Edmunds’ hamstring has landed him on injured reserve, making room for McDonald.
The Thanksgiving holiday doesn’t keep the Pittsburgh Steelers from making moves necessary to strengthen the team.
Running back Trey Edmunds, who was signed to the roster on Oct. 10, was placed on injured reserve. He suffered a hamstring injury in the Week 10 Steelers-Bengals matchup.
The Edmunds move allowed Pittsburgh to add tight end Vance McDonald to the active/inactive roster. He was activated on Nov. 24 and returned to practice after being removed from the reserve/COVID-19 list.
Though McDonald hasn’t contributed much in the passing game (9 rec., 61 yards), the Steelers could use his blocking skills in the run and pass game. Hopefully, Vance will be active for the rescheduled Steelers-Ravens brawl on Sunday.
We’ve placed RB Trey Edmunds on the Reserve/Injured List, which makes room on the Active/Inactive roster for TE Vance McDonald, whose two-day COVID-19 roster exception expired. @BordasLawhttps://t.co/ZIWhFcyO4g
Whether Dobbins, Ingram are cleared to play depends on if they ever experienced symptoms.
Symptomatic or asymptomatic? That is the question.
What we do know is that Baltimore Ravens running backs J.K. Dobbins and Mark Ingram tested positive on Monday and were ruled out for the originally-scheduled Thanksgiving night game. On Tuesday, the NFL decided to move Thursday’s game to Sunday because the Ravens are still in the contact-tracing phase of league protocol.
What we don’t know is whether Dobbins or Ingram were asymptomatic. The Ravens organization has been tight-lipped on those details, as they should be.
Why do symptomatic versus asymptomatic make a difference, you ask? Per NFL protocol, if a player tests positive but has no symptoms and tests negative twice within a five-day span, he could return to the team.
Courtesy of the NFL and NFLPA
If symptomatic, the player must wait 10 days after signs of illness first appeared and 72 hours until after signs ended (see Vance McDonald). In both cases, the player’s return needs to be approved by the team’s head physician after consulting with the NFL chief medical officer.
Bottom line: If Dobbins or Ingram did not have symptoms and test negative twice before Saturday, there’s a possibility for one or both to be in the lineup on Sunday.
The Ravens revealed on Wednesday that defensive end Calais Campbell and offensive linemen Patrick Mekari and Matt Skura have also tested positive. Additionally, defensive tackle Brandon Williams and outside linebacker Pernell McPhee were placed on the NFL’s reserve/COVID-19 list.
As for Dobbins and Ingram, timing will be tight, especially with travel involved. Obviously, Baltimore would prefer to face Pittsburgh with a healthy running back stable, and I’d be shocked if the Ravens don’t do everything in their power to make that happen.
The Ravens have disciplined the coach whom they believe may be the source of the rash of COVID-positive cases.
As contact-tracing continues within the Baltimore Ravens organization, a strength and conditioning coach was found to not have been regularly wearing a mask or tracking device. Per sources of NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, the coach’s disregard for protocol could be what contributed to the team’s recent round of positive COVID-19 cases.
By proactively disciplining the coach, the #Ravens potentially could reduce or avoid discipline they face from the league over an outbreak that forced the postponement of the Thanksgiving night game against the #Steelers. https://t.co/HKxL5WrJ2u
The unidentified coach has been disciplined by the Ravens, which could reduce any penalty the team faces as it relates to the rescheduled Steelers-Ravens matchup.
The NFL should come down hard on the Ravens, especially considering how much revenue will be lost because of the game delay. Then again, the punishment for the Titans was anticipated to be much greater than it actually was.
The NFL announced Wednesday afternoon that the Steelers vs. Ravens game, originally scheduled for Thanksgiving night, would be moved to Sunday, Nov. 29.
To make matters worse, fans who had tickets for the Thanksgiving game will not be allowed to attend the Nov. 29 game. The State of Pennsylvania’s new occupancy orders, announced earlier this week, go into effect Friday, Nov. 27.
