Steeler Maniacs Pittsburgh Steelers Fan Site Statistics Unique Visitors: Total Unique Visitors: Outgoing: Total Outgoing: 0 0 8 1711

Articles from Steeler Maniacs

Steelers Jags 2007-12-16 12:04:29 It’s cold and wet and windy in Pittsburgh. Playoff implications loom in the swirling snow and grey skies at Heinz Field.  The Steelers are coming off a painful loss at the hands of the New England “Pretty Hate Machine” Patriots, while the Jaguars are one week removed from a blowout win over the listless, Vinny Testaverde lead Carolina Panthers. The game figures to feature run heavy offensive game plans from both teams. Initially I felt this played right into the Steelers hands, typically mangy field conditions, and an opponent with a run-first offense, plus the Steelers are 7-0 at home this season. However DE Aaron Smith was placed on IR earlier this week. Smith is a big part of the NFL’s top ranked run defense Pittsburgh’s defense will go as far as the rotation of players replacing Smith allows. Troy Polamalu is back this week, but I doubt he will be at 100%. Jacksonville will be without starting defensive lineman Marcus Stroud who has been lost for the year. Willie Parker ...

Patriot Games 2007-12-11 22:08:45 by John Cihon Ben Roethslisberger stares deeply into Tom Brady’s eyes. I don’t have a huge problem with Anthony Smith’s guarantee of a Pittsburgh Steelers victory over the New England Patriots, even with the Steelers loss. After the guarantee, his face was all over SportsCenter. If the Steelers would have won, we’d be calling Smith ‘Nostradamus’. But since they don’t win, the worst case scenario now for Smith is going back to the relative obscurity he dwelled in before the game. However, right now Smith is claiming he was misquoted. Absolutely unbelievable. If you’re gonna say it, then don’t back down, it just makes you look like a punk, and not the punk rocker kind.In other Anthony-Smith-is-an-idiot news, I know you all saw Tom Brady uncharacteristically jawing at him after the first Patriots touchdown. But what you didn’t see on television was Smith screaming profanities at Brady while both were warming up. Smith admitted this to the media after the ... Games

That was depressing 2007-12-09 19:03:51 Wow, that was bad.  New England lead 17-13 at halftime, and pulled away for a 34-13 victory over the Steelers. Anthony Smith was beaten badly, for three touchdowns. So much for the guarantee.  The Pats ran enough on their opening drive to set up the play action td to Moss then they passed all game. The offensive line played well enough to win for most of the game, and the Steelers still lost.  The offense moved the ball well, but on two crucial occasions failed to score touchdowns after getting inside the New England ten yard line.   The defense was beaten for two big plays, one on a play action pass to Moss, and the other on a throwback pass, which brought back memories of the Steelers victory over the Bengals in the 2005 playoff game.   The Steelers faced a 3rd and goal from the 1, with a chance to pull within 11 points early in the fourth quarter, Arians called a fade route to Holmes. The ref could have called holding on Rodney, “HGHarrison” but the pass was ruled incompl ...

Steeler Nation, NC 2007-12-09 15:17:58 The Steelers kick off against the undefeated Patriots at 4:15 today. I’m watching the game from my sister’s apartment in Greensboro North Carolina with my sister, who will graduate from Guilford College on Tuesday, and my former roommate Pease who lives in Raleigh.  The Oakland, Green Bay game provides a nice prelude to the most anticipated regular season game since 2004.  I have escaped the dreary slush of Pittsburgh in December, for bright blue Carolina skies it’s 70 degrees and sunny down here and it doesn’t quite feel right.  This is the kind of game I would normally watch by myself with a pot of coffee, a carton of cigs and my terrible towel. I haven’t seen Pease in almost two years, the last time we watched a Steelers-Patriots game together (Jan 23rd 2005), my TV died a painful death. I’ve grown up a bit since then. Anyway, we’re all chomping at the bit, over caffeinated and slightly sleep deprived.  We’re about to change the Packers game to the Carolina-Jacks ...

The Devil’s in the Davenport Details 2007-12-09 08:48:30 by John Cihon So first they tell us Pittsburgh Steelers running back Najeh Davenport was out with a non-football related injury last week. Shortly thereafter, Coach Mike Tomlin says Davenport fell off of an elliptical cycle and hurt his foot. Then, a team spokesperson tells us that he hurt his foot through some sort of acupuncture treatment. Okay, but why did he have a black eye when he was sitting on the bench last week? Clearly, the Steelers don’t want to tell us the details of what happened. That’s fine, but don’t treat us like idiots. ...

