Sepulveda goes on IR; Browns’ Hillis out

Associated Press

Steelers punter Dan Sepulveda will miss the rest of the season because of a right knee injury.

Pittsburgh placed Sepulveda on injured reserve Saturday and signed Jeremy Kapinos to take his place.

It is the third time Sepulveda’s season has ended early. He missed the entire 2008 season and the second half of 2010 with a similar injury. Sepulveda was averaging a career-best 46.1 yards per punt this year.

Kapinos averaged 41.1 yards per punt after signing with the Steelers to replace Sepulveda last year. He narrowly lost out to Sepulveda during training camp and was one of the final cuts before the roster was set at 53.

Browns

Peyton Hillis is out of today’s game in Houston, and the way things are going for the Browns running back, it may not be long before he’s out of Cleveland for good.

Hillis was downgraded from questionable to out on the team’s injury report Saturday, one day after the Browns’ beleaguered back reinjured his left hamstring on a running play during the early portion of practice open to reporters.

Hillis, who will miss his third straight game with the injury, underwent an MRI.

The team has not disclosed results of the test, but when Hillis was dropped off at the training facility following the MRI, his leg was heavily wrapped and he walked with a pronounced limp. It appears the 25-year-old Madden ’12 cover boy may miss a few more games.

If the injury is serious enough, the Browns may choose to place him on injured reserve, ending his circus-like second season and potentially closing his star-crossed career with Cleveland.

Hillis, who rushed for 1,177 yards and 11 touchdowns last season, is making $600,000 in the final year of his rookie contract and will be a free agent after the season.

The Browns appear ready to let him go.

Although popular with Cleveland fans, Hillis has irritated teammates with his antics.

“Guys are growing tired of the distractions and always wondering what’s next,” one Browns player told the Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Steelers-Ravens

Mike Wallace kept waiting for things to get better. Kept thinking at some point the Pittsburgh Steelers would turn it around.

Yet as the minutes passed, the turnovers piled up — seven in all — and the Baltimore Ravens savored every last second of their 35-7 whipping of the defending AFC champions in the season opener, the wide receiver and the rest of his teammates could do little more than sit there and take it.

“No question it still hurts,” Wallace said.

And no question two months later the Steelers consider the beatdown a gift.

Heading into tonight’s rematch at Heinz Field, Wallace points to Baltimore’s raucous celebration as the wake-up call needed to shake the Steelers out of their post-Super Bowl stupor.

“It kind of made us see where we were,” Wallace said. “Everybody said it was over for us.”

Hardly.

Pittsburgh (6-2) has ripped off four straight wins and sits atop the AFC North while the Ravens (5-2) have been uneven at best. If they’re not crushing the Steelers or the Jets they’re losing to Jacksonville and Tennessee and struggling to rally past Arizona.

Yet a win tonight would give the Ravens a season sweep over their rivals for the first time since 2006 and put them on the inside track to win the division title.

“I look at it like we’ve got to win because they’re not going to lose again if they beat us,” Steelers linebacker Larry Foote said.

If the Steelers didn’t like the way the Ravens enjoyed the opener, odds are they’re not going to like what happens if Baltimore does it again.

Not that the Ravens care. Not after the Steelers knocked them out of the playoffs in two of the last three seasons.