Steelers Eliminated From Playoffs

You know that thoughtless, unwanted present that ruins Christmas for everyone? The one that prompts awkward conversation and probing questions? Well, the Pittsburgh Steelers delivered one hell of a disappointing early Christmas present to their fans yesterday, all wrapped up in ghastly black and orange tiger print paper, losing 13-10 to Cincinatti. Another lacklustre offensive performance, combined with numerous mistakes and errors in execution left the Steelers and their fans on the outside of the NFL Playoff bubble looking in for only the second time in Mike Tomlin's six-season tenure. The club must now beat Cleveland - not as certain an outcome as you might think, given the Browns' 20-14 victory in Week 12 - to avoid their first losing season under Tomlin.

Falling from 6-3 to 7-8 by losing 5 of 6 games is always going to be disappointing. It is the manner in which the Steelers have dropped the last 3 games in a row, effectively slamming the Playoff door in their own face, which is particularly difficult to understand. With victory over the Ravens in Week 13 with Charlie Batch under center, they had a 7-5 record, Ben Roethlisberger back and games against the 4-8 San Diego Chargers and (at that stage) 6-6 Dallas Cowboys (no longer 'America's Team' according to Roethlisberger, as if anyone outside of Dallas still thought they were!) up next. Sitting pretty, right?

Well, no, as it turns out. I won't dissect the embarrassing nature of the San Diego loss - others have already done that. I won't even talk about Todd Haley's play-calling against Dallas. What I will do is try and look at how the Steelers managed to lose yesterday. Because that's what happened. On the Steelers.com LIVE post-game show, Tunch Ilkin said that 'more games are lost than won in the National Football League, and if that was ever a truism, it manifested itself in the Pittsburgh Steelers.' He couldn't be more right about yesterday. Despite a gorgeous 60-yard TD toss from Ben to Antonio Brown and generally solid play from the returning Rashard Mendenhall, the offense was provided with numerous opportunities to score points and win the game, but repeatedly failed to capitalise.

The defense turned in a dominant performance overall. Andy Dalton had a sub-60 QB rating and was sacked six times; A.J. Green was held off the scoresheet; Bengals' RBs had 14 yards on 16 carries; Cincinatti converted only 25% of third downs. And Cortez Allen...well all Cortez Allen did was force three turnovers all by himself, including this spectacular play. There's only so much the defensive unit can do to keep an offense in a game, and turnovers are the best way to do so. Allen provided three chances for #7 and the offense to score. So, gladly accepting these timely seasonal gifts from the D, the offense promptly wasted them. The first two Bengals' turnovers, the Pittsburgh went three-and-out and punted. After the third turnover, they drove 13 yards...and punted. Points scored off turnovers: Zero.

The biggest waste came when, after Allen's first pick, the ball was on the Cincinatti 32, within range for Shaun Suisham. Next came the all-too-predictable one-two punch of Jonathan Dwyer up the middle on 1-10, and Jonathan Dwyer up the middle on 2-6. Bear in mind this would have given Suisham a very makeable 45-yard attempt if there was no gain on the next play. Then, inexcusably, came exactly the sort of play that has made Steelers fans curse for the last goodness knows how long. Third down, in field-goal range, looking for an opportunity to keep driving for a touchdown, pass play called. This can mean only one thing: Roethlisberger goes down under the not-inconsiderable weight of Geno Atkins and Carlos Dunlap. Brilliant. The one totally unacceptable result, forcing a punt when starting 32 yards from the goal-line.

Now, Roethlisberger may not have been responsible for that sack - the pocket collapsed around him faster than a Pirates season after a 19-inning loss - but he was certainly at fault for letting Cincinatti have opportunities to score. Which of course they did. Bengals points off turnovers: 10. Perhaps it was the Christmas spirit, but Ben could hardly have been more generous without gift-wrapping the ball. He certainly hand-delivered it to Leon Hall and Reggie Nelson. Hall was apparently invisible standing right next to Heath Miller - the only receiver Roethlisberger even glanced at on the play - when Roethlisberger filled his stocking with a pick-six. And somehow, Ben was so into using Air Mail to deliver his gifts that he managed to badly overthrow Mike Wallace - not once, but twice - the second pass landing in the waiting arms of Nelson. Dalton then hit Green for a 21-yard gain - one of the few times the defense were caught out - allowing Josh Brown to slot over a 43-yard field goal to win it, delivering the Bengals to the post-season, and the Steelers to the naughty list.

And all of this even ignores that somewhere between Greg Warren, Drew Butler and Suisham, the special teams unit botched a 24-yard field goal when the score was 7-0 Bengals. Add on to that the fact that on 28 first down plays, Haley elected only to pass ten times. Hardly a balanced attack, especially when averaging only 3.1 yards-per-carry AND that a first down or touchdown was had when a set of downs started with a pass play on seven of those ten occasions. Todd Haley seems to be using only a couple of pages from the playbook. Perhaps Roethlisberger had a point?

In his post-game presser, Tomlin admitted that the team hadn't executed as well as he would have liked and that he knows that saying so 'sounds like a broken record'. Correct me if I'm wrong, but if you keep losing due to poor execution, then isn't it up to the coaching staff to do something about it? If, as he says, the coaches take full responsibility for it, then it's time to change the record, Mike.

