Play Like Willie

The Steelers steamrolled the St. Louis Rams on Thursday night and got some help from the Bengals on Sunday afternoon, and won their first AFC North championship since 2004. They'll hold either the 3rd or 4th seed in the AFC playoffs, and will host a game in the wild card round.

Meanwhile, they lost Willie Parker for the season on his first carry of the game Thursday night, immediately after he erased Rams linebacker Brandon Chillar in blitz pickup, allowing Ben Roethlisberger the necessary time to complete an 83 yard pass to Santonio Holmes, the Steelers' longest play from scrimmage this season.

In Parker's absence, backup running back Najeh Davenport assumed a heavy workload, and produced when given the opportunity. He piled up 123 yards rushing on 24 carries, had one rushing touchdown, caught a 12 yard touchdown pass and caught a 32 yard pass from punter Daniel Sepulveda on a fake punt.

Despite heading into the playoffs with the AFC North title in hand, it's difficult to find a silver lining when you've just lost a guy who was leading the league in rushing, one of the few players who showed up against New England and Jacksonville during difficult losses. Willie Parker is one of the top five running backs in the league, a player that all defensive coordinators must account for in their game plans. His ability to turn any run into a long run keeps safeties honest and puts a ton of pressure on linebackers to take great angles and make sure tackles.

Can the Steelers recover from this seemingly crushing blow? Of course.

Thinking back to the 2005 season, the Steelers put together a mystical run to the championship on the wings of offensive gameplans that were far different from what was seen during the regular season.

That late 2005 team had a running team's reputation, but lacked a running team's results. The team had only six 100 rushing games between Parker and Jerome Bettis during the course of the season, and three of those occurred during the first 6 weeks of the season. Late in the year, only games against the Lions and Bengals could pump up the Steelers' running game, and they didn't run the ball well during any of the four playoff wins.

But something funny happened on the way to Ford Field. Though opponents still geared up to stop the traditional Steelers' running game, the Steelers came out throwing. They staked early leads and they won games. Game-planning in the playoffs is all about tendencies. From first down play call percentages to a gunner's habits on punt coverage, it's all about maximizing the available intelligence and integrating that information into the way you expect your team to execute.

Going into the 2007 playoffs, the Steelers have no tendencies. In 2005, Bill Cowher wiped the slate clean in the form of a whiteboard, the motivational ploy that the team supposedly used to start their playoff run. In 2007, the team literally has a clean slate on offense without Willie Parker. What will the other team expect going into a playoff game against the Steelers as they are currently configured? It's impossible to predict how the Steelers will react, because there's no precedent except for half a game against the Rams.

Now, don't get me wrong. I don't believe for a second that the Steelers are a better team with Najeh Davenport handling the rushing chores. Willie Parker made the offense go, made the play action game go and was single-handedly making plays despite getting little help from his offensive line.

At the same time, Parker is somewhat one-dimensional. He's got outstanding speed, but he's not much of a receiving threat because he runs poor routes and has poor hands. He has to gather himself with the ball before taking off, which makes him a nominal threat in the passing game. Davenport is a natural receiver with solid hands who can catch the ball in stride without having to throttle down. He's Parker's equal as a pass protector, though Parker showed remarkable improvement in pass protection this season.

Perhaps the biggest change is that Bruce Arians finally has what he wants. This is a coordinator who is used to not leaning on a traditional running game. With Willie Parker, he was conflicted. He eschewed his historical tendencies and tried to play Pittsburgh football, feeding his talented running back even when it wasn't working. Now, he's got a marginal running game that can be ignored if necessary, and he can spread the ball around in the passing game to get some of those high percentage five yard plays back.

Arians has taken a lot of heat for not spreading the field as much as he promised. Now, he's got every opportunity to spread things out, no excuses. If the game against the Rams is any indication, he's going to allow Ben to make up for Willie's loss, with Najeh pitching in. We saw more quick passes on Thursday night than in the past 5 games. More shotgun. More no-huddle.

It was a nice change, and it will help keep Ben clean. The Steelers have been using a lot of two man routes with extra protection against eight in the box, which has been necessary as teams have been crowding the line of scrimmage and simply trying to stop the run on the way to the quarterback. If teams start shading towards the pass, the Steelers will be able to gash teams with the inside running game, and Ben might see less pressure early on in the plays.

Thursday night was Arians' best game yet. The Steelers passed the Rams out of cover one to open the game and get points, and then they ran the Rams out of cover two and put up points in the process. By putting together drives, they dominated time of possession and were able to grind out the clock at the end of the game against a tired defense. Perfect.

I'd feel a lot more confident going into the playoffs with a healthy Willie Parker. But there's a part of me that believes that this injury will be the impetus for some creativity, some trickeration and some desperation.

The Steelers as an organization need to play until the wheels come off - just like Willie.

 

The Fine Five

1. Patriots

Joey Porter sacked Tom Brady. We'll see what happens next week with the Giants vs. Patriots. It won't mean anything for either team. How will it play out and how much will the starters play for the Pats?

2. Indianapolis

They're the quietest 13-2 defending champion I've ever seen. No one talks about them. They don't talk much. They're way under the radar, and they're playing great football the last couple of weeks, even without Marvin Harrison.

3. Dallas

Dallas will struggle if Terrell Owens isn't healthy in the playoffs. Luckily for the Cowboys, he's got three full weeks to heal.

4. Green Bay

There are probably some folks in Green Bay who are glad that Brett Favre struggled against the Bears, throwing for only 153 yards with two interceptions while playing in snow flurries. He was due for a "Bad Favre" game, and now he's got it out of his system before the games really matter.

