Mar 272013
One NFL agent has already been fired due to free agency incompetence. Another may soon join him.
Linebacker Elvis Dumervil was happily employed by the Denver Broncos, who were scheduled to pay him $12 million next season. After signing some name free agents (Wes Welker and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie), the Broncos found themselves over the salary cap. Under NFL bylaws, after any new signing, a team has a window of 48 hours to get in compliance with the cap or they risk forfeiting a first or second round draft pick. Dumervil agreed to rework his contract to help Denver out but thanks some sort of fax machine shenanigans, the papers weren’t signed in time and the team was forced to release him.
Dumervil quickly became a hot commodity as no fewer than five teams were bidding for his services. The Pittsburgh Steelers were among his suitors as were the Baltimore Ravens. The Ratbirds ultimately won the Dumervil sweepstakes, signing him to a five year deal that will pay him $8.5 million this season although only $2.5 of it counts against the cap (the bulk of his first year salary comes in the form of a signing bonus). Why can’t supposed salary cap sooper-genius Omar Khan work out these kind of deals?
The addition of Dumervil is quite the coup for the Ravens, who have lost five defensive starters this off-season. At 29 years old, Dumervil is an accomplished pass rusher having posted 17, 9.5 and 11 sacks the past three years. Paired with Terrell Suggs, they should form one of the better OLB duos in the AFC.
When word broke of Dumervil signing with Baltimore, Steeler fans immediately went into sour grapes mode, pointing out Doom’s limited experience as a 3-4 OLB (he began his career as a 4-3 DE) and his so-so ability to stop the run. Anybody who doesn’t think Dumervil would’ve been a huge asset to the Steelers is completely insane. Had they signed him, he immediately would’ve been the team’s best pass rusher as he’s infinitely more talented than Jason Worilds and has grossly outperformed LaMarr Woodley the past few seasons. What’s more, at 29 years old, he’s got at least three or four more prime years left before age and injury start to catch up with him.
With Dumervil off the table, rumor has it the Steelers have turned their sights to former Colts DE Dwight Freeney. At this point, Freeney is nothing more than a poor man’s Dumervil. Sure he might come cheaper but in football as with smoked ham, you get what you pay for. Freeney is older (33), has a more worrisome injury history, and appears to be a horrible fit for our defense. Where Dumervil shifted from DE to OLB without missing a beat, Freeney moved to OLB last season and recorded a career-low 5 sacks. Freeney isn’t an upgrade over Dumervil, he’s not even an upgrade over the man he’s ostensibly replacing, James Harrison.
Ah, poor Deebo. The agent I mentioned who may soon find himself unemployed (if not naked in a gutter with dog bites and “BMF” tattood on his left butt cheek) is the assclown representing James Harrison. Harrison was scheduled to make $6.57 million this season but the Steelers asked him to take a 30% pay cut down to roughly $4.5 million. He balked thinking he could easily command his original salary on the open market. How sadly he was mistaken.
According to reports, the market for Harrison’s rapidly declining skills is tepid to say the least. In fact it’s so icy that Harrison’s agent has already started floating the idea that James would be open to returning to the Steelers, presumably for the salary he idiotically turned down in the first place. For their part, the Steelers have leaked word that they have no interest in bringing a grovelling Harrison back at any price. Ouch.
The thing is, yes, Harrison is in the twilight of his career. And yes, he was dumb for not agreeing to take the pay cut when it was offered. At the same time, Harrison was the team’s best pass rusher last season and until Woodley discovers the Stairmaster, would still be so heading into this one. Even with eroding skills, Harrison is a better option than either Jason Worilds or Dwight Freeney. Of course, there are still players left to be signed and the draft can change a lot of things so it’s not imperative the Steelers decide on the lesser of three evils. However, they better do something or risk falling even further behind their AFC North rivals.
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Feb 042013
The Baltimore Ravens are Super Bowl Champions. Pardon me while I empty out my vomit bucket.
Okay, where were we? Oh, right. The unthinkable has happened. The Baltimore Ravens won Super Bowl XLVII. If Steeler Nation thought that team of thugs and loudmouths were insufferable before, we’re never going to hear the end of it now.
To add insult to injury, Joe Flacco was named Super Bowl MVP. For those scoring at home, Tyler Palko’s back-up now has more SB MVPs than Ben Roethlisberger. Oh it was well deserved as Bert played the game of his life. I just hope everybody is prepared when Flacco is ranked equal to or above Ben on those “Best Quarterbacks in the NFL” lists we’re inundated with every season.
