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Pittsburgh Steelers

Week 12 Recap: Thanksgiving Hangover

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Ummmm… Did somebody forget to tell the Black and Gold their bye week ended on Sunday?

The Pittsburgh Steelers put on a dull, sloppy, uninspired performance last night in defeating the Kansas City Chiefs 13-9. The teams got into a mini-Battle Royal during pre-game warm-ups and the Chiefs defense brought that fired up attitude into the game. If you’re a fan of offensive football, this was not a game for you as the bumbling Steeler offense couldn’t get on track despite the inept KC offense trying over and over to give them the game. Much like the Colts game earlier this season, the Steelers played down to the level of their opponent long enough that a team they should have blown-out like a birthday candle was in position to drive for the winning score in the final minutes.

The Steelers defense did all they could despite getting hit hard by injuries. LaMarr Woodley missed his third straight game while Troy Polamalu was lost on the first series. Once again, the reason for his absence is being listed as “concussion-like symptoms” which is Steeler-speak for “He probably has a concussion but we don’t want to make him go through all those baseline tests to get him back on the field.” Even without two of their top defensive players, the defense put on one of their better efforts of the year, holding the Chiefs to 250 yards of total offense and forcing four turnovers. Three of those came on interceptions, including one by noted stonehands Ike Taylor.

Considering the “pass” he intercepted more closely resembled a punt, I would expect Face Me Ike’s next one to occur sometime around 2013.
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Know Thy Enemy: Kansas City Chiefs

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Once again, apologies for my tardiness in getting this posted. As this sunny Florida weather will likely be the last 70+ degree days I’ll see before heading back to the ‘Burgh, I have been taking full advantage of my last minute trip south. I promise I’ll get things back on track starting Monday.

Fear not, dear readers, I will be home in time for tomorrow’s game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Kansas City Chiefs. As will most of you since the game will be on Sunday Night Football. So you can count on getting your fill of my insightful analysis and corny jokes come Monday. Speaking of which, cue Faith Hill in hooker boots!

I’ll be honest,  I’m not all that jazzed up about this game. When NBC put it on their schedule, I’m sure it looked like a potentially interesting match-up. Unfortunately, the Chiefs have been ravished by injury and currently sit at 4-6. While that puts them only two games out of first in the stunningly mediocre AFC West, they aren’t exactly a viable playoff contender at this point. This was made all the more apparent last Monday when the Patriots clobbered them 34-3 to extend their current losing streak to three.
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Giving Thanks To The Black And Gold

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The good news is my computer finally seems to be up and running so I shouldn’t be MIA again this season. The bad news (well, it’s good for me) is I booked a last minute flight to Tampa so I could spend Turkey Day with my parents. Oh, I could stay here in Pittsburgh but between me and the couple thousand of you who read this blog faithfully every day, my aunt is a really lousy cook. A few Thanksgivings ago, she actually cooked the turkey with the giblets still inside.

Anyway, since I have to pack quickly so I can hurry up and wait (and wait and wait) in what promises to be an epic line at the airport, today’s update will have to be a quickie. Without further ado, here are ten Pittsburgh Steelers related-reasons I’m thankful this Thanksgiving.
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Sidney Crosby Is Back (And So Am I)

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Last night, Sidney Crosby returned to the Pittsburgh Penguins after suffering a concussion nearly a year ago. Today, I return to the blogosphere. What a great day for Pittsburgh sports fans!

Seriously, though, while football is my first love, hockey is a close second. I was born the same year the Pittsburgh Steelers won their first Super Bowl so I’m not really old enough to remember the Steel Dynasty. The first championship I actually experienced as a fan was the Penguins’ 1991 Stanley Cup. And to Tina DiCapula’s ever-lasting chagrin, you never forget your first time.

For those ex-‘Burghers out there, the atmosphere around town was absolutely electric once word got out that Sid was returning. We take our sports very seriously here and there has been no subject of greater importance or which inspired more angst than the condition of Sid’s noggin’. Once the game got underway, Sid rose to the occasion by scoring on his first shot roughly two minutes in. The crowd went absolutely insane and all was right with the world.
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William Gay Is A Lucky Man [Photos]

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It’s good to be William Gay.

When the season began, Will.i.am was the Pittsburgh Steelers much-maligned nickelback. An injury to starter Bryant McFadden combined with some unexpectedly excellent play earned him a permanent spot in the starting line-up. A couple weeks ago, Gay was the whipping boy on local talk shows for surrendering the game-winning touchdown to the Baltimore Ravens (even though it was loudmouth Ryan Clark who was supposed to provide help over the top and bailed on his assignment). Last week, Gay redeemed himself by almost single-handedly wrecking the Cincinnati Bengals with an interception and a pass deflection which resulted in another pick.

Willie isn’t just ballin’ on the field, he’s rolling large in his personal life as well. Last month, ESPN The Magazine came out with their annual Body Issue. For those who avoid anything stamped with the Four Letter, the Body Issue is their silly attempt to one-up Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Issue. Instead of Brazillian models in skimpy swimwear, ESPN decided to go with a bunch of athletes in softcore jock porn.

