Celebration has been the word of the week in Pittsburgh. No, not celebration that the once dominant Pittsburgh Steelers finally won a game. Rather, celebration in reference to the antics of wide receivers Antonio Brown and Emmanuel Sanders. Of the two, Sanders’ flip dive into the end zone was probably the dumber of the two although in his defense at least his came as a result of scoring a touchdown. AB evidently thinks tying his shoelaces is worthy of a pose and ain’t I great? gesture.
Well, Mike Tomlin is putting his foot down on the latter. In his weekly press conference – I’m crushed at work so my eagerly anticipated weekly recap will be up tomorrow morning – one of the local media cheerleaders actually had the balls to ask him about the team’s excessive celebrations. Tomlin revealed he had banned Sanders style end zone dives from this point forward due to “The potential for injury.” Read More »Tomlin Bans Idiotic Celebrations
I’m not a bandwagon jumper. I was loyal to the Pittsburgh Pirates back when they were in the midst of yet another losing 90+ loss season just like I was loyal to the Penguins in the years B.C. (Before Crosby). Admittedly, the fact they offered Student Rush tickets to us poor college kids may or may not have had something to do with that. Point is, I stuck with those teams because even though they weren’t very good, they were my hometown teams. And I also stuck with them because while they may have not have been talented, they were comprised of decent guys who tried their best.
Well, maybe not the Pens the year they won the Sid Sweepstakes…
Which brings us to the Pittsburgh Steelers. I made the point last year that being bad is one thing, being tough to root for is quite another. Now I have no idea of this year’s team is one the precipice of turning the season around or if they’re destined for yet another miserable playoff-less campaign. What I do know is it’d be a whole lot easier to root for them win or lose if they didn’t employ so many thoroughly detestable characters.
As of this writing, the match-up between the Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Giants is slated to kick-off in MetLife Stadium Sunday afternoon as scheduled.… Read More »Know Thy Enemy: New York Giants
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
The Pittsburgh Steelers 2012 Revenge Tour continues this weekend against the New York Jets. Last week, it was a return date with the team that knocked them out of last year’s playoffs. On Sunday, they face the quarterback who engineered what is destined to go down as one of the most shocking losses in Black and Gold history. Let’s hope the second time’s a charm.
It’s a marquee match-up between two marquee franchises who will take the field minus some marquee names. Read on.
STEELERS DEFENSE vs JETS OFFENSE
The QB being referenced in my intro is of course Tim Tebow, who was traded from the Broncos to the Jets over the off-season. And while he’s listed as a QB, Tebow isn’t the Jets current QB. That dubious honor is still held by Mark Sanchez. Thus far in 2012, St. Timmy hasn’t done any actual quarterbacking, instead being used to run the ball out of the option and occasionally lining up at split end.
Sanchez enters his fourth NFL season at a critical point in his career. He led the Jets to the AFC Championship game his first two years before ultimately falling short against the Colts and Steelers. The team regressed last year, falling to 8-8 and missing the playoffs. Despite having his best year so far, statistically speaking, veteran receivers Derrick Mason, Plaxico Burress and Santonio Holmes pointed to his lousy work ethic and penchant for making drive killing mistakes as the reasons the offense struggled.
Jets management evidently disagreed with that assessment, ditching Mason and Plax (and probably would’ve cut ‘Tone as well except they signed him to a lucrative 5 year deal prior to the 2011 season) and giving Sanchez a contract extension. Instead, offensive coordinator Brian Shottenheimer was made the scapegoat for a disappointing season. The team brought in former Dolphins head coach Tony Sparano, whose experience at calling plays is limited to one year under Bill Parcells with the Dallas Cowboys.
After neither Sanchez or Tebow led a single TD drive during the preseason, the Jets exploded for 48 points last week against the Buffalo Bills. As it’s early in the season, it’s hard to say if the Jets offense is that good or the Bills’ D is just that bad. What we do know is the Jets featured a balanced attack with RB Shonn Greene rushing 27 times for 94 yards while Sanchez threw 27 times, completing 19 for 266. Rookie Stephen Hill, a big (6’4) quick kid out of Georgia Tech caught two of Sanchez’s three TDs.
The good news is it appears the Jets will be without one of Sanchez’s favorite targets, TE Dustin Keller. The bad news is it appears the Steelers will be without two former Defensive Players of the Year. As usual, Mike Tomlin was full of BS on Tuesday when he claimed both Troy Polamalu and James Harrison should be ready on Sunday. Neither practiced on Friday which pretty much guarantees neither will see the field this weekend. Read More »Know Thy Enemy: New York Jets
Last week, I wrote about a bunch of NFL players who were unhappy about being Franchised and threatening to not sign their offer sheets. Well,… Read More »Mike Wallace Neglected Once Again
