Now that I am thawed, a few thoughts:

[buckeyehoppy]

Guess I should be honored that I sat through 4 quarters of Steelers/Clowns history last night, considering it was the coldest game in the history of the rivalry. It was nucking futz cold, brothas and sistas. Glad the Steelers enjoyed the game from a warm place because I doubt that I've seen them since the Denver game. Someone contact the milk carton people so we can get the team photo on the side of those puppies.

With that, a few random observations:

We are the worst team in the NFL right now. Pretty mean feat considering we were the Lombardi Lifters 10 months ago.

We still had a lot of these flaws last year. But playing to win tends to mask a lot of deficiencies. That's what we were doing last season.

There will be changes with the Steelers in the off-season. Bruce Arians must be fired (among other coaches) or you will see more of the same from the Steelers that you are seeing now. The longer he stays in Pittsburgh, the longer the rest of the division gets a free ride.

Also, it appears LeBeau has stayed past the expiry date. He will have a lot to overhaul in the off-season and, quite frankly, he may not be up to it after this season's meltdown. Love D!ck LeBeau and we owe our two most recent SBs to him. He should be allowed to bow out on his own terms... and I hope he does so.

And everyone has been saying how much the Steelers miss Troy. Really? How about Aaron Smith? His absence has a lot more to do with the Steelers slide than Troy's does. And this isn't the first time this has happened. Remember 2006? Happened that year, too. Plus, Troy was out for portions of 2006 as well.

On the subject of Troy: hang his @$$ up for the season! No reason to have him in at all the rest of this season. Let him heal and let him come back strong next year.

Plus, the Steelers need to find out what they really have with Kee Lewis, Burnett, Ziggy, Hills, Foster, Sweed and, maybe even, DDix. The way Benjamin plays demands that he has a game-ready backup and, sad enough, we probably don't know if Batch has anything left.

[Jooser]

Re: Now that I am thawed, a few thoughts:

First off hoppy, let me just say that the game you witnessed last night in Cleveland is an incomplete body of work. This team has no excuses. There will be wholesale changes or there will be hell to pay.

I don't know what's going on with this team, but I will say it really stinks right now. There has to be some changes. I won't re-run down all of them, but they've been addressed by you and several other board members here. I didn't see this type of decline coming and it's hard to swallow. I guess we'll see what happens.

Glad you made it out of there without turning into a Hopsicle last night. I know...BOOO!!!

[brothervad]

Re: Now that I am thawed, a few thoughts:

Hoppy,

I think you are absolutely spot on wrt Aaron Smith. 2006 should've been an indicator to the Front Office that you needed to start looking for the replacment then and there. They did not address it in the 2007, 2008, and then drafted Ziggy this past year. In effect they had a two year window to groom a top-notch End and for whatever reasons (whether they are justified or not) chose not to do so. The average age of guys who are'nt rookies on the DL is ~32 years old. That is pretty long in tooth for a DL.

The problem with age is not just diminishing skills, it can also be injury prevalence. That is the case here with A. Smith. He can still bring it no doubt...but the wheels are starting to loosen.

My biggest concern here is NT...remember how bad the D got when there was no replacement for Joel Steed. If Ziggy is being groomed as a DE and not a DT the average age for our NT is a 32.5 (it gets older if hamtpon parts lol).

DL--
Amith 33
Keisel 31
Kirschke 35
Hampton 32
Eason 29
Hoke 33
Ra'shon Harris 23 (R)
Ziggy 22 (R)

There is a large problem with age on the defensive side of the ball where it counts--the Defensvie line.

brothervad

[buckeyehoppy]

Re: Now that I am thawed, a few thoughts:

Hoppy,

I think you are absolutely spot on wrt Aaron Smith. 2006 should've been an indicator to the Front Office that you needed to start looking for the replacment then and there. They did not address it in the 2007, 2008, and then drafted Ziggy this past year. In effect they had a two year window to groom a top-notch End and for whatever reasons (whether they are justified or not) chose not to do so. The average age of guys who are'nt rookies on the DL is ~32 years old. That is pretty long in tooth for a DL.

The problem with age is not just diminishing skills, it can also be injury prevalence. That is the case here with A. Smith. He can still bring it no doubt...but the wheels are starting to loosen.

My biggest concern here is NT...remember how bad the D got when there was no replacement for Joel Steed. If Ziggy is being groomed as a DE and not a DT the average age for our NT is a 32.5 (it gets older if hamtpon parts lol).

DL--
Amith 33
Keisel 31
Kirschke 35
Hampton 32
Eason 29
Hoke 33
Ra'shon Harris 23 (R)
Ziggy 22 (R)

There is a large problem with age on the defensive side of the ball where it counts--the Defensvie line.

brothervad

Those ages are simply alarming numbers, brothervad!

Ovie posted in another topic the relative strength of areas of defense in relation to our needs. The good news is that he believes there is a lot of value at DL where we'll be drafting. I haven't looked at too much draft related stuff yet, so I'll take his word for it.

If we start getting some more new blood for the line in this draft, I think we should be fine. I'm pretty sure the Steelers may be thinking of tagging Hampton, buying more time for his replacement to emerge.

I'm starting to look at who the Steelers could look at for DL. It would be ideal if we could get a cover corner. But, Ovie doesn't believe there is much value there where we'll be at in the draft. Knowing that, and knowing that CB is, largely, a skill position, I wouldn't be heartbroken if we didn't go there with our 1st round pick.

First off hoppy, let me just say that the game you witnessed last night in Cleveland is an incomplete body of work. This team has no excuses. There will be wholesale changes or there will be hell to pay.

I don't know what's going on with this team, but I will say it really stinks right now. There has to be some changes. I won't re-run down all of them, but they've been addressed by you and several other board members here. I didn't see this type of decline coming and it's hard to swallow. I guess we'll see what happens.

Glad you made it out of there without turning into a Hopsicle last night. I know...BOOO!!!

BTW, Joos... she LOVES the Hopsicle!!!

The decline has been fairly spectacular, especially in relation to what we did last year and what we've even done THIS year in beating three almost certain playoff teams in Minnesota, Denver and San Diego. That's what makes this nose dive particularly odd.

If this is Coach Tomlin's idea of "unleashing hell", it's been fairly heavenly for our opponents, so far.