When it comes to stopping the run, no NFL team has been better at harnessing that responsibility than the Steelers.
Through seven games this season, Pittsburgh’s defense is allowing a league-low 76.6 rushing yards per game. The Cincinnati Bengals (100 yards) and Detroit Lions (110 yards) are the only two Steelers opponents to post 100-plus yards on the ground.
While Pittsburgh has been stout against the run, offensive line coach Rick Dennison was more focused on what his unit can control, beginning with improving its toughness from the previous week.
“I think you have to execute every week and you’ve got to be tough every week,” Dennison said. “There is nobody that is going to just let you walk around and make yards. We just have to be better than we were last week.”
The Bengals (75 yards) and Ravens (66 yards) are the only two teams to hold the Broncos under 100 yards rushing, as Denver mustered a season-low total a week ago in Baltimore. To reverse that trend, Dennison’s line will turn its attention to containing the Steelers’ lineup of smooth rushers, led by James Harrison.
Harrison leads defensive coordinator Dick Lebeau’s defense with eight sacks this season. Seven of those sacks have come over the last four games, helping the Steelers to an undefeated 4-0 mark their October contests against the Chargers, Lions, Browns and Vikings.
“He is just a really good player,” Dennison said. “He plays very hard and he knows what he is doing – very slippery. (You) have to try and stay in front of him and then when the play is over that is when you stop blocking — not before.”
One of the players entrusted to perform that task is Tyler Polumbus. With Ryan Harris sidelined due to a toe injury, Polumbus is slated to start in Harris’ place at right tackle.
Regardless of the how remodeled rotation works, Dennison said the responsibilities for all of the Broncos’ linemen are concrete.
“Get an opportunity to play, do well, do your assignment, do the techniques and just try and focus on those things,” Dennison said. “I think that is what everyone of them is trying to do.”
INJURY UPDATE
There were several changes on Friday to the Broncos’ Week 9 Injury Report. After not participating in Thursday’s session, Josh Barrett (hamstring) was a limited participant. After being limited participants during Thursday’s session, David Bruton (groin) and Jack Williams (illness) were full participants on Friday. Peyton Hillis (not injury related) did not participate in Friday’s practice.
On the other side, there were no changes to the Steelers’ report.
Here are some photos from the onset of Friday’s practice.
– Chris Gentilviso, DenverBroncos.com
Tags: Pittsburgh Steelers, Rick Dennison, Week 9
Wow, I am first, that’s never happened!!
Does anyone think that Law could possibly start against the Steelers on Monday??
He could start.. Who knows how this will turn out. Everyone questions what McDaniels does and we’re 6-1. McDaniels knows what he’s doing and theres a reason he’s the head coach and why we are fans.
I tried some of Miles’ cereal. It was pretty “different”
The only thing that makes sense to me is in the bleachereport where they say both J. Williams and Phonzy have been bothered by injury. For Law coming in on the nickel once in a while, I can see that, starting at corner at 35 in the middle of a season, no way. IMO.
wait i’m lost,,whose Law??
holy crap! we just made a signing and I didnt know about it?lol..
forget I askd
had to look it up too broncos20 apparently Ty law agreed to terms with the broncos….now thats an all star veteran back field wow…dont laugh that he is 35 Dawkins looks 25 out there lol. he might be the same way. He prolly will be rotated alot and that works for me
yup missed it too
I’ve a feeling Coach will pursue Seymour nxt year if he becomes a FA..he is legit 3-4 end..but i’ll save this talk for next year..
I see a lot seriousness on the practice field…this is an important game
Wow thats an all pro secondary…thats kinda scary….dont take Law lightly cuz he is 35…so is dawkins….besides he will be a nickel CB or second CB….Goodmans struggled a bit….either way, he will not be out there all day….be rotated alot
Law will help the youger guys and play the nickel and dime CB.
Law might alternate with goodman for second CB if he is as good as his pro bowl days cuz Goodman has been slacking…but I doubt Law is as good as he once was….they will rotate him out alot in the nickel and that works.
Law will maybe cover in nickel or dime situations,no way will he start over Goodman.
As far as the blog goes what do you guys think,do you think we should line up 2 tightends or put a fullback in(Hillis) or what,we gotta be able to run somewhat.
BFE92, I think it doesn’t matter what we think, lol, McD has lived with the two TE’s set up for years, I am almost surprise we have one Hillis
Looks like Ayers is holding that tackling dummy down for a 3 count.lol I for one am excited about his future as a Bronco,watched him play for Tennessee in college.He was a beast at DE should be even better at LB got good speed and strenght.
BFE92, I think it doesn’t matter what we think, lol, McD has lived with the two TE’s set up for years, I am almost surprised we have one (Hillis) but if he couldn’t also run and catch the ball he wouldn’t be here.
I just hope we can run, don’t want to be one dimentional against their D.
sorry, must of hit the wrong key in the middle of the first post.
I’ve been waiting to see Hillis get some touches all year.I think he could help us with our run game don’t you?
Somehow I don’t see this being the game where we get our running game going again. 66 yards last week, going against a team that allows NFL low 76 yards per game, the answer is somewhere else, I won’t repeat how I think we should do it, the guy who is watching my posting might get upset over my over posting, LOL.
So far he has helped in the passing game, 2 catches for 10 yards last week, I don’t know why he is not running it in short situation, some talk about the dog house thing, others say he is not ready with the play book. But yes, I do believe that he would do better than Moreno for the tough yards, who wouldn’t? Jordan maybe. LOL.
Baylin,got a question for you just to see what you think.How do you see our offense matching up against their D,and what do you think we’ll have to do on offense to win?,because I think we’ll be alright on D.
