Hines Ward Out for Sunday's Game; Ricardo Colclough Doubtful

Well, this doesn't happen every week, but Steelers' wideout Hines Ward will miss this weekend's game against the Cardinals. In his 10-year career, Ward has missed only three starts, all since 2005.

A bum knee -- suffered last week during a two-play stretch that featured back-to-back Big Ben Medicine-ball specials that nearly got Ward decapitated -- will keep the four-time Pro Bowler in the Duce Staley memorial game-day sweats. In his absence, Cedrick Wilson and Nate Washington will get more playing time, and Wilson understands exactly what that entails:

This is the Pittsburgh Steelers, and when you put on this uniform, you know you are going to be counted on to block someone out on the perimeter," he said. "Hines does that very well, and I am proud of the way I have improved as a blocker and I know that is part of what they count on me to do."

Statistically, Ward's off to a slow start, but his blocking has been a big part of the Steelers' early-season running-game success. The Cards rank 17th against the run, so that might make Wilson's/Washington's job a tad easier, but as Amos Zereoue was so fond of saying: the guys on the other side of the field are getting paid too.

In other personnel news, cornerback Ricardo Colclough is listed as doubtful with a back injury which begs two questions: First, how the hell did he hurt his back? Second, injured or not, isn't 'doubtful' a step up from inactive?