Just a quick thought on the draft today and what our boys should do to keep our team getting better and better and making a run for number 7. First, I must say I can't wait to read everyday the thoughts of some of the regulars on this site. Great work by everyONE. Some of us will be right and some of us will be disappointed with our choices. Let's trust the FO that they know what needs to be done to keep us humming along. Now my thoughts: Many people, myself included couldn't stand the o-line last year and thought that would be our biggest need area. I have given that some long and hard thought, and I don't think we need to draft an o-lineman with the 1st pick. when you break it down, the o-line more than any other unit needs stablity and continunity more than any other, and we have had changes on our line for the last 3 years. Let's give these boys a full camp and a full year together and see what happens. If we draft an o-linemen is he really going to be that "good" that he starts from day one?(fourth year of changes on the line). Steeler football is first and foremost about D. that's where I think we should go.

1. D-line

2. corner

3.o-line

4. wr

5. DL

6 OL

7 CB/S

8.FB/RB

9.WR/KR

A-Train from Baltimore(I hate the ravens and they stank)

Can Blitz or somone help me with a question I have? I sick and tired of hearing from Sportscenter, mike and mike etc, about how many sacks we gave up this year. They all seem to think that putting that pressure on BB will cause him to have flashbacks because of the concussion he had. My thoughts seem to be that since the Pats game, our o-line has really been doing a credible job, except for the tenn. game. My own thoughts are that if I had to take a guess, I would say since that game our "Average" sacks per game has been between 2.5 and 3.5. If I'm not mistaken I don"t think the ravens were in the top five with sacks and WE led the AFC in sacks. Thoughts?

A-Train

It's great to be playing football in January with an excellent chance to go the bowl. I could not be more pleased with the season we have had. Considering the schedule and the injuries, to go 12-4, KUDOS to every single member of the Steelers. Something that I saw that got me to thinking a little outside the box, and I would like to hear your thoughts. I agree that BB is our qb, and I think that he is a very good qb, with the chance to be elite, so I;m not writing this to diss him. But maybe we have been a little to hard on BA and his offense. I went back yesterday and watched the skins game and Sunday's game, and I watched our offense and how they performed. Is it possible that lord byron is the right qb to run BA offense? After watching those tapes, I noticed a couple of things, the ball comes out very very fast, (we all know that BL windup is very long) but he seems to make his decison about where the ball is going quickly and if the #1 option is not there, he is looking for his check down receiver. Could it be that the o-line knows when BL is in the game that they don't have to HOLD their blocks as long? Thus reduced sacks. If BA's offense is based on passing and quick timing passes, then I think BL brings a whole different look to the offense. It just seemed like the whole offense had a quicker pace, and they looked crisper.

I didn't want to rain on the outstanding effort the whole team had sunday, but if BB is not 100%, I don't have a problem putting THIS offense in BL hands.

First and foremost season greetings and peace and blessings to the entire steeler nation.  I have been reading the posts the last few days about the o-line and I have posted before some of my thoughts but I have been thinking about this for a while so here goes. Maybe our problem goes way deeper than just this year's version of the o-line,maybe we have a problem that goes much deeper, that our talent on the line has not been good for a while now. In 2006, BB injury seson we were 8-8, I don't know how many sacks we had that year, but I know I was at the ravens 27-0 game and they sacked him 9 times. In 2007 fwp was leading the league in rushing until he broke his leg, (huh) but BB was sacked 40 something times, my point is those 2 years we had smith fanacea, simmons and starks,, last year we had 2 new members in colon and maham. I can think of 2 reasons for this, maybe our talent was not as good as we thought, or the coaching is all wrong. This year we can't run the ball or pass protect. Nation, we have many problems, do we wait another year to give this out fit another year of seasoning? Is it possible that the backs we have now just can't run between the tackles? Is Mendy the answer to that? Has he shown enough to be able to do it?

In my opinion, these guys are linemen, they should be able to do something fairly well. Is that pulling? is that trapping? Is that counters? Is that pancaking guys? Is that power blocking? One of the main problems is that we have not been able to find out what these guys do well and focus on that. If they can't do those things, then divise some plays to take advantage of their STRENGH. This falls squarely on the shoulders of BA and LZ. They are not creative THINKERS, and this may go down as wasting one of the best defensive teams in our history. The only guys that seem to hold their own is max, justin, and stapleton. It's to late in the season to start changing and experimenting with players. WE are best when we are able to play-action, if no team is worried about our rush, then we become one -dimenisional. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't see us making a long run in the big dance until we can run the ball. Please find a way.

Boy, what a great game(last night) if you are a steeler fan, that was the MOST complete game that I have seen them play all year. Before I go any further, the game ball goes to the O-LINE grade A+. That's going on 3 games where BB has had time to throw, and 2 games in a row with no sacks, if I'm not mistaken. Could they be possibly coming together?  Every other area of the team, I would give them a  A. what a total team effort on the road against a quality team(?). Even BA called a great game. I'm off to watch the game again to see if I missed some things, or if my eyes were playing tricks on me. This win has the ingredients of  putting some nice wins together down the strecth. This is Steeler football. Could we be peaking at just the right time?  Let's take care of Dallas next week. One at a time baby!

