Tonight on Thursday Night Football, one of the best rivalries in the NFL and sports in general, will take place, as the Baltimore Ravens will travel to Heinz Field to face off against their AFC North rival Pittsburgh Steelers at 7:25. Except a big player will be missing. That would be Steelers star quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.
It happened last week against St.Louis, a game I happened to be at. It came during a drive in the middle of the third quarter. It was a second down, a play after he had just been sacked. He dropped back, and Rams safety Mark Barron hit Roethlisberger below the knee, and Roethlisberger went down, clutching his knee. It looked bad. The leg bent in a place where there is no joint. Many people thought that he tore his ACL, which would mean he would be out for at least the rest of the season.
As the updates rolled in, the news got better. The Steelers had hope that Roethlisberger's ACL stayed in tact. It turns out it was an MCL Sprain and a bone bruise. He will be out four to six weeks.
So now the Steelers will trot out Mike Vick. The Mike Vick who got arrested for dogfighting after being a star in Atlanta for the Falcons. He was signed in the off season, a signing that caused an uproar by some in Steelers Nation. But it is a good thing they signed him, otherwise the Steelers would be stuck with the bad Landry Jones.
The Steelers can be successful with Vick, but they need to have a simple game plan, with Vick being new, he doesn't know the playbook that well. The Steelers need to throw a lot of underneath routes to Antonio Brown and Heath Miller and give the ball off to Le'Veon Bell, and use him in the passing game as well. Plus, Vick gets Martavis Bryant back next week after a four-game suspension for failing four drug tests for marijuana in his first year in the NFL.
The Steelers don't need Vick to be a superstar. They need him to get them through this stretch of games without Roethlisberger. He needs to take care of the ball and use his legs.
If he gets through the strech at 2-2, it wouldn't be a bad thing. That would put them at 4-3 and put them in position for a playoff run, and have Big Ben back in time for a brutal strech to end the season. Even without Roethlisberger, I project that Vick will use his weapons effectively, and Todd Haley and the coaching staff will have a good, simple game plan to get the Steelers. I also think that the Steelers defensive will continue to improve, and be stout like they were last week in St.Louis, which they will need to be every week. I think the Steelers will win in a dogfight,20-17
Even though I predicted the Ravens to win, I still believe the Steelers are in good shape. As the next couple of weeks go by, Vick will become better and should do fine until Big Ben gets back.
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