Like anyone who is willing to put themselves out there to try and negotiate trends, you can't be right all of the time. Last weeks trends I went 7-1, being wrong only on Todman being inactive. We've learned a bit more this week, and some of these predictions may be long term, but I'm going to read them by how they look today:
1) Ben's knee: This is the biggest concern on every Steelers' fan's mind. At least the ACL is intact, and no major tear was done to the MCL. This is really positive, considering the degree Ben's knee bent toward the inside of his body. Moving 10-15 degrees would have dictated some major damage. Fortunately the damage was not done to the ligaments, but something had to take the brunt of that injury, and it was the 2 bones (Femur and Tibia) smashing together, that stopped that injury from being catastrophic. Ben mentioned that he thought he broke his leg. A bone bruise isn't too far off. It's very painful, and does involve the bones causing extreme pain to him until it completely heals. Due to the range of motion and the amount of pain Ben is in, I'd have to deduce that his bone bruise is severe, and not localized to just the contact points. Instead when a severe bone bruise occurs, the compression spiderwebs away from the contact point causing a larger area of bruising where no contact was made. Bone bruises of this nature would take 8 weeks to heal. Even though his ligaments should be healed in 4 weeks, the bones will not be. I would expect Ben to be out for at least 6 weeks, and at worst 8 weeks. With the best treatment money can buy, and with Ben's pain tolerance, 6 weeks is a good bet, but 4 weeks is not a realistic expectation IMHO.
2) Shazier's Shoulder: I've been mentioning in many posts that we've been sold a bill of goods regarding Shazier's shoulder injury. Shazier does not have a stinger. That I am sure of. You don't sling a stinger, let alone sling it for multiple days. Tomlin also let slip in his presser that he was "concerned about the joint" which is why they are waiting for "strength to return" before letting him practice again. Weakness in the shoulder joint, combined with a sling to help keep the joint stable, I'm deducing that his shoulder is separated. There was no evidence of Shazier getting his shoulder worked on, and he didn't leave the sideline vs the 49ers. This evidence points to a subluxation, and I'm pretty confident it is, as opposed to a dislocation. The difference is a dislocation has to be manually manipulated to place the humorous back into the shoulder socket, and cause a lot of soft tissue damage in the process. A subluxation is a partial dislocation, where the bone separates from the socket, but goes back in on its own. Damage can still occur and unfortunately this injury can reoccur if the soft tissue is not healed before returning to game play. There was no evidence of Shazier getting his shoulder worked on, and he didn't leave the sideline vs the 49ers. It seems the Steelers are being very cautious treating Shazier's injury. It also means that Shazier can be out for as much as 4-8 weeks total, before it would be completely healed. Shazier is definitely not playing this week (as we all know). I'm hopeful he will be ready to go with another 10 days rest, but I'm leaning that he will miss 4 games before returning to the defense.
3) After a terrible week in St Louis, I believe the offensive line will bounce back and have a strong game against the young and inexperienced front 7 of Baltimore. Baltimore will have to sell out stacking the box with extra players to have any chance of slowing down the rushing attack. I'm hoping Haley is game planning for this so throwing in play action deep balls will play to Vick's strength of getting the ball down field quickly with a flick of his wrist. I expect the Steelers to have close to 200 combined yards rushing with Bell/Williams/Vick, and ravens fans will be in agony watching their once powerful defense, giving up chunks of rushing yardage with ease and consistency.
4) My concern last week was on the offensive side, this week, it will be up the to the defense to slow down one player specifically. Steve Smith is on a tear this season. The Ravens' are using him much like we use AB, and he's showing the experience and route running to get himself open, nearly every play, and is now their top weapon on offense. I personally don't think we match up well enough to slow him down. Smith will have a big day (over 100yards receiving and close to 10 catches), but he has to be kept out of the endzone. If he scores with ease, it will be a tough game for us to compete in. The ravens are also big on their TEs, which is another position that gives us fits defending. Pitta is on IR, and Gilmore may be held out, so look for Maxx Williams to get his first start. Any success he has in this game, will have ravens' fans crowing about how smart they were to move ahead of us to grab him in the second round of last years draft.
5) Injuries and game day inactives: Well our game day inactive list is filling up with injured players. We will have 7 inactive players this week and one of them will not be Landry Jones, as he earns the first hat of his career this week. With the short week, yesterday's practice will dictate who will play. Silverback will play with a hurt thumb. It would take a broken neck to keep him away from hitting Ravens. Cortez brown was limited yesterday, so he won't be playing on Thursday. Speath and McCullers also didn't practice, so both will be out. This already has our inactive list as: 1. Ben 2. Shazier 3. Cortez 4. Spaeth 5. McCullers, leaving only 2 healthy scratches this week. I'm thinking they will be Lyons and Hubbard since Jessie James will be needed as the #2 TE and Jones will be needed as the #2 QB.
