By Hennessy Yinz love regular features. From Know Thy Enemy (accept no cheap substitutes!) to Wallace Watch ’12, our fearless leader, Chris, loves regular features,… Read More »Iron City Six Pack: Steelers-Raiders Edition
The Pittsburgh Steelers won their tenth straight home opener, soundly thrashing the New York Jets 27-10. As LaMarr Woodley promised, yesterday’s win ensured the Steelers… Read More »Week 2 Recap: Back To The Future
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… Read More »Ravens Show Steelers How To Play Offense
Another day, another injury. Yesterday I mentioned that Pittsburgh Steelers All-Pro linebacker James Harrison remained on the PUP list due to ongoing soreness and swelling… Read More »Harrison Has Surgery, Redman Goes Down
ProFootballTalk is reporting that the Pittsburgh Steelers may cut ties with starting running back Rashard Mendenhall. Actually, this news is being reported by Ed Bouchette of the Post-Gazette but unless you have a puppy in need of paper training you’re unable to read this information since they’ve chosen to put it behind their insipid pay wall. Please allow me to save you that $3.99 so you can spend it on a more worthy item, such as a triple cinnamon dulce non-fat latte at Starbucks or a pack of Big Red.
To recap what we already know, Mendy tore his ACL in the season finale against Cleveland. Steelers GM Kevin Colbert, making the rounds of the local talk shows, has said an ACL tear takes about a year to heal. While a player may physically return to the field sooner, it is his opinion (and mine) that a player doesn’t begin to approach their old form until at least a full year has passed. Keeping this in mind, most had assumed Mendenhall would begin the 2012 season on the PUP (physically unable to perform) list with the team having the option to activate him later in the campaign. Now it seems the injury was either more serious than originally thought or Mendy’s rehab is progressing slower than expected because Uncle Eddy is hearing from inside sources that we may have seen his last carry in the Black and Gold.
I’m not terribly surprised. Running backs are like racehorses. When a racehorse breaks his leg, they have to put him to sleep. When a running back pulls up lame, his career is over. Oh, they may come back and they may even still have a few semi-productive seasons but once a RB blows out a tire, they’ll never be the same player again. What I’m saying is, if you have the second pick in your fantasy football draft, stay the hell away from Adrian Peterson.
Considering Mendy wasn’t any great shakes before tearing his ACL, I can’t imagine he’ll blossom into an elite back in 2013. The only thing that separated Mendenhall from undrafted free agent Isaac Redman was his big play break-away speed. If his ACL costs even .1 second on his 40 time, that advantage is basically gone. And as we’ve seen time and time again, he’s too soft either mentally or physically (or both) to be a tough yardage lower-your-shoulder grinder.
Read More »Is Mendenhall Tip-Toeing Out Of Pittsburgh?
An already crazy NFL off-season is about to get even crazier. When the clock strikes four this afternoon, the league’s 2012 free agency period officially begins. There really wasn’t much free agent activity last year due to the lock-out and teams being reluctant to bring in new faces who wouldn’t have the benefit of an entire off-season to learn a new playbook. Prepare for free agency to return with a vengeance.
Speaking of which, the Pittsburgh Steelers got an itty bit of salary cap relief thanks to of all people Commissioner Roger Goodell. Over the weekend, the salary cap was set at $120 million, a negligible increase over last year’s cap. Considering the lock-out was fought over the players wanting 53% of the revenue while the owners tried shrink their share to 47%, it’s pretty clear who won last year’s showdown. Good job bending over for the league, Dee Smith.
Anyway, the league announced two teams, the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins were being docked cap space for front loading contracts during the uncapped year. In other words, the Ginger Dictator is penalizing those teams ($10 and $31 million respectively) for violating the salary cap in a year in which no cap existed. And I thought suspending players for playing football set a new bar for insane rulings. Gotta love that monomaniacal douchebag.
Read More »Steelers Benefit From Salary Cap Incomptence
The Pittsburgh Steelers suffered one of their most heartbreaking losses in recent memory yesterday, losing 29-23 to the Denver Broncos. Tim Tebow was absolutely masterful, throwing for a career best 316 yards and basically humiliating the NFL’s top ranked defense by making them look like a bunch of amateurs. Any doubts about Tebow’s ability to play quarterback should finally be put to rest. He repeatedly burned the Steelers secondary on big pass plays while showing the strength and maneuverability in the pocket of a young Ben Roethlisberger.
Meanwhile, the actual Big Ben put forth a valiant effort, particularly in the fourth quarter, but was a shell of himself for most of the game. Much like last week against Cleveland, Ben struggled in the early going, making terrible throws and displaying absolutely no mobility thanks to his sprained ankle. He rallied a bit in the second half, leading the team on two long scoring drives to force overtime, although once again it was a story of too many missed opportunities.
