Nov 18, 2015 4 min read

Notice: Undefined offset: 0 in /usr/web/cs-washington.ogdennews.com/wp-content/themes/News_Core_2023_WashCluster/includes/single/strategically_placed_photos_article.php on line 412

Notice: Trying to get property 'term_id' of non-object in /usr/web/cs-washington.ogdennews.com/wp-content/themes/News_Core_2023_WashCluster/includes/single/strategically_placed_photos_article.php on line 412

The Steelers wrapped up their practices for this week today and I say it was a practice in the loosest definition of the word.

As is typically the case, a lot of veterans sit the sessions out to allow the coaching staff to work with a lot of the younger players who don’t necessarily see a lot of time practicing Steelers stuff since they typically are working on the opponent’s game plan off a card.

But this year’s practice was like none I’d ever seen before. William Gay provided music off his phone and spent time calling out the guys, trying to get them to dance.

Cody Wallace brought his remote controlled car to the field and was driving it all over the field.

In other words, this is a loose, loose team.

It’s part of what makes guys love playing for this team so much. While the preparation is always serious, there’s always some fun to be had, as well.

And at the end of the day, football should be fun. It’s a game.

Sometimes we need a little reminder of that.

And after 17 consecutive weeks of practice and 15 consecutive weeks of games, this team needed to unwind a little bit.

@ Being around this team, you get the idea that it feels it’s priming itself for what could be a special run into the playoffs.

It’s still too early to start thinking about those things, but right now, is there a team in the NFL outside of that one that plays its games between Boston and Providence that scares you in the AFC?

The thing working against the Steelers at this point is that they play four of their final six games on the road. As things currently look, they’d have to win their two home games – against Indianapolis and Denver – and split their road games to get to 10-6.

That will get them into the postseason.

But to make the Super Bowl, they would then have to win three more road games. And that might be asking a bit much of any team to go 7-2 in their final nine games with seven of those games on the road.

It’s very difficult to win on the road in the NFL.

@ Six NFL teams will have different starting quarterbacks this week than when they last lined up to play a game, as Philadelphia, Denver, St. Louis, Houston, Dallas and Indianapolis will have new starters.

Only in Dallas, which has lost seven consecutive games, will it be a situation in which the starter is returning from an injury. And the Cowboys went 0-7 without Tony Romo.

The Steelers have gone 5-2 this season in games which Ben Roethlisberger has either not started or completed the game.

That’s pretty impressive.

@ Roethlisberger has started or played at least a half in six of the Steelers’ 10 games. In those games, Antonio Brown has caught 62 passes for 898 yards and five touchdowns.

In the four games in which Roethlisberger didn’t play at all, he caught 17 passes for 225 yards and no touchdowns.

If we extrapolate Brown’s numbers in games in which Roethlisberger played at least a half over the course of a season, he would be on pace to catch 165 passes for 2,395 yards and 13 touchdowns.

The first two of those numbers would shatter the NFL record in both statistics.

As is stands, he’s still on pace to come pretty close to matching his production from a year ago. And that was a pretty special season.

@ The defense has taken a lot of flak for giving up a lot of passing yards.

But the Steelers do have nine interceptions in 10 games and are 10th in the league in red zone touchdown percentage.

It doesn’t sound all that great until you realize they haven’t had more than 11 interceptions in a season since 2010 and were 19th last season in red zone touchdown percentage.

The Steelers also are allowing 32.5 percent of their opponent’s possessions to end in a score. The NFL average for that is 35.1 percent.

The defense is allowing some yards, but it’s coming up with stops and forcing turnovers. And that’s what I said it needed to do coming into this season to be an effective unit.

It might not always be pretty. But it has been effective, especially when you consider who the Steelers have played.

New England, Cincinnati, Arizona, Oakland, San Diego and Kansas City all rank in the top 15 in the NFL in points per game. That’s six of the Steelers’ first 10 opponents.

Just one of their final six opponents – the Bengals – are in the top 15 in scoring.