5 reasons
- Le'Veon Bell's suspension - The most obvious one I guess. Likely the best runner in the game right now. Still a chance he might fail another test and be out indefinitely, never rule this out. Pouncey is back and that's good, but DeAngelo Williams is old, and it may not matter.
- Strong rumors that there are more suspensions coming for the Steelers. Heard it twice last week. Even if not true, you need to factor possibilities like this in when determining win totals.
- I expect the Ravens to be better than last year. When you lose Gary Kubiak, you generally suffer the year after because you're running game gets exposed for what it really was, it just happens. Gary Kubiak is fukking magical, I've been saying this for years, those who don't know need to get on board. Steelers lost to a crappy 5-11 Ravens team both times last year, hard to see them coming close this year. Remember, to go over, they need to improve on their 10-6 record from last year -- with key players out.
- I haven't seen a big improvement in their defense.
And the main reason IMO
- Martavis Bryant's suspension -- My Steeler superfan buddy pointed this out, and it made a ton of sense. For his first two years, Bryant missed the first part of the season due to injury or being a retard. When he finally steps in, Ben has a rangy, threatening target that he normally doesn't have, and it opens EVERYTHING up. The O-line, who gets criticized the first part of the year, all of a sudden blocks great. An offense that was underachieving all of a sudden puts up record numbers. Antonio Brown goes berserk. This has happened two years in a row. Ben loves his safety blankets, and Martavis and Heath Miller are gone. Laderius Green is hurt. Steelers were a 3-3 team back in 2014 without Bryant, and 3-2 in 2015 without him, which extrapolates to a 9 and 6 record, making them top out at 10 wins at best, AND those three wins were against SF, StL and SD. And out of those 11 games I just mentioned, Le'Veon Bell PLAYED in 9 of them, and the Steelers were still mediocre.
Steeler nation is huge, and will continue to give us 10.5, but probably not for long. Pissed I didn't pound 11 when it was up, I would have gladly paid the juice.
Is there anyone who would even consider playing the over? I want to hear from you.
- Le'Veon Bell's suspension - The most obvious one I guess. Likely the best runner in the game right now. Still a chance he might fail another test and be out indefinitely, never rule this out. Pouncey is back and that's good, but DeAngelo Williams is old, and it may not matter.
- Strong rumors that there are more suspensions coming for the Steelers. Heard it twice last week. Even if not true, you need to factor possibilities like this in when determining win totals.
- I expect the Ravens to be better than last year. When you lose Gary Kubiak, you generally suffer the year after because you're running game gets exposed for what it really was, it just happens. Gary Kubiak is fukking magical, I've been saying this for years, those who don't know need to get on board. Steelers lost to a crappy 5-11 Ravens team both times last year, hard to see them coming close this year. Remember, to go over, they need to improve on their 10-6 record from last year -- with key players out.
- I haven't seen a big improvement in their defense.
And the main reason IMO
- Martavis Bryant's suspension -- My Steeler superfan buddy pointed this out, and it made a ton of sense. For his first two years, Bryant missed the first part of the season due to injury or being a retard. When he finally steps in, Ben has a rangy, threatening target that he normally doesn't have, and it opens EVERYTHING up. The O-line, who gets criticized the first part of the year, all of a sudden blocks great. An offense that was underachieving all of a sudden puts up record numbers. Antonio Brown goes berserk. This has happened two years in a row. Ben loves his safety blankets, and Martavis and Heath Miller are gone. Laderius Green is hurt. Steelers were a 3-3 team back in 2014 without Bryant, and 3-2 in 2015 without him, which extrapolates to a 9 and 6 record, making them top out at 10 wins at best, AND those three wins were against SF, StL and SD. And out of those 11 games I just mentioned, Le'Veon Bell PLAYED in 9 of them, and the Steelers were still mediocre.
Steeler nation is huge, and will continue to give us 10.5, but probably not for long. Pissed I didn't pound 11 when it was up, I would have gladly paid the juice.
Is there anyone who would even consider playing the over? I want to hear from you.
