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In the most recent Times-News Internet Sports Poll, we asked, with the NFL season looming, which team would win the AFC North Division. Not surprisingly, voters picked the Pittsburgh Steelers by a 47 to 39-percent vote over the Baltimore Ravens, with the Cincinnati Bengals receiving 9 percent of the vote, and the Cleveland Browns 5 percent.
I say not surprisingly for a couple of reasons. For beginners, whenever we pose any kind of question that involves the Steelers — How many Pittsburgh Steelers does it take to put in a light bulb? — the number of responses spikes, because, obviously, there are a lot of Pittsburgh Steelers fans in the house.
Another reason it’s not surprising the Steelers would get the nod in our very unscientific poll is they are the Pittsburgh Steelers, winners of six Super Bowls and generally regarded as one of the best organizations in the NFL, if not the best organization in the NFL.
Despite the Ravens being the sexy pick to win the AFC North and possibly even the Super Bowl before their secondary dropped like flies, it’s hardly a stretch to believe the Steelers should be favored to win the division at all, even though they failed to the make the playoffs last year and even though they will be without quarterback Ben Roethlisberger for at least the first four weeks of the regular season. In fact, Sports Illustrated’s Peter King goes a step or two further, this week in SI’s NFL preview issue picking the Steelers to beat the Green Bay Packers in the Super Bowl.
Hey, they’re the Steelers, and whenever you count out the Steelers you end up regretting it, which is why you should never count them out.
For beginners, safety Troy Polamalu will be back and healthy after missing much of last season, which, of course, had a very adverse effect on the Steelers defense. And while the Steelers offensive line remains an enormous concern, one way of fixing a damaged offensive line is to run the ball, which the Steelers are likely to do quite a bit while Byron Leftwich is filling in for Roethlisberger. Then, when Roethlisberger returns, the Steelers can open the offense back up, although, frankly, there are a lot of people who believe the Steelers have opened up the offense too much and should concentrate more on running the football, the style of play former Steeler running back Jerome Bettis still refers to as “Steelers football.”
Meanwhile, the Ravens have continued to lose players to injury in various areas of their team, not just the secondary — offensive and defensive lines, linebackers and receivers — prompting general manager Ozzie Newsome to admit that, yes, the team is looking to shore up via trades.
The Ravens offense should be markedly better, even with the questions at right tackle and even with the injury to receiver Donte’ Stallworth. But defensively there is cause for concern with the pass rush, which didn’t exist last season, particularly with the state of the secondary being as shaky as it is.
Of course, there isn’t an NFL team worth a hill of beans that’s going to show its various blitz packages in the preseason, but until any upgrades in that department are visible it’s certain to raise questions.
What continues to amaze me is the complete disregard the Cincinnati Bengals continue to be held in by fans and some prognosticators — yes, the same Bengals who swept all six of their AFC North games last season to win the division.
I understand they’re the Bengals and once the Bungles always the Bungles, or at least that’s what everybody says, always pointing out that in their first 42 seasons they’ve never finished first in the division in back-to-back seasons.
Some of us have such short memories, for I seem to recall it took the Steelers 43 years to win back-to-back division titles in 1974 and ’75, and it took 40 years for them to win their first division title at all in 1972 — something the Bengals did in their third season of existence and have done six times since.
Hey, as the late Art Rooney understood better than anybody, you gotta start somewhere, you know? So while I’m not about to put the Bengals in the Super Bowl, I do believe, as I correctly did last season, that they will at least be a factor in who does and who doesn’t win the AFC North this season.
Mike Burke is sports editor of the Cumberland Times-News. Write to him at mburke@times-news.com
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