Steelerfury.com Post Game Grades: Vikings

Posted Mon, 10/26/2009 - 20:22 by Iron_City


Up at the crack of dawn.  Cooler pre-packed, Steeler gear already picked out for the day.  Head out at 9am to Ohio’s version of a Steeler tailgate party to bacon and eggs hot off the grill with bloody mary’s to wash it down before the real party begins.  This wasn’t any Sunday, this was the modern day version of the Hall of Fame-worthy Brett Favre-led Undefeated Purple People Eaters v.s the hometown favorite Steel Curtain. As a fan,  I can't drink enough beer in one day to honor this matchup and what these 2 teams have brought to the legacy of the NFL,  but I sure in the hell tried.  Yuengling after Yuengling flowed freely from 10am till kickoff, when I really put the hammer down in excitement until I was slowed at halftime by an enormous creation created at the tailgate that was none other than a knockoff Peppy’s own,  original Roethlis-BURGER.  A mountain of food that will plug any good tailgaters belly and sending him to the couch for the 2nd half.  So for week 6 of the 2009 NFL season,  I give IC and his Steeler loving posse and A+ for the tailgate experience. 

Onto what matters.  I have mad respect for this Viking team, each grade will reflect what I feel is worthy and on par with the level of competition faced. 

The red flag has been thrown, so upon sober review:

 

Coaching:  B

The teacher meets his disciple.  Mike Tomlin comes from the spawn of the Brad Childress coaching tree that now has exactly one branch.  Coach did a good job of understanding how his mentor likes to attack a 60 minute football game and remained patient and stayed the course to pull out a win.  He signed off on a game plan that wasn’t going to let an opportunistic Viking defense take over the game and pull away.  At the same time, he put his John Hancock on a defensive game plan that sat on its heels to play gap control to shut down and smother the NFL’s best RB in Adrian Peterson.  He’s growing as a coach as is beginning to understand that patience is key in defensive struggles and in that kind of matchup, any drive that ends in a kick can be considered a good drive.  He’s built enough depth on his defense where he can be down 2 starters and still hold Adrian Peterson in check for 4 QTR’s.   As a Steeler fan, watching the maturation of a great young head coach and QB together is going to be special.

 

Offense: C+

A lot of people want to bury Bruce Arians every time his offense doesn’t put up 30 pts.  For some reason, everyone's a critic and fails to see the positives.  From the folks that say he “owns’ his much improved OL to the ones that are naïve enough to not know the 2 hands he’s used to cradle the development of his QB into a top overall player in this league. 

I was particularly impressed with the way he chose to run wide with pitches and sweeps away from the Williams wall and was met with several positive plays.  And when a stout front 7 begins to over pursue, what do you do?  That’s right, hit ‘em with some misdirection to keep them honest.  Much was made of the Steelers not attacking a Viking secondary minus Antoine Winfield.  But when they finally did on a skinny post up the seam to Hines Ward,  his replacement , back peddling deep into quarters coverage,  left his assignment with the ball mid-flight to jar the ball loose from 86.  From that point on,  I knew that Viking secondary had a chip on their shoulder.  This offense tried to keep up with that defense that threw several looks all game long including big share of press man with single high or zero coverage and some timely zone dogs that almost caused a DL to get an INT.  When they did show 2 high looks, the safeties sat deep enough that going up top was not an option.

But when push comes to shove, this offense could only muster 259 total yards and only 4-12 on 3rd downs.  But what may be even more disconcerting than that is having only 23 minutes T.O.P. and a 0-for in the red zone and goal to go including one turnover.  But sometimes it's not about a high powered attack into the teeth of a defense, sometimes it is about understanding what a defense is giving you and attempting to limit mistakes in a field position struggle rather than gambling and attempt to exploit every matchup. 

 

QB:  C

14/26 – 175 yds – 1 TD – 0 Int – 87.7 QBR – 6.73 YPA – 54% CMP

Ben showed good poise in a 2 minute drill just before the half in hitting Mike Wallace down the field twice between the hashes on crossing routes.  But at times, he forced the ball into windows that is uncharacteristic of him and is lucky he didn’t end up with 2-3 picks on the day.  I'm glad he’s always looking downfield, but sometimes when you can tuck it and run it to move the chains you need to make better decisions.  He does a good job calling out blitzes and protections these days, but he seems to be going to the smoke screen well a little too often these days.  In all, it was a decent day against a solid defense.   He didn’t engineer any Ben like 6 minute drives, but did limit mistakes and turnovers enough the point where he allowed his defense to finish the game. 

 

RB:  C+

Rush = 15/85 – Long 17 – REC = 1/(-1) – 0 TD

Rashard Mendenhall came out of the gate strong and ran hard with the football on the perimeter.  He shows good speed and vision in the open field, but took a step back in blitz pickup this week allowing Ben Leber to stone him for a sack on the first drive.  He also fumbled away the football in the red zone which effectively ended his day only to see Mewelde Moore come in and be much less effective.  The Willie Parker section of this article is on HOLD until the true status of his injuries become known.

