November 21, 2007
Talking turkey
OK, one more post about the Steelers' loss to the Jets on Sunday, then I PROMISE I'll put it in the past.
Actually, this is an attempt to put a positive spin on the loss so everyone can be in a better mood for Thanksgiving
By the way, if the Falcons can upset the Colts Thanksgiving night, which wouldn't totally shock me, Steelers fans would
have something else to be thankful for.
The purpose of this post is to say that despite the embarrassing loss to
the Jets, the Steelers can still win the Super Bowl this year. Remember the Patriots' 29-28 loss to the Dolphins on a
Monday night late in the 2004 season? The Patriots were 12-1 and the Dolphins were 2-11 going into that game in Miami. But
the Patriots didn't lose again. All the loss to the Dolphins cost them was home-field advantage against the Steelers in
the AFC championship, which they won 41-27, so they didn't need home field.
Now if Santonio Holmes and Troy
Polamalu are both out for a significant period of time, that would be a bigger blow to the Steelers' championship hopes
than one loss to the Jets. Even if they don't play for the next two weeks, the Steelers have two bad teams (Dolphins and
Bengals) at home, where they're unbeaten this year. I think the Steelers can manage two wins in the next two games even
without Holmes and Polamalu. But let's hope they're back after that. The Steelers are at New England Dec. 9 and home
to Jacksonville Dec. 16. Two tough games that could have playoff implications.
Worry about Holmes and Polamalu.
Don't worry about the loss to the Jets. Not anymore, anyway.
4:04 pm | link
November 19, 2007
Salt in the wound
Phil Simms mentioned it just before kickoff, and there was a lot of talk on Mike and the Mad Dog Monday about the fact
that there were more Steelers fans than Jets fans at Giants Stadium on Sunday. So it was like a home game for the Steelers.
And they still couldn't win.
I doubt that Steelers fans will be a majority on Dec. 9 at Gillette Stadium.
There were a lot of Jets fans willing to give up their tickets. Hell, I didn't even see Fireman Ed in the stands (actually,
didn't he have some kind of surgery?) But I don't think there will be as many Patriots fans willing to give up their
tickets.
I have standing-room tickets for the game. If anyone has watched games at Gillette as a standup fan, I'd
welcome any insight regarding where I can stand and when I should get to the stadium to get a good spot.
In a previous
post on this blog, after the Steelers beat the Bengals to improve to 5-2, I said that if the Steelers took care
of business, they could go into the Patriots game 10-2. Shame on me for projecting five straight wins for any team not
named the Patriots in this minefield of upsets that is the NFL. I think, and I stress think, that the Steelers can
take care of business at home against the Dolphins and Bengals and go into Foxboro 9-3 and still fighting for a first-round
bye. It's on the road where they suck.
This loss to the Jets is still bothering me. Before the game, the
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette invoked the infamous 24-6 loss at home to the Houston Texans late in the 2002 season. I am reminded of a 26-23
overtime loss to the Bengals late in the 2001 season. That was the year the Steelers went 13-3 and lost to the Patriots in
the AFC championship game. That loss was kind of a red flag signaling that the Steelers weren't quite championship caliber.
Time will only tell if Sunday's loss to the Jets means the same thing.
November 17, 2007
Any given Sunday
So why am I nervous about Sunday's game? I'll tell you why, because the Jets are honoring Curtis Martin at
halftime. I'm afraid the 1-8 Jets will be fired up by the ceremony and upset the 7-2 Steelers.
Hey, it's
happened before. Let me give you a little history lesson. In 1992, Bill Cowher's first year as coach, the Steelers took
a 10-3 record into Chicago to play the 4-9 Bears, who had lost six in a row. But it was Mike Singletary Day. The Steelers
lost 30-6.
We saw two weeks ago how a special night can spark a team. Look at the Steelers' 38-7 plucking of
the Ravens on a night honoring the franchise's 75th anniversary.
OK, OK. The Jets' only win this year came
against the winless Dolphins. And their defense is ranked last against the run. So as long as the coaching staff doesn't
have another brainfart like it did against Denver, the Steelers should have a big day on the ground and win comfortably.
