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Published: July 22, 2010
The Pittsburgh Steelers 2009 regular season club finished play with a 9-7 record an failed to make the post season. This followed a Super Bowl title in 2008.
After beginning the season at 6-2 the team lost 5 straight games to fall at 6-7 and despite winning their final three games the team lost in the AFC Wildcard tiebreaking formulas. The disappointment in the 5 game losing streak is it came against bad teams in the Cleveland Browns, Oakland Raiders and Kansas City Chiefs.
Pittsburgh running game sputtered in 2009 as the team only averaged 112.1 yards per game and finished 19th in the league. The Steelers still had problems protecting their quarterback as the team allowed 50 sacks last season.
On defense the Steelers defended the run very well finishing third in the league but their secondary went south by allowing big plays in critical times costing the Steelers victories. Pittsburgh finished up 16th against the pass allowing 215.4 yards per game.
Pittsburgh will be without starting quarterback Ben Roethlisberger as he will have to serve a 4-6 week suspension following off the field issues. The team will rely on either running quarterback Dennis Dixon or veteran Byon Leftwich in the interim.
The Steelers saw running back Charlie Parker and impact wide receiver Santonio Holmes exit in free agency. Wide out Antwaan Randle El returns.
Pittsburgh is hoping for an injury free Troy Polamalu in 2010. The talented safety missed many games last season due to injury and his absence hurts the team tremendously.
The Odds:
Bodog sportsbook has set the 2010 Pittsburgh Steelers season win projection at 8 ½ wins with over favored at -130 and the under returning +100 odds. .
The team has been lined by Bodog at 20-1 to win the Super Bowl in the 2010 season.
Pittsburgh is 10-1 odds to win the AFC Championship at Bodog and have been set as the +225 second favorite to win the AFC North division.
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2010 Pittsburgh Steelers Regular Season Schedule:
The Steelers compete in the AFC North division so the club will play home and away against the Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals and Cleveland Browns.
Pittsburgh’s division will play the AFC East and NFC South this season.
The teams opponents from the AFC East will be home games against the New England Patriots and New York Jets with road games against the Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins.
From the NFC South the club will tackle the Atlanta Falcons and Carolina Panthers at home with road contests at the New Orleans Saints and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The Steelers were the third place team from the AFC North last season so the team plays the two other third place squads in the AFC so that means a home game to the Oakland Raiders and a road trip at the Tennessee Titans.
Pittsburgh has been hit by the NFL schedule makers with three sets of consecutive road trips.
They NFL whacked the Steelers with three consecutive road games. In week 7 the team travels to Miami, then New Orleans in week 8 and conclude their back to back to back road trip in week 9 against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Pittsburgh will play in 5 prime time NFL games this season.
None during the 4-6 week period of Ben Roethlisberger’s suspension The team will travel on Sunday Night Football to New Orleans and Baltimore. They will travel on Monday night football to Cincinnati.
Pittsburgh will play 3 consecutive prime time high profile games from week 8 through week 10.
The Steelers host New England on Sunday night football and Carolina on a special edition Thursday night football game.
Offense:
Starter Roethlisberger completed 66.6% of his passes a season ago with 26 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. Big Ben was sacked 50 times last season and part of this is due to Roethlisberger’s aim for the big play by holding the football too long.
Dennis Dixon and Byron Leftwich will compete for the starting job in week 1 for the club.
The three year veteran out of Oregon Dixon is a run threat with tremendous speed and has the ability to get to the outside. In a starting role at Baltimore last year he completed just 12 of 26 for 145 yards a touchdowns pass and an interception. He did rush 3 times for 27 yards and a touchdown in the clubs overtime loss.
Leftwich couldn’t hold on to the starting job with lowly Tampa Bay last season hitting on just 54.2% of his passes with 4 touchdown and 3 interceptions and a 71.2 passer rating. Tampa Bay went 0-3 in his three starts in 2009.
The Steelers may lean on the run a bit more and especially during Big Ben’s absence. The Steelers will start Rashard Mendenhall at running back with Mewelde Moore as his back up. The three year back got 242 rushing attempts in 2009 and rushed for 1108 yards 7 touchdowns and a 4.6 yards per carry average.
