Steeler's biggest challenger in AFC North

by vin2k on Jul 23, 2008 9:46 AM EDT Comment 23 comments

Cleveland is getting a lot of hype as the major challenger to the Steelers this year in the AFC North. I however, believe that it is just that, all hype. They are now playing a 2nd place schedule and not a last place schedule. Derek Anderson got exposed at the end of last year and they are not going to sneak up on anyone. I would say they remind me of the Bungles the year they tied the Steelers in the ACFN and ocho cinco procliamed a new error.

So, look for the ohio teams to battle for last place in the AFCN. Which leaves us with the Ravens....who I think will be the surprise team this year. They beat the Steelers last year with Troy Smith. The team is still fundementally sound, esp. on defense. They are playing a last place schedule, and there is rumor that Farve may wind up there.

Just one man's thoughts.

1 recs | Comment 23 comments

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

Ravens

Can be in the hunt every year. thats the thing about the AFC north, every year it seems like the steelers are in the hunt with either Browns, Cinny or the Ravens in the hunt. Like last year it was the steelers Browns, the year before that Ravens and Steelers. So it can go either way with who will be in the hunt outside of the steelers.

On your Farve Comment, there is also a rumor that Farve may come to my house and make me dinner.  Never take a Farve Rumor seriously unless it happens.  If the ravens get Farve, that will open up the AFC north to a 3 team battle right now, i think its a two team battle with the steelers and Browns, but hey thats all on paper.  thus is why we play games on sundays.

* till next time wave those towels proud

by LiveinDCbutsteelerfanbyheart on Jul 23, 2008 10:28 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

good call

The Ravens scare me every year. Their defense is so good at run stuffing us that our play calling has to be better than usual to beat them. Thus the passing in the MNF game decimated them (especially with both starting corners hurt).

The Browns will scare me if they are above 500 after 6 games. If they are under 500 I bet they start to fold as the pressure mounts to throw Quinn in. It’s interesting what a winning mentality does for a team.

And then there’s cinci… hahaha….

by Chicago Steeler on Jul 23, 2008 10:36 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

It's anyones guess

It’s conceivable to make a case for any team challenging the Steelers (yea even Cincy) if the stars line up right for a given team.

Baltimore: They’ll always play PIT tough but who’s going to be the QB? They beat the Steelers’ B-team by six to end the season with Troy Smith but I still don’t see him as a legit QB and obviously the Ravens don’t either considering they traded back up to get Flacco (I’d love to see them roll with a D-II rookie). Still though, they’ve got a good defense and a running game so they’ll stay in most games.

Cleveland: Sure they made a bunch of trades to bolster the defensive line but name one player in the secondary. They ranked 24th against the pass last year and traded away their best corner (by far) to get big Shaun Rogers. Their two starting corners are both second year players and the nickel guy just turned 33 (and he’s no Deshea Townsend). I predict Ben to have huge days, both times they face the Browns.

Cincy: It’s tough to make a case for them but Rudi is supposedly healthy and looking great and they finally got a receiving tight end (Ben Utecht) for Palmer to dump off to. The defense can’t be any worse and I’m a big Rivers fan. Okay that was a weak case for them.

Revenge of the Birds

by cgolden on Jul 23, 2008 11:18 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Bodden was not their best starter. I’ve gone over this many times on here, but barring injury the secondary will be average at worst, superb at best.

The fact is that you have to be doing that drug from Robocop 2 (Nuke!) to think that on paper, anyone comes close to as big of a challenger to the Steelers in the AFC North as the Browns.

by kwoog on Jul 23, 2008 11:37 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Sorry I’m still not buying it. And if Bodden wasn’t your best CB, why does he have the best numbers on your team? The Browns entire CB group has about 5 career INT’s and 20 starts. You have to be careful projecting success based on progress that may or may not happen.

by BadMaafala on Jul 23, 2008 11:49 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Interceptions are a pretty horrible metric to go by. I’d rather have a guy that sticks on a receiver like glue and knocks the ball down 60% of the time than a guy who’s giving up 11 yards per attempt but gambles so much that he pulls 5 pics out our his a** every year.

I’m not projecting success based on progress. I’m projecting success from the empirical fact that both starting corners (Wright and McDonald) had tremendous YPA statistics last years, as rookies. Even if they digress, as Joyner points out, and give up two more yards per attempt each, they’ll be high quality starters.

by kwoog on Jul 23, 2008 11:53 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Your secondary is like our OL. It’s probably going to be crappy, but there’s reason for optimism.

by BadMaafala on Jul 23, 2008 11:55 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Well, I think it’s greatly overlooked, but we’ve got 3 high second round pics back there… so there’s more “pedigree” too, I think.

by kwoog on Jul 23, 2008 11:59 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

...and the Redskins had 4 first rounders in their secondary before giving up 52 points to the Patriots.

by BadMaafala on Jul 23, 2008 12:01 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Fair enough. But we don’t play the Patriots this year. You guys do ;D

by kwoog on Jul 23, 2008 12:07 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Oh, and I’ll name another player in “that secondary.” Sean Jones, you know that Strong Safety who’s been better than Polamalu the last two years…

by kwoog on Jul 23, 2008 11:38 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Paper Champions

Too bad you can’t make it to the playoffs based on your paper credentials. Yes, on PAPER, the clowns, er browns look like contenders. Let’s see what they do when the whistle blows.

by vin2k on Jul 23, 2008 12:28 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I agree 100% with all of this, as I’ve said many times.

by kwoog on Jul 23, 2008 12:30 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Sean Jones

allowed 7 yards on run plays compared to 5.7 for Polamalu, and 7.9 on passes to 4.5. He’s not in Troy’s league.

