Game Notes:
Tennessee Titans (0-0; 0-0 away) at Pittsburgh Steelers (0-0; 0-0 home)
Sunday, September 8 – 1:00 pm (televised locally on CBS/KDKA)
Heinz Field – Pittsburgh, PA
A winless preseason is in the rearview mirror for Mike Tomlin and the Pittsburgh Steelers as they open the 2013-2014 regular season Sunday afternoon at Heinz Field, where they will host Mike Munchak and the Tennessee Titans.
There were plenty of poor individual performances and some team weaknesses exposed in the four exhibition losses, but the team emerged relatively healthy and ready to begin their quest for a seventh Lombardi trophy. Second-round draft pick Le’Veon Bell is out (foot) and Jonathan Dwyer was cut last week, so Isaac Redman will be starting alongside Ben Roethlisberger in the offensive backfield. At fullback, Will Johnson (hamstring) is expected to play after practicing Friday. At TE, Heath Miller remains out as he continues recovering from a late-season knee ligament tear in 2012. He is expected to be ready at some point in the next few weeks. Top draft pick Jarvis Jones will be available despite an injury scare in the preseason that forced him to miss the last game for precautionary reasons.
Roethlisberger will be asked again to lead (and improve) an offense that ranked 21st overall in yards per game and 22nd in points per game, including a 26th-ranked rushing game that could not produce a 1,000 yards rusher and ran only for eight touchdowns. Dwyer led the team with just 623 yards and he is gone, so it will be up to Redman and Bell (upon his return from injury), as well as newcomer LaRod Stephens-Howling. With Dwyer cut, Chris Rainey’s dismissal last season (arrested, then waived by the team), and Rashard Mendenhall’s departure to Arizona in the offseason, the faces of the running game have changed dramatically for Todd Haley’s offense. Also, Roethlisberger has lost one of his favorite targets, Mike Wallace, who became a Miami Dolphin during free agency. The Steelers tenth-year QB will still have Antonio Brown to look to, as well as Emmanuel Sanders, Jerricho Cotchery, and rookies Markus Wheaton and Derek Moye. This unit will get to work off any rust against a defense that gave up the most points in the NFL last season (29.4 points per game) and the sixth most yards per game. The Titans retained defensive coordinator Jerry Gray despite those struggles, but added embattled Gregg Williams as a special assistant to Munchak and his defensive staff. Williams was involved in the New Orleans Saints player bounty scandal that resulted in most of the coaching staff being fired or suspended.
Tennessee’s starting QB is Jake Locker, who is in his second year as starter. His main targets are Kenny Britt and Nate Washington at receiver, but the Titans offense will again likely revolve around RB Chris Johnson. This unit will face Dick LeBeau’s defense, which is perennially among the best statistically in the NFL. In 2012, the Steelers allowed the second-fewest rushing yards per game and the fewest passing yards per game, good for first in overall yards per game allowed. They allowed the sixth fewest points per game. With a healthy Troy Polamalu and gang, as well as the addition of Jarvis Jones at LB, this group should be solid again. An area for defensive improvement could be the forcing of turnovers. Pittsburgh forced just 25, whereas the league leader in that category had 47 (Chicago).
Tennessee visits Pittsburgh to open a season for the first time since 2009, when the defending champion Steelers defeated them 13-10 in overtime in a Thursday primetime matchup. Pittsburgh has won three of four and six of 11 in the series, but lost last season in Week Six at Tennessee, 26-23. The Titans finished 6-10 and in third place in the AFC South last season. They did not defeat any team with a winning record, as Pittsburgh was 8-8 and all other wins came against opponents who had a losing record.
