And So It Ends

As noted British sportswriter Tommy Stearns Elliot would have put it, the Steelers season, and a Hall of Fame career, ended in Kansas City last night "not with a bang, but a whimper."  

After a surprising first quarter ended in a 0-0 tie, the Steelers got on the board first and led 7-0 on a defensive touchdown scored by - who else? - T.J. Watt.

All that that appeared to do, however, was wake up Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs, who scored TD's on their next five possessions on their way to a 42-21 win that wasn't as close as the score indicated.  The experts, it appeared, were correct in their pre-game assessments of this contest.

The career that came to an end, was of course, that of Ben Roethlisberger.  

As has been the case all season, both Roethlisberger and the team got off to a horrible start, only to rally late in the second half and pile up some yardage and touchdowns.   That worked well against the Browns and the Ravens the last two weeks, but it amounted to nothing but garbage time window dressing against the Chiefs last night.  Still, garbage time or not, it was somehow fitting that Big Ben's final in game action had him leading the Steelers downfield and completing a pass inside the Chiefs' ten yard line as the clock expired.   

Two Super Bowl wins and a third Super Bowl appearance, every passing record, and numerous other records, in Steelers history, and among the Top Five or Ten in various NFL statistical categories, more thrills and exciting games and plays than I can remember, and never a losing season.

Thank you, Ben.

Now, what to make of the Steelers very strange season and what the future might hold?

Well, against all evidence as seen by the naked eye, the Steelers somehow managed to win more games than they lost (9-7-1) and made the playoffs.  They had an awful penchant for starting out horribly and finishing games strongly, and actually winning them.  It seems that when they followed Matt Canada's dink-and-dunk game plans, which featured a lot of six yard passes when it was third-and-eight, it seemed like a good college team could beat them.  Late in games, it appeared that Roethlisberger would say "enough of this shit" and go to no-huddle hurry-up calls, and victory would be snatched from the jaws of defeat.  I'm no coach, and I am sure that Matt Canada has forgotten more about football than I will ever know, but his system sure didn't appear to be a good fit for the 2021 Steelers.

As for the future of the team itself, it would seem that they need help in the middle of the defense (teams would run at will against them), offensive line (they couldn't run the ball, although Najee Harris appears to be the Real Deal), a corner to replace the aging Joe Haden, perhaps a wide receiver or two, their second best defensive player, Cam Heyward, will be 33 next season, it appears that GM Kevin Colbert is retiring and will need to be replaced, and, let's see, what else?  Oh, yeah, a new starting quarterback, or at least someone who will compete with and push and perhaps be better than Mason Rudolph.  Speaking of Rudolph, I, for one, am not ready to consign him to the scrap heap.  Sure, he's no Bradshaw or Ben, but he might be another Neil O'Donnell, and he took the team to the Super Bowl one year.

Other than that, they appear to be set for 2022.

The rest of the Opening Weekend of Playoff action had some moments, but I'll save those until at least after the final Wildcard Weekend game between the Rams and the Cardinals is played tonight.

Pittsburgh and Ben Say Goodbye

 

It was an emotional scene at Heinz Field this past Monday night when Ben Roethlisberger played his final game in front of the home crowd.  Steelers Nation turned out in full-throated support to say goodbye to the future Hall of Fame quarterback, and the nation got to witness it as it all played out on ESPN on Monday Night Football.  No need for me to recite the litany of Big Ben's historic statistical accomplishments.  You can find those easily enough on line, but no statistical table will capture what I will always remember about Roethlisberger: That the Steelers were never completely out of a game when the ball was in Ben's hands late in the fourth quarter.  Everyone remembers Santonio Holmes' amazing catch to win Super Bowl XLIII against the Cardinals, but please don't forget how Roethlisberger drove the team 90+ yards down field with time running out that culminated in that picture perfect pass that he threw to Holmes. And in a season where the Steelers are not-all-that-good a team and where his own skills have diminished notably, at least two Steelers victories this year, the first win over Cleveland and the win over the Ravens, can be attributed to the sheer force of Roethlisberger's will.

In that final home appearance, Ben did not play all that well, 24 for 46, 146 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, the Steelers managed to win against a traditional rival, kept their dim playoff hopes alive, and assured themselves of a non-losing season for the 18th year in a row.  And Roethlisberger put a cherry on top of a career long domination of the Cleve Brownies.   It was somehow even sweeter that Ben's final home game was a victory over the Browns.

Of course, Ben and the Steelers have one more game to play at Baltimore on Sunday.  The Ravens have lost five in a row, so a Steelers/Roethlisberger victory in that one is not unimaginable, and, win-or-lose, it seems appropriate that Ben's final regular season game will be against another traditional AFC North rival.  Too big a domino (Jacksonville beating Indianapolis) has to fall for the Steelers to make the playoffs, and in a perverse way, I almost hope that they don't make it.  As a seventh seed, they would likely have to face the Chiefs or the Titans, and the result of such a matchup would likely not be pretty for Steelers fans.  So let's just let the scene of Ben Roethlisberger's final game be what we saw at Heinz Field this past Monday Night.

