Courtesy www.post-gazette.com

What is the definition of Steeler football? We talk a lot about a hard-hitting stout defense, and a gruesome rushing attack, but where does the pass fit in? When I think of Steeler football, I get images of Jack Lambert, Mean Joe, and Franco Harris. Run the ball, control the clock, and play great defense.

But isn’t the NFL changing?

The new rules, though mostly frustrating for Steelers fans and players, could actually benefit us on the offensive side of the ball as well. We have yet to see the refs protect Ben Roethlisberger, but with these new rule changes, I would be surprised if I didn’t start seeing the yellow flags fly even when it’s Big Ben being hit. So what does this mean for the nature of Steeler football, and in particular, the run game vs. the pass game? (more…)

With 2011 fast approaching, I thought it appropriate to take a look back at the year that was for the Pittsburgh Steelers.  I’ve been following the Black and Gold since the early 80s and can’t remember a more eventful year for my beloved team.  If 2009 was the Best of Times with our sixth Super Bowl championship, 2010 was the Worst of Times.  Regardless of where you stand on many of the respective issues, I don’t think anybody will deny this past year has been by far the most tumultuous for members of Steeler Nation.

January

The Steelers post-Super Bowl campaign came to a disappointing end with a 30-24 win against the Dolphins.  They were virtually eliminated a few weeks earlier with a loss to the Browns on a frigid Thursday night but rallied late with two straight wins over the playoff bound Packers and Ravens.  On the final weekend all they needed was for the Bengals to beat the Jets.  Cincy, clearly terrified of facing the Steelers in the playoffs, ran out their B-team and basically handed the final Wild Card berth to Gang Green.

Big Ben threw 3 TD passes in the finale to finish with 26 to go along with his first 4,000 yard passing season.  It was the first time the Steelers had a 4,000 yard passer, two 1,000 yard receivers, and a 1,000 rusher all in the same year.

A few weeks later, special teams coach Bob Ligashesky was canned as poor coverage was a huge contributor to the team’s failures.  O-line coach Larry Zierlein followed him out the door.

February

Casey Hampton re-signed with the Steelers for three years/$21 million.  That’s a lot of cheeseburgers for the man lovingly referred to as Big Snack.

With that bit of business behind them, the Steelers went ahead with the improbable move of placing the Franchise Player tag on kicker Jeff Reed.

March

Perhaps the darkest day in Steeler history occurred on March 5th when TMZ first reported Ben Roethlisberger was allegedly involved in a sexual assault at a college bar in Milledgeville, Georgia.  Never has an issue polarized Steeler Nation like this one.  I doubt anybody would have ever envisioned a situation where a Pittsburgh player was mocked by everyone from late night comedians to South Park to Eminem.  While information on the case has since cast the behavior of all parties (Ben, the bar, the cops, the loose sorority girls) in unflattering light, there is no question this story will still be discussed long after #7 has hung up his cleats.

Weeks later, in a case of monumentally bad timing, Santonio Holmes was accused of beaning a nappy-headed ho with a shot glass at a bar.  With heat coming down on the Steelers over the Ben incident, there was no way ‘Tone was going to survive yet another black mark on his already growing rap sheet.

In actual on-field related news, the Steelers went on an unprecedented free agent spending spree, re-signing Ryan Clark (4 yrs/$16 million) and bringing back old friends Larry Foote (3 yrs/$9 million) and Antwaan Randle-El (3 yrs/$7 million).

April

Early in the month, the Georgia DA announced Ben would not be facing any chargers in a grandstanding press conference.  His embarrassing performance would be topped a week later when Roger Goodell began his anti-Steelers campaign by slapping Roethlisberger with a six game suspension for a “crime” he was not tried, convicted, or even charged with.

The NFL draft brought rumors the Steelers were willing to trade Big Ben for one of the top three picks.  The only taker seemed to be the Oakland Raiders, who were only offering their 2nd round pick in addition to All-Pro cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha.  Not pleased with the return, Pittsburgh decided to hold on to their erstwhile quarterback.  They did cover their bets by trading for another familiar face, Byron Leftwich, and immediately signing him to an extension.

One person who did get traded was Santonio Holmes.  Word came down Holmes had failed a drug test, no doubt tipping off the crack NFL investigators by tweeting such gems as “Time to wake and bake.”  He was suspended for four games which immediately became the Jets problem by way of a 4th round pick.

The draft brought center Maurkice Pouncey, the long-awaited offensive line help the team has needed for years.  Pouncey was projected as the center of the future although few would imagine how he would exceed expectations in the months to come.  Third rounder Emmanuel Sanders has also shown signs of being a big contributor to the team for years to come.

