*WARNING* The following has been written as an editorial from a Steeler Fan! *WARNING*

With Big Ben out and Ward nursing the hammy back to 100%, Charlie Batch and the Defense get warmed up and get on a roll in the opening game of the season against the Dolphins with a 28-17 win. Now everyone gets to play Ketchup!

On to the breakdowns…

Breaking down the Steeler Offense:

QBs – Batch looked pretty good for only his 3rd start in two years and without a few drops his stats as well as the score would have been much better. But with a strong finish and an 87 yard TD to Heath Miller, Batch ended up going 15/25 for 209 yards, 3 TD and no interceptions for a 126.5 passer rating. We won’t mention his slippery fingers on the fumble at the goal line, OPPS! I just did.

Offensive line – Well, I may take some heat for this but Smith and Faneca didn’t have their greatest games, but by the fourth quarter they were able to gel with the rest of the line to churn out a 9+ minute drive that really took its toll on a fired up Dolphin front seven. Not sure if anyone noticed, but there wasn’t a lot of pulling last night, I’m not sure if it was because of the hybrid alignments the Dolphins were using or just because of the play calling. As good as this unit was last year, barring any injury, they will be even better this season.

Running Backs – FWP looked great the whole way through the game with the Dolphins stacking 9 in the box he still was able to gain positive yards all night and was a hair away from breaking some long runs. 29 carries for 115 yards is a great way to start the season, but nearly 30 carries a game is going to wear on him as it would anyone, even the Bus. Haynes only had one carry when he probably should have spelled Parker for at least 5 carries more.

Wide Receivers – Randle El who? Nate Washington gets his first NFL TD with a great grab at the front pylon of the end zone taking the ball away from the defender, and suddenly I fell as though we found a replacement for ARE. Ward started catching balls in the second half to end up leading the team with 5 catches and added a TD. Wilson didn’t catch a pass but drew one pass interference and should have had another called. Holmes dropped one and caught one, but I’d like to know why Willie Reed wasn’t dressed?

Tight Ends – Heath Miller most impressive play was the 87 yard TD, glad to see he didn’t run out of gas and step out of bounds like another TE we had a decade and a half ago…Please tell me when Tuman will be back! Euhus was pretty ineffective as a blocking TE.

Breaking down the Defense:

Defensive Line – I can’t say enough about these guys! Hampton, Smith and Keisel looked awesome! Especially Hampton, anyone notice he played a few passing downs? I didn’t see much of Hoke, but Bailey and Kirshke did well spelling Smith and Keisel. Holding the Dolphins to 38 yards is AWESOME defense!

Linebackers – What a group, Porter starts off the season on fire, 2 sacks and an int for a TD. Farrior gets a sack and Foote and Haggans looked great against the run and pass.

Defensive Backs – I know Culpepper had 262 yards but his rating was only 49.6! This group did very well, especially Ike, Polamalu, and Townsend. Ryan Clark showed why he is starting ahead of Carter, and Coklee and Mcfadden had their moments.

Breaking down the Special Teams:

Jeff Reed – Two uncharacteristic kicks, on a FG attempt and a kickoff, but all in all still a great kicker that I don’t have to hold my breath with when he kicks.

Coverage Teams – This unit HAS to get better. Letting up an average of 26.3 on punt returns and 24.7 on kick returns will kill you. Fortunately the Defense was up to the task of defending a short field.

Chris Gardocki – 46.6 yard average with good hang time, nice work. I’m sorry I was voting for you to be cut in the preseason.

Returners –Nothing to write home about here, or at least nothing I’d care writing home about. Willie Reed got all the practice in the preseason and the rest of the guys look like they could have used it.

Last Thoughts:

I know I harp on this all the time, but that field is the WORST I have ever seen! We have speed on both sides of the ball and that field makes us average. How many times did Parker, Ike, Cokelee, and everyone else fall due to that field?!?!?! Absolutely ridiculous! I hate fake grass but it may be the only way to utilize our talent….Anyhow….

I know I’ll be corrected, but I feel like I saw a team that didn’t show a lot, kind of like last season. Just doing enough to win, getting ready for the more competitive opponents. I have to give credit to Miami though. They looked pretty good in the first half and their defensive line came to play. It seemed funny to me that after Miami scored their last TD to go ahead, LeBeau seemed to say, “Okay that’s enough of this!” And he opened up the playbook. After that the Dolphins gained only 45 yards. The Defense is in high gear!

Offensively, Wisenhut didn’t seem to do anything different than what he would have done with Big Ben in the game. That I believe is a good thing. Knowing that you don’t have to tailor you game plan to your QB.

The Steelers seemed to start slow and gradually picked up momentum. By the end of the game they seemed to be hitting on all cylinders. I know they started fast last year but playing the Titans and the Texans weren’t as challenging as the Dolphins, who I believe may take a shot at winning their division. All in all it was a great start, now I get to go through withdrawal for 11 days till we play the puddy-cats in Jacksonville.

Remember winning is what we expect to do not what we hope to do.

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