2018 NFL Week 2: Steelers Friday Night Five Questions

Happy Friday to one and all and welcome to the second weekend of the 2018 NFL regular season.

The Pittsburgh Steelers will host Kansas City Chiefs Sunday at Heinz Field and it’s looking like quarterback Ben Roethlisberger will play in that game even though he missed two practices this week with an injured elbow. Hopefully that one practice was enough for him. Barring some sort of strange gardening accident such as him stepping on a metal yard rake, hopefully we’ll see Steelers tight end Vance McDonald make his 2018 debut on Sunday against the Chiefs. If that happens, it’ll certainly be a sight for sore eyes.

Long injury report and all, the Steelers still enter Friday night as 4.5-point home favorites over the 1-0 Chiefs. Personally, I think they’ll cover that number if Roethlisberger plays. However, should the Steelers wind up losing to the Chiefs, I expect most of the team’s fan base to go into a full-blown panic mode.

Not much is happening with me out here in Las Vegas this past week other than getting one of my death naps in a few nights ago. I only get about three of those a year and this time I slept 7 consecutive hours. I will also say that the weather has now turned from mega hot and it has resulted in a few very enjoyable days in the 90s with a slight breeze and very low humidity. Assuming its nice again on Saturday, I’ll probably watch a few college football games outside. I haven’t done that in a while.

As usual, I have five questions for yinz to answer on this September Friday night and hope several of you can do so.

Have a fantastic and safe weekend and we look forward to covering the Steelers Sunday home game against the Chiefs for you from top to bottom. Peace and love, peace and love!

1 – Will the Steelers defense limit Chiefs wide receiver Tyreek Hill to one or none OFFENSIVE explosive plays of 20 yards or longer on Sunday?

2 – Will Steelers rookie wide receiver James Washington record at least two receptions Sunday against the Chiefs?

3 – I’ll set the over/under for Sunday touches against the Chiefs for Steelers backup running back Stevan Ridley at 4.5. Which side are you on?

4 – The over/under for total points scored in Sunday’s Steelers-Chiefs game is 53.5 at the time of this post. Which side are you on?

5 – True or false: Steelers backup quarterback Joshua Dobbs will play at least one offensive snap Sunday against the Chiefs.

Weekly bonus: If you get all 5 questions right from Sundays game against the Chiefs, David Orochena shall award you 5 extra points.

Recap of 2018 NFL Week 1 Friday Night 5 Questions

Question 1 – James Conner rushed for 135 yards against the Browns. His performance gave the 64.7% of Steelers Depot respondents who took the over an easy point. Conner also had 5 receptions for 57 receiving yards and scored three touchdowns (only two counted). The one play that marred his performance was the strip by Myles Garrett that led to a Cleveland score.

Question 2 – Terrell Edmunds played 74 of the 89 Pittsburgh defensive snaps against the Browns which is 83.15% of the total. He did not record any statistics, but he defended one pass that helped stop a Brown’s drive. Congratulations to the 68.2% of respondents who predicted Edmunds would play more than 65% of the defensive snaps.

Question 3 – Mike Tomlin gave James Washington a helmet. He only played 11 offensive and 5 special team snaps but that counts as active. Only 28.2% believed Washington would be inactive on Sunday. Let’s see if his playing time increases against the Chiefs.

Question 4 – Bud Dupree stepped up big at the end of the first half. Following a Cleveland interception of Ben Roethlisberger’s pass, the Browns had the ball in Pittsburgh territory with 42 seconds left. Dupree tackled Duke Johnson for a 6-yard loss. On the next play, he beat the Desmond Harrison and sacked Tyrod Taylor forcing a fumble. Hue Jackson sent his team into the tunnel ending a scoring threat. 74% of respondents correctly called Dupree victimizing the rookie left tackle to get a sack.

Question 5 – Antonio Brown’s final catch of the game, a 12-yard reception, put him over the 10,000-yard receiving mark for his career. He gained a total of 93 receiving yards. The median prediction by respondents was that AB would break the mark with 6 catches. Predictions ranged from as few as 4 to as many as 10. Only one person correctly said that Brown would need 9 catches to equal or exceed the mark. Kudos 6 Ring Circus!

BONUS: The Pittsburgh Steeler’s regular season record will include a tie. Our responses predicted records anywhere from 9-7 to 14-2. But no one included a tie in their definitive answer though KaiDex411 was “tempted to go 10-5-1” before playing it safe and giving 11-5 as his definitive answer. So, for the folks, who thought 30 points was too much to be awarded for a single question breathe easy since no one got this right.

A record 85 respondents in week 1! I’ve been recapping the Friday Night 5 Questions since the 2016 season. The old record was 55 respondents with median respondents 29 per week in 2016 and 41 in 2017. Would love it if we could hit the century mark on a regular basis. Keep doing what you do readers!

21 folks earned 5 of 6 potential points in week 1. 34 more are just a point off the lead. A big crowd vying for position as this marathon begins.

The Leaderboard after Week 1: