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Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Playing the game

Tony Dungy in his conference call with the Pittsburgh media Wednesday said he expects to see Ben Roethlisberger in the starting lineup Sunday when the Colts meet the Steelers.

Mike Tomlin and Roethlisberger are playing a little game of cat and mouse with the decision.

Sure, Roethlisberger told the media later in the day, he'd like to play and will do everything possible to play.

Tomlin, meanwhile, was more vague.

Roethlisberger could play without practicing, Tomlin said. Heck, he's already done it once this season.

The whole point for Tomlin is to keep the Colts guessing. And why not? Make the Colts prepare for both Roethlisberger and Byron Leftwich.

© A number of Steelers didn't practice Wednesday in addition to Roethlisberger, but of that group, only Bryant McFadden, Marvel Smith and tight end Heath Miller are likely definitely out for this game.

© There's some growing disgust in the locker room about the lack of running the team is doing. Ask a question about the running game - or lack thereof - and you'll get the company answer. But with it is an accompanying eye roll and smile that tells you all you need to know.

7 comments:

alexrkirby said...

Who can blame them? We averaged like 5 ypc last game and we hardly ran the ball! Take some pressure off the QB Arians! Run it until the d proves they can stop you.

Anonymous said...

If we don't run the ball against the Colts then Arians definitely needs to go! They are horrible against the run and we need to take advantage of that.

ch3 said...

So we are not all crazy. I don't know why we don't try to play more ball control with the defense we have. Our offense should be better than the Titans and the Ravens. We have better receivers and a better QB. Our offense just needs to not screw up too much and keep us in the game.

Anonymous said...

I also beleive that we need to run more but...just to be correct, no one for the Steelers averaged anything close to 5 yards a carrie on Monday and we averaged about half of 5 YPC as a team. 2 rushing TDs though was encouraging. Its good to see us pound it in from in close.

Anonymous said...

From what they are saying now it seems that Ben's injury is the type of injury that will not get better with 1-2 weeks rest. It will not get better until and extended period of rest, like the offseason. So I think the Steelers should play him if he can throw effectively. This all reminds me of the 2005 Super Bowl year when Ben wore that glove and played half the season and playoffs with a broken thumb.

datruth4life said...

Dale,

I read where Willie Parker said he's going to have a talk with Mike Tomlin and Bruce Arians and see if this team can get back to playing Steelers football and running the ball. And I also read where Mike Tomlin had a talk with Ben.

Do you think the Steelers will try to run the ball a little more to keep their QBs from getting killed?

Also, do you think Ben will play this week or do you think it will be Leftwich?

I for one hope that Tomlin will give Ben a week to rest that shoulder and not get pounded on and at least watch Leftwich get rid of the ball quicker. Something has happened to Ben with all of the hits he's taken this year.

And quite a few of those sacks have been on Ben himself. I think the OL has played noticeably better with Darnell Stapleton and Max Starks in the starting lineup. It is still not up to snuff from what we have come accustomed to here, but it is better than what it was.

Let's hope Tomlin's conversation to Ben included getting the ball out quickly, throwing it away if you don't have anything and not taking so many sacks.

Thoughts?

Dale Lolley said...

I just got done running the numbers. They ran the ball 80 times in their first two games. Since then, they've averaged 25 runs and dropped back to pass 36 times per game.
There's quite a bit of unhappiness about it in the locker room and I'll have a story on it in tomorrow's O-R.