Game Thread: Week 4... ***FORCED BYE***

[Superbelt]

Well, this isn't good. Our Sunday 1pm game in Tennessee looks to be off.


Honestly, they should make them forfeit this game on the above alone.



I wouldn't want the Steelers playing against them this week, and possibly infect a Steeler who has to then sit out future games.

 

[SteelersPride]

craps hitting the fan

 

[Superbelt]

Could possibly play some musical chairs with the bye week, and our games against the Titans and Ravens to keep the season going.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Yep, the bye week should be the first to compensate... Or they can look into pushing the games into Tuesday or Wednesday of next week depending on when the Titans can reopen their facilities.

 

[Superbelt]

Yep, the bye week should be the first to compensate... Or they can look into pushing the games into Tuesday or Wednesday of next week depending on when the Titans can reopen their facilities.

Pushing it to later this week really screws the Steelers with a super short week before their game the next Sunday against the Eagles.

I could see maybe Monday night if they ban the three players who tested positive, and no one else has a positive test by Monday morning.

Anyone else tests positive though and I think they need to just scrap this week.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Offense... Titans defense isn't as stingy this season but its still going to be a tough out. They are middle of the pack in almost every stat category, but trending up. Hopefully the Steelers can keep things going with the run game & keeping things balanced. I'd like to see Ben connect on the deep ball better, as well as seeing the offense get better consistency from drive to drive. Steelers cannot afford to let Tennessee dig them into a hole early on when they have a great ground game to grind out the TOP. The Steelers offense needs to capitalize early and get momentum. They may be without both DJ & Watt this week. Keeping the TEs heavily involved will help keep this offense moving fluidly.

Defense... Name of the game here is run blitz & filling lanes. Much like their approach with Saquan Barkley to start out this year. They have to make Henry get horizontal. If he's able to square his shoulders then its gonna be a difficult to win any downs. Vince Williams is up to bat here. Hopefully he brings a cape to the game. The Steelers have been doing a fantastic job in that regard and they should matchup well against the Titans rushing attack. Thankfully the biggest knock on Henry is that he takes a second to get his feet moving. I'm honestly more worried about their vertical game. Tannehill has a lot of weapons and should be able to expose this secondary like most everyone has before so far. Getting more consistent pressure up front will help. The Titans have a good O-line so that won't come easy. Tannehill is a good QB, but he doesn't have the same ability to create space out of nothing like Deshaun Watson did. So hopefully the pressure wreaks havoc. Jonnu Smith is a complete mismatch that I'm hoping Minkah will have a big part in getting him contained. If they put Edmunds on him then its going to be a loooong night. AJ Brown & Corey Davis also scare the hell outta me going up against our struggling secondary.

This is a tough game to predict given the uncertainty surrounding the rescheduling. It's not going to be a fair game if they play Sunday, which should heavily favor the Steelers being afforded more prep than the Titans. But I still feel like this game will go in the Titans favor. Both teams are undefeated, albeit against lesser opponents. This is each teams first litmus test on the year. We should learn a lot about both teams in this game, whenever it happens. I predicted a 3-1 start to this season, so I'm gonna have to go with the first L here. Feels like the Steelers are due for one of those disappointing games. I hope they prove me wrong, but I have a lot of doubts about how capable this defense is with handling better offenses. The secondary has been a mess, and the defense overall hasn't been good at shutting down possession downs. The Titans could easily pull away in this one, but I think both sides will trade blows for most of the game.

TITANS 24 - STEELERS 21

 

[Superbelt]

Oh shit, there it is. The game delay.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Oh shit, there it is. The game delay.

Glad they didn't use the bye week. Monday makes the most sense so nobody has "too short" of a following week leading up to week 5.

 

[Bridgeburner]

FUCK.

 

[Bridgeburner]

Offense... Titans defense isn't as stingy this season but its still going to be a tough out. They are middle of the pack in almost every stat category, but trending up. Hopefully the Steelers can keep things going with the run game & keeping things balanced. I'd like to see Ben connect on the deep ball better, as well as seeing the offense get better consistency from drive to drive. Steelers cannot afford to let Tennessee dig them into a hole early on when they have a great ground game to grind out the TOP. The Steelers offense needs to capitalize early and get momentum. They may be without both DJ & Watt this week. Keeping the TEs heavily involved will help keep this offense moving fluidly.

