Malcolm Mitchell coming back??

[aluminum seats]

NO

Dorsett is not as primary a target as. I'll stop and just repeat AJ's list of priorities
Cooks
Gronk
Hogan
White
Burkhead
Amendola
Dorsett

I might even add Lewis before Dorsett. I would have Dorsett active, with no reps absent injuries, unless we were in garbage time. Personally, I am happy to have Dorsett and Britt on the 53, with one of them active, even if they have only a very few reps. They might be competitors for 2018 roster spots and reps, or not.

Exactly, for now he's meh. He may at some point be better than that. Meh isn't terrible nor particularly good. But not a bad place holder to have on the team for now.

 

[maineman209]

It seems to me that the odds of Dorsett being active this afternoon are now significantly slimmer.

With Branch OUT, Francois will almost certainly be active.
With Van Noy OUT, Harris will almost certainly be active.
With King OUT, Hollister will almost certainly be active for ST.

Gillislee and Croston seem the most likely HEALTHY SCRATCHES.

That leaves two more to be de-activated.

There's at least a small chance that Hogan and/or Wise could be de-activated. Wise played only 16 snaps last week without much impact. Hogan looked pretty awful last week and appeared to be in pain on a couple of plays.

My guess is that, if either of Hogan or Wise are active, that leaves Dorsett on the bench. If BOTH are active, that probably leaves Britt on the bench, too.

 

[PatsFan2]

Please don't say Hogan might not be activated...a 70% Hogan even as a decoy is still better than 100% Dorsett. A Gronk/Hogan Offense puts alot of pressure on any D. I have given up on Dorsett for this year he needs a full off season and TC to really know this Offense. That said I am sure Complimentary Cookie cannot be happy about his last too invisible weeks. The Gronkman should open this up for the complimentary types. I am sure everybody knows how Big this Game is I would take a one point win.

 

[Mack Herron]

Please don't say Hogan might not be activated...a 70% Hogan even as a decoy is still better than 100% Dorsett. A Gronk/Hogan Offense puts alot of pressure on any D. I have given up on Dorsett for this year he needs a full off season and TC to really know this Offense. That said I am sure Complimentary Cookie cannot be happy about his last too invisible weeks. The Gronkman should open this up for the complimentary types. I am sure everybody knows how Big this Game is I would take a one point win.

Hogan will be active. My guess at inactives:
Van Noy
Branch
King
Gillislee
Croston
Harris
Britt

LBs are Roberts, Reilly, M Flowers, Grigsby.

 

[farn]

Hogan will be active. My guess at inactives:
Van Noy
Branch
King
Gillislee
Croston
Harris
Britt

LBs are Roberts, Reilly, M Flowers, Grigsby.

Hard time convincing me that lineup of LBs will bring back memories of Bru/Vrabel/McG...

 

[maineman209]

Please don't say Hogan might not be activated...a 70% Hogan even as a decoy is still better than 100% Dorsett. A Gronk/Hogan Offense puts alot of pressure on any D. I have given up on Dorsett for this year he needs a full off season and TC to really know this Offense. That said I am sure Complimentary Cookie cannot be happy about his last too invisible weeks. The Gronkman should open this up for the complimentary types. I am sure everybody knows how Big this Game is I would take a one point win.

It's not just about being a decoy; it's also about being able to block downfield effectively for the guy who has the ball. Hogan really struggled with that on Monday night, even to the point of appearing to be in significant pain a couple times.

Regardless who is active for the game and available to be out on a route in a pass pattern, the defense must devote some resource to covering him. It's not as if the Steelers didn't see Hogan's struggles against MIA on tape during the week, so it's not as if they're likely to be devoting "extra" resources to covering him that they wouldn't assign to Dorsett or to Britt simply because of who Hogan is or because of his pre-injury capabilities.

Dorsett has significantly better long speed than either Hogan (even when he was 100%) or Britt, so the Steelers are likely to feel the need to cover him with one of their faster DBs. Dorsett has also been a pretty decent downfield blocker.

Britt is no plodder, AND he's certainly big enough to require the Steelers to at least think about using a safety and/or even an LB on him - similar coverage to what they might devote to Gronk. This might impact their ability to cover Burkhead, White or Lewis (I don't know what Britt's blocking skills are like).

Either way, it's just not as simple as saying that a 70% Hogan (assuming he's even there yet) is "better" than a 100% Dorsett.

 

[maineman209]

Hogan will be active. My guess at inactives:
Van Noy
Branch
King
Gillislee
Croston
Harris
Britt

LBs are Roberts, Reilly, M Flowers, Grigsby.

It seems that both of us are assuming that Trey Flowers will be good to go. Even though he traveled with the team, he could still be a game-time decision.

In any case, with Van Noy out and the "Freeny-placeholder" gone, I'm having difficulty seeing the Pats leaving Harris on the bench against Bell, especially with RJF subbing in for Branch on the DL.

 

[RobertWeathers]

It seems to me that the odds of Dorsett being active this afternoon are now significantly slimmer.

With Branch OUT, Francois will almost certainly be active.
With Van Noy OUT, Harris will almost certainly be active.
With King OUT, Hollister will almost certainly be active for ST.

