This time of the year unless your team experience a major injury, and in some cases if your team experience a major injury, every fan around the NFL is filled with hope of what the next season could bring. If you are a Ravens fan then Flacco is going to finally win a Super Bowl, if you are a Browns fan then this is the year you won't be last in the division, if you are the Jets then this is the year Tebow takes you to the - church (I couldn't resist).

But as every season brings there are still holes in every team. We can't see them now but they will arise. The following are potential issues that I could see with the Steelers this upcoming season, they are things that I worry about, keep me up at night. They are listed in order from the most worried to the least worried about. You can comment on my list and give your own below!

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There are plenty of Steelers fans cheering right now and for good reason. The Steelers probably had the best break in the draft if you consider where they picked and the fact that didn't have to trade up. They got one elite player and another 1st round graded player, they also got a NT, that many believe could have gone in the second round, in the fourth. The LB is the only pick that concerns me and I love the Rainy pick up. Colbert was cool as the other side of the pillow holding a royal flush while others at the table are going all in with three pair. We all know and have heard about how good DeCastro means but how does that translate to tangible results for the Steelers? I'll list a couple after the jump.

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I've done it. You've done it. Throughout the entire year, we've all succumb to it. After every loss, every win, each time a highly touted recruit committed to the Pack; we've all thought to ourselves - 'Man, this team is going to be special next year'. I'm here to say screw next year and screw it hard.

We're good this year. We've grown this year. And I want it this year! We can beat Kansas. We can beat UNC. I believe. We've conditioned ourselves to expect to lose through the last 25 years even coined the term #NCSTATESHEEEEETT . It all stops here, right now. It may hurt in the end but I am opening up to hope.

This is what some people from the outside looking in don't seem to understand. I don't expect NC State to beat Kansas. I want them to beat Kansas, badly. We have a shot, we're in this game and as long as you are playing you have a chance. I don't expect NC State to make the final four, but I want them to. I want it bad, I want it THIS YEAR. Why because we are still playing, I want my team to win.

So I don't care whether Torian Graham or Amile Jefferson commit to the Pack, I hope they do. I'm not worried if CJ Leslie is going to turn pro after this year. Those things will be waiting for us if we lose. While we're still in this thing, I'm focused, hyped, anxious all about Friday at 10pm. LETS GET IT DONE!

Change is, sometimes, the hardest thing to do or accept. Especially when the norm has been so comforting. People seldom like change because they fear the unknown. Change could mean a turn for the worse. But then again those who refuse to change can be left in the past. As the Steelers enter the 2012 season there is one thing certain, changes will be made for the better or for the worse.

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Now that there are only two teams left playing almost everyone has turn towards the off-season. For the Steelers that means facing a 20+ million dollar cap number and a 'transition' year. There are many of our opponents praying, wishing, and hoping that the Steelers would pull something out of the 1999 season and just stink it up next year. As much as we enjoyed seeing the Ravens lose yesterday, they thrive off of seeing us lose every year. Not just the ravens virtually almost every other team in the NFL hates the Steelers. But that is OK, I feed off of their hate. I devour their unrealistic plea of desperation to see the might giant that is the Steelers fall. I know that their hate is really fear, fear of knowing what this team is capable of. So here is my assessment of the 2012 Steelers and what we can expect.

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The Baltimore Ravens accomplished what they set out to do this regular season. The Steelers are now feeling their pain of having to go through the wild card weekend. The Steelers will have to fly out to Denver to play a game Sunday then fly back to Pittsburgh and fly to another city to play a game in one week. Its a daunting task that will sure take a toll on the energy and health of this football team. But I think the Steelers are positioned; better than a Baltimore team is because of their QB. They may still see the same fate the Ravens have saw for so many years, getting worn out by the AFCCG or the AFCDG and losing.

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If the Cincinnati Bengals cannot sell out their game this Sunday against the Ravens then I propose that Steeler Nation show up to assist the Bengals in a crucial point in their season.

We need the Bengals to beat the Ravens this Sunday so why not make sure that the environment is as hostile as it can be. If you have the spare change and can't get tickets to Cleveland game (because the Steelers will sell that game out for the Browns) then hop on down to Cincy and support the Steelers!

I believe Steeler Nation is big enough to invade two stadiums on the same sunday. It would add to the legend that already is Steeler Nation. Also wear your Steeler gear so when the Ravens look up in the stands they should see black, gold, and orange in unison cheering for their demise. Don't worry that dirty feeling you receive for actually cheering for the Bengals will wear off by the Divisional playoff week.

