The Steelers are treating this as a regular work week - albeit with five times the media – as Mike Tomlin had said.
Wednesday was a normal practice day, though a number of players sat out, including Ben Roethlisberger, Hines Ward, Aaron Smith, Deshea Townsend, Patrick Bailey, Justin Hartwig, Mewelde Moore and Willie Parker.
For Roethlisberger, Townsend, Smith and Parker, Wednesdays is a normal day off - a veteran's day off as I call it. Hines Ward is usually included in that group, but he's actually nursing a knee injury this week.
The others who sat out Wednesday are injured as well.
© The crush of ticket requests and such is great on these players, but usually abates toward the end of the week as players let people know they don't get a bunch of tickets for free. Yes, they have to pay as well for anything above the two they normally get.
You can imagine the friends and family that come out of the woodwork for something like this.
But pulling a Nancy Reagan and just saying no is probably the best tact to take. If you get tickets for one friend or family member and not another, I'm sure it can lead to hard feelings.
© The worst thing about covering a team that reaches this point - at least for the guys who cover the team regularly - is the crush of national media that descends.
Suddenly, guys you've spoken privately with all season long are no longer available even for a quick word.
9 comments:
The Cards are very healthy right now so I hope we can get healthy as well.
Of, course its easy for the Cards to be healthy since they took most of the season off and played a crappy schedule.
I really don't wanna see us lose to a 9 and 7 team. Can't believe the NFC just fell apart in the playoffs.
Dale,
I wanted to ask what you thought of Timmons and his blitzes against Baltimore. Despite blowing right through the line, he has completely stonewalled by McGahee several times. It seems to me that he was showing waaaaay too early that he was coming and McGahee just sat and waited. He either needs to develop his bull rush manuver, learn to spin, or delay how he shows his blitz.
On the flip side, maye LeBeau will use that to his advantage. Have Timmons blow through obviously showing it, and bring an extra LB or Corner from the other side.
Either way, Timmons is about 85% of the way to having a MONSTER impact on this team. But I do wonder if he'll ever play strictly inside in a 3-4 base set.
Timmons' game is speed. He doesn't have a lot of pass rush moves. I don't know that he was "stonewalled" by McGahee several times. McGahee got just enough of him to allow Flacco to sidestep.
Warner will get rid of the ball in those situations when he sees the blitz coming up the middle.
if his game is speed, can you whisper in his ear this week to try and run AROUND the blocker?
I agree his best Asset is his speed, but if they are going to blitz him up the middle like they did against Baltimore, he needs to learn a manuveur or they need to blitz someone else up the middle. Really all Baltimore had to do was have their guard slide over, sure Hampton/Smith would have gotten free, but they wouldn't have had the chance at the QB like Timmons does. Though really letting McGahee just stand there and wait did the trick. Timing it and disguising it better will go a long way for him.
Since we are on the topic, do you expect the Steelers to hold back from their blitzes to drop more or try to get the pressure early and see if Warner beats it? I'm betting on the latter.
i have a feeling we might see the zone blitz this game, drop some usually blitzing LBs or rushing ends back to hopefully try and cause some problems when he tries to dump off with those short routes. I have a feeling were going to see timmons alot more than foote also.
correct me if im wrong but i dont think they've played a 3-4 defense in the playoffs. (philly might use a variation, they like to blitz) and especially not one like ours.
You mean "tack" not "tact." I guess you don't do a lot of sailing...
;-)
Yeah.. Not a lot of sailing here either. My Sunday are in front of the T.V. watching the STEELERS. When I am out on the H2O in my X-Star in the off season I'm the one laughing at the gooons in the sail boats.
Zeke
Has Rashard Mendenhall been reprimanded for not being on the sideline during games or is this just another rumor?
Nothing has happened with Mendenhall that I'm aware of. He has been largely missing in action. I don't know if there's some kind of family problem or what. I'm sure I'll hear something at the Super Bowl.
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