Gillislee and Croston seem the most likely HEALTHY SCRATCHES.

That leaves two more to be de-activated.

There's at least a small chance that Hogan and/or Wise could be de-activated. Wise played only 16 snaps last week without much impact. Hogan looked pretty awful last week and appeared to be in pain on a couple of plays.

My guess is that, if either of Hogan or Wise are active, that leaves Dorsett on the bench. If BOTH are active, that probably leaves Britt on the bench, too.

I dunna know about Harris. If Bell is split out wide and have either he
or Roberts paired on him I'm gonna be pissed.

If he and Robert stay inside the hashes then ok. Outside..forget it

I expect M Flowers and Chung to spy on Bell and stick to him. Maybe even bigger CBs like Rowe or Gilmore on him.

 

[Bourne Again Christian]

I dunna know about Harris. If Bell is split out wide and have either he
or Roberts paired on him I'm gonna be pissed.

If he and Robert stay inside the hashes then ok. Outside..forget it

I expect M Flowers and Chung to spy on Bell and stick to him. Maybe even bigger CBs like Rowe or Gilmore on him.

I like the idea of M Flowers on Bell he's been a really solid pick up.

 

[RobertWeathers]

I like the idea of M Flowers on Bell he's been a really solid pick up.

Bell is a force in the passing game. They'll have their hands full no matter what.

 

[luuked]

There is value in being a decoy.

On that contract definitely..

 

[Angelpats]

Just don’t have Roberts covering Bell when he splits out wide. It was surprising how badly he was beat in the last game:

 

[luuked]

I dunna know about Harris. If Bell is split out wide and have either he
or Roberts paired on him I'm gonna be pissed.

If he and Robert stay inside the hashes then ok. Outside..forget it

I expect M Flowers and Chung to spy on Bell and stick to him. Maybe even bigger CBs like Rowe or Gilmore on him.

But thats the tricky thing. This is definitely one of the matchups the Steelers want to create and with the lack of depth on our end it will be difficult to prevent them from doing it in some packages. The key is to minimize the damage really.

 

[luuked]

Just don’t have Roberts covering Bell when he splits out wide. It was surprising how badly he was beat in the last game:

How was any of this surprising ? It has been obvious for over a year that he is awful in coverage as well as very inconsistent against the run.

 

[RobertWeathers]

But thats the tricky thing. This is definitely one of the matchups the Steelers want to create and with the lack of depth on our end it will be difficult to prevent them from doing it in some packages. The key is to minimize the damage really.

Agree. This might be a "sell out the run " game.

Putting my BB 2001 Rams hat on, as nonsensical as this sounds, the rhythm of this the offense runs thru passing to Bell - not running him. Let the Lbs sit in zone and let the guys I mention pick him up on either side outside the hashes.

This obviously puts big time pressure on setting the edge and with Trey and Wise still on the mend clearly my strategy has major question marks.

I expect Pitt to put up at least 28 today however I expect us to put up more

 

[PatriotsNumero1Fan]

Agree. This might be a "sell out the run " game.

Putting my BB 2001 Rams hat on, as nonsensical as this sounds, the rhythm of this the offense runs thru passing to Bell - not running him. Let the Lbs sit in zone and let the guys I mention pick him up on either side outside the hashes.

This obviously puts big time pressure on setting the edge and with Trey and Wise still on the mend clearly my strategy has major question marks.

I expect Pitt to put up at least 28 today however I expect us to put up more

I think our defense will not let them score 28 even with the injuries. I expect hogan to look much better.

 

[maineman209]

Bell is a force in the passing game. They'll have their hands full no matter what.

That's what I'm thinking.

Erase Bell (82% catch rate) in the passing game and on the edges and force him to run through the line (into Roberts and Harris).
Erase Jesse James (71% catch rate - Roethlisberger's other favorite outlet target).
Contain Brown (62% catch rate), especially his YAC.

That leaves Roethlisberger facing more 3rd downs and having to force deeper throws to Bryant (55% catch rate) and JuJu (66% catch rate) more often. More focus on JuJu of these two.

 

[maineman209]

I expect hogan to look much better.

Based on what?

 

[maineman209]

Agree. This might be a "sell out the run " game.

Putting my BB 2001 Rams hat on, as nonsensical as this sounds, the rhythm of this the offense runs thru passing to Bell - not running him. Let the Lbs sit in zone and let the guys I mention pick him up on either side outside the hashes.

This obviously puts big time pressure on setting the edge and with Trey and Wise still on the mend clearly my strategy has major question marks.

I expect Pitt to put up at least 28 today however I expect us to put up more

I'm thinking that we might see a lot of Chung on Bell on the edges.

 

[RobertWeathers]

I think our defense will not let them score 28 even with the injuries. I expect hogan to look much better.

I hope you are right. The lack of high-end talent at LB is very worrisome to me. We now realize how well KVN was playing.

The secondary needs to have the game of the year. Fortunately they have the talent to do it.

I think the key to the whole game is the Pats putting up points early. If they can demoralize Pitt's D and turn this into Madden that'll eliminate the Pitt running game and allow NE to play the pass more- which is the strength of the D.