The key to the Steelers success tonight is Mendenhall the Wrecking Ball, but not just his yards per carry. Mendenhall has to bring his A-blocking game to help provide protection to a battered Ben Roethlisberger so the Steelers can exploit the Ravens' depleted secondary.

One of the more overlooked aspects of a young running back's game is what he provides in pass protection. When Mike Tomlin evaluated his first overall pick in the 2008 draft, he mentioned his size (5-foot-10, 225 pounds), his speed (4.45 40-yard at the Combine) and the part that jumped out the most, he mentioned his ability and willingness to stand in and block.

Rookie running backs are usually not three-down players. It's not just the adjustment to the speed of the NFL game, and it's not just a lack of pass-catching skills. A lot of the time, it's a back's lack of ability to step into a blitzer and knock him flat on his butt.

Mendenhall was drafted by the Steelers because he's ready to do that right now. Any coach is going to be nervous putting a back in on a passing down if he can't handle the responsibility of being the last line of defense between a successful pass and a hit that brings in a back-up quarterback. It's even more true against a blitz-happy Baltimore team, bringing punishment with each snap.

Ravens' RB Willis McGahee was dogged early in his career for a lack of willingness to block. Since then, he's developed into one of the more physical blockers out of that position in the game. It's a guy Mendenhall could emulate.

Mendenhall had already been the team's third-down back in many situations through three games. RB Mewelde Moore is not the greatest blocker in the league, either, so it looks as if Mendenhall will go all three downs in tonight's game. He can expect the Ravens to come after he and Roethlisberger through land, air and sea all night.

This isn't a bold statement. The two games between the Ravens and Steelers each year mostly have a lack of ground success in common. Don't expect any back in this game to have many outstanding rushes, but the one key advantage the Steelers have is that Ravens CB Samari Rolle and S Dawan Landry are out with injuries. If Roethlisberger has the time to throw, and WRs Santonio Holmes, Nate Washington - Pittsburgh's bes two deep threats - and Hines Ward are able to get more than two seconds to get open (unlike Week 3), the Steelers could put up a nice number on the scoreboard.

If not, or if Mendenhall is not able to step up and stone a few guys cold, this could turn into a 10-10 gridlock match that does not favor the Steelers. And right about now is when people are really starting to wonder if Roethlisberger is even going to last to the bye week.

Mendenhall isn't going to rush for 150 yards in his career debut, but he'll become a favored player in Pittsburgh if he can help keep Roethlisberger's jersey mostly clean - especially on third downs, where the Ravens are holding teams to a microscopic 19 percent conversion percentage.

Labels: Steelers Key Player

Roethlisberger has the deck stacked in his favor tonight. But the Browns will have 4th down attempts, fake punts and other gimmicks, aiming to avoid the 0-2 start, which has ended more coaching careers than the West Coast Offense and Ryan Leaf combined.

My Key Match-ups column for Steel City Insider starts off with this:

Roethlisberger rocks Cleveland. He’s beaten the Browns seven times in his career, including a come-from-behind win last year where the Cleveland got four sacks and a slew of pressure from Wimbley and McGinest. This match-up plays favorably to Roethlisberger, as that pressure is going to be neutralized with a lot of 3-WR sets and tight end options. The Browns lost starting SS Sean Jones to a knee injury for the next few weeks, and in that, the Steelers are licking their chops with the idea of running TEs Heath Miller and Matt Spaeth down the field when covered by Wimbley or McGinest, or slipping WR Hines Ward behind either one if they are showing blitz.

There are three other match-ups to evaluate, but this is really 60 percent of tonight's game in Cleveland. The injury-ravaged Browns need to figure out a way to cool Roethlisberger down, which is something they haven't been able to do.

AOL Fanhouse writer JJ Cooper and I discussed the possibility of starting out the game with WR Santonio Holmes gashing the Browns' depleted secondary. This is a distinct possibility; the Steelers will start throwing haymakers at Cleveland right away. While I like the advantage the Steelers have on offense vs. Cleveland's defense, I think their defense against Cleveland's offense is strong enough they can afford to take some chances down the field, with the upside being blowing ahead to a 14-3 lead, silencing the crowd, and gaining all momentum.

To do that, Roethlisberger will have to be his usual accurate, poised and savvy self. His evolution as a passer has been enjoyable for Steelers fans to watch. While he has a bum shoulder (and Post-Gazette antagonist Ron Cook wrote today about him being the most indispensible Steelers player...thanks for the jinx, Ron), he's learned enough about the game where he is dropping back and quickly being able to make the decision to either attack, or simply take what the defense is giving him.

He's the key player in this game for the Steelers because he has the luxury of being able to do both. The defense is going to let him attack vertically. Their safeties are not strong, and it's pretty tough for a team that doesn't traditionally blitz from zone to get pressure from the edge if their safeties are not supplying adequate coverage help over the top.

Cleveland's biggest advantage, as I wrote earlier this week, is Shaun Rogers' ability to collapse the pocket, and create more one-on-one blocking assignments on Cleveland's 3-4 outside linebackers. That gives Steelers C Justin Hartwig a nod in the Key Player voting process, but it still falls on Roethlisberger to step into the rush and complete passes.

