Pittsburgh Steelers vs. San Diego Chargers Preview

Mike Tomlin has compiled a quick 23 and 12 regular season record in his 2 seasons and 3 game this season. Overall his approach has been right in line with the Pittsburgh mentality and refreshing in a Mike Tomlin way.

However at some point the new guy is no longer stabilized by or held down by past successes or failures. It becomes his team. We are getting to that stage with Coach Tomlin.

Fortunately for him and us fans, he has the steering wheel of a world class franchise. They know what he needs and they will make sure he has it. And I believe Tomlin is a good Coach with greatness within his reach. We cannot forget he has only been at this for 2 years.

That said, I have documented my concerns about this team and the numbers are forecasting bad things in the upcoming weeks. The Steelers are clearly playing like they have a hangover and nobody likes to nor will admit that.

The whole team, even the defense at times, appears lethargic and lacking a sense of urgency. Urgency? Yes the NFL season is only 16 games folks, every week means something. The Steelers are already looking up at the 3 and o Ravens who look the best they have looked in years. The Bengals are 2 and 1 for crying out loud.

This week we thankfully play the continuously over rated Chargers. Don't get me wrong the Chargers can beat the Steelers. It's just that with Norv Turner as a Coach, look at the numbers. His teams always under achieve! And face it Ladian Tomlinson is a non factor at this moment. Yes Philip Rivers is capable of big time numbers but this team can be contained. Especially by a Pittsburgh defense.

Even with some lapses and missing Polamalu, the Steelers are allowing a mere under 16.7 points and holding teams to 76.7 yards rushing. Although I am not happy that the rushing yards went up after playing a cupcake run team like Cincinnati.

The Chargers on the other hand have a leaking defense. They have given up 142.3 rushing yards per game. Did you hear that Bruce Arians, Willie Parker, Rashard Mendenhall, Ben Roethlisberger and Coach Tomlin? One way to keep Rivers from throwing for a 300 spot is to run the ball down their underachieving throat!

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Surprisingly even with a bad defense teams have only scored 21.3 points per game on the Bolts. No that is not good but it should be higher. Our Steelers are scoring a putrid 15.7 points per game. That flat out sucks! They continue to plummet in offensive categories and the worst part is they are getting destroyed in the 4th quarter.

This is a week that you can stop the bleeding and establish a few things. Pad the numbers a little for some self respect. You are the defending Super Bowl Champs not Chumps.

Ben has not been good overall, although he has not been horrible either:3 TD's and 4 INT's sums it up. He has a good completion percentage of 71% but he throws a million dunky doos to tight ends also. I mean Shaq has an enormous shooting percentage but we all know he doesn't go more than 3 feet from the bucket. In Ben's defense he does have a 7.9 yrds per attempt which is solid. Over 7 is respectable.

He clearly has receivers. Although I pray that Limas Sweed moved down the depth chart. The rushing numbers worry me the most, because it effects the passing game. A team like the Steelers could cash in on play action so much if they would just balance the stat sheet through 4 quarters.

The rushing numbers are not worth mentioning at this point. Mendenhall needs to wake the bleep up and grow up yesterday. And the O-Line has to stop feeling picked on and go out and run somebody over!

I do think the offensive coordinator is not a good fit here and I now wonder about the O line coach. When you start putting a 6th lineman on the field what are you saying?

Well my rant is done. Thankfully of wishful thinking tells me the Steelers close the deal on Sunday night and win 21 to 10. Not in blow out fashion but I do see some drives from Ben and the boys. And I see Rivers trying to make something out a Norv confusion.

Ironically Arians reminds me of Norv Turner in many ways. They both have innovative plays, and seem to get QB's to trust them but they don't understand a game plan. In Dallas Turner was micromanaged by Jimmy Johnson so it worked. Maybe Tomlin needs to nose in on the offensive scheme and take the Arians plays and say "okay I want this and that, but less of this and more of that".

Let's do this!

By: Andy Natalie
ProFootball-fans.com Pittsburgh Steelers Correspondent