Steelers’ Moore proving more and more valuable
Posted by rsanrel on October 9th, 2009
Hall of Fame linebacker Jack Ham telephoned yesterday on another matter. Eventually, the conversation turned to his old team. Who doesn’t sit up and listen when one of the NFL’s all-time greats talks about the Steelers? Without prompting, Ham brought up “that little No. 21.” He gushed about third-down back Mewelde Moore.
“He’s a guy who’s really stood out for me because he’s such a productive player,” Ham said. “When they need plays made out of the backfield, he makes them. He just does all the right things out there.”
Turns out Ham isn’t the only member of the Moore fan club.
It’s a sizable group inside the Steelers’ locker room.
“This guy is a professional,” coach Mike Tomlin said.
“A rare cat,” offensive coordinator Bruce Arians called Moore because of his “unique skill set” — his ability to block blitzing linebackers and beat linebackers, safeties and even the occasional cornerback on pass routes.
“The Chain Mover, we call him,” quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said.
It’s hard to say Moore is the most reliable player on a team that has tight end Heath Miller and defensive end Aaron Smith, whose performances always seem to be somewhere between terrific and extraordinary. But he would be in the top five. Earlier in the season, when some NFL scouts were knocking starting running back Willie Parker for losing a step and backup Rashard Mendenhall for being a No. 1 draft bust, they said Moore is too important on third downs and in the two-minute offense for the Steelers to use him in the featured role even if he might be their best runner.
Want a guy to pick up that blitzer looking to knock Roethlisberger into next week? Moore is your man. “He’s so good at it that I don’t ever have to worry about his guy because I know he’s going to block him,” Roethlisberger said.
Need a man to catch a 9-yard pass on third-and-8? Moore is the guy, at least when wide receiver Hines Ward and Miller are covered. Five of his 11 catches this season have gone for first downs, including the third-and-4 play he turned into a 19-yard touchdown against the San Diego Chargers Sunday night by bowling over safeties Eric Weddle and Steve Gregory. Seventeen of his 40 catches last season produced first downs. “He just understands the passing game so well,” said Ham, who isn’t too old to remember how difficult it was for him, as an outside linebacker, to cover that kind of back. “He doesn’t just flare out to the side. He understands how to get open, and he’s got good body control and good hands to go with it. A lot of running backs don’t have all that.”
Click here to read the full article – By Ron Cook of Post-gazette.com
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