If you are concerned about supporting the Bengals in anyway then rest assure that your support will further keep Mike Brown owning the Bengals and we know as long as he owns the Bengal they will be a treat. The enemy of my enemy is my friend and right now the Bengals are our friends.

When NC State landed CJ Leslie, Lorenzo Brown, and Ryan Harrow in the 2010 recruiting season many State fans were thrilled that NC State was able to pull a top 5 recruiting class.  Even though Sidney Lowe had yet to win anything of significance with NC State, had missed out on local top point guard John Wall the year before, and had no history of showing that he could mold top talent; he had yet pulled one of the best recruiting classes NC State has seen.  Many State fans thought that with talent, Sidney Lowe could finally start producing results.

I remember looking ahead towards the 2012 class.  I saw several names, Torian Graham, TJ Warren, Rodney Purvis.  All from the triangle area and all ranked high in the class.  I thought to myself, 'Man it would be nice to carry this momentum in recruiting and pull some of those guys'.  

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Today was a huge day for NC State basketball.

Rodney Purvis who is a 5 star guard and a consensus top 20 player in the 2012 basketball class committed to NC State today.  

This commit does several things for the pack going forward.

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Murphy's Law was in full affect yesterday.  There's not much you can take from a game like that.  You just accept it and move on.  I think we as Steelers fans are really spoiled.  In times like these we should be thankful.  The Steelers rarely get pasted, I mean think about it.  When was the last time we lost a game by 28 points?  When was the last the the Ravens lost by 28 points?  The point is that it happens to every team in the NFL at some point or another, we've just been on the winning end of these pastings more often than not.  That can spoil anyone but I fully expect the team to bounce back next week.  The sky is clearly not falling and I think this may have been the wake up call that we needed.  I'd be more worried if the Steelers came out flat next weekend.  Here or a couple of changes I think we could/should see next week.

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Its the last game of the preseason!

I am thoroughly excited that the preseason is almost over and we can get to some real football.  I know this game is pretty useless for us and most of our starters will sit or only play one series.  I am however a North Carolina native so I know all the attention Cam Newton has been getting.  I do think it will be a good measuring stick to see if he can complete the short passing scheme against the Steelers.  But if you have any questions about the Steelers feel free to ask and I'll try to answer them.  I'll also see if I can get some of the others from Behind the Steel Curtain to come and answer some questions too.

Editor's note: Ask a Panthers fan can be found here. ~BW

No, I'm not talking about the Bengals fan that sold his fanhood to the Steelers but who could blame him?

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Let me start with a disclaimer.

List are not at all important.  The only thing that is important is winning the super bowl.  These are just my observations about the list.  

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This year will yield a very new experience for the NFL.  Since 1993 and the inception of "Free Agency"; as us football fans currently experience, teams have been able quench specific positional needs from a pool of players who had reached the end of their contract agreement with their current team.  The timing of Free Agency has, as long as I can remember, occurred before the NFL Draft.  Which would allow NFL franchises to use the Draft as more of a future need supply moreso than an immediate need if they choose to do so.  

Since there is no CBA this year there can be no Free Agency.  Players can't even be traded in the Draft for picks.  This puts the NFL Draft and Free Agency in a position it hasn't been before.  These are my thoughts and opinions and by no means the end-all-be-all of what will exactly happen.  If there are flaws in my logic or if you disagree, feel free to comment or if you agree and have more to add, feel free to comment.  I welcome it.

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I love the draft, all the suspense, all the possibilities.  Plus its something to get my mind off of what happened earlier in February.  I love this team, this franchise, and everything it stands for.  I reject the silly notions that this team is going to miss the playoffs next year because of its age.  The doubters are out already which is good because the team plays its best ball when they are doubted, sans the Super Bowl.  Its like recruiting for college sports, you just love to see new blood come in and think about all the good things they can do.

But of course we know that isn't the case;  there are bust, there are guys who don't live up to their potentials, and sometimes there are just freak accidents.  This is part of what makes the draft so fun, the impending oblivious peril or the untold promises of excellence.  Here is my mock draft for the Steelers, feel free to critique all you want.

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Cherish this moment my friends.  Cherish it.  That is one thing I have learned from our last Super Bowl appearances.  These moments just don't happen every year, and if you lived long enough, every decade.  The accomplishment of having this opportunity before the team is so great that I am stepping back just to soak it all in.  The Steelers are in the Super Bowl.  There are few 'top of the mountain' feelings in life and even fewer for that feeling to occur three times in six years.  If we win the super bowl this year, we as fans will fit the definition of spoiled.  I'm not talking about the Lebron James ' I spoiled Cleveland with my talents'.  I'm talking about spoiled in a sense that we have witnessed success in its zenith.  There is no other franchise that can give you what the Steelers give, achievement, a sense of family, and stability.  We are witnessing a run that has only been matched 4 previous times in a span of over 40 years.  A win here is truly historical.  

