The Khadaji Memorial Steelers March to the Super Bowl Thread

The Game Room
21

Am I the only one not worried?

Bad game but I next week will be better. Losing the guy who makes the blocking calls is pretty big and then on the other side you lose the guy making the defensive calls. Next man up is an okay slogan but you know there’s a big drop off from first to second team for those roles. I’m more worried about Sanders not pulling his weight.

I agree totally. Pouncey has had to pull his weight plus compensate for the guys on either side of him. Ramon Foster would not make any other roster in the NFL in my opinion but he looks serviceable (as a starter!!) playing beside Maurkice.

I think Keith Butler would be a good in-house choice though I like him better as Lebeau’s successor.

It looked to me like he thought Pouncey was going to hand his guy off and keep moving down the line or that he thought Pouncey was about to be moved back. That’s giving him the benefit of the doubt of course but he obviously didn’t want to take Pouncey out so it has to be something along those lines.

22

I’ve been reading up on the new Center, Velasco. Certainly no Pouncey but he doesn’t sound bad at all considering the situation. He was a late cut from the Titans this year and is in game shape. Just needs to get on the same page as the rest of the line as far as how they name the coverages and things. Heath Miller and Le’Veon Bell will be coming back at one point or another in the next few weeks. Hopefully things are back on track soon offensively.

On the other side of the ball Jarvis Jones is looking more and more like he’ll be starting sooner rather than later. Really looking forward to that!

23

You might be the only one not worried. I don’t see how the Steelers right the ship this week in Cincinnati. I guess its possible, but so is snow in July.

They looked terrible and unprepared all of Preseason. They cut their leading rusher from last year for a guy who was a fumbler a year ago, and continued his amazing ball skills last week. The Steelers are not a well-coached football team. Beyond that, they are very poorly managed from a personnel POV.

Do you realize that the Steelers have exactly zero players from their 2008 draft class on the team, and only one from the 2009 draft? (I may be off one year, make this 2007 and 2008 respectively if my first dates are wrong). That tells me they can’t draft. And haven’t drafted well in YEARS. picking up guys off the scrap heap, or pulling free agents can work to fill a gap here and there, but not to field your entire team. Someone will get fired this year. I was a big Tomlin guy until I realized that he hasn’t developed many draft picks into players, and coaches leave him in droves. If he has ANYTHING to do with draft picks, he has to go IMO. canning the GM is a no-brainer at this point.

You are exactly right about Foster on the O-line. He is terrible, and Pouncy covered his tail more than anyone can imagine. He wouldn’t be starting on any other o-line. And look how desperate the steelers have been… They called Flozell Adams and he played for two years, retired, and the Steelers thought about bringing him back again!

I know nothing about this new center, so I have no opinion. But Bell is out for at least another month if not longer. The Steelers knew it. And who do they immediately sign after an injury to LSH? The very same back they cut in the last round of cuts. They see One week of Felix Jones and they cut their leading rusher from a year ago? Bizaroland.

Jarvis jones starting so soon is an indictment on Worlids (or however you spell it). This guy is only still in the NFL because he was a third round pick and someone is unwilling to admit a mistake was made. Jones may be the real deal, and I hope he is. But I am not holding my breath just yet.

Finally, Haley’s offense reminds me of the J e Walt n offense (J e, where’s the “o”?)

Now we have T dd, where’s the “o”?

This offense is awful, and doesn’t play to Bens strengths. And can you ever remember a Steeler team that blocked this badly for the run, or could not execute a screen play? Decastros destruction of Pouncy goes to show you that the o-line was not ready, and I don’t see things changing for game 2.

I hope I’m wrong.

24

Terrible start for the AFCN this past week. The Ravens and Steelers were embarrassed, the Browns looked like the Browns and the Bengals handed away a game due to stupid miscues/penalties/playcalling/timeouts that they should have won…and were winning for 3/4ths of the game.

Steelers v Bengals on MNF is going to be interesting. Both teams need a win. This year’s Steelers team looks pretty bad if their first game is any indication, but the Bengals almost always shit the bed and humiliate themselves on nationally televised games, so…I guess we’ll have to see. The talent edge in almost every area of the teams has to go to the Bengals, but if they play stupid football like they did against the Bears they won’t win.

25

I will be rooting for James Harrison, and then the Steelers.

I think the Steelers will lose, unless The Bungles beat themselves. I would agree that outside of QB, Cincy wins the talent comparison at just about every position. And Dalton isn’t a massive drop from Big Ben.

