Nov 4, 2017 5 min read

Maybe the Steelers should just be given a second-half bye.

Why bother playing the last eight games? Based on what I’ve been hearing around town this week, the Steelers, because of injuries to their future opponents’ quarterbacks, now have a clear path to the Super Bowl.

Tom Brady hasn’t been hurt yet and the Patriots come to town in December but lots of people seem to be penciling in a win there because it’s a home game.

There were lots of credible people, including Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungy calling the Steelers the best team in the league.

They’re 6-2 and have a week off to prepare for Jacoby Brissett and the Indianapolis Colts next Sunday. The rest of the NFL needs to figure out Pittsburgh’s secret plan that causes really good quarterbacks to get hurt before they play them.

Last season, the always-dangerous Scott Tolzien was waiting for them in Indianapolis in Week 12. They got the Dolphins’ backup Matt Moore, who completed 29 of 36 passes, in the first round of the playoffs last season.

They even got lucky with the Browns in this season’s opener. They faced rookie quarterback DeShone Kizer, who making his first start and sneaked out of Cleveland with a 21-18 win.

Casey Keenum instead of Sam Bradford started for the Vikings when they came to town the following week. Then it was on to Chicago to face perennial backup/stopgap Mike Glennon.

As it turned out, you could have played quarterback for the Bears. They ran all over Pittsburgh and beat them 23-17 in overtime.

When the Packers come to town in three weeks, their starting quarterback will be Brett Hundley instead of Aaron Rodgers, who, it says here, is the best quarterback in the NFL.

Hundley has one touchdown pass, four interceptions and a 40.5 passer rating since becoming the starter.

The Texans would have been a major test for the Steelers’ defense on Christmas Day if their quarterback, Deshaun Watson, who was on his way to being Rookie of the Year with 19 touchdown passes, eight interceptions, a 103 passer rating and 269 rushing yards, hadn’t blown out his knee in practice Thursday.

Watson is out for the season. The Steelers will probably see former Pitt quarterback Tom Savage, who is still looking for his first NFL touchdown pass. In football, that’s known as a Christmas gift.

Maybe the Steelers are the best team in the NFL right now. They’re 6-2 and their offense hasn’t started clicking yet. Their defense doesn’t need to make any apologies for being near the top in every statistic after what it was able to do in Kansas City against the Chiefs, which destroyed the Patriots in Foxboro.

The Steelers will probably be favored to win every game in the second half, including the home game against the Patriots. But it might be a little too early to say they have an easy path to the AFC Championship game much less the Super Bowl.

Why?

Because half of a season is still to be played and, in case you haven’t noticed, a lot of pretty important big-name players have been dropping out with injuries.

Ask the Packers about how their path changed when Rodgers broke his collarbone.

Pittsburgh like every other NFL team. They’re an injury or two away from getting knocked off the path.

And they’re only half way down the path.

• The Penguins may have found their backup goaltender in Tristan Jarry. Then again, maybe not. Jarry stopped 43 of 44 shots in a 2-1 overtime loss to Calgary Thursday night and nobody disputes that, at 22, he’s a rising star.

He’s played two games in the NHL, so he still has a little bit to prove about his NHL-worthiness.

A bigger question is whether he can be a good back up.

Last season, Marc-Andre Fleury did a good job of proving that he can be a below average goalie when he plays every fourth game. Some guys just aren’t meant to be backups.

Matt Murray is only 24 and the one thing nobody knows about him is whether he can be a great NHL goalie for 80 to 85 games from October until the middle of June. He’s never been asked to do it.

So, maybe instead of a 70-30 split, the Penguins should try a 60-40 or 55-45 split with Murray and Jarry to get the best out of both.

• I knew the Pirates should have never gotten rid of Charlie Morton. I had planned to predict that he would be the first pitcher in Major League history to win two Game 7s in the same postseason but I forgot.

• NFL teams are seeing a decline in merchandise sales to go along with their tanking TV ratings. It is still a money-making machine, but don’t bet on those numbers ever returning to where they were. It’s a business in decline.

• The San Francisco 49ers’ new quarterback, Jimmy Garoppolo, has thrown 16 passes farther than 11 yards down field in his NFL career. If the 49ers think that Garoppolo is going to look as good in their system as he did in New England, they need to check Matt Cassell’s resume.