Steelers

[Irish]

Steelers (+3) over Eagles

Steelers are coming off a beating of the Houston Texans. Philly is coming off a win over Baltimore. The game is in Philly and every knows that place gets crazy. With all that being said.....The steelers are a running football team. Duce Staley is back in town and tell me he will not have a little extra pep in his step? Combine that and the Bus with a poor rush defense and it looks like trouble for the Eagles.

Against the Ravens last week 2 offensive plays come to mind - 1. 81 yard bomb to Owens and 2. a 62 yard play to Mitchell. Those two plays accounted for almost 80% of the passing yards in that game. That means when Blake came in, there was nearly no production. NOW on defense the Eagles took advantage of Kordell Stewart (IMO - looks like the worst QB ever this pre-season). Now were the Eagles that good or did they take advantage of a Ravens team that is truly that BAD on offense.

The Steelers passing offense is a lot better than given credit. They have two very good receivers and a QB when given time, proves to be accurate. On defense they swarm the ball and create heavy pressure.

True the edge in this game comes down to the back-ups. The Eagles for 2 weeks now have shown that after the 1st string go out they have nothing. The steelers in this game and vs. the lions showed Rothlesburger can move the offense down field and they have a good RB at 3rd string Huntley who will move the ball.

Also looking at the Over 1st half and (whatever the second half line is) on the steelers.

GL
Irish

 

[Blackman]

Good pick -- and I think you'll see less of the starters for the Eagles tonight. Reid can't afford another injury. Also, I'd expect to see a very vanilla offense from the Eagles tonight. They play Pitt in the regular season and Reid hates to say his hand in these meaningless games. Don't have it off the top of my head but I know that the Eagles have a very bad preseason record under Andy Reid. He hates to show his offense so they can't be scouted for the first real games of the year, which in the long run backfires in my opinion and is why the Eagles have lost their season openers the past few years. We can't score in the first game or two of the year because our first team hasn't run enough of these plays during the preseason.

Great pick up on Blake, he's been brutal and looks lost running this offense.

 

[4bubba]

//

Irish,
I have to disagree with you totally on the statement that the Steelers are a RUNNING TEAM.

NO WAY

Last years stats -- Steelers

Run
attempts (x of 32 teams)
17th
yards/game
31st
avg per att
32nd

Pass
attempts
10th
yards/game
14th

The Steelers have not been a running team for two years. Plus they had RB Zereoue.
Staley is not fast or elusive. Its going to be another passing year for them.

 

[Irish]

According to ESPN

According to ESPN

In the first 11 seasons of Bill Cowher's tenure as head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, the franchise has only once finished outside the top 10 teams in rushing offense. Here is a look at how the Pittsburgh running game has annually ranked leaguewide under Cowher:
Year Rank
2002 9
2001 1
2000 4
1999 10
1998 7

1997 1
1996 2
1995 12
1994 1
1993 6
1992 4



Three times in that stretch, the Steelers' ground attack led the NFL, and they ranked among the top five rushing offenses on a half-dozen occasions overall.

"Let's face it, that's what we do here, right?" said standout left guard Alan Faneca, one of the league's premier in-line blockers. "I mean, that's Steelers football, and it pretty much has always been that way from what I understand. I can't really ever see us being a team that throws it first and then just runs the ball for the heck of it."

Last year they tried a different approach with Zeroure(sp) thats what hurt them, the bus saw limited carries. Now with Duce and Bus expect productivity to increase running the ball.

GL
Irish

 

[ajoytoy]

gl on the plays buddy!

am interested to see Rothlesburger play, and Kordell bites

still tossing this game around in my head :banghead: , but the best of luck on your play!


toy

 

[gambinoshark]

just read levens will dress and not play and reid may not let westbrook play

 

[FED]

gm should go under, but eagles will score 2 Def TD's, so prob no play for me,

i also agree with the stealers play, eagles after a win and when they play at home in preseason are always stale, + steelers have more work to do, and ill take the 1/2 pt insurance on the +3


2* steelers +3.5
1* under first hlf
1* under gm


glty

 

[Irish]

Thanks Blackman & toy

Gambinoshark - I had read that about Westbrook & Levens. It plays into what I said about Reid being a little scared about losing more players. Steelers have many blitx packages and now you have a in-expeirenced RB coming in trying to protect McNabb????? A lot of quick drop backs on pass plays.

GL
Irish

 

[Blackman]

Just to add -- I read that they are going to give Thomas Tapeh some carries at halfback to see how he does, another reason I think the Eagles offense will not put up much tonight. He's a solid player but a step slow and very inexperienced at the position. I think the Eagle gameplan tonight is just to play around with some options and most importantly stay healthy.

 

[gambinoshark]

i think with chad scott in the scondary that pretty much gaurantees an owens touchdown, i was leaning the opposite of you guys with:

over 19 1/2 first half

 

[gambinoshark]

also like steelers +140 for the game

 

[Irish]

I agree I like the steelers for the game. I can see Owens putting up a TD, but who knows. My play is more based on the back-ups. You have to think with a banged up O-line Cowher will throw the kitchen sink at McNabb. If they get to him once Ried might pull him to be safe. Thats why I'm laying off the half plays.

GL
Irish

 

[gambinoshark]

good call on the game irish, won the first half bets then get online and see that the steelers were getting +3 in the second half and could not pass it up...

however if mcnabb was good enough to hit owens when he burned scott on seemingly every play, there may have been a different outcome!