Steelers face formidable foe in Panthers
MEMORABLE SERIES MOMENT
Steelers 27, Panthers 3
Dec. 23, 2010, at Heinz Field
In the only Thursday night road game in team history, the Carolina Panthers set the tone by taking their opening possession to the Pittsburgh 32, from where, on fourth-and-5, they punted into the end zone. The Steelers proceeded to systematically put a nation to sleep with a couple of short field goals by Shaun Suisham, a 43-yard touchdown pass from Ben Roethlisberger to Mike Wallace, and a 1-yard touchdown run by Rashard Mendenhall for a 20-0 halftime lead. Jimmy Clausen couldn’t rally the Panthers, so Roethlisberger sneaked for another touchdown in the third quarter and the Steelers were on their way to another Super Bowl. The Panthers, on the other hand, were on their way to replacing Clausen with Cam Newton and coach John Fox with Ron Rivera after this 2-14 season.
TALE OF THE TAPE
“Three things that stood out to me:
1. How physical Cam Newton is. That’s not news, but when you take a look at those big-boy shoulder pads on top the big man that he is, 6-5, 250, and what he creates, because he’s the second-leading rusher for the Panthers, he’s an immense target. People bounce off him when he runs the read-option. It’s really kind of awesome. People just don’t get him to the ground. And then that 100.8 QB rating. This young man is prospering under Norv Turner.
2. How much of a water spider running back Christian McCaffrey is. He’ll go east or west and then all of the sudden he goes north-south so very quick, and it’s a true north. Gadzooks! And …
3. The double see-dos of linebackers Luke Kuechly and Thomas Davis. They see it, do it. These guys diagnose. Davis is 14 years and a couple of ACL operations into it and doesn’t quite have what he used to have. But Kuechly, I really respect what he brings. You watch this guy, he’s not always fitting in his gap the way he should but however he attacks the block he comes out on the positive end of it.”
— Steelers Radio analyst Craig Wolfley.
TOP QUESTION
Can the Steelers pressure Newton without losing outside contain?
Teams would “mush rush” Kordell Stewart by keeping their aggression in check in order to keep him in the pocket and allow him to throw instead of run. Newton’s a much better passer, but the same kind of threat running the ball. That’s what makes him so difficult to defend, particularly now that he has a great running back in McCaffrey and a slashing wingback in Curtis Samuel for another misdirection option.
THREE QUESTIONS:
With DT CAMERON HEYWARD
Q: It didn’t seem like a crisp practice today. Was it?
CH: “I thought it was crisp. We weren’t asking guys to go full speed. It’s a Tuesday (chuckles). Guys are still trying to recover right now. I look for the mental aspect more than anything. Are we engaged? Are we having the right conversations? We’re preparing for the number-two rushing offense in the NFL, so we have to have the proper conversations. Are we talking about how we’re going to keep this guy in the pocket? When we do that, I couldn’t care less how the practice goes on a short week like this.”
Q: Are you satisfied with those conversations?
CH: “Yes.”
Q: Is there a key to speeding up the recovery process for these Thursday games?
CH: “I’ll tell you in a couple days (laughs). We’re trying to do everything that’s possible. There’s no such thing as overloading on trying to get your body right with such little time, so we’ll see.”
GAME BREAKDOWN
What to look for from the Steelers tonight at Heinz Field:
On offense
The Steelers have ruled right tackle Marcus Gilbert out for a third consecutive week and fourth overall. Matt Feiler would start in his place and the Steelers are 3-0 when he starts. Ryan Switzer is a bit banged up, so that may allow rookie Jaylen Samuels to become involved in the passing game. Across the line, the Panthers are hoping FS Eric Reid can play with his sprained right shoulder. Otherwise, the leaders are linebackers Kuechly and Davis, and the pass-rusher over Feiler is the ageless Julius Peppers (2 sacks). The corners are James Bradberry and speedster Donte Jackson.
On defense
The Steelers are healthy, and across the line the Panthers believe center Ryan Kalil will play even though he hasn’t practiced this week. The Panthers have been without tackles Matt Kalil and Daryl Williams all season. WR Torrey Smith has missed the last two games and isn’t expected to play tonight, either. Rookie D.J. Moore and Samuels are highly regarded and high-pedigree athletes opposite their main receiver, Devin Funchess (6-4, 225), with veteran Greg Olsen at tight end. Newton and McCaffrey are the primary players in the Panthers’ read-option game.
