Big Ben Says No Date For Return

 Posted by at 5:30 am  Uncategorized  Comments Off on Big Ben Says No Date For Return
Oct 072015
 

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Over the weekend, CBS Sports issued a report which got Steeler Nation‘s attention. According to their “sources,” quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is expected to make his return to the Pittsburgh Steelers on October 25th. That would be exactly four weeks from the initial injury, which was the best case scenario given at the time. Unfortunately, there’s one little problem with this news.

Big Ben says it’s not true. Continue reading »

Pittsburgh Steelers: Complete Seven Round Draft

 Posted by at 10:16 am  Uncategorized  Comments Off on Pittsburgh Steelers: Complete Seven Round Draft
Apr 292014
 

Kyle Van Noy

The Pittsburgh Steelers have put themselves into a very uncomfortable situation — mediocrity and lacking talent. Regardless of why, several positions are in dire need of help. Most would agree on the positions that need addressed — wide receiver, cornerback, defensive line.

Others feel as if inside linebacker, safety, offensive line and tight end are areas of need. I agree with all, but there are only so many picks that can be used in a single draft. Just because you need all of these things doesn’t mean that you draft one of each. Most draft picks will not work out anyway and some may not even make it through training camp. The Steelers must find contributors.

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Pittsburgh Steelers Plan is Clear

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Uncategorized  Comments Off on Pittsburgh Steelers Plan is Clear
Mar 272014
 

Ben Roethlisberger and Le'Veon Bell

The Pittsburgh Steelers have not made any huge splashes this offseason in free agency. That is partially due to their current cap situation, but that may not be the only reason. It seems like the Steelers feel fine with the way last year ended.

As most remember, the Steelers started the season 2-6. However, the team ended the season at 8-8, going 6-2 in their final eight games. That’s a complete 180 degree turnaround from the first eight games. It’s apparent that the Steelers as an organization feel they were right there last year. They aren’t wrong, either. The Steelers were in it until the very end and narrowly missed the postseason. So what exactly is the plan?

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Iron City Six Pack: Steelers-Raiders Edition

 Posted by at 5:52 am  Big Ben, Heath Miller, Redzone Redman, Six Pack, Uncategorized, Young Money  Comments Off on Iron City Six Pack: Steelers-Raiders Edition
Sep 262012
 

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, too. With hockey season on permanent hiatus (Thanks Bettman…BOOOO!), he thought it would be cool to do our own version of the 3 Stars of the Game. Of course, we have to list three goats as well.

Chris then had the brilliant notion, “If I’m going to do a weekly segment named after the Steel City’s favorite swill beer, why not ask the guy named after booze to do it?”

We hope you play along at home. List your three stars and three goats in the comments and maybe we can get some Pittsburgh Steelers talk going up in this bitch.

3 Stars of the Week

Ben Roethlisberger:

Todd Haley seems to be taking the chains off one link at a time, allowing Ben to air the ball out almost 50 times against Oakland. Completing 36 of those passes kept Pittsburgh in the game, and he managed to be the only player on offense not trying to turn the ball over, managing 0 interceptions and 0 fumbles. Ben looked more like himself on Sunday by scrambling and extending broken-down plays, while also taking several un-flagged shots to the legs. He kept trucking and lobbed four TD passes before the nightmare was over. Hats-off to the man in charge of a relatively productive offensive performance.

Heath Miller:

I don’t think it is worth mentioning again but Heeeeeaaath may be the most underrated player in the NFL. Ben has stated publicly that he fears the thought of playing without #83 on the field, and showed why against Oakland. Miller tied Wallace with eight receptions on the day, and managed to pull two of those down within the goal line. The often overlooked side of Heath was also apparent, as his “addition of another lineman” blocking style cleared the way for Ben to mark up 384 yards in the air. Heath’s block-and-catch presence has helped cement the weak O-Line for years, and proved its worth again on Sunday.

LaMarr Woodley:

Woodley was the only visible presence on the defense after Clark’s 1st play interception of Kimo von Oelhoffen’s old snuggle buddy. He set a benchmark by bringing down Palmer for his 50th career sack, only the 8th player in Black and Gold history to reach that milestone. Coming from a Steelers defense that missed more tackles than a communications major, Woodley added a much-needed wall behind the front-line. It was far from a stellar performance, but with Troy and Harrison sitting on the sideline it was critical that someone step up and lead the defensive effort.

3 Goats of the Week

Wallace, Brown and the Ball Control Circus:

No NFL coach has gone a full season without mouthing their version of “you can’t win games if you turn the ball over.” This is only true if the recovering team capitalizes on the generosity, which Oakland did twice. AB and Wallace tossed the ball around the field like the equipment manager filled them with helium. Oakland was viciously punching at the ball all afternoon, and our stellar receiving core seemed happy to act as their personal speed bags. Brown corralled his own fumble for a TD and Wallace saved his drop in the 3rd but the offense still let two of them go to the bad guys. The resulting scores surely didn’t help the Steelers’ cause.

The Secondary:

I stay away from fretting about injuries changing the outcome of the game. Every team has sidelined players, men hobbling off the field, and a less-than 100% roster on both sides of the ball. That being said, PLEASE COME BACK TROY. The position of safety is meant to be an “if all else fails” position. In the last three games when “all else failed,” so did our safety. Darren McFadden was the potential undoing of this victory, and he owned it. When Ryan Mundy wasn’t busy trying to get fined for sloppy hits or letting a weak receiving core burn him, he was trotting around wondering what to do when McFadden finally broke through. Answer: Fall on the ground and let him score. Pathetic.

