Random Thoughts.....and an Absent Friend, Jerry Lee Lewis

Cleaning out the Mental In-Box.....

Quick hit football thoughts:

• Another rough day at the office yesterday for Steelers rookie quarterback Kenny Pickett.  His stat line through five games: 67.9% complete rate, 2 TD's, 5 INT's.  How much of this is Pickett's fault, how much is the O-line's fault, how much is it the game plan's (ahem, we're looking at you, Matt Canada) fault?
• (Speaking of rookie QB's stat lines, how 'bout this one: 14 games, 38.1% completion rate, 6 TD, 24 INT.  Steelers fans will instantly recognize the 1970 season of Terry Bradshaw.  That turned out alright.)
• Steelers entering their bye week, so they have two weeks to try and figure something, anything, out.
• Myron Cope always took the position on his talk show that he "never fires coaches", and he knew more about that kind of stuff than I do, so I won't either, but, man, it sure seems apparent that something  just ain't right with the Steelers offensive way of doing things. (We're looking at you, Matt Canada)  By just about any metric that you care to use, this year's Steelers are the worst offensive team in the NFL.  It becomes more apparent when you watch other NFL games and see those teams throwing downfield to fast and talented receivers.  You know, like how Jalen Hurts and A.J. Brown undressed the Steelers yesterday.  I watched Kenny Pickett for five years at Pitt, and I KNOW that he can throw the ball downfield.  Why won't the Steelers let him do that to guys like Chase Claypool, Dionte Johnson, and rookie George Pickens, who may be better that both of the first two guys?
• Speaking of things the Steelers don't do that other teams do, how about running backs who can rip off gains of 7, 8, 10, or more yards several times a game?  Watching Green Bay play Buffalo last night and seeing their RB's in action made me want to cry.
• No one was more enthusiastic about the drafting of Najee Harris last year, but be honest now, who has been better (and this is damning with faint praise, I realize) at the position thus far, Harris or Jaylen Warren?  It can't ALL be the fault of the linemen, can it?

As to non-Steelers thoughts....

• How much fun is it watching the Buffalo Bills?   Josh Allen surely is the leading contender for MVP after eight weeks of the season, unless....
• ....the leading contender is Jalen Hurts of the Eagles.  The Eagles are undefeated, and Hurts and Company sure laid an ass-kicking on the Steelers yesterday, which, to use the phrase a second time, may be damning with faint praise.
• And how about the performances of Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers so far?  Plenty of season left to be proven wrong, of course, but it seems that these two have all of a sudden "gotten old" and are approaching the end.

All of these thoughts lead to the return of.....

I know you've all been waiting for them, so here we go, through Week Eight.

1. Eagles 
2. Bills
3. Chiefs
4. Cowboys

In my heart, I think the Bills are better, but that may be only because I've seen them more that Philly, but an undefeated team can't be anything less than #1.

Now, on to Baseball.

The third game of the World Series will be played tonight, and if you are surprised that The Grandstander has not written one word about the MLB Post-Season, well, I can tell you that I too am astonished by this fact.  In actuality, I watched some, but very little of the first three rounds of the Playoffs.  (As an aside, I will say that I do like the Three, Five, Seven, and Seven format that MLB has instituted for the first time this season.)   I can attribute this to a couple of factors.  One, the fact that Baseball has begun a descent into the lower tiers of importance in American professional sports; there are reasons for that too numerous to go into right now.  Two,  the level of excellence that both college football and the NFL has been providing this season has overshadowed MLB.  Three, too much other stuff going on in my own life right now.  Four, the Pirates have succeeded in lessening, if not killing, my enthusiasm for Major League Baseball.

Still the World Series is the WORLD SERIES, so attention must be paid.  I watched the first game of the Series with rapt interest.  The Astros staked Justin Verlander to a 5-0 lead which the Phillies overcame and fashioned a 6-5 win in ten innings.  It was an interesting and most entertaining game and a lot of fun to watch, despite it lasting over three and a half hours.  It was a game that reminded you of why you like baseball in the first place.

