Steelers-Titans: 15 things to know about Week 11's MNF game

On the surface, there isn’t a lot of appeal attached to Monday night’s matchup between the Steelers and Titans. Neither team has finished above .500 since 2011, the Steelers are coming off a loss to the lowly Jets and the Titans have dropped three straight (seven of eight) dating back to Week 2.

But not too long ago, these were two of the best in football. Only two teams -- the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts -- won more games than Pittsburgh between 2000 and 2010, and Tennessee made three solid playoff runs in a five-year span between 1999 and 2003.

Of course, Pittsburgh was dominant for much longer and had a lot more success overall, winning two Super Bowls and appearing in a third. But it’s easy to forget just how good both were in the previous decade.

That doesn’t carry a lot of weight right now, but there are some interesting connections between two teams that will carry over into their Week 11 matchup.

• Tennessee’s head coach, Ken Whisenhunt, was Pittsburgh’s offensive coordinator during his first three seasons in the NFL.
• Tennessee’s defensive coordinator, Ray Horton, ran the Pittsburgh secondary for seven seasons between 2004 and 2010.
• Three more Titans coaches -- Nick Eason, Lou Spanos and Mike Mularkey -- either played or coached in Pittsburgh.
• Two Titans players -- wide receiver Nate Washington and defensive tackle Al Woods -- played for the Steelers.
• Pittsburgh’s offensive line coach, Mike Munchak, was Tennessee’s head coach from 2011 to 2013.

Sentimentally, the Steelers probably mean more to the Titans than vice versa. Tennessee’s last home playoff victory came over the Pittsburgh in a dramatic 34-31 overtime decision back in 2002.

From that point forward, the two franchises went in very different directions. But now they’re both struggling to find important ingredients, with the Steelers lacking consistency and the Titans in search of an identity.

Let's elaborate while breaking down the matchup in both serious and non-serious fashion. Fifteen things to know:

1. Will the real Pittsburgh Steelers please stand up?

No team has been as high and as low as the Steelers this season.

The Steelers have crushed the Ravens and Colts, who are a combined 12-7. Yet they’ve fallen to the Buccaneers and Jets, who are a combined 3-16.

In other words, those teams are 2-0 against the Steelers and 1-15 against the rest of the league.

And dating back to 2012, the Steelers are just 8-10 against teams with losing records. That year, they fell to the 1-4 Titans, the 2-8 Browns and the 4-8 Chargers. And in 2013, they lost to the 0-3 Vikings and the 2-4 Raiders.

Among the 16 teams that have winning records since the start of 2012, Pittsburgh has by far the worst record against teams that finished their respective seasons with losing records:

“You're holding your hands like how? Why?” said guard Ramon Foster of the team’s habit of sleeping on bad opponents, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “Honestly, I have no answer for how it unfolded. I'm still speechless about it myself.”

What’s most concerning about their Week 10 loss to the Jets is that it came directly after an impressive 20-point victory over the rival Ravens -- their third straight win. And that loss to the Bucs in Week 3 came after a blowout victory over the Carolina Panthers.

They often bounce back, even against quality opponents, but this relates strongly to this matchup, of course, because the Titans, at 2-7, are not a quality opponent. That doesn’t bode particularly well for Pittsburgh.

The reaction from Whisenhunt:

2. Nation, meet the Titans. Titans, meet the nation.

#sundayselfie @wyman pic.twitter.com/uYJMPKjMry

— Zach Mettenberger (@mettshow) October 26, 2014

When pondering this matchup throughout the week, it occurred to me that the thing the majority of us know most about the Titans is the fact the majority of us know nothing about the Titans.

Not surprising. Nashville isn’t exactly a top-flight media market, the Titans haven’t won a playoff game since 2003 and they’ve played just 13 nationally televised prime-time games since 2005. Only St. Louis, Buffalo, Detroit and Tampa Bay have been in the spotlight less, but the Lions deserve an asterisk for the nine Thanksgiving games they’ve participated in during that span.

