Two teams who can trace their linked history back to the legendary John Unitas will play this season at the LOS (Pronounced loss. Funny, isn’t it?), aka Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, IN.
Unitas was from Pittsburgh and grew up in Brookline. In one of the biggest mistakes ever made by the Steelers, Unitas was cut from the squad without ever having taken a single snap in a Black and Gold uniform.
He would go on to a legendary, hall of fame career with the Baltimore Colts. Can the Nation get a do-over on that one?
Recent History
Given the length of time that these two teams have been in the league, and that they are both in the playoffs nearly every year, they have played each other surprisingly few times in recent history.
The last meeting was in 2008 when the Colts rolled into the ‘Burgh and took one from the Steelers on the arm of Peyton Manning. Manning threw for three TDs that game and brought the Colts from behind to win.
The last meeting for these teams, before that, was in the 2005-06 playoffs.
While the Steelers were making history by becoming the first 6-seed to ever win the Super Bowl, they played the Colts in Indy.
The Colts took the Steelers apart in the regular season that year, but things would turn out a little differently in the playoffs.
At the end of three quarters, the Steelers were comfortably ahead 21-3. That was when Peyton Manning remembered he is Peyton Manning. The Colts scored 15 unanswered points in the fourth to get within three, but the Steelers had the ball and were driving.
Then, the play that will forever be known as “The Tackle” happened.
With 1:20 left in the game, the Steelers were 1st and goal on the Colts’ 2-yard-line. Ben Roethlisberger handed the ball off to the normally sure-handed Jerome “The Bus” Bettis. Bettis began plowing his way up the middle when he was hit by Gary Brackett. Or, more accurately, the ball was hit by Gary Brackett.
The Colts’ Nick Harper scooped up the fumble and ran toward the Steelers’ end zone with no one between him and a go-ahead touchdown except one Benjamin Todd Roethlisberger. (Yes, that’s his real middle name, the poor bastard)
Ben somehow forced Harper to cut back and tripped him up at his own 42.
The Colts would drive to the Steelers’ 28-yard-line where Mike Vanderjagt, at the time the most accurate kicker in NFL history, missed the 45-yard attempt to tie the game.
The Steelers went on to win their 5th Super Bowl. The Colts would win the Super Bowl the next year, their second Super Bowl and fifth NFL Championship.
Indianapolis’s Offense vs. Pittsburgh’s Defense
The Colts consistently have a great offense in no small part to QB Peyton Manning. Someday his bust will be in Canton, but right now, he is a force to be reckoned with every time he sets foot on a football field.
Manning makes ordinary receivers good, and good receivers great. He does that by meticulous study of his opponent and by knowing every facet of his offense.
He is also incredibly durable. He has not missed a start in his NFL career (208 games and counting).
The Colts led the league in passing in 2010 with 288.1 yards/game, which is hardly a surprise. What is surprising is that they were 29th in rushing.
They still won 10 games.
What this tells us is that even if you stop the Colts from running the ball, which was shockingly easy to do last year, number 18 can still beat you.
Manning threw for 4700 yards in 2010, the highest total for a single year in his career. He threw 33 touchdowns against 17 picks. He also led the league in passing attempts with 679. That’s a touch more than 40 passes per game. By way of comparison, Steelers quarterbacks threw 479 passes last year. That’s fewer than 30 passes per game. They must have been icing down Manning’s arm like major league pitcher after games.
So, how can the Steelers, whose pass defense is not the best in the league, beat Manning and the Colts?
Part of the answer lies in pressuring Manning and forcing him to throw interceptions. The Colts lost six games last year. In five of those games, Manning was picked at least once. The Colts only won one game in which Manning threw an interception.
If Manning has time to sit back there and survey the field, he will take any defense apart.
On the rare occasion the Colts tried to run the ball, they were not very effective. They were 28th in rushing attempts per game and 25th in yards per attempt. Against the Steelers, they should have almost no rushing yards.
I can’t help but wonder if they will set a new record for fewest number of rushing attempts in a game this year when they play the Steelers.
Indianapolis’s Defense vs. Pittsburgh’s Offense
Which leads me to other way you beat the Colts: You keep Peyton Manning on the sideline. It sounds funny and redundant to say it, but it must be understood that if he watching the game instead of playing in it, Peyton Manning will have a much smaller chance of beating you.
How do you keep him as a spectator? Every Citizen of the Nation must know that. You run the freaking ball. Then, you run the ball. And then, just to switch it up, you run the ball some more.
The more often the Colts’ offense has the ball, and the more time you give them, the more your chances of losing to them increase.
In their last meeting, the Steelers led in time of possession by more than nine minutes. The Steelers lost.
In their meeting in the playoffs in 2006, the Steelers had a greater time of possession by more than nine minutes and still needed a miracle tackle and the most accurate kicker in NFL history missing a makeable field goal to win.
In the regular season game of 2005, the Colts won the time of possession battle and housed the Steelers, 26-7
The Colts were 25th in rushing defense last year (127.0 yards per game allowed), meaning that there are plays to be made on the ground against them.
The Colts passing defense is in the middle of the pack in yards allowed (13th, 214.6), so if you have to throw against them, there are opportunities.
But again, the more time you leave on the clock, the more of a chance you will lose to Peyton Manning.
This is a man who had the ball on offense for less than 15 minutes in a game against the Dolphins in 2009 and still won.
The Steelers’ balanced attack must sustain long drives and score touchdowns at the ends of those drives to win.
Location, Location, Location
The Colts lost two games at home last year.
The Black and Gold are road warriors, losing one once on the road last year aside from the Super Bowl (which is not considered a road loss since it is a neutral site game).
The Men of Steel play better on the road; their notoriously slow starts to games seem to be minimized when they are away from Heinz Field.
The Steelers must take the crowd out of the game early, but even then they will have to play 60 minutes. If they let up at any time on defense, Manning will make them pay.
Make no mistake; despite the relatively short length of the trip, this will be one of the hardest non-division games the Steelers will play in the 2011 regular season.
My Take
I would give this game no better than even money for the Steelers to win. It was a huge blessing that they will play in week three and will not have the Ravens immediately before or after this game. We can all offer up a small thank you to the football gods for that.
The Steelers have struggled against elite quarterbacks in recent years (see Tom Brady) and Manning is nothing if not elite.
Big Ben may be one of the best quarterbacks in the league when it comes to playing “sandlot” football and extending plays, but Peyton Manning has to be one of the best who ever played the game. Period. He is a clinician on the field and if he has the ball in his hands too often, the Steelers will see the ball in the hands of a Colts receiver in their end zone too often, too.
The Steelers must control the clock to shorten the game for Manning, and at some point a defensive back not named Troy Polamalu will have to make a play.
Otherwise, they will leave the LOS with a loss.