Last week, Houston did a decent job of rushing the passer. No, really, it's true. The difference was (with the exception of Mario Williams' two sacks) each time Roethlisberger had some pressure, he smoothly rolled from it, or stepped into it, and easily found the mismatch down the field. In the case of Week 1, it was Hines Ward on a linebacker in man, or Ward finding a spot inside Houston's zone underneath or behind their safeties (incidentally, the Texans' safeties were as bad if not worse than Cleveland's).

The third nominee for Key Player was RB Willie Parker, who added a spin move along with a healed fibula this off-season. He used both of them to trample all over Houston, and looked even better than his usual domineering self in Week 1. I just get the feeling Steelers offensive coordinator Bruce Arians is going to want to stick it to his former employer through the air. But if Roethlisberger's shoulder is bothering him that badly, they can let Parker continue to simply enjoy the by-product of a surprisingly good run blocking unit, and own the clock, the time-of-possession battle, and therefore, the game.

The biggest key factor for Cleveland is simply the fear of starting 0-2. Don't think that's not a big advantage, though. The Browns are playing in Primetime at home, and had big-time aspirations this season.

(brief aside...in my writing for Real Football 365, I peek around at fan forums to gather the feel for any particular team, and there are more than a few on Cleveland's boards who were expecting an 11-5 season coupled with a changing-of-the-guard AFC Championship victory at New England.)

As Joey Porter's Pit Bulls wisely points out, Bill Cowher is not currently the coach of an NFL team. It puts coach Crennel in a tough spot:

Browns head coach Romeo Crennel is borderline-panicked about this game. Bill Cowher looming. Job security and all that. Crennel must be thinking, "Damn! My 'vaunted' defensive line acqisitions couldn't stop the run against Dallas last Sunday and couldn't stop the pass. What are the Steelers gonna do?"

The Steelers are likely to drill the nail in Cleveland's season even further into the coffin. If Arians' game plan is to go up top early and often, it could be over quickly. But Crennel's Browns are quickly getting backed into a corner, and that means 4th down attempts, fake punts, the last desperation moves aiming to avoid the 0-2 start, which has ended more coaching careers than the West Coast Offense and Ryan Leaf combined.

Labels: Steelers Key Player

Starting his first game in Pittsburgh could be a source of intimidation for a 23-year-old playing arguably the most defining position in the franchise. There's little doubt second-year man LaMarr Woodley is up to the task.

I watched Michigan take back college football's oldest rivalry trophy, the Little Brown Jug, against the overmatched Minnesota Golden Gophers in September of 2006. For some reason, the Gophers had played Michigan tough the past few seasons, and actually beat them the previous season - the first time since 1986.

I'm used to seeing the Wolverines beat Minnesota one way or the other. What I took away from that game was a short but powerful defensive end named LaMarr Woodley who I knew would be in a Steelers uniform.

I proclaimed him the Steelers future first-round draft pick to my buddy Chuck, who calmly questioned if he was a first-rounder.

Going into the draft, it was obvious Woodley wouldn't be a first-rounder, but the Steelers miss so rarely on second-round picks, it almost seemed more fitting he'd be taken then, considering this tweener (too short for end, thought to be too heavy for outside 'backer) didn't fit the prototype of a guy with a $20 million guaranteed deal.

I just smiled when I heard his name read off for the Steelers pick, and anticipated writing what I'm writing now.

Now, we've got a guy who fits this team's mindset perfectly, and he's got a second-round-sized chip on his shoulder. He's gonna bring the noise all season long.

I dug around for hours over the course of last season and this season to find a site that runs a play counter for each player in the league. A tall task, no doubt, but I wanted to prove my theory that Woodley had a higher sacks-per-play ratio than any other player in the league. This was highlighted by the playoff loss to Jacksonville last season, when Woodley was in the game for less time than just about any other non-special-teams-only player, and registered two sacks.

He looked as effortless against the exhaulted Jaguars offensive line as he did in destroying the hapless Gophers that day in September.

As much as I like Clark Haggans, and am happy for the fact another team is going to pay him a nice final contract, Woodley went from The Future to The Now, and that begins today at Heinz Field.

My match-ups column on Steel City Insider highlights Silverback against rookie Duane Brown because it's the most newsworthy battle. But I'm pumped to see Woodley against Houston's new $30 Million Man, Eric Winston. Woodley's got the size to hold his own against the run from that side as long as he stays on his feet (assuming the ethical practice of cut-blocking is utilized by "genius" offensive coordinator Alex Gibbs), and has that explosive strength to blow up the undersized running back tandem of Steve Slaton and Ahman Green.

With Silverback rightly getting tons of pub in preparing to make Texans' message boards go boom with "why did we draft him?" calls about Brown, Woodley's quietly prepared to handle his first start, and getting penetration, owning the line and not getting cut by the pussy Texans' blockers will be paramount in this game.

Labels: Steelers Key Player