If you remember Nation, in the first post of this series I suggested that at this point in the season the Steelers would be 4-0.

That’s what I call a winning first quarter!

In this post, I’ll be looking at the second quarter of the season. Let’s just all be a bit cautious at this point, because in all reality, once you get more than a game out, your rolling the dice. Once you try and expand that, as I’m doing with these posts, to a whole season, you have to accept that these guesses are based on the team basically staying healthy and whole. It’s also assuming (and this is really the silly part of this) that nobody on the other teams we are looking at finds a breakout star who throws the entire thing into a state of flibbityflu!

With that being said, let’s take the 2nd quarter of the 2016 season.

2nd Quarter – vs. Jets, @Dolphins, Patriots, (bye), @Ravens

We have the bye in this quarter, which may be nice, especially since we have the Ravens coming off the bye. Getting that extra week after the Patriots could be a blessing to help take a breath after 7 straight games, and allow us to gather our wind for the remainder of the season. In all honesty, I’d rather have the bye fall around week 10-14, giving us that late recharge, but I’m pretty happy with where it was this time around. I hate it when the bye comes early, and we have that long stretch of games to slog through (you know, ’cause I’ve got to play ’em of course – NOT!)

We have a split of two road and two home games again this quarter, and that stays true the entire season. We never have more than two road games in any one stretch, which means we never have a really long stretch of away games. Conversely, we never have a really long stretch of home games, but you take the good with the bad.

Let’s take a look at each of these games and as before, I’m just going to call the games as a win or a loss.

Steelers vs. Jets – Sunday, October 9th, 1:00 PM

We get the Jets at Heinz field, and that should be a good thing. The Steelers are 9-1 against the Jets at home, and 6-1 at Heinz. These games tend to be close, with only one game that was heavily one-sided, back in 1981, when we won 38-10.

The Jets look to be strong defensively, but the offense is questionable. If Ryan Fitzpatrick is playing a great game, and is on, they can score. If he’s not, well no matter how good Brandon Marshall is, if the ball never gets in his hands, then he’s not going to make a difference in the game.

I’m not worried about Matt Forte, even though he is a solid running back. If the Jets are going to beat us, it will be Brandon Marshall and Eric Decker who do it. If their defense gets some turnovers, that’s another story. They still have Revis, who we can all assume will spend most of his afternoon following Antonio Brown around.

I don’t think Ben is going to shy away from AB just because he’s visiting Revis Island. In fact, I think there is a good chance that despite the skills of the future Hall of Fame corner, AB may treat Revis Island like a holiday spot! He’s done it to too many other people. Of course, that’s provided Ben has time to throw and the Jets have a really good D-Line. It will be hard seeing Steve McLendon in that white and green mess, but I understand that he needed to take a shot at making some dollars and getting a consistent starting role.

If the Steelers play a game that is solid, I think they win. They don’t have to be perfect, but they do have to not be off their game. It will be tough sledding for Le’veon and DeAngelo I think, but if they can provide something running the ball, it will make the passing game that much more effective. I think Eli Rogers could have a big game here, maybe even a breakout game. Regardless, Steelers win and move to 5-0.

Steelers @ Dolphins – Sunday, October 16th 1:00 PM

The overall series between the Dolphins is actually pretty close, the Steelers have the edge 13-12. The Steelers have won the last 3 games played in Miami (at either Sun Life, Land Shark or Pro Player stadium and now it’s called Hard Rock Stadium and it’s all the same stadium) and 6 of the last 8 games they have played there, despite an overall record of 6-8 in Miami.

Weather could play a factor, it always can in Miami, but if that’s the case, I like our chances.

The thing about Miami is that they do have weapons: Javris Landry and Kenny Stills can be solid receivers. I don’t know what I think of  their running back situation: Arian Foster beat out Jay Ajayi as their starter. With Foster’s injury history, who knows if that will be the case by game 6.

It boils down to Ryan Tannehill and I still don’t think much of him.

The Dolphin defense is no joke with Cameron Wake and Ndomukong Suh (who I hope never gets near Ben, because we don’t need any accidental “things” being stepped on!)

The Dolphins also added Mario Williams.

