First and foremost today, my thoughts and bests wishes go out to Steelers running back coach Kirby Wilson who was burned in a fire in his home in Butler County early Friday morning.
According to sources, Wilson, 50, suffered burns on 30 to 50 percent of his body in the fire, which began in his kitchen.
Thankfully, the injuries are not considered life-threatening to Wilson, who has been with the Steelers since 2007.
© Maurkice Pouncey, who along with Troy Polamalu, was named a first-team All-Pro on Friday, will not play for the Steelers in Denver.
He has experienced some swelling in his injured ankle and did not practice at all this week.
Doug Legursky will get the start at center with Chris Kemoeatu at left guard.
LaMarr Woodley, Ben Roethlisberger, Brett Keisel and Polamalu will all play.
© It's strange, but I didn't think either Pouncey or Polamalu had outstanding seasons.
Don't get me wrong, Polamalu was still very disruptive, even though he only had two interceptions.
But to me, him being a first-team All-Pro – meaning he was the best at his position – seems a bit of a stretch, especially when Ed Reed was on the second team.
Pouncey being named to the first team, however, is a bit more strange. Pouncey's play wasn't nearly as good in 2011 as it was in 2010. He also missed some games.
I know offensive linemen often get chosen based on their reputation, but I didn't see Pouncey as the best center in the league this season.
© This week's game at Denver looks like a layup for the Steelers. It seems like a layup for the Steelers.
That probably means it won't be a layup, particularly on the road.
Don't get me wrong, I think the Steelers will win. But it won't be easy.
Outside of the opening loss at Baltimore, the Steelers have played up or down to their competition all season.
This week will probably be no different.
But a quarterback who completes just 46 percent of his passes isn't going to beat the Steelers.
Pittsburgh will control Denver's running game, especially with guard Chris Kuper out of the lineup, and force Tim Tebow into some third-and-long plays.
That will spell doom.
The Steelers offense has struggled of late with Ben Roethlisberger hobbled, but should be good enough against Denver's 20th-ranked defense, which will be playing without safety Brian Dawkins.
Take the Steelers to win, 17-6
15 comments:
Dale- Ed Reed hasnt done crap this year
Polamalu may not have had his best year but he was still one of the 2 best safeties in the league for sure
Thanks Dale and all the best to Kirby and his family after experiencing such a horrible fire.
Pouncey doesn't deserve the accolades he has received recently...I'm not sure he has even had a good season when he has played...then again when was the last time he played a full game? Sophomore slump?
I think this game will be played just like the Cleveland Browns games. We should win by a few TDs, but that is never the case.
Right now, this is NOT a Super Bowl caliber team, at least not from what was on display the last couple of weeks.
If Ben turns the ball over, Steelers lose.
If Ben doesn't turn the ball over, Steelers win.
(Granted, anyone can throw a bad pass now and then. I'm more talking about a distastrous meltdown like the first half vs. Jax in 2007, pick-sixes, waving the ball around waiting for Dumervil & Miller while trying to triple-pump people open, etc. That can't happen.)
yeah, agree with the assessment above. ed reed has done even less than polamalu this season. i think polamalu was pretty solid.
i'm cautiously optimistic about this game. the blueprint to beat the broncos is there, stelers just have to execute.
If we r in FG range, idiot Ben needs to not take a sack. We can probably win w just fgs
Over his career we have missed out on 50+ pts from Ben taking sacks and setting us back out of FG range
But I bet over the course of career, the Steelers have scored 100 plus pts. with him extending plays. Thats a trade off Im (and more impotantly) the Steelers are willing to take.
Dale,
I have to agree with your assessment of Polamalu and Pouncey. Both great players and both had a few shining moments but there were other lesser known players who were more productive. If I were to name one Steeler to the Pro Bowl this year it would be Brett Keisel. The guy played with a high motor, knocked down a ridiculous number of passes and plays at a relatively unknown position. If it weren't for his beard most people would completely overlook him.
I did not watch every Ravens game, but I saw at least half, and I didn't see Reed do anything in any of them except for the two picks in week 1, which were both thrown right to him by a QB who had what, 6 turnovers that day?
Don't quite understand the praise for Reed here. Polamalu only had two picks, but he was all over the place every game, messing with offenses.
I'll go with a really ugly 20-16 win
My biggest worry is that we're going to see Ben turn the ball over 2 or more times and let Denver in this game when they shouldn't be. I also see Tomlin thinking that Suisham can hit 50 yarders in Denver and expect him to miss at least one.
But in the end I think the Steelers D gets a score or at least a turnover close to the Texans endzone that will end up being the difference.
Its going to be as ugly of a plyoff win as you can get.
Well, if the Steelers win, off to NE they go. It might help that NE's OC is going to be trying to do 2 full times jobs, too.
I watched every ravens and steelers game this year
Polamalu was way better than Reed
If the Steelers win they travel to New England on SATURDAY Night! WTF!? Why wouldn't the Ravens game be on Saturday? Both the Ravens and the Texans will have had a full week off before the game. I know when the template for the playoffs are made the teams are unknown so it's hard to map this thing out but just like the NFL has the opportunity to adjust the schedule during the last week they should be able to do the same thing with the playoffs.
happened to the ravens last year visiting us too after their wildcard game. I really don't understand the mess here, sometimes they do it so everyone has a week off, sometimes it's like this year with two teams having 8 days till the next game and the other team 6 days
seems as if they do it randomly without thinking
I cant wait to see the package Galzer is reporting - Quinn and Tebow on the field at the same time.
I see that being a mess for Denver, UNLESS they are targeting Mundy and expecting him to leave his assignment on some kind of Tebow-reverse pass.
Sounds like a whole lot of desperate though.
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