Next month of season is critical for Steelers season

[BigRob]

The next month is really critical for the Steelers season. The Ravens have some tough losable games coming up. The Ravens have the following teams I can see them losing to in the next month or so:

Cowboys
Texans
Steelers
Chargers

I could see the Ravens going 2-2 or 3-1 over the next 5 games. In addition to these teams, I see them potentially losing games with these teams going forward beyond this:

Steelers
Broncos
Giants

I see the Raven's being a 12-4 or 11-5 team again this year. It's going to be tough sledding to win the Division.

It is critical that the Steelers go 4-0 to keep up with the Ravens for the Division title.

[lloydroid]

Ravens barely beat KC. I know that isn't meaningful in itself, but the collective shows they are beatable. I see them going 2-2 the next 4 and 11-5 over all. But they do display one thing a winner does: the ability to win even when they are struggling vs. an inferior team. We had those games all the time during our SB winning seasons. The ability to win those games shows you have what it takes. You don't always win in a blow out.

[BigRob]

Ravens barely beat KC. I know that isn't meaningful in itself, but the collective shows they are beatable. I see them going 2-2 the next 4 and 11-5 over all. But they do display one thing a winner does: the ability to win even when they are struggling vs. an inferior team. We had those games all the time during our SB winning seasons. The ability to win those games shows you have what it takes. You don't always win in a blow out.

They also lost to Seattle and Jacksonville last year while going 12-4 and being one play away from making the Superbowl. This is just postulating on my part. Any given Sunday.

[Slapstick]

Every game is critical and the Steelers need to treat every game as such...

If the Steelers can successfully take care of their own business, then what the Ravens do is irrelevant...

[BigRob]

Every game is critical and the Steelers need to treat every game as such...

If the Steelers can successfully take care of their own business, then what the Ravens do is irrelevant...

Partially true. Being down to the Ravens by one game is not huge, being down 2 or 3 games takes the control away from the Steelers. Hence why this next stretch of games is so critical to the season. The Ravens have tough games against 4 opponents over the next 5 weeks.

[Slapstick]

The Steelers are already down 2 1/2 to the Ravens...

I think that the margin of error is already whittling away to nothing...

[Oviedo]

The next month is really critical for the Steelers season. The Ravens have some tough losable games coming up. The Ravens have the following teams I can see them losing to in the next month or so:

Cowboys
Texans
Steelers
Chargers

I could see the Ravens going 2-2 or 3-1 over the next 5 games. In addition to these teams, I see them potentially losing games with these teams going forward beyond this:

Steelers
Broncos
Giants

I see the Raven's being a 12-4 or 11-5 team again this year. It's going to be tough sledding to win the Division.

It is critical that the Steelers go 4-0 to keep up with the Ravens for the Division title.

I think the reality is that both the Steelers and the Ravens are 10-6 or 11-5 teams based on injuries, etc. The decidimng factor on who tops out in the Division at the end of the year will be head to head and what we do with regards to the Browns and Bumgals. We CANNOT allow the Ravens to beat us twice again.

Even if the the Ravens have tough games, we do too. If we play defense like we did gainst the Eagles and ramp up the offense we will be OK. if we play "scared" defense give the Division to the Ravens because they won't.

[RuthlessBurgher]

The Steelers are already down 2 1/2 to the Ravens...

I think that the margin of error is already whittling away to nothing...

Actually, we are 1.5 games behind the Ravens (they are 4-1, we are 2-2). If we win on Thursday night against the Titans, we will tie Cincy at 3-2 and be 1 game behind Baltimore.

[Eddie Spaghetti]

every year I read here that the ravens are taking a step back, yet it never happens.

their roster looks pretty damn good to me from top to bottom.

[Eich]

every year I read here that the ravens are taking a step back, yet it never happens.

their roster looks pretty damn good to me from top to bottom.

And for how many years have the analysts picked them to get a ring, yet it never happens.

[hawaiiansteel]

Titans are tonic for Steelers’ road woes

http://triblive.com/csp/mediapool/sites/dt.common.streams.StreamServer.cls?STREAMOID=2iowu 9yNt1OdUCVn_ON8p8$daE2N3K4ZzOUsqbU5sYuMvjZT2YGBfCp Op9kL_zANWCsjLu883Ygn4B49Lvm9bPe2QeMKQdVeZmXF$9l$4 uCZ8QDXhaHEp3rvzXRJFdy0KqPHLoMevcTLo3h8xh70Y6N_U_C ryOsw6FTOdKL_jpQ-&CONTENTTYPE=image/jpeg

The Raiders' Philip Wheeler recovers a fourth-quarter fumble by Steelers reciever Antonio Brown at O.co Coliseum on Sept. 23, 2012.)

By Alan Robinson
Published: Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Casey Hampton doesn’t know when it happened.

Maybe it was when an aging Peyton Manning took over in Denver or when James Harrison was out. Maybe it was when the awful Oakland Raiders dictated to the Steelers in the second half rather than the other way around.

“I don’t know, man,” Hampton said. “If I knew that, we’d be back.”

Hampton said it’s time for the Steelers to get back all they’ve been missing away from Pittsburgh — their personality, physicality, the we’re-the-Steelers-and-you’re-not mentality — starting with their Thursday night game at Tennessee.

To him, beating the Eagles, 16-14, Sunday in a more-typical Steelers game in which the running game was featured, big plays were minimized and hard hitting was maximized was a start. But Hampton seeks more.

Hampton wants the defense is be more difficult for quarterbacks to decipher — he said coverages are getting signaled too early — and harder to score against. He also wants the return of the days when the Steelers acted like the home team on the road, right down to their abundance of fans in the stands.

The Steelers (2-2) have dropped their last three on the road and four of five, a reversal from their 7-1 record away from Heinz Field in 2010.

Hampton, in his 12th and possibly last season at age 35, is tired of peeling off his jersey and wondering how yet another game got away from a team that once took pride in bullying opponents in their own stadiums.

“We’re the Steelers, but we definitely have not played up to expectations,” Hampton said. “I think everyone in this room will tell you that.”

The 34-31 loss to the Raiders, who have scored only 33 points in their other three games, illustrates the Steelers’ recent road woes. Had they won — they led by 10 points late — the Steelers would trail Baltimore (4-1) by only a half-game in the AFC North. Instead, they’re 11⁄2 games back.

Tennessee would seem to be a good place to regain their road edge. The Titans (1-4), while playing a difficult schedule, are the NFL’s most scored-upon team and also one of its lowest scoring.

Chris Johnson, the running back who once made their offense hum, is 26th in rushing with 210 yards. A defense that is allowing 140 yards-plus per game more than the Steelers’ is in the bottom fourth in scoring, total yards, rushing, passing and sacks.

The Titans were outscored, 140-44, in their four losses, a number that should light up the eyes of Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who is a 300-yard game away from breaking Terry Bradshaw’s team career passing record.

But he sounded much like Hampton in assessing the season.

“We’re 2-2, and obviously we’d like to be better than that,” he said. “We’re doing some good things. There are some things we need to improve on.”

Winning away from home would be one of them.

“We’re 0-2 on the road,” left guard Willie Colon said, “and it’s something we’re not proud of.”

http://triblive.com/sports/steelers/2738500-85/steelers-hampton-game-road-team-titans-tennessee-yards-raiders-season#ixzz28xdsQysQ