Category: Steelers

2024 NFL playoff power rankings: Ravens rule the roost, but who else is near the top?

Now that we know who the 14 playoff teams will be in the playoffs, here is how they stack up against one another

The NFL field of teams has been cut from 32 to 14, and we now know who all 14 playoff teams are. How do they stack up against one another? Here are the NFL playoff power rankings ahead of wild-card weekend.

2024 NFL Mock Draft: End-of-season quarterback decisions lead to surprising picks

How many NFL teams will stick with their current quarterbacks? A high number could make for an interesting first round of the 2024 draft.

Now that the 2023 NFL regular season is over, every team turns its attention to the draft — even those teams that are part of the postseason. Area scouts will start to move to the home facility to interact with scouting directors and general managers, and with the scouting combine less than two months away, it’s time to start putting your big boards together.

This applies especially to those teams with crucial quarterback decisions to make. For the purposes of this mock draft, we’ll assume that the Chicago Bears are sticking with Justin Fields, the Arizona Cardinals are committed to Kyler Murray, the Tennessee Titans think they have a future franchise quarterback in Will Levis, and the New York Jets think that eventually, Aaron Rodgers will stop shooting his mouth off long enough to play quarterback in 2024.

Conversely, the Washington Commanders, New England Patriots, New York Giants, and Atlanta Falcons will avail themselves of the best draftable quarterbacks possible in the interest of turning things around.

So, four quarterbacks go in the first round here, with more teams looking to build around the guys they’ve already got. That makes for one notable omission (Oregon’s Bo Nix), and a whole bunch of talented prospects at other positions pushing themselves up the boards.

Mason Rudolph, Diontae Johnson team to give Steelers lead

The Steelers grab the lead over the Ravens on a long touchdown pass

The Pittsburgh Steelers needed a win Saturday to remain alive in the AFC playoff race. First, they needed the lead.

Mason Rudolph delivered a pass to Diontae Johnson on the first play of the fourth quarter.

The wideout took it 71 yards for the touchdown that made it 14-7 after the PAT 11 seconds into the fourth quarter.

The Steelers were playing for their postseason lives. Their opponents, the Baltimore Ravens, already have the No. 1 seed in the AFC sealed.

Jadeveon Clowney does happy dance after sack, $750k incentive bonus

Ravens edge-rusher Jadeveon Clowney got a $750,000 bonus for his sack against the Steelers, and he was very happy about that.

The Baltimore Ravens may have the NFL’s best defense, and veteran edge-rusher Jadeveon Clowney has been a big part of that. The 2014 first overall pick out of South Carolina is on his fifth team in the last six years, and he signed a one year, $2.505-million contract with the Ravens on August 18. It’s basically a vet-minimum deal, but Clowney did have one important incentive that he met against the PIttsburgh Steelers on Saturday.

With 43 seconds left in the first half, Clowney sacked Pittsburgh quarterback Mason Rudolph, which gave him 9.5 sacks on the season. And that tripped a $750,000 bonus, which is a nice add-on.

That’s about how any of us would dance if we got a $750,000 bonus. Per Pro Football Focus, which counts half-sacks as sacks (which everybody should), Clowney came into this game with nine sacks and 69 total pressures, which is nice.

Referee Brad Allen nearly called a penalty on the wrong team again

Referee Brad Allen got another call wrong on the field. It must be a day ending in “Y!”

With 7:36 left in Saturday’s slopfest of a game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Pittsburgh Steelers, referee Brad Allen and his crew stopped play for a penalty announcement. If you’ve followed Allen’s “work” throughout the season, you know that there was going to be a high “Choose Your Own Adventure” possibility here.

And indeed, there was. The penalty was called against tight end Connor Heyward on a punt by Jordan Stout of the Ravens. And since Allen was involved, we all had to stop and take a break while Allen figured it out with the help of down judge Sarah Thomas. You can see Allen and Thomas discussing the play, Allen signaling a holding penalty against… the Ravens, Allen and Thomas discussing it again, and Allen getting it right with a penalty on the Steelers.

