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Friday, November 07, 2008

Reading the injury report

Let me preface this by saying that getting injury information out of the Tomlin regime is like prying state secrets out of the former U.S.S.R.

Bill Cowher had his faults, but he rarely played games with the injury report. He would tell you up front who was likely to play and who wasn't.

Tomlin is not that way. I can understand why, but it doesn't make my job - or that of fans who want to know if their favorite player is going to play or not - any easier.

But I digress.

Ben Roethlisberger practiced Friday and it appears that he'll play Sunday against the Colts. Tomlin could still change his mind about that, but I doubt it.

Willie Parker, on the other hand, likely won't play. His sore shoulder didn't get any better as the week wore on, so it appears Mewelde Moore, Gary Russell and Carey Davis will get the carries against the Colts.

Moore will also likely have to return kicks because Najeh Davenport has been out all week with a hamstring injury. Santonio Holmes will handle the punt returns.

linebacker LaMarr Woodley, who was fined $10,000 this week for a hit on Jason Campbell last week, did not practice all week with his calf injury. But Woodley didn't practice last week, either, and played against the Redskins, picking up a pair of sacks.

I would guess that he'll play this week.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

If Woodley doesn't play who would start? Timmons? Davis or Frazier?

Anonymous said...

Dale, what do you think about Woodley's fine? This is really getting out of hand.

How you can be fined for a 100% clean, legal tackle is beyond me. Do they really want to turn this into touch football? I just wonder where the league will be in 10 years if this trend continues.

Dale Lolley said...

I think that fines for legal football plays are ridiculous. There are five refs on every play watching the quarterback to make sure they aren't roughed or injured. None of them threw a flag on the play. Now, five days after the fact, a fine is levied for hitting another football player too hard.
Come on. It's football.

Normally, I would say Timmons would start in place of Woodley if he's unable to go, with Harrison going strong side and Timmons at the weak. But because I expect them to play a lot of nickel with Timmons in the middle, they might go with Frazier.

It comes down to a matter of which player would give you more? Frazier as a pass rusher or Foote as a coverage guy in the nickel.
I would probably lean toward Foote in that, because of his experience.

But Woodley will play.

Anonymous said...

Dale,

Just wondered if you could clear something up about Ben's study habits. I keep hearing 2 different stories one that he is a filmhound and two that he is "lazy" when it comes to breaking down film.

Thanks again for all the great updates.

Dale Lolley said...

I don't think he's exactly a film hound, nor do I think he's lazy.
I think he puts in the amount of time necessary. It may not be as much as say, Peyton Manning, does. But he puts his time in.

Anonymous said...

Dale,

I know BR is "a franchise qb", but the fact is he is hurt and it's obvious even to fans like me. He's lost zip on his ball and he's just making bad throws. He is costing the team wins with his poor play.

It's not like the Steelers don't have a competent back up QB. There is no reason Leftwich couldn't start a few games right now.

I don't think it says much about Tomlin as a coach that he's stubbornly sticking with a QB that is not giving his team the best chance to win at the moment.

Both Tomlin and Ben have to recognize the situation as it is. BR has to be sat down until his arm and his head get better. And I don't want to hear about how many tears Ben cried today after the game.

Anonymous said...

Hey, Dale.
Any word on the length of McFadden's absence? I'm really tired of seeing Deshea get beat by average WR's.