2018 NFL Week 9: Steelers Friday Night Five Questions

Happy Friday to Yinz as we march towards Week 9 of the NFL regular season.

Sorry this post is up a little later than usual. Dave’s Vegas Internet has been down all day with no clear timetable for when the problem will be fixed. That’s why today’s Terrible Podcast hasn’t been uploaded either. Apologize for the delay. We’ll get things squared away as soon as possible.

Steelers/Ravens this Sunday at 1 PM/ET, a critical game for both sides. Pittsburgh can put a huge dent into Baltimore’s playoff hopes with a win this weekend. But expect the Ravens to play their best game, knowing how much is on the line.

As usual, I have five questions for yinz to answer on this Friday night and I look forward to reading all the replies. Have a great and safe weekend and we look forward to entertaining you with quite a bit of pre and post-game content the remainder of this weekend and into Monday.

Peace and love and go Steelers!

1. Which WR will be active this weekend? James Washington, Justin Hunter, or both? And if Washington is active, will he play over/under 30 snaps? 

2. Only twice in Ben Roethlisberger’s career has he thrown more than one touchdown on the road against Baltimore. Will he make it three times this weekend? Yes or no. 

3. Ramon Foster reportedly said he’s likely to test the market in 2019 since the Steelers didn’t offer him an extension before the year started. Will Foster be in another uniform next year? Regardless of what team he’s playing for, what contract do you think he’ll command? Let us know the years and total value. 

4. The Steelers’ defense is lacking splash, as Mike Tomlin pointed out this weekend. How many turnovers will they create this weekend? Defense only, not special teams. 

5. Ross Tucker threw out a fun question before 49ers QB Nick Mullens’ first start Thursday night, a fantastic debut in a beatdown of the depressing Raiders. I’ll tweak it to make it Steelers’ specific. Who is your favorite random backup-turned-starter in Steelers’ history? 

Some options include: Dennis Dixon, Kent Graham, Charlie Batch, Landry Jones, or Steve Bono. Or anyone else who comes to mind. 

Recap of 2018 NFL Week 8 Friday Night 5 Questions

Question 1 – The Steelers gained 421 total yards against the Browns. If the yardage was split evenly, five players could have gained 75 yards. However, James Conner amassed 212 yards rushing and receiving leaving just 209 offensive yards for his teammates. Antonio Brown came the closest with 74 receiving yards but only Conner exceeded the threshold. This the first time in my recollection that not a single Steelers Depot respondent gave a correct answer to a question. This also means that no one scored the bonus for naming all the persons correctly who would gain 75 or more yards nor the bonus for getting all 5 questions correct.

Question 2 – Pittsburgh’s offense was putrid in the 1^st quarter for yet another game. In three possessions the Steeler managed two punts and a turnover. The closest the Steelers advanced the ball was to their own 42-yard line when Ben passed the ball into Cleveland territory only to have it intercepted. Only 10.9% of respondents correctly predicted that the Steelers would not score an offensive touchdown in the first quarter against the Browns.

Question 3 – The Steelers offense had their best start from their own 45-yard line. This was after the defense held Cleveland to a 3 and out followed by a short 38-yard Britton Colquitt punt. We did better as a group with 35.9% correctly answering false. The majority thought that a turnover or a stop on a desperate Browns 4^th down attempt late in the game would give the ball back to Pittsburgh deep in Browns territory.

Question 4 – Duke Johnson was dinged early in the game and ineffective. He had two runs with no net gain and caught two balls for 16 yards. A point was gained by the 45.3% of respondents who said he would NOT gain more than 49 total yards from scrimmage against the Steelers.

Question 5 – The Carolina Panthers did their duty and beat the Ravens. Tampa Bay overcame 4 interceptions, 6 sacks and an 18-point deficit to tie the Cincinnati Bengals on a two-point conversion with 1:05 to go in the game. Andy Dalton was able to drive the Bengals so that Randy Bullock could hit a walk off 44-yard field goal. The Bengals sold 45,134 tickets to the game. The last time the Steelers had less attendance was at the end of the 1989 season inside Three Rivers Stadium. 32.8% of respondents got this correct. The most popular response was 37.5% saying both the Ravens and Bengals would win. Glad for the split.

Renoir came the closest to sweeping the board with four correct answers. Just question 1 which stumped everyone, but Renoir did guess only two players exceeding 75 offensive yards. Ironically, picking Antonio Brown & JuJu Smith-Schuster to do it – not James Conner. Nevertheless, kudos for having the best score this week.

ND_Steel picked up a little bit of ground on the GreenBastard. We even have one respondent using Madden NFL results to aid with their answers. Any more of yinz using computer models to answer the Steelers Depot Friday 5 Night Questions?

The Leaderboard after Week 8:

*New to Leaderboard