Isaac Redman:

I chose to single out Redman only because he was the starter listed at our non-existent RB slot. Between Redman, Dwyer, Batch, and Rainey, the running game did less damage to Oakland than the San Andreas Fault. Redman put up 27 of their pathetic 54 total yards on the ground, so I guess in some parallel universe he is due credit for not running backwards or fumbling 5 times (Dwyer handled the fumbling honors). I hope Haley hasn’t been watching old tapes of Amos Zereoue to prepare for his dawning of the “New-Old Stillerz Football”.

This Week’s cure for your Six-Pack Hangover:

Much like an open bar at your ex’s remarriage, we should have known this would end up bad. What started off as a chance to drink free whiskey and rekindle an old rivalry quickly turned into seething hatred. Oh, and before you left, you made sure to make an ass out of yourself.

Unfortunately, the next scheduled chance to make up for that night on the town is two seasons away. At least we have a chance to lay low, use the upcoming bye week to rest our heads and headaches, and get ready for handling our swill a little better when we face yet another bi-annual pain in the ass, the Philadelphia Eagles.

Steelers Face Future At NFL Draft

 Posted by at 7:17 am  NFL Draft, Uncategorized  Comments Off on Steelers Face Future At NFL Draft
Apr 252012
 

Tomorrow night is round one of the 2012 NFL Draft. Because when it comes to the NFL, nothing is worth doing that isn’t worth overdoing, rounds two and three follow the next evening. And on Saturday, we finish up with rounds four through seven. Throughout this three day marathon, you can be assured of two things. First, draft guru/demigod Mel Kiper will have a scouting report on every player no matter if they went to Ohio State or Slippery Rock University. And secondly, the event will culminate with the naming of Mr. Irrelevant, the very last pick of the entire draft who usually receives nice little rewards like a new car, a trip to Disneyland and/or dirty monkey sex from a young lady of questionable morals.

I try to avoid overblown statements like “This is the most important draft in recent Pittsburgh Steelers history” here on Total Steelers. But the fact is, um, this is the most important draft in recent Steelers history. The Black and Gold lost a number of players over the off-season, at least five of whom were starters on last year’s team. With no outside help coming in, it’ll be up to General Manager Kevin Colbert and company to once again build through the draft.

Going back almost ten years, the Steelers have had the luxury of using their picks to bolster depth and prepare for the future. Lawrence Timmons sat behind Larry Foote his first two years. Ziggy Hood served as a back-up to Aaron Smith and Bret Keisel. Even LaMarr Woodley had to wait a year while Clark Haggans started ahead of him. Well, those days are over. The future is now.

For the first time in years, the Steelers have multiple openings in the starting line-up. Willie Gay has gone (Pittsburgh) West, leaving only chronic underachiever Keenan Lewis and a couple of second year players (Cortez Allen and Curtis Brown) to replace him. Long-time defensive captain James Farrior finally succumbed to Father Time and now we’re left with journeyman Larry Foote and unimpressive youngster Stevenson Sylvester at inside linebacker. And the offensive line, man, the offensive line continues to have more holes than Oakmont. Other than center Maurkice Pouncey, who’s only in the starting line-up until he gets an ingrown toenail, there isn’t a single member of the line I’d rate much above average.

I’m not going to get into this mock draft nonsense which seems to be the rage on football websites and message boards. Hell, I saw one Steelers site posting mocks the day after our soul-crushing loss to Denver. I couldn’t even think about the Steelers without wanting to curl up in the fetal position while watching my Super Bowl XLIII dvd for a week after that game. Anyway, mocking is pretty pointless because after the first ten picks or so, there really is absolutely no way to predict how things will go. The Steelers will move up a handful of spots if a player they really really like starts to slip but usually they let things shake out and hope one of their targets falls into their lap when it’s their turn to pick.

Two names have been frequently assigned to the Steelers. First we have Alabama’s Dont’a Hightower. Hightower is your prototypical inside linebacker, exactly the kind of thumper we need to replace Farrior. In fact, Hightower is so highly rated that rumor has it the Ratbirds are looking to trade up ahead of us so they can draft him as an eventual replacement for Ray Lewis. The other name is Wisconsin guard Kevin Zeitler. Now that the Chris Kemoeatu era is thankfully over, Zeitler is the kind of kid who can step in immediately and start. There have been other names thrown around like Dontari Poe (an athletically gifted nose tackle who shot up draft boards after the combine) and whole host of offensive lineman (tackles Bobbie Massey and Mike Adams, guard Cordy Glenn) that are all possible picks depending on how the draft falls. And then we have corners like Dre Kirkpatrick or Stephon Gilmore, who probably won’t still be around since CB is one of the more highly valued positions in the draft, but either would sorely tempt the Steelers if they were still around at pick #24.

Then we have the later rounds. Good teams find starters in rounds 2 and 3, great teams find them in rounds 4-7. I’m not going through the nearly infinite possibilities available after round 1 but I will say Colbert has acknowledged he absolutely cannot blow rounds 2 and 3 as he’s done in recent drafts. Limas Sweed? Bruce Davis? We can’t afford any more of those kind of mistakes.

Overall, it’ll be interesting to see what positions the team addresses. If we take a running back in rounds 2 or 3, that’d be a pretty clear sign Rashard Mendenhall‘s days are numbered. Will Colbert try to strike late round magic yet again by taking a receiver as insurance in case Mike Wallace continues to behave like an asshole? How about wasting a pick or two by taking a kicker or punter in a the final couple rounds? And will they take a developmental quarterback to compete with grey-hairs Charlie Batch and Troy Smith?

Whatever happens, we know one thing for sure. The 2012 Pittsburgh Steelers will look a lot different than recent incarnations of the team. How many of those players are new faces will be determined over the next three days. And how those new faces play will go a long way in determining whether the 2012 season is a success or another year to forget.