FanHouse Daniel Sepulveda

Halfway through the NFL season opener, the Titans and Steelers are tied 7-7, which sounds just about right considering how stout these two defenses are. Here's some observations from the first half.

If you ask a knowledgeable Steelers fan why the 2009 team could be better than the 2008 Super Bowl champs, the best answer is that the special teams could go from being one of the league's worst to one of the league's best. One half into the season, that's coming true. Stefan Logan looked solid returning kicks. The Steelers' field goal defense blocked a field goal (thanks to a nice push by Aaron Smith) and punter Daniel Sepulveda, back after missing 2008 with a blown knee, averaged 43 yards per punt on four punts, but more importantly he put two punts inside the 20, including one that was downed at the two.

Once upon a time, the Titans and the Steelers were division rivals. And they hated each other in a respectful kind of way. It actually goes back to the 1970s, when Earl Campbell and company met up with Jack Lambert and all for three physical games in 1978 and 1979. The Raiders and the Steelers tried to intentionally injure each other for sport; the Oilers and Steelers injured each other unintentionally through hard hits. If not for the Steelers, the Oilers would have made two Super Bowl appearances. For what it's worth, those Steelers admit that the Oilers were their toughest competitor.

If you're a Steeler fan, you've seen it all too often. Pittsburgh's drive stalls, the punter trots out and blips a low line drive that puts the defense in a tough spot.

The Steelers have two Super Bowl trophies in the past four years, but they've managed to do it despite having some of the worst punters in the league. On Thursday night, we saw why that should change this year. When third-year pro Daniel Sepulveda (or Robo-Punter as Football Outsiders and FanHouse's Ryan Wilson have proclaimed) showed up to training camp this year, he said that his reconstructed right knee feels better than it has in years. He proved it last night.

It's the preseason, but you always want to see your team win. So tonight was a good night for Steelers fans, even if it was the third-team Steelers beating the third-team Cardinals 20-10.

But since it was the preseason, individual efforts were much more important than the final score.

In the first game at least, there was more good than bad for Pittsburgh.

If you thought the Steelers special teams were bad last year, just wait until this year.

Punter Daniel Sepulveda, the team's fourth-round pick in 2008, tore the ACL in his plant leg on one of the first days of camp and will miss the entire season. Although he tailed off a little at the end, Sepulveda did average 42.4 yards per punt gross and 37.9 net, with a knack for putting punts inside the 20-yard line.

This is the second time that Sepulveda has blown out the same knee, which has to be some cause of concern. It will also bring on more criticism from those who think the Steelers shouldn't have drafted a punter so early (Pittsburgh traded a fourth and sixth-round pick to move up to get Sepulveda). Of course, considering the Steelers bad luck in drafting fourth rounders in recent years, they're haven't been a whole lot of better picks to compare to him.

If there's a bright spot, it's better to lose a punter now when you have time to sort through various punters instead of during the season when you could lose a game or two while looking for a punter who's worth keeping. The Steelers signed Paul Ernster, who punted last year for Denver and Cleveland, averaging only 36.0 yard gross and 35.6 yards net in limited action. Ernster's stats were better the year before when punting in the kicker's heaven that is Denver, but overall he's what you would expect to find sitting on the waiver wire. He'll get the first chance, but expect Pittsburgh to keep an eye on which punters hit the waiver wire in the next month, because right now, Pittsburgh can add poor punting to poor coverage teams as a cause for concern.

A lot's changed under new head coach Mike Tomlin: the yelling, screaming, spitting, all gone; veteran linebacker Joey Porter, released; and offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt is now in Arizona.

But one thing is the same as it's always been: dreadful special teams. Steelers former special teams coach Kevin Spencer was the scapegoat this off-season, and the new guy, Bob Ligashesky, was supposed to fix everything with his gadgets, drills, and hours of training camp devoted just to "teams."

Seventeen weeks later, it's the same 'ol, same 'ol. Pittsburgh is one of the worst coverage teams in the league, and save kicker Jeff Reed (and maybe rookie punter Daniel Sepulveda) there's not much to be excited about.

Which is why this off-season, the Steelers should make a legitimate effort to sign every available Bills special teamer. For the last few seasons, Buffalo has been a top-5 unit in every phase: field goals, punts, coverage and returns -- special teams coach Bobby April has done a splendid job of preparing his guys.

Despite Post-Gazette beat writer Ed Bouchette's unhappiness with the decision to draft a punter, the Steelers' decision to spend a fourth-round pick on punter Daniel Sepulveda is paying off outstandingly well.