I skipped Game Two, won by the Astros, in favor of the Pitt football game, wherein Pitt "Pitted" and lost convincingly.  Bad decision on my part.

Tonight the Series moves to Philly, where a no doubt raucous scene will unfold.  The Phillies were the sixth seeded team in the NL and are actually an easy team to root for.  They hit the ball, score a lot of runs, and have good starting pitching, and a bullpen that can be, ahem, adventurous.  Hard to believe that Boy Wunderkind Bryce Harper turned thirty years old this past season.  Perhaps through reasons not entirely his fault, Harper has always been kind of unlikable.  A guy you like only when he plays for YOUR team, but for me at least, and maybe this will last only through this Playoff Year, he seems to have moved beyond that, and I find myself rooting for him and the Phillies.  The Astros are a better team, or they were over this past 162 game season, but we are now down to a best of five series with Philly having the home field advantage, so who knows?  I am looking forward to the remainder of this Series.

Finally, and Absent Friend....

Jerry Lee Lewis

1935-2022

The last of the true pioneers of Rock 'n Roll, Jerry Lee Lewis, died last week at the age of 87.  The first two paragraphs of Lewis' obituary on the pop culture website Vulture describes Lewis far better that I can:

Jerry Lee Lewis was known as the Killer, and it wasn’t a casual sobriquet — a schoolmate called him that after he tried to strangle a teacher. He once shot his bass player in the chest; just about all of his seven wives, including one who was a child, said he beat them; and there’s a lingering suspicion that he murdered wife No. 5. He was the very model of a high-functioning sociopath and somehow defied hard living, drug and alcohol abuse, and serious health problems to make it well into his ninth decade.

The pianist, singer, and showman, who was one of the three or four people who decisively ushered in the rock-and-roll era — and utterly personified an unbridled and dangerous part of the music — died today, his family announced. He was 87 and, after the death of Little Richard in 2020, the last man standing from the dawn of rock and roll.

On his podcast today, Tony Kornheiser said that while Lewis wasn't Elvis, he may very well have been on the next step below him.

A few years ago, I saw the musical "The Million Dollar Quartet" which tells the story of a time when four legends, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and Lewis, all recoded together at Sun Studio in Memphis on the same day.  The show's curtain call had each actor perform one song as the performer they portrayed.  I said at the time that during that curtain call, and in fact throughout the entire show, the actor that played Lewis stole the show.  Maybe it wasn't just the actor, but perhaps the energy of Lewis himself that stole that show.

If you've never seen him, here's a clip of The Killer in action on the Ed Sullivan Show back in 1969.

RIP Jerry Lee Lewis.

Football in The Burgh At The (Approximate) Quarter Pole

Pitt has played five games, the Steelers four, so it's time to take a look at the State of the Union of Pittsburgh Football.

First, the Steelers.

After a sloppy, but encouraging overtime win over the defending AFC Champion Bengals in the season opener, the Steelers have lost three games in a row, are 1-3 and in last place in the AFC North.  In truth, it has become apparent that this 2022 edition of Rooney U is just not a very good team, made even more so since that have played the last three games without their best player, linebacker T.J. Watt.  You can find all sorts of places to point fingers....the offensive line is poor, OC Matt Canada is a dunderhead, Mike Tomlin is a bigger dunderhead, Mitch Trubisky is who we thought he was.  I could go on.

However, in yesterday's terrible loss to the Jets, a ray of light appeared in the person of the first round draft pick.

Yep,  at halftime, with his team down 10-6 and needing a spark, Tomlin gave the car keys to Pitt's Kenny Pickett.  Pickett did indeed provide that spark, completing passes, several of them to rookie George Pickens, whom had appeared to be invisible when Canada was calling the plays for Trubisky, laughing when he got knocked on his ass by a Jets lineman (after completing a pass downfield), and scoring two rushing TD's himself.   On the downside, he threw three interceptions, including one that came on a poorly thrown pass, a pass that never should have been thrown, which the Jets used to begin their game winning touchdown drive. That was a bad interception to be sure, but this loss fell squarely on a defense that couldn't get off the field in the fourth quarter while allowing the Jets, another bad team, to drive the field twice for touchdowns that produced a 24-20 come from behind win for them.

