Remainder of season thoughts

Given how things are shaping up, with how our D is playing better than our O it's going to take some good coaching to keep us in the stretch. Play solid offense, run the ball and limit turnovers while being aggressive on D and create turnovers.

I noticed Cam Thomas played less against the Bengals with Mccullers at NT and Mcclendon at DE. We did better of course lol. We need D line depth. Kiesel anyone?

This O needs to stop trying to be cute. Short quick passes to open up the run, then playaction later. Take what the D gives and if you can't score then win the field position battle or at least eat clock. We have been getting silly there lol.

Kick the field goals...this kid can kick.

I am not expecting anything from this team anymore this season. I will just enjoy this team and not try to have a heart attack every week. The football gods have to handicap our team because they will be too elite

 

9-7 Wild card spot. Then, who knows, anything can happen. I believe they can do 9-7.

 

I'm thinking 9-7 or hopefully 10-6. Either those should be good enough for a playoff spot.
We can play with anybody. I have no doubt.
But, as coach Cowher used to say it's a fine line between being a winning team or losing one.
If you figure 3 of our loses were by a score or less. KC being the exception.

 

I think we will go 8-8 but if we beat the raiders this week, I think we we have a 50-50 shot at a wild card.

 

I believe if Ben gets healthier then 10-6 is a real possibility. If that knee proves to be a nagging issue then no better than 6-10.

 

I don't know that I would necessarily say our D is playing better than our O. Yes, Ben's first game back was a hot mess but I am expecting our offense to be pretty good on Sunday.

 

8-8?

I'm not too sure about that. The schedule looks pretty hard but the offense will play better then they did against Cinci.

For funsies:

Big Ben is 2-2 this year!
Vick and Landry are 2-2.

The world is ended.

 

Well i guess one positive is the AFC sucks outside of NE and Bungles barely beat a hobbled Steeler team. If we can get to 9-7 we can probably sneak in, we have gotten on a hot/lucky streak before(2005) and Giants too lol. Can't lose anymore AFC games

 

Why does not having bell automate 3-4 losses?

The Steelers team is better then, and can beat, most all teams in the AFC. The only fall back is the Patriots, because they have a coach.

If the Steelers make the playoffs and play the Patriots. Bellicheat will make Tomlin look clownish... Again.

 

mclendon has reinforced the D line and made it even better. if tuitt gets healthy we will see big dividends from this.

the offense i'm not to worried about if ben gets and stays healthy, even without bell. williams is still a good one.

golden is doing a pretty good job at safety. very suprised by him. he's really picked up his play from past years. maybe he just needed this chance.

dupree is going to be a stud.

we can make a big run at the playoffs if they stay healthy.

 

Last I checked - we are 1-4 against the AFC. The facts speak for themselves, regardless of who we trot out there each week. Every team has setbacks and injuries and stupid dimwits who get themselves suspended. No matter how much sunshine and optimism is being blown you know where - we're a very average team and our record is the true indicator. Each losing game so far was very win-able and every won game was very lose-able. Nothing indicates more than an average team as played on the field - not on paper or in our mind's eye.

The Cincy game played out just as history indicated it would - the Bengals suck coming off of a bye and the Steelers suck when BB returns from an extended injury absence. Absolutely no surprises with that game nor the outcome. Could the Steelers turn it around and could Cincy fall flat on it's face - absolutely, but that remains to be seen. (I thought my grumpiness would end by today but it's going the opposite direction.) Well at least the Steeler cheerleaders are looking real fine - wait - that's just in my mind's eye. %&****%&$%$%$#@

 

The defense is average.
The offense is above average
The coaching is below average.

Two games came off the foot of a kicker. (who is now gone)
The third came down to not having a QB.
The fourth was coaching/Big Ben with an ailing knee.

Good thing the AFC sucks, but losing 3-4 seems unlikely to me. UNLESS Ben goes down again.

 

Blue = True

Red = Excuses

Excuses are cop-outs IMO

 

Those are facts! Not excuses, and all of a sudden they are going to lose atleast 3-4 more?

Doesn't make sense to me.

Since when does losing a close game make you go 8-8?

 

I agree we are very average team. Hanging onto our past doesn't help our team today lol. It's hard to let go, I know. Ben is also not what he used to be, ever since the end of the GB superbowl he lost his little Ben magic.

 

I agree on 9-7 for a whole host of reasons. Not sure if it will be good enough for the playoffs.

 

are you serious? he just came off one very good season last year.

 

Rough times like this always seem to divide a fan base. We are not fans of another team we are PITTSBURGH STEELER fans and we are better than this. Ride or die with this team! No need to divide amongst ourselfs, we are better than that!!!!!!!!

 

just trying to help reverse the jinx haha

 

9-7 and a 6th seed. All things considered you have to be okay with that. I thought we were 9-7 at best and that's before half the team went down with injuries. I still think Tomlin's an idiot but kudos to him for keeping things together.

 

Even if they make the playoffs they won't go far too many injuries to overcome.

 

I don't understand why people at giving up on Ben because he played bad in his first game back. He threw the ball high all game & that comes from throwing off your back foot- and he was throwing off his back foot because he was sore. He was also nervous. He'll be ok!!

We lost the Patriots game because we didn't have a kicker. That's no excuse. When you don't have a kicker, you have to change your whole game plan.
When a team loses their star QB, it's difficult to win. Even teams with good backups have a hard time. We have Michael Vick & Landry Jones. That's not an excuse either, they're just bad. If we had Ben, I believe very strongly that we would've beat both the Ravens AND the Chiefs if Ben was playing.
There's no more reasons now though. We have Ben, a decent D (minus missed tackles), a kicker who can kick, a punter who can punt, a Jacoby Jones who can return those kicks/punts, & a RB capable to play in LeVeon's absence.

 

I agree with this. Average teams can be average for a lot of reasons; in the end it just comes down to how well they execute to get the win. Above average teams have the ability to do it with consistency, below average do not. We're average right now because we have had several issues - poor play, injury, suspension, coaching, etc - and they've contributed at different times to cost the team a chance to win.

 

No can lose no more games