The Steelers ARE very bad. And they lost three players for the year, so they will probably be a bit worse. Although, it was more than just bad play. The Steelers looked unprepared, something they almost never look. If they played a decent team on opening day, they would not have scored at all. As it was, they only scored that touchdown at the end of the game, when Tennessee went into prevent to swap yards for time. The game should have ended 16-2. The offense was atrocious. That is Todd Haley and Tomlin. I have faith in Dick LeBeau, but his defense can’t be on the field for 40 minutes. If Dalton and Green get rolling, it could be a long, ugly night for Steeler fans.

If the Steelers win, I will be shocked. They are a seven point favorite, and if I was betting the game, I’d give the points and take Cincy. That’s how bad I think the Steelers are. I hope they prove me wrong.

26

Are you sure you’ve got that line right? The Steelers are a seven-point underdog according to Yahoo.

I’m actually taking the points this week. Yes, the Steelers look bad, but they could still keep it close if the defense plays well.

27

I worded it incorrectly. you are correct in that Cincy is the 7 point favorite. I would bet on Cincy to cover.

Not sure what I was thinking when I wrote that. Must have been dreaming…

I think if the defense plays less than 33 minutes on the field. they have a shot to cover. but any more than that, and their age will show and they will get beat by more than a touchdown.

Last year, I can’t remember how many games they lost in the 4th quarter, but it was quite a few. Their age seems to catch up to them and they tire out.

one thing i"d like to know is how Troy P. is able to time those blitz -leaps into the backfield so perfectly everytime he does it? and why, if he can do that, doesn’t he do that on every play? That would be great!

28

He doesn’t succeed every time. I’ve seen goal line stands in the past where he’s guessed and been called offsides (the benefit being in that they were in a goal line situation, and the penalty was only a foot or two). I’m also pretty certain he got called for an offsides penalty earlier in last week’s game.

29

Yeay! Thread is here!

Ratbirds sure looked sucky at Denver. I wonder, is it possible for a team to win a division with a losing record? I know it can happen at 8-8, because it almost did before.

I still remember that 75 season with 3 10-4 teams in the same division and later in the 80s having 11-5 teams meat in the first round of playoffs. Made every division game a little super bowl of its own.

"we’re the Houston Oilers

Houston Oilers

Houston Oilers Number One!" (except they weren’t)

30

Yes, it is quite possible to win the division with a losing record. The Seachickens did it a few years back and blew the Saints out on Wild Card weekend.

So the Steelers took Dwyer back and picked up the Titans’ center from last year. With luck this little vacation will teach Dwyer that holding onto the football and staying in shape are important aspects of the game. I don’t know if that lesson will sink in, but I do know that he could hardly be worse than Redman was last week. As for the new center, Fernando Velasco, he was rated the 12th-best center in the league last year by someone or another and as such represents a drop, but not a really terrible one. He was a very late cut by the Titans because they had draftees that they were looking to use and so he and his salary became expendable.

As for the upcoming game, week 1 was a disaster but it’s not exactly the death knell for the Steelers. The AFC North has never looked weaker. When the Bengals look to be the class of the division you can be sure that it’s a wide-open race.

Of course, as long as the Steelers inexplicably continue to employ Todd Haley disaster is only 60 minutes away. He has to go. I always found it amazing that Bruce Arians took so much shit from Steelers fans because he didn’t run the ball enough. The days of “smashmouth” football are over. Ben can beat anybody through the air if he gets just a little more time, but with the exception of Adrian Peterson the run is nothing more than a supplement to the pass in today’s NFL.

31

I make a lot of excuses for the coaching staff, mostly because in the modern NFL parity requires that after playing in 3 Super Bowls you’re going to have to pay the piper eventually. With modern scouting and all that, even the worst teams are starting to draft competently (except for the Raiders… seriously, WTF?) and so constantly drafting at 20 and below for almost a decade means, generally, all the game-changing position players have been drafted. And when you compare Colbert’s drafting to the league, he’s always at least as good as the average, often just a tiny hair above even, in terms of drafting starter caliber players. 2008 is brought up a lot, and how there are no more starters from that draft, but 2008 kind of sucked for everyone. Some teams got lucky, of course, and drafting Mendenhall looks bad in hindsight when Ray Rice and Chris Johnson were still available, but at the time it wasn’t the worst decision given the information at the time.

