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Know Thy Enemy: New Orleans Saints

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Hope everybody had a great Turkey Day.

If you’re reading this, congratulations, you’ve successfully managed to avoid Black Friday madness. Or you’ve already spent all of your money and have resorted to cheap (ie: free) entertainment. Never let it be said that here at ToteStillers you don’t get what you paid for!

The Pittsburgh Steelers will be hoping to avoid a Black Sunday of their own when they face the New Orleans Saints. The Saints are one of the more interesting conundrums in the NFL. They’re not out-and-out terrible like the Bucs or Jets but at 4-7 they’re not exactly a good team either. It’s the kind of game I worry about because they have enough talent to be dangerous, especially for a team that loves to play down to their opponents like the Steelers.Read More »Know Thy Enemy: New Orleans Saints

How The North Was Won (By The Browns?)

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Sorry I’ve been MIA the past few days but with the Pittsburgh Steelers on a well-deserved bye, I figured I deserved a brief break myself. Besides, I’ve been busy packing for my Turkey Day trip. I’m headed down to Tampa to spend the holiday with my parents, who retired there a few years ago. Guess they didn’t get the memo that Arizona is considered Pittsburgh West.

I leave this evening and will be gone until next Tuesday. Know Thy Enemy will be up on Friday and I’ll make every effort to get a game recap up on Monday. My dad has DirectTV to watch the Black and Gold – what, did you expect him to watch the Bucs? – but I’m hoping to find a nice Stiller Bar to watch the game. If anybody reading knows of one, drop some knowledge down in the comments. In the meantime, unless the Steelers do something earth-shaking like sign Ray Rice to back-up Le’Veon Bell, updates will be sparse between now and next week. Read More »How The North Was Won (By The Browns?)

See Ya LeGarrette Blount

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The Cheech & Chong backfield has gone up in smoke.

Thank you. I’ll be here all week. Try the veal.

The Pittsburgh Steelers have parted ways with running back LeGarrette Blount a little over half a season after signing him to a $3.5 million free agent contract. It was evidently a case of three strikes you’re out for the chronically troubled Blount. He was busted for pot possession shortly after being signed. During training camp he got into a nasty altercation with linebackers coach Joey Porter. Then there was Monday night in Tennessee. Read More »See Ya LeGarrette Blount

Week 11 Recap: Saved By The Bell

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Thank goodness for byes because I don’t think my blood pressure can take another week of this.

After playing the first two and a half quarters like a bunch of extras on the Walking Dead, the Pittsburgh Steelers rallied late to edge the Tennessee Titans 27-24. For a long stretch, it appeared we were headed for yet another instance of the Steelers losing to a bad team as has become all too common during the Mike Tomlin era. If you stuck around for ESPN’s post-game show, well, you were treated to the glorious sight of Ray Lewis losing every last bit of his street cred by wearing an Elmer Fudd hat. You also got a chance to see Steve Young react with extreme exasperation over the Steelers’ annoying habit of playing down to their competition.

Try watching this team week in and week out, Steve.Read More »Week 11 Recap: Saved By The Bell

Know Thy Enemy: Tennessee Titans

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#NeverForget

Another week, another national showcase for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Hopefully things go as well as they have in their last three nationally televised outings. On paper, this should be a pretty good chance for the Black and Gold to head into their bye week on a high note after last week’s debacle. The only thing standing in their way is the fact this week’s opponent happens to be the Tennessee Titans.

For whatever reason, Tennessee has had the Steelers number in recent years. I don’t pretend to understand the quirks of the NFL schedule makers but for some odd reason we’ve played Tennessee every year since 2008. Maybe our pal Hennessy secretly works for the NFL. In any case, the Titans have won the last two meetings despite fielding mediocre squads the past couple seasons.Read More »Know Thy Enemy: Tennessee Titans

Your First Place…Cleveland Browns?

