http://bleacherreport.com/articles/307907-breaking-news-coaching-changes-coming-for-pittsburgh-steelers?utm_source=newsletter

I'm not sure how reliable the source is but the silver lining to this season would be a our OC and line coach and special teams getting canned.  The guy quotes Adam Schefter of Espn who from my understanding is a reliable source.  If this is true then it may have been worth a whole season lost.  

For those of you who blame tomlin for waiting so long, I don't.  After year one ben set TD franchise records.  Year 2 they won the super bowl.  Its kinda hard to fire your OC after that.  But when you go 6-7 and staring 6-10 dead in the face with 4 first round draft picks on this offense who are far from bust there is no reason for the steelers scoring less than 21 points a game.  Also remember Tomlin is a defensive guy, he was DC for the Vikings and a Secondary coach for the bucs.  I'm pretty sure he has trusted BA but the results aren't there and he has to do the head coach thing.  Its about time and they need to score on the next hiring.  Mike Shananahan anyone? I know its a pipe dream but don't piss on my parade.

If this does happen I will rub it in the face of my father who tells me I shouldn't question Bruce Arians because he knows more about football since he coaches in the NFL..... I beg to differ.

The year was 1999 and the Bill Cowher had just finished an uninspiring 6-10 season.  The Steelers offense was well non-existent and while the run defense was OK the pass defense was a major weak point.  The special teams were nothing spectacular either.  The year before the Steelers finished 7-9.  It was the first time Bill Cowher had finished with consecutive losing seasons in his coaching career at Pittsburgh.

Many had wondered if Bill was the right coach for the Steelers.  This being his 7th year as head coach and never delivering a Super Bowl ring for a organization that ranked tied for #2 at the present time, behind San Fransisco, for the most super bowl wins all time.  The steelers had been to three AFC Championship Games and being favored in all three to only win one.  That one win followed by a subsequent loss the the hated Dallas Cowboys with 'that guy' (his name has been forever banned from my memory) throwing two inexcusable interceptions that cost the Steelers their then record tying fifth super bowl win.  

I remember thinking no matter what these are still my steelers.  I love everything they represent and stand for and love how they play; even in defeat I feel like they are one of the best teams in the NFL.  The best thing about the steelers is on the rare occasion that they do have a losing season you can still tell that they have the talent to turn it around to compete next year.  You know that the team will be diligent in the draft to get younger, better, and faster.

The same can be said about the 2009 Steelers.  No matter the cause of our recent downfall, I'm sure we all feel that this team will be able to bounce back in 2010.  They have too much talent and now they have motivation to avenge the death of their 2009 season.  There are a lot of things that will be determined between now and then.  For example, do we extend Casey Hampton or try to trade up to get Suh of Nebraska.  Sure we'd have to give half the draft away, but if you've seen this guy play he appears worth it.  Or, do we keep Hampton and address the Safety/Defensive Back position.  I feel the latter is more pressing.  I never imagined this defense being this bad without Troy.  Of course you expect a drop off, but these guys cleared the cliff.  Troy is an all-time great but we need to be ready for when he goes out the game in case of injury as he has proven to be prone to.  That is the only knock on his game.  

I love these steelers and want the best for them.  Just like when Cowher was coach,  who had shown less than Tomlin has at this point in their coaching careers comparatively.  There is no two ways about it.  All this non-sense about Tomlin riding Cowher's coat-tails to a Super Bowl like John Gruden did to Dungy seriously missed the 2007 season.  Tomlin had improved the passing defense and the special teams in 2008, something Cowher never did even with Coach Dad.  Does ben have something to do with that?  Yes but before you go too far, how many super bowls has Bill Bellicheat won without Tom Brady, how many has Dungy won without Peyton Manning?  If Brett Farve doesn't play brilliantly in the first half of this season - Childress would be getting the pink slip right about now.  The coach success is directly dependent on the success of the Quarterback.  Even for the Baltimore team that won the Super Bowl team, they still needed the QB to not screw things up for the defense.  One bad year following a Super Bowl win does not merits a firing.  There are changes that need to be made that is for sure.  But not at the head coach level, that is the last straw scenario.  

