The Injuries Are Piling Up

Posted on August 27, 2011 by JJ

In the first half, Antonio Brown has once again made it pretty clear that we can no long appoint Manny Sanders as Hines Ward’s eventual replacement without acknowledging that Brown may have something to say about it.

Brown caught a 77-yard touchdown pass and has four catches for 137 yards. In roughly one and a half preseason games, Brown now has nine catches for 230 yards while looking like one of the fastest players on the field play after play.

In much less encouraging news, center Maurkice Pouncey hobbled off with an ankle injury he suffered on a goal line play. Cornerback Keenan Lewis also left the game with an undisclosed injury.

Consider this your Game 3 discussion thread. Feel free to add your thoughts.

(Edit: AB also hauled in a 44-yard bomb and Crezdon ! had a 90-yard pick-6. not-so-good news, Byron Leftwich left the game in the third quarter with what looked like a pretty serious left-arm injury and that probably means that Dennis Dixon will be a Steeler for the foreseeable future. – Ryan)

Related posts:

  1. Analyzing the Offensive Line: So Many Injuries, So Few Options
  2. Willie Colon and Jonathan Scott Will Return
  3. A Look at the Super Bowl Dominance of Lynn Swann and John Stallworth
  4. Redskins 16, Steelers 7: The Antonio Brown Show!
  5. Projecting the Steelers’ 53-Man Roster and Other Goodies (V 1.0)
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  • Rob D

    I hate preseason..too many times you lose players and you never really recover. Sounds like Leftwich has a bad one..to hospital he goes and was obviously in great pain. Separated elbow?

    Better pray that Ben stays healthy. Incidentally, he looks poised to have a monster year with Brown, Wallace and hopefully Sanders running track out there.

    Do we add Matty Ice to the guys who feast on our (admittedly depleted tonight) secondary? So as long as we aren’t playing Rodgers, Brady, Brees or Matty Ice..our secondary is fine. That list is getting longer though..lol..

    Still, we have a pile of young colts out there. I can’t say they haven’t reloaded at a multiple of positions. But I still think we are one starting CB away from being ..awesome.

    • Cols714

      Judging by the Steelers win last year in the opener against Mr. Ice, I don’t think we need to put him in that category.

      Rodgers, Brady, and Brees, if those are the only guys who can beat your secondary your doing pretty well.

      • Rob D

        He did pretty good tonight though Cols..the kid is accurate and has a strong arm. Plus he’s smart. I think there are at least 4 guys who can beat this D through the air now. That 10 yard cushion thing is showing its age and its limitations. I know we don’t have Mel Bount out there but a little bump once in a while wouldn’t hurt our D..if the LB’ers don’t drop into coverage the middle is wide open every time they give taht cushion and then they are running free and capable of making even Polamalu miss.Which he did tonight on at least two occasions. It all means very little but I am beginning to think we may need to put up 30+ points at times this year to win. The great thing is is we get the O-line together, we are loaded at the skill positions.

        • Jason

          That’s the same as every year, really.  We are seeing the offense catch up some with the defense.  What’s easier to do in the NFL, find a good CB or find a good receiver?  We are rich in one, poor in the other.  Develop the offense to score a little more, have more successful drives, and you don’t worry as much about the CB positions.  Think about it.  If our offense could have moved the ball a little more, or Fox doesn’t get penalized, we might not find the CB position as such a big deal right now.  But it got highlighted in the SB loss.  Is it a liability?  Sure.  But it is a limited one that we can do something about.  Even if they get taken advantage of, we have the means to take advantage of the other team as well.  I’ll take it, and tell you that any other team will have a tough time matching up.  We can give anyone a thrashing, including the Pats.  That doesn’t mean we WILL every time.  But we can beat anyone, and that’s all you can ask for.

          • Rob D

            Good points Jason.

        • Anonymous

          To be fair, he did pretty well against Keenan Lewis and Willie Gay. Sure the standard is the standard, and injuries during the season may well make that the starting lineup some week, but let’s not forget that the two starting CBs (assuming a bit with McFadden, but we’ll see) were absent.

  • JJ Cooper

    Yeah the Leftwich injury doesn’t look good, at least it’s his non-throwing arm. Does Crezdon Butler make the team with his long INT return for a TD. You would think/hope that one play wouldn’t make a difference one way or another, but it is one that will stick in their minds. Btw, I know he’s rusty, but playing against second and third-teamers, Trai Essex looks worse than Marcus Gilbert, Tony Hills and Kyle Jolley at LT.

    • Rob D

      JJ, they just said he has a broken arm so I  wonder if he can be back sooner than later. Butler looked great on that return for sure..but I haven’t seen too much from him other than that. Dwyer looks like a football player..out of shape or not he hits the holes running and brings it. Damn..I like him and that’s after basically writing him off. I’m so darn fickle.

      I am still holding out hope that Max will be back after he gets in shape. He ain’t great but I think he’s better than J. Scott.

  • Callouswhisper

    Gilbert actually looked solid after he gave up sack and to be fair Ben had time, to get rid of the ball. BTW the hyped Solder had a nightmare v Detroit.

  • EasyLikeSundayMorning

    Just got back from Heinz. Hopefully Pouncey and Byron will be ok (or as good as possible in Byron’s case).

    Thought it was interesting that they kept swapping the beard and Aaron Smith for Ziggy an Heyward as a 2-man DL. It was like watching a hockey team switch lines.

    I didn’t see a single Falcons jersey, although my wife said she saw one.

    • Rob D

      Tomlin seemed to indicate that Pouncey was OK..probably tore some scar tissue and he didn’t seem too concerned about it..Lots of pain but no long term worries. Byron with the broken, non throwing arm so he could be back I guess at some point.

      The Steelers looked fast tonight..lotsa kids with speed and energy out there..Hope we find a few that can help us this year to win games. Like Butler or Keenan etc. Heck, even Dwyer showed his stuff tonight. It was a great preseason type game where they flash some skills..

  • TO

    IR Lefty and move on.  No more of this ridiculous Aaron Smith crap from last year.  Batch and Dixon are more than adequate 2 and 3.  Lefty would have a hard time being a #2 at many teams in the league.  Basically, he really isn’t a very good QB

    • Randy Steele

      Looks like you got your wish. Just read that he’ll be IR’d and out this year.

      • TO

        Not yet.  PG is reporting he might be back this year.  Seriously, he is a backup QB, why waste a roster spot waiting form him to come back in December, if he’s lucky.

  • Gretz

    I’ll probably write more about this tomorrow (and talk about it on the Podcast) but for all of the passing Matt Ryan did in the first half (40 passes in one half?!) he came out with a pretty poor line, completing just over 50 percent of his passes and only averaging 5.2 yards per attempt, which is terrible. And that was against William Gay, Keenan Lewis (until he ended up leaving) and Donovan Warren. What I’m trying to say is, the young corners had a nice test tonight against a formidable passing offense — that was throwing it a ton — and I think they played quite well. I know, I know, Julio Jones dropped a potential touchdown, but Troy Polamalu dropped a potential interception on the first drive, too. It happens. 

  • Anonymous

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