STEELERS WIN WITH SOME STYLE

Week 9 @ Broncos 11/9/09

Head Coach Mike Tomlin's mantra is that style points count for nothing, wins are what matter. While coach's philosophy is the backbone of the Steeler success under his tenure, the 2009 Steelers had gotten away from the smash mouth style synonymous with Pittsburgh Steeler football for over 75 years. On Monday night in Denver, the Steelers got back to the basics. The Steelers beat the Broncos 28-10 by making key defensive plays and running the football to control the clock in the second half. Denver proved they were clearly overrated. They have lost 2 in a row badly being outscored 58-17 and are looking more like the team that everyone predicted would struggle out of training camp.

It was less than a hostile environment. 20,000 Bronco season ticket holders sold their tickets at up to 5 time face value to eager Steeler fans. According to some reports, Invesco Field at Mile High was as high as 50% Black and Gold. The altitude turned out not to be a factor either, as the Broncos could not sustain a substantial drive.

The catalyst was Troy Polamalu's interception at 9:13 to go in the 4th. Up to that point, the Steelers had played a back and forth game with the Broncos, neither team stepping up to take control. Both offenses looked out of sync and searching for answers. The Steelers were using the pass too much early and not attacking the Denver defense with the run until after halftime, the Broncos only scored 3 offensive points the entire game while Kyle Orton came back to earth throwing 3 interceptions, one of which was returned 48 yards for the first half's only Touchdown by Steelers backup safety Tyrone Carter.

Josh McDaniels, the overhyped deciple of Bill Belichick, was clearly outcoached by Mike Tomlin evident by the drastic difference with their team's performance after halftime. Pittsburgh's second year running back Rashard Mendenhall rushed for nearly 4 yards per carry in the first half, exposing the same weakness that Baltimore did the week before running 35 times for 125 yards. In the second half, more running plays for Mendenhall were called. The first half, the Steelers ran the ball on 6 of 17 plays for 23 yards with time of possession at 10 minutes and 44 seconds. The second half yielded 41 plays, 21 of which were rushes for 150 yards. Defensively, Dick Lebeau made the adjustment to back the defensive backs off 's to counteract the effectiveness with Denver's playaction in the first half. The results were to hold Denver to 59 yards of offense in the second half, only 1 yard rushing.

There is room for improvement with the Steeler's situational playcalling. Pittsburgh was lucky that they had the time to find the weaknesses as Denver's offense sputtered to execute all game. The Steelers passed on 8 of the team's first 11 plays on offense causing the Defense to be on the field for 8 minutes and 45 seconds in the first quarter. You could clearly see members of the defense desperately grabbing for the oxygen masks between series. If Denver had sustained any long drives in the first half, the outcome could have been different. Ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we'd all have a Merry Christmas, as such the Steelers left Denver with a 28-10 victory and some confidence in the run game in just in time for the showdown with co-North Division leader Cincinnati next week at Heinz Field.