FanHouse Keyaron Fox

For some reason, head coach Brad Childress thought letting Brett Favre and his 40-year-old arm sling the ball all over the yard gave the Vikings the best chance to win against the Steelers Sunday. He was so sure of this, in fact, that the Ole Gunslinger ended up doing it 51 times.

On two occasions in the fourth quarter that decision led directly to Steelers points. Defensive end Brett Keisel stripped Favre as he dropped back and linebacker LaMarr Woodley took the fumble to the house. And with just over a minute to play and Minnesota trailing by three, a Favre screen pass skipped off the hands of Chester Taylor, into the lap of linebacker Keyaron Fox, and 82 yards later, ball game.

Here's a question: why not give the ball to Adrian Peterson more than 18 times? Since, you know, he came into the game leading the league in rushing, and fresh off hanging 143 rushing yards on the Ravens. Didn't happen, and instead of seeing Purple Jesus tread defenders all afternoon, we only got to see it once.

Video hit-and-run after the jump.

There's a pretty strong belief that the Steelers avoid the free agent market. Because of their belief in the draft and the Rooney's lack of a Daniel Snyder-size bankroll, they ignore free agents and focus instead on developing their own stars.

It's only halfway true. It's fair to say that Pittsburgh won't be in the market for the top free agents on the market next year, just like they haven't gone shopping for a big-money free agent in any of the past 17 years. But Pittsburgh does go shopping in the bargain bin. And more often than not, they find deals -- like linebacker Keyaron Fox, the star of Sunday's win against the Vikings.

It's the fourth preseason game, which means the starters barely even put on their helmets and fourth-stringers get extensive playing time. But even if it is the most meaningless of the exhibition games, there still are roster decisions being made based on what happened Thursday night.

With that in mind, here are some thoughts on the Steelers' win over the Panthers.

When the offseason began, the Steelers had gaping holes in the offensive line, some concerns about wide receiver depth, and a lack of depth at inside linebacker.

The Steelers have managed to paper over some of the holes on the offensive line and now have fixed the inside linebacker depth concerns, all without signing any free agents from other teams. Considering the Steelers won the Super Bowl, it makes some sense that they want to keep the 2008 team together, and Pittsburgh is definitely doing that--by re-signing Keyaron Fox on Monday, Pittsburgh has now re-signed five of their own free agents.

It's not a big-name signing by any stretch, but if Keyaron Fox can adequately replace Clint Kriewaldt as a special teams ace for just the veteran minimum, than the Steelers will have snagged a nice bargain.

Fox comes to the Steelers after four seasons with the Chiefs. He's played sparingly as a linebacker, but has been a fixture on the Chiefs specials teams when he's managed to stay healthy. A hamstring injury sidelined him for five games last year, he missed all but two games of the 2005 season with a knee injury, and he missed three games as a rookie with a quad injury.

But Fox is more athletic than Kriewaldt (4.6 40-yard dash coming out of college), has some starting experience and comes very cheap, so it's hard to argue with this signing--he doesn't really impact the salary cap in any way since his veteran minimum salary will count only $450,000 against the cap.

Fox was an outside linebacker in Kansas City, but that was in a 4-3 defense. I can't find any report that explains whether he'll remain on the outside in Pittsburgh or slide inside. If he can play outside it would make sense for the Steelers to keep him out there, as the loser of the Lawrence Timmons/Larry Foote battle will likely be the primary inside back up. At outside linebacker Andre Frazier and Arnold Harrison are the only backups on the roster right now.

Click on this link. Tell me what you see.

No, it is not the Chiefs' starting lineup. It is the injury report. Six starters are either out, doubtful, or questionable. Sammy Knight has been upgraded to probable.

It is really quite a list. Brian Waters and Tony Gonzalez are perennial Pro Bowlers. Derrick Johnson is a Pro Bowl-caliber player. Tamba Hali was a sleeper possibility for defensive rookie of the year. Greg Wesley was having his best season in several years. Kevin Sampson... well, he had to be replaced by Kyle Turley.

The Chiefs are still going to be favored against the Raiders, but the game is going to be a lot tougher than it should be. Chris Bober, replacing Waters, was nothing more than a turnstile against the Dolphins. Jason Dunn, replacing Gonzalez, is a fine blocker, but is as much of a downfield threat as Lawrence Tynes is. Keyaron Fox, replacing Johnson, forgot that the most important part of tackling is to actually bring the ballcarrier down. Eric Hicks has not had a sack in about forty years. And, of course, there is Turley, of whom nothing more needs to be said, except that I already did.

I suppose I should take some solace in the fact that all these injuries came when the Chiefs are facing the Raiders. Yet, I cannot help but worry. Only the win against the 49ers was easy; otherwise, the Chiefs have scratched, clawed, and hung on for dear life to win games. The Chiefs absolutely cannot lose this game if they want to keep any hope alive for the playoffs. As Herm Edwards has said all year, "You play to win the game." The only problem is that, well, you need to actually play.