Target: Tom Brady 2007-12-09 08:14:11 by John Cihon I will give one hundred dollars in cash to any Pittsburgh Steelers player who injures Tom Brady to the extent that he is unable to continue to play in the Steelers-Patriots game this Sunday. If the injury takes place before the game in the parking lot, don’t worry, I’ll still pay. As a matter of fact, that might be preferable. So don’t be sad offensive and special teams players, you have an opportunity to collect as well. I’ve heard a lot of people saying that Anthony Smith might be writing some checks he can’t cash, so I figure he could use the money. And hey, who couldn’t? A hundred bucks is a hundred bucks. ...

Painting Foxborough Black and Gold 2007-12-08 18:42:41 I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was pumped for this game. The 12-0 Patriots, soon to be 12-1. The last time the Patriots were on an undefeated streak, a record setting 18 regular season games, they made a road trip to Pittsburgh. Streak over. The only way it can get sweeter, roll into their backyard and lay the smack down ending an undefeated season and a chance at the record books. I gotta agree with Mr. Gwynn to an extent on this one. The o-line needs to get it together, maybe more specifically, Sean Mahan. Most of the pressure Ben has been getting is up the gut and if the Steelers are going to have success running on New England they’re going to have to do it like the Ravens did, be physical at the snap and pound the Patriots front seven backwards. Another aspect of the Patriots defense that has shown some weakness is the short passing game. They were picked apart by A.J. Feeley until he went downtown, and the exact same with Kyle Boller. As long as they kept it ...

Smith’s guarantee and the Steelers offensive line 2007-12-06 11:43:52 Anthony Smith guarantees victory. I just heard it on ESPN radio (Wednesday afternoon). I like his confidence, but I’m not sure providing bulletin board material is the best way to prepare for the Steelers’ toughest game of the season. In reality I doubt his comments have much bearing on the game’s outcome. I hope he hits Randy Moss really, really hard. While the phrase “Any given Sunday” has no bearing on whether or not the Steelers can beat the Patriots, I suppose the odds are somewhat in the Steelers favor, it’s hard to go undefeated and the Steelers have the best chance of the remaining teams on New England’s schedule to knock off the Patriots. The tangible key to this game is the Steelers offensive line. I believe any discussion regarding how the Steelers will knock off the Patriots has to begin and end with the line play; whether or not they can keep Ben Roethlisberger upright and open holes for Willie Parker. The group played better against the Bengals, but ...

Steelers win, Ward sets record 2007-12-05 13:31:55 Pittsburgh (9-3) beat Cincinati (4-8) 24-10 Sunday night at Heinz Field. The Bengals opened the game with a 75 yard touchdown drive, while the Steelers first three possessions ended with an interception and two punts. Ben Roethlisberger was sailing passes early, and the defense couldn’t get off the field. However in the second quarter the Steelers scored 17 unanswered points to take a ten point lead at halftime. Ben Roethlisberger ran for a touchdown and threw the first of two TD’s to Hines Ward. While Jeff Reed added a short field goal Ward’s second TD catch set the Steelers record for career TD receptions with 64, and more importantly it gave Pittsburgh a 24-10 lead late in the third quarter. John Stallworth held the record with 63. Defense won the game for Pittsburgh, stopping key fourth down plays and applying constant pressure on Carson Palmer, who looked confused and antsy almost the entire game. After the Bengals first drive, Palmer made a habit of overthrowing his rece ...

Music, Mud and the Bengals 2007-12-02 16:26:35 Have you ever been driving somewhere, across town maybe or out to the suburbs, and when you flip on the radio it feels spooky, as though the airwaves were possessed by the ghosts of Hendrix and Bonham and McKernan. It’s as if the DJ has torn a seam into your subconscious and carved his play-list out of your grey matter. It’s sunny out and maybe you’re just going to grab some milk or diapers or something and you decide to go the long way. For almost twenty minutes you are rewarded for letting the CD in the player idle and resisting the allure of ESPN radio, and the gifts are special. Not the heavy rotation-Stairway-Foxy Lady-Truckin’ type tracks, but the rare B-sides you pride yourself on knowing the 3rd verses to as a tribute to your fandom and musical intellect. The Windows are rolled down despite the cool autumn whipping past and you’re blasting the raido like you did in high school when you discovered The Roots. Then, a catchy but unfamiliar tune streams form the sp ...

