So several Steelers are on record saying we're going to pound, pound, pound the ball Sunday Night. Sure team's primary weaknesses and strengths are ubiquitously known throughout the league, and teams go into games trying to exploit those weaknesses to a degree. But do teams flat out say, 'we're going to do X all game'? That seems to be what we're doing:
"I'm going to have to get my throws in before practice, it might be the last throwing I do all week," said Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. "They're susceptible to the run and we run the ball well, so I'm sure that's what we'll go in featuring."
Guard Kendall Simmons was more thoughtful in his response to what we might see from the Steelers offensively this week:
"Teams have just schemed well against them," said Steelers guard Kendall Simmons. "That's what our coaches have been doing this whole off week. We really didn't go over much on them until Thursday, and Monday we had a walk-through. Really, it seems like they've been running more zone and teams have just taken advantage of the gaps they leave. I don't know if that's what we're going to do."
We'll see, but unless it's sleeting and slushing like it was a few nights ago during the Rockies-Diamondbacks game, my guess is we'll employ a game plan similar to the one we used to navigate our way through the AFC playoffs a few years ago: take to the air early...punish with the run late. Denver's obviously been working on patching up their run defense for two weeks. And while the Steelers most certainly will test what improvements the Broncos have made, I don't think it will come as early and as often as Big Ben has suggested this week.