So, let’s introduce you to a team that has played on Monday Night Football just once in the last four years.

• Their quarterback is a dude named Zach Mettenberger who was passed on 177 times in the 2014 NFL Draft. The LSU product made his first career start three weeks ago, replacing struggling 2011 first-round pick Jake Locker.
• Mettenberger likes to take selfies.
• They’re young on offense. Mettenberger is 23, their top two receivers -- Kendall Wright and Justin Hunter -- are 25 and 23, respectively, emerging top back Bishop Sankey is 22 and left tackle Taylor Lewan is 23.
• The defense, however, is a mixed bag, with old men Kamerion Wimbley, George Wilson, Michael Griffin, Bernard Pollard, Shaun Phillips and Sammie Lee Hill joined by youngsters Casey, Derrick Morgan and Avery Williamson.
• They’ve had three different head coaches -- Jeff Fisher, Munchak and Whisenhunt -- since 2010.
• Whisenhunt coached the Cardinals for seven seasons, posting a shabby record of 45-51 but winning four playoff games. He and the Cards lost Super Bowl XLIII to the Steelers. Last year, after being relieved of his duties in Arizona, he ran San Diego’s offense.
• Sadly, if you go by grades from Pro Football Focus, the best player on their team this year has been punter Brett Kern. Defensive end Jurrell Casey has been their best defensive player and tight end Delanie Walker has been their top offensive player, but Walker might have to miss Monday’s game due to a concussion.
• They haven’t had a first-team Associated Press All-Pro since Chris Johnson ran for 2,006 yards back in 2009, but Casey was a second-team All-Pro in 2013.
• They’re one of eight teams that haven’t been to the playoffs in the last five years and nine that haven’t won a playoff game in 10.
• They’re one of only three teams with five losses of 14 points or more this season, joined by the Jaguars and Panthers. Three of those five losses came in consecutive weeks in September.

3. Uneven battle of the 'Bergers

There are a combined 26 letters in the names of Ben Roethlisberger and Zach Mettenberger, meaning that on Monday night -- and I’m being serious here -- we’ll set a new NFL record for longest last-name quarterback matchup in NFL history.

Of course, the names are pretty similar, which is nothing more than a funny coincidence. The comparisons generally should stop there, since Roethlisberger has started more Super Bowl games than Mettenberger has regular-season games.

However, the two do share some similarities.

They’re both big dudes (both 6-5 and between 235 and 245 pounds) with bigger arms, and they both have tremendous pocket presence. Like any rookie, Mettenberger can become a better decision-maker in the pocket, but he and Roethlisberger have both taken exactly 2.44 seconds to attempt passes this year, according to Pro Football Focus. That mark ranks in the top 10 among qualifying quarterbacks.

Oh, and they both wear No. 7.

The difference, of course, is that Big Ben’s résumé is much thicker. The 32-year-old has got two championships, 239 touchdown passes and 101 victories on his 23-year-old counterpart, who is still seeking the first win of his NFL career.

You get the point.

But Roethlisberger has a significant edge right now as well. He set an NFL record earlier this month with 12 touchdown passes in two games and is on pace to set new career highs in terms of completion percentage, touchdown passes and passer rating. In his 11th year, he ranks in the top four in the NFL in all three of those categories.

It helps that Roethlisberger has the league’s leading receiver in Antonio Brown, as well as reliable tight end Heath Miller and young offensive weapons Le’Veon Bell, Martavis Bryant and Markus Wheaton. His offensive line isn’t star-studded, but PFF ranks it sixth in the league when it comes to pass-blocking efficiency.

Mettenberger, on the other hand, is throwing to the less impressive receiving trio of Kendall Wright, Justin Hunter and Nate Washington. Hunter and Washington have a ridiculous 11 combined dropped passes and Hunter ranks near the bottom of the league with a reception rate of just 42.9 percent. Having given up nine more pressures than Pittsburgh (despite running 84 fewer passing plays), Tennessee's line ranks 22nd in the league in terms of pass-blocking efficiency. And the defense, with just 11 takeaways -- and zero since Mettenberger became the starter three weeks ago -- isn’t helping out.

