Dalton & McCarron are in a very awkward situation

[jj22]

It's Dalton's team regardless. I haven't seen anything out of AJ to suggest he will be the reason we win (highly unlikely) Saturday night. It will be a true team victory, something the team hasn't been able to pull off in the past. McCarron has played admirably as a backup, but nothing suggest he can carry the team on his shoulders to get credit for winning a playoff game. He hasn't carried the team/offense yet, maybe the hope is the switch will flip Saturday. Not likely. We are going to need the defense to step up, run game to step up, oline to step up and coaching to coach an unbelievable game to get a win. It's a terrible position for McCarron to be in for fans to think he will blow through the Steelers and win the first playoff game in decades. Unrealistic based off his play we've seen thusfar. We need him to do what he's done (caretaker of offense) and let our other big money stars on both sides of the ball step up and do what they haven't done before.

I like McCarron, but he hasn't dominated a game or carried this team to victory yet. Hard to think he will Saturday.

If we win, it'll be interesting to see why. It'll likely be because the team stepped up in the face of adversity (starting inexperienced backup qb), and would mean they rely too much on Dalton to make everything happen in the prior playoff games. They didn't drop td passes, were able to stop the run for the first time in the Dalton/Green era, was able to get pressure on the passer for the first time in the era etc. That is the only way we are going to win. But we won't so it's a moot point. Makes for interesting discussion tho.