AFC North: Steelers Must Locate Offensive Mojo

Football Betting Lines

11/18/2008 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - That well-worn cliche' about defense winning championships is a proven NFL fact. You won't find a Super Bowl winner this decade who raised the Lombardi Trophy despite playing something less than inspired defensive football come the postseason, though you will find the bones of plenty of teams (2003 Rams and Chiefs, 2005 Colts, 2007 Cowboys) who treated defense as an afterthought littered along those deserted playoff roads of the past.

At the same time, however, you won't find a large number of Super Bowl winners that didn't at least score some offensive points to complement the work of their defenses.

And that's the rub for the Pittsburgh Steelers, who field arguably the best and most feared defense in the league at the moment but might not have the offensive attack to carry them into February.

On Sunday, they won a football game without scoring a touchdown, outlasting the Chargers, 11-10, on a snowy day at Heinz Field.

Pittsburgh limited a talented San Diego attack to just 213 net yards on the day, including 57 yards on 18 carries from LaDainian Tomlinson, and intercepted Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers twice on the afternoon.

But the offense, while moving the ball between the 20's with consistency and racking up 410 net yards and 24 first downs for the day, extended its streak of quarters without a touchdown to six in the win.

The hit parade against bruised and battered quarterback Ben Roethlisberger continued, with Big Ben being dragged down for four sacks to boost the offensive line's bloated number of sacks allowed on the year to 35.

Roethlisberger has just 10 touchdown passes versus 11 interceptions for the year, including one TD versus eight picks in his last four appearances, and has a middling passer rating of 79.0 on the year

The running game was solid on Sunday, with Willie Parker's 25-carry, 115-yard effort ranking as his first triple-digit effort since Week 2, but if Parker's fragile knee and shoulder were to give out again, just where would the Steelers be offensively?

Pittsburgh is now averaging just 20.9 points per game. Among teams with winning records, only 6-4 Washington (18.1 points per game) is scoring less, and the 3-7 Texans (23.6) and 49ers (23.0) are both scoring well over two points more than the Steelers.

"I would say it was frustrating, but we felt good out there on offense," said Roethlisberger of Sunday's performance. "You have to give [San Diego] a lot of credit...in the red zone [they] really buckled it down. There were a lot of little things here and there. One time the ball went through my hands on a snap. The big thing was we won the game, and we moved the ball well. It was a good performance on offense."

Such a performance will probably be good enough to defeat the struggling Cincinnati Bengals on Thursday night to move the Steelers to 8-3 and keep them above the fray in the AFC North, but trouble looms on the horizon if Pittsburgh can't play with more consistency in its attack.

After facing the Bengals, Mike Tomlin's club begins an arduous four-game stretch that includes trips to meet the Patriots (11/30), Ravens (12/14), and Titans (12/21), as well as a home contest versus the resurgent Cowboys (12/7).

Clearly, the Steelers will soon need more help from the offense than they have had recently in order to knock out those difficult opponents.

"It's that time of year," said linebacker James Farrior on Sunday. "It's November football right now. It's crunch time. It's getting down to the end and you've got to have your big players step up in big games. All these games are going to be big games from here on out. You want the guys that you count on, day in and day out, you want those guys to come in and produce and [have] everybody else just do their part."

BENGALS: Though the Bengals offense continues to be a disappointment in 2008 given the number of big-name players on the roster, a much-maligned defense has actually begun to make small strides in recent weeks after struggling for most of the season's first half.

After falling to the Ravens, 17-10, in Week 1, Cincinnati allowed 20 or more points in seven straight games, helping lead the team to the depths of 0-8. But in its last two, the Bengals have allowed 19 and 13 to the Jaguars and Eagles, respectively, a stretch that has corresponded with a 1-0-1 record.

In Sunday's 13-13 tie against Philadelphia, a Bengals secondary that had struggled to make plays for much of the year intercepted Donovan McNabb three times, with cornerback Johnathan Joseph and recently-acquired safety Chris Crocker both notching picks.

Meanwhile, the team held Brian Westbrook and the Eagles' ground attack to just 68 yards on 18 carries, with linebackers Brandon Johnson (37 tackles, 1 INT) and Dhani Jones (74 tackles, 1 INT) combining for 11 tackles to help fuel the effort.

A pass rush that has been deficient got its second sack in as many weeks from end Robert Geathers, another sign that strides are being made.

"Yeah, I think we've done a much better job [defensively], said head coach Marvin Lewis on Monday. "Obviously, the growth on third down the last couple weeks has been very important. Because as we've said, if you make first downs on offense and convert third downs on offense, your defense is out there less. And if you can do the same, you're putting the ball back in your offense's hands, and that's what you want to do. Whether you're turning it over or you win on third down, you get an opportunity for your offense to have more possessions, and that's important."

BROWNS: At the moment, the first win in the NFL starting career of Cleveland Browns quarterback Brady Quinn is fighting for top billing along with the clutch, 56-yard game-winning kick made by the Browns' Phil Dawson in the final minute of Monday's 29-27 win at Buffalo.

Eventually, perhaps the Dawson boot will blend in with all of the other big field goals the underrated kicker has made during his career (including some that have yet to be kicked), and the victory will be remembered as the beginning of an era of greatness for the Cleveland signal-caller.

Quinn hasn't been perfect in his two NFL starts, both of which were played under the primetime lights, and actually performed better in last week's home loss to Denver than he did in his initial road start on Monday night.

But the Notre Dame product also proved he isn't all about short dump-offs and 10-yarders to the tight end, as eight of his 14 completions on the night went to No. 1 receiver Braylon Edwards. Edwards posted 104 receiving yards in arguably his strongest game of the year. His eight grabs were a season-high.

For the night, Quinn was just 14-of-36 for 185 yards, but was victimized by a handful of drops, did not turn the ball over for a second straight game, was sacked just once and amassed 18 yards on scrambles.

Quinn was helped immensely by running backs Jamal Lewis, who combined for 145 ground yards on 21 carries (6.9 per rush) in the best game of the year for the rushing attack.

And, of course, he never could pulled off win number one without Dawson.

"Take your hat off to Phil," said Quinn. "It's frustrating as an offense to not score touchdowns but he just comes through. I can't thank him enough for getting it done for this team.

"It was awesome to get a first win, especially that way."

This week, Quinn will try to pick up his first home win as a Brown when the team plays host to the Houston Texans.

RAVENS: Last Sunday, Ravens head coach John Harbaugh had to go up against Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, his old friend from the Philadelphia Eagles staff.

This week figures to conjure up even greater emotions for the first-year head man, who will go up against an Eagles team that employed him from 1998 through 2007. Harbaugh served as Philadelphia's special teams coach for all but his final year with the team, when he moved over to the secondary.

The fact that the contest will be important for the Ravens (6-4) as they try to keep pace in the AFC North and Wild Card races will likely allow Harbaugh to maintain focus on winning the football game, though he did acknowledge the special nature of the game.

"Competitively, you're going against your brothers," said Harbaugh in his Monday press conference. "It means something. It's exciting. There's a little bit of something at stake, and it'll be fun before the game. But when the game starts, it's going to be our players playing against their players, and whoever plays the best is going to win.

"I've got a lot of great relationships there. I love those guys - the coaching staff, players, people who are really good friends. But the Ravens are my football team. These are my guys, and I'm proud to be their coach. I'm looking forward to going into a football game this week with those guys."

Harbaugh has to hope his foray against this week's old pals goes better than did his meeting with Spagnuolo and the Giants, who dealt Baltimore a 30-10 loss in the second-most lopsided defeat for the Ravens this season.