Looking At The Enemy: Week 7 and 9

PITTSBURGH STEELERS – Week 7 – Sunday, October 20^th – Heinz Field

Week 7 marks rivalry week in Baltimore and the Steel City. A mark-your-calendar’s game for both fan bases kicks off as the CBS national game at Heinz Field. The Steelers had similar problems to the Ravens in the off season. They are both teams with great recent success that need to get younger. Both teams are trying to do so without sacrificing wins.

The Steelers missed the playoffs last year mostly because they just could not stay healthy. Their offensive line looked like a triage unit. To add to that, they had a very weak core of running backs and their quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger, refuses to get rid of the ball and insists on taking an absolute beating.

Biggest Addition: Getting the offensive line back! This has been such a problem for the Steelers in the last few years. They will go into the season with a healthy line, can they stay that way?

Biggest Loss: Mike Wallace took his talents to South Beach (sorry about that…). Wallace started to drop behind Antonio Brown as the top dog in the receiving core, but he was always someone who could break open the game.

Rookie To Watch For: Jarvis Jones is a huge upgrade at linebacker. The Steelers were getting so old at this position and needed to get younger. Jones will be able to start and make an impact right away. I thought this was a great pick by the Steelers and Dick LeBeau has to be excited to teach this outstanding talent.

BYE – Week 8

In the eighth week, we rest.

CLEVELAND BROWNS – Week 9 – Sunday, November 3^rd – FirstEnergy Stadium

Cleveland Browns preview.

In the next installment, we will take a look at the Ravens’ Week 10 and 11 opponents – the Cincinnati Bengals and Chicago Bears.