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Week 1 Recap: Ain’t That A Kick In The Head

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Antonio Brown Curb Stomps Browns Punter

Last season it was extremely frustrating to root for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Seemingly every game was a nail-biter. No lead was ever safe. Opposing teams always hung around far longer than expected and as a result, we lost a bunch of games we should have won. 

New season. Same old Steelers.

It’s hard to be too positive about the Steelers 30-27 victory over the Cleveland Browns yesterday at Heinz Field. The players will tell us a win is a win. Mike Tomlin, who has a cliche for every occasion, will trot out his trusty quip about not worrying about “style points.” I guess in the wake of last year’s disastrous 0-4 start, we should be grateful for a win in the season opener, even if it was bowling shoe ugly.Read More »Week 1 Recap: Ain’t That A Kick In The Head

Know Thy Enemy: Cleveland Browns

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Welcome to the first “Know Thy Enemy” of the 2014 NFL season. Accept no substitutes! In previous years – going all the way back to my days running Nice Pick, Cowher – I used these posts to write an obnoxiously long insanely detailed breakdown of the upcoming game. It was a chore for me to write and (I suspect) a chore for most of you to read through.

So this year, I’m going to change things up a bit. Instead of an intro and then analyzing their offense vs our defense then our offense vs their defense, I’m just going to write some general thoughts/observations/expectations about us and our opponent. Hopefully, I’ll still get all the pertinent info across, just in more tidy format. This way it’ll be more fun for me to write and much easier for you to slog through.

With that out of the way, let’s talk about the Pittsburgh Steelers first opponent of 2014: the Cleveland Browns.Read More »Know Thy Enemy: Cleveland Browns

Your 2014 Pittsburgh Steelers

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Landry Jones

Happy Labor Day everybody!

With the start of the 2014 regular season right around the corner, it’s slightly ironic the NFL chose this weekend to put a bunch of dudes out of work. Yesterday was cut down day when every team had to set their final 53 man roster. So without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, your 2014 Pittsburgh Steelers.Read More »Your 2014 Pittsburgh Steelers

Steelers Bring Back Da Beard

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Last year’s season finale featured what many expected to be the final appearances of Pittsburgh Steelers mainstays Ike Taylor, Brett Keisel and Troy Polamalu. It looks like the Black and Gold are getting the band back together, at least for one more year. Ike and Troy both re-upped during the off-season and yesterday the Steelers announced Da Beard while also return in 2014.Read More »Steelers Bring Back Da Beard

The Landry Jones Problem (aka Thoughts On Steelers 2nd Game)

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Quick Poll: If your entire life savings rode on the milk bottle game at Kennywood and you had to pick one person to throw for you, who’d you chose: Pedro Alvarez or Landry Jones?

Either way, I imagine you’d end up living in a van down by the river.

I’m not sure what to call it other than the Curse of Tom Brady. In 2000, the Pittsburgh Steelers selected Tee Martin in the fifth round, thirty six picks ahead of Mr. Bundchen. Since then, every late round quarterback we’ve taken has turned out to be an unmitigated disaster. Sure we struck gold with first rounder Ben Roethlisberger but it’d be nice if one of these late round fliers could at least end up being a decent back-up.Read More »The Landry Jones Problem (aka Thoughts On Steelers 2nd Game)

Chuck Noll Has Passed Away

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Steelers Super Bowl XIV Football

Steeler Nation has lost their Emperor.

