50-YARD LINE

Rah, rah, ree, hit him in the knee. Rah, rah, rass, hit him in the other knee. Your Pittsburgh Steelers travel to New Jersey today to take on the defending Super Bowl champion New York football Giants. First, we'll look at the injury report, then the keys to the game. Woodley, Redman, and Clark are expected to play. Yay! Dwyer and Mendy are doubful. Bummer. Troy, Gilbert and Sylvester are out. Boo. Now somebody hand me the keys. 1)Ben takes on Eli Manning for only the 3rd time since they were both drafted in '04. They are 1-1 against each other. The 2004 draft class is the only draft to produce 2 QB's who have won multiple Super Bowls (Ben and Eli). The Giants offense is 3rd in the league in points per game with 29.2. They're 4th in total yards at 397 per game. Eli has only been sacked 7 times this season. The Steelers O-Line has kept been clean the past 2 games. The Steelers offense is 1st in the league in 3rd down conversions at 51.9%. Ben's passer rating on 3rd downs is 117. Of course, Eli gets more publicity because A)he's a Manning and B)he plays in New York. Look for Ben to accept the challenge and one-up his counterpart this week. Big Ben is going to strike gold! 2)The Giants D is 24th overall. They're allowing 4.6 yards per carry, 19th vs. the run. They're 26th against the pass. Score early, score often, score BIG! 3)The Giants have won 6 of 7. The Steelers have won 2 in a row. We need playmakers to come up big on D this week. We haven't heard much from Harrison and Woodley.
This week would be a good time for them to speak up. Hit 'em early, hit 'em often, hit 'em HARD. Keep in mind weather could be a factor, too. I don't want to hear the Steelers complain that they had to travel on gameday. The Giants had to live in the storm all week. My thoughts and prayers are with those that were hit by Sandy.
Another big factor for this week's game and beyond is the behavior of the players. Last week we saw Antonio Brown backpedal into the end zone on a touchdown that was called back by ANOTHER penalty by the (not so)special teams. We also saw Alameda Ta'amu reinstated after his DUI and multiple charges. This week, when Ta'amu was being interviewed in the locker room upon his return, an unidentified Steelers player could be heard shouting out "Tell them to kiss your ass, Ta'amu". When did the Steelers become so unruly? They're arrogant, undisciplined divas and Coach Cliche has no control over them. True, Cowher's guys were no choir boys but this is ridiculous. This week would be a good week for Tomlin to stop being a player's coach and just be a coach. This team needs to stop acting like a bunch of thugs and act like a professional football team. Get it together, already.
Here we go Steelers!!!!!!