Actually, that’s not completely fair. If I were 12 and growing up in the pre-internet era, it’d be salacious but in today’s world the pictures are pretty tame. The females cover up their good bits with hand bras or strategically placed props. The male athletes (yes, they shoot men, too) do their best Austin Powers impersonation. All they really show is the occasional ass, and it’s usually the guys doing the mooning. The story around Pittsburgh is they asked Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury to be the hockey representative but he turned them down. Sorry, ladies.

I don’t think I could take another half-naked Pittsburgh athlete. I’m still recovering from last year’s issue where they featured CASEY HAMPTON? Click on this link, if you dare.

On a far less frightening note, one athlete who did pose in this year’s Body Issue was sprinter Natasha Hastings. Natasha is the current girlfriend of William Gay. In fact, she told a reporter she got his blessing before accepting ESPN’s offer. Anyway, if you want to take a look at Natasha’s ESPN Body Issue photos, click on the rest of this post. Once again, they’re nothing too explicit but you may want to be careful if you’re at work.

Enjoy.
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Steeler Nation Sound-Off: Bye Bye Week

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Old buddy Chris here. In my continuing effort to enjoy my own little personal bye week, I asked our pal Hennessy if he had any ideas for yet another guest commentary. In return, he had a question for me. I didn’t have an answer and the result of my ignorance is now before your beady little eyes…

Your faithful football commentators Chris and Hennessy are both stumped on this question. What determines Which Team has a bye week When? Seriously, leave a comment and drop some knowledge if you know. Every year we can’t wait to find out who we are going to play, then we eagerly await learning when we will play them (date, time and whims of NBC execs pending), and then we tune into ESPN (Lord have mercy on our souls) for commentary on the other 31 teams.

So now we know the schedule, right?

We know when to adjust our Steeler-biased fantasy team, right?

But why this week!?! Why do I have to bench Rashard Mendenhall when he has finally learned what the white line in front of the end zone means? TWICE in the SAME game!!!!!
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Thumbs Up! Hatin’ On Big Ben In Decline

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Sorry for the tardiness of this update but if the Pittsburgh Steelers get a week off to rest, I figured I could take a morning to sleep in.

So, anyway, Ben Roethlisberger is hurt again. I know, I know… SHOCKING. Evidently, he re-broke his thumb on one of the Bengals’ approximately 248 knockdowns last Sunday. I say “re-broke” because some of you may recall Ben suffered a broken thumb back in 2005. I also seem to think he had some sort of issue with his hand last year which necessitated him wearing gloves but to be perfectly honest the Big Drama Queen has so many injuries I simply can’t keep track of them all.

To be fair, Ben doesn’t whine and complain about his injuries like many other players are apt to do. With hindsight being 20/20, it did seem like something was up on Sunday. He’s never been the most accurate passer and he’s never been particularly great at throwing a deep ball but he did look off on a lot of his throws, most notably when he missed a wide open Mike Wallace. The Flash blew by the coverage and Ben only had to loft it about 15 yards or so down the field and Wallace would’ve had 50 yards of green grass ahead of him.
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So, About That 18 Game Season…

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Don’t make the Football Gods angry. You wouldn’t like them when they’re angry. Clearly, the NFL’s illustrious commissioner ran afoul of them with his harebrained proposal to increase the schedule to 18 games. And the Football Gods have shown the Ginger Dictator who’s boss.

A little less than a week ago, I featured a guest post by my good buddy Hennessey. The theme of his piece was, “What would the Pittsburgh Steelers do if they lost Ben Roethlisberger?”  Stay calm, Steeler Nation, Big Ben is fine. However, that post turned out to be an eerie prediction of things to come for a number of other NFL teams.

Hennessey, if you’re reading this, hook a brother up with this week’s Lotto numbers?

When the story of the 2011 season is written, yesterday will be known as Black Monday. Two AFC teams with playoff aspirations lost their starting quarterbacks for the year. Matt Cassel of the Kansas City Chiefs suffered “a hand injury” which appears to be very serious. The Houston Texans’ Matt Schaub has suffered a Lisfranc injury which is a fancy way of saying he hurt his foot really really bad. Then there is the Dream Team, the Philadelphia Eagles, who revealed their quarterback had two broken ribs which would likely keep him out of action indefinitely.
Read More »So, About That 18 Game Season…

Week 10 Recap: Steelers Have A Gay Old Time

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All is right with the world.

The Pittsburgh Steelers bounced back from last weekend’s soul-crushing loss by defeating the Cincinnati Bengals 24-17 in what was a road game in name only. While Steeler Nation is to be commended for taking over yet another stadium, I implore them to not read too much into this victory. The temptation to say “Well, Cincy is what we thought they were” will be great even though this game was every bit as close as the final score indicates. From what I saw yesterday, I truly believe Cincy will be the team we battle for control of the AFC North in years to come.

The Black and Gold got off to a fast start, scoring touchdowns on their first two drives of the afternoon. The first drive concluded with Ben Roethlisberger scrambling away from danger and finding Jerricho Cotchery in the end zone for his first Steeler TD. The Cotch Rocket would later have another TD wiped off the board on a similar catch-and-run. I hate to belabor this point since it makes me sound like a Hines Ward hater, which I’m definitely not, but why is this guy not playing more? Hines, who spent almost the entire game on the sideline, caught one ball for 10 yards as it appears his career is quickly reaching an end.
Read More »Week 10 Recap: Steelers Have A Gay Old Time