Pittsburgh hits a steel curtain heading into bye

by Crimsion | 4 years ago | 1 Comments

Although expectations were not high after the lack of moves made by the Pittsburgh Steelers this off season, fans and the front office surely expected a much better start. Through the first half of the season this Steelers squad has managed to find only three victories, dropping five games total, and free-falling into their bye week as they've lost the last three straight.

Sitting at the bottom of the AFC North, 4 games back of the first place Cincinatti Bengals, the Steelers have chosen to focus on preperation rather than relaxation during their week 9 bye. With a lot of moving pieces, the Steelers will need to set things in place for the second half of the year and it looks as if some fresh faces will grace the starting line-up in week 10.

In a surprising move last week, just before the deadline, Pittsburgh send off one of their most decorated pass rusher in Cameron Heyward, where as he now calls Denver his new home. Heyward won't have to wait long to take on his former squad as they travel to the Mile High to battle with the Broncos next week.

In his place stepped 1st-round pick, Carlos Basham Jr, out of Wake Forest. The 6'5" defensive end didn't find himself overly effective, only recording a single tackle on the day, but you can't expect much from his first start against a stout Los Angeles Chargers line.

Another rookie also found his first start in the black and yellow, and that was newly acquired defensive back, Deommodore Lenoir. The Oregon product found himself lining up as the CB2 alongside Mike Hilton and heavily involved this week. He recorded 6 tackles and defelcted one pass in his first NFL start and there is surely more where that came from as Pittsburgh plans to groom the young defensive back as much as possible.

As the bye week wound down however, rumours were swirling around that rookie quarterback Mackenzie John, out of Alabama, would get his first NFL start next week. During his Thursday morning presser, coach Charles stated that this week would be "much different for some."

"This week is going to be different for us overall and much different for some in a major way," said Charles. "I've spoken to Matt [Stafford] about this already and he's stated that he understands the call."

Although the decision was somewhat surprising, it didn't catch many off guard as John did play out the final minutes of their week 8 loss under centre. This decision did not come duet to the play of Stafford alone, the longtime Detroit Lion has posted solid numbers thus far, recording 20 touchdowns and 12 interceptions on the year along with over 2,000 yards passing.

When asked about the decison, Stafford said he'd do his best to make sure John was ready, but didn't shy away from his desire to start as well.

"I understand the decision like coach had stated and I'll be there to help Mackenzie along the way," said Stafford. "Although I do think I have something left in the tank as well, I'm going to come out here and compete every day, it can only help the both of us in the long run."

John and the Steelers will have just a few more days to prepare as they're set to travel to Denver on Saturday.