Not that Ben got much help from his teammates. As I predicted, the offensive line had all kinds of trouble keeping him upright. Ben was sacked five times with Robert Ayers, who at one point threw Max Starks five yards backward like a crash test dummy, notching two sacks to lead the team. Tomlin eventually saw enough and brought in Jonathan Scott to relieve Mad Max but there was more than enough blame to go around. Elvis Dumervil and Von Miller picked on Marcus Gilbert all day while Doug Legursky‘s errant snap cost the Steelers a shot at a field goal to close out the first half. They did a good job run blocking, with Isaac Redman running for 121 tough yards on 17 carries (Rashard Who?), which is about the only nice thing I can say about their performance.
Read More »Wild Card Recap: Hail Tebow
Well, that didn’t go according to plan.
On paper, this had the potential to be one of the craziest final weekends in NFL history. No fewer than a half dozen teams had a realistic shot at a playoff berth. All they had to do was win and hope things fell their way. Naturally, almost every single one of those teams lost.
The Pittsburgh Steelers were one of the few that took care of business. Playing their starters the entire game, they battled the Cleveland Browns to a hard fought 13-9 victory. Unfortunately, the gambit didn’t pay off when the Cincinnati Bengals didn’t hold up their end of the bargain, losing to the Baltimore Ravens 24-16. THE RATBIRDS ONLY HAVE ONE GOOD OFFENSIVE PLAYER AND YOU LET HIM RUN FOR 200 YARDS?!?! Thanks to the Jets, Broncos and Raiders also losing, the Bungles were still rewarded for their incompetence by backdooring into the final Wild Card spot.
If the Steelers fail to make noise in this year’s playoffs, this game is going to be the lightning rod for Steeler Nation’s displeasure. By playing his starters the entire game, Mike Tomlin deprived several injured stars, particularly Ben Roethlisberger, of much needed rest. In addition, the team suffered several fresh injuries, most notably to running back Rashard Mendenhall. The preliminary diagnoses is a torn ACL, which would not only end his season but is usually a career-altering injury for a running back. Regardless, Mendy isn’t going to be playing next week.
Read More »Week 17 Recap: Best Laid Plans
Early in the fourth quarter of yesterday’s game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals, CBS came back from a break with the sound of “Renegade” clearly audible in the background. I love the Steelers unofficial fight song but pulling out the rally hair metal when the Black and Gold are putting the finishing touches on 35-7 ass-whuppin’ is a bit unnecessary. Like when dickish college coaches dial up a 45 yard bomb already up four touchdowns on a Division I-AA opponent. Or when an NFL team gives their asshat head coach a Gatorade bath for winning a regular season game.
To paraphrase the late great Myron Cope, “Renegade,” like the power of the Terrible Towel, should be saved for when we really need it.
I won’t lie, I thought we were in for a loooong afternoon after the Steelers began yesterday’s game with a three and out in which Mike Wallace dropped a 20 yard pass that hit him in the hands. Andy Dalton responded by hooking up with AJ Green for 43 yards a few plays later. Normally dependable Ike Taylor had a rough time keeping up with Green all afternoon, although did have his second pick of the season later on. The Bengals had a first and goal at the Steelers 8 before you could say, “Anything you can do, I can do better.”
Then the Bungles we all know and love made an appearance.
On third and goal, a touchdown to Jermaine Gresham was wiped out on a false start by Green. Karma, I suppose, for the touchdown the Steelers got taken off the board by a holding penalty in the first game. Cincy lined up for a glorified extra point but were late snapping the ball so Mike Nugent’s field goal didn’t count. On his second attempt, Cameron Heyward blew through the line and Nugent’s kick ricocheted off his big paw. Three golden scoring chances wasted.
Read More »Week 13 Recap: Once A Bungle, Always A Bungle
[intlink id=”166″ type=”category”]Pittsburgh Steelers[/intlink] head coach Mike Tomlin’s weekly press conference yielded little as usual. [intlink id=”41″ type=”category”]Aaron Smith [/intlink]continues to be out with a bad case of ineffectivitis while Marcus Gilbert, [intlink id=”131″ type=”category”]Casey Hampton[/intlink] and [intlink id=”85″ type=”category”]Chris Kemoeatu [/intlink]are all “questionable,” whatever the hell that means. The only definitive information we received was running back [intlink id=”88″ type=”category”]Rashard Mendlenhall [/intlink]would definitely be ready for this weekend’s game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Praise Allah!
Steeler Nation, though, do we really care?
Last week, Jonathan Dwyer and [intlink id=”168″ type=”category”]Isaac Redman[/intlink] combined to produce the Steelers best rushing attack of the season. The two combined for 156 yards on 26 carries. Mendy has 173 yards for the entire season. What’s more, he hasn’t really been that great dating all the way back to last season. The last time the Steelers have had back-to-back 100 yard rushing performances was by Fast Willie Parker in 2008.
Read More »Mendenhall Is Healthy, Do We Care?