Then again, they are basically tied with one championship apiece. Technically, Ben has two but Antwaan Randle El accomplished more with one pass than Ben did during the rest of the Seattle game. And Flacco is only now reaching his prime while Ben’s skills are in decline.
Yesterday’s win capped off perhaps the luckiest run by any team in recent memory. Going into the final month of the season, the Ratbirds were in full free fall when Charlie Batch engineered a win for the ages. People forget that Baltimore backed into clinching their division as with decent quarterbacking and decent coaching, the Steelers could have overtaken them. Baltimore had an easy first round playoff game against the overmatched Colts then should have lost to the Broncos if not for a blown coverage that led to the game tying TD followed by yet another choke job by Pey-Pey in OT. Sure every championship run requires a little luck (Ben making The Tackle on Roman Harper) but the Ravens seemingly had a rabbit’s foot up their ass all through this post-season.
That luck held up through the final whistle of last night’s game. Flacco underthrows his receiver by three yards but Jacoby Jones is so wide open he has time to come back (I wonder if Mike Wallace ever thought about trying that?) for what will go down as a 55 yard TD bomb. The Niners fall asleep on the second half kick-off and gift Baltimore a 108 yard return TD. After a power outage which I’m sure Roger Goodell is already planning on fining James Harrison for, San Fran staged an epic comeback which fell short when Michael Crabtree got mugged on 4th and goal but the refs kept their hankies in their pockets.
Anyway, the Ravens are your 2012 NFL champions. I promised silver linings so here are two. First, since San Francisco lost, your Pittsburgh Steelers are still the only NFL franchise with six Lombardi Trophies. And second, last night was the final time we’ll ever have to see Ray Lewis in an NFL uniform. If karma is a really a thing that exists, hopefully one day we will see him in a bright orange jump suit as karmic justice for the murder he already got away with (and kudos to Phil Simms for having the balls to mention that during the telecast instead of just repeating the company line).
Final lining? Um, the Pittsburgh Pirates report to Spring Training in 10 days.
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Jan 212013
Super Bowl XLVII has finally been set. And for fans of the Pittsburgh Steelers, you couldn’t pick a worse match-up if you tried. Ordinarily we can find at least one team with which to align our rooting interests. When the Baltimore Ravens face the San Francisco 49ers for the championship in two weeks, the only satisfying outcome would be an asteroid annihilating the Superdome.
The Niners are probably the lesser of two evils. They’ve never done anything directly to the Steelers. They do, however, possess five Lombardi Trophies. Should they win, the Black and Gold would no longer sit alone atop the NFL hierarchy as the only franchise with six championships. And considering the Niners have a fairly young roster while the Steelers are old and in decline, they’d be a whole lot better bet to climb the “Stairway to Seven” before we do.
(As an side, isn’t it crazy that out of 47 Super Bowls, the Niners and Steelers have combined to appear in 13, over a full quarter of them, yet have never faced each other? Damn you, Tim McKyer!)
On the other side, we have the Baltimore Ravens. I don’t have to bother explaining why Steeler fans would rather have their pubic hair plucked out by a pair of rusty pliers than see the Ratbirds win the Super Bowl. It’s bad enough we’ll have to spend the next two weeks hearing what a great guy murdering thug Ray Lewis is, are we really ready for Joe Flacco to be considered an elite quarterback? Even worse, if he plays even remotely decent the pain will continue well into next season as talking heads immediately start ranking him ahead of Ben Roethlisberger despite 90% of his offense being checkdowns to tight ends and Ray Rice.
Can Steeler Nation live in a world where Tyler Palko‘s back-up is considered one of the NFL’s best?
The cherry on top of this shit sandwich is both teams are coached by a Harbaugh. The Niners’ Harbaugh si clearly the bigger asshole what with his childish theatrics after every minor setback although choosing between them is kinda like choosing between the best venereal disease. There are no winners here. We all lose.
Pray for the asteroid.
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Dec 132012
Yes, playoffs. I’m talkin’ about playoffs.
Blame Roger Goodell. The Ginger Dictator, in his ongoing quest to go down in history as the worst commissioner of any sport ever, floated the idea of expanding the NFL playoffs from 14 to 16 teams yesterday. Just what football fans need, more .500 teams in the playoffs! Of course, everybody knows the real reason he proposed this ludicrous idea is to deflect attention away from how badly he botched the Saints bounty case.
Hey, always remember the Pittsburgh Steelers were the only team to vote against the new CBA.
