Tasser’s Take: Steelers’ bye week lands perfectly

Toward the beginning of the season, I was under the impression that the Steelers had the worst… Toward the beginning of the season, I was under the impression that the Steelers had the worst possible bye week.

With the team sitting at 2-2 with a stockpile of injuries, an old and slow defense and a quarterback with more interceptions than touchdown passes, I looked all the way down the schedule and cursed that it couldn’t have that magical one-week reprieve until Week 11.

It would be too late by then, I thought, as the players would have to struggle through a tough stretch of opponents — including the 3-1 Tennessee Titans, the New England Patriots, the Ravens again and the surprising Cincinnati Bengals. Their season would be lost.

How wrong I was.

In fact, many thanks goes out to the good people who create the NFL schedules, as it is now apparent that the Steelers have the best possible bye week. Let’s look back to the first four weeks of the season, shall we? Ben Roethlisberger had thrown for only three touchdown passes (versus five interceptions), the running game was putrid and the defense had forced only one turnover.

Now? Roethlisberger kick-started arguably the best stretch of his career by throwing five touchdowns against the Titans, Max Starks rejoined the team and helped solidify the offensive line, and the defense has begun stopping the run like we here in the Steel City are so used to seeing.

But the injuries never stopped. Defensive stalwarts James Harrison, LaMarr Woodley, James Farrior, Brett Keisel, Casey Hampton and Aaron Smith (that’s six of the starting front seven) have missed multiple games. And the offensive line has been held together by duct tape and chewed bubble gum: Offensive contributors Rashard Mendenhall, Hines Ward and Emmanuel Sanders have all been banged up. Even Roethlisberger now has a fractured thumb. Cue the bye week.

Coming out of the bye, the Steelers will be as healthy as can be expected for an NFL team this late in the season, with only Smith and starting punter Daniel Sepulveda (who’ve both made their third trip in the past four years to the injured reserve list) remaining out of the lineup.

On top of that, Pittsburgh currently sits at the No. 2 seed in the AFC, and its remaining opponents sport a lovely 26-28 combined record, with only Cincinnati and San Francisco showing winning records. Better yet, the current top seed — the Houston Texans — recently entrusted its quarterback job to the (cough) great (cough) Matt Leinart, following starter Matt Schaub’s possibly-season-ending foot injury.

The Ravens hold the tiebreaker with the Steelers — which could mean the difference between a first-round bye and a wild card road game if they finish the season with matching records — but they first have to get past the Bengals this weekend. If Cincinnati wins, it makes the Steelers’ job of navigating their cupcake schedule even easier.

So once again, from everyone here in the ’Burgh, a big thank-you to whoever created the NFL schedules this year.