There are football fans and there are Steelers fans, there is in fact a distinct difference. This is in no way an attempt to bash either side of the coin, that's not who I am. A Steelers fan is blindly loyal, and I absolutely love that, the passion the city of Pittsburgh shows towards the Steelers is, in my opinion, unparalleled.
Being a football fan doesn't mean you can't be loyal, you can, and there is nothing wrong with it. However, a small sect of people have the ability to be a fan, yet still remain critical of the Steelers. A lot of people don't like this particular type of fan. I do, "cuz I are one".
It may seem like I hate the Steelers at times, I don't, my house is a testament to that, you can't walk 5 steps without finding something black and gold. I can say I'm not overly happy with the way the team is being ran. Monday night made this abundantly clear.
The QB
20/37 251 yards, 1TD 1 INT
Anyone else think Ben is on the verge of a meltdown. A coordinator that can't call a game, a running game giving him no support, a line hiving him no time, and a receiving corps that gives him no support. I'm not saying Ben didn't play bad, some of his throws were horrible. I think it's a matter of him knowing that even if he plays his absolute best, it's likely not going to be enough. Ben will not make it through this entire season, and while I don't think it is his last by any means, I truly believe this year will cut 2-3 years off his career.
The *cough* running game
Jones 10-37yds, Redman 3-4yds, Dwyer 1-2yds
Every Pittsburgh sports blogger is going to cover this subject, so I'm not going in depth on it. Redman needs to go, Jones needs to have the playbook glued to his hands this week, and hopefully Dwyer can get back into the swing of things. LeVeon Bell better not suck..
Receivers and TE's
Brown 6-57yds, Sanders 5-78yds, Cotchery 3-59yds,Paulson 3/49yds, Moye 1-1yd 1TD
While the numbers don't look horrible, they are deceiving, most of the damage was done against Cincinnati's prevent D. Brown is a #2 receiver, Sanders isn't, Cotchery is a solid 3/4 guy. That's what we're dealing with now. I don't believe Wheaton is a #1, but he needs a chance to prove me wrong. Moye took advantage of his shot, don't expect to see him get many more.
David Paulson is a 7th round pick, we should never forget that. Don't rush Heath Miller back, let him be 100% for a few weeks, any of you who follow me on Twitter, saw my analysis on Miller. At this point it would be like putting a band-aid on a bullet wound. Miller is a good player, but he's not going to single-handedly right the ship.
The D line/Line backers
0 sack 0 TFL 127 rush yds all.
They aren't great as a unit, but I can't say they were horrible. Jarvis Jones is a monster, Woodley played well. Kiesel showed a few flashes, outside of that, relatively quiet night. Too many 2nd/3rd and shorts to let Tricky Dicky's Scheme (try to) be effective. At what point do we officially end the Heyward and Hood experiments?
The Secondary
O int, 2 tfl, 280 yards allowed
We are lucky Andy Dalton sucks, I can't put it any less bluntly, an above average QB would have killed us last night, Taylor played as well as anyone can against AJ Greene(6-41 0td). Gay played like Gay. Our Nickel and Dime backs were Shamarko Thomas and Robert Golden, I didn't expect much, and I wasn't disappointed.
Troy is playing like Troy again, At first I was of the mind set that this was an anomaly. After last night, I'm going to admit I was wrong. If Troy can stay healthy he will firmly re-entrench himself as the best safety in the NFL.
The all important conclusion
There it is, if it sounds overly negative, that's what I was going for. Through 8 quarters of football, the Steelers have shown me absolutely nothing that makes me think that this team is anything but 6-10. Cincinnati had better players who made better plays, plain and simple.
This was my recap, I'd love to hear what you thought of it, I am always up for a good debate, @brumistheshow on twitter. Thank you for reading
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