Sorry for being so late with my Steelers-Titans preview. It's been a long week for me.
The Steelers are coming off a huge division clinching win over the Baltimore Ravens where once again the defese was stellar, but the offense wasn't that good until the final drive of the game.
The Titans are coming off of their second loss, this one being an upset by the Houtson Texans (I repeat, the Houston Texans beat the Titans).
The Titans will be without two of their best defensive players: DT Albert Haynesworth and DE Kyle Vanden Bosch...while the Steelers will likley get even better on defense with the return of DE Brett Keisel.
Matchups:
Titans Defensive Line vs. Steelers Offensive Line: Steelers center Justin Hartwig feels that the offensive line is just now starting to "gel". Well I sure hope so, because even without Haynesworth and Vanden Bosch the Titans defensive line is nothing to sneeze at. If the Titans defensive line doesn't get a pass rush, then they have to send guys on the blitz, which they don't do often.
Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger vs. Titans CB Corland Finnegan: Finnegan is very good at making a play on the ball, so Roethlisberger can't force any passes to the guy he is covering, otherwise there's a good chance the ball will be picked. I'm not saying that the Steelers can't throw in his direction, he's no Deion Sanders...just not to force the ball his way.
Titans QB Kerry Collins vs. Steelers SS Troy Polamalu: Polamalu leads the NFL with 7 interceptions. Collins for the most part has been very efficient with the ball, but in the two Titans losses he had some costly turnovers. He'll have to know where Polamalu is each snap because if he loses track of Taz, the ball very well could be in the possesion of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Steelers Pass Rush vs. Titans Offensive Line: The Steelers defense hopes that the offense can get a decent lead of at least 14 points so the Titans are forced into passing the ball more. Then the Steelers main pass rushers, outside linebackers LaMarr Woodley and James Harrison can just pin their ears back and do what they enjoy the most, wreaking havock on quarterbacks. It also helps that Collins is a statue in the pocket, he's not very mobile so he's a sitting duck if the Titans are forced into throwing the ball to win this football game.
Titans Running Backs vs. Steelers Rush Defense: The Steelers are second in the league in rush defense. The Titans have one of the best rushing tandems in Smash n Dash...Lendale White and Chris Johnson. In the Titans two losses, their running backs were not much of a factor in the games. In most of their wins, they were dominant. The Steelers have not allowed a rusher to reach 100 yards on them this season, and only three have been able to do so in the last 80 games. The Steelers havent allowed a team to break 300 yards of total offense on them yet this entire season, a lot of that is thanks to a run defense that forces teams to throw the ball.
Steelers 24
Titans 10
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