Jason Worilds, Antonio Brown, Chris Scott, Crezdon Butler, Doug Worthington, Jonathan Dwyer, Stevenson Sylvester, and Thaddeus Gibson rounded out the weekend’s haul.  Perhaps the most notable move at the time was another trade, this time bringing back Bryant McFadden from Pittsburgh West Arizona in an attempt to shore up what had been a terrible secondary.

May

Big Ben made the cover of Sports Illustrated in a feature story about athletes running amok.  The stories of his misbehavior were nothing readers of this site had not heard before as I have always been one of the few bloggers not blinded by hero-worshipping #7.  Ben wasn’t around to answer the media attention as he was sent to a super-secret hospital in upstate New York to undergo mental evaluation (hint:  when shown ink blots, don’t answer “Tits!”).

June

The Georgia DA office released their entire case file from the Roethlisberger investigation.  The video interviews in particular finally gave people a chance to see what a drunken unreliable “witness” the accuser truly was.

In on-field news, Willie Colon tore his achilles during OTAs.

July

Big Ben’s little buddy got him in trouble again when he was named in a public urination case.  Hey, he was golfing.  I don’t blame anybody for chugging a few beers to make such a mind-numbingly boring activity somewhat entertaining.

Mike Tomlin had his contract extended for three years, putting to end any rumors the Steelers were questioning his abilities after the disaster of 2009.

On a truly sad note, Kaye Cowher lost her battle with cancer.

August

Super Bowl XL referee Bill Leavy claimed he cost the Seahawks the game with bad calls.  This led to a firestorm and one of NPC’s most commented non-Ben posts as pathetic Seahag fans stopped cutting their wrists long enough to flock to this news like Seattle hipsters flock to a Starbucks.  Here’s an idea, instead of whining about bad calls in a game four years ago, why not put together ANOTHER winning team and get back to the big game?

Training camp became a war between Team Dixon and Team Leftwich as both camps argued over who should start in Ben’s absence.  The Steelers took a day off to attend the Hall of Fame induction ceremony of beloved defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau.  LeBeau stole the show with a speech for the ages.

September

Terry Bradshaw continued his war against Big Ben by using the “Fired Up!” segment on the Fox pre-game show to state if he owned the Steelers, he would’ve cut Roethlisberger over his off-field shenanigans.  This issue saddened me on a couple of levels.  First, TB will always be a hero of mine and I don’t like him being estranged from the Steelers.  Secondly, I was embarrassed by Steeler fans throwing the man who did more for this team than any other quarterback in history under the bus because he spoke ill of their new hero.   Steeler history did not begin in 2004 folks.

The Great QB Controversy of 2010 ended with Dennis Dixon being named opening day starter by default when Leftwich sprained his MCL in the team’s final preseason game.  He guided the Steelers to a 15-9 OT win against the Atlanta Falcons at Heinz Field in the season opener.  A week later, Dixon tore up his knee against the Titans and was replaced by Charlie Batch.  Batch, who was going to be cut before Leftwich went down, performed fantastically in wins over both the Titans and Buccaneers.

Also of note, James Harrison was one of three Steelers fined $5,000 for german suplexing Vince Young.  Little did we suspect it would be the first shot fired in the Ginger Dictator’s ongoing battle against the Steelers.

October

Chaz lost to the Ravens, thanks to two big misses by the moping Jeff Reed, but the team’s 3-1 start was more than satisfactory.  Two weeks later, Ben made his triumphant return to Heinz Field in a 28-10 victory over the Browns.  Ben was welcomed back with a roaring ovation by the true Steeler fans inside the Ketchup Bottle while a half-dozen homely losers picketed outside.

The Cleveland game became infamous for more than Ben’s return, though.  James Harrison created a path of destruction, knocking out both Josh Cribbs and Mohammad Massaquoi over the course of the game.  The Ginger Dictator would not stand for football being played in the proper fashion and fined Silverback the unprecedented amount of $75,000.  Steeler Nation, ever the loyal fans, started a Facebook page to help him pay his fine.

November

Ben took center stage after he was sucker-punched by the Raiders Richard Seymour in one of the most cowardly acts in NFL history.  Dick was fined 1/3 of what Harrison got for playing football ($25,000) as Ginger basically gave the middle finger to Steeler fans on a weekly basis.  The game was an absolute travesty with the Steelers being penalized 21 times for nearly 200 yards.

Max Starks would be lost for the season as the offensive line continued to shuffle guys in and out with alarming regularity.

Jeff Reed missed big kicks in successive weeks against New Orleans and Cincinnati.  After getting blown out against New England, he went on a bizarre tirade against the fans, the field, and the media when questioned about yet another miss.  Fed up, the Steeler finally cut the Heatmiser wanna-be much to the chagrin of fake boobed bottle-blonde Steeler groupies all over the city.

