via Steelers.com
The third preseason game, the only one in which the players on the field look anything like the eventual roster, and that only for a portion of the game, is in the books. It represents the first loss of the preseason, which perhaps could be viewed as not encouraging. But let’s dig into what actually happened to find out if this is true or not.
Continue reading “Colts @ Steelers—The Acceptable, the Unacceptable, and the Appalling”
The title seemed appropriate to celebrate the news of Antonio Brown’s massive extension. And no, he didn’t get a new hair style, although I suspect he will, just to mark the occasion—he got a nice fat contract.
I expect if you are a betting sort of person you can find a site someplace in which you can lay down money on the odds of him committing even more outrageous and extravagant hi-jinks, now that he has $19 million in guaranteed money to tide him over, besides all the rest of it. We can only hope his post-season heart to heart meeting with Mike Tomlin at a downtown steakhouse included some equally extravagant promises of future good behavior. But in the end I expect what they mainly care about is future performance.
Because of this news it seems appropriate to address the wideouts. So let’s get this out of the way first. We just looked at the defensive backs and pondered why it is that the Steelers, who have come up smelling like roses in drafting later-round wide receivers, have generally smelled like something else in their drafting of defensive backs. goffthesloth left a very interesting comment on that post, which I quote in its entirety: Continue reading “Pittsburgh’s Goin’ to the Super Bowl: Ask and Ye Shall Receive”
by Hombre de Acero
The Steelers 2016 mystery ride came to a screeching halt to the tune of a 36 to 17 loss to the Patriots in yet another AFC Championship game. The Steelers now face another long off season where they must make decisions on several high-profile free agents.
But before we shift focus to the 2017 off season, this corner of Steelers Nation must first resolve these 5 Smoldering Questions on the 2016 Steelers season.
Continue reading “5 Smoldering Questions:AFC Championship Edition”
I’m not going to say much of anything right now. The hurt is still too fresh. There is plenty to be said, and I suspect we’ll all dissect it when we emerge from our depression, but at the moment I just want to celebrate the guys that came up big.
Chief among them was Ben. He didn’t always receive the help he needed from his motley crew of guys, but he made the throws and looked, at least temporarily, like Heinz Field Ben. And he passed Terry Bradshaw’s record of 300+ yard games in the post-season, which, given the recent history with Bradshaw, is a really good thing. Continue reading “RIP 2016 Steelers…”
By Ivan Cole
That pretty much sums up a game that presented a little something for everyone and provided what could be called a Hollywood type ending. If you saw it, no explanation necessary. If you didn’t, you want to be sure to catch both the first and fourth quarters of any replay, that was the good part.
Steelers and Steelers fans were the obvious short term winners of the 31-27 Pittsburgh victory, but there were more winners than just the Steelers.
The game began with a mistake and also ended with one. But they were very different mistakes.
Given that Steelers-Ravens games generally come down to a field goal’s worth of points, sending the kickoff for the Ravens’ first drive out of bounds was sub-optimal on the part of Chris Boswell. In fact, the Ravens appear to be Boswell’s kryptonite, as the botched rabona-style kick he attempted in the previous Steelers-Ravens match will presumably live on for years on YouTube. Fortunately, in this instance the Ravens were not able to take advantage of the good field position as they went four-and-out.
The final mistake of the game was perhaps more serious. Admittedly there were only four seconds left in the game. But this is Steelers-Ravens, and anything can happen. The Ravens still had a time out, and we’ve seen the patented Joe Flacco heave-‘n-pray offense too often to not have flashbacks as they lined up. And indeed Flacco completed what turned out to be his last pass, but it was to Ryan Shazier, so that was all right. At least if you are a Steelers fan.
Continue reading “Exorcising the Ghost of Meetings Past: Steelers vs. Ravens”
By Hombre de Acero
The Pittsburgh Steelers will arrive at their Christmas day show down with the Baltimore Ravens on the heels of a 24-20 win over the Cincinnati Bengals that extended their winning streak to 5 games and improved their record to 9-5.
And the stakes in this game are pretty simple. Win and the Steelers earn another AFC North title, lose and Steelers Nation will spend the time between Christmas and New Year’s openly clutching Rosary Beads and secretly stuffing pins into voodoo dolls, all while they memorize the NFL’s oft arcane wild card tie breaking rules.
But before reaching the defining moment of the 2016 regular season, this segment of the Black and Gold legion must first resolve these 5 Smoldering Questions.
1. Following the Bengals win, Steelers Digest editor Bob Labriola asserted this:
Last year, the Steelers lose this game…. They won and set themselves up for that because when the Bengals tried to play pitch-and-catch on third-and-long, the Steelers had cornerbacks on the field who broke up the passes. Both passes. One by each cornerback.
Agree or disagree with his assessment. Defend your choice.
2. Don’t look now, but for the first time in, well I don’t know how long, Antonio Brown wasn’t the Steelers leading wide receiver. Eli Rogers earned that honor. We’ve discussed this topic enough, but do you think Eli Rogers has shown enough to be considered a legit number 2 for the stretch run?
3. Here’s a true chicken-egg question: Which was more important to the Steelers win, Chris Boswell’s 6 field goals or his shoe string tackle?
4. The Steelers Pro Bowl squad comprised of Ben Roethlisberger, Le’Veon Bell, Antonio Brown, Maurkice Pouncey and David DeCastro should surprise no one.
Did anyone the Pro Bowl selection process snub any members of the Steelers defense? If you argue “yes” then be ready to defend your choice.
5. Finally, it’s been 784 days since the Pittsburgh Steelers last defeated the Baltimore Ravens. A lot has changed since then. What makes you think that the Steelers can break their losing streak against the Ravens this Christmas? (Or do you?)
As I write this it is 10:25 Thursday evening. By the time you read this I will be 63 years old. I’ve been celebrating early today by using up old paint on the walls of the workshop. I then was able to hang up the hand saws, which I have been wanting to do for ages. I was amazed to discover that we actually have about seven hacksaws, in addition to a full panoply of wood cutting devices, so you might not want to annoy me. I also finally got around to cutting up my husband’s old underwear for rags. The glamor never stops.
I decided to see whether any of the current Steelers share a birthday with me. Unfortunately none of them do, although there are a goodly number of December birthdays later in the month, including a few of my favorite players—Tyler Matakevich, Eli Rogers, Vince Williams, Anthony Chickillo, and Jordan Dangerfield.
Another week, another depressing report. I will look hard for bright spots, because the score of 17-0, Eagles, tells you the bright spots are not terribly obvious.
I took careful notes, and I could go through them for you, but actually the game can be condensed thusly:
First Half
Second Half:
Links for the other articles in the series can be found at the bottom of the page.
Before last Friday’s game I would have said that the wide receiver situation was entirely straightforward. Antonio Brown is the unquestioned No. 1, and Markus Wheaton is the No. 2, as he’s better on the outside than in the slot anyhow. The No. 3 is Sammie Coates, and the Nos. 4 and 5 are Eli Rogers and Darrius Heyward-Bey, in whichever order.
After Sammie Coates had a seriously disappointing game, has this changed? Actually I don’t think so, unless he continues to struggle in game action. My guess is, like quite a few of the youngsters, he was trying too hard. In camp he makes it look effortless. Obviously, if he can’t translate the stuff he does on the practice field into game action, that’s another story. But he already has a nice track record in admittedly a very small sample size, in not only NFL games but playoff games.
Going Deep: 