![]() Today he showed he still has the heart and the will to come in and anchor the defense. Thus he offers no upside in terms of the long-term picture at NT. Not only is Hoke a career backup, but at age 35 he's a year and a half older than Casey Hampton, the guy he replaced. He has spent most of his career quietly spelling Hampton, other than 20, when he started for an injured Hampton. Chris Hoke was signed by the Steelers as an UDFA when no one took a flyer on him in the 2001 draft. The NT position, arguably the key position in a 3-4 defense, was staffed by a guy many thought should have been cut this year. So who did they use to fill the holes? A rag-tag assortment of youngsters, career backups, late-round picks, and undrafted free agents. The injury bug bit hard and deep this week, leaving the Steelers without a number of veteran starters. This is about the players that took up the slack for the many injured men- the gritty, blue-collar guys that nobody else wanted. But when you improvise sometimes you end up in places that nobody knew you were going.īut this post isn't about Ben and the other highly compensated "stars" of the team. Of course, the fake spike of the ball was improvising in a way that he apparently hadn't clued the rest of the team in on. It takes some of the pressure off of him to perform well and leaves him free to improvise in unexpected ways. Honestly, I'm not sure he doesn't prefer it that way. Much has already been made, and rightly so, of Ben's stellar play while injured. ![]() Of course, the injury list was headed by the only person who actually played, Ben Roethlisberger. The question is, how? With an injury list that prominently featured some of the Steelers' marquee players, it was understandable that many felt they had no chance against a surprisingly strong Titans team. Billed as pretty much a must-win game for the Steelers, they not only remembered the Titans, they remembered the disrespect of the Terrible Towel, and once again avenged the shade of Myron Cope. The Pittsburgh Steelers ran onto Heinz Field yesterday to face the Tennessee Titans. Note: I published this late last night, and as I read some of the other information on the game more and more names come up, so I'll just update as appropriate.
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