So much for that "tough schedule"

by jason97673 on Sep 9, 2008 6:35 AM EDT Comment 10 comments

Well, did things sure change. All off season, most people have talked about how hard our schedule is. Record wise, it was the toughest schedule in NFL History I believe.

Now, our schedule has gone from unbelievably tough to just average. Lets take a look at our supposed to be tough opponents and why some of these opponents are no longer "automatic losses" as some people like to claim.

Jacksonville: Garrard faded down the stretch last season once teams got more tape on him. Jacksonville's OLine is in trouble. Starting Guard Vince Manuwai out for the year, Maurice Williams out for 2 months, and Brad Meester possibly missing the first 4 weeks of the season makes it so there run game could be very average. Matchup = much easier.

New York Giants: Lost Strahan to retirement, lost Osi for the year. Thats 22 sacks they lost from last year. This matchup got alot easier. They still have a great DLine but have no depth that made there SB win possible. Matchup = much easier.

Indianapolis: Peyton Manning had no practice time through out Summer. As we saw week 1, he isnt ready to dominate like were used too. They lost Saturday who I believe is on the PUP list so he will not play the first 6 weeks of the season. We unfortunately play Indy week 10 so he could be healthy by then, but whos to say both he and Manning will be 100%? Not too mention this supposedly tough team got beat by the lowly Bears. Could still be tough since they could get healthy by time we play them.

San Diego: Got beat by Carolina. Starters Hardwick, McNeil, Merriman, and Gates are all injured. Gates and Merriman played but are probably not 100%.Merriman wont be 100% for the full year. This could still be a tough matchup.

New England: Obviously with Brady being out, I can see us easily beating New England. I doubt Cassel is as great at spreading the field and throwing underneath like Brady which in my opinion is the only way NE can beat us. There Defense now has a lot of pressure since they wont be up by 5 touchdowns like last year. There secondary has gotten worse. There starting corners are Ellis Hobbs and Lewis Sanders, hardly great players. Matchup = much easier.

Dallas: This is the only team I believe on our schedule that is completely healthy, thus it should be the toughest game on our schedule.

Clevekand: Anderson, and Edwards played very little in pre season due to injuries. They are not 100%. Cribbs is banged up, Stallworth is getting an MRI done. They appear to have a lot of minor injuries. Jurevicious is on the PUP I believe so he will be inactive for week 2.

Didnt include Philly or Tennessee. There is a lot of hype over philly for some reason, but I dont see it.

All of these injuries are the perfect example and reason why there is no such thing as a tough schedule when looking at it before the games are played. It has been one week and teams all over the place are injured and beat up.

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My thoughts...

are that its a little early for all of this.

The G-Men are still a factor. Easier, sure; easy, no.
San Diego historically starts slowly.
Jax might not have much offense, but respectfully, their offense is not why they beat us twice last season.
Counting Peyton Manning out, ever, is foolish.
Philly beat a Rams team even worse than we took it to the Texans (38-3).

Its still very early, and it would be silly for us to turn up our noses at the competition.

Guns don't kill people. Lamar Woodley kills people.

by BostonWahoo on Sep 9, 2008 9:34 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

The Giants are a factor if Eli plays like he did in the playoffs. I dont see that happening.

San Diego started off slowly last year which could of been due to the recent coaching change. This year they might not get much better due to possible nagging injuries of Merriman and Gates. Lets not forget, they don’t have that amazing 1-2 RB punch anymore either.

Jacksonville beat us in the first game simply because of there run game and there run game only. With 3 starters to miss significant time, its not a stretch to say there run game might be average. And the playoff game we lost because of the 3 picks Ben through. However Ben still torched there secondary other then the few mistakes.

I dont count Peyton out, however, I dont ever remember him playing injured or having a significant surgery and missing all Summer and Pre Season either. But Losing Saturday will hurt especially since his replacement is a 7th round rookie. That is a HUGE drop off.

Also Philly beat the Rams but the Rams had a 3-13 record where as Houston had an 8-8 record, and with a division that includes 6 games against Jax, Indy and Tennessee who had 10, 11, and 13 wins respectively. Houston could of been a playoff team last year in another division. Before we thrashed them, there was a lot of talk how it should be a close game and Houston is a decent team. Then we dismantle them and they suddenly become horrible as some might expect? I dont buy that.

