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CINCINNATI The Bengals are 5-4 at the bye, which may be disappointing after their hot start, but they're still in a much better position than they' Salvon Ahmed Jersey ve been in in recent years.Veteran defensive tackle D.J. Reader is a Teddy Bridgewater Jersey big reason why they're in the playoff hunt. The 27-year-old is the Bengals' highest-graded player through nine games according to Pro Football Focus.Reader earned an 85.8 overall grade. Joe Burrow (85.0) and Joe Mixon (82.0) aren't far behind.Rookie wide-out Ja'Marr Chase (76.6) is fourth, followed by Chidobe Awuzie, Tee Higgins and B.J. Hill, Miami Dolphins Pet Gear who are all tied with a 75.1 overall grade.Reader has 28 tackles and one sack this season. He's on pace for 53 tackles, which would be a career-high. The Bengals need him to continue to play at Austin Jackson Jersey a high level if they're going to make a playoff run.Make sure you for the latest NFL news, exclusive interviews, film breakdowns and so much more!You Christian Wilkins Jersey May Also Like:Scroll to Continue-----Be sure to keep it locked on All Bengals all the time!Follow AllBengals on Twitter:

At 5-4, the Denver Broncos have overcome a relative mountain of adversity since the season began. Mostly due to the ravages of the injury bug, the Broncos have been fraught with a constant need to churn the roster.One day removed from , the Broncos announced yet another flurry of CeeDee Lamb Jersey maneuvers on Wednesday.The Broncos activated tight end Noah Fant from the reserve/COVID-19 list and signed cornerback Duke Dawson, Jr. to the practice squad after officially activating him off the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list.Denver was also awarded cornerback Mac McCain III off waivers from the Philadelphia Eagles. With Albert Okwuegbunam nursing a knee injury (fortunately not the knee he suffered an ACL tear last October), Fant's return to the active roster is timely.Although Fant the team's 2019 first-round pick hasn't played up to expectations this Dallas Cowboys Jersey season, there's no doubt that Teddy Bridgewater and company could use his explosive ability as a pa s-catcher in the offense.The McCain signing is intriguing but makes one wonder at the motives for the acquisition. Signing with the Broncos as a college free agent in May, the corner competed with the club through training camp and the preseason and spent time on the practice squad before the Eagles signed him on September 7.From there, McCain appeared in one game for the Eagles, totaling 15 snaps on special teams in Week 3 at Dallas. His arrival this week could have more to do with an intelligence debriefing considering the Broncos will play the Eagles on Sunday than because of what he Leighton Vander Esch T Shirts offers as a player.Scroll to ContinueI'm more inclined to believe that McCain's return to Denver is more about the happenstance of opportunity than due to the team's desire to simply glean knowledge on this week's opponent. The Broncos have suffered injuries to the cornerback depth chart in succe sive weeks, so adding a little depth in a player who has familiarity in the scheme is quite the boon Leighton Vander Esch Jersey .That McCain's return comes the same week that the Broncos draw the Eagles will draw a cynical conclusion. It's not likely to be a coincidence.Still, the Broncos need depth at corner and McCain knows the scheme.In what appears to be a positive harbinger, No. 1 corner Patrick Surtain II was not listed by head coach Vic Fangio among the Broncos' injured players on Wednesday, though it could have been an accidental omi sion. Surtain was on the practice field on Wednesday and was observed by local media stretching with teammates, albeit without his helmet on.Perhaps that knee injury he suffered in Dallas on Sunday won't cost him "multiple games" as was initially reported. Broncos fans can only hope.Meanwhile, Dawson's return to the practice squad gives the Broncos an additional body that could be 'elevated' on gameday. Combined with Dallas Cowboys Jackets McCain's return, and the apparent resurgence of Kyle Fuller and Ronald Darby, perhaps the Broncos aren't as bad off at corner this week as some feared.

Kalen DeBoer delivered twins.As he discu sed his roster additions on the second signing dayfour high school players and four portal transfersnew University of Washington football coach Kalen DeBoer spoke highly about all of them.Yet his matching defensive tackles, siblings Tim Settle Jersey Armon and Jayvon Parker from Dearborn, Michigan, seemed bring out the most enthusiasm from DeBoer on a day where college coaches all over America found no shortage of superlatives is sizing up their new players.Asked about the Parkers not being heavily recruited, DeBoer acknowledged that the brothers' insistence on going somewhere as a package deal might have kept schools from offering them.DeBoer described them as recruits who were under the radar throughout the proce s, loyal when others tried to coax them away from their Fordson High School and later the UW, and extremely strong guys with plenty of athleticism.They're not quite identical. While both top out at 6- Casey Toohill Jersey foot-3, Armon weighs in at 284 pounds, Jayvon at 296."We were all in from the get-go," he said. "There's no doubt in my mind they're going to be special players."The Parkers were newly signed Huskies joined by fellow high school recruits in safety Tristan Dunn from Sumner, Washington, and cornerback Jaivion Green from Houston.DeBoer said he found Dunn's name on his desk practically before anyone else's when he took over in December, and his staff convinced the defensive back to flip from his Arizona State commitment."This guy is violent," the coach said of the 6-foot-4, 188-pounder. "Fierce competitor. Super long. His highlight film was a lot of fun to watch."DeBoer welcomed portal transfers in Pittsburgh linebacker Washington Commanders Hoodies Sweatshirts Cam Bright, New Mexico running back Aaron Dumas, Arizona State wide receiver Junior Alexander and Idaho State punter Kevin Ryan.Overall, that gives him 15 new players since he replaced Jimmy Lake as coach.DeBoer said Bright runs extremely well, will be a natural leader after serving as a team captain for the Panthers and will be used as an inside linebacker.Scroll to ContinueHe mentioned previously trying to recruit Dumas coming out of high school and how the Texan had a big game, 143 yards rushing, against his Fresno State team.DeBoer marveled at Alexander's local receiving productivity and his built-in relationships with high school teammates turned Huskies in Sam Huard and Jabez Tinae.He added a four-year starting punter in Ryan, whose 45.6-yard average on his FCS Big Sky team would have ranked him among the top 20 at the Division I level.Moving forward, DeBoer said spring practice will cover nearly all of April, which is a later date for him. Yet he and his staff need time to install Darrick Forrest Jersey the offense and continue to size up the returning personnel.He said a lot of back-up players who pulled game snaps don't have much footage to peruse.Asked about the po sibility of two-time All-Pac-12 offensive tackle Jaxson Kirkland returning to the Huskies rather than turning pro after having ankle surgery, DeBoer said there was nothing to confirm yet.He said the hybrid Husky position his coaches will install, which will be manned by an athletic safety or physical cornerback, would fit someone such as returning safety Dominque Hampton or the uncoming Dunn.Most of all, DeBoer seemed satisfied with the way things have gone since he took over, of hosting 150 recruits over the previous weekend, of how Jamin Davis Jersey the veterans have responded to three weeks of winter workouts."The mindset, the buy-in, I'm fired up about the direction we're going," he said.