(He did have 5 INTs to 0, but as you said, that’s a poor measuring stick.)

by Desroko on Jul 23, 2008 6:29 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Interesting and powerful stats… Where’d you get ‘em?

by kwoog on Jul 23, 2008 8:54 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

The Browns are the team that could really challenge us for the division if they get off to a good start. Hopefully Dallas will rock them, we’ll beat them and they’ll self-destruct. If they somehow beat us in week 2, there could be trouble. We couldn’t come back in 2005 when we were down a few games to Cinci, and we have a similar schedule this year.

You’re right about Baltimore, though. They scare me every year, and they’re playing a last place schedule this year. They have a lot of issues right now though with the QB stuation, Bart Scott and the older CB’s. If they somehow gel together and Smith or Flacco plays well, they could go 9-7 or 10-6 and win the division. I’d only give them about a 20% chance of doing that, but it’s possible. The Steelers and Browns have both had similar experiences in the last 4 years.

by BadMaafala on Jul 23, 2008 12:02 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

If we lose the division, but win the SB, like 2005, then I’ll be just fine with that. :)

by WolfpackSteelersFan on Jul 23, 2008 4:09 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs

All I want to say...

and ocho cinco procliamed a new error.

...is that I found that line hilariously ironic yet, at the same time, surprisingly accurate.

To be on topic, the way the schedule looks, the Steelers’ biggest challenge this year is to make sure they win the games they’re supposed to win (i.e. no stupid losses to Arizona) and just put up a fight for the rest of ‘em. If they can do that, given how hard the schedules are for the entire division, that should give ‘em a pretty good advantage.

by HinesField on Jul 23, 2008 2:56 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Right on

The Steelers success this year is dependent only on the Steelers. If we play like we played last year, we’ll be 7-9. If we can play consistently at the top of our game, we’re talented and deep enough (DE is the only real exception) to go 14-2. A lot will depend on injuries and how tough the other teams are, but there is no excuse for this team to miss the playoffs.

by BadMaafala on Jul 23, 2008 4:29 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

The Browns

will contend with us this year but i still dont think their defense will hold up. We will see how they do against a schedule almost as miserable as ours. Sometimes having a top notch defense is the only way to make it out of some of those games.

by SteelerDomination on Jul 23, 2008 2:57 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Cleveland v Pittsburgh

Two Thoughts:

1. The division is still the Steelers to lose. We play 2 harder games than the Browns do, and even if we lose both of them, if we beat Cleveland twice, we win the division. This may increase the odds that Cleveland wins the division (because all they need is a split), but we can decide if we win the division based on our play in Cleveland and in Pittsburgh.

2. I’ve wanted to make this arg for a few months now, but have finally got time to put it to paper. Statistics for Cleveland’s secondary is a terrible way to argue that they will be successful. Last year, the second corner went against the second wideout. This year, the second corner will go against the top wideout. There is a significant difference if you are covering Hines or Holmes, or TJ or Chad. Having good stats against a second receiver might mean you are still not good enough to cover top-level talent.

Even if this is true that the second corner is a rising star and will be able to cover a top shelf wideout, will the guy who was a 3rd corner last year be able to keep up with Hines (or Holmes), or TJ from Cincinnati? As you start getting further down the line, eventually there will be a mismatch.

Take all this with a huge grain of salt: there are a million different things that can determine the outcome of any single game. The prevailing logic, however, is that until the season really starts, and we see the impact of Rogers and the departure of a top corner in Cleveland, it is hard to predict how their defense has shifted, if at all.

I’m just hoping things haven’t changed too much.

Go Steelers.

by MDM on Jul 24, 2008 1:09 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

speaking of mismatches

Our WRs will tear up the Browns, provided their new d-line doesn’t tear up Ben courtesy of our … where’s the O Line!? Block somebody GDAMMIT!!!! I said that enough last year to remember it still.

by betelgeuse on Jul 25, 2008 1:08 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Challengers....

I don’t buy the Ravens, and its mostly down to the QB situation.(..isn’t Boller still the starter…), but they’ve lost Ogden on the line which even though he was old will be a big deal for them. Look for a lot more sacks from Harrison and Woodley when we play this year.

Browns are everyone’s favorites to take the division it seems, but they seemed the same old Browns at the end of the season last year. I think the Anderson/Brady thing will raise its head hard for them during some time this season, but judging on Romeo’s dealing on Frye…it probably won’t be around for long. Agree with others also that they’re going to be facing tougher opponents this year that might not gove them the chance to rise.

Bengals….could they be the stink in the pot this year that bothers my holiday preparations….it’ll depend on how the Palmer to receivers rythym goes this year, but I’m fairly convinced that they cursed themselves with tj’s shoe polish gag with the Terrible Towel …

In the end I think that it’s the Steelers who are the Steelers best challengers, as in the last two years we have shown consistent weaknesses that we haven’t been able to cirrect or compensate for during the year. In 2006 it was punt/kick fumbles deep in our own territory, and last year it was the slackening of our run defense when Smith went out and the inability to stop returners in special teams. Whatever our flaws are this year I just hope they don’t prove to be long-term.

by SCSteeler on Jul 25, 2008 9:10 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs