2018 NFL Week 10: Steelers Friday Night Five Questions

Happy Friday to all of yinz and welcome to another football-filled weekend.

The Pittsburgh Steelers got their week 10 game out of the way Thursday night and it was an impressive win over the Carolina Panthers. The Steelers will now get a mini bye of sorts before returning to action a week from Sunday to play the Jacksonville Jaguars on the road. This means we’ll have plenty of time to discuss the Steelers win over the Panthers and thoroughly breakdown the Jaguars Sunday game against the Indianapolis Colts.

I’m headed out the door for a sleep doctor appointment right now so let’s get right to this week’s Friday night five questions. I hope to see several answers in the comments when I return from the doctor. Have a great weekend and don’t forget to watch the Bill Cowher: A Football Life tonight on the NFL Network. It should be a great one.

Peace and love, peace and love.

1 – The Cincinnati Bengals and Cleveland Browns are the only remaining AFC North teams yet to play this weekend as the Baltimore Ravens are on their bye. Those two teams are averaging 27.6 and 21.1 points scored per game, respectively, for a total of 48.7. Sunday, will those two teams combine to score more or less than 48.7 points?

2 – There are still 13 games left to be played in Week 10. Will the total touchdowns scored in those games before greater than or less than 45.5?

3 – The Steelers’ defense finally created some splash in Thursday’s win. How many turnovers will they record against the Jacksonville Jaguars next Sunday? You can include special teams turnovers in this, too. 

4 – Let’s just put it out there. Yes or no, will Le’Veon Bell report to the Steelers Tuesday? 

5 – I hate to bring up a Steelers tight end possibly not catching a football, but are there any of you who believe that the Thursday scoring catch by Vance McDonald should have been overturned?

Recap of NFL Week 9 Friday Night 5 Questions

Question 1 – Mike Tomlin handed James Washington the extra wide receiver helmet and sat Justin Hunter down. Steelers Depot respondents did well with this question, 70.1% correctly predicted that James Washington would be active and not Justin Hunter. However, only 9% correctly predicted that Washington would play over 30 snaps. In fact, he played 70 offensive snaps – 86% of the total Steelers plays on offense.

Question 2 – Ben Roethlisberger threw two touchdown passes and almost had a third, but James Conner was downed at the 1-yard line. Nevertheless, this was the third time that Ben threw more than one touchdown pass on the road against Baltimore in his career. 79.1% of respondents were correct.

Question 3 – 69.5% of respondents agree that Ramon Foster will be with another team next year. Destinations mentioned include the Tennessee Titans, New York Giants or Arizona Cardinals. Most voiced appreciation for his contributions to the Steelers but doubt that the Steelers would offer enough money for the 32-year-old veteran of 10 NFL seasons to remain in the Black & Gold. The consensus is Foster will get a 2-3-year deal worth $13.4 million. Annual compensation predictions ranged from $4 to $6,693,254 per year. The average figure was $5,128,930. According to Spotrac, Ramon’s 2019 salary is $2,675,000. Adding his prorated signing bonus of $916,688 brings his current cap hit to $3,591,688. We’ll have to wait to end of the season to find out what happens.

Question 4 – Not even a ripple when it came to the Steelers making a splash with defensive turnovers against the Ravens. Our responses ranged from the Steelers creating 0-4 turnovers. The median response was two. Only five folks correctly predicted no turnovers. Even with the two takeaways against Carolina, 18 teams have more than the Steelers. They have managed 11 so far this year.

Question 5 – Lot’s of names offered as our favorite random back-up-turned starter in Steelers history. Charlie Batch with 22 mentions was by far the most popular. Next was Tommy Maddox & Ben Roethlisberger tied with 6 votes apiece. Others named were Mark Malone, Terry Hanratty, Rocky Bleier, Jesse James, Steve Bono, Willie Williams, James Harrison, Willie Parker, Jefferson Street Joe Gilliam, Landry Jones, Byron Leftwich, James Conner, Kordell Stewart, Dennis Dixon, Greg Lloyd, Hines Ward, Mike Tomczak, Bubby Brister, Matt Spaeth, Terry Bradshaw, Vince Williams, Mike Kruczek & Erric Pegram. Quite a collection of Steelers from then and now.

Week 7 – The Steelers victory on Sunday answered the question on whether they would beat both the Browns and Ravens. Over 75% of respondents from week 7 picked up a point for calling the sweep. James Washington now has 2 catches since that week. He had no targets versus Carolina. Once the totals are in from the Jacksonville game, we will find out if any of the 13 people who are only one answer away will get a belated 5-point bonus to add to their totals.

For week 9, ImMikeD and the Ravens Team Gynecologist got the bonus by predicting that only James Washington would be active instead of Hunter, Ben would have more than one touchdown pass and that the Steelers defense would not record a turnover.

The bonus points propelled ImMikeD into 2nd place behind the elusive GreenBastard. The Ravens team Gynecologist jumped 26 places to enter the leaderboard in a tie for 6th place. Kudos.

The Leaderboard after Week 9:

*New to leaderboard