And on that happy note: Merry Christmas!
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Getting Back To It

Right, time to get this restarted. Plenty has happened in the world of Pittsburgh pro-sports since my last post in late 2010. The Penguins have looked good in the regular season, then embarrassed themselves in back-to-back first round exits in the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Steelers have appeared in - and lost, sadly - the Superbowl, then got Tebowed last year in the Wild-Card round. And the Pirates...well the Pirates have tortured their beleaguered fanbase by looking as if they were finally going to end all the losing before blowing up spectacularly in the run in two years in a row to drop below .500 at season's end. Deflating.

Anyhow, crucially, none of them has won anything since I canned the blog. Thus, there must be a correlation between the two things, no?* Time to get writing again and time for Pittsburgh to return as City of Champions.

*Somewhere, someone is working on an advanced Sabermetric measure to prove this...

Wilting Flower?

Just what is going on with Marc-Andre Fleury? This is a guy who backstopped the Penguins to consecutive Stanley Cup Finals appearances in 07/08 and 08/09, and delivered a championship the second time around. The poor guy has had people on his back ever since he entered the league in 03/04 - and while it's true that he has struggled for consistency, particularly with rebound control and concentration, a lot of the stick has been unfair. His regular season career numbers - 149-112 record; .906 save percentage; 2.84 GAA - are hardly terrible, yet people seem to jump on him every time he has a poor game or lets in a weak goal and want him yanked as the Pens No.1 netminder.

Personally, I've always been a strong supporter of Fleury - and he's usually bounced back when it's really mattered (the 55 saves in the Triple OT win in Game 5 in '08; that ridiculous save on Nik Lidstrom in Game 7 in '09). This season, however, he's really got me worried. Flower has started in 8 games so far this season and won only once. He's allowed 3 or more goals in every game he's completed to sport an ugly 3.55 GAA, and allowed 2 goals on 5 shots in 6:56 against Phoenix on Saturday before Dan Bylsma replaced him with 'backup' Brent Johnson, who has continued to significantly outplay Fleury.

Worse, of the 64 goaltenders who have played at least 1 game this season, Fleury is ranked 62nd with a horrific .853 save percentage (Amusingly, former Pens favourite Johan 'Moose' Hedberg is 64th). Stats can of course be very misleading, but having watched every game Fleury has played this season, it's clear something is not quite right. He's still produced the odd athletic stop, but he's appeared more awkward in net than I can ever remember, has often been poorly positioned and has rarely made stops when he's really needed too - hence his 6 losses.

What is perhaps most concerning is the apparent downward trend Fleury has been on for the last couple of seasons - statistically at least, even if not results wise. He got his first 40 win season in 06/07, and then the team as a whole were given a rude welcome to playoff hockey, playing poorly in a 5 game exit to Ottawa. Despite playing in only 35 games the following year, Fleury had a career best save percentage (.921) and GAA (2.33) in the regular season, and then proceeded to come within 2 wins of the Stanley Cup by continuing his stellar play throughout the playoffs (.933; 1.97 GAA).

When the Pens won the Cup in 08/09, Fleury was solid, but is interesting to note that his regular season numbers declined to a .912 save percentage & 2.67 GAA and his postseason play was weaker overall despite going all the way (.908 & 2.78). Last season, his save percentage regressed further to .905. His GAA improved slightly to 2.65, though this was only due to facing fewer shots - testament to the shot blocking skills of Mark Eaton & Jay McKee perhaps. His performance in the playoffs was then unspectacular - he only mustered a .891 save percentage and gave up a number of cheap goals, allowing 4 on 13 shots to be chased by the Habs in the 5-2 Game 7 loss.

And then of course we have his awful start to this season, which even featured an early déjà vu moment when he gave up a soft game winner to Montreal's Scott Gomez. Marc-Andre Fleury clearly is at his best when he is confident and calm on the ice. I'm hopeful that what appears to be a worrying downward spiral for a goalie with huge potential can be reversed and MAF can lead the Pens to future success. Sidney Crosby said at today's practice that 'unfortunately for a goalie, the goalie’s always the center of attention more than anyone, so there’s always a lot of pressure that comes with that.' And he's right, there is. But somehow, Fleury's got to find a way to deal with it better and regain some of the confidence that makes him one of the best goalies in the NHL. Coach Bylsma had this to say today: 'Does he understand confidence? Well, he understands that he doesn’t have it right now.' That's great - but how are you going to help him get it back?!

Good Morning Sportsfans!!

Greetings! If you're reading this, hopefully you have at least a passing interest in Stateside sport - if not, you'll probably want to read something else!

As a British, UK based fan of American Football (or just plain ol' Football if you happen to be from over the pond) and Ice Hockey (or just plain ol' Hockey if...well you get the picture...), I thought it might be fun to subject people to my own musings on goings on in the worlds of the National Football League and the National Hockey League.

Even though I'm from England, I'm really a Pittsburgh man when it comes to sport - the clue is in the blog's title after all - so most of what I'll have to say will be about the weird and wacky world of the Penguins (7-7-1 to start the season with Marc-Andre Fleury at 1-6 with a 3.55 GAA & .853 Save Percentage - didn't see that coming! Thank God for Brent Johnson), and the Steelers. You might even get the odd comment on the Pirates - if I can decide whether to laugh or cry, that is...