Ginger couldn’t have picked a worse year to bring up expanding the playoffs. If there were several 10 and 11 win teams in danger of missing the post-season, I could see a ground-swelling of support for the idea. But this year? With three weeks left in the season, three of four divisions in the AFC have already been clinched.
The only team who hasn’t clinched? Why, the Baltimore Ravens of course! Despite leading our divison, the Ratbirds are so worried about their prospects for a successful post-season that this past week they took the highly unusual step of firing their offensive coordinator. As I’ve said a million times and will keep repeating, Baltimore has this almost pathological need to blame their mediocre offense on everything except the real reason why it’s mediocre: quarterback Joe Flacco.
The firing of ex-OC Cam Cameron evidently was owed to the fact the team’s best player, Ray Rice, had zero touches in the 4th quarter of the Charlie Batch Game. Well, it’s easy to scapegoat Cameron since he’s been a failure everywhere he’s been but in this case that’s hardly his fault. If you watched the game, it was clear that Dick LeBeau was keying on Rice. Sure, great players routinely beat schemes and Rice did break free for a 30 yard TD earlier in the game but no sane team puts all their chips on one player. LeBeau was scheming to stop Rice and control everything short while daring Flacco to beat him deep. Flacco can’t pilot an offense which requires him to routinely throw more than 10 yards down the field. End of story.
With the Ravens stumbling towards the finishing line, it makes the Steelers pathetic showings against the dregs of the NFL all the more painful. We lost to two teams that will be drafting in the top 10 next year (Titans, Raiders) and another just outside it (Chargers). Win one of those games and we’re in the hunt for the division. Win two and we’re probably leading and controlling our own destiny.
You’ll notice I didn’t mention one other Steelers loss, that being to the Cleveland Browns. Sit down, you may need steady yourself when you hear this. All season I’ve been beating the Brandon Weedon drum, saying how he’s been shockingly competent and would get more notice as a fine first round QB draft pick (despite everybody, myself included, mocking the Browns for taking him so high on draft day) if he played anywhere but Cleveland. Well, lo and behold, now the Browns, THE BROWNS, have crept into the playoff picture.
It goes like this. First, the Browns must win out. Then, if the Steelers lose two of their last three (unless you’re a hardcore yinzer, I don’t think any of us would be shocked if they went 0-3 or 3-0 down the stretch), the Bengals lose two of their last three and the Jets lose one more game, the Browns will be the second Wild Card. THE BROWNS!
I don’t think anybody is ready for a world were the Cleveland Browns leapfrog both the Steelers and Bengals to become a playoff team. Unless the Mayans were right…
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The enduring image from Sunday’s game between the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers will be Charlie Batch blubbering like a teenage girl at the end of Twilight: Breaking Dawn. I focused on that in my recap because that’s all I want to remember from that game. However, something else happened which has been getting a lot of play on local airwaves and across the interweb. Evidently the bitter rivalry between the Steelers and Ravens has filtered down to their respective head coaches as evidenced by the awkward post-game handshake between Mike Tomlin and John Harbaugh.
Since that video surfaced, yinzers have been in full throat decrying Harbaugh as a classless asshole. Well, duh. I’ve written time and time again about how both Harbaugh brothers are giant dicks. John’s equally obnoxious brother Jim had his own post-game incident last season when his “aggressive back-slap” of Lions coach Jim Schwartz set off a minor melee.
Unlike the Scwhartz incident, Tomlin holds some responsibility for the current controversy. Believe me, I’d rather let Ndamakong Suh punt my junk than say anything nice about John Harbaugh but fair is fair. It’s clear from the video that Tomlin had zero interest in shaking Harbaugh’s hand. Evidently Tomlin wasn’t happy with Harbaugh’s comment that “the tougher team won” following the Ravens victory a couple weeks back so he went for a drive-by but Harbaugh wasn’t having it. The look on Tomlin’s face when Harbaugh yanks him back says it all.
In honor of my favorite wrestler, Damien Sandow, I hereby dub Tomlin’s move the macte virtute acetum, the handshake of disdain.
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Dec 032012
Charlie Batch.
Man, Charlie friggin’ Batch. All we heard during the week was he’s too old, he can’t play, he’s washed up, how bad can Brian Hoyer be? And all Charlie friggin’ Batch did yesterday was go out and lead the Pittsburgh Steelers to a 23-20 win over the Baltimore Ravens. If this is indeed Chaz’s swan song, what better way to go out than with a victory over your hated rivals in what will forever be remembered as “the Charlie Batch game.”
