It's usually worth the wait for RickVa's thoughts on the game and the Steelers. Here is no exception. If you're new to the site and don't know his story, you can read his most excellent story of his former playing days at Temple with Randy Grossman here. And for those new to the site, Blitz would be me, the editor of this site. -Blitz-

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Imagine its the first day of training camp in July. Excited, you log onto BTSC to pick up whatever early tidbits you can find as football begins once again. The first thing you see is an improbable post by Blitz. He's claiming that he was offered a ride in a time machine a Steelers fan who also happened to be a mad scientist. Blitz goes along with what he believes to be utter nonsense, but now he's back claiming to have seen the season through game 10. At that point his mad scientist friend had to refuel the time machine.

Blitz's first thought is to keep what he learned to himself and not spoil the anticipation of the other site participants, but his excitement got the better of him so he presents a full report. "I have good news and bad news," he begins. "First the bad news"

He starts by pointing out that criticism of the offensive line and the offense in general has occurred pretty much uninterupped throughout the entire season. Not a week goes by where someone is screaming for the head of Offensive Coordinator Bruce Arians on a stick. Offensive line coach Zeirlen isn't far behind on the popularity scale. Things have gotten so bad that the offense didn't score a touchdown in the last game. Quarterback sacks are up. We lost one game because of special teams play.

BTSC readers recoil in horror. Do we want to read any more of this?

There's more. Galvanized by the play of a rookie quarterback, the Ravens are breathing down our necks. Our records were identical going into the last game. And they have a bounty on the head of Hines Ward. Neither rookies Limas Sweed or Bruce Davis have contributed anything worth a hill of beans thus far this year. Once again the best team in the AFC is an undefeated juggernaut. But that's not the worst of it.

(Gulp) Its not?

The worse news is the networks are considering a new series; ER, Steel City, starring the Pittsburgh Steelers.These are the players we've lost for the season; Charlie Batch, Daniel Sepluveda, Rashard Mendenhall, Kendall Simmons, Greg Warren.

Then there are the players that were lost for multiple games. You all were concerned that we are thin at D-Line, and a successful season would be based upon us being lucky in the injury department. Well, we weren't lucky. We lost Casey Hampton and Brett Keisel to multiple game injuries at the same time. Remember all the speculation on who would win the cornerback competition between Deshea Townsend and BMac? They're both down for multiple games now. Remember when you all said the one offensive lineman we couldn't afford to go down was Marvel Smith? Yep, time of return not known. Add Heath Miller and Willie Parker to the list. And Carey Davis. And lets not forget those who have missed just one game like Ryan Clark and Andre Frazier, LaMarr Woodley. I think that covers most of them. Santonio Holmes missed a game due to off field conduct.  And then there's Ben.

Ben??!! What about Ben?

Ben hurt his shoulder the first game of the season. And while technically, he's only missed the second half of one game, he's been less than 100% all season. And of course Ben is stubborn, and then there's all the sacks...

Stop! We can't take anymore of this! Just give us the bottom line. We're screwed this year, aren't we?

Well, not exactly. Not yet anyway. Let's go over the good news.

We currently lead our division with a 7-3 record. Our power ranking is third in the entire league. If the playoffs began today we would be the second seed in the AFC with both a bye and homefield guaranteed through the the divisional round of the playoffs. The number one seed, the team that is undefeated is not the Patriots (or the Colts, Chargers or Thank God! the Jaguars). Fortunately, the Steelers haven't been the only team with injury issues. As for the rest of the division; Cleveland has not built on the promise of last season. Brady Quinn has finally been given the reins at QB, but they are about three games back. The Bungles are a train wreck. The Colts will definitely not win their division, the Pats are struggling in the east and the Chargers might not make the playoffs at all.

As anemic as the offense has been, the defense has been spectacular. We lead the league in defense against the run and the pass. They were good last year, but this year they are great, and show no signs of wearing down and letting up. The secondary has caught up to level of play of the D-Line and the LBs have gone to another level altogether. Troy, Ryan and Aaron Smith are all the way back from their injuries. Woodley has lived up to our highest expectations. There is serious talk of Deebo being named Defensive Player of the Year. Troy, Potsie, Aaron and LaMarr are also having Pro Bowl caliber seasons. Timmons could not replace Foote in their competition, but the process seems to have benefitted both players. Make no mistake, Timmons is emerging, while Foote has not lost a step and Farrior is playing great. The Woodley/Harrison duo is being called by some the best Steeler outside lb combo in a generation. Better perhaps than even Lloyd/Greene or Porter/Gildon. Keisel and BMac are both playing at or near their potential. Special Teams are no longer a liability. We no longer hemorrage field position or points in that aspect of the game. We're not getting easy points yet, but we did manage a critical blocked punt, our kick coverage has been high quality all year, and our punting is adequate, considering that we are working on our third punter this year,

But just as the biggest negative news had to do with injuries. The best positive news has been the response to those injuries. Darnel Stapleton, Max Starks and Trai Essex on the O-line. Matt Speath, Sean McHugh (Who?) at TE/FB, Mewekde Moore and Gary Russell at RB. Nate Washington stepping up at WR and  Byron Leftwich.

BYRON LEFTWICH???

Oh yeah. I forgot you wouldn't know anything about him. And then there were the guys on defense; Travis Kirschke, Nick Eason, Orpheus Roye-

You're kidding right? Roye???, isn't he 90 years old?

Then there's the rookie Bailey, William Gay, Andre Frazier, BMac really elevated his game, even Tyrone Carter elevated his game--

C'mon Blitz. Now we know you're drunk. Carter? They didn't cut his ass in July?

Believe it. It seems like almost everything that could have gone wrong, the schedule, lousy offciating, badly timed injuries, have all gone wrong. And we're not close to being out of the woods yet. When I left they were facing a short week, still don't have Heath, Marvel, BMac, Deshea available. Ben's no where near 100%. But they continue to adapt. If they go .500 over their last six games they'll be 10-6 which is where many of us predicted they'd end up this year. Put another way, if they can manage to put away a Cincy team at home who have only won one game so far this year they'll get ten days to rest and heal before they go to New England with an 8-3 record and begin the serious charge to make the playoffs.

What do you think?