@hoorta said:

We'll see how much dinging Joe gets this year...  

I just think he wants more than a one year deal and figures he may get it somewhere. He's still very solid. 

@tour2ma said:

Wrong forum for that sentiment, my friend...

Hear you about your D, tho... scary good if healthy.

But I do not want to see Fitz anywhere near your sideline unless your D, scary or otherwise, chases him there.

The silver lining for me. You taking a page out of the gipper hand book? Lol ?

@vagitron said:

Im not in denial. Haden is more than fine, he’s just dinged. The Steelers aren’t offering him a contract beyond this one tho so he’s going to be a free agent. Ben isn’t going to last long with the hits he’s taking. We have the cap room, I’m not sure why we haven’t brought in a tackle like Okung. Banner comes back soon so that should help because chuks still has bad lower body mechanics.
 

Tons of talent elsewhere on the team. I don’t think Haskins is the guy and Rudolph isn’t either. Either way they are going to need a shitty year to get the qb they need without a trade up. I however don’t think it will be this season because our defense when healthy is smothering. It’s just not healthy. It is what it is. I’m worried about the team this season but I’m definitely not worried long term. 

We'll see how much dinging Joe gets this year...  

@vagitron said:

The silver lining is the line has time to improve and it will. 

Wrong forum for that sentiment, my friend...

Hear you about your D, tho... scary good if healthy.

But I do not want to see Fitz anywhere near your sideline unless your D, scary or otherwise, chases him there.

@dutch-oven said:

I'm still shocked Matthew Stafford didn't end up on the Steelers.... That was my worst nightmare scenario for years, as Stafford flailed away on a shitty Lions team, that he'd finally get to play for a good franchise and that it would be the Steelers

Same. We didn’t have the cap room. We certainly do now. However even then it wouldn’t be the longer term deal he’d want. The Steelers still need to sign Fitzpatrick. 

@hoorta said:

Your problem is Ben and Haden are both getting up there. Unless you're made a deal with the devil Tom Brady NFL players on the high side of 30, or in Ben's case 35 start breaking down. Remains to be seen if his pec injury will affect him. 

MHO? the odds of Ben playing all 17 games are not good.  

Im not in denial. Haden is more than fine, he’s just dinged. The Steelers aren’t offering him a contract beyond this one tho so he’s going to be a free agent. Ben isn’t going to last long with the hits he’s taking. We have the cap room, I’m not sure why we haven’t brought in a tackle like Okung. Banner comes back soon so that should help because chuks still has bad lower body mechanics.
 

Tons of talent elsewhere on the team. I don’t think Haskins is the guy and Rudolph isn’t either. Either way they are going to need a shitty year to get the qb they need without a trade up. I however don’t think it will be this season because our defense when healthy is smothering. It’s just not healthy. It is what it is. I’m worried about the team this season but I’m definitely not worried long term. 

@hoorta said:

Your problem is Ben and Haden are both getting up there. Unless you're made a deal with the devil Tom Brady NFL players on the high side of 30, or in Ben's case 35 start breaking down. Remains to be seen if his pec injury will affect him. 

MHO? the odds of Ben playing all 17 games are not good.  

I'm still shocked Matthew Stafford didn't end up on the Steelers.... That was my worst nightmare scenario for years, as Stafford flailed away on a shitty Lions team, that he'd finally get to play for a good franchise and that it would be the Steelers

@vagitron said:

The silver lining is the line has time to improve and it will.  Banner will be back soon and he should provide a boost over chuks who is still having issues with his feet when blocking.  It didn't help that the team was pretty hard hit defensively against the raiders and I'm entirely fine with watt sitting to get fully healthy.  The Steelers just cant afford to be down Bush, Watt, Haden, alualu and valuable depth players injured all at the same time. I expected growing pains but won't lie I expected the line play to be better than it is.  Trai Turner getting ejected was also ridiculous as both players werent ejected just turner for reacting to getting spit on in the first place. Either way I'm not delusional, the steelers currently have a lot of work to do. The defense when healthy is elite.  The offense needs to catch up. 

Your problem is Ben and Haden are both getting up there. Unless you're made a deal with the devil Tom Brady NFL players on the high side of 30, or in Ben's case 35 start breaking down. Remains to be seen if his pec injury will affect him. 

MHO? the odds of Ben playing all 17 games are not good.  

