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By Nick Wagoner/Senior Writer
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Running back Steven Jackson is the longest tenured player on the Rams roster as he closes in on completing his eighth season with the team.
In that time, Jackson has done and seen just about everything the NFL has to offer. But on Saturday at Heinz Field, Jackson will get to do something he’s never done: play a game against the Steelers in Pittsburgh.
Adding to the novelty of playing in the last remaining city he has yet to visit as a player, Jackson is excited about the chance to play one of the league’s historically successful franchises on its turf.
“I’m actually very excited about playing in the stadium,” Jackson said. “This team historically is one of the elite, year in and year out. They seem to always put a team together that’s playoff worthy, so I’m looking forward to the challenge and playing in a special stadium and hopefully leave out of there with a good performance and a win.”
Leaving Pittsburgh with a win on Christmas Eve will be easier said than done as it’s quite rare for any team to beat the Steelers when they have homefield advantage.
Matching up with the Steelers is a tall order for any team at any time as they carry a 10-4 record and still harbor hopes of a No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs. The Rams, meanwhile, sit at 2-12 on the year and are playing for pride and the opportunity to step into a bit of a spoiler role.
“Regardless of what and where we rank and where they rank, I think as competitors and men of competitive spirits, we want to go out there and win the game regardless of if they were No. 1 or No. 31,” Jackson said. “The goal is to put together a game plan to win us a game. As an offense and as the leader on the team, we want to go there and put up a performance that maybe not a lot of people are expecting from us, but once again I think we’re able to rise to the occasion.”
Rising to the occasion would probably require the Rams’ best performance of the season, though Pittsburgh does have a few injury issues of its own that could alter the way it performs Saturday.
The hallmark of any Steelers team in the past decade-plus is a defense built by defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau that regularly sits among the game’s elite.
LeBeau is the godfather of the zone blitz and his 3-4 defense employs blitzes and coverages from all angles. Needless to say, getting into third and long situations is a serious no-no with LeBeau and his talented group on the other side.
“One, I think they’re one of, if not the finest coached team in pro football,” Rams offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels said. “Coach LeBeau I’ve had a chance to coach against him a number of times, (Head) Coach (Mike) Tomlin, their entire staff does a great job of putting together their plan. They’ve been doing this for a long time. The scheme really hasn’t changed, the players fit it perfectly.”
As with any good system, it wouldn’t work without good players. Pittsburgh has plenty of those at every level of the defense be it nose tackle Casey Hampton up front, outside pass rushers James Harrison and LaMarr Woodley at linebacker or safeties Troy Polamalu and Ryan Clark on the back end.
Pittsburgh is the top-ranked defense in the league, allowing just 276.9 yards and 15.6 points per game.
Finding a weakness in that defense is a fool’s errand which figures to make the task for Rams quarterback Kellen Clemens, an injury depleted offensive line and the rest of the crew a tough one.
“They’re as physical a group as you’re going to play,” McDaniels said. “Troy Polamalu is as good of a secondary player as you’re going to see. And the linebacking corps has always been, I think, one of the top groups in the league and it is again this year. They do a great job of blitzing and putting pressure on the quarterback. And it all starts with stopping the run for them and trying to put people in passing situations. It’s a great challenge. It’ll be exciting for our opportunity to go there and put together a plan that can go out there and give ourselves an opportunity to win.”
While the Pittsburgh defense has long been the staple of the group, the Steelers also boast a dynamic offense with plenty of balance.
Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is fighting a high ankle sprain but Tomlin expects him to play. Roethlisberger played through it against San Francisco last week and he’s made it clear he intends to keep playing on it for as long as he can.
In that game, Roethlisberger threw for 330 yards but also turn the ball over four times. One of his strengths is escaping pressure but with a bad ankle, it might be more difficult for him to make his usual Houdini escape acts.
If Roethlisberger doesn’t play, the Steelers have solid options in the mobile Dennis Dixon and the veteran Charlie Batch.
“Now if they play one of the other guys to try and protect his ankle and let him heal a little bit, they create some different issues,” Rams defensive coordinator Ken Flajole said. “They’re certainly more mobile. They have a little bit more scrambling ability. Ben does a great job of getting away from pressure, but that ankle I’m sure has been a problem for him. You could tell on Monday night that he had a hard time planting off of it right now, so we’ve got to be ready for whomever. I mean, we could get number seven but we could get Batch or Dixon as well.”
Regardless of who is at quarterback, the Steelers will almost certainly look to involve their dynamic speed duo at receiver in Mike Wallace and Antonio Brown. While running back Rashard Mendenhall sets the tone, Pittsburgh has a long history of finding creative ways to get the ball in the hands of its best playmakers with reverses, screens and more.
“Absolutely,” Flajole said. “(We) run a lot more of them in practice. It really tests your rules on who has the reverse. They’re also an excellent bubble screen team too. They find different ways to get the ball in the wide receiver’s hands, which is smart by their offense. Whether it’s screening to them or whether they get the ball to them on reverses, but they do a nice job of making sure that they get the ball.”
When that happens, it falls on the Rams defense to get them tackled and down before they get any momentum down the field.
“The scariest thing about them, and I said this to the football team, is you’ve got to be in a position to tackle them as soon as they catch the football because they turn into some really good runners when they have the ball after the catch,” Spagnuolo said. “One of them, obviously, is a returner and he’s got some shake and bake. And Mike Wallace has got legitimate speed. Those two guys are the guys we’ve got to be concerned about.”
