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Thursday, September 11, 2008

Some mid-week thoughts

Ben Roethlisberger, Hines Ward, Marvel Smith and Deshea Townsend took the veteran's Wednesday off from practice. All should be back at practice Thursday.

© Willie Parker said today that he had known for a little while that he was going to be the goal-line back, but the team was keeping it a secret. After Parker scored three TDs Sunday, the secret is out.

The team had been hiding it pretty well. Even fullback Carey Davis got more short-yardage carries in the preseason than Parker.

© Nate Washington of all people gave me an honest answer when asked about attacking Cleveland's young secondary. The Steelers are going to attack, attack, attack those two second-year corners.

© Casey Hampton's suggestion to teammate Justin Hartwig for blocking Shaun Rogers? Hold on for the ride.

Rogers is a force when he wants to be. Trouble is, he doesn't always want to be.

Hampton and Rogers were teammates at Texas. Rogers was the talented one. Hampton the overachiever. Kind of funny, isn't it, that Hampton took so much heat for coming to camp overweight?

© The Steelers' schedule continues to look better and better. Jacksonville put both of its starting guards on IR this week and Shawne Merriman is out for the season.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nate needs to step his hands game up. I can recall back to back drops from him Sunday (not like it hasn't happened before). And yea, its pretty obvious Willie is the GL back. Dale, do you think Sweed will be active this week to employ some 5 receiver sets against Cleveland's terrible secondary?

Dale Lolley said...

Sweed probably won't be active. Who would you rather have on the field, Sweed or Heath Miller.
I don't recall Nate dropping anything Sunday. He had the one deep over the middle that was broken up by the defender that Leftwich threw high. Would have been a really good catch if he could have come down with it.
I would not classify that as a drop.

viper said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Dale, do you think they'll start working Mendenhall into the game earlier or is the plan to use Parker primarily in the 1st half while he's fresh?

Parker looked great but I hope Mendenall gradually gets more carries early as he gains more experience so Willie is still fresh down the stretch. Don't want him to just be the mop-up guy.

Dale Lolley said...

He won't be a mop-up guy all season. He got a couple of carries in the first half. They likely use him when they're inside of the opposing 40 until they're comfortable that he's over his fumbles.