Nothing like some refreshing honesty from the Bus in his first column...

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...ops/index.html

2. Steelers' Super Bowl hopes took a big blow in Week 1. On Thursday night the Steelers went from being a great defense to merely a good defense in just one play against the Titans. You simply can't replace a player like Troy Polamalu, and we all saw the Steelers give up some big plays right away after he left with a knee injury. When he's healthy, Troy's all over the field. Before he left that game it seemed his name was being called every play: Troy on a tackle, Troy on an interception, Troy with a penalty. Whatever happened, he was involved. But without him in the game, the field becomes a lot bigger and more exposed.

People will say, "Well, they still have James Harrison and Casey Hampton and so on..." Irrelevant. Troy's really the only guy on this defense that I see as a full playmaker. Sure, James Harrison gets after the QB. But Troy is all over the field. He can change the outcome of a game in one play. Without him, this becomes a good defense with a very ordinary secondary.

Now, here's what worries me: I've had an MCL injury and the thing it affects the most is the lateral movement. Sure, you can run straight lines. But when you have to go left and right it becomes a problem. If you've ever watched Troy, you know he's so unpredictable in how he moves -- all over the place. An MCL could be a bigger problem for a guy who moves like that. I expect to see him out on the longer side of the projected three to six weeks. If it goes longer, could they win another Super Bowl without him? I don't think so.

3. One more reason Pittsburgh's in trouble: these Steelers are a mediocre running team on their best day. I don't think they've reached a panic situation quite yet because the Titans don't allow anyone to run the football on them. But there are serious problems.

Willie Parker: I haven't seen much from him. Rashard Mendenhall: I haven't really seen him, period. One thing I have seen is Mewelde Moore making plays. And I think the little guy's going to get more of those opportunities as the Steelers continue to grow into what I think will be more of a passing team in 2009.

The running back I like least on that team is Frank Summers, the rookie fullback. He doesn't seem to understand what's going on. He's missing plenty of blocks, and that's affecting everything. That definitely has to be addressed off the field this week.

The bigger problem, though, is the offensive line. They have no continuity. On top of not being able to protect Ben Roethlisberger, they're letting running backs get hit before they reach the line of scrimmage. There's not a lot any back can do in that situation.

This problem isn't anything new, and I blame the coaching staff for not addressing the line in the offseason. How did they rationalize not doing anything about it? Well, they won a Super Bowl. They won't be so lucky twice in a row. If Ben continues to get hit the way he did Thursday -- the same way he did last year, then this will come back to haunt the Steelers. Ben will get hurt. Ben will miss games. And they don't have a line to run behind without Ben. Pittsburgh can't repeat with the line playing like this.

Dayyyuuumm yinz might be a little upset when they read that in the morning.