Ben Roethlisberger was named AFC Offensive Player of the Week for the second time in the month of October.
Roethlisberger has a good chance to also be named offensive player of the month in October after completing 114 of 176 passes for 1,360 yards, 11 touchdowns and three interceptions in five games last month as the Steelers went 4-1.
That's a passer rating of 102.0 for those of you keeping track at home.
© Quote of the day came from the Ravens' Terrell Suggs via conference call with the Pittsburgh media.
Suggs, when questioned about the ferocity of the rivalry with the Steelers said, "F$#% it. Let's do it."
Suggs also called Heinz Field his, "Madison Square Garden," and several times referred to getting his p@$$ hot, particularly when talking about Hines Ward.
© The Steelers will wear their throwback uniforms this week. Maybe the Ravens can wear their throwbacks as well. Oh wait, they already do.
Then again, perhaps they could wear some old Colts unis.
© The Steelers released nose tackle Elisha Joseph from their practice squad and signed wide receiver Jamar Newsome.
Wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders will be dealing with the death of his mother all week and, with Ward still limited with an ankle injury, the Steelers needed an extra receiver to practice.
© The Steelers listed a number of players as limited in practice Wednesday. Some were much less limited than others.
28 comments:
Wouldn't the Ravens throwback jerseys would be Browns uniforms?
what's the deal with sanders knee? is it an issue or is he expected to be fine for the game?
also, what happens to the raven's defense if you try to spread them out with 4 wr's. who comes off the field? thanks.
so, the steelers offense looked great against the pats. but, i just wandered how much that had to do with the steelers offense or the pats poor defense.
i averaged out the pats 6 other games and came to the following stat line for their opponents:
23 rushes - 101 yards - 4.3 per rush.
26 completions - 39 attempts - 332 yards - 2 td's - 1 int. that equates to roughly 8.4 yards per attempt.
average yards given up per game was 433. the steelers were not far off these numbers and it makes me wonder how good the steelers offense actually is and how bad the pats defense actually is as well.
Dale how many times will Renagade be played Sunday?
Remember that the Patriots were ahead in most of those games, so opponents were constantly attacking. Look at the Steelers offensive numbers since the opening loss at Baltimore, that's more telling.
As for Sanders' knee, I don't think he has a knee injury. I think Tomlin was trying to keep the issue of his mother private and came up with the phantom knee injury. They don't expect him to be here this week while he deals with the death of his mother.
He just didn't count on Sanders Tweeting the news.
As for Renegade, they'll probably play it on every possession.
sorry dale, i don't buy it. since losing to baltimore we have the following:
beat seattle and indy. two horrible teams with bad defenses. indy has worst ranked defense in the league and steelers only put up 23 pts.
lost to texans. held to 10 points by a top 5 defense.
beat titans. offense played well this game against an above average defense.
beat jags. one good half. held to 17 points by top 10 defense.
beat cards and pats. offense did well against two horrible defenses. pats ranked dead last in yards per game. cards near last in yards per game and points per game.
the steelers have yet to score more than 17 points against a top 10 defense and are 1- 2 in those games. the win coming against an offensively challenged jaguars team.
this game will be a true test of how good the steeler's offense actually is.
I would bet that when the dust settles the Steelers offense will be a middle-of-the-pack scoring offense that puts up the occasional 38 & the occasional 6. This is what the Ben-Bruce offense is.
As far as this week, hopefully Starks-over-J. Scott makes a huge difference on Suggs. He'll make his plays, sure, but we can't let him dominate. Ngata: I don't know, try to goad him into punching someone and getting thrown out of the game? Either that or maybe Pouncey being healthier with double-teaming...
Yup, huge test for the offense. Like most games, it's up to Ben (assuming he gets decent blocking, which I think he will).
What did the Ravens do against the Jaguars, Marc?
And before you give me, "They lost on the road to them," realize that both of the Steelers losses against "top-10 defenses" that you mention were both road games as well.
I don't buy any top-10 defense stuff at this time of the year. Cincinnati and Cleveland have top-10 defenses right now. But who have they played? Nobody.
dale,
you're right in pointing out that the raven's offense played poorly against the jags defense. it's a good defense that also shutdown the steeler's offense in the second half and limited them to 17 points.
i looked at the numbers, as you suggested, and it was pretty clear. the steelers have yet to show their offense can be successful against a really good defense.
i'm not making it up and it's really not subjective. they played the games and the results are definitive.
the probability is high the steelers offense will not fare well against the ravens and they will need a defensive score to win the game.
