Pittsburgh Steelers at Cincinnati Bengals will have playoff feel in Week 2
By Jason Marcum
The Cincinnati Bengals and Pittsburgh Steelers will face-off next Monday night in a game that will no doubt have a playoff feel to it. Both teams are licvking their wounds after losing their openers, and both clubs have some significant injuries to overcome.
The Steelers lost Pro Bowl center Maurkice Pouncey and longtime inside linebacker Larry Foote to season-ending injuries during their loss to the Tennessee Titans on Sunday.
Pouncey suffered a torn ACL and MCL in his right knee during the Steelers’ opening possession of the game, and now they are signing former Titans starter Fernando Velasco to a one-year deal. He’ll be a suitable replacement if you look at how he faired on Pro football Focus’ grading system:
New Steelers center Fernando Velasco was our 11th ranked center last year. Solid player thoguh he did struggle during preseason.
— PFF (@PFF) September 9, 2013
Pouncey is arguably the top center in the NFL, and going from him to Velasco is a very significant dropoff. So how can the Steelers rebound?
A team with a tradition of running the ball could not pick up one first down in the run game against the Titans. The ground game is clearly a mess, and there are no easy fixes given the loss of Pouncey to a season-ending knee injury and with rookie running back Le’Veon Bell still recovering from a mid-foot sprain.