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Articles from Steeler Maniacs

An incredibly bland Super Bowl Preview 2008-02-03 13:52:54 Super Bowl XLII Patriots vs. Giants, kickoff at 6:18 and 34 seconds The Giants nearly upset the Patriots in the regular season finale, when New England overcame a 12 point deficit en route to a three point victory in the Meadowlands. In general, I’m a fan of the underdog. The Giants come into tonight’s game getting 12.5 points from the odds makers in Vegas, and as much as I’d like them to win, I think they’ll cover and lose. I know they have a great pass rush, and may be able to pressure Brady without bringing guys out of pass coverage, and their defense has played inspired football down the stretch, but I can’t see Belichick losing to a team he has already played during the regular season, especially with two weeks to game plan. Perfect seasons don’t happen very often, it would be something to see the Pats pull of the improbable feat. Maybe they will all retire if they go 19-0; they’ll pull a collective Jim Brown, and go out as arguably the best team ever, with definiti ...

Super Blog: Why do I care so much about sports? 2008-02-02 05:00:11 If you read this in its entirety, I’ll give you a dollar* “The people which once bestowed imperium, fasces, legions, everything, now foregoes such activities and has but two passionate desires: bread and circus games”. -Julius Caesar With Super Bowl XLII looming, the NFL is making a final push to corral all the viewers it can for the league’s colossal finale. All the buildup to the big game is geared, in a way, at reminding us of the importance of football. We have to watch the Giants and Patriots or we might die of embarrassment the next day at work when we cannot bs with our co-workers about how anticlimactic the game was, and how hilarious we found the beer commercial featuring a drunken walrus trying to mate with an old couch before realizing it was, in fact, a piece of furniture. One only needs to compare the league minimum salary to that of a teacher to see there is something askew with the value this country places on athletics. Granted, my mother the art tea ...

Super Blog Preview, plus inside info on the Steelers search for an offensive lineman 2008-02-01 00:21:53 Before I post my Steelermaniacs Swan Song blog, a 3,000+ word piece on the importance of sports [I’m going for the record.-leave it to a fiction writing major to write 8 pages on the insignificance of sports.] which I’m actually taking some time to revise, I would like to provide my loyal readers with some legitimate info I heard at work which, as far as I know, has not yet been made public. The other day my regional manager was in to give us all a pep talk about how we have to sell more appetizers and salads or something, anyway, someone asked him what his son did for a living, and he said he was a professional football player who played guard and center for the Redskins. He was about to re-sign with Washington, but when Gibbs left things went up in the air. He said Steelers’ management had contacted him. I checked the Redskin’s team site, but I don’t know my RM’s last name so I can’t relay it, but at least the Steelers are trying to get some o-line help, and Washington ...

A Somewhat “Steelers-centric” look at the Super Bowl. 2008-01-29 18:00:46 I wrote the bulk of this the day after the conference championships. Only two teams remain; the New England Patriots and New York Giants. I don’t believe I have to watch Eli Manning play in the Super Bowl, good for him though I’m surprised he’s played so well in the post-season. Given my “If the NFL used the BCS” logic, I would love to see the Giants win by more than 3 points. Let’s say the Giants win 35-31 on a late “Hail Mary” to Plaxico Burress, that would mean they are 4 points better that NE on a neutral site. (I know they lost at home to NE earlier, but this is BCS logic) Earlier in the season, the 1-15 Miami Dolphins lost a13-10 slop fest in London, a neutral site, to the NFC Champion New York Giants. Therefore the Dolphins would be 1 point better than the Patriots on a neutral site. Burress had a great game in the NFC championship. I’m sure you’ve heard by now that Roethlisberger was publicly lobbying management to bring in a tall wide receiver. Hin ...

You thought your girlfriend was crazy 2008-01-29 15:55:26 I’m a bit late on this bit of news as well, but Ced Wilson was recently involved in a domestic dispute with his girlfriend. I cut and pasted this info from wpxi.com, it was written on Jan 22nd.   According to a protection-from-abuse court order Wilson obtained against Paulat, the mother of his 1-year-old daughter, Anya, he left the home after she kicked him then sat on the trunk of his car, yelling at him. Wilson contends Paulat called to tell him, “I have a gun and am going to shoot myself,” and later, “I shot the gun but missed my head,” before he called police, the document said. Wilson said the woman has attempted suicide in the past. Paulat was charged with aggravated assault and reckless endangerment in the incident. During Monday’s hearing, both sides agreed to a custody visitation plan. Wilson was at the hearing, but Paulat was not. Paulat had been undergoing a psychiatric evaluation since her arrest. “I think, basically, she doesn’ ...