And then there’s this: Since Dick LeBeau started his second stint as Pittsburgh’s defensive coordinator in 2004, only two of 18 rookie quarterbacks -- Troy Smith in 2007 and Brandon Weeden in 2012 -- have defeated the Steelers. Those two, and their 16 losing peers, had an average completion percentage of just 54.9 and a passer rating of just 64.2.

Even though LeBeau’s defense isn’t as strong as it’s been in years past and is dealing with injuries to key cogs Ryan Shazier and Troy Polamalu, that defense still managed to pressure Jets quarterback Michael Vick on 50 percent of his dropbacks last Sunday and has 10 sacks in its last three games.

Look for LeBeau to use a wide array of coverages and disguises in order to make Mettenberger’s life difficult Monday night.

4. Antonio Brown: The NFL’s newest All-Pro receiver

Brown’s had at least 70 receiving yards in all 10 Steelers games this year. If he can hit that mark five more times during the final seven weeks of the season, he’ll have an NFL record. He and Reggie Wayne are the only players in NFL history to have 70 or more yards in each of their teams’ first 10 games of the season.

Brown also has 11 catches of 25 yards or more, which is the second-highest total in the NFL. And as I mentioned earlier, he leads the league in receiving broadly.

He has 79 catches; no other receiver has more than 66. He has 1,070 yards; only one other receiver has more than 1,000. And among wide receivers, only Randall Cobb (9) trumps his total of eight.

It’s been a lot of this:

The Titans should hang in against Brown, though. Not only is their pass defense ranked 11th in the league, but they’re one of only six teams that have given up fewer than 13 completions of 25 yards or more this season. And top cornerback Jason McCourty has done a pretty good job against No. 1 receivers this season.

McCourty held Steve Smith to two catches for 17 yards on four targets and Andre Johnson to three catches for 25 yards on seven targets. He also held T.Y. Hilton, A.J. Green and Dez Bryant to fewer than 70 yards apiece. And against nine No. 1 receivers, he’s yet to surrender a touchdown. In fact, he hasn’t given up a single score this season on 315 cover snaps.

So Brown will have his hands full, but the good news for the Steelers is that Tennessee’s No. 2 corner, Blidi Wreh-Wilson, has surrendered five touchdowns in eight games and is graded by PFF as the second-worst qualifying corner in the NFL.

It’s been a lot of this:

And this:

So Wheaton and Bryant could have to step it up.

5. Dude you don’t know but you should know: Avery Williamson

The Titans are relying very heavily on their 2014 draft class right out of the gate. Five of the six players they drafted in May are already starting or playing key roles.

But it might be that fifth-rounder who has the brightest future, at least based on the small sample size we have to work with right now. Williamson, who took over as a starter next to Wesley Woodyard in Week 5, doesn’t have gaudy numbers, but the Kentucky product has improved steadily and is really beginning to stand out on tape.

Here he is snuffing out a bubble screen to Steve Smith at the line of scrimmage:

Here he is showing off instincts beyond his age in a stop for a loss against Houston:

And again against Alfred Blue:

One more extremely impressive stop in the backfield, this time against Jacksonville:

And here he is applying pressure to Joe Flacco to force a poor throw on a delayed blitz:

Similar play, this time a sack on Ryan Fitzpatrick:

The kid anticipates where plays are going and has a superb ability to track backs and receivers down quickly. He’s also been strong in coverage and has a pair of fumble recoveries in the last three weeks.

He missed three tackles back in Week 5 but hasn’t missed one since. And according to PFF, he has more “stops” the last two weeks than any other inside linebacker in football. (A “stop” is defined by PFF as “a solo defensive tackle which constitutes an offensive failure.”)

"I want every team to know that Avery Williamson is a legit linebacker -- that is my goal until the end of the season,” said Williamson last week, per The Tennessean. “I want every NFL team to know who I am, no matter what the circumstances are."

A big performance on Monday Night Football would help his cause in a major way.