We decided a few weeks ago that Houston Texans fans had just come Jonathan Taylor T Shirts to terms with the losing season they were given, . analyzing more than a million tweets and determined that Texans fans ranked 17th among NFL teams when it came to letting out their frustrations via Twitter.Pickswise has since done a , where they analyzed more than 100,000 tweets to determine which fans Eric Ebron Jersey were most stre sed during the playoffs.Obviously, the Texans fan base is not considered in this study, because they don't count tweets (see below).But we can look toward their AFC South rivals, the Tenne see Titans to see how stre sful the playoffs can be on fans.Scroll to ContinueIn the regular season, fans of the Titans were pretty stre sed, coming in second on the list, with 86,130 "stre sful" Indianapolis Colts Pet Gear tweets. In the postseason, though, they seemingly didn't worry too much, landing them in the bottom half of the rankings. With 3,585 "stre sful" tweets, they placed 10th out of the 14 teams.1 / 5Where did fan's of Super Bowl LVI participants land?Los Angeles Rams fans don't seem to have too much to stre s about Philip Rivers Jersey , and it makes sense. They are the first team in NFL history to play in a conference championship game, and the Super Bowl in their own stadium. That home-field advantage clearly has their fans relaxed, because they landed sixth on the list of 14 teams, with 5,851 "angry" tweets. Cincinnati Bengals fans on the other hand, aren't handling the succe s very well. Their 8,874 "stre sful" tweets succe sfully earned them the top spot on the list. We have a feeling both those numbers will increase this weekend, though, as both teams play for the title, and their followers a chance Chris Reed Jersey to call themselves fans of Super Bowl LVI champs.

Matt Nagy wouldn't say he plans to give the NFL a piece of his mind.However, Nagy will at least submit film and ask for an explanation of what appeared to be blatant mistakes by Tony Corrente and his officiating crew in Monday nights 29-27 Bears lo s Junior Seau Jersey to the Pittsburgh Steelers. "We have a proce s every week, with how we're able to submit anything that we see," Nagy said. "Because a lot of it, too, is teaching for us. There's a lot of rules that we're learning, too, as we go, and you see, OK, when you watch them always in the offseason, the refs do a great job of coming in and teaching us. "But yeah, there's certainly some that in this proce s this week that I'll have and I'll be looking forward to getting those answers."Nagy won't say which he specifically disagrees with but it would seem one must be the illegal block called on James Daniels at the 1-yard line, wiping out a Jimmy Graham touchdown catch and costing the Bears a critical four points because they settled for a field goal. Nagy wouldn't comment on that play specifically after the game and still has nothing to say about it.His silence on another play was deafening. On the final mi sed 65-yard field goal by Cairo Santos, Pittsburgh appeared to have lined up offsides on the right side of the line."I know what I saw with that, and I'll leave it at that," Nagy said, not wanting to get into any hot water with the league.Five more yards could have made a huge difference on the kick as Santos has made 60-yard field goals at practice but 65 is stretching it for anyone except maybe Baltimore's Justin Tucker.The NFL on Tuesday backed up Corrente's call of a taunting penalty on Bears pa s rusher Ca sius Marsh after a sack of Ben Roethlisberger but that DeAndre Carter Jersey 's a bit like the Kremlin backing the findings of one of its fake elections. Of course they did. Marsh celebrated his sack with a karate style kicking motion, as he said he always has done. Then he took five or six steps toward the Steelers sideline. He maintains he said nothing and Corrente interpreted this as a taunt. Corrente and Marsh then bumped into each other, with Marsh claiming it was a hip check initiated by Corrente and Corrente saying it was inadvertent contact and had no bearing on the penalty call.It just happened that the flag was thrown long after the play and the celebration and directly after the collision between the two. And it was thrown exuberantly into the air.Nagy tried to walk a fine line between all of this after the game and continued to do so on Tuesday by saying he didn't think anyone initiated the contact and it simply occurred."It's something that in that moment, you have to be super careful of being in the gray with this new rule, with the taunting," Nagy said. "And any gray that you give them, they can make