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Have you ever had a ribs injury? I've had two, and in neither case could I have come anywhere close to playing a game of tackle football 4 days later. 4 weeks later may have been a stretch. What am I saying here? I'm not sure exactly. It's just that from my own personal experience, if a rib injury was bad enough to take out of a game on Sunday, there was little to no chance I'd be back suiting up four days later. I couldn't breath, cough or talk without great difficulty let along move around avoiding tackles, speak of which, getting tackles with a rib injury? No flippin way, not a chance.
So, 1.) Either Kenny's "ribs" were not really what was injured, or, 2.), it's at a lower level than I had experienced. By the 4th day after injury, I still had trouble breathing let along playing tackle football. Could Kenny really experienced another concussion and Shades wants to avoid the entire "protocol" situation? We've seen Shades treat concussions a little sketchy in the past. Which brings us to tonight's game.
https://www.nfl.com/news/2023-nfl-season-four-things-to-watch-for-in-titans-steelers-on-prime-video
Kenny's slow starts. Should be re-titled "Steelers slow starts." The offensive play calling is horrid to start the game. They tried one long pass last week to open the game and barely missed on it, but that hardly makes up for 6 games of "pee your pants" offensive play calling to start games as Shades lives in his fears in play calling.
On TN's side, they got a rookie QB who threw for 4 TDs in his 1st start, how long did it take Kenny to throw 4 TDs last year? More than 4 games I suspect.
The D is short with Fitz being out, probably a bigger hit to our run D considering where they had him playing. I'm thinking Fitz isn't terribly upset he's not gonna have to be attempting to tackle Henry this week. Fitz and his 207 LB frame having to take down Henry's 250+ LBs who runs as fast or faster than Fitz. No thank you, I'll sit this one out.
So, 1.) Either Kenny's "ribs" were not really what was injured, or, 2.), it's at a lower level than I had experienced. By the 4th day after injury, I still had trouble breathing let along playing tackle football. Could Kenny really experienced another concussion and Shades wants to avoid the entire "protocol" situation? We've seen Shades treat concussions a little sketchy in the past. Which brings us to tonight's game.
https://www.nfl.com/news/2023-nfl-season-four-things-to-watch-for-in-titans-steelers-on-prime-video
- Kenny Pickett will play Thursday, but can he avoid a slow start? In 19 starts for the Steelers, Pickett’s exhibited great toughness. He’s only missed one start since earning the job -- last year at Carolina due to a bone bruise. Quarterback injuries have been an unending story around the NFL this season, but Pickett’s proneness for injury in a short span has become concerning. Also troublesome: Outside of some big fourth quarters, he’s been highly inconsistent as an NFL starter. Prickett's propensity to take too many hits and sacks is one bugaboo; starting games too slowly holds merit, too. In first quarters this season, Pickett has completed 19 of 37 passes for 204 yards, with one TD, three interceptions and six sacks. Jeffery Simmons, Arden Key and Harold Landry lead a strong pressure unit in Tennessee. The Titans have an NFL-worst two interceptions and will give up some pass plays, so it could be a big day for Pickett and receivers George Pickens and Diontae Johnson. But Tennessee also plays elite red-zone defense (34.6% TDs allowed) and thoroughly dominated the Bengals offense in Week 4.
- Will Levis tries to back up terrific debut on a quick turnaround. You’ll often hear that NFL coaches want to raise a young quarterback’s confidence, often by calling high-percentage passes. The Titans, however, took the opposite approach with Levis in his NFL debut: They chucked it deep, baby. Over and over again. Incredibly, through one game, Levis now has three of the 10 longest TD passes this season by air distance, according to Next Gen Stats. All went longer than 50 yards, with two of them going to DeAndre Hopkins. Prior to Levis starting, the Titans had zero deep TD passes in Weeks 1-7. Hopkins was the biggest beneficiary, catching his first three TDs of the year last week and his two longest catches of the season. But this approach is also a double-edged sword, as Levis was less effective when he was forced to play traditional quarterback more, completing 6 of 9 third-down passes but only converting two of them into first downs. Levis’ checkdown-or-touchdown approach worked in Week 8, although even against a limited Steelers defense, he likely needs to broaden his horizons more to be effective on Thursday. T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith can heat up the edges in a hurry, especially with the status of reliable offensive tackle Chris Hubbard (concussion) in doubt.
- Steelers’ defense will be shorthanded without Minkah Fitzpatrick. The Steelers will be in a bind on Thursday with Fitzpatrick (hamstring) out. According to Next Gen Stats, the Steelers are far worse with him off the field this season, allowing a 71.7% completion percentage and 8.4 yards per attempts, than they are when he’s playing (57.2%, 7.4 YPA). Fitzpatrick was the Steelers’ Joker -- he could man multiple spots in Pittsburgh’s three-safety alignment -- and there’s no one-for-one replacement on the roster. This season, the Steelers have used him more close to the line of scrimmage, either in the slot or the box as a run-force player, tight-end eraser and blitzer. That should help Levis quite a bit, as the guessing game of what Fitzpatrick might do on any play is now gone. This also clearly aids Titans running back Derrick Henry, who has come on lately (363 rush yards since Week 4, with a 5.3-yard average). It might also help get tight end Chigoziem Okonkwo going. Despite a slight uptick in recent usage, Okonkwo has been off to a slow start, but this is about the point last season when he started heating up.
- Titans struggle on the road, but Steelers up and down at home. The standings say the Titans are 0-3 on the road, and that’s technically true. But they’re actually 0-4 away from home, losing a hard-fought game to the Ravens in London where the Titans were designated the “home” team. In fact, they’ve lost seven straight away from Nissan Stadium. Their last true road win was just over one year ago at Green Bay -- coincidentally, also a Thursday night game. Their biggest problem in those seven straight losses: points. They’ve averaged only 18 ppg, and five of the seven losses were by one possession. But the Steelers haven’t exactly set the world on fire at home. Sure, they delivered season-preserving divisional victories over the Browns and Ravens, but they also lost by double digits at home to the 49ers and Jaguars. The Steelers were 4-4 at home in 2022: Mike Tomlin’s worst season mark as head coach. And as with Tennessee on the road, the Steelers’ home troubles have come down to scoring as they have surpassed the 20-point mark only twice in their past 12 games in Pittsburgh. It’s no wonder many feel this game could be low-scoring, although the QB situations likely have a lot to do with that. [END]
Kenny's slow starts. Should be re-titled "Steelers slow starts." The offensive play calling is horrid to start the game. They tried one long pass last week to open the game and barely missed on it, but that hardly makes up for 6 games of "pee your pants" offensive play calling to start games as Shades lives in his fears in play calling.
On TN's side, they got a rookie QB who threw for 4 TDs in his 1st start, how long did it take Kenny to throw 4 TDs last year? More than 4 games I suspect.
The D is short with Fitz being out, probably a bigger hit to our run D considering where they had him playing. I'm thinking Fitz isn't terribly upset he's not gonna have to be attempting to tackle Henry this week. Fitz and his 207 LB frame having to take down Henry's 250+ LBs who runs as fast or faster than Fitz. No thank you, I'll sit this one out.
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