Steelers Not Among iPad Early Adopters in NFL

Training camp is still a few weeks away, but this might be the last summer that a familiar NFL ritual plays out in St. Vincents.

What every player dreads all summer long in Latrobe is a knock at the door from “The Turk.” Who knows who plays the role of “The Turk” today.

That’s not what’s important. It’s the news he brings.

The knock at the door is usually followed by the grim phrase:  “Coach wants to see you. And bring your play book.”  The later part of that phrase tells all – your days as a Steeler are over.

Some unfortunate few will hear that dreaded phrase this summer, but they might be the last.

No, the Steelers are not planning on holding camp elsewhere.

But as NFL.com recently profiled, tablet computer technology is sweeping the NFL, simultaneously replacing the traditional pen and ink playbook and radically alerting the experience of film study.

As the article details, every NFL team is experimenting with the iPad with several teams discarding dead tree editions of the playbook.

The Steelers, as reported by Neal Coolong of Behind the Steel Curtain, are not one of them. The Steelers will make film and plays available for iPads, but they’re not making them mandatory.

Avoiding “Putting on the Dog?” Not so Fast

Why aren’t the Steelers early adopters? There’s no way to be sure.

Art Rooney Sr. always admonished against “Putting on the dog,” his way of reminding the boys to be modest, translating his credo in to practical advice such as “Don’t get a Cadillac, get a Buick instead.”

Dan Rooney is a traditionalist when it comes to the game and its presentation. In 1998 when a Jacksonville Jaguars team mascot and mocked the Steelers huddle Rooney loudly complained, going as far as to say, “It’s a shame we didn’t have Lambert or Lloyd with us. They’d have put him in the hospital.” 

When the Jacksonvillebeat reporter protested “But its only entertainment” Rooney’s report was “At Three Rivers Stadium our entertainment is in between the lines.”

But it would be a mistake to insist that the Steelers resist technology.

In fact, as part of the BLESTO scouting combine, the Steelers were one of the first teams to use computers in the scouting and evaluation of players. In fact, former Steelers defensive back, long-time BLESTO head, and soon to be Hall of Famer Jack Butler starred in a Sperry Rand commercial touting its computer’s role in the NFL draft.

Down Side to Technology

Traditionalists like Art Rooney Jr., who ran the Steelers scouting department in the 70’s, were “OK” with using computers, but were smart enough not to become slaves to them.

As he details in his biography/autobiography Ruanaidh, that self-same BLESTO computer didn’t think that Mike Webster could cut it in the NFL.

Even when it factored in intangibles like attitude and football intelligence, Webster simply lacked the measurables, or so that Sperry Rand algorithm concluded.

Fortunately Dick Haley, Tim Rooney, Art Jr. and Chuck Nolltook the time to look at tape on Webster, who of course became a Hall of Famer.

The smart money says that the Steelers will fully embrace tablet technology. But they’ll leave it to others to work out the kinks.

So it might be a few summers before the phrase “Coach wants to see you, and bring your iPad” are uttered in the halls of St. Vincents.

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Steelers Say Goodbye as Mewelde Moore Signs with Colts

The Pittsburgh Steelers said good bye to reserve running back Mewelde Moore, who will rejoin Bruce Arians at the Indianapolis Colts.

Moore arrived in Pittsburgh in 2008 with little fan fare, the news of Moore's signing breaking on the same day that Ben Roethlisberger signed his 100 million dollar extension.

Moorenever became a star with the Steelers, but he was an invaluable back up and effective third down back.

Mewelde Moore passed through training camp and the beginning of the 2008 campaign largely ignored by the press if not the coaches.

But Mooreplayed a crucial role when injuries felled Willie Parker, Rashard Mendenhalland Carey Davis. Moore started in the all-important mid-season show down with Jacksonvillethat year and helped breath life into Mike Tomlin’s “The Standard is the Standard” philosophy by running the ball with authority.

• Mooreplayed extensively during the rest of 2008, and was one of that Super Bowl season's unsung heroes.

And that’s how his career in Pittsburgh will be remembered. Moore never got a lot of fanfare, but he always gave it his all whenever he stepped on the field.

Caught in the Backfield Glut

With Rashard Mendenhall still rehabbing his ACL and likely to start the season the PUP, Isaac Redman is poised to enter 2012 as the Steelers starter. 

