Pittsburgh Steelers: The Playoff Push

This is my first blog on the Pittsburgh Steelers this season. It hasn’t been that I haven’t watched the Steelers play football, it just that I haven’t put together any blogs.

Before the season started, I was worried to death that the Steelers might not even make the playoffs. My thinking was that they’d be lucky to make the sixth seed.

When the season started off with the offensive line looking awful, I grew even more concerned though it did appear that they had created a cushion in their divisional race.

Now here we are. They’re the highest seed left in the play-offs and I’m still worried. The Baltimore Ravens are next. I’d say the last two games against Baltimore ranked as vicious wars. How difficult is it to beat a good team three times in the same season? It sounds rather difficult to me.

I have to say that the San Diego game was beautiful. First off, there was the Pittsburgh atmosphere of snow swirling around in the first half. The game itself started off with a quick San Diego touchdown, which caused me some concern, but as soon as I started to notice that the Steelers weren’t going to allow the San Diego running back Sproles to run anywhere, I figured that at a minimum San Diego wasn’t going to open up a lead. Then when I noticed that the Steelers’ offensive line was actually protecting Big Ben, I started to think that this might be a close game, but that the Steelers’ would definitely win it. Of course, by the third quarter I was finally convinced that the game was over.

What I liked was seeing Big Ben go deep a few times. I remember watching various games and the announcers were always concerned about the fact that Big Ben didn’t seem to throw deep that often. The fact that he went deep a number of times and that the passes were within inches of being perfect seems to indicate that his shoulder is doing just fine. I also liked seeing Willie Parker running both up the middle and to the side. He also looks healthy.

I obviously have a slightly fatalistic outlook when talking about the Steelers – always fearful a disaster is around the corner – but here’s an optimistic take: maybe the Steelers-Baltimore game won’t be a close game at all. The Steelers were a banged up team during the season. With a team that appears healthy now perhaps they’ll win the next game rather easily.