SCB Steelers Quick Hitters: The ‘Don’t Sleep on DTR’ Edition

Good Thursday to you Steelers fans.

As many of you know the Cleveland Browns will be without their starting quarterback Deshaun Watson for the remainder of the season and that means he won’t be available on Sunday when the Steelers come to the “Mistake by the Lake.” It has been reported that rookie WB Dorian Thompson-Robinson will get the nod over P.J. Walker. I don’t think that’s something to gloss over either. Walker after all did just lead the Browns to a win over San Francisco a few weeks back. DTR brings more athleticism to the field and with T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith on the edges, he’ll need every bit of it. But they will also have to be disciplined. They need to keep contain and force him and Kareem Hunt inside rather than getting to the edge. Make no mistake here, playing against the rookie quarterback is preferred. Watson is a polarizing individual but he’s proven to be a great quarterback and he’s played well as recently as just last week. Teryl Austin has not exactly brought the blitz the way his predecessor’s have, choosing instead to keep things in front of his secondary. It will be interesting to see what he dials up on Sunday.

Practice Report for Wednesday

As always take Wednesday’s report with a large grain of salt. Pay much more attention to Friday than Wednesday.

Ten Wins?

At 6-3 with eight games remaining, it seems highly likely that 10 wins will get you into the playoffs but where will those come from? The answer is simple; no one has a damn clue. But with road games at Cleveland, Cincy, Baltimore, Indy and Seattle remaining it’s not going to be easy. The Steelers should go no worse than 2-1 in their three remaining home games against Arizona, New England and Cincy but as we’ve seen across the league, there are no gimmes. I said when the season started this team would finish 9-8. Unfortunately I still see that happening.

Inside Story

With both Cole Holcomb and Kwon Alexander gone for the season with injuries, the Steelers will be turning to Mark Robinson, Mykal Walker and the Amazon guy. Uh-huh… A guy that was working at Amazon this week is now on the Steelers’ Practice Squad. Tyler Murray received a call from his agent while working at Amazon. You know things are bad when you’re literally pulling guys off the street or in this case, the distribution center. I suspect the Steelers will roll with Elandon Roberts and Robinson but look for Keanu Neal to slide down (if he’s healthy enough) at times. Walker however, has a ton of experience and I have to assume you’ll see him at times but remember, there’s a reason he’s been on the PS rather than the active roster.