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Steelers OT Marcus Gilbert is sayin' there's a chance

Steelers offensive tackle Marcus Gilbert is showing some fighting spirit heading into the team's Week 10 game - or the first game of the second half of the season.

By Neal Coolong
David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports

Steelers right tackle Marcus Gilbert wants to know if it was over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor.

"We're halfway through; we're not out of this thing," Gilbert said, as quoted by the Tribune-Review. "We've still got a chance. At 2-6, we've just got to fight the second half of the season. It's far from over. We've got a long way to go."

The optimism (sort of) is inspiring (kind of). If fighting was the only prerequisite, the Steelers might look to bring back former guard Chris Kemoeatu, who fought and got beat on pass rushes equally often. Sitting at 2-6, the lowest eight-game start the franchise has ever had in a 16-game season (having reached it four other times, 1986, 88, 2003 and 06), whatever fighting the Steelers are going to do this season obviously would need to start pretty quickly.

Gilbert is right, though. The season is far from being over. With eight games to play, including four of them against the AFC North, if nothing else, the Steelers are in a position to mess up inspirational runs from other sub-mediocre teams, like Cleveland and Baltimore.

It's unlikely those games will draw national television audiences, but there's still pride. The Steelers defeated the Ravens in Baltimore last year without quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, and had a particularly nasty season-ending game against Cleveland in Week 17. Their Week 16 game against Cincinnati was a battle as well.

It's Buffalo this week, to kick off the second half of the season. Then, the throwback jerseys come out for the NFC North-leading Lions.

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