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Other thoughts on this Steelers-Browns game...

Lost amid the hoopla for the Ben Farewell was the terrific performance of rookie running back Najee Harris: 188 yards rushing, a spectacular 37 yard TD run that sealed the victory in the final minute of the game, and a stiff arm that turned a Browns DB into a rag doll on a long run earlier in the game.

And, oh yeah, he broke Franco Harris' team record of rushing yards by a rookie.  Let's see what he'll be able to do when (if?) the Steelers are able to get a solid offensive line in place for him.

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And how about those Browns.  Yet another season when Playoff and even Super Bowl ambitions crashed and burned along the Lake Erie shores.  Now, even the future of Baker Mayfield in Cleveland has come into doubt.  One of the big stories of the coming off season will be what will the Browns do with the Mayfield, who can become a free agent after the season.

And where has the Steelers defense that we saw on MNF been all season?  Nine sacks of Mayfield, and they shut down RB Nick Chubb when he was in the game.  And if I'm a Browns fan, I'd be asking the same question that was being asked by Peyton and Eli during the game: why wasn't Chubb in that game are often?

It was pointed out by Joe Starkey on his show yesterday that were it not for their two losses to the Steelers this year, the Browns would now be sitting at 9-7 and in the hunt for a playoff spot. So while the Steelers have not had the kind of season that their fans want and desire, they can take a lot of satisfaction in knowing that they were surely responsible for ruining the Browns' season.

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We will save the agonizing over what-happens-next for the Steelers at quarterback for later, but consider these options:

• Turn the position lock, stock, and barrel over to Mason Rudolph.
• Draft a QB in an early round and turn it into a training camp competition between Rudolph, Dwayne Haskins, and the draftee.
• Sign a veteran free agent QB to serve in the interim before the next Bradshaw/Roethlisberger wunderkind is ready to take the reins.  Names like Russell Wilson, Aaron Rodgers, and even Baker Mayfield have been bandied about.

Oh, it's going to be sports talk show heaven around The Burgh as this scene plays itself out.

Is There Anything Better Than Steelers vs. Ravens?

 

Yesterday's matchup between the Steelers and the Baltimore, the thirtieth time that head coaches Mike Tomlin and John Harbaugh have faced each other (more on that later), a 20-19 win for the Steelers, produced an obvious answer to the question stated in the headline above:

No, there is nothing better than games between the long time AFC North rivals, Pittsburgh and Baltimore.  I remember on one Sunday night  game between the two teams, Chris Collinsworth said something to the effect that he could watch these two teams go at it 16 games each season if the schedule makers would allow it, and it is hard to disagree with the sentiment.  Yesterday's game was no exception.

The Ravens came in with an AFC best record of 8-4, and the Steelers were on life support at 5-5-1 coming off of two straight losses where they gave up 82 points and were soundly thrashed by the Cincy Bengals 41-10 last week.  The Ravens dominated the Steelers defense and the Steelers offense was totally impotent in the first half, yet Baltimore went into the locker room at half-time with a mere 7-3 lead.

The headline over Ron Cook's column in the Post-Gazette this morning said it all about what then transpired:

On this day, the old guy came through for his team

The "old guy" in this case was, of course, 39 year old quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.  He may be a shadow of his younger self, but he somehow summoned up a measure of his past greatness by producing 17 fourth quarter points and produced the 39th fourth quarter comeback of his career.  If an athletic performance can be defined as "heroic", Big Ben's game yesterday falls into that category.  If this is to be his final season, as was reported this past week, then it is a shame that yesterday's game wasn't the final game of the year.  A gutsy comeback win over the team's bitterest rival would have been a great way to walk into the sunset.  However, there are more games to play, and if the Steelers still have life in their playoff hopes, then it will be the sheer force of Roethlisberger's will that will get them there.  It might not happen, probably won't happen, but it will still be fun to watch down the stretch.

T.J. Watt, the team's best player and perhaps the best defensive player in the NFL, did not practice all week due to COVID protocols, but was able to play, and he dominated the game, with sacks and pressures on Lamar Jackson, including one on the Ravens' final play, the attempted two point conversion with :12 to play that would have won the game for the Ravens.  Watt forced Jackson's pass to wobble just enough so that his pass to TE Mark Andrews fell out of reach.