Also, they made the decision to keep the core of the SB winning team together for as long as possible, so the structuring of the contracts meant that they haven’t been able to give 2nd contracts for a long time now - Wallace and all them. So the team is all old-ass veterans and young, unproven rookies with no “middle” to speak of. Now that the vets are starting to age out (or injure themselves into retirement), they have to scramble to find the “middle” players on the waiver wire, which is working as well as any stop-gap measure should – i.e. not at all.

So for all those reasons, I don’t necessarily blame Tomlin and Colbert for where the team is right now. A hard decision was made years ago, and now Tomlin is taking the fall for it, when we all knew it’d come eventually.

…

With that said, the team is far, far, far better, on paper, then they have been playing. And that’s a total coaching staff issue. Todd Haley’s offense isn’t the worst in theory, but it’s absolutely wrong for the personnel they have at the moment and he seems completely inflexible. For one, those bubble screens and short passes kind of require a blocking tight end, so is it any coincidence that the offense has seemed lost since Heath went down? It also seems like the offense just doesn’t give a shit, and have absolutely no motivation to play for him. The preseason was painful not because of rookie growing pains, or issues with communication, or whatever, but more because the players knew they were being asked to do something dumb and kind of didn’t care if it succeeded or not.

I mean, what the hell is the offensive identity anymore? How would you describe it, beyond “garbage fire”? They haven’t been able to pull off any of the new plays, but they seem to have forgotten all the basics as well – which is absolutely on Toddy Haley.

32

Another thing that boggles the mind is that they seem to have no self awareness in terms of development. Yes, they blow at special teams and the offensive line, which they have for… a decade. But they’ve turned into a kind of wide-receiver factory, finding late gems deep in the draft and developing the hell out of them. I know this isn’t like other sports, and trades are pretty rare, but they got absolutely nothing for Wallace and they’re about to get nothing for Sanders – it’s pretty clear he’s getting the Wallace treatment this year, and won’t get an extension.

If you know you’re going to lose your receivers in a year or so to free agency, why not trade from a position of strength to something you know you can’t do for shit? Like, say, a tackle. They’re never available when Steelers draft, so you have to get creative, no?

33

Wait… What happened to Khadaji??? runs to in memoriam sticky

34

These are not your Father’s Bengals. This Bengals team is vastly improved, last week’s gift to the Bears aside.

Yeah, he died suddenly. Pretty sad. I liked his “Whatcha reading” threads.

35

If they’re still the Cincinnati Bengals they’re never far removed from a 6-10 season. The culture of losing there is firmly entrenched. Like other notably unsuccessful teams, they pop up with a few good seasons and then descend into mediocrity yet again. This year they might have a decent season because the Steelers and Ratbirds are reloading, but don’t get used to it. Or cocky, because you know as well as I do, protestations notwithstanding, that they’ll be back to being dogs soon enough.

36

That may have been accurate ten years ago, but this team is loaded with talent and deep and we’ve made the playoffs two years in a row and I would be surprised if it wasn’t a third year this season. If you haven’t noticed, the Bengals have been out-drafting the Steelers for a few years now. Mike Brown has taken a back seat. The talent is there. Whether or not Marvin can stop being a dumbass with it is the question.

I honestly believe that Marvin Lewis needs to be the GM and concede the reins as HC to someone else. That would be the next step for the Bengals, IMO. Barring that this season, the roster is LOADED with YOUNG depth and talent that the Steelers just do not have.

This is not a dream world where the Bengals are going to have a couple fluky seasons then recede back to what you think is the norm. They are far too talented. Just wait and see.

37

Wait and see indeed. Your faith is admirable, but there is no history to justify it.

38

Since the NFL is a “what have you done for me lately” league, I’d say there is recent history to justify it. Since 2009 the Bengals have been to the playoffs in three of those four seasons, with 2010 being the only truly miserable year, but we’ve turned over almost the entire roster since then. Granted, they haven’t done anything once they got there, but I am enough of an optimist to believe that barrier will come down eventually.

39

I have to agree that these are no longer the bungles. Talent at every position, and they are young enough to be a playoff team for years if they manage their cap well.

40

Well, looks like the same ol’ Browns today. Can’t put it into the endzone, go for it on 4th and 4 on their own 39, up 6-0 on the hapless Ratbirds, and now they’re finished. I thought the Browns were supposed to have their breakout season this year. Haslam and Chudzinsky were the guys to turn it all around.

Yeah, no. Still, with the pathetic Ravens’ showing, it just proves how wide open the division is.