YCOD Stunned as AB and Steelers Celebrate Pittsburgh’s Light Up Night Early

Photo via Steelers.com The Helmet Catch wasn’t AB’s only great feat last night…

By Homer J

Homer has been asked to announce that the Yinzer Cult of Doom’s weekly post-game Bitchfest and Kvetching Bee has been postponed for lack of material. The YCOD promises to return next week or whenever they can find something real or imaginary to complain about, but they are taking a bye week of sorts after last night’s game to grab some smelling salts and try to come to their senses. A forty-burger can do that to you.

Homer, as always, apologizes for any inconvenience.

5 Smoldering Questions on the Pittsburgh Steelers: Week 9

Photo via Steelers.com

By Hombre de Acero

The Steelers entered Detroit looking to keep their winning streak alive and looking to take a victory into the bye week. The men in Black and Gold accomplished both, which leaves them at 6-2 as Tomlin’s team heals bumps and bruises before resuming action against the Indianapolis Colts in two weeks. But before we can turn out attention to that, this segment of Steelers Nation must resolve these 5 Smoldering Questions on the Steelers.

1. In reviewing the Steelers win against the Bengals, Steel City Insider’s Jon Ledyard made this observation:

Two incompletions kept a ton of time on the clock for Cincinnati before the fake punt, which is one of the worst decisions I’ve seen in a while. Running a fake punt in your own territory with a 12-point lead, with your backup safety throwing the second pass of his life to a wide receiver with a lengthy history of ugly drops? What could go wrong? You guys know I’m all about being aggressive, but discretion is the better part of valor in this situation, and the Steelers were lucky to get away with a good result despite an ugly process.

Agree or disagree? Defend your decision.

2. Sticking with the Bengals game, it was clear that while Antonio Brown made his catches and did his damage, William Jackson is a cornerback capable of challenging Brown. The Steelers were rumored to favor William Jackson in the 2016 NFL Draft, but Cincinnati got him first.

Do you think the Steelers would have been better off with Jackson, or are you satisfied with Artie Burns?

3. When the Lions were blanketing Antonio Brown, JuJu Smith-Schuster made them pay on several occasions. Do you think he did enough to take away Martavis Bryant’s starting slot?

4. When looking at the performance of the Steelers defense in Detroit, what do you see? A defense that was utterly unable to stop an opponent from advancing down the field into the Red Zone? Or a defense that weathered 17 shots at the end zone from inside its 20 and didn’t give up a single touchdown?

5. Take a look at this replay of Javon Hargrave eating Dwyane Washington alive at the goal line (before Vince Williams and Sean Davis pile on.)

We built for this! Hard body #Heneedsomemilk @Jay_MostWanted pic.twitter.com/3QOrAvDzFf

— Vincenzo Williams (@VinnyVidiVici98) October 30, 2017

What leaves a bigger impression on you? Javon Hargrave’s play or the look of utter disbelief on Jim Cadwell’s face?

Bye week bonus

6. Robert Golden now has a passer rating of 118.7% and is averaging 34.5 YPA. Does that qualify him to occupy the role of “Disaster Man” much the way that Antwaan Randle-El did?

On Second Thought: Homer’s Notes and Grades for Steelers/Bengals

Photo via Steelers.com

By Homer J.

(As usual, I’m heavily editing the game notes. Any comments of mine will be in italics—Rebecca)

Homer liked the first drive. He really liked it. I think all of Steeler Nation liked it. Here’s what he had to say about how it ended:

Ben with a quick slant to AB. Threads the needle for a TOUCHDOWN!!!  Textbook picture perfect drive. 7-0 PIT

Bengals @ Steelers—A Boswellian Victory

As I was preparing to watch today’s game I typed two things in my game notes before kickoff. The first was, the narrative for this game all week has been about what a nasty physical matchup it was going to be, and wouldn’t it be ironic if it didn’t turn out that way? The second was to note that the Bengals had been playing Renegade at practice all last week.

And strangely, although it was certainly a physical game, it wasn’t really particularly nasty. For one thing, there wasn’t a single personal foul penalty, nor did it seem many flagrant ones had been missed. And off-hand I would say that inuring themselves to Renegade didn’t help the Bengals’ offense out in the second half, because the they didn’t really generate any. But more on that in a moment. Let’s get right to the Acceptable, the Objectionable, and the Appalling…

Meet the New Steeler: Safety J.J. Wilcox

photo via insidethestar.com

The Steelers are killing me here. I sincerely hope the spate of new signings stops soon, because I can scarcely keep up!

The latest signing has some interesting antecedents. He was born and raised in Cairo, for one thing! Which is less exciting when you realize that’s Cairo, Georgia. But it still has a tinge of the exotic about it, especially when you discover his high school team was the Cairo Syrupmakers. I’m willing to make a small bet that no other high school team in the entire country is called the “Syrupmakers.”

Pittsburgh’s Goin’ to the Super Bowl: Safety in Numbers

Via Steelers.com

The safety position was one of the few pretty much completely unaffected by free agency. The Steelers didn’t lose (or not re-sign) anyone who had played any significant amount of snaps at the position.

The possible exception is Shamarko Thomas, once considered the heir apparent to Troy Polamalu but ultimately ineffective. But Thomas has played essentially no snaps at safety in the past year—he played six, to be precise. While he was a valuable special teamer when healthy, he missed a lot of time last year with injuries—four weeks with a groin injury and four weeks due to concussion. It seems unlikely he will be back in the Black and Gold.

2016 Pittsburgh Steelers First Quarter Report, Part 2

via Steelers Wire/USA Today Sports

by Ivan Cole

In Part 1 Ivan gave a general overview of the team to this point. Here are specifics about each unit.

Offense

To be honest, until the fourth game I have found the offense to be something of a disappointment. Considered the strong aspect of the team, the one which was supposed to carry a fragile and still developing defense, too often the opposite appeared to be the case. Citing the Cincinnati game as an example, time and again the offense was handed favorable field position by the defense and special teams but could not seal the deal until late, allowing the Bengals and Washington to hang around longer than should have been the case.

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. 

Steelers vs. Bengals: Where There’s a D-Will, There’s a Way

I’m going to keep using this picture until DeAngelo stops being the offensive MVP…

By Homer J. 

Homer sent a play-by-play, which will appear in italics. I have edited it freely and included commentary when appropriate. He also sent a report card, which will be printed in full. Thanks, Homer!

Scouting for Steelers: Let the Shouting Begin

Matt Freed/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Tonight is the big night. The season begins, and the hopes and/or fears of Steeler Nation will be presented with some actual evidence.I can’t help but think of last summer, when the defense looked so appalling during the preseason that some had written the Steelers off before an actual down had been played. (You know who you are. I heard some of you call in to sports radio, declaring that if the offense didn’t score 50 points a game the Steelers would lose every one of them.

This season is also full of dire predictions for particularly the secondary. And okay, maybe it will be awful. But last year’s “awful” secondary (and it was admittedly pretty bad at times) took the ball away a few times. And don’t forget that William Gay holds an NFL record for five straight interceptions being returned for touchdowns.