Random Thoughts, Plus Cheerleader Preview 2007-12-02 15:28:50 by John Cihon (www.johncihon.com) I had planned to write more and earlier this week, but my car got vandalized and part of my ceiling fell in during the torrential rains on Monday. So, to keep a long story short because this is a football blog, not a problems-with-John-Cihon’s-life blog, it’s been a rough week. The Pittsburgh Steelers upcoming opponent cheerleader of the week is Cincinnati Ben-Gal Lindsey. Lindsey’s hobbies include sleeping, and her most memorable Cincinnati Bengals game is anytime a player is released from jail, I mean anytime the Bengals beat the Steelers. Hopefully she can take a nice nap sometime soon to forget the shellacking the Steelers are likely to put on the Bengals this week. Before we look too far ahead however, let’s take a look back for a few thoughts on Monday night’s game. Steelers were falling over themselves lining up to say they prefer playing on grass over turf this week. But there’s no way from where I stand to say that game was ...

Some Things Are More Important Than Football 2007-12-02 15:18:28 by www.johncihon.com Unfortunately, the tragedy involving Sean Taylor reminds us that football is not the most important thing in the world. There are those who have already talked about Taylor’s checkered past when covering the story, as if that somehow means he deserved what happened to him. But nothing he had done in the past could ever justify or explain what was cruelly done to him. Making the tragedy all the greater is that Taylor seemed to be maturing as a player, a person, and a father when this happened. My thoughts and prayers and the thoughts and prayers of everyone connected with this site go out to both his family and the entire Washington Redskins organization. ...

Family vs Football: The Sequel 2007-12-01 14:24:37 This was another one of those weeks. Last Sunday afternoon, I had just thrown my mom’s laundry into the washer and started a pot of chili cooking when the phone rang. It was dad. Mom had fallen out of bed and was sent to the ER at Allegheny-Valley Hospital. So, I got cleaned up, put the partially cooked chili in the fridge, and drove from my home in Murrysville to Natrona. I arrived at the ER at about 5 to find mom on a back board with her head immobilized. I told her she looked like Joey Porter had put a huge hit on her and she’d been carried off the field. The good news is that she laughed about it. Yes, with all the health problems she’s had this year, she’s still a big football fan and she does know who Joey Porter is and that he was going to be in town for the Monday night game. The even better news is that nothing was broken, but she did stay in the hospital till Thursday to be treated for a few other things unrelated to the fall. She’s doing a lot ...

Goodbye Dan Kreider 2007-12-01 13:35:18 Friday I wrote this before I read the Post-Gazette article with basically the same Dan Kreider content. Fullback Dan Kreider has probably played his last game as a Steeler, and maybe in the NFL.  The eight year veteran’s season ended when he was placed on IR this week after tearing his ACL Monday night on the treacherous slop covering Heinz field. It is as if the Steelers saw this coming, the team has phased Kreider out of the offense, instead relying on the allegedly more versatile Carey Davis.  Kreider is 30 years old and in the last year of his contract I hope he recovers and catches on somewhere, but the nature of his position and the severity of his injury will probably lead him to call it a career. The Steelers added tight end Jon Dekker to the 53 man roster. I hope Dekker can block, and cover kickoffs.  Should Carey Davis get hurt, it wouldn’t surprise me if Verron Haynes, who has played fullback and half back,  got a call from the Steelers. Pittsburgh has used more ...

Box of Rain 2007-11-28 01:32:43 The playing conditions may have had a bit of an impact on last night’s Steelers Dolphins game, which was won by the Steelers 3-0 on a 24 yard Jeff reed field goal with 17 seconds remaining. It was as if the game was played in a rice paddy. I half expected Tony Kornheiser to make a Vietnam reference given the way “quagmire” has been analogously batted around by the media in regards to the Heinz field Monday night “romp in the swamp”, and the tendency of NFL pundits to play the overwrought war analogy game. It was so wet I half expected to see a speed boat zooming across the 50 yard line. Subterranean Homesick Blues The Rooneys spent a lot of money on the underground heating system coiled just below the playing surface at Heinz field. The heating system is supposed to combat the short, grass growing season in Pittsburgh and improve recovery time for the overworked sod, kind of like lawn steroids. A move to Field Turf™ would render the heating coils useless. Person ...