Defense... Name of the game here is run blitz & filling lanes. Much like their approach with Saquan Barkley to start out this year. They have to make Henry get horizontal. If he's able to square his shoulders then its gonna be a difficult to win any downs. Vince Williams is up to bat here. Hopefully he brings a cape to the game. The Steelers have been doing a fantastic job in that regard and they should matchup well against the Titans rushing attack. Thankfully the biggest knock on Henry is that he takes a second to get his feet moving. I'm honestly more worried about their vertical game. Tannehill has a lot of weapons and should be able to expose this secondary like most everyone has before so far. Getting more consistent pressure up front will help. The Titans have a good O-line so that won't come easy. Tannehill is a good QB, but he doesn't have the same ability to create space out of nothing like Deshaun Watson did. So hopefully the pressure wreaks havoc. Jonnu Smith is a complete mismatch that I'm hoping Minkah will have a big part in getting him contained. If they put Edmunds on him then its going to be a loooong night. AJ Brown & Corey Davis also scare the hell outta me going up against our struggling secondary.

This is a tough game to predict given the uncertainty surrounding the rescheduling. It's not going to be a fair game if they play Sunday, which should heavily favor the Steelers being afforded more prep than the Titans. But I still feel like this game will go in the Titans favor. Both teams are undefeated, albeit against lesser opponents. This is each teams first litmus test on the year. We should learn a lot about both teams in this game, whenever it happens. I predicted a 3-1 start to this season, so I'm gonna have to go with the first L here. Feels like the Steelers are due for one of those disappointing games. I hope they prove me wrong, but I have a lot of doubts about how capable this defense is with handling better offenses. The secondary has been a mess, and the defense overall hasn't been good at shutting down possession downs. The Titans could easily pull away in this one, but I think both sides will trade blows for most of the game.

TITANS 24 - STEELERS 21

I agree 100% with all of this. Until the end. I still think they pull this out. I'm not overly impressed with their defense and I think Ben (who is jesus reborn only older) will shred it.

Steelers 26
Titties 13

 

[Superbelt]

We have one very important advantage, which is the Titans can't practice as a team until Saturday at the earliest.

That's going to hurt them. It's already going to be hard enough to handle this Steelers defense under normal conditions.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

We have one very important advantage, which is the Titans can't practice as a team until Saturday at the earliest.

That's going to hurt them. It's already going to be hard enough to handle this Steelers defense under normal conditions.

In theory, yea this should be a huge advantage. But this team is known to play down to its opponent. I have never, and still wouldn't be... surprised to see the Steelers get their pants pulled down to their ankles by any of the 31 other teams.

It really boils down to coaching no matter what the preparation looks like. The in-game X's & O's are what concern me. Butler typically takes an entire half to get things fixed, whereas Fichtner is still trying to remember what he had for breakfast. And Tomlin... lol. He can rah-rah at halftime, but situational football has always haunted him. If Vrabel & Co are any good at coaching, which I think they most certainly are, it should become evident on Monday/Tuesday.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Anyone think this game is going to cause some sort of shitstorm? Like, what if after the game numerous Steelers players test positive for COVID because they are letting the Titans play before the possibly-infected are testing positive?

This could snowball quickly! They better be keeping a barrel full of disinfectant on the sidelines. I'd dip my helmet in that shit between every series!

 

[Bridgeburner]

Seemed like Tomlin and co made some adjustments at halftime last week. Uncharacteristically. Maybe it's a trend?

I would not be shocked to a loss to any team either Face. Not with this staff.

 

[Superbelt]

Anyone think this game is going to cause some sort of shitstorm? Like, what if after the game numerous Steelers players test positive for COVID because they are letting the Titans play before the possibly-infected are testing positive?

This could snowball quickly! They better be keeping a barrel full of disinfectant on the sidelines. I'd dip my helmet in that shit between every series!

That'll be bad for the league.

It ruins their whole Covid strategy entirely, and then you would have teams like the Steelers who have a case for being wronged, losing players to Covid deactivation because the league made them play the Titans...

 

[Bridgeburner]

Anyone think this game is going to cause some sort of shitstorm? Like, what if after the game numerous Steelers players test positive for COVID because they are letting the Titans play before the possibly-infected are testing positive?

This could snowball quickly! They better be keeping a barrel full of disinfectant on the sidelines. I'd dip my helmet in that shit between every series!

Covid killing people is one thing. If it starts fucking with football I'm bustin out the kung-fu on the kung-flu.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

That'll be bad for the league.

It ruins their whole Covid strategy entirely, and then you would have teams like the Steelers who have a case for being wronged, losing players to Covid deactivation because the league made them play the Titans...

Yep. Very sketchy situation.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

That'll be bad for the league.

It ruins their whole Covid strategy entirely, and then you would have teams like the Steelers who have a case for being wronged, losing players to Covid deactivation because the league made them play the Titans...

The disadvantage could also compound itself immensely from now until the game. They get tested daily, so we could see some big names fall out of the Titans lineup before Monday.

 

[Superbelt]

We're looking at Tuesday night, or a reschedule at this point. No Monday.

 

[Superbelt]

2 more positive tests. This isn't looking good. Looks like no game this week.