Physical Steelers knock Geno Smith off his game

By Steve Serby
http://nypost.com/sports/
October 13, 2013

Steelers defensive end Ziggy Hood sacks Jets quarterback Geno Smith in the fourth quarter

.Photo: Anthony Causi

The Jets will not be for real as long as their rookie pilot encounters severe turbulence on Any Unforgiving Sunday. Geno Smith flew into a perfect storm and came back down to earth, crashing into an ornery Steel Curtain.

There are plenty of reasons why Smith and the Jets, 19-6 losers, no longer find themselves on Cloud 9:

*The desperate Steelers (1-4) were the hungrier, tougher team;

*Marty Mornhinweg’s conservative game plan tried too hard early and often to protect Smith from himself;

*Antonio Cromartie had fits trying to cover Antonio Brown and Emmanuel Sanders;

*Ben Roethlisberger (113.8 QB rating) was his old resourceful self.

* But the Hall of Fame defensive coordinator of the Steelers — the best defensive coordinator at MetLife Stadium on Sunday — tormenting the rookie pilot of the Jets (3-3) from his air traffic control tower was the biggest reason.

It is safe to conclude Dick LeBeau coordinated his defense better than Rex Ryan and Dennis Thurman coordinated theirs.

You give LeBeau — 16-2 against rookie quarterbacks — two weeks to prepare for one coming off a Monday nighter, and more often than not, you get what you got.

You got Lawrence Timmons looking like Greg Lloyd, you got LaMarr Woodley looking like Kevin Greene, you got Jarvis Jones looking like Joey Porter, you got Jason Worilds looking like James Harrison.

Curtains for Geno (2 INTs, 48.8 QB rating).

Timmons was asked how the Steelers approached going up against the rookie quarterback.

“Definitely make him uncomfortable,” Timmons said.

Did you sense he was rattled toward the end?

“Yeah, of course, like when the outside linebackers — we had like Lamarr, and Worilds and Jarvis started getting hits on him, you could really tell,” Timmons said. “He was throwing the ball a different way.”

How so?

“I mean, you get hit, like you don’t throw the ball the same,” Timmons said. “You don’t follow through as much.”

LeBeau made Smith take what he gave him. He didn’t give him much, and nothing downfield.

Case in point: Smith’s throw for Konrad Reuland into triple coverage that was intercepted by Ryan Clark at the Pittsburgh 1 midway through the third quarter.

“We all realized that when they went to a certain formation, they ran vertical routes,” Clark said. “[Cornerback] William Gay was screaming out ‘Verticals,’ did a good job of making his man run around him. I tried to play tight on [Jeff Cumberland] knowing Geno would go outside and it floated enough to where I had an opportunity to catch it.”

Smith: “I wish I could take back the throw. It was an attempted throwaway and the guy I least expected to even get over there and make the play got over there.”

It was the first Steelers takeaway of the season. And remember, Smith isn’t throwing to Maynard and Sauer either. Or Winslow.

“We were trying to get jams on their wide receivers in the slots, and that was huge, too,” Timmons said.

Throw their timing off?

“Exactly,” Timmons said.

Clark should have had a second pick in the fourth quarter, except the ball hit him in his face. No matter. Timmons intercepted Smith, nearly decapitated by Jones, with three minutes left at the Pittsburgh 3.

“Yeah, I got hit,” Smith said, “but even in that situation, just find a way to maybe throw it in the ground or not throw an interception.”

Broadway Joe Namath, clad in a green Ring of Honor jacket, gushed about LeBeau’s impact on the game.

“I saw a couple of errant decisions or errant throws, decisions, whatever,” Namath said. “You wonder what the guy sees. You got to ask him what he saw.”

He saw a Steel Curtain.

“He’s improving,” Namath said. “Again, of course today, I don’t know, he had some good plays and he had some bad plays.”

Fasten your seat belts.

“I think Geno’s going to be an extremely good player,” Clark said. “Whenever you get a quarterback behind, and he has to make some throws and he has to throw the ball down the middle of the field, hold the ball and wait for plays to develop, you’re going to give the other team opportunity to get turnovers. Coach LeBeau made some extremely good timely rush calls, and it worked out well for us,.

“I think Geno’s going to be a guy who’s going to win a lot of games for the New York Jets. He’s a big reason why they won three games this year.”

And a big reason why they’ve lost three games this year.