December

The Steelers began the month with back-to-back wins over division rivals Baltimore and Cincinnati.  Ben revealed he had a broken foot before the Ravens game and had his snoot broken during it.  Battling injuries which would cripple a normal human being, Ben played through the pain without missing a snap.  Despite narrowly losing to the overrated New York Jets, the Steelers clinched a playoff berth with an eye towards a first round bye.

How will the story end in 2011?  All I know is we have nowhere to go but up.

After playing the Baltimore Ravens three times last season, including an epic AFC Championship game, it’s safe to say the Pittsburgh Steelers know this enemy quite well.  And if familiarity breeds contempt, these teams must outright hate each other by now.  Pittsburgh sports has a number of great rivalries, including Pitt-WVU who meet later today in their annual Backyard Brawl.   But I dare say none can compare to the Ravens and Steelers.

Earlier this week, the FOX medical drama “House” made a joke of the fact Omar Epps is a dead ringer for head coach Mike Tomlin.  In an ironic twist, Tomlin probably spent a lot of time this week thinking he was trapped in a medical drama.  The Steelers are getting absolutely hammered by injuries to key personnel.  Where’s Dr. House when you need him?

For those keeping score at home, Travis Kirschke continues to nurse a torn calf although he practiced this week and will probably play Sunday.  Of all the guys we could get back, Kirschke is the least important since Nick Eason and Ziggy Hood were doing a pretty good job in his absence.  LG Chris Kemoeatu sprained his MCL and looks to be out one, possibly two, weeks.  Undrafted rookie Ramon Foster will make his first NFL start.  Ben Roethlisberger has been monitored all week and seems to have practiced normally so should be cleared to play.  Finally, Troy Polamalu will reportedly miss a month with his knee injury which probably rules him out of at least the next two games.

The Ravens will be dealing with some injuries of their own.  Their best LB (sorry Ray Ray), Terrell Suggs, is out with a knee injury thanks to a heroic chop block by fabulous Brady Quinn.  One of their main corners, Fabian Washington, tore his ACL and is gone for the year.  Keep in mind this defense no longer has LB Bart Scott or S Jim Leonard, who went to the Jets this off-season along with mastermind D coordinator Rex Ryan, their new head coach.  The Ravens are going to be a hard-nosed football team no matter what but they are definitely weakened and depleted on the defensive side of the ball.

Offensively, Joe Flacco has taken another giant step forward from his already highly successful rookie campaign.  Last season, they tried to protect Flacco and keep him out of situations where the game rode on his shoulders.  This year, he’s been asked to shoulder more of the load and responded to the challenge.  Still, the Ravens remain a run-first and ask-questions-later team.  Flacco has the ability but Baltimore is lacking in quality targets for him. Last year’s top receiver, Derrick Mason, is 35 and coming off shoulder surgery.  If a team can effectively stuff the run, the Ravens run into trouble because their passing game seems limited to big play threat Mason and short safe outlet throws to emerging superstar RB Ray Rice.

Offensively, the story will be how Big Ben rebounds from last week’s brain rattling hit.  I would hope the Steelers try to lean a bit more on the running game to spare him unnecessary abuse.  Baltimore will have no qualms about dialing up the pressure and considering we’re playing with a banged up offensive line, one would think this is a good time for Bruce Arians to rein in his Flying Circus.  Of course the words “logical playcalling” and “Arians” seldom belong in the same sentence.

Finally, heads have rolled on the Steelers special teams unit.   CB Keiwan Ratliff and LB Donovan Woods have been cut.  Woods was just promoted from the practice squad as an alleged upgrade to the kick coverage but his only notable achievement last week was to get flagged to nullify a beautiful 35 yard punt return by Stefan Logan.  With the injury to Troy, they’ve used Ratliff as a safety in nickel and dime packages in addition to special teams.  Regardless of where he’s played, he’s constantly out of position and missing tackles.

Your newest Steelers are LB Rocky Boiman and CB Corey Ivy.  Boiman is an eight year vet who won a Super Bowl with the Colts back in 2006.  I don’t know anything else about him except he’s got a cool name.   Ivy played the past three seasons for the Ratbirds so we know him.  He was someone the Steelers repeatedly picked on as well as being the doofus that Limas Sweed obliterated in the AFC Championship game.  Regardless, their primary job will be to run down the field and make a lousy freakin’ tackle.  Hopefully they’ll succeed where others have failed miserably.

