Archive for August, 2011

It’s been spreading around quickly that LaMarr Woodley is featured on Sports Illustrated’s September cover for SI’s NFL Preview.  As well he should be.  LaMarr is THE up and coming LB in the NFL.  He continues to improve from season to season and just signed a nice six year deal worth over $60 million.  LaMarr had 50 tackles, 10 sacks (only James Harrison had more with 10.5), 3 forced fumbles, and 2 INT’s (one returned for a TD).  He works the outside like he owns it.  The duo of Harrison and Woodley leaves no outside safe for any offense.  Congrats [...]

After another preseason ripe with QB Drama, the results are in, and things don’t look much different than last year. In 2010 it took injuries to both Dixon and Byron Leftwich before Batch was named the #2 quarterback. Today, Batch was named the starter for the fourth preseason game, effectively locking him in that #2 spot. It only took an injury by Leftwich, and questionable play by Dixon to make it happen.

The Steelers head to Carolina tomorrow to take on the Panthers and Cam Newton’s sub 50% completion percentage.  Why Carolina decided to draft Newton instead of Dareus or somebody else is beyond me.  Anyways, before I go off on a tangent about why spread QB’s are ill suited for the N.F.L. game, let’s get to the matter at hand: the Steelers are playing their final preseason game and the final cuts will be made on Saturday September 3rd.  Since this will be their last game-time opportunity to prove something to the Coaching Staff, look for those with the most to [...]

Last season, I wasn’t pleased with Madden ’11, and was thanking my lucky stars that I decided to rent the game for a few days before buying.  I’m glad I did, and I was starting to lose my faith in the franchise that has it’s finger on the pulse of NFL fans’ joy buttons (I believe that’s the ‘X’ button on the PS3).  But, Madden ’12 redeems itself and the solitary rights to digitizing the NFL so that we can live out our own ‘Beat Tom Brady Silly’ dreams.  The biggest improvement for me in this edition is the defensive [...]

I know it is about time I allowed my repressed hatred of Roger Goodell to pass, but the commissioner just continues to act in ways that leave me and so many other NFL fans scratching their heads. All of you out there in Steeler nation are obviously well aware of the “sensitivity” Goodell has shown Steeler players when dealing with fines and suspensions. The commissioner has not hesitated to suspend Steeler players, fine Steeler players, or use players in the Steelers organization as examples for what is wrong to do in the league. But on Saturday, when the commissioner had [...]

Yesterday I wrote about how Antonio Brown could potentially have a huge season for the Steelers.  His big game on Saturday night was a continuation of how impressive and consistent he’s been this preseason.  But has he been the most impressive?  We’ve seen some good solid and eyebrow raising play from others as well.  Isaac Redman has done well while he’s been getting his time in this preseason.  The same could be said for rookie Donovan Warren and 2nd year man Jonathan Dwyer.  So, Nation, who’s been the most impressive?  Don’t see someone below – tell me who you think has [...]

    What we learned after Week 3 of the NFL preseason: Injuries dominate the headlines during preseason San Francisco and Oakland play separate games and no one got shot Ndamukong Suh is the NFL’s newest bad boy of hard hits The Steelers have an impressive game against the Falcons but lose Leftwich in the process   We’re finally down to the last week of preseason games and are more than ready to see the regular season kick off.  But first, let’s go over some of the things that happened during the 3rd week of the preseason.

If you missed last night’s preseason game against the Atlanta Falcons and heard that the Steelers scored on 77-yard and 44-yard touchdown passes from Big Ben, most of us would think that at least one of them came from Mike Wallace.  Most of us would be wrong, and that is a good thing for the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offense.

Yeah, I’m pretty proud of myself with that title. So many puns and other literal devices. Genius. So, last night Charlie caught a break when Leftwich broke his arm against the Atlanta Falcons. I would obviously never wish harm to anyone, but I have to say “I told you so.”

The Steelers will be matching up against the Atlanta Falcons and Mike Mayock’s favorite QB in Week 3 of the preseason at Heinz Field.  With the regular season looming in the immediate future, playing well in tonight’s game will be vital to those on the team that are are either vying for starting spots or spots in the final 53 in general.  That being said, there are some guys on the team that I will be watching more closely than others over the next two weeks, because they have the most to gain/lose/prove, and thus will be very interesting to [...]