Don’t get me started on Jordan.LOL
Ty Law was pretty good in his prime lets hope he still has something left in his tank!!!!
I believe he still has some left, but if he dosen’t we can still use his leadership,look what Dawkins leadership has done for our D..
BFE92, I know you already read some of my post commenting on the upcoming game, but here I oblige you one more time, lol. I think the run will be tough, the screens won’t work, the short game will be also tough because they’ll be in the box like the Ravens, I think this week is best to attack their corners, the weakest part of the Steeler D. But then again, didn’t I say that all last week for the Ravens, to attack them long? and see what happened? Lesson: we need to have a great O line performance this week, they owe us that, so Orton can deliver the long game. That’s honestly the best way I see for us to beat this team. The guys who need to come through other than the O line and Orton are Marshall, Royal, Gaffney and Scheffler who can also get down deep. The game rests on these guys shoulders, IMO.
Imagine how great it would be if we did get the running game going. What a confidence booster for the O-line after how the Ravens handled them last week! And what a statement it would send to the rest of the league! I can’t wait for Monday night! I think we are going to bust out the run on them and everyone is going to be so surprised.
It’s great to have more veteran leadership in the secondary with the addition of Ty Law. Let’s see what he has left. I’m sure he is still impressive or McD wouldn’t have given a second look.
Ty Law is a great addition to the team
And I would still like to see McKinley thrown in there once in a while, but McD is not the type of coach who likes to play inexperienced rookies or second year guys on O a lot, right Hillis? He played Cassell, but only because of injuries.
Do you guys think Coach McD might line up the “wild horses” formation again?
if the lions could get over 100 yards running on them i think it is quite possible…only other person to do it on them is Cedric Benson but he is quite a talent on his new team. NFL playbook said it, they know we like to go short so they will just sit on them routes…..Orton needs to work on his arm and Deep ball accuracy….but thats just the ramblings of a random fan whose only coaching experience involves a video game system and madden lol
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Hillis more this game. IMO we have to be able to run the ball or we aren’t going to win this one either. We need a stronger RB in there for this game, one that can be more physical like Hillis, against this tough on the run Pittsburgh defense.
bflvmn, you can count me in as one of the ones who would be extremely surprised if we can run efficiently on them. I want to be surprised. I am a staunch believer in the run as most bloggers here know, I just don’t think this is the week to pound our heads against that wall. Of course, give it a go, if it works stick with it, but don’t be stubborn with it if it doesn’t, these guys are tough against the run.
That’s what I’m saying. Run if it works and if not go to the pass. I wouldn’t mind seeing the “wild horses” thrown in there once in a while for this one either.
rbf1, I didn’t really enjoy the wild horse formation, being so different, I thought I was watching the Dolphins, lol, but I do see it has some value, it confused the Pats early and this might be a game to use it on. I bet looking back, McD wishes he gave it a go against Baltimore, they needed something to keep them honest, it wasn’t the long ball, so the wildhorse could of been good. I think we just might see it.
Does anyone know why Hillis was DNP all week?
TRB, talking about coaching, I wonder what kind of coaching experience coachemup has, you know he always signs out “best regards, coach”. Does anyone know? If you’re out here coach, would you mind telling us, not a specific team or anything like that, just at what level.
banged up is my guess, tough physical game last week, they really handed it to us, I bet a lot of guys are still sore from it, it LOOKED painfull. LOL.
Let me educate you guys….there are 3 new Defensive Lineman that are going to have to get considerable playing time because of injuries to the Defensive line in Pittsburgh, a potential tear in the steel curtain. Nick Eason, Chris Hoke, and Ziggy Hood will be getting a lot of reps to fill in Aaron Smith and Travis Kirschke. I believe that in order to attack the Steelers with the running game, our chance is to take advantage of the inexperience of these players. Ronald Clark will also be out. All that said, if we can run the ball against this now inexperienced Defensive Line, it will open up the play-action where we can take advantage of Ronald Clark not being in to protect the long ball downfield. This is my little tid-bit as to how the Broncos will be successful next week.
Go Broncos!
Consider me educated now, thanks. LOL. However, like McD said in one of his press conference, their back ups are basically as good as their starters, they are the Champs and they are very deep. Not my education tidbit, McD’s.
Also, looking at the Steelers schedule, they have struggled on the road, and also struggled against the Lions giving up over 100 yards on the ground. I feel good about the Broncos chances on Monday!
That’s what I was thinking baylinor. It could be effective against the Steelers. They substitute packages on D as well. I’m not crazy about it either, but from what I read at NFL.com, they’re a little thin in the their D line. They lost a starter for the season and his backup now gimpy. They just signed another D-line player. On our D, I believe we’ll be able to get pressure on Big Ben, although they have a great O line. He’s tough to bring down, but he’s not the most mobile QB.
anyone know who got cut to make room for Law?
I missed shutout’s post… He has all the names… Eason was with us at one point, wasn’t he?
Okay, we have had trouble getting the offense going in the 1st half all year. I think they really need to get off to a fast start for this game. It would be nice to see some no huddle offense going early to help accomplish this IMO. It also prevents the defense from making those substitutions to get the match ups they want.
rbf1, good memory, we drafted Eason in 2003 but he never really played in any games and was released the following year.
About Hillis listed as DNP this week, he might of had the flu, McD refer to a few guys having had to go to the doctor this week for the bug, as he called it.
rolinwitnolan, is this just about right for you, no? Ok, a little more then. LOL.
baylin,
I think the guy was shooting for you to shut up! lol! His words not mine.