The first half was an almost carbon copy of last week’s debacle in Cleveland. The defense completely stifled Joe Flacco and company, even coming away with a Ryan Clark interception early in the 2nd quarter. The Steelers squandered that by turning it right back over on a poorly designed trick play where Antonio Brown threw up a duck which was easily picked off. Ike Taylor left with a leg injury so Flacco kept going after his replacement Cortez Allen. Allen and Curtis Brown acquitted themselves well all day but had their lone hiccup on the ensuing drive, allowing Anquan Boldin to get free for a 28 yard TD.
Down 13-3 with five minutes in the half, the Steelers offense finally sprang to life. Chris Rainey started things with a huge 40 yard kickoff return to begin at mid-field. Batch converted two long first downs with passes to Heath Miller. Then the Ratbirds had a monumental mix-up in the secondary, some how letting Mike Wallace run to the end zone all by himself. There literally wasn’t a purple jersey within ten yards. Batch had plenty of time to make the 20 yard throw for an easy six but instead sailed the ball over Wallace’s head and into the waiting parabola of a sound tech squatting five yards behind the goal post.
At that point, Steeler Nation let out a collective groan. Anybody who says they didn’t start thinking this was going to be another one of those games is lying. You only get so many gifts in a big game like this and to not take advantage of them is lethal.
Call it heart, call it veteran leadership, call it what you will but instead of being demoralized, the Steelers started the second half on fire. The suddenly competent offense that closed out the first half opened the second with an excellent TD drive highlighted by a 43 yard catch-and-run by Heath. The capper was a brilliant 16 yard TD run by Jonathan Dwyer, who was stopped at the line but bounced it outside and picked up a block from Batch on his way to the end zone.
Suddenly, a 10 point deficit was a tie game.
The Ravens continued to do nothing on offense as Flacco’s entire arsenal consisted of short dump offs to his running backs. Other than the one deep pass (28 yards being “deep”) to Boldin, he misfired on pretty much every throw of 10+ yards. I’ve said it before and I’ll say again, Dick LeBeau has figured out the secret to containing Captain Checkdown is to make quick tackles on his devastating variety of screens and dump-offs and force (dare) him to beat you down the field.
The sizzling Steelers offense got the ball back and Batch immediately hit Emmanuel Sanders streaking down the middle of the field for 21 yards which could’ve been a lot more, possibly even a touchdown. Except Sanders lost control of the ball trying to switch hands and a huge gain turned into yet another Steelers miscue. The Ravens took the gift back for a TD as the defense lost contain on Ray Rice and he burned them for a 34 yard TD.
Again, I defy anybody to say they didn’t have visions of Cleveland running through their head. It’s hard enough to win in the NFL when you play a good team. It’s even harder when you play a good team with your back-up quarterback. It’s damn near impossible to win when you’re playing a good team with your back-up and you continue to make mistake after mistake.
And the mistakes kept on coming as instead of lifting Batch, his teammates seemed hellbent on sabotaging him. Charlie hit AB for 34 yards and it looked like the Steelers would answer the Baltimore score. Two plays netted only 6 yards. On third down, Batch delivered a perfect throw to Sanders only for him to drop it. And in true Sweed-like fashion, he immediately fell to the carpet feigning injury, as if some crippling ailment were to blame for utter ineptness.
Not that Charlie was totally blameless on the miscue front. Early in the 4th quarter Dwyer and Isaac Redman began chewing up huge chunks on the ground. Batch had been good since the Wallace misfire but on first down from the Baltimore 20, he made a poor thrown into double coverage and ended up being picked by Ed Reed.
The Steelers needed one more big play from the defense. And James Harrison delivered. A perfectly timed strip-sack got the ball right back and set the offense up deep in Raven territory. Sanders finally held on to a pass, making a nice 17 yard catch over the middle to inch the team closer to evening the score. Two plays later, Batch rolled out and found Heath, who made a fantastic diving lunge at the pylon to tie the game.
Once again, the defense held so Batch had five minutes to be a hero. And he delivered, leading the team on an epic 12 play 51 yard drive. Mike Wallace was the man, catching three passes for 15, 7 and 10 yard gains despite at one point having to leave after being shaken up. Batch took two heavy shots from Ravens pass rushers, the second of which finally drew a flag for unnecessary roughness. The mix of pass and run combined with idiot coach John Harbaugh having blown through his time outs early in the half, allowed the Steelers to milk the clock down to the end.