6. Where’d Le’Veon Bell go?

Bell ranks third in the NFL with 747 rushing yards and is averaging a solid 4.6 yards per attempt, but the second-year Michigan State product has failed to reach 40 yards the last two weeks and hasn’t averaged four yards a carry since Week 7.

Notice that the Steelers were ganging up on the ground against some bad run defenses during the first seven weeks. The best run defense they faced during that stretch -- the Buccaneers in Week 4 -- ranked 18th against the run. Their last three opponents -- the Colts, Ravens and Jets -- all rank in the top 10.

But there has to be more to it than that. You have to wonder if Bell has hit a wall, and it did sometimes feel as though that offensive line was overachieving.

Of course, this could also have something to do with a lack of variety from offensive coordinator Todd Haley.

A fan on Reddit recently griped that the Steelers were simply rushing up the middle far too often, with a lack of stretch plays an off-tackle runs. And that man or woman may have had a point, because the Steelers have run between the tackles a ridiculous 74 percent of the time this season, according to Football Outsiders.

So maybe defenses are wising up.

It just so happens that Football Outsiders has also found that the Titans defense has been the league’s worst when it comes to stopping runs behind the left tackle, while they’ve performed decently against runs up the middle. So it might be time for Pittsburgh to mix it up on the ground Monday night.

7. Can Bishop bail the Titans out?

The Titans running game has also struggled of late, with veteran back Shonn Greene falling off after a strong start and rookie second-round pick Bishop Sankey still trying to break out. Sankey is averaging just 3.9 yards per carry but has shown signs of promise with four consecutive games with 60-plus yards from scrimmage.

On a Titans team with few standout players, that’s enough to gain some major attention ahead of a prime-time game. That explains how Sankey somehow wound up starring next to Ben Roethlisberger in a TV advertisement for the game.

Surprising choice of marquee player for #Titans in ad for next week's MNF. pic.twitter.com/T9JIFEDEWi

— Paul Kuharsky (@PaulKuharskyNFL) November 11, 2014

"I was just a little surprised by it, I had family and everybody telling me," he said of the ad last week, per ESPN.com. "That kind of caught me off guard, that's kind of cool it was up there. I feel like I haven't really done anything spectacular yet to be on a Monday Night Football promo. But now that it's up there, it is pretty cool, I guess."

With Greene losing traction, the Washington product will make his third career start Monday night, and he does have a chance to experience a breakout game against a depleted Steelers team that has given up 4.4 yards per carry this season.

8. James Harrison: Fine football wine

The 36-year-old linebacker supposedly peaked in 2008, when had a career-high 16 sacks and was the defensive player of the year. He was an All-Pro again in 2010 while helping Pittsburgh make a Super Bowl run, but he certainly appeared to be declining after that, with his sack total dropping from 10.5 in 2010 to nine in 2011 to six in 2012.

With the Bengals last year, he had just two sacks in 15 games. That was supposed to be the end, so nobody was surprised when he retired this past summer.

But not only did the five-time Pro Bowler make a sudden return in late-September, but he’s excelled in a part-time role. The man has four sacks on only 228 snaps and is ranked by Pro Football Focus as the second most productive pass-rushing 3-4 outside linebacker in the NFL.

This does not look like a 36-year-old human being:

Nor does this:

Monday night against a shaky offensive line, keep an eye on old man Harrison.

9. Fine, I apologize for Bieber

Actual headline I spotted this week: Big Ben: Don't blame Justin Bieber.

That was spurred by the fact the Steelers were defeated and outplayed by a mediocre-at-best Jets team in Week 10, only hours after the pop star spent time with the team during its weekly worship service.

Didn't know he was a steelers fan, but welcome to steelernation @justinbieber pic.twitter.com/5Fktaq329D

— Cam Heyward (@CamHeyward) November 9, 2014

The whole thing was random and innocuous, but because Bieber is Bieber, it made headlines. And an NFL quarterback was forced to clarify that a 20-year-old heartthrob had nothing to do with his team’s shoddy performance.

