PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Najee Harris and Kendrick Green added to the injury report, Steelers guard Kevin Dotson believes both will play against Detroit on Sunday.
If not?
"We believe in everyone we have to plug-in as that next man up mentality," Dotson said. "You have to have confidence in the person that is coming in for those people."
JC Hassenauer listed as the starting center on the first depth chart of the season and it would likely be a rotation of Benny Snell, Kalen Ballage and Anthony McFarland at running back.
Harris has been dropping by the offensive line meetings, Dotson said it helps them learn how to make the run game successful.
"Definitely for the offensive line, to know what he's thinking," Dotson said. "If we are doing a run play, we want to know what he is thinking, where is he looking first. So we know how to block. If we know on this play he wants to go back side, we can push it more this way or do more this way. It definitely helps us jell better."
Off game
Dotson believes last week was just a bad game against a quality opponent and sometimes those things happen. He said they aren't taking it for granted and working to get back to where they were before.
"Every practice has been real clean," Dotson said of this week. "We all feel confident about what we can do. We know what we need to do. This is a game that can be a trap game if you allow it to be. We play it as we need this game just as bad as any other week."
Ben Buddies
The turnover complete with the retirement of Maurkice Pouncey, the end of David DeCastro's career and Alejandro Villanueva leaving via free agency this off-season. Dotson believes they are starting to build a relationship with 39-year-old quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.
"I think we are closer," Dotson said. "We are closer than we were at the beginning just because everyone was kind of new and he was used to his old, O-line. I feel like we are definitely getting a little closer than where we were."
The old-man on the starting offensive line, Trai Turner, is 11 years younger than Roethlisberger. Dotson is 25, Chukwuma Okorafor is 24, Dan Moore, Jr. is 23 and Green is 22. The adjustment helped by on field success, like driving for the game-winning field goal against Chicago.
"We know we have the capability to do it," Dotson said. "Now we get down in that situation again, we can pull that from the back of our memory and say we can do this. We've done it before."
AFC North
Dotson wasn't aware of what was happening between the Ravens and Dolphins yesterday, but when made aware by friends. He started watching the Thursday night NFL game that two-win Miami ended up winning.
"It's a crazy league because anything can happen," Dotson said. "When you are down in the season, 1-3 and everyone is down on you. You can always turn it around. That's something that I think we have taken advantage of, it doesn't matter where you started, we can finish where we want to."
"We have a vision board, we all know where we want to be at. If we all move in one direction, we can get to where we want to."
Unlike some players who, at least say publicly, say they don't watch what other teams in the AFC North do, Dotson knows.
"Once I saw the standings, it's given us even more confidence to keep it piling, keep it going," Dotson said. "We can win this game, we can be in the top of the conference. We are ready for it."