Our Steelers have come off of two games of two halves.  We hope that the two better halves can be concatenated into one game this Sunday.  I'll make a bold prediction and say we'll see that to a degree.  I'm not trying to say that we will blow out Green Bay.  I am merely saying that we will play good clean executed football for 60 mins.  That should net us a win but I think Green Bay can and will play with us.  I have a lot of respect for the Packers and as stated in previous threads they are a very likable team and franchise.  So much so, that Mechem had to do an entire poast creating ways to hate this team and I still can't bring myself to do it.  

The fast track of dallas will help the packers.  Their 2nd, 3rd, and 4th receivers have a lot of speed and BMac and Gay aren't exactly burners.  That is where I think GB will try to attack, those corners using seam routes and quick passes with the occasional try for the deep ball.  I expect Dick to implement a plan similar to the one displayed in the Cardinals game where our D slowed down Kurt Warner, Larry F, Anquan Boldin, and Steve Breasten.  You can argue that they were a better team of QB & WR from top to bottom but none of that matters now.  We will need to execute again.  Another note is that when we get our hands on AR12 we must bring him down.  He is just as good at breaking tackles and finding open WRs down field as Ben.  If we can sack him and hit him that will bode well for the defense.  

Our offense has to establish the running game.  That will help the passing game and keep the pressure off of Ben.  The Packers like to send DBs in on blitzes also and that is where strip sacks can occur as we well know.  I don't think anyone on the field has the speed Mike Wallace has so look for him to get a couple of looks deep.  If Ben doesn't under throw him, its six.  Also look for the rest of our 'Young Money' crew to come up big also.  Ward, Heath and Wallace get all the attention from opposing defense.  Sanders and Brown are not well known, even though they are making a name for themselves, and they can make big plays.  GB hasn't had a great special teams returner so we might be safe there.  Like Tomlin said this will be a game of execution.  In each of the previous two super bowls he has had a pick, its time to break that  streak.  I hope you are ready, this one is basically for the hall of fame, for Ben, for Troy, for Ward, for Tomlin.  Win this game and putting them the Hall becomes especially easy.  I'm so ready.

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Looking at the upcoming game against the Ravens, I think we'll see a very different attack from the Ravens.  I haven't written anything in a while due to work but I thought a post on things to expect in the upcoming game Saturday.  I'll look at all three phases of the game.  Everyone expects this game to be a tight one and a lot of people are very impressed with the Ravens destruction of the Kansas City Chiefs.  I'm not really sure why though, that Chiefs team was the same one that got blown out at him the previous week by the Raiders.  If the Raiders could do it, you knew that the Ravens could.  If you add in the fact that KC is such a young team, you have to wonder how they would hold up under the constant pressure that the Ravens create on a team.  The Ravens D may not be as good as the Steelers stat-wise but they are a darn good defense.  If you don't have a proven QB at the helms you don't really stand a chance.  So I'm not going to take too much from that game but the Ravens shouldn't be ashamed of it.  

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I never thought a win could scare people as much as I've seen this last win for the Steelers scare a lot of their fans.  There are huge concerns about the offense.  These concerns are justifiable; every offense wants to score about 4 to 5 touchdowns a game.  That is the goal.  Our offense has scored 1 in the last 3 games.  Fortunately they don't give out the Lombardi to the best offense in the NFL.  I think we as fans lose sight of what is important sometimes.  All that matters in the NFL is that you win the game.  Do you think the Saints pissed their pants because it took them an onside kick and a defensive pick-6 to seal the super bowl win? What about the Tampa Bay Bucs?  Who's defense scored more than Oakland's offense in the Super Bowl almost a decade ago.  Would I like the offense to get it together?  Of course I would, but as this defense keeps getting better - the offense is becoming more of a luxury.  Its nice if we get it but even of the defense doesn't score a point we still win 9-7.  I have no problem with that; Rodger Goodell does, but I don't.  We have about a month to get the offense right.  We have about a month till we have to worry about the Patriots.  So I'm not going to worry about it till then.  If we do get it fixed then that is a huge plus.  But just because the offense isn't working now, doesn't mean it won't work in the future.  We just don't know.  The next three weeks we can win 6-3 in each game.  We'd still be 13-3 and in the 2nd seed in the playoffs.  Don't get sucked into to Rodger Goodell's NFL.

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