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.

At last!  After 25 years, the Pittsburgh Steelers finally had one for the thumb.

And they did it the hard way.

Things started badly as both Duce and Bus were hurt in the preseason.  That meant starting RB duties fell to a 2nd year undrafted free agent by the name of Willie Parker.  Fast Willie introduced himself by rushing for 161 yards in his first game.  He added 111 more in his second.  The heir apparent to Bettis was finally found.

Still, the team struggled.  Big Ben battled injuries necessitating two starts from his backup, Tommy Maddox.   The team lost both games with Maddox playing terribly.  An overtime loss against Jacksonville saw him throw two interceptions during regulation then fumble a snap in overtime when the team was in game winning FG range.  The defense forced a punt so Maddox took matters into his own hands by throwing his third INT, a Pick Six which ended the game.

Steeler fans dumped garbage on his lawn and taunted his two young children after that game in what was the only time I was ever embarrassed to be a member of Steeler Nation.

As of week 13, the Steelers were 7-5 and on the outside looking in at the playoffs.  The team then reeled off four straight wins beginning with a defeat of the Bears where Jerome Bettis clobbered supposed All-Pro LB Brian Urlacher. They finished the season 11-5 which was only good for the sixth seed.

I’m sure we all know what happened next.  Kimo von Oelhoffen went Kobra Kai on Carson Palmer, sweeping the leg and tearing his ACL.   The Steelers beat the #3 seed Bengals to move on to the #1 seeded Colts.  They thoroughly outplayed Indy but only Big Ben making The Tackle on Bus’s monumentally ill-timed fumble kept Indy from taking the lead.  Karma balanced things out when Indy’s kicker missed the game tying FG.   The Steelers then traveled out to Denver and knocked off the #2 seeded Broncos.

In Super Bowl XL, Pittsburgh faced the NFC’s #1 seed, the Seattle Seahawks.  The signature play was provided on FWP’s 75 yard TD run early in the second half.  However, MVP honors fell to Hines Ward, who caught 5 passes for 123 yards and a TD thrown by the best QB on the field that day, WR Antwaan Randle El.  After fourteen long years, Bill Cowher finally won the big one.

Jerome Bettis announced his retirement following the game, a fitting conclusion to the career of one of the all-time greatest Steelers.

2006

The year got off to a bad start when Ben Roethlisberger was sideswiped by some nearsighted old bat while riding his motorcycle.   Ben suffered life threatening injuries because he was too stupid to wear a helmet.  His entire face had to be reconstructed with screws and Elmer’s Glue.    To add insult to injury, a week before the start of the season, he also underwent an emergency appendectomy.

More controversy raged during the preseason when Bettis, in his new role of NBC commentator, mentioned that Cowher told him he wanted to retire after winning the Super Bowl.  Evidently he felt he owed it to his players and the Rooneys to come back and defend the title.   However, he was burnt out from 15 years of coaching and with a new deal not on the horizon, it became more and more apparent this was his swan song with the Steelers.

The team won their first game with Charlie Batch filling in capably.  Then they rushed Ben back for a Monday nighter in Jacksonville.   Ben looked horrible and despite a superior defensive effort the team lost 9-0.  Between the appendix operation and brain damage from the motorcycle accident, Ben was a shadow of himself most of the season.  They also lost to a Raiders team which would only win two lousy games that year.  At 2-6 at the mid-season point, hopes for a Super Bowl repeat were gone.

Still, the team rallied like champions and went 6-2 down the stretch.  Playing the last few weeks under Cowher’s mantra of “Misery loves company,” they provided a little of that misery to the Bengals in the final game of the season.   Cincy needed to win to make the postseason while the Steelers had no motivation but to send their coach out a winner.  Which they did thanks to a 67 yard TD in OT by Santonio Holmes.

2007

Little known defensive coordinator Mike Tomlin was introduced as the Steelers new head coach.  He immediately established his authority by refusing to let Casey Hampton practice or play until he lost weight.  The veterans may not have liked him but he certainly got their attention.  After the team faded badly down the stretch, some players grumbled it was a result of such a tough training camp.

Boo hoo.

The defense lost a ton of swagger when Joey Porter was released during the preseason.  Peezy was a controversial and colorful character but he was also a ferocious linebacker in the true Steeler tradition.  Of course his replacement, James Harrison, was no slouch either.  In fact, had Joey not gotten thrown out of a game against Cleveland in pregame warmups, Silverback may have never gotten a chance to show the NFL what he could do.

