Game 2 Game Day: At Cincinnati

Jack Lambert

"If I could start my life all over again, I would be a professional football player, and you damn well better believe I would be a Pittsburgh Steeler."

-- Jack Lambert

It should be interesting to see how many Steeler fans will be at Paul Brown Stadium tonight. Typically we can count on about 30-40 percent of the crowd in Black 'n Gold.

And that reminds us what Steeler Nation is all about. We're all in this together. Time to regroup.

Tonight's matchup features enough X's and O's angles, interesting storylines* and potential scenarios to make your head spin.

The one thing Joey Porter's Pit Bulls will be watching out for is this: Is this year's Steelers team tough enough?

They may not have the talent some other teams have, but the Steelers need to regroup after last week's debacle and ask themselves the following questions: What kind of impression do I want to make? What kind of impression do I want to leave?  They're on national TV, but that shouldn't matter. They must look in the mirror, come up with some answers and realize who they are: The Pittsburgh Steelers.

In the big picture, then, to borrow the three points from the inspiring pep talk from actor Terence Howard's coach character in the movie Pride, tonight we'd love to see the Steelers win, of course, and do so by exemplifying the following traits:

• Pride -- The pride of wearing the Black 'n Gold, of being the Pittsburgh Steelers
• Resilience -- From game to game, from play to play, and from moment to moment, nothing is more important that resilience
• Determination -- The determination to constantly challenge defeat

On that note, we close this post with another quote from Jack Lambert:

"I believe the game is designed to reward the ones who hit the hardest. If you can't take it, you shouldn't play" 
-- Jack Lambert 

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*Storylines:  James Harrison; the Steelers' lousy offense; game plans; injuries; the Steelers' secondary vs. a Bengals receiving corps featuring A.J. Green, Jermaine Gresham and Tyler Eiffert (whom the Steelers had a chance to draft No. 1 but passed on him in favor of linebacker Jarvis Jones, who may have to match up on occasion with Eiffert), Dick LeBeau's defensive schemes; and Ben Roethlisberger, of course, as always, etcetera, etc.

Yeah, lots of angles and storylines to watch tonight.