It’s Over

Pre-Season is history. Let the games begin. Thursday night’s win against Carolina was as suspected a real sleeper, but a win. The Steelers were held to only 141 yards of total offence while giving up 289 yards, it was very sloppy game. But Tomlin sure got to look at a lot of players who will not survive the weekend. An interception for a touchdown in the last two minutes was the only touchdown in the game. Reed did get a lot of practice going 4 for 4. If Carolina had not turned the ball over 6 times they win. It was a game to look at staff only but does helps make the pre-season look good. A lot remains to be seen as we head to Cleveland for week one. The offensive line, overall game plan and the defensive strategy will make for a real interesting season. Again I believe for his first season Tomlin should be happy ending 8 and 8. (by the way thats my prediction) So hold on to your hats, here we go, a new era begins in just over a week. GO STEELERS!!

Only the first half

Counts in pre-season.

And a pretty impressive first half it was. Ben was 13 for 25 and 247 yards. Only blemish was a bad interception in the first quarter. Never should have thrown the ball. Looked like a rookie mistake. Parker was looking good even with his fumble in the red zone. He got to carry the ball 10 times for 32 yards. Not great but ok for pre-season. Still looking like we are going to be throwing a lot more this season. The biggest highlight was how well the offensive line looked. Total reversal from the previous games. Again the defense looks great. Only giving up 3 points holding McNabb to just 60 yards passing. Enough said for now on the defense.

I’m not expecting much on Thursday night against Carolina, it’s the last pre-season game and why take any chances. Then what an opener, October 9th, Steelers vs. Browns in Cleveland, now that’s a way to start the season.

Tiger Woods - A big disappointment

Tiger Woods in my humble opinion is the greatest golfer to play the game. My only criticism has been his disregard for the fans. This week he announced he would not play in the first round of the FedEx Cup, the Barclays. He previously said he would play in all four rounds. I believe this is further evidence for his total disregard for the fans and the PGA. This is the first year for the PGA to try and hold a national playoff and has been hyped all year long. It is a great idea and it will however take a few years to tweak the format. I would like to suggest the first tweak, if you don’t play in all four events you should be disqualified from the rest of the playoffs. Tiger may be a great golfer, however, again in my humble opinion, he will never be remember as one of the greatest people to play the game.

Sorry to digress, just had to get it off my chest.
Sunday 8 PM on national TV Steelers vs. Eagles. Almost as important as a regular season game. Should tell us a lot.

I Know

I know, it’s only preseason! And a win, but it sure was not pretty. Ben was running for his life the whole first half. That’s not good. In fact he was the leading rusher in the first half with 17 yards. That’s not good! Parker only had 4 yards on 4 carries. I’m beginning to wonder if he is really healthy, but maybe the real problem is the offensive line. By now they should be looking a lot better. It makes no difference who the quarterback or running backs are if you don’t have the horses up front. Looking more and more like they need to be spending more time in the weight room. Could be the offensive line is going to be our down fall this year.

Washington’s only touchdown in the game was in the first quarter. A 7 yard pass with the defense in the cover-two, rushing only three, I know your going to get sick of hearing it, but, THAT DEFENSE SUCKS! (See Picture. Notice all the white jerseys just standing around) If you can’t defend 7 yards with it, you need to stop using it! There were 4 offensive linemen standing around doing nothing on the play. Even I could complete a 7 yard pass if I had all day to throw it. If we keep it up this may become the weekly Cover-Two Sucks blog. The one bright spot, the defense held Washington to only 43 net rushing yards. That’s only 26 more yards then Ben had in the first half.


I think next week against the Eagles will probably be the most important pre-season game this year and should give us a good look at what to expect for the rest of the season.

It’s only preseason!

Keep telling yourself that and all looks good. A little credit to Tomlin, he is looking at a lot of players. 15 passes to 12 receivers and 7 backs for 28 rushes. Pretty balanced night all around. Ben only played 2 series and only had a total of 9 offensive plays, completed 2 passes for 14 yards and gave the ball away once on a fumbled as a result of one of the 5 sacks for the evening. On the fumble Ben was left alone in the backfield and the offensive line gave up the sack, if we are going to empty the backfield on passes we better run shorter routes. This trend can’t continue! Yet an other new look for Ben, no huddle. Again it looks like Tomlin is going to try and open things up, I think it’s a good thing and should keep defenses back on their heals most of the year. Ben was the only QB to run the no huddle. Again Batch looked in mid-season form and I think we are lucky to have such a quality back-up. Over all not a bad offensive outing for the pre-season.

Defense, Defense. Still looking strong. Favre was only 2 for 7 and only for 7 yards. The Pack was held scoreless in the first quarter and only allowed 3 points in the second. Some sound defense. In pre-season only the first half counts, then its let look at everybody. Only one sack, have to do better! Can’t get to the QB only rushing 3, something Tomlin did a lot of in this game. Overall for the second game a good outing. Sacks remain a concern on both sides of the ball, but we will have to wait and see. Less then a month till the season opener, sweet, sweet. I may have to up my expectations! Ya, right!

New Mascot

From http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07220/807819-66.stm:

The Steelers will announce the name of the team's new mascot today at Saint Vincent College, following afternoon practice.

In a press release, the team said Steelers President Art Rooney II will participate in the announcement at the Steelers Experience, the team's interactive theme park located next to the training camp practice fields.

The announcement is one of the many activities scheduled as part of the Steelers' 75th Season Celebration.

The Steelers' afternoon practice is scheduled to run from 2:55 to 5 p.m.

Any ideas?

