Steelers now among favorites to win Super Bowl

Steelers now among favorites to win Super Bowl

Rob Rossi, Of The Pittsburgh Tribune Review
December 19, 2015

PITTSBURGH — Just for kicks, I spent Thursday morning trolling the web for what easily can be scored on any corner of the Las Vegas strip.

Wow, did they seemingly live up to their name.

The Steelers are now among the favorites to win the Super Bowl.

Didn't make sense. Then I looked into the past Super Bowl champions. Turns out, the Steelers are playing like about 70 percent of them.

With a fifth-ranked scoring offense and 11th-rated scoring defense, the Steelers are in line with 34 Super Bowl champions whose scoring rankings were within six slots of one another. That group includes three of the four Steelers and Patriots* teams coached to titles by Chuck Noll and Bill Belichick, respectively, and each of Bill Walsh's three San Francisco squads.

It's not about getting hot at the right time or defense winning championships. It's mostly about the offense and defense not being at opposite ends of the NFL universe. If that's the case, it usually takes an all-time unit — think of those defenses in Chicago, Baltimore and Pittsburgh during the 1985, 2000 and 2008 seasons — to overcome a big gap.

So maybe the people in Sin City know something about these Steelers that we're just not seeing. Or perhaps they're able to see Ben Roethlisberger for what he's become: the best football player in the world.

And a lot of times, that player's team wins the Super Bowl. Not always. Tom Brady's 2007 Patriots* won every game but the Super Bowl.

The Steelers have looked a lot like those Patriots* during the past five weeks, rolling up 30 points even when they click on only, like, two cylinders.

A 33-20 win at Cincinnati on Sunday required a defensive score and a bunch of field goals. A lot can be taken from that victory.

My take was that on a day when they wasted some chances, the Steelers still scored 26 points on a top-10 defense on the road.

"We definitely could have been better on offense," tight end Heath Miller said. "Nobody is happy with field goals."

Better than when the kicker misses them, Heath.

To think, it could come down to missed field goals by one of the Steelers' many former kickers that prevents this offense from getting a crack at the postseason spotlight. As it stands, the Steelers are 8-5 and probably need to win out to be one of the AFC's six playoff participants.

Barring self-induced turnovers, no defense — not even Denver's NFL best today — looks capable of even slightly slowing down Big Ben and Co.

Did you know the Steelers are plus-51 in point differential in the six full games Roethlisberger has played?

They're also 3-3 in those games. Roethlisberger tossed six interceptions in losses at New England and Seattle and against the Bengals. Not all were his fault.

He's human, but he only looks that way if he's throwing it to the other guys.

His offense has averaged 69 snaps and 428 yards in four games against top-10 defenses belonging to the Patriots*, Seahawks and Bengals (twice).

Roethlisberger's 8.69 yards per pass attempt ranks second in the NFL.

We're watching something special right now with Roethlisberger. And what we're watching is the primary reason Sin City thinks the Steel City's team is among the Super Bowl favorites.

http://touch.mcall.com/#section/-1/a.../p2p-85374336/

Yeah on NFL Network the three teams that keep coming up are Steelers, Seahawks, Cards.


Maybe we will see a rematch of sorts.

If we win today we will probably be the hands down favorite to win it all.

Not today they're not. If the offense isn't absolutely firing on all cylinders we can't rely on this defense week in and week out. We have got to up our level of defensive play.

IowaSteeler927 wrote:

Not today they're not. If the offense isn't absolutely firing on all cylinders we can't rely on this defense week in and week out. We have got to up our level of defensive play.

While I can't disagree, and that first half was maddening, the defense absolutely shut Brock and the Denver offense down and gave them nothing, not even a FG.

This team with its offense has a chance to run the distance.

I love how the team put it together in the 2nd half. Totally changed my mood and outlook.

This is a dangerous team fighting for a real playoff appearance.

Steelers will need to get the 5th seed to warm up in the wild card game. If they have to play Denver in Denver to start, with this secondary and a rested Manning? Might be a problem.

I think Brady would put up 50 points on this secondary

nope, don't want to be the favorite. Or even on the list.

We're the 2010 packers. the team that got decimated by injuries early-mid season but somehow got it together and started steamrolling their way to the SB.

Hope it ends the same way (with us winning it all of course :D)

How Mike Tomlin, Steelers survived three-QB season when others didn't

Dec 20, 2015
Jeremy Fowler
ESPN Staff Writer



Five NFL teams have played with three quarterbacks this season.

Four have a combined 17-35 record, as you would expect with so much flux at the game’s most important position.

The Pittsburgh Steelers are the only team to survive the changes with a winning record. Pittsburgh is 8-5 while the Cowboys, Ravens and Browns have 11 wins among them (the Texans are holding tight at 6-7).

Every case is different. Tony Romo played four games because of injury. Who knows where the Steelers would be if Ben Roethlisberger played only four? Probably not in the playoff mix.

But here are a few reasons why the Steelers have had success this season.

The "next man up" cliché: Next man up is a close second to "swag" and "ballhawk" as the most overused NFL word or phrase over the past five years. But coaches love to say it, and players love hearing it.

"Coach T [Mike Tomlin] preaches next man up, and we’ve lived it firsthand," offensive coordinator Todd Haley said.

The football rhetoric actually worked in this case. With early-season injuries at several different positions, the Steelers became conditioned to roster changes and adjusted accordingly.

DeAngelo Williams: The Steelers got five and a half games from arguably the game’s best running back (LeVeon Bell) and have seen minimal drop-off in the offense. That’s a credit to Williams, who is outplaying his two-year, $4 million deal.

Make no mistake: The Steelers miss Bell. But the running game is still considered a strength. The Steelers have been in the top 10 in rushing offense for much of the season. Williams is getting minimal tailback help. Pittsburgh doesn’t have a definitive No. 2 back right now, so Williams plays almost every down and is averaging 20.2 carries per start. He’s tied with Antonio Brown with eight touchdowns, and he’s on pace to eclipse 1,000 yards despite not starting in six games.

The Steelers knew they were getting an established player in Williams. Turns out they got a motivated one as well. The offensive line has maintained above-average play all season, too.

Timely moments from Mike Vick and Landry Jones: Going 2-2 with these two at quarterback was crucial. This could have been worse. Jones followed the perfect backup quarterback script: help fuel a comeback win, go back to the bench before things turn ugly on you. Jones was fantastic in the Steelers' 25-13 win against Arizona, then started to turn the ball over in a 23-13 loss to Kansas City. Ten quarters might have been too long for Jones. Six was just right.

Knock Vick’s play if you choose, and it was rough for parts of his three-game stint as starter, but he lifted the offense in that final quarter against San Diego. Without Vick in those moments, the team isn’t in playoff contention right now.

Risk-taking: Tomlin has coached like a man with zero regrets. He’s willing to make decisions and live with them if they backfire.

In fact, of his three big calls this season, two didn’t work -- the fake field goal in Seattle and the fourth-and-1 in overtime against the Ravens. The one in Seattle was especially egregious.

But the one that did work, Bell's walk-off Wildcat touchdown on the final play of the San Diego game, was beautiful. And it changed the complexion of the season.

Tomlin is 1-for-3 on his calls, but he’s 3-for-3 on getting the locker room to rally behind him...

to read rest of article:

http://espn.go.com/blog/pittsburgh-steelers/post/_/id/16869/how-mike-tomlin-and-steelers-survived-three-qb-season-when-others-didnt