Moore is a career 4.5 yards per carry back but only produced 3.4 yards a carry in 2009 with limited action. The team drafted running back Jonathan Dwyer from Georgia Tech in the 6th round in hopes he can push Moore for second string.
The Steelers are hoping that Mendenhall can hold up due to lack of depth at this position. He missed 12 games in 2008 due to injury.
The receiver position shapes up with the veteran Hines Ward and Mike Wallace as the #1 and #2 options with Antwaan Randle El and Arnaz Battle the #3 and #4. Limas Sweed has a huge wingspan and has a shot to get into the rotation in 2010. Ward is now 34 years old but is coming off a 2009 season with a team leading 95 receptions and 6 touchdowns with a 12.3 yards per catch average.
Second year players Mike Wallace hit the scene loudly in his rookie season with 39 catches for a big play 19.4 yards per catch average and 6 touchdowns. That is the reason the team parted with veteran Santonio Holmes and his off the field problems.
Antwaan Randle El returns to Pittsburgh in free agency from Washington. He had 50 catches for 530 yards and 0 touchdowns for a miserable Redskins offense. Arnez Battle does not get open enough in the passing game and could be the odd man out should Limas Sweed impress during camp. Also factoring in the mix is third round pick Emmanuel Sanders drafted from SMU. Six year veteran Heath Miller returns at tight end and contributed with 76 catches for a 10.4 yards a catch average and 6 touchdowns.
The Steelers much maligned offensive line will feature Justin Hartwig at center who will be flanked by guards Chris Kemoeatu and Trai Essex. Willie Colon and Max Starks will be starting tackles. This is a unit that allowed 50 sacks last season. Center Maurkice Pouncey was drafted in the first round out of Florida. Guard Chris Scott was drafted in the fifth round out of Tennessee.
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Defense:
The team is hoping for better health in 2010 with their defense. In their 3-4 set the team will line up with Casey Hampton at the nose tackle with Aaron Smith and Brett Keisel on the outside. This unit are excellent run stoppers when all are healthy as the club finished #3 against the run in 2009. Smith missed 11 games last season with a rotator cuff injury and the defense suffered without him.
Pittsburgh’s linebacker unit is very good with James Farrior and Lawrence Timmons on the inside with LaMarr Woodley and James Harrison on the outside. Harrison led the club in 2009 with 13 ½ sacks with Harrison second with 10. The Steelers sacked the quarterback 47 times in 2009 finishing 2nd in the league.
The team added depth to this corps with second round draft pick Jason Worlds coming in from Virginia Tech and fourth round pick Thaddeus Gibson from Ohio St.
The secondary will need to improve its play in 2009 as they allowed way too many points in the fourth quarter via the pass. At the corners will be veteran Ike Taylor with Bryant McFadden with Ryan Clark and Troy Polamalu at the safety positions.
Polamalu played in only 5 games in 2009 as he was bothered by a knee injury. Pittsburgh’s record with Polamalu in the lineup was 4-1 with the club 4-7 without him. In the only loss with Polamalu on the field he only played in 1 series after leaving the field for good. So a case can be made that the Steelers were undefeated with Polamalu playing a full game.
McFadden returns to the club after spending a season at Arizona. He has spent four of his five seasons with Pittsburgh drafted as their second pick in 2005.
Ike Turner has been a solid lock down corner in his tenure with the club.
And now to my Selection:
Tow critical injuries impacted the Steelers in 2009 with the loss of Troy Polamalu and Aaron Smith. The team will regain its mantra on defense with those two healthy and the return of McFadden to the club.
With the defense healthy again the club will not be to dependent of its offense to pull out games. The defense will win games for Pittsburgh again.
Dennis Dixon will benefit from a training camp running the first team offense and will get them through the first four games of this season with at least with a 2-2 record as his defense is healthy. Mike Wallace will prove that 2009 is no fluke and with Heath Miller and Hines Ward the Steelers will be OK with their passing game. They get to at least 9 wins in 2010.
Selection: Play Over 8 ½ wins in 2010 Regular Season.