Carey Davis

I was impressed by Carey during the Saints preseason opener.

"RB Carey Davis further solidified his bid to make the team with his performance against the Saints, rushing for 63 yards with the aid of a 55-yard run in the fourth quarter. Davis has done it all in his first two weeks -- run, catch and block -- and the coaches like what they see. He will get more playing time against the Green Bay Packers Saturday night at Heinz Field." - http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07219/807581-360.stm

More details on him: http://news.steelers.com/team/player/71064.

Here we GO!

A new dawn, a new season and a new era. It seems like I’ve been waiting forever. As most of you know I have not been a Cowher fan for many a season. I like him as a person, but not as a coach. So now it is with an open heart that I look forward to a new era. Mike Tomlin will captain this era and has a lot of tradition to uphold. As an assistant coach under Dungy at Tampa Bay he learned the old Cover 2 defense first used by his new team in the 70’s. Bet you didn’t know Dungy stole the defense. This was a cause for some concern on my part at his hiring. Still is, he used it a lot on Sunday against the Saints. If the cover 2 is to work well you have to bring some heat or you will get picked to death. The Steelers of the 70’s had a front 4 (The Steel Curtain) who could bring heat, not so sure the Steelers of the new era can do that running a three/four cover 2. Let’s not forget that Sunday was pre-season. Although a win is a win and the Steelers looked great even with water logged eyes. Ben only played one series, yet he looked composed and ready to play. Diving the team to a touchdown set up with a perfect 54 yard pass to Cedrick Wilson. Wilson looked in mid-season form all night. Batch played a great game as did St. Pierre. The big offensive difference is it looks like our new offensive coordinator Bruce Arians is going to concentrate more on passing then running. He showed a lot of four wide-outs and no back. This resulted in a few sacks and is a new concern for me. Great teams can pound the ball. We’ll see. I have to admit that over all the entire offensive line look tough, the sackes were more cover sackes then a break down. For the first time in a long time I like the way the defensive backs look. They were all over the field and on the backs of the receivers all night. It’s hard to name anyone as a lot of players were being used. I’ll get more specific as the season unfolds. Over all for a pre-season game we look great and as a side note the post-gazette reported that Tomlin is the first Pittsburgh coach to win his first pre-season game in 42 years, a great start!
One more note from the post-gazette, Joey Porter needs knee surgery and will probably miss at least two weeks.
To anyone that asked I have said that this year is a toss-up. If the Steelers win eight games it will be a good season. Anything else a real plus! Your comments.
Next game: August 11 vs Green Bay

The weekend of a LIFETIME!!

Before posting the game review let me first set the scene. I arrived at Tom & Sue’s early on Saturday August 3rd for a dream weekend of PGA Golf at Firestone Country Club and then FOOTBALL at the Football Hall of Fame. (Steelers vs Saints) Tom had arranged for tickets to the game, a pre-game tailgate party and admission to the Hall of Fame. It just can’t get any better then that, right? But yes it does, Regis drove up from North Augusta with CJ, Martin and Chace now that really tops of the weekend. Because of the potential of bad weather on Sunday the PGA decided to change the starting times so as to avoid the weather and finish on Sunday. Tiger put on a real show Sunday coming from second place and winning by 8 strokes and was the only player to finish under par and he became the first PGA professional to win the same tournament 3 times in a row and to win it three times in a row twice. What a thrill to be there!! Now the PGA decision should have given us a clue as to what would be going on Sunday night, but no not us. Three veteran sport fans and three young fans leave Tom’s Sunday at 5:30 PM decked out in our best Steelers garb for the tailgate party and a night of Steelers mania with absolutely no fowl weather gear. Who said “with age comes wisdom”? Mark, Anna-Katrin and Sue would join us later, because Mark worked Sunday Morning 12 to 6 AM and wanted to rest his bones after the golf tournament. Just as we parked in someone’s backyard about a half mile from the Hall of Fame it started to rain. And rain it did and rain and rain. We were soaked. Mark’s need for a little rest was really a smart move. Fortunately the tailgate party was under a big tent, a chance to dry out a little. By the way, Sue would later describe the tailgate party as; “Now I know what it feels like to be in a refugee camp”. After the refugee camp we tool the kids to the Hall of Fame to view the special Steelers exhibit, this is the 75th anniversary season for the Steelers. The Hall of Fame has some really great Steelers stuff displayed in 10 year increments, along with a display of the 5 Super Bowl Trophies. It just keeps getting better. Now for a short walk to Fawcett Stadium and the game. (Short, if it’s not pouring and you don’t have a four year old walking with you!) Rain coming down in buckets! Now understand at best Fawcett Stadium is a glorified high school stadium. In normal circumstances it is a great stadium to watch a NFL game, but not in the rain and especially with no fowl weather gear. My Steelers sweatshirt had to weigh an extra 50 pounds. After walking up to our seats, on the 40 yard line, ROW PP, I’m thinking, “You’re Way To Old To Be This DUMB!” The game was delayed a bit and then just as the Saints kicked-off the rain came to an end, how great is that, my greatest Steelers memory, Thanks Tom!!

Steelers07review

Taking lee’s suggestion I’m am going to try and do a game review after every game. I invite any comments you may have. Since this a new era for the Steelers I am going to try and cut them some slack this year, but we will have to wait and see. Because of Tom’s generosity I was fortunate and honored to be at the Hall Of Fame game on Sunday the 5th of August. How great is it to be able to say you attended the first game of the new era. I will be posting my review within the next couple of days as I just got back and need to catch up on needed rest after a wild weekend.