Steelers Defense as Backup, Ben on Haley, Pens Game
By Kim Myers
It’s Ravens Week! The Ratbirds are coming to town for an AFC North Wild Card showdown. While the Steelers are preparing for their first post-season appearance in three years we’ll be busy looking for mentions of your Black & Gold so we’ve got you covered. Here’s your Steelers Morning Huddle for Wednesday, Dec. 31st.
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How about the Steelers defense?
The theme this week is going to be centered around what the plans for the Steelers offense will be if they have to face the Baltimore Ravens without the services of an injured Le’Veon Bell, the team’s MVP and league’s 2nd leading rusher for the regular season. Ed Bouchette of the PPG suggests that instead of the offense picking up the slack for Bell’s absence, how about that Steelers defense that has emerged suddenly over the past two games?
The Steelers haven’t allowed more than 21 points scored on them in the month of December and over the past two games were responsible for nine sacks and four takeaways. Reminds of you days of old doesn’t it? A stingy defense that pressures the quarterback and takes the ball away sure could come in handy against the Ravens on Sunday night.
Ben wants Haley to stay
Ben Roethlisberger joined The Fan on 93.7 for his usual Tuesday show and was mostly asked about the status of Bell and the plans for the week. He was also asked about Todd Haley, but not the usual “how are you guys getting along?”-type questions. Given the head coaching carousel that goes on at the end of the season, Roethlisberger was asked what he would think about Haley potentially getting offered a chance to be a head coach somewhere else. Ben threw quite possibly the most support Haley’s ever gotten from anyone in this city at the question.
"“If he wants to go be a head coach then we’re going to be excited for him because that’s what he wants but on the other hand, we don’t want him to leave because we enjoy him here and we enjoy his offense and kind of what we’ve done this year and hopefully what we can do in the future.” – Ben Roethlisberger"
OMG the traffic!
The Steelers are hosting the Baltimore Ravens on Saturday night at Heinz Field for an AFC North showdown in the AFC Wild Card Game. The Pittsburgh Penguins are also hosting the Montreal Canadiens the same night at CONSOL Energy Center. The Pens asked the NHL to change the time to avoid conflict with the Steelers game but the NHL was unable to honor the request due to the game being nationally televised in Canada. So basically, if you’re not going to the Steelers or Pens game on Saturday night in Pittsburgh, stay out of dahntahn! It’s going to be a traffic nightmare.