1. First and foremost: Health. The Steelers had a lot of bumps and bruises to heal up, specifically Troy Polamalu, Lawrence Timmons, and Travis Kirschke. I don’t think Travis will be a go on Monday, but I hope to see Troy and Timmons at 100%.

Secondly, I’d like to see the offense balance it self out a bit more. A lot of teams know we are pass first now, so I think we should start “hitting teams in the mouth” and running the ball more often. Then once we make them respect the run we can put the ball back in the hands of our best player.

Thirdly, I am hoping that fumbles with FWP and the Spin Doctor were addressed. We need both of those guys to be running had and holding onto the ball when we need it most. Moore is able to hold on to the ball very well, but does not have the potential that FWP or Mendy have.

2. I expect us to run the ball early and often. Hopefully, that will force more defenders in the box and open up play action. Additionally, I’d expect the offense to come out with a lot of quick plays, like slants, screens, and passes out of the flat to get things rolling. Hopefully, Bruce Arians (our OC) has made the necessary adjustments to improve on our offense. It has a lot of potential, but seems to be stalling out (especially late in games), and I think the play calling can be to blame.

It’s not lurking if I was posting, right?

if so great question, can’t believe he would even risk it though.

I love to watch Knockout Clark play, but not at the expense of his life/football career.

He should not play. As much as I love Clark and believe he is essential to our defensive, I just don’t believe its worth it. 60 minutes of football is not worth the tens of years of life Clark has left. I understand having a passion for your profession or something you are good at, but you have to draw the line if that thing threatens your life.

and jam at the line, giving our front 7 a second more to get to Neckbeard. We have the best safety in the league helping out, and Ike is the real deal as a shut-down. The only success you may have is on the other side with Gay, but he won’t be covering Marshall (god forbid).

Sorry if my memory is slipping me, but what hard and physical WR has given us trouble? We held V Jacks to 4 recs for 50 yards. Rice had the best game as a WR against us, but I seem him more as a speedy jumper.

Anyway, BM will probably be blanketed by Ike Taylor. Many people don’t know much about Taylor but he is a great shut down CB. I expect him and Ike to be in each others face all day. I think he can definitely contain BM, especially if our pass rush is getting to the QB early and often.

1. Our line is very good, quite obviously, since we are holding teams to under 100 rushing yards per game. Casey “Big Snack” Hampton is a beast and generally requires two blockers to contain him. He frees up a lot of space for Farrior and Timmons to do work. Of our DEs, we are missing Aaron Smith for the year, but have 3 capable back ups who play in a 3 man rotation, Ziggy Hood, Travis Kirschke, and Nick Eason. Mostly likely, you will not see Kirschke due to an injury sustained in the Vikes game. Over on the other side we have a beast in Brett Keisel. Our line is just as physical and threatening as the Ravens. Don’t expect a drop off there.

2. He is good, he has potential to be our premiere back. However, if he does not start to protect the ball, his name will fade faster than Michael Vick’s career after the dog fighting scandal.

3. Eddie Royal. Not as a WR, but as a returner. In our last two contests we have given up two big returns (Josh Cribbs and Percy Harvin) when the other team needed it very badly. And otherwise, our ST coverage has seemed pretty poor. If the Steelers ST coverage did not fix something over the bye I would not be surprised to see Royal take one to the house.

they are facing a much better defense in the Broncos this time around

Yes, but our offense is much better this time as well. Hopefully, we will increase that stat to 5-9-1. :)

The past means little right now. We are not the same team and neither are you. Good luck to you as well.

Wearing down the front 7 on defense is a big part of this game. We are down 2 of our top 3 DE, and possibly a starting ILB as well as Ryan Clark. If Troy still isn’t 100% that’s a lot of bodies in the middle missing, and not much to cover for them.

Our backups have stepped up and played well, but if you can extend drives and wear down the front the altitude and depth issues should open up a lot of space to run.

I think I have seen two Broncos games, at least that I can recall. That pats game and the chargers game. However, I do watch a lot of their highlights and analyze their stats because I have Orton on two of my fantasy teams. That did not bode well for me this week, oh well. I wish I could have seen more, especially now, but I only have so much time.

Well for many years now, the Steelers and the Ravens have been two teams built out of the same exact mold. Primarily, we are based on very, very good, hard-hitting defenses. Specifically, our pass rushes are generally very scary for opposing offenses, not only because of the personnel, but because of the complex blitz schemes our DCs create. Then when you have two of the best safeties in the league that are extremely unpredictable, it makes a very long day for any QB.

You should expect to see a very similar game plan from the Steelers. Lots of blitzing and we will try to shut out Marshall with Ike (a split there). I expect Harrison to have a quiet day, but Woodley to expose your back up RT (I think that is a very favorable match-up for us).

I haven’t said much about the offense, because game in and game out I am confused by our offensive identity. One game we are pass pass pass. The next we run a dozen reverses. Then the next we run run run, until the 4th quarter then we start passing? The consistency has not been there, even though our offense is very strong no matter what we decide to do. I think the battle of our offense vs. your defense is the most intriguing match up of the game. I just don’t know what to expect from them after the bye.

None of the above.

PDX that was masterful. There is more illumination in a good, clean satire than in a week of stats analysis. Its just that satire is so much harder to do. Nice job from top to bottom.

“…the only receiver still able to move…” ROTFLMAO

Glad I could be here. Thank you guys for a good healthy discussion, and not just “Your team sucks! Our team rules!”. It’s always a surprise, sadly, when that happens, since we mostly just get divisional trolls on our blog. I’m sure its the same here, as with any blog.

Anyway, Troy “The Beast” Polamalu is IMHO, the best SS in the league. He gets into position to make plays, and if the opportunity arises, an INT. There really isn’t a classification for Troy, since there has ever been a player quite like him. That guy is one in a million, and if we could clone him and have 11 Troy’s on D…man, nobody would ever beat us.

I think, when at 100%, Troy is one of the best cover safeties in the league. Did you catch the Titans game at the beginning of the year? On the play where Troy had that ridiculous pick, he was completely masking Kenny Britt, and he is a pretty fast guy.

Rarely have I seen Troy get beat in a 1 on 1 situation, which is pretty exceptional considering how long I’ve been watching him play.

However, his strength comes from his unpredictablenes (is that a word?). Sometimes, he calls his own audibles when he thinks he sees something. He can blitz or drop into coverage, which can throw a QB into fits.