Ground yards will be hard to come by
Here are five things to look for in next weekend's AFC championship game.
| Inside Steelers-Broncos |
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| • X-factor: Much has been made this season of the performance of the four defensive linemen that Denver acquired from the Cleveland Browns last spring and summer, either via trade or free agency. And, indeed, for the Broncos defense to have played so well against the run, the former Browns linemen couldn't have been the stiffs that they were while playing by the shores of Lake Erie. That said, only one of the four, throw-in tackle Michael Myers, finished among the Broncos' top 10 tacklers. The other three -- Courtney Brown, Ebenezer Ekuban and Gerard Warren -- ranked between Nos. 11-16 in tackles. The four averaged just 25.3 tackles and totaled only 10 sacks. But here's the really interesting thing: The Steelers are pretty familiar with the quartet and have done a demolition job on the group in the past. In the two Pittsburgh-Cleveland games of 2004, when all four of the Denver defensive linemen were still with the Browns, the Steelers rushed 90 times for 350 yards and five touchdowns. In each game, Pittsburgh had more than 40 rushes and 170 or more yards. • X-and-O factor: Against two defenses that like to blitz so much, the pass protection schemes conjured up by line coaches Russ Grimm of Pittsburgh and Rick Dennison of Denver will be crucial. Clearly, both men have done nice jobs, as the Broncos allowed only 23 sacks (third fewest in the league) and the Steelers 32 during the season. Part of the success is that both quarterbacks possess some mobility, a deceptive element of Ben Roethlisberger's game, and know how to buy time by rolling away from pressure. But the linebackers from both defenses come from exotic angles at times and the offensive lines are going to have to react well to those forays. • Rx factor (health): Pittsburgh -- Primary kickoff returner Quincy Morgan was placed on injured reserve last week with a broken leg and his replacements averaged just 18.3 yards per runback in Sunday's divisional round victory. Reserve linebacker James Harrison, an excellent backup and special teams performer, missed Sunday's game with a high ankle sprain and might not be ready. Backup cornerback Chidi Iwuoma, who plays mostly on special teams, aggravated a shoulder injury. • Numbers cruncher: The two tight ends in the game, Denver's Jeb Putzier, and Steelers' rookie first-rounder Heath Miller, aren't typical of the intermediate threats who mostly man the position in the league. The two can get deep up the seams, as evidenced by the 13.0-yard average Putzier posted and the average of 11.8 yards Miller registered. Both can run past safeties and Miller is a superb "red zone" receiver, with six touchdowns. The two starting tight ends combined for 14.9 percent of their teams' completions, but also had 50 first downs, 16 catches of 20 yards or more and two receptions of 40-plus yards between them. OK, so they aren't Antonio Gates or Tony Gonzalez, but they are bigger components of their passing games than most people realize. • The Steelers will win if: They pressure Jake Plummer into an early turnover, rattle him with blitzes off the corner, and keep speedy tailback Tatum Bell, who can score from just about anywhere on the field, under control. • The Broncos will win if: They can keep the home crowd a factor, don't buy so easily into the notion that the Pittsburgh offense is one-dimensional, and force the Steelers' Ben Roethlisberger to have to throw the ball more than seven or eight times the second half. |
There's an interesting contrast to the styles of the two teams. Denver uses Anderson to pound at defenses and then inserts the speedy Bell hoping their home-run guy can break a long run. Pittsburgh starts with Parker, certainly the quickest tailback the Steelers have had in a long time and a guy blessed with long speed, and then goes to Bettis to try to close games out by bludgeoning defenders.
The teams combined for 46 rushing touchdowns during the season, but getting the ball into the end zone by foot will be challenging next Sunday afternoon. That said, don't look for the teams to abandon the run-first philosophies that got them to this point. The Broncos were able to rein in quarterback Jake Plummer, and dramatically reduce his interceptions, by having him better manage the game with the running attack. The result was that Denver had the fewest turnovers, just 16, in the league. Not surprisingly, Pittsburgh attempted the fewest passes in the league during the season, only 379 throws. The Broncos weren't exactly masters of the airways, either, with only 465 attempts, the ninth fewest. There is one notable difference in the running games (besides the fact that the Steelers offensive line doesn't use the dread cut-block technique that Denver favors), because Denver will try to pound the rock early, and the Steelers like to run more in the second half, particularly if they have a workable lead.
2. The game will include seven of the quickest linebackers in the NFL, guys who are fast to the football, and who can run from sideline to sideline in pursuit. The Denver trio of Al Wilson (middle), Ian Gold (weakside) and D.J. Williams (strongside) is very active. It is a group that possesses superb range and, while none of the three registered more than three sacks in '05, coordinator Larry Coyer loves to blitz his guys.