 

WR:  C+

6/134 – 1 TD – 3/20 rush

I saw a WR unit that struggled to get separation and find openings or windows to get the ball in tight.  As mentioned,  rookie phenom Mike Wallace had a pair of nice grabs just before the half,  one of which he took to the house airborne in a Willie Parker like XL flip over the goal line.  Santonio Holmes beat man coverage and danced up the field 45 yards inside the 10 only to set up a Mendenhall fumble.  Hines Ward was held silent but did keep his catch streak alive with one grab for 3 yards.  But what stood out for me was the way these 3 sealed the edge and blocked downfield to spring Mendenhall on many positive gains.  That’s the influence Hines Ward has on this WR corps. 

 

TE:  B

7/42

Heath Miller proves to be a stellar outlet inside and out of the hashes for Big Ben with one negative on the day of a PI penalty in the end zone negating a Santonio Holmes TD.  But I thought the TE’s did a nice job out on the perimeter in the run game hunting down DB’s to spring Mendenhall.  Minnesota did force a mismatch on Heath Miller with Ray Edwards, who walked right around 83 to pressure Ben. 

 

OL:  A-

I thought these guys continue to improve and take a big step forward against 3 perennial pro bowlers this week.  They did give up 3 sacks, one of which caused a forced fumble, but 2 of those came on overloads.  Max Starks single handedly stoned Jared Allen all day and the interior OL did a nice job sealing off the Williams wall.  Willie Colon also held Ray Edwards and sack specialist Bryan Robison quiet all day.  The communication and comfort level these guys have shown with each other has really stood out week to week.

 

Defense – A

What other grade can you give them while scoring a pair of 4th QTR defensive TD’s and stoning the best RB in the league while lining up across from a HOF QB.  That’s a scary scenario on paper.  But they are well coached and displayed discipline in run fits to control the line of scrimmage while hanging back in the secondary to limit big plays.  It was a nice use of pre-snap confusion in alignment to not tip the hand to Favre of where the rush is coming from

But on a negative note, they did allow 3 drives of 13 or more plays and the Minnesota offense stayed on the field for over 36 minutes.  One interesting thing to note was they allowed a 15 play, 104 yard drive to the Vikings which had 30 yards in Minnesota penalties which resulted in a TD, for Lamar Woodley.  But allowing Brett Favre to top the 350 yard mark means its back to the drawing board in the secondary.

But I thought announcer Moose Johnston said it best.  They had a Bill Cowher like game plan of “staying ahead of the chains”.  A phrase we should all be familiar with.  They didn’t play to win, they played offense not to lose,  and they did.  They played for manageable situations in down and distance situations and still lost the overall battle of field position all day. 

 

DL:  A+

Any unit that holds AP south of the century mark gets high praise from me.  The lateral movement displayed along the line of scrimmage to string out zone plays was a thing of beauty and 2nd only to the ability to stack up the interior on inside run plays.  Brett Keisel blew by Steve Hutchinson on a strip fumble that led to a Woodley TD.  Casey Hampton beat down the Notre Dame center like a drum in the run game, but ended up with 3 neutral zone infractions on hard counts.  That has to get better.  Travis Kirscke continues to be exactly what I thought he was, the best 4th man in the NFL.  He played stout and won centerline position on run plays until the leg injury, when Nick Eason and Ziggy Hood split time from there on out.  Ziggy’s outstanding hustle landed him in a photoshoot with Keyaron Fox as he led the convoy 80 yards down field on D-TD-#2 in the endzone to an aspiring photographer. 

 

LB:  A+

Pshhhhhhh.  2 TD’s, is that all.  All in a day's work in Steeler Nation.  Woodley and Keyaron Fox both went yard on Brett Fav-ruh miscues to the tune of a sportscenter highlight.  James Farrior and Lawrence Timmons were extremely stout against the run while James Harrison notched sack 7 and 8 on the year.  One of which nearly led to a battle royal with Vike center Jon Sullivan as time expired. 

 

DB’s:  C

I thought Willie Gay and DeShea Townsend had nice games.  Both tracked the deep ball well and were sure tacklers.  Ike Taylor continues to struggle with bigger and more physical WR’s as Sidney Rice caught the bulk of his 11 receptions against Ike.  Ryan Clark added another mouthpiece to his portfolio by laying the wood to Percy Harvin down the seam.  And, as always,  Troy being Troy makes it that much more fun. Ryan Mundy has seen increased playing time over the last 2 weeks.  I guess not hearing his name on the loudspeaker is a check in the positive category for him.. 

 

ST’s: D+ (what you’ve all been waiting to read and why you even opened the link)

For the first time this season, I thought Stefan Logan was the only real positive on the day.  He ran behind his eyes and showed passion and grit to try and finish in the KR game.  Several miscues in this phase all day.  Losing lane responsibility and contain on a Percy Harvin 88 yd TD where Jeff Reed looked like Panzy-ass playing patty cake with Percy as he blew by him.  I also thought Logan fielded some kicks he shouldn’t have catching on the top of his shoes, while not fielding a punt rolled an extra 20 yards on a punt.  Kickers and Punters remain solid, but the coverage teams giving up 2 Td’s in successive weeks has to get better.  Next up:  Eddie Royal – after the bye.