What will be our won-loss record without Ben?

[hawaiiansteeler]

hopefully it's only 4 games, but let's assume the worst case scenario of 6 games:

@ Home vs Baltiwhore Ratbirds

@ SD Dischargers

@ Home vs Arizona Turdinals

@ KC Chefs

@ Home vs Cincy Bungholes

@ Home vs Oakland Traitors

[fansince'76]

No worse than 5-4, hopefully. Anything worse and we'll be seriously behind the 8 ball. It's imperative that we win the Ravens and Bengals games. Gotta have those division games first and foremost. Having four of the six games at home will hopefully help a bit.

And I'd be happy as a pig in shit if we were 6-3 after that stretch.

[86WARD]

I'm thinking 5-4 in your scenario, but I wouldn't be all that shocked if Ben missed more than 6 weeks...

[tube517]

0-6 and then a Fire Sale like da Bears

Colbert, Tomlin, Haley, Fichtner, Butler, Mann, Lake, Saxon all fired.

Danny Smith retained (sorry FS76 and 86Ward)

Jarvis Jones named Captain of the defense

Dri Archer and Landry Jones co-captains of the offense.

Art II sells the team to Donald Trump

[cold-hard-steel]

Vick gets knocked out of first game by a S.P.C.A. fanatic and Laundry takes over for the loss.Then we sign Tim Tebow and go 5-1 over that span.

[Steelman]

The good news is 4 of the 6 are home games. Unfortunately the two away games are either on the west coast or at Arrowhead so I'm chalking up those as definite losses.

If we split the next 6 I'd be very happy.

[teegre]

I think that the bone bruise will actually be bad enough that he should be out for 8 games.

I fear that he will come back after 4 games, and try to tough it out... and play like shit and/or prolong the injury.

So, I'm hopping that he misses 6 games, and that when he comes back, he only prolongs the 8-week recovery by one game (9 games total), meaning that by game 10, he is back to normal.

So, in those first 6 games, I could see Vick doing enough, and the rest of the team getting a bunker mentality, to go 4-2. The next three games with a gimpy BB, they could go 1-2 or 2-1. Then, they do not lose another game the rest of the season.

[86WARD]

0-6 and then a Fire Sale like da Bears

Colbert, Tomlin, Haley, Fichtner, Butler, Mann, Lake, Saxon all fired.

Danny Smith retained (sorry FS76 and 86Ward)

Jarvis Jones named Captain of the defense

Dri Archer and Landry Jones co-captains of the offense.

Art II sells the team to Donald Trump

I would settle for keeping Danny Smith if Munchak came with him...

[tube517]

I think that the bone bruise will actually be bad enough that he should be out for 8 games.

I fear that he will come back after 4 games, and try to tough it out... and play like shit and/or prolong the injury.

So, I'm hopping that he misses 6 games, and that when he comes back, he only prolongs the 8-week recovery by one game (9 games total), meaning that by game 10, he is back to normal.

So, in those first 6 games, I could see Vick doing enough, and the rest of the team getting a bunker mentality, to go 4-2. The next three games with a gimpy BB, they could go 1-2 or 2-1. Then, they do not lose another game the rest of the season.

Kind of like that 2011 49ers game when the lights went out...Ben just was not completely healed.

[steelreserve]

I'm thinking he'll be out through the bye week realistically, so 7 games is more likely. Probably something like:

- Play dumbshit conservative offense and lose to the ravens 20-3; Vick looks like crap; give him a mulligan because of the lack of time to prepare (2-2)

- Beat the crap out of the Chargers and Vick looks great; gets injured on meaningless play in the third quarter; Jones comes in and we barely hang on (3-2)

- We fool ourselves into thinking Jones will be OK because he finished the last game. Jones gets start against Arizona with Vick theoretically available in case of emergency, but he's not going to actually play unless Jones gets injured. Jones plays the whole game and we get shut out and see how bad he really is. (3-3)

- Jones was so bad that Vick comes back against the Chiefs despite not being 100%. We win because Alex Smith sucks, probably on some key turnover in the 4th quarter. (4-3) Someone like Chad Henne or Derek Anderson becomes available but we refuse to sign him.