Behind Redman the Steelers have quantity depth but the quality of the depth remains an unknown. Jonathan Dwyer looked good in his only start vs. Tennessee, but he’s had chronic off season conditioning issues and hasn’t been tested extensively.

Barron Batch was a training camp hero last summer in Latrobe before injuring his ACL and, while his potential is real, much remains for him to prove.

Chris Rainey, the Steelers 5^th round pick from the 2012 NFL Draft, offers alluring potential but, then again, can’t we say that about every draft pick this time of the year?

John Clay also figures to be in the mix.

With David Johnson moving to full back, the Steelers will likely carry four pure running backs on their roster. Redman and Rainey are locks to make the team, with Dwyer and Batch holding down the other two spots – assuming that Rashard Mendenhall starts the year on the PUP.

• Steelers coaches liked Moore, with Kriby Wilson likening him to “an old familiar suit case."

While the Steelers made little or no effort to sign Mewelde Moore, word was that he might become a training camp addition, depending on how the competition at the back up spot played out.

• For good for or for ill, that Indianapolis has now taken that option off of the table.

Best of luck Mewelde, Steel Curtain Rising wishes you great success in Hoosier country – as long as that success comes not at the expense of the Steelers….

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Steelers Report Card vs. the Jaguars

From the Grade Book of a teacher who can't help but think his students start strong then slack off. Here is the Steelers Report Card for their Juke with Jacksonville. As always, remember that no other grades were consulted prior to this posting.

Quarterback
Ben Roethlisberger started the game on fire, torching the Jaguars for 181 yards in just 11 throws in the first half.... He then proceeded to complete 1 pass out of 5 for 19 yards for the rest of the day. Some of is likely the play calling, but Ben bears the brunt of the responsibility. Grade: C-

Running Back
Give Rashard Mendenhall this. When he's on, he is on. He was on against the Jaguars, running for 100 yards with just under 12 minutes left in the third quarter. Isaac Redman and Jonathan Dwyer. Grade: A

Wide Receivers
Like their quarterback, they started out strong and finished with a whimper. Its hard to tell who is more at “fault” for some of the later mis-fires, but while most of the burden appears to fall on Ben, some of those balls could have been caught. Grade: B-

Offensive Line
Another game another offensive line configuration and yes, another in-game injury. But the line played well, opened holes and blocked for Mendenhall and gave Ben good time. With that said, Roethlisberger was sacked on third down in three straight series in the 4th quarter. While those sacks have more to do with Roethlisberger and his receivers, the line does bear some responsibility. Grade: B-

Defensive Line
Maurice Jones-Drew ran well, especially after Chris Hoke went out of the game. But the defensive line got excellent pressure on the quarterback and had plenty of tackles for losses. To quote that old addage from ESPN's NFL PrimeTime, "They didn't stop Jones-Drew, but they did contain him." Grade: B

Linebackers
James Farrior and LaMarr Woodley continue to deliver comeuppance to everyone who questioned them during the first four games. The unit go pressure on the quarterback and did well in run-containment for the most part. Where is Lawrence Timmons? Grade: B

Secondary
Ike Taylor gave up his first touchdown pass and it wasn't even close. Jacksonville’s passing numbers didn't look pretty for most of the day, but a big part of that was that he kept missing open receivers. Troy Polamalu had a big game as always. Where are the turnovers? Grade: B-

Special Teams
This was by far the worst outing for the Steelers special teams in 2011. Pittsburgh got no spark from its return game. The attempted reverse looked clumsy and yielded nothing. Discretion is the better part of valor, and so is knowing when to go for a blocked punt and when not to. The roughing the kicker call gave Jacksonville life, marking yet another failed opportuinty to put them away. Ditto Daniel Sepulveda's 20 yard punt. And we had anothe missed field goal....
Grade: D

Coaching
The Steelers started out strong but things went downhill as soon as the coaching staff abandoned the 3 step drops. Dabbling with a return to 7 step drops is fine, but why Bruce Arians and Mike Tomlin insist on sticking with that when it wasn't working befuddles. Defensively the Steelers played well, but several special teams decisions were head scratchers. Grade: C-

Unsung Hero
Larry Foote left Pittsburgh with a lot of noise in 2009, returned in 2010 to great fanfare, and then has largely been forgotten. Larry Foote might not have made splash plays that his counterparts LaMarr Woodley and James Farrior made, but he was there plugging up the middle and helping the defense contain Maurice Jones-Drew, and for that Larry Foote is Steel Curtain Risings Unsung Hero of the Jacksonville game.

