not pretty in Pittsburgh

**sailorsam** · 09-09-2013, 09:43 AM

Not only do the Steelers lose their (home) opener but they lose C Maurice Pouncey (probably their best o-lineman) for the year, as well as Larry Foote (torn bicep).

saw the replay. DeCastro, the guard, pulled left and dove right into Pouncey's knee. ugh.

article and video here
http://nfl.si.com/2013/09/08/maurkic...urgh-steelers/

five sacks! 32 net yards rushing! ugly.

next game: @ Cincinatti. if they can't beat the Titans at home does anyone think they'll beat the Bengals in their house?

depth. good to have.

**trailhiker85** · 09-09-2013, 12:46 PM

I only saw the second half of that Titans-Steelers game. Looked pretty bad. If not for the final garbage-time drive right at the end, the Steelers offense would've been completely shut out. Steelers will have to do a BIG turnaround if they hope to win in Cincy. And losing Pouncey is likely to hurt them the entire season.

**HoustonRaven** · 09-09-2013, 03:59 PM

sailorsam, this is the second time you posted a thread about a rival team here.

You do know we consider news and comments about our division rivals worthy of a spot in the main forum, right?

**wickedsolo** · 09-09-2013, 04:48 PM

They also lost their change-of-pace back, Larod Stephens-Howling, for the year as well.

Cortez Allen, a starting CB, was hurt in that game, but I'm not sure what happened or if it is really serious. He was out for the rest of the game though.

LaMarr Woodley looked decent, but Jason Worilds was lackluster. Other than one or two good plays, Jarvis Jones and Ziggy Hood didn't do much either.

Offensively, Roethlisberger is the same old, same old. He'll hang onto that ball as long as he can. Their speedster WR, Markus Wheaton, didn't even play. They went with Antonio Brown, Jericho Cotchery and Emmanuel Sanders. All three were pretty good, but Cotchery created no separation at all.

Steelers look like a 7-9 or worse team to me right now.

**Ravenswintitle** · 09-11-2013, 09:39 AM

Pouncey and Foote called the plays for the offense and defense. It's more than a good player, someone else has to call the plays now. And they restructured Heath Miller's contract yesterday to make some cap room to bring in more bodies.

**The Excellector** · 09-11-2013, 01:54 PM

It almost feels as though, at least the Bengals and Ravens have the talent to recover. We all knew that Pittsburgh faced the insurmountable task of staying healthy. Injuries are already hitting them. That defense can still hang in there, but they aren't holding teams to 10 points the way they used to.

**sailorsam** · 09-11-2013, 02:00 PM

SI's Don Banks on Pittsburgh problems (hee hee hee)

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/nfl...?sct=nfl_wr_a1

"Other than Jacksonville, where the bar of expectation was set about as low as it can go, no NFL team in Week 1 underachieved more glaringly than the Steelers, whose 16-9 loss to visiting Tennessee was a sobering dose of what might be the new reality in Pittsburgh. These Steelers simply aren't very good, and the season-opening egg-laying against the underdog Titans might well portend things to come rather than emerge as a one-week aberration."

I like...but its' only one game

**Rxdoxx** · 09-11-2013, 02:35 PM

We were watching DeCastro fall and hoping until they grabbed him at #24,
now he trawick's their starting first round pick pro-bowl center

Pittsburgh tends to hold onto HC, but I wonder if Tomlin's tenure isn't beginning to get shaky.

EDIT to add, they free up money to sign somebody by re-structuring a 30yr old with an ACL injury, that could also come back to haunt if Heath Miller got upfront money that will be carried as dead.....

**Tolucaraven** · 09-11-2013, 04:54 PM

Also read article most fans left at end of 3rd quarter when still 1 score game. Plus over 5,000 noshows for the OPENER. What happened to such a great fanbase?

**Losac** · 09-11-2013, 04:56 PM

Originally Posted by Tolucaraven

Also read article most fans left at end of 3rd quarter when still 1 score game. Plus over 5,000 noshows for the OPENER. What happened to such a great fanbase?

They are all hopping on the Pirates' bandwagon.

I watched most of the game. They looked absolutely atrocious.

**camdenyard** · 09-11-2013, 04:58 PM

I just can't understand why DeCastro did that. It looked at least as intentional as the hit on Jacoby, maybe more.

**MarkS** · 09-11-2013, 05:20 PM

Originally Posted by camdenyard

I just can't understand why DeCastro did that. It looked at least as intentional as the hit on Jacoby, maybe more.

Remember all that grief they gave us a few years back about our use of the cut-block as part of our zone-blocking scheme? Remember Merrill Hodge falsely tweeting that we were using "illegal" chop blocks?

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com...op-block-rule/

Well, the Steelers now use exactly the same scheme. Deliciously ironic, isn't it?

Basically, O-lineman A is supposed to engage the defender opposite him. O-lineman B (ONLY IF he originally lined up next to player A) is then allowed to block that same defender low. DeCastro was trying to execute that block, but got way out of position, dove at the defender, and ended up cutting his own guy instead.