The new policy wasn’t supposed to affect Heinz Field fan attendance until the Dec. 6 game against The Washington Football Team, but since the Steelers-Ravens game was delayed to Nov. 29, fans won’t be permitted due to the new state mandate.
The 10-0 Pittsburgh Steelers will take on the 6-4 Baltimore Ravens Sunday at 1:15 p.m.
The Steelers-Ravens game, which was postponed on Wednesday with a time to be determined, has now been set for Sunday, Nov. 29 at 1:15 p.m. on NBC.
Our game against the Baltimore Ravens, which the NFL announced earlier today was rescheduled to Sunday, Nov. 29, will kick off at 1:15 p.m. on NBC on Sunday.https://t.co/qxMQ70MWcC
This is the second time this season another team’s irresponsibility is negatively impacting the Pittsburgh Steelers. Earlier in the season, the Tennessee Titans’ inability to follow COVID-19 protocols cost the Steelers their bye week.
At this point, we can only hope the Ravens now have their situation under control, and it doesn’t affect the rescheduled game.
Now that we’ve had some time to go back, re-watch the game and dig in a little bit we are going to talk about a few things in the stats that really stood out for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Their 28-10 loss to the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday was ugly in all phases. But some of these stats might be uglier.
3 or maybe 0
It depends on how you look at it, but either way, the distribution of the run game is worrisome. The three represent the number of carries running back Kerrith Whyte got on Sunday. He was the second-leading rusher on the team. Benny Snell Jr., by comparison, had 18 carries. But the zero represents the number of carries by Jaylen Samuels. I get the idea of going with the hot hand but Samuels hadn’t seen more than seven carries in a game since Week 10.
Cam Heyward won’t accept excuses for what happened on Sunday.
Hear from Ramon Foster, Bud Dupree, Cameron Heyward, Joe Haden, Minkah Fitzpatrick and Jaylen Samuels following our game against Baltimore.@HeinzKetchup_USpic.twitter.com/iZeBcoEdFu
The Pittsburgh Steelers are not a team that takes comfort in making excuses for their shortcomings. These players, with few exceptions, take personal responsibility for how this group performs and it starts with defensive tackle Cam Heyward.
When Heyward spoke to the media after Sunday’s loss to the Baltimore Ravens, you could see the emotion in his body language and in how he spoke about letting his teammates down and how much it hurts him to let them down. Heyward is a true leader on this team and his interview Sunday night showed it.
The Steelers crumbled to the Ravens on Sunday. Even the defense, which had been so good for much of the season had no answers for the Baltimore rushing attack, even with reserves in there. This group was worn down after weeks of trying to carry this team and it showed.
I suppose if you are the Pittsburgh Steelers and you aren’t going to make the playoffs you might as well go out removing any doubt if they deserved to be there. Pittsburgh completely collapsed on Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens and finished off an ugly season with an ugly loss.
Here are our three big takeaways from the loss.
This defense was tired of trying to carry the offense
By the second offensive drive of the Ravens, you could already see the fatigue on the Steelers defense. This was partially to do with the 7+ minute drive the Ravens put together on their opening drive followed by a 44-second three-and-out by the Steelers offense, parking them right back on the field.
But more than that you can tell there was emotional fatigue set in all game long from a defense who was just tired of trying to pick up after an inept offense.
Mike Tomlin keeps it short and dull in his postgame press conference.
No matter what you think of Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin, he is not the guy who is going to throw anyone under the bus for a loss. He didn’t veer from that philosophy this week after the Baltimore Ravens blew the Steelers out 28-10.
Tomlin addressed the media briefly after Sunday’s loss but offered little more than his usual canned responses about blaming everyone including himself and talking about taking care of the football. No real contrition or emotion for the gravity of the loss or the impact of the final three weeks of the season.
There are many fans who want to see Tomlin fired tomorrow. This isn’t going to happen. If anything, his ability to take a team absolutely hobbled by injuries to 8-8 and almost into the playoffs will make him a hero.
This is going to be a long and active offseason for the Steelers. Tomlin got a glimpse of the future and some of it was promising while others are more post-apocalyptic.
