Steelers fans, we've got a special season brewing. First year head coach Mike Tomlin has already proven the Rooneys made the right decision, Big Ben is exceeding all of our expectations, and our defense is playing as well as it has in years.
Safety Ryan Clark and TE Jerame Tuman have been put on IR and are gone for the year. Center Marvin Phillip and Grant Mason were promoted from the practice squad. Mason's promotion is obviously for special teams purposes, while the Phillip move makes you wonder if perhaps Sean Mahan would do some work at Guard if there was an injury somewhere along the line and Marvin Phillip was asked to play. We'll see if Phillip sees the field this week before speculating too much on how he might be used.
Next step in the journey for now though is a trip to the Meadowlands to take on the 1-8 New York Jets.
Once again the Steelers take on a foe coming off their BYE Week. I'm not going to go back and see how Mangini has done as an assistant coming off the BYE or anything like that. I'll just say this: the Jets will have had two weeks to stew about being a 1-8 football team and one of the jokes of the NFL. If they don't come out mad at home and play well, I'd be shocked.
Now, that said, they're just not very good at all. Maybe not 1-8 bad, but nowhere near the top 6 teams in the AFC. The problems run deep for NY as well, not just on one side of the ball, as I will be writing about this afternoon.
Unlike in '92 when he was coaching as a 21-year old in Australia, Mangini hasn't found much to celebrate this year
For now though, use this thread for initial thoughts on this potential trap game, what, if any you've seen of the Jets this year, and who you would rather see lineup under center for Jets: Kellen Clemens, the second-year guy out of Oregon, or Chad Pennington, the hardened veteran who was recently demoted.