The Steelers will practice today from 115pm-315pm in preparation for their trip to Baltimore.
– Interesting question from a reader. “The Steelers seemed to get gassed in the second half. Why didn’t they where white on such a warm, sunny day?” The Steelers are one of few teams that always wear their dark colors at home. In fact, they haven’t worn white at home since the 1969 season.
-I spent some time watching the second half again yesterday and there were two very alarming things from Sunday’s game. First was the very poor performance by both tackles Marcus Gilbert and Kelvin Beachum. Gilbert was victimized by the bull rush on several occasions while Beachum was often beaten with just speed.
-The other item was on defense where the Browns found tremendous success with cutbacks and took advantage of poor fundamentals by the Steelers’ Jason Worilds. He wasn’t alone though because Cam Thomas and Jarvis Jones made mistakes too.
-There’s been a lot of discussion (and rightfully so) about the poor performance of Ike Taylor Sunday. I honestly don’t have the answer but the Steelers cannot afford the penalties he commits in covering receivers. It’s been a very nice career for Taylor but I think the end is here.
-While William Gay wasn’t perfect Sunday, he was the best Steelers corner on the field. I have to give him props because I’ve been more than critical of him in past years.
-Another item on the video I noticed was the sheer speed of Ryan Shazier. He gets from A to B about as quick as any linebacker I can remember. That said, getting off of blocks remains a challenge for the rookie.
-Do not assume the Ravens will be an easy game simply because of all of the negative attention surrounding them with the Ray Rice situation. I’m betting they’ll circle the wagons and play hard at the very least.
Marc Uhlmann writes for and co-owns www.steelcityblitz.com. Follow him on Twitter @SteelDad and the website @SCBlitz. Check us out on Facebook at facebook.com/steelcityblitz and on Fancred.com. You can hear him weekly during the season on Trib-Live Radio
photo courtesy pittsburghsportingnews.com