Basically, my point is most of the top teams are much weaker then they were a few months ago.

by jason97673 on Sep 9, 2008 1:08 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Too early to write off anyone

It’s too early to form any kind of opinion on teams. For all we know, the Steelers beat up on a 1-15 team.

Revenge of the Birds

by cgolden on Sep 9, 2008 10:12 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Too early. But...

There are some good signs. I’m not ready to count out the Pats, but obviously they lose a lot. The Colt will be fine by the time we play them, probably. We were all waiting to see if Manning would all the sudden be a good-to-great QB, and I think we got our answer. This is still the same Giants, minus Osi and Strahan. Garrard hasn’t gotten any better, and they’ve already had a bunch on injuries. Also, Merriman will be out by the time we play them, and they haven’t looked like a great team thus far either.

A lot can change, but you have to say that our schedule looks a little easier.

charity standing orders

by BadMaafala on Sep 9, 2008 10:19 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

The Giants minus Osi and Strahan is like the Steelers minus Parker and Holmes. I think that is a fair comparison. Giants won the SB because Eli didnt make many mistakes and they had the best DLine depth in the NFL. Without Osi and Strahan, there DLine is robably considered only “good”.

by jason97673 on Sep 9, 2008 1:11 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

sorry

wasn’t clear on which Manning. “This is still the same Giants” meant that they are the same Giants that looked inconsistent over the past 3 years. And “I think we got our answer” is refering to the opener, where Eli looked just as crappy as he always has, implying that the playoffs are the anomoly, not the new Eli. I’m agreeing with you, although a couple of those teams may bounce back.

charity standing orders

by BadMaafala on Sep 9, 2008 2:20 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Lets keep the champange on ice

We should all celebrate our teams thrashing of Houston. The truth is that we started the season as well as we could. Our horse came out of the gate fast and prepared.

But there are some fierce teams out there and as the Patriots learned every team is one knee away from a drastically different season. Lets just say we also saw that Byron Leftwich is not ready for the pro-bowl either.

Bottom line – I think that our schedule is still very tough. Having watched the first game though I think the Steelers start the season with more weapons on Offense and Defense than any Steelers team in recent history.

by SteelerBuddha on Sep 9, 2008 11:34 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Im in no way saying we are a lock for a 6th super bowl. I am simply saying our historically tough schedule got a lot easier. Look what happened to the Steelers when they lost some important players last year? They went down the drain. Its not unrealistic to think Jacksonville could do the same with there OLine the way it is now.

by jason97673 on Sep 9, 2008 12:55 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Our horse came out of the gate fast, a horse named

Big Ben.

Ben leads our O to more points than you, against any D in the league, with FWP, now fresh throughout games and the season and the post season with RPM (Mendy). FWP is healthy and rejuvenated with some new moves. We’ll have to start calling him FSWP – Fast Spinning Willie Parker.

And what can you say about our D? This D could be so dominating this year its unreal.

Stay healthy PGH.

If Tomlin was saying at his press conference right now what I heard Jack Del Reo saying yesterday, we’d all be drinking purple Kool-Aid. JAX is looking for offensive linemen off the street, and man, Del Reo did NOT sound happy about it. They took it to us last year twice, but Ben brought us back from an 18 point deficit with 19 4th quarter points against this team to take the lead in the playoff game, if healthy our D holds this lead and we win that game. In fact we don’t fall that far behind to begin with. Gotta stay healthy, something that affected us last year, but is affecting JAX this year.

Giants win with their D-line, Ben can handle pressure better than any other QB in the league. He’s an expert at it! lol (or cryin, come on o-line!)

Okay, Brady’s pretty good with pressure too. Sorry he got hurt, but, the bottom line is he’s not playing this year. Sorry NE. Cassel can’t change the play like Brady can, and he locks in on the receiver.

Our division is looking weak, can’t wait for Sunday Night. The ponies, bolts, and pokes – any given sunday baby. I’ll take our chances in any of those matchups, and no problem looking forward to it. That’s part of being a fan or posting on a Steeler board! Enjoy it!

by herewegosteelers on Sep 9, 2008 12:31 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs