It’s the midway point of the season, and according to my incredible and almost certainly accurate prognostications, the Steelers should cruise into the start of the second half at a hefty 7-1. I don’t see anyone being 8-0 at this point, so that would put us in the AFC driver seat at the midway point, with a second half that is cushioned by two games against Cleveland.

Well, maybe it’s cushioned, we will see.

Hopefully the momentum of the first half carries into the second, and we are on our way.

With that being said, let’s take a look at the 3^rd quarter of the 2016 season.

3^rd Quarter – vs. Cowboys, @Browns, @Colts, Giants

We all know we have to play on three holidays this year (Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day) and the first of those comes in this 3^rd quarter.

We will get into the nightmare that is Steelers Thanksgiving day football in a bit, but needless to say this section of the season has some potential stumbling blocks in it. Overall, we start with what will likely be a Romo-less Cowboys team, head to Cleveland, then to Indianapolis on an extremely short week, and finally host the Giants at Heinz.

Ok, let’s get into it.

Steelers vs. Cowboys – Sunday, November 13^th 4:25 PM

As I mentioned above, the likelihood is that the Cowboys will be a Dak Prescott led team when they arrive at Heinz field.

Romo, as I’m sure we all know, broke a bone in his back (retire already dude, seriously!) and is out an estimated 10 weeks. That could mean he is back for this game, but I doubt it. Even if Romo is fit to play, after 8 weeks with Prescott at the helm, it will depend heavily on how that experiment has gone. If it goes poorly, well, the newly signed backup to Prescott is Mark Sanchez.

I think the only way Sanchez sees the field is if Prescott gets hurt, no matter how bad he is.

What a poor performance from Prescott might lead to is a rush to bring back Romo.

So we’ll have to see what transpires between now and then. Right now I’m going under the assumption that this will be Prescott’s team. The good news is, he’s a rookie, and he wasn’t the most highly sought after rookie QB (drafted in round 4.) The bad news is he will have had 8 weeks to gel with the Cowboys offense, and they will have a better idea how to utilize him.

That being said, he’s not the part of the Cowboys’ offense, nor the rookie on the team that worries me: that would be Ezekiel Elliot. I am a big Ohio State fan, being from Ohio, and having a long history with the Buckeyes through my family: my grandfather worked for the Ohio State football team for many years, and played on the Buckeyes long ago, while my brother still has his Gold Pants from wins over Michigan. After watching Zeke at OSU, I had no doubts he was going to be a solid pro. Zeke is strong, and can be scary quick; we will have to be at full strength and running on all cylinders to keep him under control.

Dez is only going to be a factor if Prescott can get him the ball, and the only reason Prescott will have time to get him the ball is if the Cowboys can run. So stopping Zeke is priority number one.

Even with no Romo, this could be a tough game, and our history with the Cowboys is pretty even (they lead the series 16-15.) The Cowboys have only been to Heinz field once before, and we won 20-13 (12/7/08). The next-to-last time they visited Pittsburgh was at Three Rivers, and they put a whooping on us 37-7 (all the way back on 8/31/1997.)

We’ve visited Dallas twice in the Roethlisberger era, going 1-1, so I don’t know that history has much to tell us about this game, other than it could be tough. The truth is that Ben is in his prime right now, playing the best ball of his life, and he loves this high profile games.

I think AB does as well. Dallas’ defense is suspect, and if we can just get a few stops, I’m not sure that the Cowboys defense will be able to handle the combination of Bell, Brown, Wheaton, Coates and (hopefully at this point) Ladarius Green.

So I see the Cowboys leaving Pittsburgh low in their saddles after a loss, which means we head to our next game in Cleveland 8-1.

Steelers @ Browns – Sunday, November 20^th 1:00 PM

Oh how I wish I could just write – Steelers win and leave Cleveland 9 – 1.

I wish I could… but I can’t: if there was ever the definition of a trap game, this is it.

Coming off a high profile game against the Cowboys, and having only 3 days to prepare for a Thanksgiving game against the Colts, this game scares the beejeezus out of me. Truthfully, if this game was in Pittsburgh, I think I wouldn’t hesitate to pick the Browns. It’s not, it’s in Cleveland, which means it’s in Ohio, and Ben is the Emperor of Ohio.

His Ohio record is ridiculous.

In the Roethlisberger years we are 9-3 in Cleveland, and one of those losses came while Charlie Batch was playing (2012.)

Yes, the specter of that nightmarish 31-10 loss in 2014 still haunts me. I still don’t understand what happened. I’m calling that game an apparition.

The Browns could be better, and if the RJ3 experiment pays off, if Hue Jackson really is “The Quarterback Whisperer,” then maybe it will. (You’ll have to show me before I believe it.)

Yes, the Browns could have a solid defense (in fact they often do.) Ray Horton returns as their defensive coordinator, and with a return to the 3-4,  they could be better, but until they show that on the field, they remain the Browns.

It’s hard to give them much respect!

So, hesitantly, with about the least amount of confidence I have had in a pick to this point, I’m going to say that we come out of Cleveland with the win, and are 9-1 heading to Indy.

But this game still scares me.

Steelers @ Colts – Thursday, November 24^th 8:30 PM

The nightmare that is Steelers football on Thanksgiving arrives: we have one win on Thanksgiving Day.

One – and that was in 1950.

Thanksgiving seems to be a creepy holiday when the Steelers play.

The Jerome Bettis coin toss game… The Tomlin on the field game… I hate playing on Thanksgiving!

Add into that the fact that we are playing again just 3 days after a conference game in Cleveland, on the road, and this doesn’t bode well for the boys in Black and Gold.

Sure, you can say that over the last few seasons we own the Colts. We beat up a washed up Matt Hasselbeck lead team last year, and the year before Ben puts together a legendary 6 touchdown game to out-duel Andrew Luck.

But both of those games were at Heinz Field, and this one is in Indianapolis.

• Yes, the last time we lost to the Colts, Peyton Manning was the quarterback.
• We scored 96 points against the Colts in our last two games.
• We own the series 22-6.

All that is great, and sorta makes you feel like we win this game. I don’t know which version of Andrew Luck will show up? The version that had everyone saying he’s the next great QB, or the version that can’t get the job done? Is Frank Gore going to still have anything left in the tank? What kind of defense will they have?

To be honest, I don’t really think the Colts improved that much in the offseason, but you know sometimes those teams that seem like they’ve done the least have actually done the most. Still, the Colts had a fairly bad defense last year, and nothing makes me believe they will dramatically improve this year.

But it’s Thanksgiving.

As much as I want to say we get our second Thanksgiving Day victory, as much as I know Ben loves these prime-time games, as much as I know we are the better team – I think we lose.

The curse of Thanksgiving Day football continues, and we head back to Heinz 9-2.

Steelers vs. Giants – Sunday, December 4^th 4:25 PM

In the last 45 years, we have played the New York Football Giants at home 3 times. We lost two, and won one, in 1971.

During that same time span we have played them 6 times in New York, and are 4 and 2.

Overall, the Giants own the series (clearly with the majority of those games coming pre-Steel Curtain era) 44-29-3.

Will the Giants be any good this year?

New coaches can sometimes bring a new attitude. Which version of Eli Manning will we get? How good are their linebackers, or their secondary?

They added Leon Hall in the offseason so he will have some familiarity with Ben and AB, but overall I don’t think the Giants match up too well with us.

The wild card here is Odell-Beckham Jr. Do we have anyone who can cover him? Anyone? Hello? Bueller?

The answer is probably not, so he’s likely to be double and triple teamed all day, which may mean he throws a hissy fit. Who knows with this guy? I just don’t think the Giants, as they are currently made up, are going to come into Heinz and walk out victorious. We are too good, and after a potentially unnerving loss to Indianapolis and with 10 days to prepare for the Giants, I think we close out this portion of the season with a win. Steelers move to 10-2.

Conclusion

This is the one portion of the schedule that makes me nervous. We could very easily lose 2 of four in this stretch for no better reason than how the schedule actually falls on the calendar. It’s tough having a conference game and then playing another game only 3 days later. That’s brutal and will test this team.

Yes, we could come through it 4-0 and I’d like to believe we will, but I think the chances are that Thanksgiving rises up, and stuffs a turkey leg out to trip us up along the way.

Give me a couple days and we’ll finish this series with the final quarter of the season.

10 -2 still ain’t nuthin’ to sneeze at!

Until next time Nation!

This article was originally published on Black ‘n’ Gold ‘Til I’m Dead and Cold