With the game on the line, out came Stonecold Shaun Suisham to attempt a 42 yarder. His aim was true. When the ball sailed through the uprights, an emotional scene played out on the sideline as Charlie Batch embraced long time protege Ben Roethlisberger. I happened to catch the game a Steeler bar and I think there were a few people blinking back tears there as well.
Me? I just had, uh, some dust in my eye.
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Nov 192012
Yes, it’s come to this. I’ve been pushed so far over the edge, I’ve resorted to quoting Chris Berman.
Anybody still wanna argue whether Ben Roethlisberger should be MVP? If so, last night’s game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens provided more convincing evidence than any stats-filled post ever could.
What if I told you the Steelers defense wouldn’t allow a single offensive touchdown? What if I said the Steelers running game would chew up over 150 yards on the ground? Going into Sunday night, I’m sure most members of Steeler Nation would’ve taken that scenario in a heartbeat. It sounds like a surefire recipe for success regardless of who’s behind center.
And yet, it wasn’t enough and the Black and Gold went down to defeat, 13-10.
I’ll spare my dear readers the usual long-winded blow-by-blow account of the game. It was nationally televised so I’m sure most of you saw for yourself anyway. Instead I’m going to skip directly to the root of the problem, quarterback Byron Leftwich. Thanks to a pass interference call on a deep bomb on the first play of the game, Lefty led the team 80 yards for a TD on their opening drive. From that point on, it was a whole bunch of nothin’.
Did Leftwich hurt himself on the 30 yard TD scramble? And if he did, THAT is the guy Mike Tomlin, Kevin Colbert and the Steelers trust with leading the team in Ben’s absence? I’ve seen a lot of football in my life, I’ve seen strange injuries but tripping over your own feet and injuring your ribs and throwing shoulder is a new level of absurdity. I don’t know that Lefty was hurt. Tomlin and his cloak of lies and deception will never admit the truth in any case. All I know is what I could see.
And what I saw was a quarterback missing throws a kid at Alquippa High could make. Lefty finished 18-39 for 201 yards and a pick for a QB rating of 51.3. He definitely wasn’t helped by his receivers. Jerricho Cotchery dropped a couple big conversions and Mike Wallace, who proves week in and week out that if only his actual talent matched his opinion of himself, fumbled deep in their own zone and later failed to come down with a TD pass in the corner of the end zone. However, at the end of the day, your QB has to keep putting the ball in the right spot and hope the guys make plays. More often than not, Leftwich was slow to deliver the ball and inaccurate when he did.
The shame of the whole thing is Baltimore’s offense wasn’t much better. Joe Flacco and Ray Rice were held in check by a magnificent performance from Dick LeBeau‘s crew. We can argue about splash plays and whether a well-timed INT would be more valuable than holding one of the best backs in the league to 40 yards or holding an opposing QB under 175 yds passing. Setting up a bumbling offense with a short field would definitely be helpful but I don’t know how you can possibly find fault with a defense not allowing a single TD a week after the Ratbirds scored a franchise record 55 points.
As soon as Jacoby Jones returned that punt for Baltimore’s lone TD of the evening, I knew it would come back to haunt us. Even when Ben was in there, the Steelers have spent this season walking a thin line between victory and defeat. With Leftwich and the offense stalling, it had to be a top priority not to surrender any cheap points. The defense did their job, even after Wallace’s fumble set Flacco and company up inside the red zone. Jonathan Dwyer did his job, rumbling for 55 yards on only 12 carries and providing the team with an offensive spark in the second half. Leftwich and the passing game simply didn’t do theirs.
Every year, it seems like the division title comes down to a tie break between us and the Ratbirds. If it happens again this season, we won’t have far to look for a game we should have won yet didn’t. I think that’s the worst part of last night’s loss. If you start your back-up and get blown out, it’s almost like you just shrug your shoulders and think, “Whatever.” But starting your back-up, giving him an excellent running game and a defense which doesn’t surrender a TD and still losing? That’d hurt if it were against Jacksonville Jaguars never mind the Baltimore Ravens.
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Nov 162012
Every hero needs a villain. Batman has the Joker. Steve Austin had Vince McMahon. Optimus Prime has Megatron.
And if you think I’m referring to Calvin Johnson and Richard Sherman, you really watch too much football.
The Pittsburgh Steelers represent everything good about the NFL. The most successful franchise with the most loyal fanbase. Their greatest nemesis is clearly the Baltimore Ravens, a gang of thugs and cowards who are detested by anybody outside their own filthy crime-ridden city.