The team roared out of the gate to a 9-3 record.  Then safety Anthony Smith issued his infamous “guarantee” that they’d beat the Patriots.  Tom Brady responded by torturing him for two long TD passes then talking trash.   Smith got burned the next week as his big mouth wrote checks his meager abilities couldn’t cash and the team quickly lost two straight.

Things went further downhill when DE Aaron Smith was lost for the season.  When he went down, the Steelers run defense went right along with him.   Meanwhile, FWP broke his leg in the second to last game of the year.   Parker was leading the NFL in rushing at the time and losing him pretty much wrecked our offense.

The team was one-and-done against Jacksonville.   They fell behind early but mounted a comeback which was repeatedly sabotaged by Tomlin’s boneheaded insistence on going for 2 pt conversions.  Still, who knows what would’ve happened if the refs hadn’t missed about four holding penalties on David Garrard‘s first down scramble that set Jacksonville up to kick the winning FG.   The NFL director of officials apologized for the botch job after the game.   But I thought the calls always went the Steelers way?

2008

Since we’re only one year removed, I’ll spare you a detailed recap.  Suffice it to say, this year featured one of the best single season defensive efforts in history.  Dick LeBeau and his men were either first or second in every major defensive category.  Time and time again, Blitzburgh would create a big turnover or stop the opposition cold in their tracks.  Combined with clutch last-second heroics from Big Ben, the season was about as exciting as any you’ll ever see.

Unfortunately, one very important member of Steeler Nation wasn’t here to see it.  The year began on a sad note when the great Myron Cope passed away.  The man who invented the Terrible Towel was surely looking down with an emphatic “YOI!  DOUBLE YOI!” as the Steelers tore through the hardest schedule given any team in the past 30 years.

In the playoffs, the Steelers faced the Ratbirds for a third time.  Three wins against our most hated enemy is nice enough but doing so for the right to play in the Super Bowl made it all the sweeter.   In the big game, the Steelers faced the man who was their offensive coordinator in Super Bowl XL.   Ken Whisenhunt and his Arizona Cardinals were a surprise entrant but they were a worthy opponent.  The two teams played what is widely regarded as the most exciting Super Bowl ever.  Only a last minute toe-dragging catch by MVP Santonio Holmes ensured that the season end on a high note.  Get it, HIGH note?

2009

Which brings us to this year.  Of course, no post Super Bowl off-season is complete without some Ben Roethlisberger drama.   This time, it came in the form of a rape accusation by a cowboy hat wearing desk clerk out in Reno.

To further incur the Football Gods wrath, the folks at EA Sports put Troy Polamalu on the cover of their video game.  The Madden Curse struck immediately as Troy was injured in the Steelers very first game.  He came back briefly but this season has been a total write-off as far as he’s concerned.

Still, this squad got off to an excellent 6-2 start.  Then the wheels fell off.  Losses to three of the worst teams in the league mixed with a sweep by the Bengals.  Ben was concussed in an OT loss to KC.   Hines Ward went on national tv and called his QB a sissy.  Tomlin issued threats and ultimatums which his team ignored.  The defense couldn’t hold a lead while the offense repeatedly failed in the red zone.  Ryan Clark accused the 400,000 fans who came to cheer him on just 10 months earlier of being “fairweather.”   Losses mounted until the streak reached five straight.  Only a slight rebound toward the end of the year has kept the team’s slim playoff hopes alive.

It’s looking like the decade will end much like it began.   With the Steelers on the edge of greatness, searching for that missing player or two that will put them back into serious championship contention.

Still, two Super Bowl championships in four years and multiple playoff games made this an exciting time to be a Steeler fan.  Without a doubt this was the best decade for the Black and Gold since the 1970′s.   I’m sure we appreciate this team giving us memories we’ll carry for a lifetime.  Here’s looking forward to more yet to come!

]]> http://nicepickcowher.com/2009/12/31/a-steeler-decade-in-review-part-2/feed/ 2 http://nicepickcowher.com/2009/12/31/a-steeler-decade-in-review-part-1/ http://nicepickcowher.com/2009/12/31/a-steeler-decade-in-review-part-1/#comments Thu, 31 Dec 2009 01:12:06 +0000 chris http://nicepickcowher.com/?p=2155 With 2010 a couple days away, people tend to reflect back at what the past twelve months have brought them.  This January 1st is particularly special in that it also marks the start of a new decade.   Instead of making a list of the best of this or All-Decade that, I thought I’d just take [...]

A Steeler Decade In Review (Part 1) - Nice Pick, Cowher - Nice Pick, Cowher - A Pittsburgh Steelers Fan Site - News, Blogs, Opinion and more.