A-Train from Baltimore

Just some thoughts on Big Ben as we head down the stretch towards the division title and the playoffs. I think we are would agree that BB is in the upper thrid of the best QB out there right now. I think the thing that keeps BB from reaching that Elite status is his decision making during big games. I take nothing away from him, because I would rather have him than not have him on my team. But the first 3 years of his career he was under wraps and managed the game and we didn't do to shabby. Take out 06, and his record was unmatched. Once BA became the OC we were told that BB would have more control over the offense to call his own plans or to change the plans if he didn't like it or saw something different by the defense. Well after 2 years I'm not quite sure he has taken the next step where he understands the tempo of the game, what's going on in the game and what is working and what's not working. I understand that he wants to make the big play, but taking what the defense offers you sometimes is so much better than the quick strike. I can't tell you how much joy I have felt the last 3 games, it's nothing I enjoy more than a 80 yard 10-14 play drive, and I have seen a few of them the last few games. What I mean by the feel of the game is, the most unforgiveable play so far this season was the colt game, you know what I'm talking about, 3 rd down and 2 and we throw, well Ben needs to know that he that pass is not there or if that's not the play to be called CHANGE IT! That one play changed the whole course of the game. I think if BB can make a few adjustments or changes in his game we will be fine come Jan. #1 take more 3 to 5 step drops, and if the # 1 or 2 is not open CHECK down to 83 or 21, #2 step up quicker in the pocket, this will allow him to run (which he has finally begun to do or throw it in the stands. #3 get rid of the ball quicker, this will allow our O-line to not try to hold their blocks as long and maybe just maybe we can start having some success protecting BB. If you tell someone they can't do something long enough than it becomes real.(like our O-line can't block) Good luck tomorrow #7, take us to the promise land. I'm counting on you.

A-Train from B-More

Just a few random thoughts about coach tomlin and our coaching staff. I noticed this a little last year(hard to remember exact instances)  and much more this year. Who evaluates our talent and decides who plays? Something is wrong when from what I've seen that MM is or was listed as the fourth running back on this team. I know that we signed him in the off-season to be a thrid down back and return kick-offs, and I think we signed him for about 1 million +. Explain to me how until we lost our top 3 (?) running backs, he doesn't even sniff the field. Up until the B-more game, I think he had 1 catch and maybe 2 rushes, somebody missed the boat here.  The sad part was that they were only going to him because everybody was hurt, and he was like an afterthought. Where would we be him those injuries hadn"t occured? I also agree that I don't think he is a every down back that can carry it 25 times a game, but this also goes to the point that has been expressed on this site numerous times we don't run the ball enough. I believe if we had kept running the ball with MM, he would have gotten his 100 yds. against the G-men, I think he ended up with 88. BA please run the damn ball. That would have been 3 straight games over 100 yds. Darrell Stapleton, is another example, we barely know that he is on the team until Simmons gets hurt, and there is an arugment that  could be made that he is one of the best linemen we have, why was he not getting a few plays a game? someone help me with Max Starks PLEASE? What did w. Colon agree to take out tomlin ugly sister when no on else would?(joke) Why is he playing that position? He makes more mental erors than I care to count. The last time I checked Max was a starter and was serviceable on our SB team, and now all of a sudden he can't beat out WILLIE COLON? somebody help please? We cut  Russell from the practice squad, and now he looks like our ONE power back who should have 6 to 8 carries a game, and where was he hiding? All BA kept saying was we like him and we want to see what he can do. Then give him some DAMN carries.  I think I read that Townsend is back and will start, bad move, let's keep Gay in there for his speed and quickness, towndend doesn't have that any more, we need someone to shadow WWickler, (83) if we shut him down, then I'm confident we win the game. Thoughts?

Go Steelers

A-Train from B-More

First things first, I'm a Steeler fan down here in Raven town, and there are quite a few of the nation down here representing. I enjoy reading the thoughts from die-hard steelers fans and I must say some of them are very thought provoking. I think the steelers have a good chance to make a run in the playoffs this year, if we are able to address some issues that are holding the team back. I like maybe 75% of the post here don't like BA, I just don't think he has a feel for the "Game", he calls running plays when we should pass, pass plays when we should run. I for one agree that we need to get back to Steeler football, which means we run until we can't run it anymore. With 4/5 running backs on this team, there is NO reason that we should not have at least 25 rushes every game, and Ben should have 25-28 pass atempts per game. What is Ben's record when he throws under 30 times? We win more than we lose. There are too many things that go wrong when you pass the ball, and we have seen some of those things this season. If we can rush the ball, we can CONTROL TIME of Possession, give our great D some rest and best of all PLAY-ACTION, where BEN is at his best. There has been talk about how bad our O-line is, but it really takes time for a line to come together, and remember we have 2 new members on the line now. I ask you, what's a linemen like to do more than anything else? pancake somebody or run over someone, so if our line can't pass block, let's give them some confidence by running the ball. What happened to screens, draws, counters, traps, all those things are missing out of our attack. If we can't run the ball in DEC. and Jan. we will be in big trouble. I really start to look at teams in Dec, to see who is playing better, who is jellying and who is playing tough on the road, all of those things are before us. I honestly feel that our O-line is taking some small steps to get better, I think Ben is feeling better and understanding that he can check offf and still be successful, we are using our TE's now, time of possesion baby. These next 3 games will tell us what we need to now about our team, and if we have a chance in Jan.

A-Train from B-More