Marcus Gilbert (+5.2) has stability at the right tackle spot in Pittsburgh since his first start in Week 2. His best two games of the season have come in the last two against Baltimore and New England where he allowed just one sack on QB Ben Roethlisberger in both games. This week represents a huge test for the rookie as he has to deal with Carlos Dunlap (+28.2). What Dunlap has done as a pass rusher this season so far is incredible. He has recorded three sacks, 10 hits and 24 pressures on just 202 pass rushes. He doesn’t get much attention because of the low sack total, but make no mistake about it, Dunlap is as big a reason for the Bengals 6-2 start as anyone. The only question about him is why the Bengals don’t get him on the field more often. If he can get to Roethlisberger on Sunday then the Bengals may just still be at least tied for the AFC North lead when the night is over. Let’s just hope Dunlap is healthy.
Dick Lebeau’s m.o. against rookie QBs hasn’t always been to blitz the hell out of them but to use the blitz to set up zone coverage and force bad decisions. Splitting hairs but they can accomplish their goals without actually getting to Dalton. The linebackers will be in the -a- gaps all day for sure.
Protecting Roethlisberger is another story. I don’t know what to expect there. There was a huge improvement when Starks came back but the guards are weak. Chris Kemoeatu is only slightly smarter than the ball.
Dalton’s not your typical rookie QB, so I expect him to have more success than the mean rookie QB’s of the past have against LeBeau’s blitz schemes and to learn from them as the game goes on. Dalton will not get rattled. He might make a ton of mistakes, but he won’t play scared…he’ll be in it until the end. I am excited and/or scared about him facing that defense.
:mad:
My station is not showing them. Either I’ll have to be content with a web cast or I’ll have to go into town and watch at a sport’s bar.
I haven’t decide which yet.
Hopefully it will be a good game. ESPN has the Steelers picked 8-2. But then, we were picked last week too…
Go Steelers!
Well, this is it. Even at 6-3 Pittsburgh has to win this game or they’re in a pretty deep hole, one that they will need a lot of luck to dig out of. This will also demonstrate whether or not the Bengals are for real. I’ve said all year that they are not.
If Pittsburgh falls to 6-4 they’re going to need to run the table and get help. Like I said last week, it’s amazing that a team can go from the best team in the AFC to playing for their playoff lives in one Sunday, but there it is.
Pittsburgh by 2 touchdowns.
The Jets play tonight and the Giants play at 4 so the slot was open for the game of the week to air but no, we get the Cowboys and Bills…Fooey!
The NFL Season pass on Direct TV is nice.
Good game Steelers. The injuries to AJ Green and Leon Hall, along with a couple rookie mistakes by Dalton were too much to overcome.
I have to give it to the Bengals, they seem legitimate this year. They hung in after going down 14-0 and basically stifled the Steelers’ offense in the second half. Hopefully they’ll improve on that and actually get a win next week against the Ravens.
It was a good game. I’d like to see the Bengals win next week, they seem like they might be able to. It’s good to see the Steelers positive in turnovers for a change, too. That drop by Heath Miller and his hold on the touchdown cost Pittsburgh 10 points. He’ll be buying William Gay’s dinner tonight for bailing him out. Gay had a hell of a game today.
So the Steelers won, and the Ravens are down at the half. A very interesting season in our division this year. (Of course, as we saw last week, the Ravens aren’t down yet!)
But Jesus are they looking awful. They seem to get themselves up for the big games, and then coast for the ones they should win easily.
Hand it to the Ravens, they never gave up.
I was never a stats kind of guy (and my memory now is for crap anyway) - can anyone tell me when the last time a division was this close this late in the season? (Or is it common?)
Pfft. They never should have gotten themselves in a position where they need to play catch-up.
This is bullshit. I had this week marked down as an almost guaranteed win against the useless Seahawks, and Baltimore choked.
Pittsburgh is temporarily the #2 team in the AFC (depending on the Baltimore result next week), and yet they’re still fighting for their playoff life. What a weird season.
Whoever would have predicted Gay to be the hero and Heath Miller to be the goat?
Dalton and Green are only going to get better. Add Dunlap to the mix and the Bengals are going to be a team to be reckoned with down the stretch. Next week’s game between them and Baltimore should be a doozy.
The Steelers are about to get a whole lot better too though. Woodley and Sanders will be back after the bye and there are a whole bunch of guys with a lot of healing to do. I like the way things are looking right now. The turnovers will come. I just hope they can get the running game going, at least enough to keep Roethlisberger from being so much of a sitting duck back there.
That was a pretty good game, and Dalton seems like a QB with a lot of promise. Why do they keep saying this is Jerricho Cotchery’s first TD? Didn’t he have one before this? All in all a great game, and a shocker with both the Ravens and Eagles losing (ok, a shocker for the Ravens) ;).
You know what the big disappointment is? Leon Hall is out for the year. I don’t know if the Bengals can beat the Ravens without him. It’s good for when the Steelers play them again, but the Bengals are the “best” opportunity to put the Steelers back into 1st place in the North (“best” in quotation marks because the Ratbirds haven’t demonstrated the ability to beat bottom feeders so every week for them is an adventure).
Wouldn’t it be a kick in the ass if the Bengals made the playoffs and the Ratbirds didn’t? That would be nothing short of awesome.
Oh, and in other news: Matt Schaub is out for the year. There goes the current AFC front-runner Texans.
Like I said before, what a weird season. A week ago I was thinking the Steelers had a hell of a road to get into the playoffs. Yesterday I was still a bit concerned about whether the Steelers would make the playoffs. Now I’m just wondering if they can get the top seed or if they’ll be the 5 seed. How bizarre. What’s next?
Apparently, Big Ben broke his right thumb against the Bengals. 