A rested and, hopefully, revitalized and refocused Pittsburgh Steelers team visits the Meadowlands and East Rutherford, NJ on Sunday to play the New York Jets for the second consecutive season. In 2012, Pittsburgh won at home in Week 2, 27-10. This year, in Week 6, the Steelers enter the game 0-4 coming off of a loss to Minnesota in London and their bye week, while the Jets (3-2) are coming off a road win at Atlanta.
The Jets, not expected by many to be successful in 2013, especially with a rookie quarterback and the loss of Darrelle Revis in the secondary, have performed fairly well in every game with the exception of a Week 4 loss at Tennessee. Their other loss was a 13-10 road loss at AFC East division-leader New England. Rex Ryan’s squad is led by the aforementioned rookie QB Geno Smith, a West Virginia Mountaineer product, who has completed 60 percent of his passes and averaged for nearly 300 yards of total offense through the first five games.
Smith has had some trouble with turnovers, throwing eight interceptions, more than his seven touchdowns. He is joined on offense by RB Bilal Powell (330 yards, 4.2 yards per carry), WR Stephen Hill (15 receptions, 254 yards) and WR Jeremy Kerley (14 receptions, 203 yards). Former Steeler Santonio Holmes is not expected to play due to a hamstring injury and TE Kellen Winslow was suspended this week four games for PED use, so the Jets will be without two key weapons to use against a struggling Steelers defense.
Antonio Cromartie is expected to start at CB for the Jets, so there is no relief there for Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger. Pittsburgh will continue to try to get some semblance of a running game going. Currently, through four games, the team’s leading rusher is Felix Jones (19 carries, 74 yards) and the team is averaging just 58 rushing yards per game, dead last in the NFL. Rookie Le’Veon Bell will play in his second game after debuting two weeks ago with 57 yards on 16 carries and two touchdowns.
Todd Haley will also have TE Heath Miller again, as they look to build on his nine-reception, 105-yard performance vs. Minnesota. Roethlisberger will also look to his top receiver, Antonio Brown, as well as Emmanuel Sanders and Jerricho Cotchery. In what is clearly a passing offense, this group will need to stretch the field and hope that Roethlisberger has the time to air it out behind what has been a very porous offensive line.
That issue was addressed during the bye week when the Steelers traded for offensive tackle Levi Brown from the Arizona Cardinals. Brown, a former Penn State Nittany Lion and first-round 2007 draft pick, is in his seventh year and is under contract through 2016. He has started every game since 2008, except when he missed all of last season with a biceps injury. It is not clear if he will start Sunday, but playing time is expected due to the team’s struggles and lack of depth at the tackle position. Haley and Brown are believed to have had some run-ins when Haley was the offensive coordinator in Arizona, but the desperate need for improvement on that unit obviously outweighed any personal differences.
Haley, who has been widely criticized as being a main scapegoat for the team’s 0-4 start, has been involved in two legal disputes reported by Pittsburgh media this week. One involves a real estate property he and his wife rented and allegedly damaged, and the other involves failure to pay a dog-walker for services. Both lawsuits are in the early stages and have probably been a distraction for the already seemingly fragile locker room that has been divided over whether or not younger players should be allowed to play ping pong in the team clubhouse.
Whether or not these intangibles can be remedied and reversed may determine how the Steelers improve, if at all, moving forward. With Baltimore and New England on the schedule in the next three weeks, they had best get on the right track immediately. If not, this long season will feel longer and longer.