PREDICTION
The Steelers and Panthers have played four common opponents, which makes for a fun handicap. I’ll use the second Baltimore game in the Steelers’ equation because it will better reflect the Steelers as currently constituted. So, the Steelers won all four games, while the Panthers went 3-1, having lost to Atlanta. Of the three angles I examine, two are nearly identical. 1.) At the line of scrimmage, both teams are +0.5 per run (offense ypc. minus defense); 2.) In yards per point, the Panthers score a point every 12.1 yards and allow one every 14.5 yards. That’s a +2.4 difference; the Steelers are +2.5. 3.) The difference is in the secondary, where the Steelers allowed 9.6 yards per completion; the Panthers 10.6. I’ll let that edge be my guide, especially with FS Eric Reid hurting (sprained right shoulder, says he’ll play) and the fact that the Panthers’ stopper at CB, the 6-2 Bradberry, has successfully checked the same big receivers Joe Haden has, but that Antonio Brown is a different animal altogether. These teams and athletes present too good of a match-up to be played on three days rest. Hope for an injury-free game … Steelers, 30-27.
BY THE NUMBERS
.455: Steelers’ regular-season won-loss percentage under Mike Tomlin after beating Baltimore; .685 after beating everyone else.
11: Sacks allowed by the Steelers are one fewer than the 12 allowed by the Panthers. The difference is that the solid protection bolsters the Steelers’ fourth-ranked passing attack, while the Panthers’ replacement tackles are bolstered by a misdirectional running game that slows opposing rushmen.
16.7: Rushing yards per carry by Panthers rookie WR Moore (7-117). He’s another “wingback” type in the Carolina arsenal.
31: League ranking of the Panthers’ red-zone defense. The Steelers rank second in red-zone offense.
378: Touches for James Conner by the end of the season at this current pace. It would rank fourth in team history behind Barry Foster (426 in 1992), Le’Veon Bell (406 in 2017) and Jerome Bettis (390 in 1997). Of the four, Conner, at 230 pounds, is the second heaviest.
DOWNLOADS
n Ian Rapoport reported that the Steelers attempted to sign OLB Bruce Irvin — as did Seattle and New England — before he signed with Atlanta for $1.5 million this week. The Steelers have three pass-rushers but T.J. Watt has been hobbled a bit, so Anthony Chickillo played a bit more than normal, 24 snaps, in Baltimore. The Steelers don’t have an active fourth OLB, but Ola Adeniyi is ready to come off injured reserve at any time, and Farrington Huguenin and Keion Adams are on the practice squad.
n New offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner has fans happy with the NFL’s second-ranked red-zone offense, and he has the stars happy, too: Roethlisberger broke his own team record with 2,560 passing yards in the first eight games; Conner is the first in team history with 10 touchdowns in the first eight games; Brown is the first in team history with nine touchdown catches in the first eight games.
n Steelers safety Morgan Burnett was the quarterback of Newton’s youth football team while growing up in College Park, Ga. Burnett went on to quarterback North Clayton High School while Newton moved from youth football running back to nearby Westlake High’s quarterback. “You knew then who was going to be the quarterback,” Burnett once told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Kansas City safety Eric Berry was also a prep quarterback in the region at the same time.
n The question of the week in Pittsburgh dealt with the Steelers not huddling much on offense. Here’s how Fichtner answered: “Well, you know we practice it a lot, so you have a lot of continuity there. I think that you’re not real sure exactly what they might have been planning that week, defensively. They do a lot of multiple-type things in their system, so in a short week, they may say, hey, and pull something out that maybe you didn’t get a chance to work on. You’re getting limited reps to begin with. So, in the no-huddle system you’re able to kind of see some things are developing and then check and have time to put yourself maybe in a better place.” Fichtner added, “That’s the better part about having a veteran quarterback.”
n Fichtner on last week’s performance of rookie No. 3 WR James Washington: “It was a great type of environment to play in. Any division game you play as a young guy you start to understand this is a little bit different. It will always be a little bit different in Baltimore, but it’s a terrific place to go play. You just have to settle yourself down in that environment, too. And I think early he probably was a little excited. I think if I’m not mistaken there was a ball him and Ben didn’t hook up on. He came back and caught that same pass, made a couple plays, did a nice job trying to block, did everything. His time is coming. It’s been for no other reason than things haven’t happened as quickly as you want, but I can still remember back to Antonio Brown. He maybe had caught three, four, five, six balls or so before we actually got into the playoffs that year. Next thing you know he was making a playoff run for us, putting us in the playoffs. I know that time is coming, and we need everybody, and on a short week like this we definitely need everybody.”
PARTING SHOT
“His understanding of … where his receivers are, is like second to none. He can be looking over here, and then all of a sudden scan back over here and have perfect timing and be on time for that particular route. And the play is never over with Big Ben.” — Cam Newton on Ben Roethlisberger.