Though ESPN was reporting that Ed Reed will play for Baltimore, he's inactive.
James Harrison is active for the Steelers and will start.
Reed will miss his fourth consecutive game with a groin injury.
Harrison suffered a biceps injury in practice this week and was questionable. But he tested the water this morning and will give it a go.
Keenan Lewis, Carey Davis, Troy Polamalu, Kraig Urbik, Chris Kemoeatu, Sunny Harris and newly acquired Joey Galloway are down for the Steelers.
Justin Harper, Reed, Keith Fitzhugh - excuse me - Tavares Gooden, David Hale, Jared Gaither and Kelly Talavou are down for Baltimore.
Dannell Ellerbe will start at LB in place of Gooden. Oneil Cousins starts at RT with Michael Oher moving to the left side in place of Gaither.
Tom Zbikowski will continue to start in place of Reed.
For the Steelers, David Johnson will start at fullback in place of Davis. Tyrone Carter gets another start in place of Polamalu, while Deshea Townsend will start at cornerback in place of William Gay.
No hopes should be raised by this win. Clearly, neither team is especially good. Balt's defense is not what it was yet the Pgh offense still struggled getting only 2 FGs from possessions inside the 10 yd line. The Steelers benefitted from 11 penalties on Balt, many at opportune times for Pgh.
ReplyDeleteIt's nice BR made 4000+ yds for the season and Miller got the record for most catches ever by a TE, but the offense is still far too disjointed and dependent on playground football plays.
The defense is showing its age and was also helped by Balt's mostly vanilla offense.
This team needs a complete rebuild and asst coaches overhaul. Making the playoffs will only put off that day of reckoning
ridiculous...absolutely our hopes should be raised.
ReplyDeleteWe have a chance to make the playoffs and the way things are going at the time of posting this, all we need is to win next week and have Houston lose to NE. To say that missing the playoffs would be a good thing is naive and foolish.
Of course we need to rebuild some portions of our team and it's terribly inconsistent. Everyone knows there are problems, but we can take the ugly wins and still know that things need fixed.
Here's to having hope and making the playoffs and hopefully becoming the "worst" team to win a SB. I'm ok with that possibility.
So the team can't make the playoffs and still rebuild in the offseason? I think they realize they have plenty of warts and I don't think making the playoffs will make them forget any of that.
ReplyDeleteThat said, they're still a bit of a longshot. They got some help Sunday, but not all they needed.
Now, they'll be relying on Cincinnati and New England to win with pretty much nothing on the line.
Yeah...Indy hasn't didn't do us any favors. Philly is trying to give the game to Denver and I don't trust NE to try next week as opposed to getting some rest.
ReplyDeleteAnd Dale, my sentiments exactly, good teams (or rather good programs) win and rebuild as they win. It shouldn't take an awful Clevelandesque stretch to convince us to make changes.
Is it a fact that Polamalu will give it go next week? I am sure they know they will need to rebuild next season especially the defensive line and defensive secondary, but regardless I would pretty much love to see them in the playoffs, it happened once who's to say it won't happen again.
ReplyDeleteNo you don't have to go Cleveland to rebuild but you do have to do three things, you have to work younger players into the starting lineup, draft well, and manage the salary cap.
ReplyDeleteWe used to be the best at this, emphasis on used to be. This team has too many needs and too many older players with long term expensive deals. Not to mention the ensuing chaos we are going to have when we turn over alot of the coaching staff.
Next year doesn't bode well, particularly as there are a lot of teams that are as good as we are and a lot younger.
Farmer Fran
The front office gambled this group could win at least one more championship and they signed and/or kept older players that they should not have kept. Now they are stuck with veteran players and their long term contracts. It's not much different when Chuck Noll kept his 70s guys around past their primes.
ReplyDeleteThis group needs to be dismantled and rebuilt. It won't happen until and unless they miss the playoffs.
Only then will the front office realize they lost their bet.
And, the team needs to stop "redshirting" its draft choices and young players, too.
On a side note, the NFL won't do it, but Irsay needs to be heavily fined for basically throwing the game vs NYJ. Personally, I'd love to see Goodell tell them their antics will cost them all home playoff games. It's a disgrace that in a game with playoff implications all over the league, Indy treated it like a preseason game.
What long-term contracts are they "stuck" with? Seriously. Just because some of the deals signed were for three or four years, doesn't mean the team can't part ways cheaply with some players.
ReplyDeleteAnd half the starting lineup is either up this season or after next year.
As for not putting younger guys in the lineup, William Gay, Lawrence Timmons, Mike Wallace and Rashard Mendenhall all got serious playing time this season. Ziggy Hood and David Johnson have seen a good amount of time as well, as has Joe Burnett.
And they've been forced to start Ramon Foster three times.
That's a pretty good amount of young guys seeing serious playing time.
If you're starting too many young guys, you're probably not very good.