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Steelers Juke by Jacksonville 17-13

The Pittsburgh Steelers and Jacksonville Jaguars once stood as bitter rivals, a rivalry which continued after Jacksonville left to form the AFC South as the AFC Central transformed itself into the AFC North.

Even into the Tomlin era, the Steelers and Jaguars played several intense games, including a bitter playoff loss at Heinz Field and a dramatic October show down that set the tone for the Steelers 2008 Super Bowl season.

The question facing the Steelers today is whether Pittsburgh’s sputtering 17-13 victory over the Jaguars set a tone for the rest of 2011 or merely reflected much of what Steelers Nation has seen six weeks into the season.

Following a Familiar Tune….

Mike Tomlin’s allegedly hung up on Jacksonville press over their insistence on questioning him about the Jaguar’s January ’08 playoff victory. The fact that the hang up was the big “news” leading up to the game shows just how far this Jaguars franchise has fallen.

And to that end, the game’s first 20 minutes or so went exactly as it was scripted:

• The aging, yet still relevant Super Bowl contender dominating a franchise who'd lost its way and was led by a rookie quarterback.

During much of the first half the Steelers performed like clock work on both sides of the ball.

• Rashard Mendenhall ripped off enough runs to top 100 yards before the end of the first half
• Ben Roethlisberger to Mike Wallace torched Jacksonville catches of 25 and 48 yards
• The Steelers defense sacked hapless Bruce Gabbert four times in the first half

The Pittsburgh Steelers played flawless football for the game’s first 20 minutes.

Just as they had done vs. the Colts, the Steelers gave every indication that they were going to rout an inferior opponent. And just as their AFC South brethren had done, the Jaguars turned the tables and gave the Steelers a run for their money.

Seven Step Sputter

The Steelers non-existent pass blocking, particularly on the ends, is what allowed the Colts back into the game.

Fortunately, against the Jaguars Pittsburgh’s offensive line provides no such scapegoat. Yes, Ben Roethlisberger was sacked 3 times on third down during the 4th quarter, which is troubling.

But the Steelers offensive line kept Roethlisberger clean enough that those 4th quarter sacks should only be statistical anomalies. You can trace the fact that they weren’t anomalies directly back to the fact that after the game’s first 20 minutes, the Steelers offense got away from what had made it so successful in the first place.

The Steelers opened the game following the same template that had led it to success against the Titans: running the ball and calling short, three step drop passing plays.

Either because he was nursing a lead or because Jacksonville wasn’t mounting much of a pass rush, Bruce Arians got away from and started calling plays using Ben's normal seven step drop, and as a consequence Ben Roethlisberger and his receivers never seemed to recover their rhythm.

The Steelers continued to run the ball well, as Mike Tomlin acknowledged, the Steelers “were in some manageable third downs” but they couldn’t convert.

Given how thoroughly the Steelers had dominated the Jaguars in the early going, it is easy to understand why Arians loosened the reins on Roethlisberger. Big Ben fired deep four times but failed to connect with Saunders, Brown or Wallace.

• Complete any one of those passes, the Steelers go up by another touchdown and we write a different story

But as misfires mounted, the offensive staff should have gone back to what worked so well in the early going. They never did and Jacksonville consequently hung around till the final gun.

As Rush Defense Goes, So Goes the Steelers Defense

The good news is that the Steelers extended their no streak of not allowing a 100 yard rusher by one game.

• The bad news is that Maurice Jones-Drew ran for 99 yards.

The Jacksonville Jaguars certainly did not “impose their will” on the Steelers, but they ran consistently enough to take pressure off of their quarterback.

It might be a tad bit unfair to heap too much on one of eleven, but Chris Hoke went out with a stinger during the second quarter, and Steve McLendon took his place for the rest of the game and that’s when Jacksonville’s running game found its rhythm.

Nonetheless, down to its third nose tackle, the defense was forced to carry the offense during the second half and did they did enough to win, with Troy Polamalu making a key stop on third down and Brett Kiesel making a key sack on the Jaguars final drive.

“I think the jury is still out on us. I don’t run away from that. As a matter of fact, I encourage it.” – Mike Tomlin, following the Jacksonville game

Bill Cowher used to preach a team “finds its identity” during the season’s first six weeks.

