiful and true testament of turnover to come.  The offensive weapons run deep though, led by WR’s Torry “Big Game” Holt and Isaac Bruce,  who are the career statistical leaders for WR duos of 9 or more years in the league surpassing Steeler greats Swanny and Stallworth.  While not the greatest show on turf anymore,  they can still get the ball down field in a hurry as QB Marc Bulger has a very nice rapport with his WR’s and TE Randy McMichael.  Bulger has hit the turf 44 times this season and each time seems to outdo the display of physical agony on tape made famous by Terry Bradshaw as he roll around the turf in pain.  RB Steven Jackson is just OK,  if you like 240 RB’s with 4.5 speed that is a threat to catch 10 balls out of the backfield and take each one to the house. 

I truly believe the Steeler defense could be in trouble if they fail to execute.  If STL is able to establish any sort of run game,  and with Steven Jackson that’s not hard,  the defense could be in for a long day.  Steelers have failed to apply much pressure this year recording 33 sacks (35 was the low in the Cowher tenure),  and if you take away the CLE and BLT games they have registered just 21 sacks in 12 games.  STL has a clear cut speed advantage with their playmakers and the Steeler back 7 and another perfect opportunity to exploit the lack of coverage at the safety position.  They failed to tackle well and maintain gap responsibility against the Jags,  and Jackson is the same kind of physical type cutback runner that can gash a defense.  One thing has to change,  its time to get back to fundamentals instilled on the first day of camp.  The time for being cute is over and execute.  The injury absence of Clark Haggans will propel Lamar Woodley into the lineup possibly ensuring Haggans has played his last game at Heinz field.  The question I need to pose to the Steeler coaching staff is,  where are all the 4 man fronts you promised early on in passing situations telling us it would counter sprint draws on 3^rd and 13.????

The defense:  led by DC Jim Haslett

Cover 2,  man under,  4 man front.  Not the stoutest of units,  but they show multiple looks and and blitz the interior. They like to bring a safety down in the box setting up cover 3 looks that Ben should be able to exploit with his eyes closed if given time. The same looks that put Heath Miller on the map early in the season.   LB Will Witherspoon leads the team in sacks with 7 with the absence of pass rushing specialist Leonard Little.  Safety OJ Atogwe leads the team with 7 INTs.  Rookie Adam Carricker has become a huge addition to this line helping stabilize the middle which caused me to pose the question Sunday in the absence of Aaron Smith,  how nice would Carricker look in B & G about now?   The Rams boast the “no named” sort of OL that has mauled the Steelers in the past shutting down the run game.  No turf excuses this week as FWP needs to get the wheels in motion on a fast track.  They’ve done a nice job getting Willie to the perimeter lately,  but on paper at least,  we should be able to run between the tackles and take back the T.O.P factor.  It hurts your QB a lot more when he’s pile driven to the earth 7 times on turf much more than it does on grass so the OL needs to play with emotion and continuity coupled with quick reads to get the ball out on time. 

The Rams have nothing to lose and would relish playing the spoiler role. 

Facts that don’t really mean anything

• Hines Ward is T 1^st in the NFL in Red Zone TD’s since 2002 
• This is first time ever the Pittsburgh Steelers have traveled to St Louis to play a Rams team.   They’ve only ever been to face the Cardinals.