@tour2ma said:

1. Does anyone still actually eat "cornflakes"?

2. What need do stud RBs and old QBs on the mend have in common? (A really solid OL.)

   The worry with Watt is his speed to power game requires two strong wheels. A week 2 hammie does not bode well. And a "full practice" is no test of its progress. Odds are he limps off again after aggravating it this coming Sunday. The man is too intense/competitive to stay in protection mode an entire game.

The silver lining is the line has time to improve and it will.  Banner will be back soon and he should provide a boost over chuks who is still having issues with his feet when blocking.  It didn't help that the team was pretty hard hit defensively against the raiders and I'm entirely fine with watt sitting to get fully healthy.  The Steelers just cant afford to be down Bush, Watt, Haden, alualu and valuable depth players injured all at the same time. I expected growing pains but won't lie I expected the line play to be better than it is.  Trai Turner getting ejected was also ridiculous as both players werent ejected just turner for reacting to getting spit on in the first place. Either way I'm not delusional, the steelers currently have a lot of work to do. The defense when healthy is elite.  The offense needs to catch up. 

@vagitron said:

Yea I think that's fair. He made some plays but he was getting rattled. Dude is still a unfinished product despite the massive pay day. I know you all won't like reading it but our defense is going to be doing that to a lot of teams. It was less Allen being poor and more our defense forcing the issue. All of this is without tuitt who is on short term IR.

Wow...defense is falling apart...and the O line is worse than I thought....the burgh may not win 8 games.

@vagitron said:

Yea I think that's fair. He made some plays but he was getting rattled. Dude is still a unfinished product despite the massive pay day. I know you all won't like reading it but our defense is going to be doing that to a lot of teams. It was less Allen being poor and more our defense forcing the issue. All of this is without tuitt who is on short term IR.

fuck allen I still think he looked like shit

@atom said:

i wasnt impressed at all to me it looked like the pit D had there way with him

Yea I think that's fair. He made some plays but he was getting rattled. Dude is still a unfinished product despite the massive pay day. I know you all won't like reading it but our defense is going to be doing that to a lot of teams. It was less Allen being poor and more our defense forcing the issue. All of this is without tuitt who is on short term IR.

@vagitron said:

He looked like crap? He definitely didn't look like crap. 

i wasnt impressed at all to me it looked like the pit D had there way with him

@atom said:

hey but pay the man allen looked like crap

He looked like crap? He definitely didn't look like crap. 

Steelers defense played soundly in the redzone and their special teams helped iced the win.   They're still a quality team. 

@dutch-oven said:

I was coming back from Kennerdell, PA and flipping around stations in an attempt to listen to the Bills vs Steelers game, and thought to myself "Self, Buffalo is going to kick themselves for not jumping to a bigger lead early in the game" and lo and behold, the Steelers pulled it out.

They didn't have an opportunity to build a bigger lead. Our defense was just absurd. The amount of holds was getting comical and the refs werent calling them all because if they had it would have been a flag every other play. Minkah was switching back and forth with our rookie Norwood as well which deployed Fitzpatrick in a floater role. All of this was with tuitt on short term IR. Signing Ingram off the street I still can't believe and Sutton who they just paid was elite today too.  Our defense is going to be absolutely insane this year. The offense just needs to gel and catch up. Hopefully it happens. Sorry about the L for the Browns. I watched the majority. There are no easy outs in the afc north. It's pretty ridiculous. 

@vagitron said:

I guess we are gonna find out. 1-0. 

I was coming back from Kennerdell, PA and flipping around stations in an attempt to listen to the Bills vs Steelers game, and thought to myself "Self, Buffalo is going to kick themselves for not jumping to a bigger lead early in the game" and lo and behold, the Steelers pulled it out.

@typicalbrowns50 said:

Pitt is literally the same team as last year. Not worried 

I guess we are gonna find out. 1-0. 

@vagitron said:

Agreed. However the lack of a run game is not due to a lack of ability. Rookie center who played mostly guard. No returning starters on the line besides chuks at right tackle. It's going to take some time. If they played like this against lions for example id be more worried. 

Agreed. Buffalo is a good team with a good defense. 

@nero said:

Yeah, but no run game is a problem in the AFC North.

Agreed. However the lack of a run game is not due to a lack of ability. Rookie center who played mostly guard. No returning starters on the line besides chuks at right tackle. It's going to take some time. If they played like this against lions for example id be more worried. 

@vagitron said:

Yea, just need to play more together. It was much better in the second half. 

Yeah, but no run game is a problem in the AFC North.