5. Jacksonville

The Jaguars racked up 201 yards on 28 carries against the Raiders, an average of 7.2 yards per carry. The defense recorded 4 sacks and 3 interceptions. The Jags are on a roll.

 

Quote of the Week

"We pride ourselves in playing our football and knowing guys are capable of stepping in. We don't want to change our personality. We didn't change our personality tonight."

- Mike Tomlin, from the Ministry of Disinformation

 

The Awards Section

Offensive Player of the Week

Najeh Davenport. Davenport stepped up when the team needed him, and his teammates seemed to feed off of him.

Defensive Player(s) of the Week

Ike Taylor. He salted away the game with his 51 yard interception for a touchdown. Before that, he was in Isaac Bruce's hip pocket all game long, though Bruce made some incredible catches despite good coverage.

Special Teams Player of the Week

This award has been canceled.

Goat of the Week

Scott Linehan. Giving Steven Jackson only 12 carries when he was having nothing but success in the running game was insane. Jackson should have been the one in Linehan's face at the end of the game, not Torry Holt.

 

Stat of the Week

Ben Roethlisberger has as many fumbles this year (nine) as he had cumulatively in his previous 3 seasons.

 

Factoid of the Week That I Hope Interests Someone Besides Me

Paul Brant of Frankfort, Indiana used $25,000 in spare change to purchase a new truck for himself.

Brant, 70, had been saving his coins since he purchased a pickup and a car in 1994. Using mostly coffee cans for storage, the coins were counted by an armored car company at the dealership.

My family and I save coins and make a once a year trip to the CoinStar machine, usually cashing in for a couple hundred dollars.

 

Ten Things I Know I Think

1. It would be interesting to break this down scientifically over a few more games, but I noticed on Thursday night that Hines Ward is typically the target when Ben doesn't get rid of the ball on time and gets pressured.

Re-watch the game, and watch for what side Ward lines up on before the snap. Watch the play, and which side Ben looks to first. It's almost always Ward's side when Ben doesn't throw it to his first read. When his first read is Holmes or Nate Washington, the ball comes out on time, even if it's down the field. Now, some of this has to do with the fact that Ward sees a lot of double teams, but it also has to do with the fact that Ward only runs shorter routes. He gets jumped by corners, because he's not a threat to run past them deep. By the time Ben passes on Ward and moves on to Santonio, Santonio is deep and the pressure is there, making it impossible to throw to the secondary route on time, and the improvisation (or the sack) is on.

Like I said, this will take some more research, but the trend was noticeable on Thursday night. The Steelers can overcome it by taking advantage of the fact that teams overplay Ward. Just because Ward's weakness is going deep, it doesn't mean you don't have to send him deep every once in a while to keep the defense honest.

2. Finally, we're going to get a great look at Gary Russell. With the division title in hand, I expect Russell to get a ton of carries next week. You never know where a big late-season boost is going to come from. Russell coming in and lighting it up would be far less surprising than what Ryan Grant is doing in Green Bay right now.

3. It's extremely important for James Harrison to be healthy for a potential playoff run. Having him out of the lineup for any length of time is bad enough, but it's made worse by the fact that Clark Haggans has been moving over in his absence, with Woodley taking Haggans' usual spot. The only thing more uninspiring than Clark Haggans at LOLB is Clark Haggans at ROLB.

4. Troy Polamalu is the key to the postseason. If he reverts back to his late 2005 form, the defense is capable of stopping the run and the pass. He's been making more plays lately, and it bodes well for the playoff run. But he's not the whole way back yet, and it's not like the 2005 version of Troy was a pillar in coverage. Still, he can be a dynamic player if he gets into a groove and starts playing with confidence.

5. The Steelers played to win on Thursday night. From the deep ball to start the game to the fake punt to the deep attempt to Holmes late in the 3rd quarter with a lead, the Steelers put it out there. They should be so bold in every game they play.

(Around the League)

6. Welcome to the NFL, Jamarcus Russell. The rookie quarterback saw his first significant action of the season for the Oakland Raiders, completing 7 of 23 passes for 83 yards, with a touchdown and 3 interceptions. Russell throws the league's prettiest ball, but he's going to need some time and a lot of help before he settles into the starters' job.

7. Tampa Bay clinched a playoff spot in week 14 with a 9-5 record. Have I mentioned how poor the NFC is lately?

8. Trent Edwards has been severely overrated this season. If the Bills think he's their quarterback of the future, they're way off. Edwards is top backup material, nothing more.

9. The New York Giants had two running backs rush for more than 140 yards, which has to be the first time that's happened. Brandon Jacobs (4th round) carried 24 times for 145 yards and Ahmad Bradshaw (7th round) carried 17 times for 151 yards. Just goes to show you how interchangeable NFL running backs are. It gets proven time and time again, but teams continue to invest high-round draft picks on running backs.

10. There's no reason why the Steelers' backups shouldn't easily handle the Ravens. The Ravens have shut down any veteran with so much as a paper cut. Charlie Batch, Gary Russell and the boys would easily take care of what the Ravens are putting out on the field right now.

 

What I Like These Next Two Nights, and I Don't Mean Night Games

One thing's for sure. No more 8pm or later starts for the Steelers.

There are 3 Sunday night and Monday night games left, and none of the matchups are meaningful or intriguing except for tomorrow night's Denver/San Diego game, which is basically meaningless as well. However, I would rather theoretically avoid New England as long as possible in the playoffs, which means I want the #3 seed and want to see San Diego lose.