Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
Which players stood out and which ones fell flat on Sunday afternoon?
The Steelers handed the Titans their first loss to remain undefeated on the season. Despite Pittsburgh’s perfect record, no player is perfect. There are winners to be celebrated and losers to be criticized. Here they are.
The league has decided how to best modify the Steelers’ schedule.
The NFL has announced adjustments to our 2020 regular season schedule.
— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) October 2, 2020
It didn’t take long for the NFL to decide what to do with this mess the Tennessee Titans caused.
As Steelers Wire speculated on Thursday, the league has adjusted the Steelers’ schedule the following:
While this may be better than extending the season, it sure puts the Steelers in an unfavorable situation. The team has a bye week when they don’t need it; everyone is healthy and had momentum being undefeated. Now they will have to play three consecutive away games — a stretch of the toughest games of the season with the Dallas Cowboys at the tail-end on Nov. 8. Also, the Ravens will be coming off a convenient midseason bye allowing their players to get healthy, regroup and make adjustments. And, oh yeah — 13 nonstop weeks.
The Steelers won’t flinch. But that doesn’t mean it’ll be easy.
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Pittsburgh will likely have to pay the price of an early bye week and a savage midseason schedule for a mess not of its doing.
We’re all anxiously awaiting the NFL’s announcement of the new date for Steelers-Titans, but it’s looking more and more like it will be Week 8 (originally-scheduled bye week). I just don’t know how else they could maneuver it.
If word does come down that the Steelers will have their bye week rescheduled to Week 4, it certainly does throw a wrench in all of the planning the organization has done. Publicly, you’ll hear no excuses from head coach Mike Tomlin about the timing.
Sure, bye weeks start in earnest next week anyway. But you’d have to go back to 2013 to find the last time the Steelers had this early of a bye (Week 5) scheduled.
As Ed Bouchette of The Athletic noted, this is not the first time a bye week has occurred before Week 5. And the abrupt change yielded favorable results.
Steelers had a week 3 bye in 2001, & did not play 2 straight weeks because of 9/11 postponements. They went 13-3 and hosted AFC title game https://t.co/iovQQfRRxd
— Ed Bouchette (@EdBouchette) October 1, 2020
Since Wednesday’s news of the postponement, we’ve all had a look at the schedule. For Pittsburgh, rescheduling to Week 8 means a midseason schedule that looks like this:
Things happen that are unfair in life, far worse than a rescheduled football game. The Steelers will forge ahead and adjust accordingly as they (usually) always do. With that being said, that is an absolutely brutal three-week schedule — let alone that each contest would be all away from the confines of home.
There are a personal side and a professional side to this: The severity of people catching the coronavirus is not to be underestimated, and we hope the team and its staff get well soon.
Professionally, however, the NFL should demand concessions be made. Not only should the Titans (and any team) be heavily fined for not practicing league-mandated protocols; therefore, causing an outbreak, but Tennessee should have to travel to Pittsburgh. It’s the least they can do.
If it was the other way around, you can bet Titans fans would be asking for the same of the Steelers.
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The NFL announced the indefinite postponement of Steelers-Titans, as latest COVID tests return more positives.
.@NFL Statement on @Steelers–@Titans Game: https://t.co/YkZO4mRR3i pic.twitter.com/22izbzSrlS
— NFL345 (@NFL345) October 1, 2020
The NFL announced on Thursday that it will be rescheduling the Week 4 Steelers versus Titans matchup to a date later in the season.
Per ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter, two more positive tests were discovered in Titans camp Thursday morning, for a total of 11 — five players and six personnel, including some defensive assistant coaches.
The league has said they will announce the new game date at a later time.
Stayed tuned to Steelers Wire for updates.
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A new concept for the 2020 season is the “protected” practice squad. Here are the four players the Steelers chose to protect.
For Week 4, the Steelers have chosen to protect wide receiver Deon Cain running backs Trey Edmunds and Wendell Smallwood and defensive end Henry Mondeaux. These four are not eligible to sign with another team until after Sunday’s game.
The most interesting observation is that Pittsburgh has protected two running backs. With the addition of Edmunds, linebacker Jayrone Elliott is now unprotected.
Practice squad “protection” is a new concept for the 2020 season. It’s a concession for the potential personnel shortages that could occur if the virus strikes the locker room.
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Teams can designate protected players each Tuesday beginning at 4 p.m., except for clubs that played on the previous Monday night; their designations go into effect prior to 4 p.m. Wednesday.
The Steelers continue their 2020 season Sunday, Oct. 4 versus the Tennessee Titans at Nissan Stadium.
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