Steelers Morning Huddle 10/24/2013
By Kim Myers
Huddle up!
Who’s ready to turn these back-to-back victories into a full on winning streak? I know I am. Here’s hoping the team is on board as well. Here’s what’s being said about your Pittsburgh Steelers around the block.
QB Watch: Ben Roethlisberger
ESPN’s Scott Brown broke down Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger thus far in the season. Ben is coming off of his second consecutive game of not committing a turnover. More importantly, Ben returned to his form of leading a late game-winning drive, of which he used to be known for. Unfortunately, due to the turnovers in close games down the stretch last season against Dallas and Cincinnati, there were some legitimate questions as to if Ben still “had it”. Good to know he still does. He’ll try to win his first career game in Oakland this Sunday. I know I was surprised when I read it too.
Roethlisberger not a fan of the wildcat
Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk titled his article from Wednesday morning “Ben Roethlisberger not fond of Steelers running Wildcat”, mostly to get the attention of it because the title is a bit misleading. While we are all stunned to see Wildcat formations in Sundays win over Baltimore, I think the rest of us agree with Ben when he said on his weekly radio spot on 93.7 The Fan that he’s not a fan of lining up out wide, leaving himself vulnerable to be hit.
"“I don’t like to go over and just be split out wide and take a chance that a (defensive back” is going to come up. I don’t think we’ll see a lot of it.” – Ben Roethlisberger"
I agree with Ben. While the Wildcat is best utilized when it’s least expected, it’s not the best idea to routinely line your franchise quarterback up in the position which can get him laid out by a defensive back before you have time to notice what happened. I doubt the Steelers are willing to keep taking that chance either. I do think they’ll keep the Wildcat in their repertoire, but I just don’t think it will be at Ben’s expense.
Steelers might have lost without Whimper
We haven’t heard from our good friend Ron Cook of the PPG in a while have we? Well the old guy is still around and has pointed out how this is the first week in a while where no one seems to be calling for the Steelers to hurry up and re-sign Max Starks to save the offensive line. That’s because we got our first look at Guy Whimper last Sunday against the Ravens and he put together and outstanding job protecting Ben against Elvis Dumervil and Terrell Suggs. The linebacking pair came into the game with 12 sacks combined and left Pittsburgh adding only 1 ½ to that total after Whimper stepped in early in the game to replace Marcus Gilbert. I’m not quite as quick to say that Whimper is the answer at tackle, considering that there has to be a reason why the Steelers went with damned near every option but him for the first five games. On the other hand, it’s always good to stick with what’s winning games.
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