1) Ben's knee: This is the biggest concern on every Steelers' fan's mind. At least the ACL is intact, and no major tear was done to the MCL. This is really positive, considering the degree Ben's knee bent toward the inside of his body. Moving 10-15 degrees would have dictated some major damage. Fortunately the damage was not done to the ligaments, but something had to take the brunt of that injury, and it was the 2 bones (Femur and Tibia) smashing together, that stopped that injury from being catastrophic. Ben mentioned that he thought he broke his leg. A bone bruise isn't too far off. It's very painful, and does involve the bones causing extreme pain to him until it completely heals. Due to the range of motion and the amount of pain Ben is in, I'd have to deduce that his bone bruise is severe, and not localized to just the contact points. Instead when a severe bone bruise occurs, the compression spiderwebs away from the contact point causing a larger area of bruising where no contact was made. Bone bruises of this nature would take 8 weeks to heal. Even though his ligaments should be healed in 4 weeks, the bones will not be. I would expect Ben to be out for at least 6 weeks, and at worst 8 weeks. With the best treatment money can buy, and with Ben's pain tolerance, 6 weeks is a good bet, but 4 weeks is not a realistic expectation IMHO.
2) Shazier's Shoulder: I've been mentioning in many posts that we've been sold a bill of goods regarding Shazier's shoulder injury. Shazier does not have a stinger. That I am sure of. You don't sling a stinger, let alone sling it for multiple days. Tomlin also let slip in his presser that he was "concerned about the joint" which is why they are waiting for "strength to return" before letting him practice again. Weakness in the shoulder joint, combined with a sling to help keep the joint stable, I'm deducing that his shoulder is separated. There was no evidence of Shazier getting his shoulder worked on, and he didn't leave the sideline vs the 49ers. This evidence points to a subluxation, and I'm pretty confident it is, as opposed to a dislocation. The difference is a dislocation has to be manually manipulated to place the humorous back into the shoulder socket, and cause a lot of soft tissue damage in the process. A subluxation is a partial dislocation, where the bone separates from the socket, but goes back in on its own. Damage can still occur and unfortunately this injury can reoccur if the soft tissue is not healed before returning to game play. There was no evidence of Shazier getting his shoulder worked on, and he didn't leave the sideline vs the 49ers. It seems the Steelers are being very cautious treating Shazier's injury. It also means that Shazier can be out for as much as 4-8 weeks total, before it would be completely healed. Shazier is definitely not playing this week (as we all know). I'm hopeful he will be ready to go with another 10 days rest, but I'm leaning that he will miss 4 games before returning to the defense.
3) After a terrible week in St Louis, I believe the offensive line will bounce back and have a strong game against the young and inexperienced front 7 of Baltimore. Baltimore will have to sell out stacking the box with extra players to have any chance of slowing down the rushing attack. I'm hoping Haley is game planning for this so throwing in play action deep balls will play to Vick's strength of getting the ball down field quickly with a flick of his wrist. I expect the Steelers to have close to 200 combined yards rushing with Bell/Williams/Vick, and ravens fans will be in agony watching their once powerful defense, giving up chunks of rushing yardage with ease and consistency.
4) My concern last week was on the offensive side, this week, it will be up the to the defense to slow down one player specifically. Steve Smith is on a tear this season. The Ravens' are using him much like we use AB, and he's showing the experience and route running to get himself open, nearly every play, and is now their top weapon on offense. I personally don't think we match up well enough to slow him down. Smith will have a big day (over 100yards receiving and close to 10 catches), but he has to be kept out of the endzone. If he scores with ease, it will be a tough game for us to compete in. The ravens are also big on their TEs, which is another position that gives us fits defending. Pitta is on IR, and Gilmore may be held out, so look for Maxx Williams to get his first start. Any success he has in this game, will have ravens' fans crowing about how smart they were to move ahead of us to grab him in the second round of last years draft.
5) Injuries and game day inactives: Well our game day inactive list is filling up with injured players. We will have 7 inactive players this week and one of them will not be Landry Jones, as he earns the first hat of his career this week. With the short week, yesterday's practice will dictate who will play. Silverback will play with a hurt thumb. It would take a broken neck to keep him away from hitting Ravens. Cortez brown was limited yesterday, so he won't be playing on Thursday. Speath and McCullers also didn't practice, so both will be out. This already has our inactive list as: 1. Ben 2. Shazier 3. Cortez 4. Spaeth 5. McCullers, leaving only 2 healthy scratches this week. I'm thinking they will be Lyons and Hubbard since Jessie James will be needed as the #2 TE and Jones will be needed as the #2 QB.
