DOG: Bye Bye Blues

Bye-Bye

The Bye Bye Blues was a song from back in the 1930s made famous when Les Paul & Mary Ford covered it in the 1940s. Anyway, I first discovered it when I heard the Widespread Depression Orchestra do it in the 1980s. And today I've got the Bye Bye Blues on account of the fact that I'm staring at my first weekend without the Pittsburgh Stillers in several months. The Bye Week. So I thought it might be time to take stock of what we've gotten so far.

Here are the biggest changes/revelations and our slant on what this means:

• Rashard Mendenhall has supplanted Willie Parker as the feature back.
  This means Mendenhall better learn how to hold onto the ball and that Willie Parker can still play a major role as we go into the second half of the season.
• Aaron Smith is out for the season with a shoulder injury. This means that Travis Kirschke needs to stay healthy or Ziggy Hood needs to get better at that position fast. Or both!
• Troy Polamalu's injury proved him to be even more indispensable than I thought. This has shown that we are terribly weak at Safety and Troy cannot suffer a re-injury or the season is doomed. The avoidance of this situation was addressed several years ago with the drafting of Anthony Smith. But Smith was either too stupid or too much of an asshole for Tomlin so he's gone, out of football entirely I believe after the Packers cut him. And now we find ourselves with very little talent behind either Troy or Ryan Clark. It's a concern.
• Mike Wallace was the steal of the draft. Don't look for him to receive much recognition nationally for Rookie of the Year. Since he isn't a starter it's safe to say that Percy Harvin with two KO return TDs already and Johnny Knox lighting it up in Chi-town will grab too much spotlight for him. But opposing defenses better be aware.
• If Lawrence Timmons can avoid the dreaded high ankle sprain syndrome that sent Kendrell Bell off the the Chiefs and shortly thereafter to his "life's work," he may finally justify the #1 pick. Dude can hang with any TE in the NFL in coverage. A Troy Polamalu at linebacker if you will.
• Our next two games are critical. We must beat the Broncos in Denver and the Bengals at home to take over the Division lead. The two Baltimore games loom large yet too but less so if we can win the next two.

So tomorrow I'm going to watch the Baltimore-Denver game (as if I really had a choice in my viewing area) to see how our future opponents fare. I've seen both teams play 3-4 times already but things change constantly in the NFL. Rooting interest in the SBI (Steelers Best Interest) will be on the side of the Broncos. I think in the past 12 seasons any team playing Baltimore and Pittsburgh on back to back weekends has won at most one of those games. Happened just last week when we beat the Vikings after the Vikings had squeaked out a close one the week before against Baltimore. And guess what, it continues the week after next because Baltimore plays the Bengals the week before us too! Long as the Shitbirds keep knocking the crap out of those teams, win or lose it helps the Stillers.

So relax if you can this Sunday and get ready to strap on the ol' leather helmet for the second half of the season next week.