Ratbird Week is usually a fun time for me because there’s normally a lot of trash talking from both sides. Most of the time, “rivalries” are more a thing that fans create than something the players actually embrace. Not so with the Steelers and Ravens. The players have made it very clear on many occasions that they really do hate each other.
Unfortunately, a lot of the fun has been sucked out of this particular Ratbird Week. First, a lot of the guys who fueled the fire are gone. Hines Ward has retired while Ray Lewis is out for the season, possibly never to return. Meanwhile, the Steelers are dealing with injuries to almost half their starting line-up, led by this fella you may of heard of by the name of Ben Roethlisberger.
It’ll read Steelers versus Ravens on the marquee Sunday night and while the hate will still be real the teams taking the field may only be mere hollow echoes of what they once were.
STEELERS DEFENSE vs RAVENS OFFENSE
Joe Flacco. He’s lucky he plays for a relatively low profile team otherwise his name would be debated on the Four Letter every ten minutes like the names Mark Sanchez or Tony Romo. Flacco is in that nebulous second tier of quarterbacks who argue they’re elite and fans of their team think of as elite but don’t have the results to earn that designation. Win a Super Bowl, even get to one, and then you can start using the E-word.
Until then, you’re just another QB.
The dirty little secret is the Ratbirds seem to be hedging their bets on Bert, as well. He’s in the final year of his contract and over the off-season the two sides couldn’t reach an agreement on an extension because Flacco wanted elite QB money while Baltimore management argued he wasn’t quite at that level. Flacco is having a pretty typical season for him, a 60-40 TD/INT ratio (13 TDs against 7 INTs) and he’s on pace for about 3,500 yards (2,300 going into Sunday) which is right around his career high. They Ravens have tried everything from trading for name wide receivers to letting Bert grow a pornstache in hopes he can hit another level.
At this point, I think it’s safe to say he is what he is and nothing can change that.
It certainly would help any QB to have a weapon like Ray Rice in the backfield. As usual, Rice is a tremendous dual threat, leading the team in rushing while being Captain Checkdown’s third favorite target. Rice has averaged over 1,200 yards rushing and 500 yards receiving the past three years and is well on pace to make it four in a row. Needless to say, if the Steelers have any hope of winning Sunday, they have to find a way to contain this serial Stiller Killer.
Outside Rice, the Ravens offensive weapons aren’t nearly as scary as some of the other teams we’ve faced this season. Torrey Smith, who memorably caught the game winning touchdown in our last meeting, is their nominal #1 wide out. He’s pretty much a deep threat, though, averaging 17 yard per reception. A few years ago they spent big money to bring in Anquan Boldin but he’s been more or less a bust. The Ravens parted ways with another longtime irritant, TE Todd Heap, a couple seasons ago and it appears they’ve finally found another short yardage possession threat for Flacco to dump off to in TE Dennis Pitta.
The Steelers defense needs a helluva better performance this week if they don’t want embarrassed on national tv. After getting the run D straightened out, KC gashed them repeatedly until Dick LeBeau figured out Ziggy Hood was a liability and started moving him around. LaMarr Woodley and James Harrison were MIA and that simply can’t happen two weeks in a row. There will be even more pressure on the inside backers to support the run D and take away the middle of the field for those short throws Flacco lives for.
Ryan Clark passed all his concussion tests and will play on Sunday. He’ll be easy to spot as he’s resorted to wearing that extra thick Great Gazoo helmet. Clark has been the team’s defensive MVP this year so hopefully he’s able to stay on the field this week. If the Steelers have any hope of pulling out a victory, they’ll need every healthy defensive player not only on the field but playing their best possible game.
STEELERS OFFENSE vs RAVENS DEFENSE
Maybe the Ravens should change their symbol back to the horseshoe a team from Baltimore wore once upon a time. They certainly have a lot of luck. The Ratbirds have beaten the Steelers twice since 2008 when Ben Roethlisberger started at QB. They’ve won three other times, however, when Dennis Dixon and Charlie Batch have started in Ben’s place.
On Sunday, they’ll get their first taste of Byron Leftwich. I’m already on record about thinking Leftwich is a poor fit for the Todd Haley offense but I guess we’ll see. Boss Todd has said he’s tailoring things to better suit Lefty. In other words, he’s quick passing timing based offense needs to account for a guy with a longer wind-up than AJ Burnett.
Rashard Mendenhall is expected to make his return. I wasn’t too enthused about Mendy’s return but after iRed and Dwyer played miserably against the Chiefs, it certainly can’t hurt. If the Steelers have one chance offensively, it’ll be on the ground. The Ravens run D has been absolutely atrocious, even worse than our run D. They’re currently averaging 132 yards against per game. Yes, 132!
