Steelers Morning Huddle 8/23/2013
By Kim Myers
Huddle up!
The Steelers are back in their home on the South Side (be careful Mike Adams) and are preparing for the next preseason matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs. It has been very up and down the past few days with regards to Rookie RB Le’Veon Bell and his injured foot. Also there’s some confused feelings stemming from Bill Cowher wearing eyeliner. It’s been a rough week.
Bell won’t need surgery for foot injury
The news that the Steelers and Steeler Nation wanted to hear most this week came to us Thursday when it was announced that Le’Veon Bell would not need surgery to repair his sprained foot. Initially, it was feared that Bell had suffered a Lisfranc injury, which is torn ligaments in the foot, and would be out for an extended period of time following surgery. Now, the reports are, according to Alan Robinson of the Trib, that Bell won’t need surgery and is expected to be back soon.
"“I feel like if my foot even gets close for me being able to play on it, I’m going to try to play on it.”-Le’Veon Bell"
While that is more encouraging news when you stop and think that a running back, who was known for his durability at Michigan State, has gone from a bruised knee to a sprained foot in the span of a couple of weeks it makes me a little nervous about the state of the Steelers running game. I know that Jonathan Dwyer has looked good in the preseason and the new zone blocking scheme is supposed to improve the running game I just don’t know how you get different results out of basically the same lineup as last year without Bell. It’s encouraging and discouraging all at the same time. Confusing right?
Bill Cowher has lost his mind
Want to know what else is confusing? How in the hell did Bill Cowher get talked into doing a music video for a rock band in which he wore eyeliner. The lead singer for said band is rumored to be Cowher’s girlfriend so that might have something to do with it. She must have given him a really good…convincing argument. You can watch the music video here. Unfortunately once you see it, you can’t unsee it. Makes me wonder what those diehard Cowher fans think about this. You know those fans who think Cowher was so rough and tough and say that if Cowher was still coaching the Steelers he wouldn’t put up with any crap? Maybe he wouldn’t put up with crap, but apparently he’d also wear some makeup.
Charlie Batch about Ben and Todd
Yinzer favorite and former backup quarterback Charlie Batch played the role of ex-lax this week as he was starting some crap about the seemingly never-ending drama that is Ben Roethlisberger and Todd Haley’s relationship. Batch said on the Steelers radio network pregame show, where he is now the new host, that Ben wasn’t given the ability to audible last season and things have changed for this season, giving Ben more leeway with the offense. Stop it. Just stop it. Here’s the thing. Everyone knew that Ben wasn’t happy about the departure of BA. Maybe Ben should have been more in the loop in the hiring process being that he’s the franchise quarterback, maybe he shouldn’t. That’s a Rooney call. But there’s no denying that Ben kinda acted like a big ole baby when Todd Haley arrived and tried to institute his offense when Ben thought the old BA offense was just fine and dandy. The result? Ben was having an MVP-caliber year before he got injured but the running game never got established and the team ultimately underachieved their way to missing the playoffs. So there needed to be some compromising from both sides, obviously. Todd needs to trust that Ben knows how to lead the offense and make decisions during the game and Ben needs to trust that Todd is the OC and can institute a scheme if he thinks it will work. They need to trust each other and by all accounts for far this year, they do now. That’s all that matters to me. They need to be able to run the ball effectively. That’s a must. However they get there, just friggin get there.
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