Their corners don’t worry me: Brandon Maxwell was a hot mess in Philadelphia last year, and I think the Eagles pulled an atomic wedgie on the Dolphins when they got anything for him. The bottom line here is that if the O-Line can keep the Dolphins D-Line at bay, I think we leave Miami with a 6-0 record.

Steelers vs. Patriots – Sunday, October 23rd 4:25 PM

This is the game of the second quarter: Brady will be back, and will have been back for long enough that he’ll be integrated with the team well.

The Steelers own a misleading edge in the series 15- 13. It’s more applicable to look at the record for this century (since 2000) which favors the Patriots 8 – 3. Notably, the last time the Patriots came to Heinz, they were undefeated and on a streak of historical proportions. Rob Ninkovich will be back, and the team itself is good (sorry, wait a minute, I just threw up a little in my mouth.)

Most of the pundits are saying the AFC race is between these two teams, and I agree with them. I don’t see another AFC team (maybe the Bengals if they can get their collective heads out of their you know where) that is nearly as good as the Steelers and Patriots. It also doesn’t much matter who the Patriots have playing, somehow the evil genius behind it all (his name shall not be spoken hear in the even that it summons him) seems to get his guys in the right positions.

The Steelers can win this game. So could the Patriots.

There could be more on the line here for the Patriots than there is for the Steelers.

If the great Garoppolo experiment fails, and the Patriots come out of their first four weeks with a losing record (and frankly I think the best they will do is 2-2) then they will be in a position where they may need this win badly. I don’t think there is any chance of the Steelers looking past this game, and I think Ben really wants to beat Brady. Provided that we have managed to stay mostly healthy I think at this point of the season we could start to see contributions from our rookies, specifically Davis and Hargrave, but maybe Artie Burns as well.

If we can pressure Brady, and remember that Gronk is actually on the field, we will be in good shape.

Plus we have a secret weapon in our back pocket.

This is the second game Emily (my daughter) and I will be attending, and as I said, she’s never seen the Steelers lose, so as unbelievable as this sounds, that would mean we are 7-0 going into the bye.

Steelers @ Ravens – Sunday, November 6th 1:00 PM

If you thought that I was just going to rubber stamp a 16-0 season in these posts, well, here is where that idea comes to a crashing halt.

In Tomlin’s first 7 years he was 6-1 coming off a bye week. In the last two seasons he is 0-2 (losing to the Saints and last year to the Seahawks.)

I, unfortunately, think that this trend is likely to continue right here.

Is it because the Ravens strike fear in my Black ‘n’ Gold heart? No. It’s not because I’m particularly concerned with the Ravens personnel. I don’t know how Suggs is going to play coming off his injury. He’s older, and that was a serious injury he had last year. I don’t know how Flacco will play. I don’t know a lot of things.

Here is what I do know. Last year we lost two games to the JV team that the Ravens were fielding and I still to this day do not understand how. Yes, one had to do with a kicker who could not make a field goal, but the bottom line is we lost twice. I think that maybe, just maybe, the Ravens are just in our head. In our last 7 games against the purple nightmare, we are 2-5 (including a playoff loss.)

Yes, I know that the starting receivers are Mike Wallace and the ancient Steve Smith. Justin Forsett,  Javorius Allen, and Terrance West will share the duties as running back. I get that this isn’t a frightening offensive team on paper. You just know that they play better against the Steelers than they do anyone else. We know the emotions tied up in this game.

Heck, listen, I am so concerned that we might lose this game I’m trying to get tickets to take Emily down to Baltimore for the game!

We can and probably should win this game. I think the truth is that we are a better team than the Ravens. There is no question we are, not just on paper but in reality. That doesn’t mean we are going 16-0. As much as it pains me to say this I think we come back from Baltimore with the taste of defeat sitting bitterly in our mouths. 7-1.

Conclusion

I hate ending this on a down note, but really if you can walk out of the first half of the season 7 and 1, wouldn’t you take it?

I know I sure as hell would!

If we get to this point with no major injuries and sitting at 7-1 we will be in the driver’s seat not only for the division, but for the AFC as a whole. And we still have two games against the Browns to look forward to!

Until next time Nation!

This article originally appeared in Black ‘n’ Gold ‘Til I’m Dead and Cold