a decision on and it can be subjective and that's part of the rule. It is what it is. "I'll also say, it's a very emotional game and an emotional time in the game. And so, you have that balance of somebody that's fighting their a s off to make a play, and then who makes the play and is excited. Isn't that a part of loving the game, manthe pa sion, fire, fun Austin Ekeler Jersey . Right? That's a part of the game. But when you're in the gray, then there can be consequences. I think that's the balance of us teaching that, understanding the emphasis and that's the decision that they make. The tough part is is that he made a great play in that moment and it's getting overshadowed by that (call Derwin James Jr T Shirts ) and I think that's a learning tool."Scroll to ContinueThe taunting penalty eventually led to a Chris Boswell field goal after the third-down Marsh sack had forced the Steelers into a punting situation. While the league backed Corrente, they offered no explanation on how his description of the scene leading to the penalty could have been so far from reality. "First of all, keep in mind that taunting is a point of emphasis this year, and with that said I saw the player after he made a big play run toward the bench area of the Pittsburgh Steelers and posture in such a way that I felt he was taunting them," Corrente said after the game to an NFL pool reporter.The replays of the incident showed nothing resembling Marsh running. He took some steps, but never ran. Any motion he made was subtle at best.The illegal blocking penalty on Daniels wasn't a point of emphasis but a new rule.However, there actually has to be a block for it to be called."Once again, the new rule this year is there should be no contact below the waist to any player outside of the tight end box and this player initiated low contact to a player outside of the tight end box," Corrente said.The replay wasn't definitive as to whether it was outside the tight end box, but it clearly showed an obvious lack of any contact by Daniels in what was either a poorly thrown block or an attempt to avoid the penalty.Corrente was asked if he saw contact."Yes I did, from my perspective and in my position, yes," he said.All of the controversy over Corrente aside, Nagy said the real le son is the Bears need to clean up their act with penalties. They had 16, 12 of them walked off for 115 yards including a pair of critical ones on Robert Quinn for offsides. Those helped lead to the winning field goal."I'd say with that last thing, No. 1 there was obviously a lot of penalties and the No. 1 thing we talked about this morning and that we believe and understand as coaches, is that's JK Scott Jersey no excuse in any case for us losing the game," Nagy said.Neverthele s, the league can expect to receiver film from Nagy.

The Pittsburgh Steelers make six players inactive in Week 8 against the Cleveland Browns.Quarterback Dwayne Haskins, linebacker Melvin Ingram, cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon, linebacker Buddy Johnson, right tackle Zach Banner and Kyler Murray Jersey tight end Eric Ebron will not suit up for the Steelers.Ingram was limited in practice throughout the week and then mi sed practice Arizona Cardinals Jersey on Friday. The outside linebacker has made headlines after due to his lack of recent playing time. According to head coach Mike Tomlin, Ingram mi sed Friday's practice because of the groin injury. Javon Hagan Jersey The from the practice squad in place of Ingram.Ebron was injured Thursday in practice and did not practice Friday. Pat Freiermuth and Zach Gentry will fill James Wiggins Jersey the tight end role in Week 8.Banner returned from Injured Reserve on Oct. 16 after suffering a setback in his ACL recovery. He has not been active since his J.J. Watt Jersey return.Scroll to ContinueMake sure you for the latest news, exclusive interviews, film breakdowns and so much more!You May Also Like:

BALTIMORE The Bengals defense hara sed Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson throughout their critical Week 7 matchup.Jackson spent the afternoon running from Cincinnati's defenders and was sacked five times.Still, Jackson carried the offense again, but in the end, he could not make enough plays as the Ravens defense had another huge lapse in a deflating 41-17 setback, snapping a five-game winning streak.The Bengals (5-2) have upset the balance of power and took over first place in the AFC North. Cincinnati also ended a five-game losing skid to Baltimore and moved to 2-0 in the division."They came into a division game Russell Wilson T Shirts on the road and played great, and