So heres to the 2009 season we barely knew thee, and we will support and love our Steelers to the bitter end.  I welcome the 2010 season where the steelers go on a revenge tour in the division and remind everyone this has and will always be our division.  This team has way too much talent not to and giving the Steelers a good position in the draft is a death sentence especially in the first round.  Ben, Hampton, Santonio, are all pro-bowl players who the steelers selected in the earlier portions of the first round.  I expect nothing less this year whomever that may be.  So get your terrible towels, your Steelers Jersey, and lets win 3 in a row so we can avoid Tomlin's first losing season.     

This post is just for fun. In addition to the Daily Six Pack story.

We all know about Mr. Ochocinco's antics being in the same division.  I actually like them and think his touchdown celebrations and off the field comments add a great entertainment value to the game.  He really is a good guy who doesn't get into too much trouble, although I wouldn't want him on the steelers. 

I think the NFL has noticed and I have noticed a serious drop in fines on Mr. Ochocinco's this year.  For those of you who may know, Mr. Ochocinco was planning on sending mustard to the steelers because, "they won't be able to ket-chup" to him.  The steelers responded saying they really dont mind. 

But Cincy's Coach put a stop to it once he found out about it.  The coach was sending a message, but I'm not quite sure its the one he wanted.  Think about it, it was ok for Chad to send deodorant to the ravens last week - but the steelers get special treatment this week? 

Maybe thats because deep down inside Lewis has a fear of the steelers, maybe i'm just being a homer - who cares.  Last week game was big and made this week game even bigger so you can't say because its a very important game.  But I do know this, the steelers are paying attention and if they do take it as fear - they will be like sharks in blood water.  Not that they need extra motivation.  Heres the link to the article:  http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4645293

What do you think?  I hope my grammer, punctuation, and spelling is up to snuff, I wouldn't want angry comments by out of work english teachers...... (hope sarcasm is noted)

Wow. 

I am, like everyone else, glad to see the steelers win the game in that fashion.  But now attention has to be turned to the Cincinnati Bengals.  Who would have thought in the beginning of the season that  Nov. 15 would be the game to decide the division and not Nov. 29?  But alas, here we are 5 days away from the deciding factor of who will win the division. 

Continue reading this post »

Just wanted to post something real quick. 

Eddie Royal concerns me though.  He will probably be matched up against William Gay, who has been very solid but I think a speedy guy like Royal can take advantage of Gay's lack of speed.  I'm sure they will try to match Royal up against Gay and if he has help make sure Tyrone Carter, who also lacks great speed, is backing Gay up.  Post-Gazette is reporting that Clark will sit out of this game - and thats for the best.  I'd rather lose him for a game than for the season again and wouldn't want him to risk his life.  If Royal gets a couple of big catches then I wouldn't be surprised.  Also in the return game, Royal is dangerous.  Good news for steelers fans though, Anthony Frazier - the steelers 2nd leading special teams tackler- will return this game.  He sat out the last two games with a bruised thigh.  The same two games where the steelers gave up a TD returns on kickoffs. 

What helps the steelers out a lot is that Kyle Orton isn't a great deep ball thrower.  Because of this ,denver is a 'play it safe' team that will let you beat yourself and not make mistakes.  The dink and dunk method which offenses use against us will be in full play this monday.  This method which you all know is full of short passes, slants, curls, short post, 10 or 5 yard outs, and screens.   Because of the way our defense is schemed this is the most efficient way to move the ball down the field.  The problem is it takes a lot of consistency and focus for everyone to stay on the same page.  Usually the our defense is good enough to stop the offense at some point.  Although we've been slacking on our 3rd Down defense, the Defense have stepped up these past four games. 

We've (the steelers, not us) had two weeks to prepare for this game.  Two weeks to get the perfect offense against denvers - mediocre defense.  I say mediocre because well they have played against Cleveland, Oak, Cincy, SD.  While the later two offenses are good now, cincy hadn't started clicking at week 1, and SD well no one can figure them out.  The Pats were in a funk and Dallas had turnovers which is what Romo does so well.  I dare say that is the best part of his game.  Especially since this is the first time in his illustrious career that he has went three straight games with no turnovers.  I think we have the offensive fire power to put up some decent stats and some points on this defense which is overrated imho.  Baltimore's D showed us the perfect game plan to bottle up whatever offense denver had.  I think we've have more than enough going in our favor for this game. 

