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Offensive Line

Wheaton Out, Foster Iffy Against Jets

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 Kelvin Beachum, Kendall Reyes

Now that the bye week is over, its time for the Pittsburgh Steelers to turn their attention to this Sunday’s game against the shockingly competitive New York Jets. With no Mike Tomlin press conference last week and a CBA mandated four day break from practice during the bye, there was precious little info out of Steeler camp about those potential line-up changes Tomlin promised. And we all know Tomlin wouldn’t promise something without intending to follow through.

The most change looks to be coming to the team’s beleaguered offense line. It’s amazing to think after blowing two second round picks on Marcus Gilbert and Mike Adams that the team is already resigned to tossing them in the garbage heap but that appears to be where things are headed. The bye may mean newly acquired LT Levi Brown isn’t completely up to speed in time for Sunday although we saw Fernando Velasco walk in off the street and start at center in a week’s time. Word is the Steelers are eager to throw Kelvin Beachum into the starting mix – he’s been sharing first team snaps at LT with Brown – which means he’ll start at LT if Brown isn’t ready or at RT if he is.Read More »Wheaton Out, Foster Iffy Against Jets

Levi Brown New Left Tackle For Steelers

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Credit where it’s due – for once, Mike Tomlin didn’t issue a hollow threat.

After the Pittsburgh Steelers fell to 0-4, Coach T issued a fiery proclamation that guys would start doing their jobs or he’d find people that would. That’s all well and good but in football there isn’t a lot of wiggle room in terms of line-up changes. Your 53 man is your 53 man and other than adding a veteran free agent or promoting a guy off the practice squad, there’s not much tinkering you can do. Well, yesterday the Steelers found one other way: phone a friend.

The Arizona Cardinals traded left tackle Levi Brown to the Steelers in exchange for a conditional late round draft pick. Is this Bruce Arians‘ way of taking pity on his old buddy Ben Roethlisberger? Judging by comments out of the Cardinals camp where their GM described Brown as not “living up to expectations,” I’m not sure if we this is Arians doing his old QB a solid or a team getting what they could for a guy they intended to dump anyway. Most likely the latter.Read More »Levi Brown New Left Tackle For Steelers

Week 4 Recap: Steelers Sink To 45 Year Low

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Big Ben Big Ben

Yesterday could arguably be considered the worst day in Pittsburgh Steelers history. First, news came down that one of the members of the storied Steel Curtain, L.C. Greenwood, had passed away at 67. Shortly thereafter, the Black and Gold blew a golden opportunity to send the game to overtime, falling to the Minnesota Vikings 34-27. The Steelers are now 0-4 for the first time in 45 years, the year before Mr. Greenwood was drafted by a rookie head coach named Chuck Noll.

Mike Tomlin is no Chuck Noll.

In fact, the only way he deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as the Emperor is to point out it’s become apparent our current Emperor has no clothes. No answers, either, for a season that has tragically spiraled out of control. Every week brings some fresh hell to Steeler Nation. It’s amazing how this team constantly finds new ways to lose. Read More »Week 4 Recap: Steelers Sink To 45 Year Low

Big Ben Wants To Coach Offensive Line Now, Too

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Earlier today, I wrote about some unkind words Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger had for rookie running back Le’Veon Bell. It looks like the team’s captain isn’t done voicing his opinion. On Tuesday, head coach Mike Tomlin spoke of a meeting he had with guard Ramon Foster where Foster supposedly agreed to step up his leadership role with the young lineman. According to a story on ESPN, it appears Ben wants in on that action, as well.

Truth be told, the offensive line didn’t play all that horribly on Sunday. Their play is still below what you’d expect from a middle first and two second round picks but it isn’t appreciably worse than some of the lines they’ve had in the past. And only the most rabid Roethlisberger apologist would blame them for Ben’s four turnover performance against the Bears.  He was careless with the football, end of story.