While the Steelers have battled injury, the Ravens have had more than their fair share as well. NT Haloti Ngata has been playing hurt and it shows. He’s not nearly as stout at the nose as usual. Lewis was useless in pass coverage although he did a good job against the run. And Terrell Suggs may have made an admirable return from off-season ACL surgery but he’s clearly not himself. Much like James Harrison has been a step behind all year, Suggs just can’t get his body to do what it’s accustomed to doing.
The Ravens have also been hit in the secondary with the loss of top corner Lardarius Webb. Much like their run D, their secondary has been giving up huge chunks of yardage all season. Safeties Bernard Pollard and Ed Reed are strong but corners Cary Williams and Paul Kruger can be exploited. If Ben were healthy, I could foresee something of a shoot-out. Whether Leftwich can make some plays in the passing game remains to be seen. Antonio Brown hasn’t practiced this week although he’s been telling reporters he’s going to give it a shot this afternoon. Getting him back on the field would be a huge boon to whoever plays QB.
I know I make every game out to be a make or break week. In this case, the hyperbole is actually appropriate. As usual, the AFC North is coming down to Ravens and Steelers. And, as usual, the eventual champion may very well be decided by tie breaks. It’s going to be an uphill battle for sure but why not shock the world and demoralize the Ravens in the process by pulling out a game with our back-up QB on national TV?
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They say it isn’t nice to rejoice in the misery of others.
When it comes to the Baltimore Ravens, I’ll make an exception.
If you avoided last night’s Monday Night Football game, well, you missed an epic collapse by someone other than the Pittsburgh Steelers. You also missed ESPN’s talking heads waxing poetic about the life and career of Ray Lewis. It was absolutely nauseating.
At one point, Trent Dilfer actually held Ray-Ray up as a role model “for the children.” Well, I guess if you want your child to respond to taunts like, “Your dad was the worst quarterback to ever win a Super Bowl!” by stabbing their school mate to death, sure, he’s a great role model. Where’s Lady Gaga when you need her? I thought we were taking a stand against bullying?
Lewis left the game last Sunday with what was later diagnosed as a torn triceps. That injury will effectively end his 2012 season. Peter King later opined that he believed Lewis will retire rather than attempt a comeback. The 37 year old Lewis has said in interviews that he would like to watch his son play for his alma mater (the University of Miami, where else?) come next year, sorta hinting this was his last rodeo. Of course proud athletes usually don’t like to go out via injury, not to mention if Peter King predicts sunshine, you best pack your umbrella, so it’s far from certain we’ve seen the last of Lewis and his obnoxious dancing.
If he does retire, we still probably haven’t seen the last of him. Both Dilfer and Steve Young all but laid out a Welcome mat on the set. Lewis is certainly the type networks lust after. A loudmouth no-nothing whose career was built on trash talk and cheap shots. That’s why idiots like Rodney Harrison and Shannon “Mushmouth” Sharpe are hot commodities while thoughtful ex-players like Jerome Bettis are quickly cast aside.
I was listening to talk radio when the news broke and I must say, I was disturbed by what I heard from some of the callers. Granted I listen to the Mark Madden show and the people who call in either get shouted down for disagreeing with him or kiss his ass. But there were several listeners who actually said they’d miss Stabby McStabberson. One moron even said if he had to pick one player he wished could’ve been a Steeler, he would’ve picked Ray Lewis.
It’s incredible to me that a large segment of Steeler Nation still hasn’t forgiven Ben Roethlisberger for whatever did or didn’t happen in Georgia, yet they’ll talk nicely about Ray freakin’ Lewis. Ray Lewis, who, unlike Ben, was actually convicted of a crime. Ray Lewis, the guy who, if he didn’t stab someone to death, stood by and watched as a friend did. Yet Big Ben finishes near the top of the Most Hated NFL players list every year while ESPN lauds Lewis as a role model for children.
Sometimes I hope the Mayans were right.
In any event, Ray Lewis is out for the season. If he retires, all the better. In the meantime, Lewis was only about a tenth of what he used to be (although you wouldn’t know it from the announcers acting like he was still in his prime) so don’t think this is some great blow to the Ratbirds. Truth be told, the loss of their top corner Ladarius Webb is going to hurt them a lot more in the long run.