About that two point conversion.  After the Steelers took a 20-13 lead with 1:38 to play, the Ravens proceeded to march down the field and score a TD to make it 2019 with :12 left.  Baltimore HC John Harbaugh eschewed the sure PAT that would send the game into overtime and went for a two point conversion to win the game outright then and there.  It was a gutsy coaching call, and he is no doubt being second guessed all over the Inner Harbor today, but why in the hell not go for it?  And it added yet one more layer of lore and legend to the Steelers-Ravens rivalry.

Oh, and about those Tomlin-Harbaugh face-offs.  Yesterday, was the 30th time that these two coaches' teams have played against each other.  This is the most such coach-to-coach encounters in the Super Bowl Era, and the third most in NFL history.  George Halas and Curly Lambeau faced each other 41 times , and Halas and Steve Owen went against each other 31 times.  After yesterday's game, Tomlin holds a 16-14 edge over Harbaugh.    Tomlin's Steelers are 2-1 in post season games with the Ravens.  The Steelers have been to the Super Bowl twice (1-1) in that time, the Ravens once, winning it.  The teams and the coaches meet again in the final game of the season on January 9.  At that point, the game may be meaningless for one or both of the teams, but it will no doubt be another epic encounter, and I can't wait to watch it.

If you want a better write up on this game and the nature of this Rivalry,  I cannot recommend the Post-Gazette's Gene Collier's column in this morning's paper.  You can read it here. 

The Pittsburgh Football Weekend That Was

It was a rather remarkable football weekend here in Pittsburgh what with Pitt giving us a "This Is Why You Follow Sports" moment, and the Steelers giving us everything from severe stomach cramps to euphoria to major letdown all in one game.  

Let's start with the Pitt Panthers.

As you no doubt know by now, Pitt clinched the ACC Coastal Division title and  a spot in two weeks in the ACC Championship game with their thrilling, and I do mean thrilling, 48-38 win over Virginia.  It was Senior Day at Pitt, the final home game for Pitt's senior players, most notably quarterback Kenny Pickett.

As he has over the course of a career that has seen him seize every significant passing record in Pitt history, Pickett delivered big time.  He passed for over 400 yards and threw four TD passes, two of them on fourth down plays.  All four of those TD passes went to sophomore wide out Jordan Addison.

It was a remarkable and electric performance by both Pickett and Addison.  Pickett will no doubt be a Heisman Trophy finalist and Addison has become the favorite to win the NCAA Biletnikoff Award as well.  Pitt now sits at 9-2, is nationally ranked, and will be favored to win their final game at Syracuse this coming Saturday.  Their opponent in the ACC title game is still TBD, and should they win that, a New Year's Day Bowl game is all but assured.  By any measure, it as been a successful season for HC Pat Narduzzi and his squad, and a very entertaining one for those of us who have been in attendance at Heinz Field throughout.  I was there on Saturday evening for that game, and it was truly a thrilling experience.

It has also been a joy to follow the career of Kenny Pickett and see his development.  His first start as a freshman was a win over a then undefeated and Top Five Miami team.  It was a portent of things to come.  His decision to forego the NFL Draft last year was a wise one.  From the probable late round pick he would have been last spring, it now appears that he will be among the first 2 or 3 QB's selected in the 2022 Draft, a surefire first round pick.  Panthers fans will surely miss him next year, but many Steelers fans are savoring the possibility of seeing Pickett just switching from Blue & Gold to Black & Gold come 2022 and replacing future Hall of Famer Ben Roethlisberger.

And that brings us to last night's Steelers-Chargers game.  Let's call that game a Tale of Two Quarterbacks.

Facing a Steelers defense without all-pro DB's Minkah Fitzpatrick and Joe Haden, and, oh yeah, their best player and perhaps best defensive player in the NFL, TJ Watt, Chargers QB Justin Herbert shredded the Swiss cheese of a defense that Steelers had out there last night for over 380 passing yards, 90 rushing yards, and three TDs.  He is scarey good, and so young that it doesn't even look like his teenaged skin has cleared yet. He's going to be a force in the NFL well into the 2030's.

After three quarters, LA had a 27-10 lead.  No doubt TV sets were being switched off all over Western Pennsylvania.  However, a blocked punt, a bizarre interception of a Herbert pass, and some remarkable quarterback play from a "He's-still-got-some-gas-in-the-tank" Big Ben, and presto-change-o, the Steelers found themselves with a 37-34 lead with 3:24 remaining in the game.  Alas, the fairly tale ending was not to be as Herbert, on the third play of the ensuing Chargers possession, hit Mike Williams for a fifty-plus yard touchdown, a play that probably wouldn't have happened had Fitzpatrick been in the game.

In its own way, the Steelers losing effort was every bit as entertaining and compelling as Pitt's big win was the day before.  The Steelers now sit at 5-4-1, but in an AFC North Division that no team seems to want to win, who the hell knows what might happen the rest of the way?

Next week....On to Cincinnati!