This, of course, wouldn’t be the first time Allen called a penalty on the wrong team this season. In fact, it wasn’t the first time Allen called a penalty on the wrong team in the last calendar week. Let’s travel back to last Saturday night’s embarrassment in a crucial game between the Detroit Lions and the Dallas Cowboys.

With 2:05 left in the game, Cowboys running back Tony Pollard hit a seven-yard gain on first-and-10 from the Detroit 29-yard line. This was the play after Jared Goff’s interception to safety Donovan Wilson, and at this point, the Cowboys could run the clock down and seal a victory up 17-13.

But Allen called tight end Peyton Hendershot for tripping, which negated the run and put the ball 15 yards back at the Detroit 44-yard line. Mike McCarthy’s three-play passing sequence, which took just 11 seconds off the clock, followed, and that was its own disaster. But let’s focus on the tripping call.

Here’s the All-22.

Hendershot was facing Lions edge-rusher Aidan Hutchinson on the play, and there was an attempt at tripping. But the overhead and end zone angles show that it was Hutchinson who made the attempt. On the overhead view, you can dee down judge Sarah Thomas throw the flag from the lower sideline. How Allen managed to extrapolate tripping on Hendershot is a mystery. Could Hendershot been busted for a hold? Maybe… but had this been called correctly, the worst that would have happened for the Cowboys was offsetting penalties and replaying the down. Not a 15-yard deficit that changed the complexion of the Cowboys’ drive.

Just another day ending in “Y” for the NFL’s worst referee, who is working a game with playoff implications. At least this one got corrected before it was official.

Lamar Jackson beat the Dolphins for two touchdowns… on the same play

The Ravens’ offense is cooking with Lamar Jackson, and that offense beat the Dolphins for two touchdowns… on the same play. TE Leak for the win!

“TE Leak” is a relatively simple concept. An offense will have a tight end as the quarterback’s ultimate target, and the play is designed to create openings for that tight end in a multitude of ways. First, all other receivers will run routes to clear the defense to the other side. Second, there is often hard run-action blocking to get the defense thinking it’s about to be a run play. Third, the tight end in question will start off the snap by faking a look to block before releasing across the field. If it all works correctly, and the defense falls for the banana in the tailpipe, the tight end should be wide open.

In last Sunday’s 56-19 beatdown of the Miami Dolphins, the Baltimore Ravens feasted on TE Leak as few offenses have this season. Lamar Jackson had five touchdown passes in this game, further cementing his MVP status, and his last two came out of that concept, and virtually the same play.

The first of these two touchdowns came with 13:35 left in the third quarter, and the Ravens already up, 28-13. Tight end Isaiah Likely was the touchdown recipient here, and there was a nuance here right off the bat. Likely was going to leak left, and it was pass protection as opposed to run-action, but watch how Likely aligns as if he’s going to run to the right pre-snap. Likely faked a block on edge-rusher Andrew Van Ginkel, and then worked through Miami’s defense to the left side. It would be tough to be more open on this play than Likely was.

Then, with 9:43 left in the fourth quarter, it was Patrick Ricard’s time to shine. This was slightly different in that Ricard was aligned to the formation as opposed to split out, and Ricard leaked out right away, but the result was the same: Another touchdown for the Ravens, and some disappointed Dolphins on defense.

“It was kind of one-handed,” Ricard said after the game of his catch. “It wasn’t like Zay [Flowers], [Isaiah] Likely on fourth down with one hand, but I’ll take it. We have so many great guys that have ball skills, so for me to see that, week in and week out, I’m like, ‘You know what? I think I can do that.’ I practice it, and in a situation like that where the ball was a little higher, if I need to put my hand up, I can do it.”  

When the Ravens hit the postseason as the AFC’s one-seed, they should have opposing defenses looking for TE Leak all the time in the red zone.

As for the Dolphins, they face the Buffalo Bills on Sunday night with the AFC East at stake, and their defense will have to recover from several busts against the Ravens.

“Just the way it turned out, some of the calls put us in tough situations that we didn’t handle well enough,” defensive coordinator Vic Fangio said on Thursday. “Usually that doesn’t happen. But you have to give Baltimore credit. They’re a well-balanced, good offense and they can do that to you.”