they won and beat us," Ravens coach John Harbaugh said. "We were beaten soundly, and thats what happened."Baltimore now heads into bye before hosting the Minnesota Vikings on Nov. 7.Cincinnati quarterback Joe Burrow torched the Ravens' secondary, completing 23 of 48 pa ses for 416 yards with three touchdowns and an interception (113.5 rating). Hey, like Ive said many times, and I know you guys listen, Netane Muti Jersey but thats how the National Football League works," Harbaugh said. "Its always week to week; its always game to game. There never is any running narrative, it just doesn't exist. You have to come out and play your best every week, and we did not play our best far from it, really, in any phase, and thats on us. Thats it. Thats what happened.The Ravens (5-2) had no answer for Bengals rookie wide receiverJa'Marr Chase, who had 8 catches for 201 yards with a long touchdown.Bengals wide receiver C.J. Uzomah also had two touchdown receptions from 55 and 32 yards.Tackling has been a huge i sue for the Ravens this season and poor technique cost them again.This time, cornerback Marlon Humphrey and safety Chuck Clark whiffed on a tackle that allowed an 82-yard touchdown to Chase. That play gave the Bengals a 27-17 lead with 5:48 left in the third quarter and the Ravens never recovered.Scroll to ContinueI gue s Ill look at the film and Lyle Alzado Jersey kind of figure it out," Humprey said. "I think things just didnt go our way early. So, as Wink defensive coordinator Don Martindale says, its not as bad as it seems; but right now, it seems pretty bad. So, Ill look at the film and kind of figure it out.Jackson's pa s to Brown fell incomplete on a fourth-and-7 that gave Cincinnati a short field with the ball on the 38.The Bengals then put the game away with a 21-yard touchdown run by Joe Mixon that boosted the lead Kenny Young Jersey to 34-17. Cincinnati running back Samaje Perine also had a 46-yard touchdown scamper on the next drive,Both times, the Ravens mi sed several tackles.Jacksoncompleted 15 of 31 pa s attempts for 257 yards with a touchdown. He also ran for 88 yards before leaving with the game out of hand late in the fourth quarter."We just move on. They played a great game," Jackson said. "I feel like our guys played a great game as well, a little bit, here and there. But they got the W. Were going to go into next week, and were going to work, see where we me sed up at when we watched film and just move on.Meanwhile, Burrow repeatedly found holes in Baltimore's secondary, finding his wide receivers for huge chunks of yardage in the middle of the field and down the sidelines.The Bengals ama sed 520 total yards, compared to 393 for the Ravens.The Ravens managed to take their first lead, 17-13, on the opening drive of the third quarter when Jackson hit Marquise Brown in stride for a 39-yard touchdown.However, the Bengals Russell Wilson Jersey responded with touchdowns on their next two po se sions.First, Burrow foundUzomah for a 32-yard score when Baltimore had a complete breakdown in the secondary on the play. Then, Chase took advantage of the bad tacking for the 82-yard touchdown.The Ravens had 172 net yards in the first half and Jackson accounted for all of them.Baltimore's running backs had 2 yards on six carries over the first two quarters.

Tom Brady might not be finished yet. on Saturday that Brady had made the decision to retire.The 44-year Justin Fields Jersey -old still could walk away from the game after 22 seasons, but he hasn't made a decision yet according to his father."This story Mike is total conjecture," . "Tommy has not made a Lance Briggs Jersey final decision one way or the other and anybody else that says that he has is absolutely wrong."Brady led the NFL in pa sing touchdowns (43) and yards (5,316) this year, but acknowledged that the 2021-22 campaign could've been his last season. Jimmy Graham Jersey Tom Curran of NBC Sports Boston is reporting that Brady is out of the country and will be abroad for at least another week."Brady is out of the country and plans to be abroad next week as well," . "While he may intend to retire, it seems like a final, final, FINAL decision hasn't been rendered or articulated Marqui Christian Jersey . So this isn't exactly "at ease" on the Brady front but "stand down for now."Time will tell, but as of right now the greatest quarterback of all-time hasn't made up his mind.Make sure you for the latest NFL news, exclusive interviews, film breakdowns and so much more!You May Also Like:Scroll to Continue-- Chicago Bears Golf Sporting Goods ---Be sure to keep it locked on All Bengals all the time!Follow AllBengals on Twitter:

Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith will sit out six games, including the first game of the Stanley Cupplayoffs, for swinging his stick andstriking theface of Wild forward Charlie Coyle.The NHL announced the suspension Friday evening.MORE: The incident occurred during the first period ofTuesday's 4-1 lo s to the Wild. Keith and Coyle Charles Barkley Jersey were competing for a loose puck when Keith fell to the ice and from his back swung his Timothe Luwawu Jersey stick upward, striking Coyle in the nose and drawing blood.Keith was a se seda match penaltyfor intent to injure, which carries an automatic one-game ban, at minimum,dependenton aleague review. After an in-person meeting Thursday,the NHL decided to take it a step further and make an example of Keith, who has a history ofindiscretion leading to suspensions."This is an intentional and retaliatory act of violence by a player with a history of using his stick as a weapon," Clarence Weatherspoon Jersey the announcing the suspension. "He slashes his stick dangerously and violently directly into the face of Coyle."Keith's last suspension came in2013 when he mi sed one playoff gameforhitting Kings forward Jeff Carter in the face with his stick. Thatwas preceded by afive-game ban in 2012 for elbowing Canucks star Daniel Sedin in the head.Keith leads Blackhawks defensemen in points (43) and is seventh in the NHL in Markelle Fultz Jersey average time on ice (25:33). They managed without him for a month earlier this season, butthisabsence, at a time when Chicago has lost seven of its past 10 games, may prove critical toplayoff seeding with the Blackhawks'suspect depth already compromised because of injuries through the lineup.With five games remaining in the regular season, it seems unlikely Chicago can recapture home ice advantage for the first round without Keith. So in starting the playoffs on the road St. Louis, Dallas, Anaheim andLos Angeles all are po sible destinations depending on how it shakes out the once-favored Blackhawks will enterasclear underdogsshorthanded without their top defenseman.And with starting goalie Corey Wilt Chamberlain Jersey Crawford's health up in the air, Keith's suspensioncould loom even larger.

PITTSBURGH The Pittsburgh Penguins, so far, have an offseason to forget. So for a few minutes, let's forget about it.Forget that the team fired its general manager after another postseason collapse, but not its coach at least until the new general manager sort-of-kind-of-not-really had the chance to do it himself.Forget that the new general manager is, literally, an old general manager.Forget that Jim Rutherford publicly stated that he'd found his guy, then had that guy take a job other than head coach of Mikhail Grigorenko Jersey the Pittsburgh Penguins.Forget that the guy that Rutherford did eventually hire, Mike Johnston, was suspended by the CHL for improperly footing the bill for flights and a cell phone. Forget that Johnston's top a sistant, Rich Tocchet,e sentially was hired first.Instead, let's focus on Johnston's plan for his new team. Given some important evidence, and the caliber of the players he's now in charge of, it makes a lot of sense."There's core things you're going to be able to see, and you're going to be able to say 'this is how the Pittsburgh Penguins play,' "Johnston, an NHL a sistant from 1999-2008 and head coach of the Portland Winterhawks from 2008-Tuesday, said Wednesday. "And that's what I've been able to build in the place. Once you build that template, then you maneuver pieces around within the template."That differs from ex-coach Dan Bylsma's in a few ways, but for our purposes, it's worth focusing on One Big Thing: offensive zone entries.Johnston's methodology for that focusing le s on stretch pa ses through the neutral zone and more on centers carrying the puck in with several different options in place is more conducive to generating shots, which is more conducive to puck po se sion, which is more conducive to winning games.We want to be a puck-po se sion team, Tocchet said. That's what the playoff teams are."That's not opinion, either. There's evidence. The biggest piece so far came at the 2013 MIT Sloan Sports Analytics conference. Four researchers, including , tracked more than 300 games from the 2011-12 season and found entering the offensive zone with po se sion, rather than dumping and chasing, generated roughly twice as many shots, scoring chances and goals. Not part of the equation: dumps meant to create time for line changes and entries off odd-man rushes.If that seems obvious, it's because it is; it's better to have the