Le'Veon Bell has been ruled out for Saturday night

I was clearly getting ahead of myself with my first post! Division, not conference... yet...

 

Are we playing for division championships or real championships? Unless a bye was on the line, rest your players. Well now we get to see what our offense looks like without Bell. But at least we are division champs!

 

I'm not sure, but isn't it some kind of league rule that injuries have to be reported by a certain time in the week?

 

Yes, Bell does know his body better than me and if you took the time to read my post you'd see I'm basing my opinion partly on comments made by Bell himself. He said he didn't do any running because he wasn't comfortable testing his knee. The guy still can't even begin to test it, how is he supposed to play in a week?

Besides, I've played and followed sports enough to know how long injuries typically take to heal.

You can disagree all you want, but Bell still can't even test his knee out, let alone do any real work on it.

 

No coach in the NFL is going to rest their starters with a division championship and a home playoff game on the line. It's a ridiculous suggestion

 

How many Superbowl Champs were also Division Champions? You don't give up a home playoff game for nothing.

I can see Tomlin explaining to the Rooneys that I'm thinking of resting our players so they can be healthy and playing on a road game. And by the way all those Division Champ trophies that the Steelers have won over the years are worthless anyways. See ya in Indy. Besides, Polian needs more money now from the tickets and concessions. Yinz won't miss a dime.

 

Any idea how many division champ trophies we have? I sure don't. I remember us winning the superbowl as a wildcard too. I'm glad we have that trophy over the division one.

If our offense tanks and we loose, at least we have the division trophy!

 

21.

If our offense tanks because they played a full regular season, then something is probably wrong.

 

lol. I guess some fans do care about regular season titles. I just don't. Hope that regular season title was worth not having Bell. We'll see.

 

Nobody cares about regular season titles, but you don't ever pass up on a chance to host a home playoff game.

 

I'm not sure if players that will be ruled out have to be announced by a certain time or not. He's been on the injury report all work of course. So i'm not sure theres a rule or deadline or not for that. As there are many cases each week where players are "game time decisions". Who knows, haha!

 

There is a rule, you need to list players are out, doubtful 25%, questionable 50%, probable 75%. hope this helps

 

I agree. Just googling around it shows that there is a home field advantage when it comes to play off games.

Based on these reports home field gives roughly 58-72% advantage. Obviously its not an exact science, and there are multiple variables, but there is a reason roughly 60% of the time the home team will win.


http://www.nfl.com/features/freakonomics/episode-7

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/blog/?p=218

http://thepowerrank.com/2011/01/14/homefield-advantage-in-the-nfl/

 

I thought it was something like that - but it has to be a certain time before the game, doesn't it?

 

yes there are deadlines by which you must label players.

 

Well this just stinks.

 

I think it was pretty obvious he wasn't going to play this week from the get go. If we get past this round, I bet he will be able to play next week. But, we are going to need a great effort to get past this round without Bell.

 

Indeed. Plus, a 3 has a much more realistic shot (though still an outside chance) at hosting the AFCCG than a 5 does....

Curiously, the betting line hasn't moved since this announcement (which was probably already factored in in the betting world) -- the line/blocking has been doing much better and there should still be yards to be had on the ground....my big concern with the newbies out there is ball security. Bell has been rock solid not only in getting yards but protecting the ball. If the triumvirate of RB's can maintain possession and take what the line gives them, we'll be okay (at least for THIS round). We need to be firing on all cylinders if we are fortunate enough to make it to Denver....

Either way, it's PLAYOFF FOOTBALL! STRAP ON AND ENJOY!!!!!!

 

Personally I didn't think he would play. Injury's can happen at ANY time. The sky is not falling. A home playoff game is huge! Especially against the hated purple crows!

The crows have no real tape on Harris sans the 54 yard run which was called back. Hope Hairball thinks that they're won't be any running attack and Harris gashes them. They always shut down the run anyways. Ben will have a monster game. Rack it!

 

It'd not even the running for him it will be how soon he can make those quick cuts or turns. I'm glad we are saving him for next week now the rest of the team needs to back him up by getting a win at home against the crows. Good decision even though I would love to see a healthy Bell run and catch multiple touchdowns tomorrow.

 

Playing to win and have a home playoff game is the first step to winning a Super Bowl championship title.

Playing to loose and go on the road is the first step to loosing a playoff game.

Not always, but the odds are better. Tomlin and the Steelers are playing to win. They are not playing to not loose.

.....freedom of speech should not be used as a substitute for the lack of freedom of thought....

 

I wonder what kind of thinking or tactics go into "when" to publicly announce such a decision. Internally, you may know, but making it public certainly changes things, and announcing today rather than tomorrow probably has some effect, even if minor. Is there a big Steelers staff meeting where they sit around and debate the merits of when to announce such news? Is there league policy that guides this? Game theorists should be able to weigh in, too.

 

You play to win. Injuries happen, let's all be glad it wasn't Ben and it's not career ending. If we lose Saturday so be it.