In this week’s “Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” the guys get macro on Dolphins-Bills, and what the Ravens tell us about Fangio’s defense as it stands right now.

You can watch this week’s “Xs and Os” right here:

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You can also listen and subscribe to the “Xs and Os” podcast on Spotify…

…and on Apple Podcasts.

Referee Brad Allen gets a Week 18 prime-time game with playoff implications, and nobody’s happy

Brad Allen, the NFL’s worst referee, will call the Steelers-Ravens prime-time game on Saturday, and nobody in America is happy about it.

When the 9-7 Pittsburgh Steelers face the 13-3 Baltimore Ravens on Saturday, it means absolutely nothing to the Ravens, who have wrapped up the AFC’s one-seed. But for the Steelers, it means everything — they need to beat whoever the Ravens put on the field, and they also need help. Pittsburgh makes the playoffs under the following scenarios:

  1. PIT win + BUF loss OR
  2. PIT win + JAX loss or tie OR
  3. PIT win + HOU-IND tie OR
  4. PIT tie + JAX loss + HOU-IND doesn’t end in tie OR
  5. JAX loss + DEN win + HOU-IND doesn’t end in tie

And now, the NFL has presented its own scenario in which the game will be officiated by referee Brad Allen and his crew, who should not be officiating any game, anywhere, at any level of football.

In case you’ve been sleeping since last weekend, Allen and his crew were responsible for the tackle-eligible mistake and several other horrible calls that turned things in the Dallas Cowboys’ favor against the Detroit Lions, taking Detroit out of any hope for the NFC’s one-seed, which the San Francisco 49ers now have.  Allen and his crew were also responsible for the missed pass interference call on cornerback Carrington Valentine against the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 13. Allen and his crew were also responsible for the one-sided farce in the Week 7 game between the Miami Dolphins and the Philadelphia Eagles.

And now, after all that, the most incompetent officiating crew in the NFL will “administrate” a major prime-time game with serious postseason implications. So much for accountability!

As you might expect, America was not at all happy about it.

The Cleveland Browns could win the AFC’s one-seed in the playoffs

After their Thursday night win over the Jets, the Browns actually have a chance to become the AFC’s one-seed through the playoffs.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.

After their 37-20 win over the New York Jets on Thursday night, the 11-5 Cleveland Browns not only clinched their second playoff berth since 2020 (the team had not made the playoffs before that since 2002), but they have an actual shot at the AFC’s one-seed.

Which means that the AFC playoffs might go through Cleveland.

Here’s how it needs to go.

So. If the Browns beat the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday, January 7, and the Baltimore Ravens lose to the Miami Dolphins and the Pittsburgh Steelers, and the Dolphins lose to the Buffalo Bills? Yeah. The Dawg Pound will be home base.

As Chase Daniel said, this is wild. The Browns currently have a league-high 26% of their salary cap on injured reserve, they’ve turned Joe Flacco into Kurt Warner, and the guys they were without due to injury against the Jets was… well, remarkable.

If Kevin Stefanski doesn’t win Coach of the Year, there should be an immediate recount.

Steelers fans serenade Mason Rudolph with ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’ after romp

There was only one Christmas song to play after the Steelers dominated the Bengals

It wasn’t hard to find a Christmas song to play after the Pittsburgh Steelers clobbered the Cincinnati Bengals on Saturday.

With Mason Rudolph stepping in at quarterback, the Pittsburgh slayed — sleighed? — its AFC North opponent.

Rudolph, the quarterback, threw two touchdown passes and for 290 yards. much to George Pickens.

And on played “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”

It will be a Merry Christmas in Pittsburgh for the Steelers and their fans.

George Pickens’ great 44-yard grab sets up Steelers field goal

George Pickens made an amazing catch in the second quarter

George Pickens is doing is best to calm the story the wideout has created in Pittsburgh.

Against the Cincinnati Bengals on Saturday, Pickens had an 86-yard touchdown reception and a remarkable 44-yard grab in the first half.

The latter set up a Chris Boswell 50-yard field goal that gave the home team a 24-0 lead at the break.

Pickens had 3 catches for 129 yards in the first half.