Sepulveda has already stuck 24 punts inside the 20 yard line, more than twice as many as Chris Gardocki had in 2006 and is already as many as Gardocki had in any of his three seasons in Pittsburgh. In fact, Sepulveda is only a little bit off of the pace to break the Steelers' modern record of 35 punts downed inside the 20, set by Mark Royals in 1994 (as noted by Jim Wexell).

Sepulveda's new average of 37.5 yards per punt is also within striking distance of the Steelers record for net punting average of 39.2 yards, set by Gardocki in 2004.

But the most encouraging fact about these numbers is the realization that punters often make a pretty significant improvements as they gain NFL experience. It may not seem logical--punting is one aspect of the game that stays generally the same whether you're punting in high school or the NFL--but if you look at the league's best punters, they does seem to be at least anecdotal evidence that they show some significant improvement.

Punters are often overlooked as necessities, but not "real football players" or some such silliness. It's all fun and games until the special teams costs you a game. Then, not so much. That's why Andy Lee and Mike Scifres are so well regarded -- and appreciated -- by their teams.

Anyway, in an effort to beef up its special teams, the Steelers used a fourth-round pick on Daniel Sepulveda. Not a very well received move in some parts of the Pittsburgh media; in fact, one writer suggested the team would've been better off with Mike Barr, the free agent that was annually invited to Steelers training camp only to lose the job to whoever the competition was.

Like clockwork, Barr lost out to Sepulveda, was released, but did land a job with the Cardinals. That lasted 11 games until Arizona sent him packing earlier this week. The reason? He was awful, of course. And even without looking at the stats, the fact that the Cards invited Mitch Berger, Tom Rouen and Chris Gardocki to compete for the job is reason enough to think that Barr wasn't faring very well. (For the three of you who care, Berger won the job. Season saved in the desert.)

And for anybody else who thinks punters aren't important, here's what Dr. Z had to say following the Steelers-Dolphins Monday night game:

Every NFL team has now played eight games, meaning the season has reached the halfway point. So this week we're presenting our NFL FanHouse Midseason Midtacular.

Rookie of the Half-Season nominees:

Adrian Peterson, RB, Vikings
Minnesota took Peterson with the seventh-overall pick in April, and that's starting to look like a Tom Brady-in-the-sixth-round type steal. Through eight games, Peterson has 1,036 yards on 158 carries, good for a eye-popping 6.6 average. But it gets better: Peterson has only started five games, has five times rushed for more than 100 yards, and twice rushed for more than 200 yards (including last week's 296-yard effort against the Chargers).

Marshawn Lynch, RB, Bills
Buffalo was in the market for a franchise running back after sending that fraud Willis McGahee to the Ravens for draft picks. In hindsight, Marv Levy comes off smelling like roses on that deal. Lynch has been the starter from Week 1, rushing for 690 yards on 117 carries (3.9 average), including five touchdowns. He also threw a touchdown against the Bengals, but I don't know if that's more sad than impressive. Lynch would likely lead the Rookie of the Year voting if not for Purple Jesus up above.
Sorry, No Photos

CBSSports.com's Pete Prisco obviously has no idea what special teams is all about. I suspect the former Jags beat writer is focused more on Jacksonville's 2007 fourth-round pick, Adam Podlesh, but to make the blanket statement that using a draft-pick on a punter is a waste is, well, dumb. Especially when he includes Pittsburgh's rookie fourth-rounder, Daniel Sepulveda in the conversation:

Those two punters are near the bottom of the league rankings after two weeks. Adam Podlesh ... is averaging 38.3 per punt to place him 24th in the league. Daniel Sepulveda is averaging 37.7 yards per punt for the Steelers, placing him 28th, but he has five of his seven punts downed inside the 20, which isn't bad.

First, according to NFL.com, it's worse than Prisco writes -- Podlesh ranks 31st in average yards per punt, and Sepulveda ranks 32nd. But here's the thing: Sepulveda's net average is ... 37.7. You don't need to be Norman Einstein to know that that means he's yet to have a punt returned (seven punts, six downed, one fair-caught).

Also, of his five punts inside the 20, there have been zero touchbacks. Compare that to Chris "I've NEVER had a punt blocked!!" Gardocki, who had punted 11 times inside the 20 last season, and had four touchbacks.

Prisco's not impressed by fancy numbers, though: "So why draft punters high? You can find them without wasting draft picks on them." Ah, yes, because Pittsburgh has had so much success with their second-day picks in recent drafts. It's a completely insane idea to take a player who not only will make the team, but will start. Stupid, stupid Steelers.