Chuck Noll passed away last night at age 82. Coach Noll was head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers for 23 years, winning four Super Bowls over that span – a feat which remains unequaled by any other coach in NFL history. Inducted into the Hall of Fame back in 1993, he was one of the chief architects of one the greatest turnarounds in sports history, taking the Steelers from perennial losers to being the most dominant dynasty of the modern era. More than just a football coach, Chuck Noll was revered as a teacher. A cultured man – he once guest conduced the Pittsburgh Symphony – Coach Noll has been credited by scores of former players for shaping them both as football players and as men.Read More »Chuck Noll Has Passed Away

Pittsburgh Steelers 2014 Draft Recap

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Shazier Browns
Ryan Shazier
ILB  Ohio State
6’1  237 pounds
 

As promised, our complete Pittsburgh Steelers 2014 Draft Recap kicks off with a first round pick that has generated more debate among Steeler Nation than any in recent memory. I already discussed Shazier in depth a couple days ago so no need to rehash it here. What we know for sure is he’s a freaky athlete with tremendous speed and athleticism. The team projects him at inside linebacker where best case scenario he matures into something of a Lawrence Timmons clone. Hopefully he doesn’t take as long to develop. Concerns are he’s undersized and not particularly strong – unless he’s given clear gaps to run and make plays, some wonder if he’ll be able get past NFL sized offensive linemen.

If Shazier becomes the versatile heat-seeking missile at linebacker some think he’s destined to be – think the Troy Polamalu of linebackers – this’ll be a fantastic pick. The Steelers D desperately needs young playmakers and Shazier has the potential to be one. By bypassing cornerback, Kevin Colbert and Mike Tomlin clearly think the ceiling was too good to pass up. Time will tell if they were correct.

One thing’s for certain, somebody better tell Shazier to burn that t-shirt.Read More »Pittsburgh Steelers 2014 Draft Recap

Steelers Draft Tuitt and Archer in Rounds 2 & 3

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Somewhere the spirit of Al Davis is clapping his hands and laughing.

For years and years the running joke in the NFL draft was if a player was fast, the Raiders would inevitably take him. With Darth Al’s passing, Oakland has taken a much more sensible approach to picking players. Of all the teams to step in and take over their obsession with speed, who expected it to be the Pittsburgh Steelers?

In my Steelers Draft preview, I didn’t mock out specific players but I did identify bolstering the defensive line and a Chris Rainey-type running back as areas of interest. I just didn’t expect them to go out and fill those needs in rounds two and three. Your second and third rounders are premium picks today’s NFL. I’m not too sure about the wisdom behind using one of those picks on a third string running back.Read More »Steelers Draft Tuitt and Archer in Rounds 2 & 3

Steelers First Round Pick – Linebacker Ryan Shazier?

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Shazier

Huh. I certainly didn’t see that coming…

In the 2007 NFL Draft, the Pittsburgh Steelers were widely projected to take former Pitt Panthers cornerback Darrelle Revis with the fifteenth overall pick. Fans knew it, draftniks knew it, and everybody in the NFL evidently knew it because the New York Jets swung a last second deal with Carolina to leapfrog the Black and Gold and snatch Revis out from under us. With their coveted prospect gone, the Steelers threw up their hands and took a flier on the best athlete left on the board. That athlete wound up being a linebacker out of Florida State named Lawrence Timmons.

Fast forward seven years later and the 2014 NFL Draft. Everybody and their mother predicted the Steelers would take either a playmaking wide receiver or a cornerback capable of stepping in to start for their beleaguered secondary. By the time pick #15 rolled around, all three of the draft’s most explosive playmakers were long gone. So was top CB prospect Justin Gilbert and, one pick before the Steelers, fast rising #2 option Kyle Fuller. What did the Steelers do? Threw up their hands and took a flier on the best athlete left on the board.

Ohio State linebacker Ryan Shazier is your newest member of the Pittsburgh Steelers.Read More »Steelers First Round Pick – Linebacker Ryan Shazier?

Steelers Draft Preview (Finally!)

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The 2014 NFL draft finally takes place this Thursday night. As with everything Roger Goodell touches, nice of the Ginger Dictator to mess up what used to be an off-season highlight by dragging it out until May and the middle of the NHL playoffs. So without further delay, let’s get to my annual Pittsburgh Steelers draft preview.Read More »Steelers Draft Preview (Finally!)