Fresh Eyes: Part V

Karl Rosen photo, Steelers.com

by Ivan Cole

Question # 5: Heading into the 2019 season, what is fantasy and what is reality? 

During a recent program that was covering the Democratic Primaries for president it was mentioned that voters of that party tended toward a desire to ‘fall in love’ with a candidate as opposed, presumably, to a more calculated decision process. 

That struck me as an accurate description of many Steelers fans during the preseason. We are looking to fall in love and that impulse leads us to identify those who will be ‘camp Darlings’. And in a compensatory manner we also select scapegoats and anti- heroes who must be cast out if we are to reach the Promised Land. 

Pittsburgh Steelers 2018 Second Quarter Report

Ben Roethlisberger wearing these cleats today in response to shooting at Tree of Life Synagogue. Roethlisberger and his wife are close to Michele Rosenthal, who worked in Steelers’ community relations and assists with Ben’s foundation. Michele lost two of her brothers in shooting pic.twitter.com/W3UrHDBb6M

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) November 4, 2018

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By Ivan Cole

It’s hard to argue with 4-0, though we know that some will manage to overcome this challenge. As we pass through the first weekend in November and into the second half of the season the September stench has dissipated considerably. The landscape has changed dramatically in Pittsburgh, the AFC North and around the league. Indeed, when both football and non-football occurrences are considered, who could have predicted where we find ourselves as we enter the heart of the holiday season.

In the NFC the Rams are proving themselves the class of the conference, if not the whole league. As Philadelphia suffers a particularly harsh Super Bowl hangover, Washington emerges as the Beast of the East. Similarly, another team with high expectations, Atlanta, has yielded to more robust divisional rivals in New Orleans and Pittsburgh’s Thursday night opponent, Carolina. The Bears impress in the North.

In the AFC the Patriots appear to continue to have an unfair advantage in that they are spotted six victories due to their inept divisional rivals. Jacksonville show themselves to be paper Jaguars as the Texans surge. That loss to the Chiefs looks more forgivable with every passing week.

Random Thoughts on Steelers @ Ravens

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/Matt Freed

These are mostly my random thoughts, but I will begin with Ivan Cole’s email. Although neither of us are known for being particularly succinct, it was a masterpiece of linguistic economy:

• From: Ivan Cole
• Subject: MVP
• Joshua Dobbs

Here are some of my thoughts on the game:

A Look at the Actual Draft: Round 3a

After Round 2 saw the selection of a wide receiver, how many of you saw Round 3 featuring not one but two picks of offensive players? Me either.

But offensive players they were, and you would have thought it was actually offensive, given the cries resounding from Steeler Nation’s collective throat.

I won’t deny this was surprising. But let’s begin with the “two picks” part, because this is the result of something even more surprising—a plethora of trades by the Steelers.

The Case for the 2017 Pittsburgh Steelers: Part Four—The Offense

via Steelers.com

by Ivan Cole

Editor’s note: Ordinarily I would have put up a post today with an opponent preview, but the truth is, nobody knows who the heck the Cleveland Browns are at the moment. The one thing we can be sure of (I think) is that they would like to make a statement on Sunday. They will have at least one fewer playmaker than expected to do so, though, as Myles Garrett, their top-of-the-first-round pick, the man who asserted that one of his top priorities was to “chop down” Ben Roethlisberger, got injured in practice and is almost certainly out, at least for this week. Hopefully this doesn’t give the offensive line a false sense of security. So instead of reading my wholly unsupported speculations about what the Browns will look like on Sunday, you get the privilege of reading more of Ivan’s brilliant writing:

Where things currently stand

I have been asserting throughout that everything about this season, from the outcome to the methods that might be resorted to achieve it would deviate from what many of us had come to view as normal. Usually by Labor Day the deal is mainly done with the 53-man roster and practice squad set. But in the interim between my setting down these words and the time they reach your eyes significant changes could well have occurred. So, with the understanding that this may still be a work in progress rather than a definitive preview of the 2017 season let’s bring a few things spoken of previously up to date.

Maybe They Weren’t Giants: Steelers @ NYG

photo via Steelers.com

The Steelers won their first game of this young (pre-)season. We all know these games are meaningless, or so we’ve been telling ourselves for the past however many years, when the Steelers have lost most of them. It might not mean much, but it’s nice to see them win one, especially under the circumstances.

As we knew going into the game, many of the starters didn’t even see the field, except where their feet might have strayed onto the turf on their way to the sidelines. Those starters on the offensive side included Ben Roethlisberger, Landry Jones (abdominal strain,) Le’Veon Bell (who of course wasn’t even there,) Antonio Brown, Martavis Bryant (who was there but not playing,) James Conner (putative second back,) Maurkice Pouncey, and Alejandro Villanueva (concussion.) Did I miss anyone? Is anyone left? From last year’s starters, at least the majority of the season, the only guys on the field were Marcus Gilbert, David DeCastro, Ramon Foster, Jesse James, and Eli Rogers (if you considered him a starter.) And of course there were the extras—Xavier Grimble, Cobi Hamilton, Darrius Heyward-Bey, et al.

In other words, given they were working against the Giants’ first-team defense (with a few exceptions such as Jason Pierre-Paul) you might think the Steelers’ offense, led by the first rookie quarterback to open the preseason for a very long time, would be overmatched. And of course you would be right, although it might be just as fair to say many of the wounds were self-inflicted.

Joshua Dobbs, Rocket Scientist with a Rocket Arm

photo via Steelers.com

One of the scenarios which seemed almost a slam-dunk this season was that Joshua Dobbs would be a “camp darling.” After all, the man he’s behind in the depth chart, Landry Jones, has somehow or other not managed to endear himself to the fanbase, despite being about what you would expect from a backup quarterback. After all, guys are generally backups for a reason.

Keys to the Super Bowl: Quarterbacks

Ivan Cole made a perhaps unexpected point in his recent post:

The player to watch here is Landry Jones. I am already on record in declaring Joshua Dobbs the likely camp darling. And there is the possibility that Dobbs has the talent and the smarts to leapfrog over Jones. But for that scenario to be a positive one, Jones would have to push Dobbs hard. Otherwise, you have to rooting hard for Jones to improve and retain the number two position.

As Ivan went on to point out, this is not a popular position, as Jones is one of those players who for whatever reason fans generally aren’t pulling for.

5 Smoldering Questions on the Dan Rooney and the 2017 Draft

From lovable losers to Super Bowl champions

The 2017 off season has been an eventful one as Steelers Nation said good bye to Dan Rooney while welcoming the 2017 NFL Draft class. And while the “real” off season will begin soon (you know, the dead period where it gets hard to find, much less make, news articles), there’s still plenty of material here for us to wrestle with these 5 Smoldering Questions on Dan Rooney and the Draft.

Having Some Fun with the 2017 Steelers

Most Likely To Succeed?

by Ivan Cole

Okay. The draft picks have been made, the undrafted free agents signed. There remains a lot of wiggle room, but the ingredients for what will evolve into the 2017 edition of the Pittsburgh Steelers are mostly in place.

This means for us cranky old traditionalists that a portion of our annual descent into fake football is coming to an end. We will still have to endure the nonsensical exercise in declaring winners and losers, and I am certain that somewhere out there in cyberspace someone is, as you read these words, gracing us with an Early Bird 2018 Mock Draft. But, otherwise, (it’s a little too early for fantasy) we are in a lull where we can luxuriate in speculating about things that hew somewhat closer to the reality of things.

Obviously, we are still a long way from knowing the exact configuration of the members of the roster and their roles, but a lot of the storylines, challenges and quirk potentials are in play. Here are my first thoughts.