My humble analysis of the Pittsburgh Steelers 2009 schedule

The Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2009 schedule came out earlier this week. Per ESPN, their strength of schedule ranks 29th. This is versus last year when their schedule was the toughest. Even though their schedule is viewed as weak, I think there are some tough games out there.

The Tennessee game is up first. That obviously is a tough one. Part of me wonders; however, if Tennessee will be as good this year as last year. Terry Collins is now 36. He’s getting to that point where he is old in terms of football years. Of course, Kurt Warner is older than Terry Collins and he took Arizona to the Super Bowl so that theory probably goes to the wayside. Chicago should be an improved team with Jay Cutler, but I suspect it takes awhile to learn a team’s offense so maybe they won’t be all that great at the start of the season. I think San Diego is probably much better than last year’s win-loss indicates. It is interesting how the Steelers play Baltimore so late in the season. They don’t meet up with Baltimore until week 12. They finish up with Cincinnati before they even meet up with Baltimore. It would seem that the AFC North won’t be decided until Baltimore and the Steelers meet up towards the end of the season. Green Bay may be an interesting team. Aaron Rodgers is now in his second season as the starter. I figure this is either the year he crashes and burns or he’ll start picking up the Green Bay system. The Steelers end the season against Miami, the team that turned it around last year, which may also indicate that Detroit might be more competitive this year.

This year’s schedule does seem easier than last year’s when I saw the following:

Week 8: NY Giants
Week 10: Indianapolis Colts
Week 11: San Diego Chargers
Week 13: New England Patriots
Week 14: Dallas Cowboys
Week 15: Baltimore Ravens
Week 16: Tennessee Titans

I couldn’t help but think before the season started that the Steelers needed to start out very hot, because if they didn’t weeks 8 through 16 would end their playoff hopes. Of course, I didn’t foresee that San Diego would not play up to expectations, Tom Brady would go down, and that Dallas would implode. It would seem that if the Steelers don’t get too full of themselves after winning the Super Bowl that at the minimum getting back to the playoffs shouldn’t be an issue. Reverse last year where the schedule appeared to weaken as the season progressed; however and there could be some teams on their schedule that might prove more challenging than anticipated. Who knows, perhaps Cleveland and Cincinnati will get their acts together. That would be scary outcome with six smash mouth football games guaranteed.

John Madden: I can’t believe he’s retiring. I can’t remember not seeing more than a few games each year with him behind the microphone.