Big Lead Sports Bar

11/22/2009

POLAMALU OUT A MONTH



ESPN's Adam Schefter is reporting that Steelers safety Troy Polamalu will miss the next month with a strained ligament in his knee, according to a source close to the situation. The injury was suffered while tackling Cincinnati RB Cedric Benson last Sunday.

If the month-long prognosis holds up, Polamalu's target return could possibly come December 20 against Green Bay in the Steelers' 14th game of the season. Luckily, the next three games following today's contest include Oakland and Cleveland, so it will not be the team's most challenging stretch. They will, however, be without Polamalu for sure at Baltimore next Sunday night in an important divisional game. But Baltimore has injury concerns of their own, with Terrell Suggs out up to six weeks as a result of an MCL injury caused by Cleveland's Brady Quinn.

Of course, all of this will mean very little to the team's fortunes unless the Steelers can shore up their biggest weakness at this point: the inability to stop opposing kick returners. Somewhere, Arnold Harrison is feeling very vindicated. Vindicated, and in last place with the Browns.

Source: Polamalu likely out 1 month
[ESPN]

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17 comments:

Unknown said...

that sucks big time...we've been hearing rumors that it wasn't that serious, so i wonder wonder where adam is getting his info?

okel dokel said...

Not great news, but since they give up a kickoff return for a touchdown a game and cannot prevent long interception returns it seems even if he was playing we would struggle.

This team is pretty mediocre and regardless of the level of the competition they have difficulty overcoming these consistent gaffes.

I do not expect a blow out every time they play supposedly inferior competition but their play against the Chefs leaves a lot to be desired.

I would not be surprised to see the Ravens blow us out next week.

okel dokel said...

Congratulations boys, make that a guarantee you will get blown out by the Ravens. Nice loss to the Chefs. Very pathetic.

jmarinara said...

I'll be the first to say it:

The Steelers will miss the playoffs this year.

The special teams are awful.

Troy being out doesn't help an already shaky defense.

Ben might be hurt.

They just lost to the flippin' chiefs. The flippin' . . . chiefs.

They're mediocre right now. Not good. Not awful. Mediocre.

They aren't making the playoffs and they should be embarrassed. They have most of the team back from their dominant year last year, and yet, they're mediocre.

Who needs a drink?

Chip said...

You're not the first to say it. I've been saying that in the game recaps posts for weeks and weeks.

And the Kool Aid drinking Yinzers who can't get their heads out of their behinds keep saying how everything's fine, the playcalling is fine, Ben is the greatest pure passer in NFL history, etc etc...

We throw too much. The playcalling is atrocious. The special teams is a joke. And our secondary blows without Troy.

I REPEAT 9-7 this year, no playoffs.

Anonymous said...

Wow, I fell like you guys are overreacting a little. This loss sucked but we're 6-4 and will be in a 3 way tie for the final two spots with Jacksonville, and San Diego/Denver (whoever loses). We've got one of the easiest schedules in the league left, plus tiebreakers over both Denver and SD. If we go 4-2 with that schedule, 10-6, 6th seed in the playoffs, going into Cincy, with an 'unbeatable' Indy team sitting in the #1 seed. (Flashback to 2005)

We play Baltimore next week. Our most hated rival. Either A) This loss wakes our team up and we make our a December run into playoffs or B) They become satisfied with last years Super Bowl and fold. Our season isn't over yet, it just makes the next few games actually matter and forces our team to show whether this season matters to them or not.

Louis Lipps is my homeboy said...

I think passing is a strength. We threw for about 400 yards today. You can't account for mistakes. There was one bad interception (the first was on Miller, that's not being an apologist, it's being a person with eyes). And the defense continues to give up bad plays at the worst times.

And nobody ever said Ben's the best pure passer of all time. I've never heard one person say that in my life. What he does should be good enough to win against the vast majority of games.

I think the "Stillers football" crowd waits for a loss so they can pin it on the passing game.


The WHOLE TEAM did their part to blow this extremely flukey play.

They're sloppy, and just don't have that sense of "clutch" that they did last year.

We let them hang around, and let a horrible team beat us, flukey or not. It's unacceptable.

okel dokel said...

Clint - an easy schedule the rest of the way? They just lost to the Chiefs...doesn't get much easier than that.

Nothing is easy when you give the opponent seven points very week.

Louis Lipps is my homeboy said...

I'm drunk btw, hence the typos. But I am still amused by the people who wait for a bad game to jump on the QB and passing game (OOOH I TOLD YINZ SO!!! TOLD YINZ SO!!!), despite the fact that it accounted for the majority of our offense today.

This wasn't like last week. We were moving the ball every which way we wanted to. We just got careless and let them hang around. Then the defense proved that in clutch situations, it is not clutch.

Anonymous said...

Okel Dokel - Just because we lost as easy game doesn't mean it's not an easy schedule.

okel dokel said...

Once again Clint - you give the opponents 7 on a kick off every week and nothing is easy.

Koz said...

Problem here is winning instinct. The Steelers are 6-4 and continually losing close games. The Colts are 10-0 and have pulled out games they haven't played well in.

The margin of success/failure in the NFL is razor thin. Interceptions in the end zone and kick returns are literally the one play difference between winning and losing. The make-up of this team is not significantly different than the team that won the SB in February. The execution however...

Anonymous said...

Well that has nothing to do with schedule. That is our team. You think our team is bad. I think we're good, but not great. Even if we were the worst team in football....the schedule is still easy.

okel dokel said...

I said the team is mediocre, not bad. There is a big difference.

The schedule may be "easy" in your opinion, but the play of our team - giving up constant touchdowns on kickoffs - negates the so called "easy" schedule.

Anonymous said...

The schedule isn't 'easy' in my opinion. The schedule is easy based on the opponents winning percentage. 5 games against non-playoff teams, 1 against a borderline playoff team.

We lost 2 games in a row earlier this season and responded with 5 straight wins. We have 4 losses this season by a combined 15 points. If things ended today we'd still make playoffs. We have an easier road than most teams to playoffs. (is that better?) We have tiebreakers in our favor. Literally about 24 other teams in the league WISH they were in our position. The only reason people are freaking out is because the expectations for this team are set so high and because KC is really bad.

A game on the road, before a holiday, sandwiched by 2 big divsion rival games, its obvious we lost mental focus. But this game will be the perfect wake up call for a very good team.

11-5, 5th seed in the playoffs. (And after our double digit win next week against the Ravens you'll see it my way too).

Unknown said...

I thought they should have tried the 55 yd FG in OT instead of punting. Who cares if they get good field position after a miss. They suck. It's not impossible to make that FG. Ended up netting 18 yds on the punt.

okel dokel said...

Clint - I appreciate and commend your optimistic attitude. The numbers and positioning look good right now, but my belief they are a mediocre team is based on gut instinct and what I am seeing on a nearly weekly basis.

The special teams have given up four straight kick off returns for touchdowns. The defense has shown a penchant for breaking at the worst possible times and a number of intercpetions have either gone for touchdowns or been returned for considerable yardage.

They may have lost mental focus but I do not concur that it is easy to buy. They just lost for the second time to the Bengals and I would have expected them to be sharp and looking to build some momentum going in to the Ravens game.

I will be happy to eat my words. However, this year's team just does not have "it." I felt reasonably assured last year's team could win any kind of game. This year's team, not so much.

Surprisingly they may be missing Larry Foote and Bryant McFadden and it really seems to show with Troy missing. I am underwhelmed by Timmons.

Do I have high expectations for the Steelers...yes. Do I have high expectations for this year's version...no.