Still crazy after all these years

Ryan Clark as a DB for the Steelers … can this be changed? Is everyone, from Steeler players to the the local and national media, wrong about the team that has won six Super Bowls but appears to be on the brink of becoming a bottom-tier NFL team? One of its former defensive standouts does not think so. Ryan Clark has watched the formerly proud Pittsburgh Steelers plummet from a top-tier team to one that has lost to the Raiders and the Bengals — at home — on successive weekends.  In fact, they lost to the perennial cellar-dwelling Cincinnati Bengals by two touchdowns last week, revealing a tremendous amount of ineptitude from to top of the organization to the bottom.  Former Super Bowl winner In a panel discussion on ESPN, Clark, who played for the Steelers from 2006 to 2013 and earned a Super Bowl ring in 2009, was blunt about his assessment of the failure of the team after the loss to Cincinnati, It’s an end of an era, an end of an era of dominance, it’s an end o...

Not what we wanted to see … “ Steelers playing like their best days are behind them” Remember when you could not beg for a ticket to a Pittsburgh Steelers game? On Sunday, only 58,000 season ticket holders showed up for the Bengals game.  Talk about fair-weather fans. They gave up after the pathetic performance last week against the Raiders at home. Steelers Nation that started in the 1970s is in dire straits. Mike Tomlin, the coach who has won 65 percent of his games in the regular season but is woeful in the post-season, is now starting his downhill slide with the team.  Is this hyperbole? They have rebounded before in their history, but then, they had superb talent.  Perhaps no game was as discouraging as the 24-10 loss to the Bengals.  And the 10,000 fans who did not show knew what they would be missing.  Things will probably get worse before they improve.  Next, the Packers.  Ron Cook: Defense “witness protection program” The ...

Lamar upset the Chiefs' applecart -- in a crazy start to the NFL season … upsetting those experts! Looking at the CBS NFL experts’ picks for the Super Bowl reveal one problem: After two weeks, the teams most picked, the Chiefs and the Bills, are 1-1.  And looking at the NFC North that was supposed to be dominated by the Browns and Ravens reveals that no team is 2-0 … and in the AFC West, who would have thought that the Raiders and Broncos would be leading at 2-0? It is a crazy start to the NFL season.  Ravens end Chiefs and Mahones mantra First, the Chiefs that everyone loves are 1-1, and they could very easily be 0-2 if the Browns had not collapsed in week one.  And the Bills who looked woeful in week 1 suddenly looked great — albeit against the Dolphins — yesterday.  And in the NFC, which definitely is weak in many events, the Packers lost to the Bengals in week 1. Actually, I like this. The experts are no better than the rest of us. This could be an interesting se...

Raiders defeated the Ravens on Monday.  … Now, though, they are L.V. instead of Oakland The Raiders-Steelers matchup at the start of the season appeared to be one that the Pittsburgh fans could record as a W.  Unfortunately, the fans did not look at the numbers in the Tomlin era. The Post-Gazette noted that today, and the numbers are devastating.  The simple story Here is the record of the coach and the franchise QB against the team that is now called Las Vegas instead of Oakland. It is not pretty, Roethlisberger is 2-5 against the Raiders. That’s his worst record against any AFC team (he’s 4-7 against New England). Tomlin is 2-4, his worst record against any AFC team not named the Patriots. Joe Starkey, “Ben Roethlisberger, Mike Tomlin and their terrible, no good, very  bad  history with the Raiders,” Post-Gazette, September 15, 2021 Details The problem is that the Raiders defeated the Ravens last Monday night in an upset. That makes the Steeler fans even more ...

Last thing that James Franklin wanted this week … SI: “Penn State's Board of Trustees Invited This Speculation” The rumor is the last thing that James Franklin and Penn State need this week. With the tenth-ranked Nittany Lions hosting ESPN’s Game Day with their game against Auburn on Saturday, the last thing the players want to hear is that their coach is being considered for another job.  Although having a name in the mix is not really “being considered.” Franklin’s name has been linked to USC previously, when they hired the coach who was fired earlier this week.  First, what coach wants to be associated with an A.D. who would boot his coach early in the season? Second, this makes no sense. Third, bringing a coach from the East  Coast to the west is counter-intuitive [remember Jenny Przekwas]. Last, USC does not have the allure that it once did.  However, what was interesting was the Sports Illustrated gave a good reason why Franklin may want to leave Pe...

Joe Burrow led Bengals to win over Vikings … Ravens choke against Raiders The Cincinnati Bengals were picked to finish last in the AFC North this season — and maybe they will.  And the Pittsburgh Steelers were picked to finish third -- and maybe they will. However, after one week, those two teams are on top of the division after pulling upsets in their openers.  The Bengals upset the Minnesota Vikings at home, and the Steelers upset the Buffalo Bills on the road to take the two top spots.  The Cleveland Browns, who along with the Baltimore Ravens were picked to win the AFC North — and one of them still might — both lost their openers.  The Browns gave everybody’s favorite to win the Super Bowl this year, the Kansas City Chiefs, everything they could handle on Sunday before falling in the fourth quarter.  That was not a surprise. What was a surprise was the Ravens falling to the Raiders on Monday Night Football. In short, here is that story li...

Steelers D captures the day … September is not December I was able to watch just the first half of the Steelers-Bills game on Sunday, the period in which the Pittsburgh offense racked up just 34 yards on total offense.  Pretty much what I and the other prognosticators had figured. Good defense, woeful offense.  However, what I definitely noticed was that the Bills were not that impressive in the first 30 minutes either.  They have no running game, and until the final drive of the first half, the Bills had nothing to hang their hats on except for a great kickoff return to open the game.  They had some good defense, too, but that disappeared in the second half as the Steelers and their woeful offense suddenly found some rhythm. The running game is still non-existent — just 75 yards as their heralded rookie running back averaged just 2.8 yards per carry.  They do, however, have some talented receivers, and that may carry them through the 2021 season — or at least u...

What if this guy becomes the next Ryan Leaf? … Tebow experiment caused some to scratch their heads The reality is that few successful college coaches manage to achieve that same level of greatness in the  NFL. Only one in the past 50 years has done so.  Yet, Urban Meyer, the former Florida and Ohio State coach who left both programs under a cloud after experiencing success, believes that he can turn Jacksonville into a winner and became another Jimmy Johnson.  The challenge The owner of the Jags opened his checkbook for Meyer, but he had little else to offer the former college coach, Meyer came to Jacksonville because of the duality of the recruiting pitch from billionaire owner Shahid Khan and the promise of [Trevor] Lawrence, the former Clemson star who is regarded in scouting circles as a potential generational quarterback. Khan wanted a culture changer and Lawrence’s presence was a franchise changer. And now the world waits and wonders how Meyer will chan...