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Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Wednesday news, notes

The Steelers looked to be in pretty good shape from an injury standpoint on Wednesday.

Marcus Gilbert, Steve McLendon and Shamarko Thomas were all back at practice. Gilbert and McLendon were back at their usual spots in the starting lineup.

An interesting exchange took place when head coach Mike Tomlin walked through the locker room following practice.

Tomlin yelled over to Mike Adams as he walked by him, telling him to keep "his arrow pointed up," and not to let his lack of a defined role get him down.

It was almost as if he was giving the offensive tackle a pat on the back - as he also did on Tuesday at his press conference - while telling him he was headed to the bench.

Part of being a coach is knowing which guys need a kick in the butt and which ones need a softer touch.

Adams seems like a softer touch kind of guy judging by the way he moped through training camp when he wasn't given a chance to win a starting job.

@ The Steelers have gone with a receiver-by-committee approach in the past two games instead and it's working pretty well.

While Antonio Brown has done his usual damage, catching 19 passes for 222 yards and two touchdowns, Markus Wheaton, Lance Moore, Martavis Bryant and Darrius Heyward-Bey have combined to catch 18 balls for 257 yards and four touchdowns.

@ Upon further review, James Harrison was given his sack back on Wednesday.

Harrison lost a sack he should have had on Sunday when Troy Polamalu came in and knocked the ball free from Andrew Luck's hand as the quarterback was being dropped from behind by Harrison.

Because of the forced fumble, the stats crew gave the sack to Polamalu, even though it was obvious Harrison had made first contact and was in the process of taking Luck to the ground.

That was corrected Wednesday and it gave Harrison his 15th two-sack game as a member of the Steelers. Only LaMarr Woodley and Jason Gildon had more.


8 comments:

STEELCAN said...

While the "reciever by committee groupings is fine, make no mistake about it, this offence will be at its best when Bryant/Wheaton (hopefully) solidify the #2 & #3 spots. Giving the Steelers a young dynamic trio.

Anonymous said...

It still remains to be seen whether Beachum is the LT long term. I could see a future where Gilbert slides to LT and Adams mans the RT spot.

Theosa said...

A fair question to ask is why change the OL and DL that contributed to back to back Steelers wins for the first time this season?

Easley said...

I'm with Theosa on this.

Dale Lolley said...

Because Gilbert is better?
I might add that he also "contributed" to the first win.

qwikdoc said...

I suspect Gilbert will be on a short leash against Dumervil considering what went down the last time we played Baltimore. It would be smart to put Spaeth next to Gilbert quite a bit on Sunday.

Theosa said...

Spaeth I think is questionable. Let’s see how Gilbert plays, he has been inconsistent.

Anonymous said...

From what I have been reading, Gilbert feels like he has a score to settle with the Ravens so let him at them!