MVN - Most Valuable Network

What Exactly Is This Team’s Identity?

For months Mike Tomlin has talked of forming a certain identity.  This identity would be given to them not threw words by the media and we the bloggers.  The identity would be identified through actions earned on the field.  So far this season hasn’t been a total bust, although many think because losing two straight games to two very good football teams it is the end of the world, when really it’s not.

The positives after 15 weeks are, the team is 9-5, they are beat up but they are 9-5.  They lead their division by tie-breakers which, many people at the beginning of the season said, “Oh you stomped Cleveland, like that’s hard and like it matters.”  Well it turns out that impressive opening week victory was worth more than just pounding on your arch nemesis. 

There are other positives like the play of Willie Parker who currently leads the NFL in rushing, and continues to provide solid play on the ground.  Although he’s struggled the last few weeks, Parker’s ability to score at any moment will always make him dangerous.  Despite his quietly stellar Pro Bowl season, he also has to step up in these next few weeks. 

Another big key has been the new look to Ben Roethlisberger, a guy who two years ago won the Super Bowl and just one year ago everyone wanted him run out of town.  Roethlisberger set a team record for most touchdown passes in a season and still has two left to go.  He’s more efficient, more confident and smarter at his position.  He also earned his first trip to Honolulu.  Yes the team has given up more sacks than they should, but look at it from this perspective, a homerun hitter is bound to strike out more than he doesn’t.  A scorer in hockey is going to be stopped more than he isn’t and a quarterback who scrambles like Roethlisberger does is bound to take his fair share of sacks.  The most important thing is that instead of throwing the ball to the other team he is eating the ball and taking these sacks. 

Now you can say Roethlisberger’s holding the rock too long, but last season he would have tried to make something out of nothing and it would have been turned over.  So there’s more than one way to look at this current situation.

The offensive line hasn’t played up to snuff and maybe it’s due to injury, whatever the reason there is still plenty of football left to be played and don’t judge their overall performance based on a few bad games.  They have helped Parker break 1,000 yards and their bad play has come at a good time.  It’s good that they are playing bad now, where it can be fixed instead of these problems arising when playoff time arrives. 

The defense played their worst game in years and don’t expect that to happen again.  There will really be something wrong if they don’t come out on Thursday night ready to pop someone in the mouth.  They are still the No.1 defense in the league, and still have done a pretty good job this season.  This defense has had trouble putting pressure on quarterbacks in the last two games, but they have played two very good offensive lines.  Did the thought ever trigger to some of you that, maybe they are going kind of vanilla on these contending teams because of the likelihood of seeing them again, when the games really matter during playoff time.  That is also a possibility, but that’s just speculation.  My own thought.

To quote Craig Wolfley “It’s time they circle the wagon’s and come together.”  The true identity of the 2007 Pittsburgh Steelers will come in the next few weeks, as they will try to rise above the adversity that’s surrounded them the last two weeks.  Losses are in the past and now is the time to step up, otherwise the tale of the 2007 Steelers will be one not worth talking about.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 19th, 2007 at 9:14 am and is filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.