Although Denver is bruised right now from their lost against the Ratbirds, I'm not sure they have the moral to rally among themselves and perservere.  Especially against an elite team coming their way.  There is much to learn about teams so far this season and we will definately learn something monday night.  For the steelers, we'll learn how they handled sucess, coming off a 4 game win streak, and the broncos we'll learn how they deal with losing for the first time under the new head coach.  Either way you put it, my biggest concerns are trumped by my realism in that this should be another win for the black and gold if we don't turn the ball over.  I say 21-10 steelers.

"Take a deep breathe and slowly back away from the ledge", is what my brother, mother, and father yelled at me as I embraced for the jump.  The first step to overcoming a problem is understanding and admitting you have a problem.  I recall the first symptoms of this "disease" showing up sometime around last year.  Right after the Eagles game I made the remark,"There's no way the steelers will win anything this year".  From then on I was plagued with the onset of 'Pre-December football panic' (PDFP).  It has become quite an epidemic.  It doesn't just effect me, steelers fans, or red and blue monkeys (sorry couldn't resist).  Recent studies have shown that about 65% of the football watching public suffers from PDFP.  This number grows but there is a cure.

Continue reading this post »

After a couple of days to cool off.  I realize the loss to the bears may have been just what the Steelers needed.  I thought things may be different with Tomlin, maybe we could string together wins in pace to a 15-1 season.  But the steelers just don't like to do things that way.    Well they did once but right now that is an anomaly.  Plus with the type of game the steelers play and not putting teams away you can be subject to these every once in a while.  Now with the everyone writing off the steelers puts a chip on the shoulders.  Face it the steelers of today do their best when the media counts them out, which they do willingly.  If you really look at the loss the ccause for concern is unwarranted.  We were in perfect position to win, the kicker just missed-twice.  Doesn't happen often, but if he makes one of those or tyrone carter just falls on a fumble then we are 2-0 and no one panics.  But this is just what this team needs as a wake up call.   With ESPN.com having the Ravens as the best team in the NFL and Pete Prisco of CBSsports.com creaming for a jets/giants super bowl, everyone has pittsburgh around 7 or 8 in their power rankings so far.  Which doesn't mean much, rankings this early in the season has about as much worth as pre-season polls in college sports.  But it still gives you an idea of what the perception of a team is in the eyes of journalist.  If you care about such things.  But we know players read headlines, they watch ESPN.  Like it or not players do use things like this for motivation, like some players using their draft position as motivation to prove people wrong who passed over them.  I expect the steelers to win this weekend but it won't be easy.  There is no such thing as a easy win.  We'll see if this is just what we needed.

I went through every teams' schedule.  Every single game that will be played this upcoming season in the NFL.  I complied the Win-Loss record for every single team.  Or at least my opinion.  This is purely subjective.  My thought process while doing this is to take the teams from last year, and take into account possible improvement and possible decline in each team due to change in schedule and what they did over the offseason.  Now feel free to disagree because I even look at it and shake my head.  But the NFL season never goes as you expect it so this is purely for speculation and for fun.  I explained my thought process for each division, and for fun I did my playoff picks too. 

Continue reading this post »

Recent allegations against Big Ben had me worried.  After seeing what happened to Kobe, which was a different situation, I've made up my mind that 1) the media doesn't care what the truth is they want a story 2) You may not h ave actually raped someone but if people believe that you did then your perception and how you are treated will be of that of a convicted rapist.  Not that I don't believe that Ben couldn't rape anyone its just that I didn't know and whenever there is something like this arise there is a danger that it could be true or that people may think its true.  If it is true then Ben would deserve everything he gets but if its not true its another story of someones fame being taken advantage of and how our media slanders people's good name. 

Continue reading this post »

Forgive me if this was posted earlier.  We all know how difficult it is to repeat as Champs in the NFL.  But I think the Steelers are in a very rare situation this year after winning their 6th super bowl.  The fact that they have won the Superbowl recently and had Ben's worst year as a steeler, they already have first  hand experience on what it will be like as defending champions.  This allow them to prepare better this year for what awaits them.  There have only been 6 teams, that I can think of, that have repeated; New England, Cowboys, 49ers, Packers, Miami and the only team to do it twice is the Steelers.  Can we do it a third, if so heres what must have to happen.

Continue reading this post »