Steelers Beat Packers; Still Alive!

In a wild game that was unbelievably entertaining, the Steelers beat the Packers yesterday, 38-31, and, amazingly, kept their playoff hopes alive as they head into the final weekend of the season next week.

This game had just about everything:

• another very good game by Ben Roethlisberger, who may well be having the best season of his career,
• a successful fake punt by the Steelers that resulted in a thirty yard gain,
• a 100 yard rushing game by Le'Veon Bell; it had been 22 games since the Steelers had a 100 yard rusher,
• an interception returned for a touchdown by Cortez Allen
• a blocked field goal,
• yet another fourth quarter lead that the Steelers defense could not hold, followed by...
• a fourth quarter TD by Bell that regained the lead,
• a Packer kick-off return and a Steelers penalty that almost allowed the Packers to tie the game,
• an incomplete pass into the end zone on the final play that would have forced the game into overtime,
• and, oh yeah, an apparently blown call by the officials following that blocked Packer FG attempt, that would have loomed REALLY large had the Steelers ended up losing that game.

Local media types have been trying to gin up a controversy over Mike Tomlin's decision not to eat up time on the clock by not having Roethlisberger kneel down for two plays and then kick a FG at the end of the game.  Instead, Bell scored the winning TD (and did the Packers let him score there?), and the Packers got the ball back with over a minute to play, and ended the game, thanks to that 70 yard kick return, inside the Steelers ten yard line with a chance to tie the game.

Sorry, but I'm with Tomlin on this one.  When you have a chance to score, you try to score on the very next play.  Plus, the idea of an Offense trying not to score, while the Defense tries to allow  you to score, just strikes me as wrong.  This happened in the Giants-Patriots Super Bowl two years ago, and it just didn't sit well with me.  Besides, how many times is a strategy like that going to work for you? One in ten times? A hundred times? A thousand times?  Yeah, it almost worked for Green Bay yesterday, but the key word there is almost.

Oh, and a word about Le'Veon Bell.  After a slow start, due to injuries, it is now apparent, Bell appears to be the real deal as an NFL running back.  Big, fast, strong and with an almost freakish ability to hurdle defenders.  One of the things I like most about him is his ability make what should be three or four yard losses into one or two yard gains.

As I have been saying for a few weeks now, whatever else the Steelers have been this year, their games, with one or two exceptions, have been tremendously entertaining, win or lose, and that game yesterday may have topped them all.

And you have to hand it to the NFL, they do know how to milk the playoff possibility game.  With a win next week and help from three other teams in three other games, the Steelers could find themselves with a seat at the table when the Playoffs begin the following week.  Probable? Not very, but still possible, and if it happens, I will remind you that all twelve playoff teams will start with a 0-0 record.  And to the Gloomy Guses who may root against this happening because it will "only spoil our draft position", get over it.

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Two other NFL observations:

The Seattle Seahawks, who may very well be the best team in the NFL, lost yesterday to the Arizona Cardinals.  The Cardinals are now 10-5, very much alive in the NFC playoff hunt, and are coached by Bruce Ariens, who was shoved into "retirement" by Art Rooney II two years ago.  Make your own judgements there.

In Detroit, Coach Jim Schwartz, a singularly annoying individual, with time on the clock and times out in his pocket, elected to play for a field goal to tie the game with the Giants yesterday rather than try to score a touchdown.  The fans at Ford Field made the displeasure with this strategy known, and Schwartz was seen turning towards the stands and jawing with the fans about it.  The Giants won the game in OT, and Schwartz is said to be on the ropes in Detroit.

King Art II Goes to Court

It was reported in the business section of the Post-Gazette this morning that the Steelers are going to court to sue someone (the Sports and Exhibition Authority? the City? Eric Holder?  who really cares?) over precisely who should be paying for the addition of the 3,000 seats that are to be added to the now somewhat inadequate 12 year old Heinz Field.  One thing for sure, Art II wants to make certain that the lion's share of the cost of these seats will be born by anyone BUT the Steelers, who will most directly benefit from the addition of the seats.  Oh, and rest assured of one other thing, that portion of the cost that the Steelers will say that they are paying will really be paid for by the ticket buyers in the form of higher ticket prices and parking fees.

The part of this story that is also dispiriting is the implication that Heinz Field, which is, as noted above, only twelve years old, is now somehow unable to properly support the Steelers with statements along the lines of it being 25th out of 32 NFL stadiums in revenue generation.  Should this lawsuit drag on and Art II doesn't get what he wants, I can't wait for the trial balloon to be floated of a new stadium in Washington or Westmoreland County that would provide a home for the Steelers that would enable them to compete forever with the Big Boys in New York and Dallas and blah blah blah.  You know, kind of like Mario Lemieux did with Kansas City a few years ago.  And like Lemieux, someone will blink and Art II will get what he wants.

Art Rooney Sr. might never have done something like this, and maybe Dan Rooney would hesitate, but Art II ain't his grandfather.  He is a cold-blooded, bean counting businessman, so don't be surprised if this happens.

You read it here first.

Why Don't They Just Go Back to the Single Wing?

Another story in the Post-Gazette this morning about how the Steelers have recommitted to the running game under new OC Todd Hailey and at the urging (meddling insistence?) of team Prez Art Rooney II.  All kinds of stats cited about how there have been more running plays called in the two practice games so far and blah blah blah.  

Here's what I think...

In Ben Roethlisberger, the Steelers employ one of the Top Five QB's in all of football.  That's my opinion, of course, and some will argue that he may not be a "Top 5" guy, but I don't think that anyone would place him outside of the Top Ten.  And he HAS led the team to three Super Bowls in his tenure over center.

In Wallace (when he shows up, and he will, eventually), Brown, Sanders, and Miller the team employs, maybe not an elite corps of receivers, but certainly a good to very good corps of receivers.

Their best running back, Rashard Mendenhall, is coming off major knee surgery, and who knows when, or even if, he'll be able to play.  The RB next in line, Isaac Redman, is also hurt (and I wasn't convinced that he would be able to do the job on a full time basis anyway).  The rest of the running backs are all pretty much untested and/or unknown.  Even at full strength, no one was going to confuse the current RB's with Jerome Bettis or Franco Harris.

When you put all that together, why the insistence on shifting the offensive emphasis on "running the football"?  The nearest that I have been able to tell, the answer to that question is some combination of "because that's Steelers football", "because that's what western PA football is all about", "because that's how the Steelers have always done it", "because that's what the fans want" (I thought the fans wanted Steelers wins), and "because that's what Art II wants".  I'm just a fan and not an expert, but I don't think that that is how the NFL game is being played these days.

I will admit to not paying the strictest attention to the two practice games so far, but in each game, I did see the Steelers come up with first and goal situations, whereupon the "new Steelers offense" ran three straight plays in both such possessions and produced negative yardage in both possessions, and settled for field goals.  I know, I know...they are exhibition games, you try things out in those games, who cares if you win or lose.  I get that, but I also know that there will be plenty of times this season, when the games DO count, that there will be first and goal situations when the Steelers will need to score touchdowns, and right now, I don't have a lot of faith that three straight hand offs to Isaac Redman up the middle will get the job done.  

We'll see where it goes from here, and I have a lot of faith in Mike Tomlin to coach this team as he sees best.  As for Art II, I have a lot of faith in his ability to squeeze every last buck from every available revenue stream, and very little faith in his calling plays from the owner's box.