November 11, 2008

Taking Inventory...

Night terrors, here I come...
Ok, so here's the state of the Steelers affairs, as I currently understand it...

Tomlin is only "hopeful" that Ben can PRACTICE this week.

Willie Parker, despite reports of a torn labrum, will hopefully be back in practice tomorrow and in the lineup on Sunday.

The Steelers signed Fernando Bryant to the active roster and Ryan Mundy to the practice squad. Which, as Domski pointed out earlier, is particularly apropos because it appears Deshea Townsend will not play Sunday and McFadden's still out with the forearm injury.

It also "appears" that Heath Miller's going to miss Sunday's game, but The Wood should be back.

And as if the eight interceptions in the last three games aren't embarrassing enough, Steely McBeam is still in existence (see above).

The Steelers are 6-3. So are the Ravens.

So as I'll paraphrase from Matt this morning - Playoffs? Are we talking about playoffs?

Personally, I think the Steelers will be fine. I'm certainly not pleased with the Offensive inconsistency and predictability. But when it comes right down to it, I have faith in Tomlin, Big Ben, Hines and the rest of the squad to go strong down the stretch run even with all of the injuries.

Besides, the Defense is playing out of its mind. It sucks that neither Deshea (likely) nor McFadden will be playing on Sunday. But Willie Gay has been filling in nicely and at least we've got a veteran backup there behind him (in Fernando Bryant) as well as Special Teamer Anthony Madison.

So at this point, I'm cautiously confident.

That said, I'd love to know what you all think about how the rest of this season will play out for us...?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Win vs. Chargers
Win vs. Bengals
Loss @ Patriots
Win vs. Cowboys
Loss @ Ravens
Loss @ Titans
Win vs. Browns

10-6 Hopefully the Ravens shit the bed and we can win the division, but we will have to play in the first round of the playoffs.

The only reason I see us losing those games is because our Offense puts the D in very bad situations. The opposition in those games have strong defensive teams.

Anonymous said...

That picture is nightmare-inducing.

joy said...

C'mon! That's some Photoshop Magix right there!

Noah said...

Playoffs? Playoffs? You talking about playoffs? Playoffs? I just wanna win a game. Classic rant.

I feel you Cotter with your post. If our offensive production was anything close to our Ds production, we'd be an unstoppable force. Alas, injuries and just general suckiness creep in and here we are at 6-3. Def. could be better.

Having said that, I'm happy with a lot of things, but Ben just has to play better and if that means sitting out and putting Leftwich in then sobeit.

I'm pretty much with Matt with those predictions but I would have us winning against the Titans. Call me crazy, but they've been lacking as of late. Not saying they'll turn it on and school opponents, but I just have a feeling.

tiny350Z said...

Agree with most sentiments above also. I feel like we may have a shot against the Pats this year, though. While their defense looks great, remember that they are 6-3 with what was the easiest schedule in the league this year - and we are 6-3 with what was the hardest schedule in the league.... Not sure where I'm going with the rest of that. But their defense isn't nearly as great as ours... offense? Meh... but hey, at least we average more points per game than they do, right? Right?

I also agree with Noah in that we also have a shot against the Titans. They won by a touchdown against a Rex Grossman led-Chicago. And, by the way, only had what - 20 total rushing yards in the game? Granted, an anomaly on the year, but a sign of a crack, nonetheless.

Aside from playing Cinci, B-more does not have a horribly easy schedule facing them. Coupled with the fact that they had their bye week back in week two. They might be getting tired... a little bit? If we play well, we have a shot of pulling away from them.

Anonymous said...

We seem younger than baltimore and they had the early bye. I think we'll finsih better than them. NE we should beat, especially with Adalias Thomas out and their secondary being awful.

Hopefully Marvell coming back will strengthen up the line. Put Starks in at RT after that, Colon is horrid.

Anyone have any idea when B-Mac is going to be back??

Cotter said...

matt ~ I honestly think those are all winnable games if we could just get all the pieces working at the same time. The Titans obviously pose the biggest threat. But even them, I mean we stop the run pretty well. We even shut Brandon Jacobs down, more or less. I think it's just a matter of being more prepared and executing better (of course you could say that of every game, but it's particularly poignant now, I feel).

ladi izz ~ Mission accomplished.

joy ~ Thanks! I think I may finally be starting to get the hang of this photoshop shit.

noah ~ Totally agree about the Titans. They've been winning by playing Steelers football - running the ball like crazy and playing airtight Defense. But against a team that can stop the run like we can, and with Kerry Collins at QB, I think they'll have a pretty tough task.

tiny350z ~ Yeah, the Patriots game stuck out to me too. Their Defense is OK. But they're pretty old and they've now lost both Adalius Thomas (I believe) and Rodney Harrison for the season. Their D line is solid. But the rest of that team...eh, I dunno. Sure, they've got Randy Moss and Wes Welker. But Matt Cassel is no Tom Brady. And they're down to what, their 3rd string RB or something? I'm not particularly scared by that.

Cotter said...

marc ~ I think they had said 5 weeks from like 10/23 or so. So I'm guessing like the end of this month? Maybe in time for New England? But I can't be sure, obviously. Anyone else happen to know?