Week 11 San Diego Chargers come to Pittsburgh

Steelers start the 2^nd half of the year, with another tough late game defeat where they held a lead (similar to the Giants game) & blew it. Once again the team’s general & star – QB Big Ben Roethlisberger lays another egg with awful plays & decision making that leads the Indianapolis Colts to a come from behind victory of 24-20. Tough one to swallow, but the show must go on.

What seemed like a superb match up before the season started, with two perennial AFC conference championship contenders is now just another game. Steelers lately cannot hold leads, very un-Steeler like. Then the Chargers, boy are they underachieving. They went to the AFC conference championship game last year & had the 2^nd highest amount of Pro Bowl players. A superb 2008 season was predicted of them, possibly reaching & winning the Super Bowl. Boy were NFL prognosticators off the mark.

San Diego comes to Pittsburgh sporting a disappointing 4-5 record. Even though on paper stars QB Philip Rivers is the AFC leading passer – he’s been inconsistent & has been cause of some of their losses. RB LaDainian Tomlinson is not having the monster season that is expected of him, same goes for Tight End Antonio Gates. The Defense, well their pass defense is the worst in the NFL – considering they had stars in Antonio Cromartie, Jamal Williams, Shawne Merriman & others that were superb last year – you’d be hard pressed to have foreseen this type of colossal collapse. It’s becoming pretty apparent what type of freak/beast Shawne Merriman was & meant to their defense. I don’t see their defense playing much better this week.

Steelers are having their own problems, bad O-Line, bad play from Big Ben, Defense that can’t seem to hold a late lead (granted they are on a short field late in the games) & injuries to what was to have been their strength – running game. With Willie Parker often injured & not the star he was prior to last year’s injury (he might never be the same again), it’s hard to hold off leads as we are forced to pass more than we should.

Home cooking against the not so great San Diego Chargers might be what the doctor ordered for the men of Steel. Steelers should score a lot on offense & hold off the Chargers. Let’s hope the Steelers score a lot so as to not give their Defense another chance to blow/give up the lead again like they have in their last 2 losses (Giants & Colts). Steelers move to 7-3 & will have a dogfight looming with their division rivals soon in the Baltimore Ravens who’ve been playing great lately.

San Diego QB Philip Rivers (below) about to heave a pass attempt.