His counterpart, Dick LeBeau of the Steelers, has long built his exotic pass-rush schemes out of the 3-4 front around linebackers, and so it isn't unusual that the Pittsburgh outside tandem of Clark Haggans and Joey Porter combined for 19½ sacks. At one stretch of the season, Porter was being used more as a rover, dropping into coverage in LeBeau's zone-blitz package, and being asked to play more pass than ever before in his career. But Porter has been turned loose in recent weeks and, in the last six outings (including two playoff wins), he has 6½ sacks. Larry Foote, one of the Steelers' two inside 'backers, is an underrated player versus the run. His running mate, James Farrior, hasn't had as strong a season as he did in 2004, when he was runner-up for defensive player of the year honors. But he has played well in the postseason and, in Sunday's victory at Indianapolis, LeBeau was very creative in how he employed Farrior, especially as a pass rusher.
These defenses are definitely built around linebackers and that likely will be obvious in the respective game plans and strategies for the conference title matchup. The Steelers had 47 sacks, third-most in the NFL, and much of the pressure is created by the linebackers.
3. Here's hoping that at least one of the quarterbacks, probably the guy who advances his team to Super Bowl XL, decides to shave in celebration of the feat. The game might set a record for hirsute quarterbacks as both Plummer and Ben Roethlisberger sport beards. It's kind of a "Grizzly Adams" matchup, with two guys whose mugs are hairier than are their recent performances.
Roethlisberger has been terrific in two playoffs wins, registering a passer efficiency rating of 124.4, and throwing only one interception. It's obvious that the Pittsburgh starter, who tossed five "picks" in two playoff games as a rookie in 2004, has benefited from the tough learning curve he suffered last season. He is playing nicely in the Pittsburgh design, which seems to expand a little more every week, and definitely is demonstrating much more confidence. Everyone keeps waiting for Plummer, whose career has been marked by turnovers and erratic play, to implode. But it hasn't happened yet and might not.
These are two quarterbacks who are anything but dink-and-dunk guys and who prefer to throw the ball vertically. Plummer averaged 12.1 yards per completion and Roethlisberger an even gaudier 14.2 yards. Despite 188 fewer attempts, because of the injuries that forced him to miss four starts, Roethlisberger threw just one fewer TD pass (17) than did Plummer, and had a better efficiency rating (98.6-90.2). At least to this point, both have avoided killer turnovers, and it will be surprising if one of them authors a game-altering gaffe next Sunday afternoon. Plummer's seven "picks" were a career low and the Steelers' secondary had only 15 interceptions during the year. Denver allowed just 15 touchdown passes, second fewest in the league.
4. You can't play the kind of run defense both these teams do, at least not in the modern game where an eighth man in the box is usually a factor, without excellent safeties. And the Broncos and Steelers both have very good safety tandems. The standouts are Denver's John Lynch and Troy Polamalu of Pittsburgh, and they are major pieces in the chess matches played out by their respective coordinators.
Lynch doesn't have the kind of range he did earlier in his career (after having been flambéed by the Indianapolis passing offense in last year's playoffs, you don't think he was relieved to see the Colts lose on Sunday?), but Coyer loves to walk him up to the line of scrimmage and bring him off the edge to attack the pocket. That's reflected in the fact that Lynch had a career-best four sacks in 2005 after totaling only eight in his previous 12 seasons. He also had four forced fumbles.
Polamalu is kind of the New Age safety, a guy blessed with great speed and terrific range, but also the hitting ability of a linebacker. He does a little of this and a little of that for LeBeau, but it usually adds up to a lot of significant plays, whether it's playing back in Cover 2 or crowding the line of scrimmage. Polamalu had 100 tackles, three sacks, two interceptions, 11 passes defensed, a forced fumble and three recoveries during the season.
The "other" safeties for both clubs, Chris Hope of the Steelers and the Broncos' Nick Ferguson, aren't too shabby, either. Hope is a very steady defender who usually plays well off the line, but is capable of the big play. In his first year as a starter, Ferguson had five interceptions in 2005, and he's also a stout defender versus the run.
5. Even with a combined seven Pro Bowl appearances between them in an aggregate 22 seasons in the league, it isn't often that centers like Jeff Hartings of Pittsburgh and the Broncos' Tom Nalen are, well, centers of attention. They will be next week.
In what has been a resuscitative season for his career, Nalen has been tremendous in 2005, even if he wasn't chosen to the AFC Pro Bowl team. But the 12-year veteran is going to have to be at his best next Sunday in his matchup against Steelers nose tackle Casey Hampton. Maybe the best pure 3-4 nose tackle in the league, Hampton simply refuses to be moved and he is an effective inside anchor who typically commands the double-team and just eats up blockers so the Pittsburgh linebackers can flow to the ball. For the Broncos to be able to run the ball inside, Nalen is going to have to budge Hampton at least a little, and that is no small feat.
Hartings is not only the key to the Steelers' running game, but also will have to be very aware of the Denver blitz. A former guard who has now made it to the Pro Bowl two straight seasons as a center, Hartings can slide laterally and shadow, and he'll have some responsibility for getting a helmet on the extra blitzer. Both clubs, when healthy, have solid offensive line units, but the strength definitely emanates from the middle out.
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