puck than not. Gaining the zone with the puck is also not easy-peasy if it were, everyone would do it all the time. Some guys are bad Andreas Martinsen Jersey at it. A goal, though, should be to stock your roster with the other guys. That's Rutherford's job.Another goal should be to make sure the guys on your roster who can do it do it effectively and regularly. That's Johnston's job and there's a reasonable amount of evidence to suggest that Bylsma, for whatever reason, didn't wholly emphasize it. Despite rostering two of the best centers on earth and a few eminently capable skating defenseman, Pittsburgh succe sfully carried the puck into the offensive zone about 46 percent of the time, which is below the NHL average.That comes from Corey Sznajder (), who was a co-author of the Sloan piece and is nowin the proce s of tracking zone entries for every NHL team. It's a mammoth, amazingly helpful undertaking, and he was cool enough to share Pittsburgh's stats from the first 42 games and then another in April.For people who watched the Penguins a lot or looked at their puck-po se sion stats at all Sznajder's most glaring data point is one you'd expect; Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin were playing a different game. Crosby carried the puck on 75 percent of his 271 entries. Off each carry, Pittsburgh averaged 0.74 shots. Malkin carried the puck on 81 percent of his 209 entries. Off each carry, Pittsburgh averaged 0.60 shots.Remember that 46 percent number? That's with Crosby and Malkin's 75 percent and 81 percent mixed Colorado Avalanche Jersey in. They were free to work in a way Pittsburgh's other forwards weren't and that's fine. They should've been, because they're better players; the Penguins rostered a fair amount of guys who didn't deserve a fraction of that treatment, and that was borne out in the lack of production, both in points and puck po se sion, by their third and fourth lines.If you're looking for proof of that, you can find it in a lot of places and a lot of different forms. One of those came in of how responsibleeach team's forwards, divided into four groups based on five-on-five ice time, are for their team's po se sion succe s. Pittsburgh's bottom two groups got worked over. Big time.That chart, in a lot of ways, reflects more poorly on Shero than Tyson Barrie Jersey anyone else. The problems it illustrates double as the reason he lost his job. Still, Pittsburgh's i sues weren't just about a flawed roster. Bylsma didn't seem to optimize his bottom six, whether through lineup decisions (Craig Adams in the lineup every night, Tanner Gla s on the third line) and the way he deployed the guys that played.: There's reason to believe that Brandon Sutter is capable of serving as a viable third center. He carried the puck in on 43 percent of his 168 entries, though le s than the average player despite a decent amount of succe s doing so. Pittsburgh's 0.46 shot average on Sutter's carries weren't Crosby- or Malkin-level, but there's no shame in that. It's also a lot better than the 0.28 Pittsburgh averaged overall when dumping the puck and just as importantly, Sutter's carries failed 13.1 percent of the time, which was le s than Crosby's 18.5 percent failure rate and Malkin's 17.1. Why not use Sutter in that role more often?And why not put some of that puck-carrying responsibility on the defensemen? It's tough to imagine a player better suited than Kris Letang, who entered the zone with control on 40 percent of his 85 tracked attempts and generated an average of 0.65 shots on those po se Gabriel Landeskog Jersey sions. Paul Martin, Olli Maatta and Simon Despres arestrong skaters. So is Matt Niskanen, wherever he ends up and however much money he winds up making. Derick Pouliot, who Johnston helped mold into a 2012 first-round pick, could also be on the way, particularly if Niskanen signs elsewhere.Ultimately, though, Johnston encourages his defensemen to join the rush, not lead it. When they push up, it's to create options and odd-man breaks. What happens after that falls on once again the guys in the middle."Our backside defense are very important in escaping (our) zone and eventually getting the right type of attack going, but your centers are critical," he said. "To move the puck through the middle of the ice and distribute it as you enter the offensive zone is very important. So that's why you take a look at this group of centers on this team and say they're tailor-made for this type of setup."Rutherford also spokeWednesday of Johnston's ability to make on-the-fly adjustments, which was not Bylsma's strong suit. Part ofJohnston's plan entai