But because it’s easier to pin all of life’s problems on the Biebs, he’s now an unofficial NFL curse. And for that, I’d like to apologize to Steelers fans worldwide on behalf of my and Bieber’s home country of Canada.

But no, we’re still not willing to take him back.

10. Advanced stat of the week

This is more of a disturbing advanced statistical trend highlighted by ESPN.com’s Paul Kuharsky. In terms of Pro Football Focus grades, 13 Titans rank in the bottom 75 percent at their respective positions.

Of particular note, Kamerion Wimbley ranks dead last among 46 qualifying outside linebackers, Blidi Wreh-Wilson 105th among 106 qualifying corners and right tackle Michael Oher ranks 71st among 75 qualifying offensive tackles.

Meanwhile, only six Titans rank in the top 25 percent, and nobody except Walker ranks in the top 10. That might help to explain why they’re 2-7.

11. Under-the-radar stat(s) of the week

•Pittsburgh entered Week 11 having been penalized a league-high 83 times, but they’ve played one more game than almost everyone else, Tennessee included. On a per-game basis, the Titans are right there (Pittsburgh 8.3, Tennessee 8.0), and Tennessee has actually been penalized for more yards per game. The point is, both teams are flagged often.

•Tennessee’s offense ranks dead last in the NFL on third down with a conversion rate of just 29 percent. Nobody else is lower than 30 percent and only the Cleveland Browns (33.3) are under the 35 percent clip.

12. Injuries to watch

Defensive starters Ryan Shazier (ankle), Troy Polamalu (knee) and Ike Taylor (arm) remain out for the Steelers, while nose tackle Steve McLendon (shoulder) has also been ruled out. That means rookies Stephon Tuitt and Daniel McCullers will likely play larger roles.

It’s a mess, but the Titans could have trouble taking full advantage without their best offensive player. Walker (concussion) was able to return to practice on a limited basis Saturday but is questionable and has to be cleared by an independent neurologist before even considering suiting up against the Steelers. No other tight end on the roster has more than three receptions on the season.

Titans punt returner and No. 4 receiver Dexter McCluster is also questionable with a knee injury.

13. Totally useless but sometimes fascinating historical notes

Some indisputable facts, most or all of which will have no impact on Monday's game:

• These teams have met each other in each of the last five years, with Tennessee winning the last two meetings. The Titans beat the Steelers 16-9 in last year’s opener and 26-23 in the previous October.
• Roethlisberger has never won in Nashville, going 0-2. When the Steelers beat the Titans on the road in 2010, Charlie Batch started in place of the suspended Big Ben.
• Dating back to 2008, the Titans have won four straight Monday Night Football games. They gave up 21 or fewer points in all four games and scored 30 or more in two of them.
• The Steelers are 3-0 in prime time this season, having defeated the Ravens and Panthers on Sunday nights and the Texans on a Monday night. But they’ve lost six of their last eight prime-time road games, dating back to 2011.
• The Steelers lead the all-time series 41-31.

14. But which city is cooler?

In case your team loses, let’s give you a chance to say you live in the cooler metropolis. Just drop this on your football frenemies:

This is, admittedly, completely subjective. Feel free to move on to No. 15.

15. Prediction: Another prime-time blowout?

The average margin of victory in prime-time games this year has been 17.9. Entering the weekend, there had been seven prime-time games in the month of November, and all seven were decided by at least 13 points. Three of the most lopsided decisions this season have taken place on national television.

In fact, only two of the 14 prime-time games contested in the last month have been decided by fewer than 10 points. The good news, for those hoping for an entertaining contest Monday night, is that both of those affairs took place on MNF. But Pittsburgh is a six-point favorite here and the Titans have been blown out five times already this season, so don’t be surprised if the steadier, more experienced Steelers run away with this game.

Brad Gagnon has covered the NFL since 2007. You can also read his work at Bleacher Report, Awful Announcing and This Given Sunday. In order to sound more professional, he wrote this blurb in the third person. Follow him on Twitter. Or don’t. It’s entirely your choice.