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.stlouisrams.com/news-and-events/article-1/Rams-Set-for-Steelers/2490f0bf-86ca-4c67-83a8-599bb170ee13" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.stlouisrams.com/news-and-eve ... 9bb170ee13</a>
Running back Steven Jackson is the longest tenured player on the Rams roster as he closes in on completing his eighth season with the team.
In that time, Jackson has done and seen just about everything the NFL has to offer. But on Saturday at Heinz Field, Jackson will get to do something he’s never done: play a game against the Steelers in Pittsburgh.
Adding to the novelty of playing in the last remaining city he has yet to visit as a player, Jackson is excited about the chance to play one of the league’s historically successful franchises on its turf.
“I’m actually very excited about playing in the stadium,” Jackson said. “This team historically is one of the elite, year in and year out. They seem to always put a team together that’s playoff worthy, so I’m looking forward to the challenge and playing in a special stadium and hopefully leave out of there with a good performance and a win.”
Leaving Pittsburgh with a win on Christmas Eve will be easier said than done as it’s quite rare for any team to beat the Steelers when they have homefield advantage.
Matching up with the Steelers is a tall order for any team at any time as they carry a 10-4 record and still harbor hopes of a No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs. The Rams, meanwhile, sit at 2-12 on the year and are playing for pride and the opportunity to step into a bit of a spoiler role.
“Regardless of what and where we rank and where they rank, I think as competitors and men of competitive spirits, we want to go out there and win the game regardless of if they were No. 1 or No. 31,” Jackson said. “The goal is to put together a game plan to win us a game. As an offense and as the leader on the team, we want to go there and put up a performance that maybe not a lot of people are expecting from us, but once again I think we’re able to rise to the occasion.”
Rising to the occasion would probably require the Rams’ best performance of the season, though Pittsburgh does have a few injury issues of its own that could alter the way it performs Saturday.
The hallmark of any Steelers team in the past decade-plus is a defense built by defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau that regularly sits among the game’s elite.
LeBeau is the godfather of the zone blitz and his 3-4 defense employs blitzes and coverages from all angles. Needless to say, getting into third and long situations is a serious no-no with LeBeau and his talented group on the other side.
“One, I think they’re one of, if not the finest coached team in pro football,” Rams offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels said. “Coach LeBeau I’ve had a chance to coach against him a number of times, (Head) Coach (Mike) Tomlin, their entire staff does a great job of putting together their plan. They’ve been doing this for a long time. The scheme really hasn’t changed, the players fit it perfectly.”
As with any good system, it wouldn’t work without good players. Pittsburgh has plenty of those at every level of the defense be it nose tackle Casey Hampton up front, outside pass rushers James Harrison and LaMarr Woodley at linebacker or safeties Troy Polamalu and Ryan Clark on the back end.
Pittsburgh is the top-ranked defense in the league, allowing just 276.9 yards and 15.6 points per game.
Finding a weakness in that defense is a fool’s errand which figures to make the task for Rams quarterback Kellen Clemens, an injury depleted offensive line and the rest of the crew a tough one.
“They’re as physical a group as you’re going to play,” McDaniels said. “Troy Polamalu is as good of a secondary player as you’re going to see. And the linebacking corps has always been, I think, one of the top groups in the league and it is again this year. They do a great job of blitzing and putting pressure on the quarterback. And it all starts with stopping the run for them and trying to put people in passing situations. It’s a great challenge. It’ll be exciting for our opportunity to go there and put together a plan that can go out there and give ourselves an opportunity to win.”
While the Pittsburgh defense has long been the staple of the group, the Steelers also boast a dynamic offense with plenty of balance.
Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is fighting a high ankle sprain but Tomlin expects him to play. Roethlisberger played through it against San Francisco last week and he’s made it clear he intends to keep playing on it for as long as he can.
In that game, Roethlisberger threw for 330 yards but also turn the ball over four times. One of his strengths is escaping pressure but with a bad ankle, it might be more difficult for him to make his usual Houdini escape acts.
If Roethlisberger doesn’t play, the Steelers have solid options in the mobile Dennis Dixon and the veteran Charlie Batch.
“Now if they play one of the other guys to try and protect his ankle and let him heal a little bit, they create some different issues,” Rams defensive coordinator Ken Flajole said. “They’re certainly more mobile. They have a little bit more scrambling ability. Ben does a great job of getting away from pressure, but that ankle I’m sure has been a problem for him. You could tell on Monday night that he had a hard time planting off of it right now, so we’ve got to be ready for whomever. I mean, we could get number seven but we could get Batch or Dixon as well.”
Regardless of who is at quarterback, the Steelers will almost certainly look to involve their dynamic speed duo at receiver in Mike Wallace and Antonio Brown. While running back Rashard Mendenhall sets the tone, Pittsburgh has a long history of finding creative ways to get the ball in the hands of its best playmakers with reverses, screens and more.
“Absolutely,” Flajole said. “(We) run a lot more of them in practice. It really tests your rules on who has the reverse. They’re also an excellent bubble screen team too. They find different ways to get the ball in the wide receiver’s hands, which is smart by their offense. Whether it’s screening to them or whether they get the ball to them on reverses, but they do a nice job of making sure that they get the ball.”
When that happens, it falls on the Rams defense to get them tackled and down before they get any momentum down the field.
“The scariest thing about them, and I said this to the football team, is you’ve got to be in a position to tackle them as soon as they catch the football because they turn into some really good runners when they have the ball after the catch,” Spagnuolo said. “One of them, obviously, is a returner and he’s got some shake and bake. And Mike Wallace has got legitimate speed. Those two guys are the guys we’ve got to be concerned about.”