- Vick tries to play against the Bengals but they announce that he re-aggravated whatever injury in pregame warmups, so Jones plays the whole game and barely gets us two field goals on drives where we started out with great field position. Murphy comes in for a couple series to run a Randle El style trick offense and we actually move the ball and get another touchdown and maybe a FG. Bengals play like crap so we stay in the game but lose 20-16. We have one more chance to win on the last possession, but Jones makes one of the most idiotic mistakes of all-time and is booed off the field. (4-4)

- The other QBs look like such crap that Ben tries to come back a week early against the Raiders. He's not ready, plus it's the Raiders, so of course we play like dogshit. 23-13 loss and we don't manage a TD until the final 5 minutes of the game. They stubbornly keep Ben in until the final whistle; he throws a wounded-duck interception to end the game because he can't plant his feet right. People are ready to write off the season now. (4-5)

- Vick is ready to come back and it's the Browns, so we destroy them like 35-3 and Vick throws 4 TD passes. Finish 5-5 and Ben comes back after the bye.

[hawaiiansteeler]

I see Vegas has the Ratbirds currently favored by 2.5 points.

the Steelers are great home underdogs, hopefully the team will rally around Vick and put another nail into the Ratbirds' coffin...

[Rotorhead]

4-2

@ Home vs Baltiwhore Ratbirds - W (Improving Def gets this one)

@ SD Dischargers - W (Shazier returns and Rivers continues his INT fest)

@ Home vs Arizona Turdinals - L (they are playing well right now)

@ KC Chefs - L (This will be close just because the KC Off is not much better than STL)

@ Home vs Cincy Bungholes - W (Ben Returns and just deals with the discomfort)

@ Home vs Oakland Traitors - W

[steelreserve]

I see Vegas has the Ratbirds currently favored by 2.5 points.

the Steelers are great home underdogs, hopefully the team will rally around Vick and put another nail into the Ratbirds' coffin...

I don't see us rallying around anything. I see the offense turtling up because that's what they always do with backup quarterbacks, and it takes getting the shit kicked out of them in order to realize that you have to at least try to run a normal offense or it doesn't work. We've got the tools to win this game, but we will probably sit on them. we'll be lucky to get a win.

[fansince'76]

I don't see us rallying around anything. I see the offense turtling up because that's what they always do with backup quarterbacks, and it takes getting the shit kicked out of them in order to realize that you have to at least try to run a normal offense or it doesn't work. We've got the tools to win this game, but we will probably sit on them. we'll be lucky to get a win.

I keep trying to remind myself that we damn near beat a Ravens team that was far superior to the current one on the road with Dennis Dixon, a shitty OL and nowhere near the skill players we have now...

[teegre]

Kind of like that 2011 49ers game when the lights went out...Ben just was not completely healed.

That is EXACTLY what I'm thinking.

[ALLD]

W-L doesn't matter. We are here to make sure Brown gets his 5 and 50.

[Psycho Ward 86]

L vs. the Ravens

W vs. the Chargers

L vs. the Cardinals

L vs. the Chiefs

W vs. the Bengals

W vs. the Raiders

I'm going to predict Ben comes back after 5 weeks and rushes it and gives us another scare early on with his knee injury

[tube517]

W-L doesn't matter. We are here to make sure Brown gets his 5 and 50.

Very true.

Also, to make sure Dri Archer gets his career KO average to 12.5 and for Jarvis Jones to tackle air on every defensive snap.

[hawaiiansteeler]

Very true.

Also, to make sure Dri Archer gets his career KO average to 12.5

wouldn't Archer have to average 25 yards per kickoff return from now on then?