In my recap of the Pittsburgh Steelers embarrassing defeat by the Titans, I made a joke about punter Zoltan Mesko being sore. Turns out, I inadvertently spoke some truth. No, he’s not hurt. And, no, he didn’t punt more times in a single game than he did all season. He did punt more times in a single game than he ever has in his career, though.
Considering the state of the Steelers offense, that mark may be in jeopardy next week.
While Zoltan is fine and dandy, his fellow non-football player is not. Lost in the team’s disastrous performance was news that kicker StoneCold Shaun Suisham sprained his hamstring and is expected to be out about a month. And you wonder why I make fun of kickers. Dude made three kicks, THREE KICKS, and got hurt?
Was he peddling the stationary bike too rapidly on the sideline?
Suisham will be replaced by journeyman Shayne Graham. Steelers fans will remember Graham from his seven year stint with the Bengals where he enjoyed his best run. The Steelers will technically be the fourteenth – FOURTEENTH? – team to employ Graham if you count all the training camps and try-outs. If the pitiful offense can manage to work themselves into field goal range before Suisham recovers (which is a bet I may be willing to make), Graham will have attempted a field goal for his eighth franchise.
I could quote you a bunch of Graham’s numbers but let’s face it, the numbers don’t really mean anything. Kickers can be great one year, totally inept the next. And as we learned with Suisham, they can trudge along having a spectacularly sub-standard career and then all of a sudden a light comes on and they become automatic.
Let’s just hope we get a chance to see which Graham the Steelers are getting on Monday.