Mike Tomlin has echoed similar sentiments before, but he clearly isn’t ready to buy into that line of thinking at this juncture. That’s justified given the Steelers performance against Jacksonville.

• The Steelers do have issues they must address, but after the Jacksonville game, those needs appear much more as loose ends as opposed to glaring needs.

Playing the schedule game is of course a no-no, but it would behoove the Steelers to tie those loose ends next week against Arizona before New England comes to town…

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Max Starks Saved the Steelers Season in 2008. Can He Do It Again?

Prelude: October 5th 2008, Jacksonville Florida. Max Starks had entered the 2008 season as the Steelers transition player carrying a 6.85 salary. And he wasn't even starting.

During the second half the prime time epic that defined the Pittsburgh Steelers 2008 regular season, starting left tackle Marvel Smith went down to injury....

...and in came, not Max Starks, but rather Trai Essex. The Steelers after paying him the average of the other top ten tackles in the league and calling him "starter capable" still didn't think enough of Max Starks to name him as the number 3 tackle.

Trai Essex barely slowed the Jaguar defenders who sacked Ben Roethlisberger 3 times that night and subjected him to numerous after the throw hits. All Max Starks could do was to stand there and watch....

Crisis on the Steelers Offensive Line, 2011 Edition

Four games into the 2011 season and the Pittsburgh Steelers have made an abrupt "About Face." After the team lost Willie Colon in the Debacle in Baltimore many in Steelers Nation expected the Pittsburgh to hit the red phone to either Starks or Flozell Adams. After all, the team had been rumored to be interested in bringing both men back well before Colon's injury.

Mike Tomlin instead made a commitment to starting rookie Marcus Gilbert, and in doing so the team seemed to be indicating that they were turning away from the "Patch and Pray" offensive line building strategy in favor of a more methodical approach.

Steel Curtain Rising applauded them for the more deliberate strategy.

Fear rarely motivates the decision making of Mike Tomlin and Kevin Colbert and they stuck to the plan even as the line play became more and more of a glaring liability after the Shut Out of Seattle and Escape from Indy game.

Such steadfastness is admirable, but knowing when to stand your ground and knowing when to stand down is something that separates organizations like the Packers and the Steelers from the Bengals and the Rams.

The Steelers demonstrated that today when the resigned Max Starks, waving rookie Chris Scott to make room for him on the roster.

Max Starks and the Steelers, Then and Now

Making the move all the more interesting is the fact that Max Starks rejoined the Steelers on October 5th, three years to the day that his predecessor’s career ended in injury.

The coaches 2008 experiment with Trai Essex as the starting left tackle lasted all of a few quarters. By the next week in Cincinnati, Max Starks started at left tackle where he went on to start 34 more games, including Super Bowl XLIII.

It is fair to say that Max Starks entered the 2008 season as an overpaid afterthought and ended up saving the season.

Can he do it again? Is it fair for Steelers Nation even to expect him to?

The answer remains far from clear. Starks weight ballooned during the off season, and he finished 2010 on injured reserve with a neck injury – the same type of injury that ultimately ended Marvel Smith’s career.

But the fact is that the offensive line did play better with Starks in the lineup in 2010, as Jim Wexell calculated that Ben Roethlisberger got sacked twice as often with Jonathan Scott starting at left tackle.

The Steelers themselves don’t seem to be clear on Starks role. During his PG Plus chat Gerry Dulac indicated that Starks would “only provide depth” and later indicated that Starks might not even be dressing were it not for the rash of injuries on the offensive line.

That at least, we’ll assume, is the word Dulac got before mid-day. But the end of the day Ed Bouchette took to PG Plus to inform readers that Max Starks took about half of the snaps with the starting unit.

That could mean many things, of course.

In the final analysis the Steelers have plenty of other issues besides the offensive line bedeviling them a quarter of the way into 2011. (How about two critical errors by the place kicking unit in four games?)

Even before his most recent injury no one would ever confuse Max Starks for Tony Boselli. So any messianic aura that accompies Starks’ return is sorely misplaced. If Max Starks can't be a savior for the line, he can bring it some much needed stability.

As the injuries have mounted and Ben Roethlisberger has taken more and more hits fans have wondered aloud “Isn’t there at least a chance that Starks [or Adams] would be better?”

Management has asked itself this question and their answer is obvious. Welcome back Max.

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