Archive for September, 2011

Every week, I will be contacting the editor of the FanSided team blog the Steelers are playing that Sunday.  This week I wrote five questions to Rick Brokaw, editor of the Texans blog Toro Times.  Check out what he has to say after the jump, and be sure to visit his site and let him know what you think about what he has to say.

Ok, so I realize that it’s only been 3 weeks, and we’re sitting at 2-1 right now. Not bad by any means. But, if you look at this thing with a microscope, you’ll find that the current situation is troubling at best, regardless of where our Pass Defense ranks at this particular moment. I could walk you through a list of the games, and specific moments in each that scare the crap out of me, but I think it’s simpler than that. I know you feel it. Deep down you’re thinking, “are we just a bad football team right now?” [...]

Friends, fellow Citizens of The One and Only Nation, I hate to be all doom and gloom after a win, but to quote Shakespeare, “Something wicked this way comes.” If you watched the game on Sunday night from Indianapolis, you have to concede that things do not look good. I think their record belies how the Steelers are playing, and I’m starting to think the opening game against the Ravens is closer to the reality of how this season is going to be than the last two games. I’m going to tell you why.

When I first heard Vick’s comments about the lack of roughing the passer calls going his way after the Eagles’ loss Sunday to the Giants I shrugged it off since that’s an all too similar story to us Steeler fans.  But the more I heard about it, and heard all the NFL analyst’s opinions on it, the more I felt the need to play the conspiracy theory game.  Of course I’m going to include Ben in Vick’s argument.  Although the two are very different quarterbacks, they have striking similarities because of their habit of extending plays, shaky offensive lines, controversial [...]

The initial nominations for the 2012 Class in the Hall of Fame were announced yesterday afternoon.  A few Steelers were are there – most notably Bill Cowher, who is in his first year of eligibility.  Jerome Bettis and Dermontti Dawson, finalists on last years ballot, are on the list again.  Clearly, we all love our Steelers.  But, are these three worthy to be part of a class that also includes players like Herschel Walker, Tim Brown, Sterling Sharpe, Charles Haley, Darren Woodson and Jimmy Johnson?  I say yes.  For a complete list of players, coaches and contributors who are nominated see here.  Then come on back [...]

The talk of the past week has been how awful the offensive line has been and how that has translated into a non-existant running game and Ben Roethlisberger stumbling and fumbling (literally) for his life.  But what many are not talking about is how the defense has become uncharacteristically #1 in the league against the pass.  But before you begin to pick up your jaw and do a dance of praise to the football gods, let’s venture as to why this is.  The findings are a little unsettling.

Injuries: Chris Carter played, experienced soreness, Marcus Gilbert looks like he’ll be OK and will be practicing and playing next week, Arnaz Battle has a swollen knee and will be limited in practice, Brett Keisel is recovering from his PCL sprain and will be coming back might be practicing this week, Doug Legursky (shoulder) and Jonathan Scott (ankle) can both be characterized as questionable. Tomlin the addressed the Offensive line that has been slowly melting down. “We are open to looking to maybe bring someone in. We haven’t had any definitive plans in that regard as of yet” Cotchery will [...]

Because the Houston Texans are the N.F.L.’s newest team, they haven’t had much of a storied series with essentially any franchise outside of their own division.  In fact, Houston has only played three games against Pittsburgh in their nascent history.  Since I usually do a Top 5 Countdown of the best games between the Steelers and their upcoming opponents for my Wednesday articles, I came to find myself in a bit of a pickle.  So instead of constructing a countdown, I’m just going to go over each game that has been played between these two franchises from 2002-Present.  I figure [...]

Remember Bizarro World?  No, not the planet in DC comics where superhero’s are the opposite of what the are on Earth. (Excuse me while I push up my nerd glasses)  I’m talking about the Sunday comic strip just below Garfield where there’s a twisted spin on the reality of some pop culture topic – usually funny but always guaranteed to be just weird. Well the Steelers are currently living in Bizarro World… unfortunately no one is laughing.  It’s just weird.

What we learned after Week 3 in the NFL: No lead is safe The “Dream Team” is in the middle of a bad dream in Philly Brady and Belichick are sore losers Don’t look now but the Buffalo Bills are the only undefeated team left in the AFC Newton slowed by a monsoon in Carolina but finally gets a win Flacco and rookie receiver clicking on offense Steelers get win in Indy with a battered offensive line Week 3 might have well been the week of late come-back finishes, or epic collapses, depending on how you look at the games.  [...]