Anyway, what pearls of wisdom did Big Ben have for his young line?Read More »Big Ben Wants To Coach Offensive Line Now, Too

Start ‘Em Or Sit ‘Em, Steelers Edition

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Since head coach Mike Tomlin doesn’t think it’s “time to press the panic button,” I don’t expect to see significant changes to the line-up when the Pittsburgh Steelers meet the Chicago Bears on Sunday Night. To paraphrase Trib columnist Dejan Kovacevic, he seems content to keep banging his head against the wall. Too bad when Tomlin was busy looking up big fancy words to use incorrectly during his press conference, he didn’t bother taking a look at the definition of insanity.

in·san·i·ty [inˈsanitē/] – doing the same thing over and over but hoping for a different result

Maybe the Steeler don’t need to push the panic button. But they for damn sure need to make some changes. Every week, fantasy football gurus do some version of a Start ‘Em, Sit ‘Em column where they list various players and describe why or why not you should start them on your team. In that spirit, I’ll list a handful of Steelers and explain why they should or shouldn’t see more playing time going forward.Read More »Start ‘Em Or Sit ‘Em, Steelers Edition

Week 2 Recap: Bungling Their Way To Victory

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“There’s a certain amount of misery with the position that we’re in. We’ll wear it. We don’t like it. We’ll wear it.” – Mike Tomlin

If the Pittsburgh Steelers 20-10 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals was an article of clothing, it’d be a pair of bowling shoes. Stinky ugly bowling shoes. Coach T was gracious about crediting Cincy for playing well during his post-game cliche-fest. All I’ll say is that if the Bengals are the class of the AFC North, then our division has quickly become the Big East of the NFL.

In my game preview, I mentioned this being the year quarterback Andy Dalton needed to take his game to the next level. The Ginger Rifle responded by playing a hideous game. Overthrows, underthrows, missing wide open receivers, Dalton did his best to keep the Steelers in the game. Unfortunately, the Black and Gold were in an even more charitable mood.Read More »Week 2 Recap: Bungling Their Way To Victory

Know Thy Enemy: Cincinnati Bengals

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Heeeeee’s Baaaacckkk…

Tonight marks the first meeting of the season between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals. Tonight also marks the first time ex-Steeler James Harrison will face his former team. If you watched any of HBO’s Hard Knocks series, you know Harrison is an angry man. And one has to think a portion of that anger is directed towards the Black and Gold.

Whether it was time for Deebo to move on or not, Harrison played his entire career with a chip on his shoulder. It fueled him to become a multi-time Pro Bowler despite being an undersized linebacker undrafted out of Kent State. It has also fueled his penchant for being a vicious headhunting sociopath. After years spent defending Harrison’s repeated attempts to cripple and maim opponents, tonight we’ll get a chance to see how it feels when we are that opponent.Read More »Know Thy Enemy: Cincinnati Bengals

Tomlin Press Conference: Candy And Nuts

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NFL: FEB 01 Super Bowl XLIII - Cardinals v Steelers

There’s an old saying: If ifs and buts were candy and nuts every day would be Christmas.

Clearly this is one glib sentiment Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin is not familiar with.

Yesterday was the first weekly lie-fest aka Mike Tomlin press conference. For those new to my blog, allow me to break it down for you. It’s the one day a week Tomlin must go before the local cheerleaders media and answer their questions with cliches, double-speak, and outright lies. The media then takes these asinine answers and reports on them as if they honestly believe the line of BS they’re being fed. Perhaps they do.Read More »Tomlin Press Conference: Candy And Nuts

Steelers Re-Sign Dwyer, Add Velasco

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In the wake of the season-ending injury to running back LaRod Stephens-Howling, I dismissed the notion of the Pittsburgh Steelers re-signing running back Jonathan Dwyer. Yesterday, the Steelers re-signed Jonathan Dwyer.

The reason for my doubt is that the Steelers seem to hate Dwyer. I have no idea why. While other players spent their off-season getting stabbed over trucks or going on drunken rampages down the South Side, Dwyer spent his time losing weight and getting into shape with an eye toward winning the starting running back job. Yet, for whatever reason, the coaches had no intentions of giving him a chance.Read More »Steelers Re-Sign Dwyer, Add Velasco

Week One Recap: As Bad As It Gets

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The Pittsburgh Steelers suffered several injuries in their 16-9 loss to the Tennessee Titans. Zoltan Mesko is not listed among the casualties. I’m sure he spent the better part of the evening icing down his foot, though. Poor Zoltan did more punting yesterday than he did all last season for the New England Patriots.

I can safely say the Black and Gold put on the worst display of offensive football I’ve seen in my thirty odd years of yinzer-hood. Worse than when they had a guy named Walter Abercrombie lining up in the backfield. Worse than when they were being quarterbacked by Bubby Brister. Worse than the glory days of Mark Malone.

Words cannot describe how inept the Steelers appeared on offense. When Ben Roethlisberger hit Jerricho Cotchery for the team’s lone touchdown with a minute and a half left in the game, I actually saw people on Twitter posting “Nice of the offense to finally show up.” That’s insane. The offense never showed up yesterday. NEVER.Read More »Week One Recap: As Bad As It Gets