The news is pretty good out of practice today. Shamarko Thomas, Brett Keisel, and Stevenson Sylvester all practiced fully today. Marcus Gilbert (ankle), LaMarr Woodley (calf), Heath Miller (coaches decision), and Troy Polamalu (coaches decision) were all limited. Steve McLendon (ankle) did not practice.
For the Ravens:
Limited:
DE Chris Canty (shoulder).
DNP:
S Brynden Trawick.
The Ravens will wear their alternate black jerseys against the Steelers Thursday night. These are the same jerseys that they wore last year when we beat them in Baltimore, so it does seem fitting.
If you have nothing better to do, you can follow this link to the Ravens site and see how superstitious some of their fans are about their jerseys in the comments. Heh heh.
The team has placed CB Curtis Brown on Injured Reserve today. Brown suffered an ACL injury on Sunday, and Coach Tomlin announced yesterday that he was done for the season. To fill the available roster spot, the team has promoted CB Isaiah Green from the practice squad as I expected.
CB Devin Smith has been signed to the available practice squad opening. Smith was brought in by the team during training camp and has been on and off the practice squad this season. You can see more about his comings and goings here: http://thesteelersfans.com/?s=Devin+Smith.
Ben was on 97.3 The Fan yesterday for his weekly radio interview. During the show he talked about the win over the Browns, the no-huddle, facing the Ravens, and more.
Who calls the plays in the no-huddle?
‘It’s 99 percent me.’, said Ben. “Every once in a while Todd will call something that he thinks looks good, or something that the coaches saw or Randy [Fichtner] saw upstairs”. He went on to say, “The credit goes to everybody, but I’m the one who’s actually calling them in the no huddle out there.”
On practicing for the punt play on Sunday.
“I kick that play every Saturday”.
Ben also talks about what it’s like to turn around and play Thursday night after playing Sunday.
“It’s not easy at all. Thankfully, because of my line, I do feel really good today.”
You can listen below:
Here are the player participation counts for the Steelers offense and defense during Sunday’s win over the Cleveland Browns. Some notable differences from the week before on offense: Ramon Foster returned to action at left guard and played every down. Markus Wheaton saw far fewer snaps this week compared to last week. Mike Adams saw an increase in playing time, as did Emmanuel Sanders.
On defense, Al Woods saw an increase in activity this week due to the early injury of Steve McLendon. Loni Fangupo walked the field for the first time this season. Vince Williams saw a large increase in playing time compared to last week, as Troy Polamalu wasn’t occupying the inside this week.
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Coach Tomlin addressed the media earlier today a day early due to the short week. Tomlin spoke about the Browns game, gave injury updates, the upcoming Ravens game, and took questions from reporters.
On the injury front:
Curtis Brown is out for the rest of the season with an ACL injury.
Steve McLendon will be out this week with a sprained ankle.
Ramon Foster is ‘no worse for the wear’ after returning from his ankle injury.
Brett Keisel, Shamarko Thomas, and LaMarr Woodley are expected to work this week with an eye towards participation. How they respond in practice will decide if they proceed through the week. Stevenson Sylvester isn’t as far along as they are according to Tomlin.
Here is the audio from Mike Tomlin’s press conference.
CB Curtis Brown will miss the remainder of the season due to an ACL injury he suffered at the end of the 3rd quarter against the Browns yesterday. Brown, is a special teamer who has not played in 5 of this season’s games. I expect Isaiah Green will likely get brought up from the practice squad again this week.
There were some false reports after the Browns game yesterday indicating that NT Steve McLendon had suffered a broken ankle. During his press conference a few minutes ago, Coach Tomlin gave an update on McLendon’s ankle, saying that it was sprained. He’ll miss this week due to how short it is, according to Tomlin. “We’ll see if he’s available to us next week”.
Al Woods will almost certainly take the starting role against the Ravens, and Fangupo will likely see some playing time.
Here is the transcript from Coach Tomlin’s post game press conference after the win over the Cleveland Browns today.
“Good team effort. Necessary. We didn’t take this challenge lightly. These guys are undefeated vs. the North. Really I don’t think an AFC North team has lost a home division game. Nice accomplishment for us but not a lot of time to admire the work. We are working on a short week. We respect that as well. We got out of the game relatively injury free, besides Steve McLendon with an ankle that is being evaluated and Curtis Brownwith a knee that is also being evaluated. I don’t have any definitive information on that. I probably will by tomorrow by the time I talk to you guys. Appropriate effort. Not pretty in terms of winning the line of scrimmage, but did enough to run the football to have balance. We got turnovers on defense and that aided in our efforts.”
Can you talk about the turnovers? At the beginning of the year you weren’t getting any, and today you really did.
“I am not going to make more out of it than what it is. Sometimes it’s just opportunities that are presented due to game circumstances. We didn’t fall behind in this football game, so sometimes the opportunities are born out of that. Early in the year we were behind in football games and not a lot of opportunities when you are down multiple scores. It’s probably more a function of that, it’s not anything we are doing, anything mystical or anything of that nature.”
Can you talk about the production on both sides of the ball?
“I hadn’t measured it in that way. It was enough to get out of here today with a win and that is what I appreciate.
I know you are not about style points, but do you like the way they protected Ben Roethlisbergertoday?
Some of it can be overblown just in terms of the nature of the way the games are unfolding. I appreciate keeping him clean. When you are not behind you can run the ball, you can play pass and so forth. It aids in that effort. Some of it is game circumstance and not necessarily what it is that we are doing, although I appreciate it.”
Can you talk about the way your line held up against their defensive front?
“I thought they did a nice job.”
How big was this win for you?
“It was necessary. Two 4-6 teams fighting, scrapping to stay in this thing. They are not out of it, but today was significant.”
The strip by Troy, is that something you are working on in more in practice, creating turnovers?
“I am not going to say that play was born out of some increased emphasis of something that we emphasize. But it’s something we have been emphasizing. He made a nice play and to say anything other than that would be taking away credit from him and I am not going to do that.”
How many times have you had Ben punt in practice?
“At least once a week for the last five or six years. That is nothing new. You guys have watched us play.”
Are you evaluating the degree of sprain for McLendon’s ankle or is it possible it’s a break?
“All I know is he has an ankle injury, which I knew on the field. I haven’t gotten any results on the evaluation. I don’t have any new news, other than what I had when he initially came off the field.”
Ben Roesthlisberger has an outstanding record against the Cleveland Browns. He’s currently 15-1 when starting against Cleveland. To put that record into perspective, that record ties the best in a quarterback’s career with 16 starts against a team going back to 1960. Out of the 54 games where he has had a passer rating over 100 in his career, ten of those games are against the Browns.
The one loss to the Browns was on a Thursday night in 2009. It was a very cold and very windy night at Cleveland. Wind gusts were around 30 mph, and the Steelers seemed determined to throw the ball heavily, and ran the ball relatively little given the weather conditions for that game. The Steelers lost that game 13-6, and we all know how that season ended.