I agree with "middle of the pack". But, that's always been good enough to beat the Ravens in the past.
The light seems to flicker on every once in a while with Ben, but it always flickers out at some point. I've never heard an interview from Ben or BA where they said anything other than they were most interested in getting "big chunks" of yardage in a single play.
Even after the Pats game, Ben stated that they planned on having some big passing plays, but the Pats were just giving them the underneath stuff.
I can settle for them wanting to throw the bomb, but taking what the defense gives them. As long as they aren't trying to force it every down, it's ok to try the long ball once in a while.
How are the Ravens consistently going to score against the Pittsburgh defense when they haven't played well on the road all season?
Their only road win was at St. Louis.
It comes down to which QB is better. I'll take Roethlisberger all day long in that matchup.
Anon. says this:
Even after the Pats game, Ben stated that they planned on having some big passing plays, but the Pats were just giving them the underneath stuff.
I agree...to a point. Yes, the Pats gave them the underneath stuff all day. The problem with this offense and BA is twofold.
1. When they aren't willing to take it and keep throwing it down the field, even when it isn't there. Of Note - they do this running the ball as well. They my have 9 guys to the right and 2 to the left, but we just keep trying to run right because that is what we want to do.
2. When the gameplan doesn't include it as a strategy. BA obviously planned to use Heath and the underneath stuff to expose a weakness in the Pats. There are games where we have never even thought about that. This week we used it as our running game, but many times, we forget about it.
it most likely will come down to which QB plays better, but you are getting away from my point that the steelers offense is not as good as it seems. you must take into consideration the defenses they have faced.
with that said, the steeler's QB accounted for 5 turnovers last time these two teams met. the raven's QB threw for 224 yards, 7.7 yards per attempt, 3 td's and zero turnovers. not to mention the team rushing for 170 yards on 31 tries.
i'm not saying the ravens will go wild like they did in week 1, but they certainly are capable of scoring consistently against the steelers. it's up to the steelers to prove week 1 was a fluke.
Ben is of course better than Flacco, but Flacco is capable of beating us. We can't count on him to stink as if it was a replay of the Jags game against him. We have to make him stink by getting pressure on him...with third stringers at LB? That's the challenge. Ben will most likely have Ngata & Suggs in his face fairly often even with an improved O-line.
Dale, How realistic is it that we might see Keisel playing some OLB with Heyward lined up in front of him?
I agree the steelers can either beat team deep or with a short passing game.I DON'T SEE JOE FLACCO BEATING US.Dale your opines which outside linebacker plays this week. We Worilds make an appearance this week?
Not very Henry. The Steelers will have more than enough linebackers.
I expect James Harrison to be cleared to play on Friday.
Dale do you think Harrison will play if he gets cleared? Did he practice at all this week?
Thanks Dale nice to have one of the OLB back,did Worlids et onto the field that would be hugh if we cannot something from him. Will we see Allen a lot this week in the secondary
I can't tell exactly what I saw in practice. Against the rules.
I just expect Harrison to get approval to play.
Agree with you throughout this post here Dale, Ben is a superior QB playing some of his best football right now. Pittsburgh has a defense too, and we might be bringing out some lumber we've had in the shed for a while. I mean Harrison, maybe even Woodley.
Dale - did they run the wildcat in practice ?
I take it Harrison was involved in their lone padded practice. How physical are those practices typically? Close to game type, or more like a walk thru?
Dale what you take on Worlids does he start this week?
dale do you think Worlds gets on the field sunday?
Dale,
Is there a concerted effort by the Steelers to confuse the Ravens about the injury situation this week?
It seems odd, first Farrior, Ward, Harrison, and Woodley are very likely out. Now it seems that Farrior, Ward, and Harrison are almost certain to play. Woodley, who knows?
I can't believe that this many players are all question marks. It seems like every reporter is certain he is right, but they are all saying something different.
Hopefully things aren't as confusing to the Steelers as they are to their fans, I'd like to see a game plan that is counting on healthy players.
Farrior is the only one that surprises me. Didn't they say a month? or perhaps it was could be a month could be this week
anyway, i hope they are healthy. But only really healthy, no need for slow linebackers trying to cover Rice
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