But as wise old Mike Tomlin says, this is the ultimate parity league. The Steelers better not take the Jets too lightly.
At least we know they won't get caught looking ahead to the Dolphins.
3:02 am | link
November 9, 2007
Power rankings are back!
I'm going to try one more time to do weekly power rankings. Only this time I'm not going to include comments,
unless I have random comments for the blog. I just don't have time to come up with a really interesting tidbit on each
team. I tried, but I kind of wanted to do more Red Sox reading in October, so I got sidetracked.
This week, I'm
including the rankings from Week 6, which is the last week I did rankings. And from then on, I'll put records and the
previous week's ranking in parentheses. I'll try to have my weekly rankings up by Wednesday afternoon.
Thanks
for your understanding.
4:50 pm | link
Midseason report
We've reached the midpoint of the season. It's time to take a look back and a look ahead. First, some midseason
honors for the Steelers:
Team MVP: Ben Roethlisberger
Let's see, Roethlisberger rebounds
from a disastrous 2006 season. The Steelers rebound from a disastrous 2006 season. Coincidence? I think not. As Big Ben goes,
so go the Steelers.
Biggest surprise: James Harrison
Harrison might actually do some things
better than Joey Porter, like keep his mouth shut.
Biggest disappointment: Troy Polamalu
He
just hasn't been as disruptive this season as he's been in the past, although it looked like he was starting to come
around against the Ravens.
Some thoughts on the rest of the season:
Best-case scenario:
The Steelers go 7-1 the rest of the way and finish 13-3. The one loss? If it doesn't come at New England, it will come
either the week before at home against Cincinnati, with the Steelers being caught looking ahead or the week after at home
against Jacksonville, with the Steelers spent from beating the Pats.
Worst-case scenario:
Sunday: The Browns get their revenge.
Nov. 18: Eric Mangini enlists the help of
his buddy Tony Sorprano and has a couple of key Steelers players kidnapped, allowing the Jets to pull off the upset.
Nov.
26: The Steelers beat the Dolphins because, well, they suck.
Dec. 2: The Bengals bring their
pet elephant from the Cincinnati Zoo and use him on defense as a spy on Roethlisberger. The elephant gets a sack
and a couple of hurries to help the Bengals win in Pittsburgh for the third straight time.
Dec. 9: The
Steelers play the Patriots tough, but can't overcome a 7-6 deficit. The Steelers run out of timeouts and all the Patriots
have to do is take a knee. But Bill Belichick decides to kick a field goal so the Patriots can run up the score and win
10-6.
Dec. 16: After using an inept Tommy Maddox against the Jaguars in 2005 and Ben Roethlisberger
11 days after surgery against them in 2006, the Steelers run a contest in which the grade-school kid with the best essay gets
to start at quarterback. The Jaguars beat the Steelers and their 4-foot-10, 90-pound quarterback 17-16.
Dec.
20: The Steelers beat the Rams because, well, they suck.
Dec. 30: Even though his body is falling
apart limb by limb during the game, Steve McNair leads the Ravens past the Steelers, who don't get to enjoy five Ravens
turnovers this time. So the Steelers complete a photo-negative version of 2006. Instead of starting out 2-6 and finishing
6-2, they start 6-2, finish 2-6 and miss the playoffs.
And I wake up in a cold sweat. It was just a bad dream,
right?
4:40 pm | link
November 6, 2007
Time change
Good news for Steelahs.com. The Steelers game against the Patriots on Dec. 9 has been moved from 1 p.m. to 4:15 p.m.
Did anyone really think that game, which could potentially be a matchup of 12-0 and 10-2 teams, would stay at 1 p.m.? C'mon.
That helps me because as I've said in a previous post, Steelahs.com will be on location in Foxboro, Mass., for
the game. And because of real life, Steelahs.com won't be able to leave New York until the wee hours of Sunday morning.
4:48 pm | link
Ravens leftovers
I didn't want to speculate about this in my column, but after reading the Post-Gazette today, I found out that Ben
Roethlisberger did convince Mike Tomlin to put him back in the game in the fourth quarter Monday night. That's what it
looked like on TV. Roethlisberger was talking to Tomlin while the coach was looking at Roethlisberger's leg up and down.