It is apparent to me, among many, that the Steelers aren't going anywhere this season, post-season-wise, so it becomes obvious that if Pickett is going to be your quarterback of the future, as you would hope your first round draft pick will be, you let him play the rest of the season.  We've all read in recent weeks how Peyton Manning and Troy Aikman spent their rookie seasons at the helm of double digit loss teams, and if I recall correctly (too lazy to look it up) the Steelers won and five and six games in Terry Bradshaw's first two seasons.   If Pickett is the guy that we all think that he is, he will take his lumps, learn from them, and grow into the Franchise QB that the Steelers think he will become.

As for the coaches,  I'm a fan of Mike Tomlin, and if he experiences his first losing season in 16 years as the HC, then so be it.  It happens, and he's earned the right to shake it off and get better next year,  As for Matt Canada, I'm not a coach so I can't say whether he's a good or a bad coach.  He's forgotten more about football than I'll ever know.  That said, some of the offensive play calling sent into Mitch Trubisky has been bewildering, to say the least.

The 1-3 Steeles now head into a brutal stretch of scheduling: @Bills, Bucs, @Dolphins, and @Eagles.  Most people are conceding that the Steelers will be 1-7 after that stretch.  However, I'm willing to bet that they will win at least one of those games.  It may only be one game, but I predict that they will not go 0-4 in that stretch.

Then there is the Pitt Panthers.

After an exhilarating win over West Virginia in the season opener, Pitt won two of the next three and took a 3-1 record into Saturday's first conference game of the season.  They were at home against a Georgia Tech team that was in shambles, having fired their coach just five days earlier.  Pitt was a 21.5 point favorite.   And they redefined the derisive term "Pitting" by losing that game 26-21.  Despite losing their quarterback to the pros and their best wideout to the transfer portal, Pitt had hoped to present a rigorous defense of last season's ACC Championship.   They still may, but at this point, that appears to be a long shot.

Oh, and the Robert Morris Colonials are 0-4.

Tough season in western PA, football-wise.

Steelers 16 - Jaguars 15

 

Thoughts, comments, and take-aways from last night's Steelers win, which, we all need to be reminded, was a practice game.

• Mitch Trubisky started and played three series.  The Steelers didn't score while he was in there.  The most encouraging thing about his performance was his ability to get out of the pocket and move away from pressure.   That is going to be a really, really important attribute to have given how the team's offensive line performed.
• Kenny Picket played two series, went 6-for-7, and produced a TD drive in the last minute of the half that gave the Steelers a 7-6 lead at intermission.  He looked poised and calm and like a veteran NFL QB.  Again, let us all remember that this was a practice game.
• Mason Rudolph played the entire second half, went 17-21, and led a late fourth quarter drive himself that produced the winning touchdown for the Steelers.  He was also called for intentional grounding in his own end zone that resulted in a safety for Jacksonville, and undoubtedly THIS is what the talk show crowd will focus on all week.
• That said, if the Steelers are showcasing Rudolph in advance of a possible trade, last night did not hurt that cause.
• Dionte Johnson played and looked like his brief hold-in had no adverse affect on him.
• TJ Watt played, had one sack, and looks ready to defend his DPOY title.
• Najee Harris didn't play, and the running game was not as impressive as it was in the prior week against Seattle.
• The Steelers offensive line, as noted above, appears to be a cause for concern.  The Jags applied great pressure on the Pittsburgh QB's and the running backs were held pretty much in check.
• Jacksonville seemed to have success, at least when their "varsity" was playing, running up the middle against the Steelers.  Whether this is because Cam Heyward wasn't playing or because the Steelers inside linebackers aren't any good, I will leave for others to discuss.  That said, I didn't see Devin Bush make any plays of note.
• Jacksonville QB Trevor Lawrence.  He's pretty good.  For his sake, I hope that the Jags organization can build a team to take advantage of his obvious skills.  He'll be fun to watch if they do.
• Finally, they say that it is foolish to bet on NFL exhibition games.  All I can say is that last week I bet the Steelers on the point spread and last night the Steelers on the money line.  Won both bets!

