Rob Preston's Pittsburgh Steelers fan blog

As OTA's and minicamps progress while training camp begin to roll over the horizon, America's favorite sport nears its regular season.  While nobody knows how well teams will do in a season with the randomness of injuries and several other factors, it's always interesting to look ahead at the schedule and prognosticate.  Unlike most people, I'm not going to give just a win or loss for each game, rather I'm going to predict how many times the Steelers would win if they played a team 10 times.  For instance if the Steelers were playing a very crappy team, I would say 9/10 or 10/10.  At the end i will add up the wins and divide by 10, giving us how many wins they will have this season.

Week 1 Titans at Steelers

A great season opener with two teams that have plenty of history as well as new found bad blood.  The Titans are coming off a very disappointing post-season last year after earning the best regular season record last year.  While the Titans should still be a good team, they are losing quite possibly the most dominating DT in the game, Albert Haynesworth.  Unfortunately when the Titans "stomped" the Steelers last season, Haynesworth didn't play either, so no real gain there.  The big question will be Kerry Collins, and I think his arm will just about fall off.  I'll give the Steelers 6/10.

Continue reading "Steelers Game By Game Preview of the 2009-2010 Season 1/2"

During the 2008-2009 season, an encouraging pattern appeared.  The Steelers would start the game well, at some point fall behind, and in the 4th quarter, Big Ben would engineer a game winning drive.  This phenomena reared its head during the regular season, but in the biggest game of the year, Super Bowl XLIII.  Why is the leader of such a sub par offense (22nd in the league during the regular season) the engineer of so many come from behind wins? When examined, two major reasons can be found.

The biggest reason can be seen when you look at the common strategy of teams who have a lead late in the 4th quarter.  Teams always want to milk the clock by running the ball.  What do the steelers do best?  They stop the run. This gives Ben plenty of chances to have a game winning drive at the end of the quarter.  While having a chance is always nice, a clutch quarterback still needs to make the plays to win the game.  So why did the 17th ranked passing offense always seem to come through?  Ben's mastery of the no-huddle offense.

Continue reading "Why Ben Roethlisberger Will be the Next Comeback King"

Coming off a super bowl victory last season, hopes couldn't be higher for the 2009 Pittsburgh Steelers, as they should be.  While the team is returning 20 out of 22 starters from that super bowl run (only losing Larry Foote and Bryant Mcfadden), things begin to look bleak as we look at the possible roster a year from now.  In 2010, the Steelers will have an alarming number of key players that will be free agents if these players do not re-sign.

In all, twelve Steelers will become free agents, seven of them being unrestricted.  If unsigned, the Steelers would lose players like Willie Parker, Casey Hampton, Deshea Townsend, Heath Miller, William Gay, Ryan Clark, Brett Keisel, and everybody's favorite kicker, Jeff Reid.  With the signing of James Harrison, who will be 32 by the start of the 2010 season, the Steelers may have put themselves in a hole salary cap wise (assuming a new CBA is put into effect and 2010 is not an uncapped year).  With the Steelers right up against the cap, and rookie signings not taken care of, little wiggle room will be available to give these potential free agents a new contract.

Continue reading "Trouble Ahead for the Steelers"