OK, with the game well in hand, it probably wasn't smart for A) Roethlisberger to want to go back in and B) for
Tomlin to let him back in. But I think it speaks to how much more of a voice Roethlisberger has under the new regime. Roethlisberger
wanted to show that he was OK. It's part of assuming more of a leadership role.
When Roethlisberger came back
in for that one series in the fourth quarter, ESPN announcer Tony Kornheiser trampled all over the moment by pontificating
about Tomlin's ascent to the Steelers head coaching job. He couldn't take a break from his diatribe to let Mike
Tirico or Ron Jaworski say something about Roethlisberger's surprising re-entry into the game. It would have been
a good time for Kornheiser to pardon an interruption.
During halftime, Kornheiser made it difficult for me to keep
my word about leaving Red Sox talk out of this site for the rest of the season. At halftime, he was talking about how
well-liked the Steelers are as an organization. He said it wasn't like Red Sox Nation. He's wrong there. I think there
are a lot of similarities between Red Sox Nation and Steelers Nation. Both teams have fans all over the world. Both teams
have suffered through heartbreak and near-misses before enjoying recent success.
I'm not totally anti-Kornheiser.
Even though it was a little esoteric, I agreed when he talked before the game about the Steelers' bad karma last year,
and how the Falcons are the team experiencing that bad karma this year. Not many announcers are willing to go out on
a limb like that. I guess with Kornheiser, you have to take the good with the bad.
Speaking of announcers, I love
hearing Howard Cosell's voice. I'm just talking about his voice and cadence here. I'm not talking about him
as an announcer. It was a nice little treat seeing clips from the Steelers' 42-7 win over the Broncos on
Monday Night Football in 1979. I didn't watch that game. I just remember seeing the box score in the newspaper the next
day, and the overline said something like Big, Bad Steelers. Those words helped lure an impressionable
8-year-old into what would be known a quarter of a century later as Steelers Nation.
I know people threw bricks at the TV
when Cosell was on the screen. But I caught him in his waning years. For me, hearing Cosell's voice actually reminds
me of a simpler time. It makes me feel like a kid again.
November 2, 2007
Why Steelers fans should root for the Colts Sunday
First, let me sound off on one of the big issues on everyone's mind this week. Did the Patriots run up the score
on the Redskins. I say, this is the NFL, and there's no such thing as running up the score. They're all professionals.
It's not like the Redskins were some outclassed I-AA team. As much as I hate the Patriots, I have no problem with what
they did. If you don't want them to score anymore, stop them.
Speaking of the Patriots, it seems Steelers Nation
can't help but look ahead to the Steelers' game in Foxboro on Dec. 9. For the first time, I am revealing that Steelahs.com
will be on location at Gillette Stadium.
Steelahs.com is also hoping that the game gets moved from 1 p.m. to either
the late afternoon game or the night game in the flexible scheduling format. My real life dictates that I can't leave
New York until the wee hours of Sunday morning, so if they played at 1 p.m., I'd maybe get three hours sleep.
Personally, I don't see how that game is staying at 1 p.m. I figure at the very least, it's getting moved to 4:15.
There's a good chance that the Patriots will be 12-0 and the Steelers will be 10-2 for that matchup. Unlike players and
coaches, fans can look ahead. The Steelers' next five games are home against Baltimore and Cleveland, at the Jets, then
home to Miami and Cincinnati. Of course they could slip up between now and then. It looks like McNair will start Monday night
and he always kills the Steelers. They could lose on the road against the Jets. And they haven't beaten the Bengals at
home since 2004. You figure at the very least, the Steelers will be 8-4 when they face the Patriots.
This being
election season, Steelahs.com endorses the Colts on Sunday in Super Bowl XLI 1/2 because if the Patriots have a loss
Dec. 9, and the Steelers can somehow run the table, go into that game 10-2, then upset the Patriots, then they would have
the tiebreaker on them and it would give the Steelers a shot at a first-round bye in the playoffs.
Granted, that's
looking WAAAAY ahead. But we're fans. That's what we do.
1:50 pm | link
