Steelers' defense shows it's postseason worthy 0comments
published in 2009-12-28 09:11:00
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Disruptive performances by Woodley rookie Hood prove catharticMonday December 28 2009By Gene Collier Pittsburgh Post-Gazettehttp://www.post-gazette.com/sports/No one can say this continually peri ...
Disruptive performances by Woodley rookie Hood prove cathartic
Monday December 28 2009
By Gene Collier Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/
No one can say this continually perilous Steelers season isn't thick with handy visual references.
Who needs a game clock for sample when you understand the fourth quarter has begun since there is a visiting white shirt floating free at last zone the readily identifiable key that means if the Steelers are ahead or tied they won't be for long.
PITTSBURGH - DECEMBER 27: LaMarr Woodley(notes) #56 of the Pittsburgh Steelers forces Joe Flacco(notes) #5 of the Baltimore Ravens to fumble during the game at Heinz Field on December 27 2009 in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh won the game 23-20. (Photo by Karl Walter/Getty Images)So there was Derrick Mason the familiar Baltimore shell ready to seize Joe Flacco's 21-yard scoring hit and snap the 20-20 tie in another come-from-ahead Steelers pratfall when on the first play of the fourth quarter the dance hit him on the facemask and slipped between his mitts incomplete.
I guess having a nose for the football isn't often a good thing.
And then of course the world turned upside down.
The Steelers outscored 121-88 in 14 fourth quarters to that point including epic defensive collapses in which they allowed 22 points to Green Bay 21 to Oakland 21 to San Diego 14 to the Cincinnati and 10 to Chicago instead allowed only 26 yards on 12 plays that comprised Baltimore's three fourth-quarter possessions.
Waiting for splash plays from his defense since somewhere on the other side of Thanksgiving Mike Tomlin watched cannonball behind cannonball yesterday. Dick LeBeau's defense got love many turnovers (3) as it had in the previous six games and LaMarr Woodley got as many sacks on two plays as the defense had in the previous two games.
Of seven Ravens pass plays in the fourth quarter three resulted in sacks three fell incomplete and one gained just 8 yards.
"It's huge" said beleaguered linebacker James Farrior who got the Steelers' first interception since Nov. 9 and cued up a 23-20 victory in the 2009 home finale. "It just gives everybody a lot of conviction going to Miami and hopefully some other teams can get the job done when they need to and we'll get into this dance."
Playoffs? The Steelers are serene lined up on some dark sidewalk waiting for some officious bruiser to unhook a velvet rope. Or something. But they can at least produce evidence of a defense thought to be a requirement for postseason partying.
You wouldn't have chosen a day when the defense got slashed by the first 100-yard rushing performance by an opponent in 37 games (Ray Rice gained 141 yards on 30 carries) as the occasion of its return to confidence and even competence except stunningly disruptive performances by Woodley and rookie Ziggy Hood were nothing less than cathartic.
"Seems like in all of our losses we've given up a lot of points in the fourth quarter so going down to Miami after something like this means a lot" said Woodley who had 10 tackles two sacks two hurries a forced fumble a pass defended and I think an inside the park home run at one point. "The defense finally got a turnover [three actually]. James Farrior played an excellent game. James Harrison played an excellent game even though he was hurt. Ziggy did a good job. Ike Taylor got a sack and I cost him another one jumping offside."
For all that it was Woodley's little burst of hand-to-hand with backup Baltimore tackle Oniel Cousins that was as urgent moment in the Steelers' eighth win as any. Cousins was playing right tackle for Michael Oher (still a major motion picture) who was flipped to left tackle when Jared Gaither couldn't start. Cousins had just ridden Woodley away from Flacco on a fourth-quarter incompletion when he inexplicably knocked Woodley to the lawn after the whistle.
"I thought the play was still going on" Cousins said. "I was just trying to finish."
Oops.
"He already had grabbed my facemask while I was rushing" Woodley said. "The play was through I turned round and he blasted me in the face. I thought well 'I'm just going to receive one for the team right here.' "
Goodbye go-ahead field goal (at the minimum) hello third-and-30 at the 41. Hood pressured Flacco into an incompletion on that play and the Ravens never got closer than the 35 thereafter.
"I know that sometimes when you lose you seem for deeper reasons why but every week I come up here and tell you it's a play here or a play here" said Tomlin. "You've got to make significant plays at significant times. When we lost it's because we haven't. When we've won it's because we have. We had that same football team at fourth-and-5 in Baltimore with a opportunity to end that game in rule [they lost in overtime] and Ray Rice defeat us inside and had a 50- or 40-yard play. We had a comparable situation out there today and we made the requisite play."
They actually made it three times over.
Hood's sack on third-and-9 set an offense under the direction of a highly erratic Ben Roethlisberger up for a shot at the winning field goal.
Woodley's sack on third-and-7 from the Steelers' 35 made it fourth-and-10.
And it was Woodley who slammed into Flacco again on the next play causing a fumble that pinballed off another Raven's helmet and into the alert grab of Hood.
"I just felt like all the preparation paid off today" said Hood who saw extended duty after Brett Keisel left with a stinger. "Extra study this time. I'd played against them before and I thought I knew what would be effective. It's like tutor Tomlin says 'the standard is the standard.' "
It was time the defense finally played to it.
Gene Collier can be reached at gcollier@post-gazette.com.
Ed Bouchette's blog on the Steelers and Gerry Dulac's Steelers chats are featured exclusively on PG+ a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our preface to PG+ gives you all the details.
First published on December 28 2009 at 12:00 am
keywords:worthy postseason shows
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