Firstly, great write-up, very insightful.
My take on the Steelers is, that no their defense is not overrated it is as good as I have seen them have (and I do mean them, not comparing them to other squads from decades ago) in many, many years. The last number of years the Steelers weakness on D has always been their secondary and this is the one element of their game that has really improved dramatically. You look at their schedule and it was what did they say the toughest in 25 years and yet they still were incredibly dominant. I will say though a guy likes Sproules scares me against the Steeler D more than Tomlinson.
I get amazed at how many people think Ben is overrated, we all know he holds on to the ball too long but that also is to their benefit sometimes. Prime example was the final drive they had against the Ravens in Baltimore. Watch that drive and you will see his ability to scramble and hold on to the ball, created some first downs. I remember an article on ESPN this year comparing Romo, Rivers, Eli, Ben and Cutler and saying at the end of the day their choice would be Ben. I would think people that follow sports for a living, might have some insight on this. I also keep hearing about Ben's perfomance in the Super Bowl, which was terrible, but never hear any mention of how well he played against Denver to get them there and the Colts the game before that. Just a thought. Enough about Ben though..
To me the O's biggest problem this year, has been two things.
1) It amazes me when you have a mobile quarterback, that is very good at passing on the run, why you don't call more bootlegs or roll him out of the pocket more, as opposed to having him continually stand in the pocket behind a banged up offensive line? Never been a big fan of Mr.Arians whatsoever.
2) They have not run the ball with the determination they usually do. Moore has done a great job at filling in for Parker, but I just don't see the gaps being created by the offensive line that you have seen in the past. Also, their short yardage of 3rd and 1 and 4th and 1 has to be near the bottom of the league. I don't understand why they let Davenport go for this reason.
As for the Chargers I thought they played a very solid game last week. Prior to this, I know they whipped off a number of wins, but with the exception of beating the Bucs, none of their opponents were very talented. Rivers is a real enigma to me, one week he looks solid then the next he is completely missing receivers he should be hitting. I find him quite smug, but maybe he is the type that needs to have that chip on his shoulder to play well. I do think the San Diego D has stepped up their game and did a great job on the Colts last week.
To me I do like the Steelers to win this game, if Ben was completely healthy, I would have no trouble laying the 6 and still might, but just to a lesser degree. I will however take a good look at the under this weekend, based on how well these defenses are playing and knowing that weather may help out this play.
As always look forward to the games this weekend and very excited to see how the Ravens/Titans game turns out also.
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