As I said at the beginning, we all need to remember that these are exhibition games.  Many of the guys playing will be selling mutual funds or coaching high school football a year from now, so who really, outside of the coaches, knows what these games portend.  Still, it's better to see your team win them than lose them.

This Post Is A Hodgepodge of Somethingness

Nope, I couldn't resist capitalizing on what was the buzz talk in Pittsburgh sports this week, BoSox announcer Dennis Eckersley's pronouncement that the Pirates lineup is a "hodgepodge of nothingness."  What I found out to be most entertainting about the whole affair was the reaction from Pirates officials over the whole thing.   The next afternoon I hear Bucco Chief Propaganda Minister Greg Brown with the afternoon guys on The Fan.  The tap dance Brownie was doing around it would have made Gene Kelly turn green with envy.  Then on Friday afternoon GM Ben Cherrington had a meeting with the local press to explain the progress that he has made with the overall organization since he and his team have been here.  That may be true from an organizational standpoint, but we sure haven't seen any results on the big league level as yet.  GMBC then went on to say that he wasn't going to comment on what Eckersley had to say, but if that were the case, then why hold a press briefing on some random Friday afternoon in August?

Anyway, on to other things.....

Here's the thing about baseball.  You know that your favorite team - the Pirates in my case - stink.  No need to go over all the reasons for that is there?  You know that they are going to lose 100 games  this season.  However, that doesn't mean that if you choose to go to one ball game on a nice summer's evening that the Pirates won't play well and win that particular game.  And even if they are playing a team that is only marginally better than they are, the Cincy Reds in this case, it doesn't mean that you won't see a well played and entertaining game.

And that is exactly what happened last night at PNC Park.  Very good starting pitching from Graham Ashcroft and Bryse Wilson, a couple of nifty defensive plays, and a couple of home runs which put the Reds in front 3-0 through five innings.  A run in the sixth and two in the seventh for the Pirates tied the game.  The Reds went ahead  4-3 in the eighth and the Pirates walked it off with two runs in the bottom of the ninth when Michael Chavis' bases loaded single scored the winning run.

Fun, exciting, a Pirates win, and it was all over in two hours and forty-eight minutes.   It can be done.

I haven't written about the Steelers 32-25 win over Seattle in last week's first exhibition game because, well, I just didn't get around to it.   Unless you've been living under a rock in Pittsburgh, or just really don't care about the Steelers, you know by now that the highlight of the game was the performance of the three quarterbacks.  Mitch Trubisky leading a 90 yard opening drive for a touchdown.  Mason Rudolph dropping a dime to rookie wideout George Pickens in the corner of the end zone.  And, of course, the second half, two TD pass performance of Kenny Pickett, including one that won the game with :03 left on the clock.

This all led to an interesting narrative on the talk shows and in the press.  For the first half of the week it was "Why are the Steelers continuing the charade with Mason Rudolph?  For his sake and the sake of the team, trade him now for whatever kind of low round draft pick you can get and turn things over to Pickett as the back-up to Trubisky."  By Thursday, however, the narrative changed, and the theme then became "Are the Steelers and the fans being unfair to Mason Rudolph?  Doesn't he deserve better?"

This is why I can only take sports talk radio in small doses.

Anyway, in a few more hours, the Steelers take on the Jax Jags in their second exhibition game of the season.  Trubisky will start, but by all accounts, Pickett will get the bulk of the QB playing time, including time with the first teamers, or "the varsity", as Mike Tomlin puts it.

For the first time in almost twenty years, the quarterback situation is making Steelers practice games interesting things to watch.

I am about 90 pages, or a little less than twenty percent, into this latest book by David Maraniss, "Path Lit By Lightning", a biography of Jim Thorpe.  Like Mariness' biographies of Vince Lombardi, Roberto Clemente, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama, this book is meticulously researched and well written.  You learn a lot and are entertained while doing so.  I will most certainly be writing more about this book once I finish reading it.