Steelers Opponent Preview: The Kansas City Chiefs

Who are the Chefs? An oldie but goodie…

It hasn’t been nearly long enough since we’ve seen the Chiefs. For some reason the Steelers seem to have to play the Chiefs almost every year, and almost every time something bad happens. So let’s begin by checking whether this is actually true in recent years.

The most recent was just about 11 months ago, on October 25th. The quarterback for the Steelers was Landry Jones. Ben Roethlisberger had been injured four weeks previously, and his back-up, Michael Vick, had been injured the previous week in the win against the Cardinals. The Chiefs were 1-5, having won their first match and lost the subsequent five. And of course they turned out to not be as bad as you expect an 1-5 team to be. In fact, they didn’t lose a single game after that, including, of course, the tilt against the Steelers, and ended the season at 11-5. 

The Case for the 2016 Pittsburgh Steelers: Part 5

by Ivan Cole

 

via Times Online

Linebackers 

As impressive as some of our position groups are, none have the potential and depth of talent as the linebackers. But it is also here that some of our pathologies as fans are on vivid display. So I am going to interrupt myself for a moment for a mini rant about fan expectations.
The player in this group with clear superstar potential is Ryan Shazier. Yet until the very latter portion of the 2015 season he has been labeled by some a disappointment, and potentially a bust (even though it was just his second season). Shazier’s problem, it would seem, besides the fact that he doesn’t seem to exactly match the standard physical template for an interior linebacker (which I think is partially responsible for fueling all the conversation of converting him to safety), is spotty performance (not poor performance, mind you) due to a series of injuries.

Training Camp Battles: Inside Linebackers

Keith Srakocic/AP Photo

Note: the Steelers do not distinguish between inside and outside linebackers on their roster, and I’ve made a few assumptions which may or may not be correct, or current. Hopefully I’ve gotten it right…

The good news is that the Steelers, despite losing Sean Spence and Terence Garvin to free agency, are currently overloaded at the position. This is, of course, the bad news for some guys looking to make the team.

Surviving the Off Season, Part 2: The Bust Mentality

via Pittsburg Sporting News/ William Gay, draft bust?

 

by Ivan Cole

[You can read Part 1, “Evaluating the Evaluators,” here.]

Ground Hog Day

We are at that time of year when Punxsutawney Phil holds court. But I am thinking more in terms of the movie, where during the NFL off season the same day is repeated over and over again. While some of the particulars, specifically the names of the innocent, will change, the same sorry spectacle plays on an endless loop. The name of the game it seems is how quickly one can get on record declaring failure.

Kiper Time

It was mentioned in the last installment that Draft God Mel Kiper issued a pronouncement that regraded the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2015 draft class. This is to say that Mr. Kiper has doubled down on the notion that one can declare who the class valedictorian will be before the freshmen have taken their first class. Mr. Kiper (and understand that in this context he is as much a metaphor as a real person) hadn’t graced us with his presence 42 years ago, but let’s imagine that he had.

1974

The Steelers draft class of that year stands unchallenged as the greatest of all time with four Hall of Famers in Lynn Swann, Jack Lambert John Stallworth and Mike Webster. And that’s not even accounting for undrafted free agents like Donnie Shell and Randy Grossman. But how would they have been judged after the draft, or at the end of that first season?

Runs Like a Deer, Hits Like a Truck — Steelers Middle Linebackers.

In this edition of The Steeler Way – the Good Guys, we shift gears again slightly. While I’ve focused on the character aspect of the Steeler Way, great play on the field is the basic component of our tradition. Middle linebacker has rock solid pedigree in the modern era.

Pittsburgh has employed a long line of excellent middle linebackers since rookie Jack Lambert first stepped on the field in 1974. In 1982, the Steelers went to a 3-4 defensive scheme. It was Joe Greene’s last season and he was no longer a full time player. Jack served as a bridge from the great 4-3 team to the “new” 3-4 alignment. I contend, despite a the excellence of his successors, it took two guys to replace Lambert. As a consequence, Jack will get his own article in this series.

Things Bigger than Football: Head Coach Mike Tomlin

steelers.com

I’ve really enjoyed the feature “Asked and Answered” on steelers.com. In it Bob Labriola fields an astonishing variety of questions. This question from October 29th got the normally phlegmatic Labriola a little fired up:

PAUL CUZ FROM FRANKLIN SQUARE, N.Y.:
Bill Cowher won with average quarterbacks. Mike Tomlin has a franchise quarterback. Tomlin is a defensive coach like Cowher and the Steelers defense is below average. Do you think Tomlin deserved a contract extension?

[Bob Labriola answers:]

I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess you don’t believe Mike Tomlin deserved a contract extension, but let me ask you a few things: Exactly what did Bill Cowher win with an average quarterback? Not the Super Bowl, because the Lombardi Trophy won during his tenure came after Ben Roethlisberger was drafted. Certainly not the AFC Championship games – at home – in 1994, 1997, and 2001. And let me take this discussion in a different direction and ask you: What did Bill Belichick ever win, either in Cleveland or in New England, without Tom Brady? What did Chuck Noll ever win without Terry Bradshaw? Tom Landry never won anything until the Cowboys went with Roger Staubach.

The Pittsburgh Steelers All ‘Bust’ Team: Defense

 by Ivan Cole

If you missed Part One, let me review some of the ground rules.

‘Bust’ vs. Bust. This is an exercise in irony. So if you are expecting to see the Limas Sweed Story in this piece you will be deeply disappointed. To qualify for this team you have to be a success who is declared a failure before or during the time you are succeeding.

We in Steelers Nation are masters of this sort of thing. There are a number of ways this gets done. The criteria which will receive the greatest focus here will be:

1. declared a failure before putting on a uniform or playing a game,
2. not developing in a timely enough fashion,
3. being fragile, injured too often, having personal conduct issues that supposedly disqualifies a player from receiving our support, or
4. being declared washed up (old or otherwise done).

There will be something of a bias in favor of the Super Bowl era (some would say that everything Steelers prior to then is by definition a bust), and skewed even further toward the latter years of this period.

Part One detailed the offense and included two players and one coach who would end up in the HOF—Terry Bradshaw, Mike Webster and Chuck Noll. It also included a few others who have a pretty good shot of ending up there as well. Here we will take a look at the defense, which includes at least one HOF player among their ranks.

On Second Thought: Along Came Jones (Steelers/Cardinals Recap Part II)

Homer J. gives his thoughts on yesterday’s glorious victory,

If you were to put this game to music, the tune would certainly be the Lieber and Stoller 1959 hit “Along Came Jones,” a novelty tune about a western movie or serial in which a cowboy named Jones came in and rescued the heroine who had been tied to the railroad track, thereby saving the day.

Slow walkin’ Jones, slow talkin’ Jones. Lonely, lanky (Landry) Jones.

The Case for the 2015 Pittsburgh Steelers, Part Two

via Steelers.com

  by Ivan Cole

[Part 1, which is the introduction and the Offense, can be found here. Part 2 should have gone up before the Patriots game, but I forgot to post it. My apologies to Ivan. But his predictions have held up remarkably well so far, I think you will agree!] 

 

The Defense

Okay. If you recall, I did say that this would be an optimistic look at the 2015 Pittsburgh Steelers. So now it’s time to really get optimistic and talk about the defense. Actually this is not as difficult a task as you might imagine. There are three factors at play here which, when thoughtfully considered, would allow you to believe that what was on display in the preseason was not nearly as bad as it appeared.