Happy Friday, Steelers fans, and welcome to the last weekend of October.
The Pittsburgh Steelers will play the Detroit Lions Sunday night and that means we’ll all get a chance to sit back and watch a lot of football prior to that contest getting underway. It will make for a late evening for us on the site, but I look forward to the nationally televised night game just the same.
The Steelers bye week will follow the game against the Lions and that probably couldn’t have come at a better time. Here’s to hoping that defensive end Stephon Tuitt, tackle Marcus Gilbert and tight end Vance McDonald are ready to return to the field in Week 10.
How many of you are geared up to watch Saturday’s game between Penn State and Ohio State? That figures to be a good one for sure and I’m looking forward to watching it.
With not much happening this week in my life, let’s get right to this week’s five questions and as usual, I hope several of you can take some time to answer each of them in the comment section.
Have a great weekend, a safe Halloween, and peace and love to all of yinz.
Go Steelers!
1 – Is the Thursday night hit to the head and neck area of Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco by Miami Dolphins linebacker Kiko Alonso a suspendable offense, in your opinion?
2 – The Lions defense has only allowed 6 total deep passes (longer than 15 yards past the line of scrimmage) to be completed to opposing wide receiver in their first 6 regular season games. How many will Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger complete to his wide receivers Sunday night in Detroit?
3 – Former Steelers tackle Brian Mihalik is expected to make his first career start Sunday night for the Lions. How many total sacks and penalties will he be charged with during the game?
4 – Should Steelers rookie wide receiver JuJu-Smith-Schuster ultimately score a touchdown Sunday night against the Lions, will his post-score celebration somehow be related to a bike?
5 – Will the Sunday night combined receiving yardage of Smith-Schuster, Eli Rogers, Darrius Heyward-Bey and Justin Hunter be greater than or less than 99.5?
Recap last week’s Friday night questions per David Orochena:
Question 1 – Mike Mitchell is not a dirty player in the eyes of 38 of 43 respondents to this question. Overexuberant maybe but not dirty compared to Vontaze Burfict. The clips of Burfict kicking and then swatting at Roosevelt Nix after the whistle seemed to confirm the majority view at least for this game. Just for comparison’s sake; Burfict has played less than half the games that Mitchell has through the 2016 season: 58 to 124. Burfict has been penalized 32 times (13 for unnecessary toughness; 1 roughing the passer; 2 personal fouls). Mitchell penalized 26 times (6 unnecessary roughness; 2 taunting; 1 personal foul; 2 face masks & 2 illegal blocks). So, Burfict is roughly penalized twice as often as Mitchell. Another measure is fines. Mitchell has been fined 5 times for $95,463 (2013 for taunting; 2015 for unnecessary roughness & hitting defenseless receiver; 2017 helmet to helmet on West & being pushed/tripped by Anthony Chickillo). Burfict has been fined 10 times and suspended twice for 3 games each forfeiting $2,187,018 (2013 for striking a groin; hitting defenseless player & spearing; 2014 for ankle twisting; 2015 combo of unsportsmanlike conduct plays vs Steelers; late hit vs Ravens; late hit on AB 2nd game that season; 2016 stepping on player & flipping bird at fans; 2017 illegal hit). I’d say Burfict wins the title of dirty player over Mitchell who is nowhere close to his league.
Question 2 – I only counted five deep passes attempted by Andy Dalton. Inexplicably only one in the 2nd half – or maybe that is why the Steelers started to collect sacks. I have Burns & Haden both defending two apiece with Mike Hilton the CB defending the 5th one. Everyone who responded Burns or Haden to this question got a point.
Question 3 – Wow. Only 6 penalties called in a Bengals game? Our answers ranged from 8-21 flags being thrown. The mean response was 14 although a number if folks thought this would be a relatively clean game. Kudos to Alan Tman; Johnny Loose & JohnB for having the low-ball answers; you all get a point.
Question 4 – The vote was 34 for Bell gaining more rushing yards to 9 for Green receiving more yards. That’s 3.77 times more for Bell than Green. Bell had 134 yards rushing to Green’s 41 yards receiving. That’s 3.27 times more yards for Bell. In fact; Bell even outgained Green in receiving – 58 yards to 41 yards.
Question 5 – For a while there; it appeared that Todd Haley had taken the Under on this question (what is his handle on Steelers Depot?) The score did not go over 40.5 until 5:14 left in the game.
Bonus – Tennessee & Minnesota helped Pittsburgh. The Steelers just had to do their business and they did. 24 folks called it and got a point. Very nice when the Steelers are the only team in the AFC North to win.
13 folks scored 4 of 5 possible points. Congrats to pittfan, Alan Tman, SteelerFaninMD, DirtDawg1964, Ted Webb, Johnny Loose, Guillermo Garcia-Gomez, Marcel Chris Chauvet, Lambert58, J., Wes Lee, LucasY59 & Kevin Schwartz for being the week’s high-scorers.
Leaderboard after Week 7:
1st Place – Reader783 with 18 points (4 weeks in a row in first)
2nd Place – Alan Tman with 17 points (4 weeks in a row in second)
3rd Place – Jeff McNeil with 16 points
4th Place – (tie) SJT63, Darth Blount 47, LucasY59 with 15 points (the pack)
7th Place – Beaver Falls Hosiery Company with 14 points
8th Place – (tie) Matt Manzo, Chris92021, J., SkoolHouseRoxx, Marcel Chris Chauvet, Josh Cummings, DirtDawg1964 with 13 points (the second pack)
15th Place – PaeperCup & Johnny Loose with 12 points
Dropped out of leaderboard – Jeff Papiernik