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I think we’ve received our first sign of the apocalypse…

The NFL is unpredictable. Regardless of what the scamdicappers who advertise on late night TV may tell you, even the best gamblers are lucky to get half the games right on any given week. Never mind the fools at blogs who “preview” the next year’s games during the off-season or the media types who write preseason prediction articles. The reality is outside of the really really good teams and the really bad teams, it’s hard to figure where the rest are going to land.

Enter your first place Cleveland Browns.Read More »Your First Place…Cleveland Browns?

Why Can’t The Steelers Beat Bad Teams?

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The Pittsburgh Steelers have lost four times this season. Two of those losses came against division rivals Baltimore and Cleveland. That’s understandable because division games are traditionally tough for any team, regardless of records. Their other two losses came at the hands of the winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers (still their only victory this year) and the 1-8 New York Jets. And the saddest part is neither of those losses was all that surprising.

Since 2012, the Steelers are 8-10 against teams with losing records at the time they played them. You want an explanation for back to back playoff-less 8-8 seasons, look no further than that. Until they figure out how to correct this habit of playing down their opposition, they’re never going to turn the corner. The NFL is all about parity – some might call it “mediocrity” – where the difference between 10 wins and a playoff berth or 8 wins and a mid-round draft pick is your ability to win the games you’re supposed to win.Read More »Why Can’t The Steelers Beat Bad Teams?

Week 10 Recap: UnBeliebable

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Raise your hand if you’re shocked to hear the Pittsburgh Steelers crapped the bed against a terrible team they had no business losing to. Anybody? Bueller? Bieber?

Justin Bieber dropped by the Steelers’ Bible Study group on Saturday night. I’ve been blogging for almost ten years now and I’m pretty sure that’s the strangest sentence I’ve ever written. Evidently, the Biebs is a Steeler fan which I suppose is karmic justice for us already having Snoop Dogg. Anyway, much like Selena Gomez, Bieber once again got involved with something good only to leave it utterly ruined.

How else can to explain the Black and Gold’s utterly miserable performance against the New York Jets? The final score of 20-13 doesn’t really convey how pitiful a performance this actually was. If it wasn’t for Martavis Bryant making a tremendous play for an 80 yard touchdown with a little over a minute left, the formerly red hot Steeler offense would’ve been held to two measly field goals. Two field goals!Read More »Week 10 Recap: UnBeliebable

Know Thy Enemy: New York J-E-T-S

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The Pittsburgh Steelers play two of the worst teams in the league over the next two weeks. Some might expect a clean sweep heading into their curiously late bye in week twelve. Those people probably haven’t been following this team the past few years. I fully expect the Black and Gold to find some way to blow one of the next two games.

Could the inevitable happen against the New York Jets?Read More »Know Thy Enemy: New York J-E-T-S

Checking In With Mike Tomlin

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It’s been awhile since we checked in on Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin‘s weekly time-waster press conference. While I admit quoting some of the preposterous stuff that comes out of Coach T’s mouth brings me great joy, I must also admit it’s hard to argue with the job he’s done these past few weeks. Sure, he has two excellent coordinators in Dick LeBeau and Todd Haley (yeah, I said it) but the final calls rest with him. If I’m going to give him the criticism when the team sucks, I gotta give him credit when they win.

Coaches coach and players play is a cliche albeit an accurate one but a hallmark of good coaching is putting players – and teams – in position to succeed. While our coordinators have great leeway in their jobs, I doubt any major decisions are made without Tomlin’s approval. Rookie Martavis Bryant playing ahead of free agent pick-ups like Lance Moore or Cortez Allen relegated to watching from the sidelines are two of the biggest reasons for the team’s sudden resurgence. It’d be foolish to think Tomlin had no say in those moves. Likewise, I gotta give him a ton of credit for learning from prior mistakes and going for a kill shot TD to ice each of the team’s past two victories.  Read More »Checking In With Mike Tomlin