Minkah is our first round draft pick next year. Just hold up a photo of him when it comes time, and know that the pick was not wasted. Plus we got to have him for most of a year ahead of time. :-P
Minkah is our first round draft pick next year. Just hold up a photo of him when it comes time, and know that the pick was not wasted. Plus we got to have him for most of a year ahead of time. :-P
I’m not sure where the best place was to post this but here goes: I agree with others saying teams are going load up the box moving forward this season daring us to throw.
so biggest challenge will be moving the ball and scoring. We’re missing a field stretcher at WR to open up juju and the other receivers. Unless moncrief or Johnson step up big the rest of the season will be a struggle. Can we pick someone up? I know Bryant is suspended and AB is in self imposed exile - but we are really missing that kind of talent. Even with our inexperience at QB, I think a field stretcher is the difference between 10-6 and 8-& or 7-9.
defense looks good
I really thought Holton could be the deep speed guy but it's just not showed up in the field. I really think they should find a way to get him more reps to get comfortable with Mason or Duck.
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I’m really curious to see what the offensive game plan is against the Dolphins.
On the one hand, it’s a game we’re most likely to win without getting cute. If the offense plays conservative, mistake free football we probably give ourselves the best statistical chance of winning because there are less variables to let a lesser team get lucky.
On the other hand, given how bad the Dolphins are, this is probably our best opportunity to see what Rudolph can do and take some chances, since we can probably overcome a few mistakes.
So what would you do? Just do the smartest thing to get the W or give the offense the opportunity to try things, and possibly work out the bugs in the passing game that might yield bigger dividends down the road?
Personally, I think I’d take some chances and give our young QB the opportunity to grow. Because if we can’t beat the Dolphins, even with a few miscues, then what chance do we really have this season anyway?
The Dolphins will be a tough game.
1) They are still a professional football team. Tanking or no.
2) They own the Steelers 2020 first round pick. Beating the Steelers makes that pick even better. The Steelers are trying to salvage their season, the Dolphins don't give a shit.
They will show up and play their best game all season. Hopefully the Steelers' Monday Night magic shows through.
EDIT: Nevermind. Old post
Tua just got his ankle busted against Tennessee. This just made Miami's tanking even more complicated.
Unless you lived in the Pittsburgh area, it was always a treat to watch a Steelers game in the 1980's. I think the fans bitched less back then. No web. No NFL Sunday ticket or bars showing the games
The Dolphins currently leading Buffalo 14-9 at halftime.
Josh Allen may have a cannon of an arm and sling it downfield, but what good is it when you can't hit anything for shit. 6-15 for 90 yards. Maybe the Steelers should consider trading Rudolph for Allen in the future.
Agreed. Knowing what we knew about Minkah at the time of the deal and our positional needs, there is nobody we'd have wanted more than him in the first round. I'll even put on my and add "obviously". Had we kept our pick and used it on a DB just as good as Minkah, everyone would be raving about how awesome a pick he turned out to be. And the bonus (as you point out) is that we have him now.
"You've heard people brag about 'being in the zone'. They don't know what the Hell being in the zone is about. I played in the NFL for 15 years and I was only in the zone that one time." - "Mean" Joe Greene on the 1974 playoff victory over Oakland
I mentioned earlier that the Dolphins need to be watched out for, but here come the Colts too. 4-2 and in sole possession of 1st place in the AFC South. Indy is starting to get it together under Brissett. They may go into Heinz and kick the Steelers in the face.
The once "winnable" schedule just got a helluva lot more difficult.
Here is the thing. There are no "winnable" games on this team's schedule. The 2019 Pittsburgh Steelers are the "winnable" game for every team on their schedule.
Fair or not. Good to really good defense or not -- as soon as the other team puts on the tape of the offense, they are going to say "we got this".
Perhaps, but what I also found interesting is how well they played against the Chargers and the Bengals. I hate to say it, but maybe there's a little more on Ben for that record than we thought. That wouldn't, of course, excuse the defensive letdowns we've seen at times (unless they were on the field an extraordinary long time). But, I wonder going forward just how well we'll do against such teams.
Even the Bengals. It isn’t so much that I don’t think the Steelers can and will win a decent number of games the rest of the season, it is that I think every team is thinking they can beat them.
I actually don’t think the Dolphins or Bengals will beat the Steelers, but I wouldn’t be totally shocked if they did. Currently, the team has almost zero margin for error. One mistake on either side of the ball, and they might be in a hole too big for a limited and deliberate offense to overcome.
The Steelers lost to the 6-10 Broncos and the 4-12 Raiders last year with Ben and Antonio Brown in the lineup. Both losses proved critical to the team missing the playoffs last season. I don't think that makes much of a difference.
At least this season, the Steelers are guaranteed to be just as successful at the 2017 and 2018 teams, who didn't win a single playoff game.
Predicted results are only as good as the underlying data & assumptions, but FWIW FiveThirtyEight projects a 7-9 record with the only projected easy win being Miami next Monday night. And that is based primarily upon stats with Josh Rosen rather than Fitzpatrick at QB for the Dolphins.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com...l-predictions/
That seems more than fair since so far the Steelers have beaten the 0-7 Bengals and a 2-5 Chargers team that is having a season from hell.
At some point Fichtner needs to take the training wheels off for Mason since this season is about whether the Steelers decide to lay out the $$$ for a long term contract for Rudolph, not some magical deep playoff run.
If that is impossible since the offensive scheme is little more than relying on Ben to make stuff happen then the Steelers are in a bind in what to do about Mason, since my guess is Ben plays in 2020 and the Steelers presumably would prefer to sign Mason to any long term deal prior to the start of the last year of his contract in the 2021 season.
The training wheels have been taken off of Mason since Cincy. Mason is budget Brady. A risk-adverse quarterback who doesn't want to play hero and is perfectly okay taking whatever is there. He is not a deep shot gunslinger. Now is this what the Steelers want for their offense, then go ahead. Randy Fichtner wants to go deep (Ben's puppet), so something isn't working or matching up here.At some point Fichtner needs to take the training wheels off for Mason since this season is about whether the Steelers decide to lay out the $$$ for a long term contract for Rudolph, not some magical deep playoff run.
It’s amazing how many people here seem to have a complete picture of Rudolph’s current and future potential, based on three NFL starts. Can’t we just see if and how he develops. He certainly has the “field general” skills.
The Ravens winning yesterday didn’t help us out any.
In two weeks, at worst, they will be 5-3... plus, one game up on us in the tie-breakers. Crud.
The Dolphins? I’m confused who the “they” is. (My apologies.)
My intention was to say that Chase Young might be the only player that the Steelers would value over Minkah Fitzpatrick... and the Steelers won’t have a “top 2” pick (so, the Steelers have zero shot at getting him).
BTW (not necessarily to you, 86WARD)... the QB class is looking more & more average. Tua is hurt. Fromm has a whopping 37 passing yards. Herbert has looked inaccurate. Yep... gimme Rudolph & Fitzpatrick.
I am trying to get at what it seems the folks at 538 are also driving at. If you look at your schedule and don't see a great deal of easy to predict "wins" where you are the heavy favorite, then that means you are the "easily winnable" game on every other team's schedule.
That doesn't mean that you will not win a bunch of games. It just means you are the plucky underdog with no room for error.