Believe me, the Steelers will need to be on their game in all three phases Sunday night if they want to escape with a win.  I know I’ve typed the words “Biggest game of the season” several weeks in a row but in all seriousness, this game is the season.  If the Steelers lose, they fall into a tie with the Ravens (one game behind with the tiebreak) and will be tied or a game behind three or four teams in the Wild Card race.  More importantly, a loss and I fear the team will mentally pack it in for the year.  Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.

Steeler Nation can collectively exhale.

Mike Tomlin, in his weekly Tuesday press conference, announced quarterback Ben Roethlisberger will be a go this Sunday against the Ravens. Apparently, Ben suffered only a “mild” concussion last Sunday in the soul-crushing loss against the Chiefs. In my book, there isn’t anything mild about getting your brain slammed up against your skull but then again a hangnail causes me indescribable suffering. Tomlin claims that Ben is showing no lingering affects from the Shining Wizard to the noggin and will practice normally this week.

In other QB news, if you read my update yesterday, you’ll recall I was a bit confused as to why the Steelers didn’t place Charlie Batch on IR. Once a player is IR’d, he’s gone for the season.  Now comes word they expect him back since the injury isn’t as serious as originally reported. He’s still scheduled for surgery, more specifically having a metal plate inserted in to his wrist, but is only expected to miss 2-4 weeks. I recall hearing the QB for the University of Cincinnati recently had a similar surgery done and he returned a few weeks later showing very few ill effects so I guess that operation isn’t nearly as gruesome as it sounds.

In the meantime, the rest of my post still holds.  Second year man Dennis Dixon moves into the primary backup spot until Batch’s return.  Pittsburgh boy Tyler Palko will be signed to the practice squad as soon as he can secure his release from the storied Montreal Alouettes of  the Canadian Football League.   Keep in mind, however, the team is only going to be carrying two QBs (Ben and Dix) on the main roster which means should absolute carnage knock both of them out of a game, Hines Ward would serve as our third string/emergency quarterback.

While Steeler Nation holds their collective breath awaiting the verdict on Ben Roethlisberger‘s head injury, yet more quarterbacking issues have cropped up for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Backup Charlie Batch somehow broke his wrist during his brief stint on Sunday. He’s undergoing surgery and is basically lost for the season. This is yet another unfortunate setback for Charlie, who broke his clavicle in a preseason game causing him to miss all of last year.  At 34 years of age, this may be the end of his days as an active player.  If so, I’m sure we’ll still see him patrolling the sidelines on Sunday in some coaching capacity.

In the meantime, the backup spot now falls to second year man Dennis Dixon. A fifth round draft pick out of Oregon in 2008, Dixon has completed one pass in his NFL career. Still, Dix is an amazing athlete who many thought would be a 1st round draft pick until he tore his ACL in the middle of his senior season. He made some incredible plays last preseason to where I was giddy over having Slash 2.0 on our hands.  Then this year he regressed, looking confused, erratic, and showing poor mechanics.

I guess that’s one way to get Bruce Arians to call more running plays.

Batch evidently isn’t being placed on IR, which would prevent him from coming back should the Steelers advance in the playoffs. It also means the team can’t add a third QB without cutting somebody from the active roster. So it seems they will be going with only two quarterbacks for the time being. This means if separate calamities should strike down both Ben and Dix, the man behind center for the Black and Gold will be none other than Hines Ward.

The Steelers will be signing a third QB to their practice squad.   Teams need three QBs because somebody has to lead the third stringers against the first team defense in practice.  You don’t want to waste time by having your top two QBs throwing balls right at Ike Taylor so he can perfect dropping sure interceptions.  The man charged with this difficult task will be familiar to Pittsburgh football fans.

Tyler Palko has returned.   Palko, a state champion at West Allegheny High, quarterbacked Pitt for three seasons.  While at the University of Pittsburgh, he beat out current Ratbirds star Joe Flacco for the starting job in The Stache’s first season.  Palko went undrafted but managed to hook on with the Saints in 2007 and spent most of the year on their  practice squad.  I didn’t care for Palko when he was here but I always like to see a local boy sign with the hometown team.  And to be fair, he did show flashes of brilliance although he was frustratingly inconsistent.

Finally, there’s still been no official word on Ben.  Speculation abounds that he’ll be cleared to play on Sunday night. We all know Ben thinks he’s Unbreakable but I hope the Steelers are wise enough to sit him down if there’s even the slightest hint of a lingering affect from this latest head injury. Between the motorcycle accident, Bill Cowher rushing him back that year to take a vicious beating, the 90-something sacks over the past three seasons, and now this “concussion oriented thing,” I fear his brain may be rapidly approaching the consistency of rice pudding.

Tune in tomorrow for the next episode of “As The Quarterback Turns…”