Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin reacts during the second half of an NFL football game against the Cleveland Browns, Sunday, Jan. 3, 2016, in Cleveland.
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Call it one for the thumb.
For the better part of three months the Pittsburgh Steelers stressed all they needed was a chance.
The total in that week one encounter was 47 but I can see it coming in well below that and backing under 41.5 should pay dividends.
His right thumb will likely prevent it.
With Dalton scheduled to meet with doctors on Monday, the Bengals are uncertain whether he’s ready to get back into the game.
“Last week, preparation was done on any of the three teams we could play”, Lewis said.
In the coaching realm, the Bengals are still in the Marvin Lewis era.
With McCarron at quarterback, the Bengals have gone more run-heavy. Receiver Mohamed Sanu has taken snaps in wildcat formations and could be an emergency quarterback.
-Running back DeAngelo Williams is day-to-day because an ankle injury and as of Tuesday the Steelers say they’re preparing as if Toussaint will be the starter. Clearly, they are waiting for the Bengals to win when it counts, Saturday night at home in a Wild Card game against the Steelers. They’re the only team in league history to lose an opening-round game four years in a row. Yet they feel they’re just as good as anybody.
So, it’s actually very possible that Pittsburgh could make it to the conference championship, but then things could get tricky. The same team that handed Cincinnati its most crushing playoff defeat in 2005, when quarterback Carson Palmer suffered a devastating knee injury on the first offensive play.
In his three starts, including the three quarters he played against the Steelers in relief for Dalton, McCarron has completed 66.1 percent of his passes for 832 yards and six touchdowns with two interceptions.
Thrown into the game on such short notice, McCarron felt like a teenager again.
But McCarron has been responsible with the ball, save for an overtime fumble that led to a 20-17 loss in Denver on December 28. The Steelers own a 57-35 record against the Bengals and have wins in 14 of the 20 games over the last 10 years.
“On defense they’ve got really good pass rushers with (Tamba) Hali and Houston and they’ve got a good secondary playing at a high level, their linebackers fly around, their front seven is really, really good”.
Cincinnati is 0-6 in their last six playoff appearances, losing each game in the Wild Card round.
Just last week in a tune-up game against the rival Baltimore Ravens, we saw Green’s end zone brilliance on display. Though not predictive in nature, understanding how teams, players, leagues and markets have reacted to various scenarios for over 36 years and more than 9,000 games – as is the case with the information available in the Trend Machine for the NFL – is a tremendous supplement to any analysis of an upcoming matchup.
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But now the Steelers need to fight another battle, and that means shutting down quarterback A.J. McCarron and the Bengals’ passing game. McCarron recalled that after the loss to Pittsburgh, he talked to Ben Roethlisberger and told him that he’d watched him play with Miami (Ohio) in the 2003 GMAC Bowl in Mobile. I’m happy for him and happy for this team to be in this position.
