No Time to Panic for Steelers

I planned to write a piece on how it’s not time for Steelers fans to panic. We’re four games into the season and while it’s true that the defense hasn’t looked like its former dominant self and the offensive line looks horrendous, to put it mildly, I remind you again that it is only four games into the season! Instead of writing a couple thousand words myself, however, K.C. Joyner of ESPN did a fantastic job of beating me to the punch yesterday.

The only thing that I would add to Joyner’s points about this season’s team is that how quickly we forget “panic times” from the past few seasons. It was week 10 just a year ago when the Steelers were dismantled by the Patriots on Sunday Night Football on their way to a Super Bowl appearance. In 2008, it was week 16 that the Steelers were destroyed by Tennessee, losing home-field advantage in the process, on their way to Lombardi Trophy #6. Even going back to 2005, the Steelers lost three straight games from week 11 through week 13 before reeling off seven straight victories for their Super Bowl victory that year. So remember folks, it is only week four, this Steelers team is going to be fine in the long run…as long as Roethlisberger stays alive behind that offensive line!

Here is an excerpt from Joyner’s column and a link to the full column below…it does require ESPN Insider Access so I do apologize for those without that availability. For those without Insider access, I’ll sum it up: Don’t panic Steelers fans, the odds are heavily in the Steelers’ corner to make the playoffs!

The Pittsburgh Steelers also have a long and successful history of managing advanced roster age (four of their eight Super Bowl teams had at least eight starters who were 30 or older).

This is a fact that seems to have been forgotten following the Steelers' 2-2 start. Pundits and fans have criticized Pittsburgh for keeping so many veterans, especially on the defensive side of the ball, where the Steelers ranked as the oldest group in the NFL coming into the season.

That may have prompted some to write off the Steelers' chances of repeating as AFC champions, but a review of their first four games provides evidence that shows this team is still playing extremely well and has a strong chance of making it to the postseason.

Link to the rest of the story.

Ben Fantastic; Smorgasbord Tomorrow

I am backed up today in the real world so I will have to postpone the NFL Smorgasbord for tomorrow...but I leave you with this article from KC Joyner (aka The Football Scientist) showing how truly great Ben Roethlisberger has been. I am not sure I would put him on Brady's level, as Joyner does, but I have been saying for years he is the third best quarterback in the league.

http://insider.espn.go.com/nfl/insider/columns/story?columnist=joyner_kc&id=6011130

You need an ESPN Insider account to read the article but if you don't have an insider account, here is a snippet:

"In other words, Roethlisberger is piloting a high-risk/high-reward offense. A solid bad decision rate for a quarterback of that nature would be in the 2.5-to-3 percent range and Roethlisberger's 2.0 percent total is well below that. Brady's 1.3 percent mark is just as superb (a 2.0 percent total is considered good for dink/dunk offenses) but when this context is applied, it is clear that his lead in this metric is fairly negligible at best.

And that's the story with pretty much any measurement one can come up with to compare Roethlisberger and Brady both for this season and their careers. The biggest exception to this might be that Brady has three Super Bowl rings to Roethlisberger's two, but the second-biggest exception is that Roethlisberger is 4½ years younger -- he has a lot more time to make up the title gap than Brady has to extend it."