Ben Roethlisberger has been nominated for FedEx Air player of the week for his performance against the Lions on Sunday. Ben threw for 367 yards and had 4 touchdowns. His passer rating for Sunday was 119.4. The other nominees are Carson Palmer and Cam Newton. You can vote for Ben here: http://www.nfl.com/voting/players-air-and-ground/2013/REG/11
Gerry Dulac of the Post-Gazette reports that the team is having former Pitt RB Ray Graham in for a workout today. Graham was a UDFA who signed with the Texans this spring. He made the Texans practice squad and was later promoted to the active roster because of injuries. The Texans waived him a few days ago to make room for another signing.
The 23 year old running back is listed at 5’9″, 193lbs. After returning from a torn ACL in 2011, Graham had 1,042 rushing yards on 222 carries, with 11 touchdowns last year. He also had 340 receiving yards and two touchdown receptions.
The Steelers will likely be looking at him for practice squad depth, if they do decide to sign him.
Below is the player participation data for the Steelers offense and defense during the win versus the Lions yesterday. Due to the injuries of Woodley, Keisel, and Foster, the ‘next man up’ saw more time yesterday. Jones, Hood, and Whimper saw an increase in playing time due to their absence.
[table id=32/]
[table id=33 /]
No real surprises on the Steelers inactive list today. LB LaMarr Woodley, G Ramon Foster, DE Brett Keisel, QB Landry Jones, WR Derek Moye, S Shamarko Thomas, and TE Rich Gordon are all inactive. Expect to see Worilds on the left and Jarvis Jones on the right at OLB. Guy Whimper will replace Foster in the lineup, and Ziggy Hood will see more time at Keisel’s spot.
For the Lions:
DE Ziggy Ansah, RT Corey Hilliard, CB Bill Bentley, RB Montell Owens, WR Nate Burleson, QB Kellen Moore,and G Leroy Harris are inactive.
Ben was on the WDVE morning show today and he addressed the recent reports by the NFL network, especially last night’s comments by Michael Silver.
Ben emphasized again that he wants to stay in Pittsburgh.
“First and foremost- I don’t want to go anywhere. I want to be in Pittsburgh…I want to finish my career here.”
When asked his thoughts about the source, he said, “When someone is a source, and they are unnamed, they have an agenda.” ‘My agenda is to try to win football games, and I think my resume speaks for itself on what I’ve done in the past…winning football games and championships’. Ben went on to say, “Whoever said this, there’s no way that this is coming from inside the building.”
How insulted are you that you that they are insinuating that you are not working off the field?
“First off, how does anybody know what I’m doing at home when I’m looking through my playbook and watching film. Unless someone has cameras set up at my house and they’re spying on me…then they’d see the truth, that I am doing that stuff.”
You can listen to whole interview below. Enjoy.
Lions beat reporter Kyle Meinke reported earlier that Calvin Johnson missed a second consecutive practice today. Lions typically give ‘Megatron’ a maintenance day off from practice, but two in a row is unusual according to various Lions writers. Johnson says he will play against the Steelers this Sunday. “Body’s feeling good,” Johnson said. “Just got some maintenance issues we’re taking care of. As far as that goes — you know how that goes — you have to talk to coach.”
Johnson has been battling knee issues ever since training camp, but it hasn’t hampered him during the games he’s played. Johnson wasn’t quite the one man team he usually is after the bye week, so perhaps his knee is a bigger issue than he’s letting on. Either way, the Steelers secondary hasn’t faced a WR of his caliber this season, and they’ll need to execute the gameplan with perfection to keep him from making the big plays that he’s known for. See the Cowboys game of week 8 for further details.
The Steelers host the Detroit Lions this Sunday at Heinz Field. Kickoff is at 1:00 Est., and the game will be televised on Fox with Thom Brennaman and Brian Billick as commentators.
You can see if your local Fox affiliate will be broadcasting the game in the map below.
H/t the506
Red- Steelers vs. Lions
Blue- Eagles vs. Redskins
Green- Bucs vs. Falcons
Yellow- Jaguars vs. Cardinals
Grey- no game
The list of walking wounded was a little longer than usual today. Ramon Foster (ankle), Brett Keisel (foot), Fernando Velasco (knee), and LaMarr Woodley (calf) did not practice. Sharmarko Thomas has already been ruled out of this week’s game due to the high ankle sprain he suffered on Sunday. Ramon Foster was reportedly walking around the facility without a walking boot.
Kelvin Beachum (hip), David DeCastro (ankle), Marcus Gilbert (ankle), Heath Miller (not injury related) were all limited in practice. Basically, the entire starting offensive line was either out or limited in practice today. Mike Adams was a full participant.
The Steelers will be donning the much maligned “Bumble Bee” jerseys this Sunday against the Detroit Lions. This is the only game that the team will wear the throwback uniforms this season. The uniforms drew a great amount of criticism last season, but at least no one could complain about block numbers for a couple weeks. The uniforms will likely have a warmer reception this year, as Casey Hampton is no longer on the roster. 🙂
Here’s a refresher on the 1934 throwback in case you forgot exactly how they look.
Ben did his weekly radio spot this morning. Some of the topics they covered included the trade rumors, and his relationship with Todd Haley. When asked if sees himself as a Steeler for the rest of the career, Ben says he hopes so, and that there’s no other organization in the world that he’d rather play for than this one.
Some other topics they discuss are “rebuilding”, the wind on Sunday, Heath, and the mentality of the team repairing the season. Ben also confirmed what I said during the gameday thread that Markus Wheaton made a mistake on his route during the interception that happened early in the 1st quarter. Ben closes the interviewing praising Bell and Dwyer, saying that Dwyer has brought an energy that fires up the o-line, an energy that’s just awesome. You can listen below.
H/T 93.7 TheFan