Rest In Peace, Ernie Holmes 2008-01-29 14:51:18 Ernie Holmes died on January 17th, at the age of 59, in a one car accident in Lumberton, Texas. Holmes retired before I was born, his 6 year career (72-78) is highlighted by victories in Super Bowls IX, and X. To me, Holmes was the guy with the arrow shaved into his head another mythological character in the pantheon of Super Steelers from the Steel Curtain 70’s whom I have only seen on NFL Films. This blog is week or so late, and this is not ‘news’ any more I guess, but Holmes passing is certainly worth mentioning. It’s a shame, 59 is young. From what I’ve read he had dedicated his time to the church after a colorful life filled with some bizarre off-field incidents. The AP article about Holmes was a good read, touching.  I also enjoyed Dr. Z’s column on SI.com. ...

It’s a long off-season 2008-01-21 14:27:28 Another season is in the books, what can we deduce about the Steelers future from Tomlin’s first season? The Glass is Half-Full Ben Roethlisberger is a franchise quarterback; his interception filled 2006 season now looks like the exception rather than the rule. Statistically, he had the best season of any quarterback south of Tom Brady, please sign him to a ten year deal, make him a Steeler for life. Willie Parker was leading the league in rushing despite the Steelers well documented O-line problems, think about what he could do if the Steelers could run block on the goal line. Santonio Holmes, and Heath Miller had career years. James Harrison and LaMaar Woodley will make us all forget about Joey Porter and Clark Haggans. In the past the Steelers have signed free agents like, Jeff Hartings, Jerome Bettis, and James Farrior, so there’s hope they could go out and get someone this off-seaosn. The glass is Half-Empty The offensive line is in shambles. Given the Steelers draft posi ...

Arbitrary grading of the ‘07 Steelers 2008-01-21 14:22:26 The Mike Tomlin era is upon us.  A deceptively promising start faded into an injury riddled, deceleration into the post-season, which culminated in an ulcer-inducing, two point playoff loss at home. Still, ten wins is a good season. I suppose a Super Bowl victory would have earned Tomlin an A++++++, like Ralph’s fantasy grade in “A Christmas Story”. In my eyes, this season was above average, a solid B. I cut and pasted this from the Post Gazette website a while back. ‘The Steelers have other players who will become unrestricted free agents when the new NFL calendar begins in March. They are guard Alan Faneca, linebacker Clark Haggans, tackle Max Starks, defensive end Travis Kirschke and fullback Dan Kreider. Restricted free agents include tackle Trai Essex, guard Chris Kemoeatu, receiver Nate Washington and long-snapper Greg Warren. They also must decide which players who have one year left on their contracts they want to try to extend. Among those are tackle Marvel Smith, lin ...

James Harrison and Danny Sepulveda: The “Steeler Way” in all its Glory 2008-01-14 12:20:56 Harrison vs. Porter This past off-season, the Steelers released Joey Porter and chose to let their pass rushing hopes rest on the wings of un-drafted, free agent James Harrison. My guess is the Dolphins could have gone 1-15 without Porter. Meanwhile, James Harrison was selected to his first Pro-Bowl. Here are their final regular season stats. James Harrison (10-6) Total tackles- 98, solo tackles- 76, sacks- 9, forced fumbles- 7, interceptions- 1. Joey Porter (1-15) Total tackles- 66, solo tackles- 57, sacks- 5.5, forced fumbles- 1, interceptions- 2. Who Says the “Steeler Way” doesn’t work? The Battle of the Fourth Round Draft Picks With their fourth round draft pick, the Steelers selected two-time Ray Guy Award Winner, All-Universe punter Danny Sepulveda from Baylor. Meanwhile, the New England Patriots traded their fourth round draft pick to Oakland for locker room cancer, Mr. “I play when I want to play”, WR, Randy Moss. Here are their final regular season stats. Sepulve ...

If The NFL used the BCS 2008-01-14 11:36:28 The NFL’s final four has been decided, this weekend the Patriots will play San Diego, and the Packers will play the Giants. The conference champions will take two weeks off for the NFL to relentlessly hype the inevitable New England victory in Commercial Fest XLII in Arizona. (The Packers are the only team who can go point for point with the Patriots, and I want Green Bay to win, badly) But what if there weren’t any playoff games? What if the daunted Billy Volek/Phillip Rivers tandem didn’t get a chance to out-duel Peyton “it was my offensive line and kicker’s fault we lost” Manning? What if after the regular season the NFL took nearly two months off before playing the national championship game? What if the NFL were governed by the BCS? I suppose it would do away with all those meaningless regular season games, making every week a “must win”, unless of course a team is ranked too low at the start of the season, (LSU a while back) and plays an entire slate of meaningl ...

