What's More Important for Steelers Playoff Chances -- Fighting for a First Round Bye or Taking Precautionary Measures on the Injury Front?

This team is wildly inconsistent but consistently weird. They look sloppy and slow, they look brilliant, one minute or two after they looked like one or the other. They come up with big plays, they seem to fall apart. Teams push the D down the field like shopping carts and then they come up with a goal line stand. The O line is always a crap shoot. Ben, healthy or otherwise, appalls and then amazes and his receivers are the same. Sometimes they seem to thrive on emotional situations, other times they look sluggish and half asleep. They’re too old, they’re too young, they’re too slow, they’re too fast. Willie Gay is the hero in a game where Hines and Heath lose the ball for important turnovers…Ike intercepts……The old vets show them how it’s done, the Young Money flashes its stuff.

And in case that sounded negative, I’m really REALLY enjoying this ride. There have been very few moments in any Steelers game this season when I knew what the final outcome would be. If you just love the fun of watching football, this team is the one you want to follow for the sheer drama of the game, week after week.

I don’t expect that the end of this road will be any different. Who Knows? to me means strap on your protective gear, we’re in for a bumpy landing…..But what fun it’s going to be!! If we have nothing else, we can certainly say: I’ll never forget this season.

GO STEELERS!

And now are tied with the Saints for the 2th seed. They will be very motivated against the Steelers. Combine it with their stout front seven and I think it’s not worth it to throw Ben in the meat grinder. He is just one more bad fall from being done for the season.

…his medical condition (sickle cell anemia) nearly cost him his life the last time he played in
Denver.

question. The bye is always nice; helped us out last year. The extra week would also provide more time to heal.

We also had the bye when we won the superbowl in the 08-09 season, but we didn’t need it to win back in 05-06.

I think from this standpoint, as hard as it will be to get a bye, I’d rather just try to get healthy.

I feel that the whole angle of this article is looking ahead to the postseason.

And as any coach, and especially our Tomlin would tell you, you can’t look ahead. You have to focus on one game at a time and make decisions accordingly.

Until we clinch a berth, which would probably be if we win next week, we shouldn’t even be discussing this.

Who’s to say the team doesn’t have a 2009 meltdown with 3 games to go and ends up stayin home in January with a 10-3 record.

Clinch your spot first, then we’ll talk about resting Ben. I personally think the 5 seed wouldn’t be bad, we’ll probably get Tebow to start the playoffs. But win this week, then rest against the two lesser teams. I think you need Ben to beat San Fran, but Batch can probably beat the Browns and Rams.

The Steelers can take a wait and watch approach. If the Ravens lose to the Chargers on Sunday then the Steelers should play Ben IF he can play. Otherwise, there is no point in risking injury further because the best case scenario is still the 5th seed.

This is under the assumption that if the Ravens don’t lose to the Chargers I don’t see them losing to the Bengals either.

Looking all the way down to the Super Bowl— the Steelers would likely have a better chance against NO. Forget about Florio’s baloney that San Fran (or Chicago-my God!) would have a better chance against the Pack in frigid Lambeau. The best chance against the Packers is to score 35 points. The Saints, Patriots, and Steelers have the passing attack to do that on a pretty good day. That leaves the Saints as the only serious obstacle for the Packers in their march to the Super Bowl. If Ben’s ankle can be be splinted up tight as a drum, then maybe he should play in SF and try to put NO into Lambeau.

I am hoping that an M.D. can tell us the possible risk of worsening a high ankle sprain if Ben does play through the injury. Is there a chance that Ben could make it worse and lengthen the recovery process? Will he be more vulnerable to suffering a season-ending injury if he plays in SF? Without knowing the answers to these questions, it is difficult for me to state whether Ben should play. If we are just talking about pain tolerance, I think that there is a decent chance he will play. However, if he will be risking aggravating or exacerbating the inury, he should probably sit out the SF game.

In 2005, it wasn’t just that we won the last four games, it was the way in which we did. Against fairly solid teams except one- we dominated on the ground and in defense- the Bears (famous Bettis in the snow run over Urlacher/+100 yard game), Minnesota (142 rushing yards vs. 54/ dominated time of possession), Cleveland (41-0- not much else to say there), and the Lions where we scored 35 points depsite two turnovers. I remember watching “Inside the NFL” and the guys agreeing that, depsite none of them really expecting a Wild Card to win the Super Bowl (because it had never been done), the Steelers were the scariest Wild Card they could remember seeing. I don’t think you can compare the two teams and think even for a second “Well…the bye isn’t what it used to be- we can rest and make it just like we’ve done in the past.” Green Bay may have made it last year- but it’s been well-documented on this site that if it were not an uncapped year, it’s likely the Packers wouldn’t have even made the playoffs based on the amount of shuffling of personnel they would have had to do (like the Steelers have had to do this year…no Flozell/ wait for Starks/ can’t go after a career guard, etc..) So- I think you throw out last year’s GB case on that basis. I think you go after that bye with everything you’ve got. Unlike some, I doubt we can beat Baltimore in Baltimore, and I’m really not sure we could beat NE away either. You know Belichick will put a team and strategy on that field that will look nothing like what we saw in October no matter where they play..being away will be extremely challenging for this team. One final point- I don’t know if I can remember a Steelers team that played so much differently away as at home in any given year. We’ve really, really struggled on the road this year, winning ugly if we win at all. That bye is more preciious for this team than any Steelers squad I can remember over the last many years.

Play now to get a bye laterthereby forcing the issue and risking injury or play not and risk going on the road. I would assume the get a wc spot and after that it’s up to them to be road warriors. Rest bens ankle and pounced too as it matters not so long as you are healthy for the playoffs. I would sit him on this week and Hope for a w.

God damnit ANTHONY! What is this rubbish. Charlie Batch can do just fine if Ben is out for good and lead us to our 7th superbowl “behind the steel curtain”.