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Sep 112012
Last night was a depressing night for Pittsburgh sports fans. On the one channel you had the Pittsburgh Pirates continuing their death spiral by literally snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. The Cincinnati Reds tried handing this game to the Bucs, twice leaving the winning run on third with less than two outs in extra innings only for the Pirates to somehow manage to one-up them with the colossally inept feat of not scoring with the bases loaded and NOBODY out. Eventually the Bucs lost a game they needed to win when a AAA pitcher from the Netherlands got into trouble and a AAA shortstop botched an easy ground ball hit right at him.
While this disaster was unfolding, on the Four Letter the other team from Cincinnati were getting their asses handed to them by the Baltimore Ravens. Up 41-13 in the middle of the 4th quarter, coach John Harbaugh proved the old adage that a dick must always be a dick by ordering his first team offense to keep chucking the ball towards the end zone. Maybe he’s under the mistaken delusion that BCS voters determine playoff seeding. Nah, he’s just that big an asshole…
As the annoying pasty baseball stat geeks love to say, “sample size, sample size, sample size.” Granted it was only one game. Granted it was against the Bengals, who appear to have a pretty good defense but at the end of the day the Bungles will always revert back to being the Bungles. Granted it was at home with a team and fanbase geared up over the loss of their beloved owner, Art Modell. Yes, I threw up in my mouth a little typing that.
All that aside, it’s hard to have watched what the Ratbirds put on tape last night and not come away thinking they are the team to beat in the AFC if not the entire NFL.
To give you some idea the difference between them and, oh say, our Pittsburgh Steelers, look no further than each team’s first play of the season. The Steelers had Isaac Redman dive forward for 3 yards. Joe Flacco tossed a 52 yard bomb to Torrey Smith. One team looks like they’ve embraced the NFL’s league wide pass happy offensive explosion. The other looks like a team who should be playing in leather helmets.
The Todd Haley backlash has already begun. Local columnists and talk show hosts got on Boss Todd almost immediately after Sunday night’s loss. On Twitter and sports call-in shows, members of Steeler Nation are already bitching about his play calling. The irony of course being their unhappiness with all the running plays when for the past three years all I heard around town was they needed to “run the ball more/get back to Stiller Football!” Let’s get one thing straight right off the bat, what we saw on Sunday wasn’t Haley’s fault.
The blame for the offense belongs to one man and one man only: Art Rooney II.
The Deuce has told every reporter who’d listen he wants to get back to old school football. It’s widely suspected he was the one who engineered getting Bruce Arians fired when Mike Tomlin had every intention of bringing him back. I had some issues with Arians but the man produced a 4,000 yard passer, 1,000 yard rusher and two 1,000 receivers in the SAME SEASON. No Steelers team had ever done that. What’s more, 80 more yards from Mendy last season and BA’s Flying Circus offense would’ve accomplished that feat TWICE.
You don’t fire a guy who puts up unprecedented offensive numbers if you don’t plan on making a deep philosophical change. And that change comes from the top.
Nobody in the media in going to mention Art II’s name because the Rooney family is revered in Pittsburgh. Rightfully so, might I add. But part of that reverence is due to the Rooneys doing things “the right way.” Part of that “right way” was minimal owner interference unlike you see in the circuses down in Dallas or Miami. Art II got Arians fired, Art II wants the Steelers to play Stiller Football, Art II wants the ball in Isaac Redman’s hands more and Big Ben’s less.
Place the blame where it truly belongs.
Ray Rice is one of the best running backs in football. He had 10 carries all game. Redzone Redman had 5 in the first quarter. Yes the running game dropped off and Haley eventually went no-huddle in the second half but you can’t give away an entire half of football and expect to win consistently. The Steelers offense blew several big chances, most notably an early fumble recovery by LaMarr Woodley which set them up inside Broncos territory. The Ravens got out to a lead early and kept their foot on the gas. The Steelers bumbled around with their 3 yards and a cloud of dust offense until they found themselves in catch-up mode.
Yes, we won the time of possession battle. Here’s a newsflash: time of possession is the most meaningless stat in football. Would you rather grind out an 8 minute drive which sputters out with a FG or go 80 yards in 4 minutes and score a TD (as the Manning led offense did twice against the suddenly shaky-looking Steelers D)?
The Steelers have one of the best QBs in football. They have one of the deepest and most talented groups of wide receivers and tight ends in football. The offense should be in their hands, not the hands of Bowie State. Bruce Arians had it right: you throw to get ahead, you run to maintain it. Yeah, I said it.
That’s NFL Football in 2012. Sorry Artie.
Help me out, folks. Every time you see #FireToddHaley, respond with #FreeToddHaley. Let’s place the blame where it truly belongs.