Coach Tomlin: Wrong and Right 2008-01-13 20:46:29 by John Cihon The television network got it wrong when it made the New England Patriots-Jacksonville Jaguars game the Saturday night game, traditionally the most watched time slot in the NFL playoffs weekend. Not because another game would get higher ratings, I would be surprised if any of the other games would, but because the other games were far more exciting; the best one coming last with the New York Giants cementing the win against the Dallas Cowboys by intercepting Tony Romo’s attempt at a touchdown pass with literally less than ten seconds left in the game. Pittsburgh Steelers Coach Mike Tomlin also got it wrong this week when he announced plan to not change any of the coaching staff in the upcoming 2008-2009 season. With the sub par offensive line and special teams play this season, to unilaterally decide to not make a change this early doesn’t seem wise. Maybe you do decide to keep both coaches, but I would think long and hard about it before I did. I also dearly hope ...

Steeler’s Overcome 18-Point Deficit & Still Lose The Game 2008-01-07 18:52:51 After watching the Steelers take the ball down and score on their opening drive I was sure we were going to win.  The Steelers moved the ball into the red zone like a well-oiled machine and they actually scored a touch down and not a wimpy field goal.  The only problem after scoring the td was that we had to kick the ball to the Jags and that meant our horrible kick coverage unit would be tasked with stopping Jones-Drew!  We kicked the ball away and just as I had feared, Jones-Drew ran up the middle like an indy car on a straightaway. Got to give props to Madison who showd some speed when he ran down Jones-Drew at the 1-yard line.  How about kicking the ball high enough to give the coverage unit enough time to get down field to be in position to make a tackle?  Our special teams has been killing us all year long and they killed us early in the playoff game.  By the end of the 1st half we were down 21-7 and the deficit was the result of 3 Ben Roethlisberger interceptions.  In m ... Amp

At least the Penguins won 2008-01-05 23:50:03 My previous entry is a live blog of the Steelers’ dramatic 31-29 playoff loss to Jacksonville. The blog is fantastic. The spread was 2.5 points, interesting. Everyone who bet on the Steelers won if that makes anyone feel better. The Steelers lost this game because Ben Roethlisberger only played well in the second half, and they have been playing with a crap o-line all year. Ben’s bad first half was unexpected. They made a great come back, but man, if only they hadn’t gotten into that position in the first place. The defense played a spirited game without Aaron Smith. I think they played well enough to win. I don’t believe the Steelers lost the way they did. I thought for sure if they were going to lose it would have been for entirely different reasons, although special teams’ gaffes are becoming a Steelers post-season tradition. 14 Jaguar points came off a 1 yard drive set up by a kickoff return and an interception return for a touchdown. The interception on the screen la ...

The Steelers/Jaguars game as I watched it. 2008-01-05 20:49:53 Wild Card Playoffs Steelers vs. Jaguars this has not been proofread. It’s halftime, and the Steelers are down 21-7. I realize now I misspelled David Garrard’s name throughout the whole blog. OK the games over and it was gut wrenching. I am sad. I’ll just paste my second half blog onto the bottom of this one. Boy this was a heart breaker. Here’s how the game unfolded as I watched it in my Bloomfield apartment. The Steelers won the toss and drove down the field for a td on their opening drive. Davenport scored from a yard out to put the Steelers up 7-0 The pass to run ratio was about 2-1. The drive was aided by a horse collar, personal foul penalty on a play that appeared to be a sack, the call was correct I’ not sure if I like the rule though. Roethlisberger is so tough he hurts the opposition when they tackle him illegally. After throwing incomplete on his first attempt, Roethlisberger completed his next 5, including a big 3rd down play to Hines Ward on a fake ...

Let Ben Throw! Let Ben Throw! Let Ben Throw! 2008-01-05 14:35:30 Oh, the offensive line is terrible And the running game is doubtful But since he’s having a career year Let Ben throw! Let Ben throw! Let Ben throw! When we finally reached the playoffs The Jaguars were coming on strong But give the ball to our quarterback And they won’t last too long ...