Is it the Steelers' Year?

[LaMantia]

I know it's early to say, but I am wondering now since I won a raffle that won me an autographed Football by Big Ben, 4 tickets to see the Steelers' Training Camp in Latrobe, & several NFL stuff. It was a nice basket to win. I only placed one $2 ticket in the raffle for thaty prize.

[Supreme]

Ah hell no.

Big Ben won't be half the quarterback he was last year. Granted the first half of the year, he did a great job, but then teams started to pick up on what he was doing. Each week they got closer and closer to losing. Jacksonville misses a field goal by two feet to the right, they got to come from behind at the last minute to beat the Giants. Then the playoffs come around. Look at the Jets game, Ben was a disgrace. I was sitting watching that game with a bunch of Steeler fans, when overtime rolled around. I told them, you watch, first pass, Ben will throw a interception. He got flustered in the pocket, threw up a wild throw and got intercepted. If it wasn't for the crappy kicking of Doug O'Brien, the Steelers wouldn't of even been playing the Pats again. You could tell all along that the Pats had Ben's number and just needed a fresh team. When they met in the regular season, half the starting lineup was out. The Pats had Ben's number plain and simple. He didn't know what the hell he was doing.

Another thing is, the wide reciever situation isn't going to help Ben a bit. With Plaxico gone, that means teams will double team Ward. This will force Ben to try and force it into Ward which you know will cause a interception or find somebody else, but besides that TE, who else is there that's reliable?

Big Ben is sick everybody. Please pray for him, he has a severe case of Kordell-itis, choking when it comes to the big game.

We don't need K2, all we need is Braylon, Braylon, BRAYLON!

BROWNS in '05!

[The Shadow]

I do agree that the Steelers likely won't even come CLOSE to the playoffs this year. But I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that you're over the age of 12, and that you've watched football for more than one season. Assuming that, I'm trying hard to think of how anyone could claim that Big Ben 'chokes in the big games'. Just ridiculously insane. He's played one season. I mean you do understand what a 'trend' is, right?

[JTM]

Exactly, Shadow. It was Ben's ROOKIE SEASON. If he was a seasoned quarterback who has been in the NFL for 5+ years, then I'd agree with Supreme. Also, you don't know what the passing game's gonna be like this year. Just like you didn't know this season would be all about Big Ben until 2 games in. You never know, they might try to focus on the running game. Can't call it yet, but I'm always pullin for the Stillers. I'm not a typical Pittsburgh fan that loves the team through the season, then poops on them when they lose the big game.

[missy]

Of course I voted yes....
I'm not going to try to analyze anything, I just know I love my Steelers! ! !
Seeing them win the SuperBowl is something I've always been waiting for... and I'm still waiting....
you never know how things will go this season, we'll just have to wait and see.

~Missy

[sedlak]

well after looking at all teh teams in teh nfl. teh only team who can legitamatly stop teh steelers are teh colts.

the pats lost alot of coaching staff and no matter what you say or think. you can have all teh greatest players. but it doesn't mean crap unless you got good coaching.

San doego had a lucky year last year. look for a .500 season from them. denver and K.c. will be battling for 1rst in that division.

baltimore is mediocre at best. cleveland sucks and always will. cinci is .500 team at best. buffalo may be playoff contention, miami is rebuilding, jets are not consistent. tennesee, has no good QB, mcnair needs toretire, houston ..yeah right..jacksonville are only wild card material at best.

steelers all the way.. my record prediction 11-5

[The One And Only]

I have to vote yes. Can't bring myself to think bad against the Steelers.

Two years ago keeps coming up in my mind, though. We had that great season the year before, we kept the same team and same coaching staff. But the problem was that coaches were looking for that stuff. They blitzed Maddox and Zeroue sucked in what was suppose to be his breakout year.

But we can talk when the season starts. Who knows? Maybe Ben's fame will throw teams off and they'll play lots of heavy passing defenses, and Duce and Bus will just run over defensive backs for the whole game? Maybe Randle El or Heath Miller will have a breakout year this year because the opposing pass defense will be focusing on Hines? You can't really tell until you see what the other teams are putting out there.

[LaMantia]

Tomorrow, I am posting a huge story at my day at the sidelines of the 1st practice at training camp. It was fun. I got sun burned. I am glad I am not Irish or I would like Brother Love... lol

In 2003, Steelers did horrible, but I still believed. Before the start of the 2004 season, everyone called them & me a loser for picking the Steelers to be in the AFC Championship Match. I should made bets with everyone in my class. They said, "They suck before Big Ben." It made me want to vomit when they were loving the Steelers. When I become a fan of something, I am in the long tunnel waiting for Championship glory. I am still a Bucs, and that might be a waste of time, but I still went to 9 games already.

Like last year, I am still scared for them. We still have the Patriots! Last year in the regular season was the only time I bet against the Steelers, damn me! They are still tuff. When everyone was saying we are going to the Super Bowl after Week 14, I said, "No! When the reigning champs are not stopping, be afraid, be very, very afraid."

We got teams like Lions, Titans, & Texans... easy, but we got the Vikings, the Chargers, & the Colts. Colts will probably beat us. Heinz Field is the #6 toughest field. RCA Dome is #1. I've heard it is running across carpet.

The Browns suck & will continue to suck. Bengals & Ravens beware. Ravens are the new Browns as our rivalry. In the old days, we would play our game & then, watch the Brown & see what they did. We cared about them. We watched them like hawks. We will win the division.

The chance of winning Super Bowl XL could happen. We are still contenders, but Colts & Patriots will be in the hunt. I see one of them being in the AFC Title match. Could the Steelers do it, maybe? An AFC team will the XL. I am betting on it. You got the Patriots, Colt, & Steelers. The 2 birds from the NFC are still in the hunt. The Falcons & Eagles are looking for the prey. BTW on the wall in New England, there is a Ram's, a Panther's, & an Eagle's head mounted on their wall. A Falcon would look quite nice... lol.