Steelers Beat Packers; Still Alive!

In a wild game that was unbelievably entertaining, the Steelers beat the Packers yesterday, 38-31, and, amazingly, kept their playoff hopes alive as they head into the final weekend of the season next week.

This game had just about everything:

• another very good game by Ben Roethlisberger, who may well be having the best season of his career,
• a successful fake punt by the Steelers that resulted in a thirty yard gain,
• a 100 yard rushing game by Le'Veon Bell; it had been 22 games since the Steelers had a 100 yard rusher,
• an interception returned for a touchdown by Cortez Allen
• a blocked field goal,
• yet another fourth quarter lead that the Steelers defense could not hold, followed by...
• a fourth quarter TD by Bell that regained the lead,
• a Packer kick-off return and a Steelers penalty that almost allowed the Packers to tie the game,
• an incomplete pass into the end zone on the final play that would have forced the game into overtime,
• and, oh yeah, an apparently blown call by the officials following that blocked Packer FG attempt, that would have loomed REALLY large had the Steelers ended up losing that game.

Local media types have been trying to gin up a controversy over Mike Tomlin's decision not to eat up time on the clock by not having Roethlisberger kneel down for two plays and then kick a FG at the end of the game.  Instead, Bell scored the winning TD (and did the Packers let him score there?), and the Packers got the ball back with over a minute to play, and ended the game, thanks to that 70 yard kick return, inside the Steelers ten yard line with a chance to tie the game.

Sorry, but I'm with Tomlin on this one.  When you have a chance to score, you try to score on the very next play.  Plus, the idea of an Offense trying not to score, while the Defense tries to allow  you to score, just strikes me as wrong.  This happened in the Giants-Patriots Super Bowl two years ago, and it just didn't sit well with me.  Besides, how many times is a strategy like that going to work for you? One in ten times? A hundred times? A thousand times?  Yeah, it almost worked for Green Bay yesterday, but the key word there is almost.

Oh, and a word about Le'Veon Bell.  After a slow start, due to injuries, it is now apparent, Bell appears to be the real deal as an NFL running back.  Big, fast, strong and with an almost freakish ability to hurdle defenders.  One of the things I like most about him is his ability make what should be three or four yard losses into one or two yard gains.

As I have been saying for a few weeks now, whatever else the Steelers have been this year, their games, with one or two exceptions, have been tremendously entertaining, win or lose, and that game yesterday may have topped them all.

And you have to hand it to the NFL, they do know how to milk the playoff possibility game.  With a win next week and help from three other teams in three other games, the Steelers could find themselves with a seat at the table when the Playoffs begin the following week.  Probable? Not very, but still possible, and if it happens, I will remind you that all twelve playoff teams will start with a 0-0 record.  And to the Gloomy Guses who may root against this happening because it will "only spoil our draft position", get over it.

******

Two other NFL observations:

The Seattle Seahawks, who may very well be the best team in the NFL, lost yesterday to the Arizona Cardinals.  The Cardinals are now 10-5, very much alive in the NFC playoff hunt, and are coached by Bruce Ariens, who was shoved into "retirement" by Art Rooney II two years ago.  Make your own judgements there.

In Detroit, Coach Jim Schwartz, a singularly annoying individual, with time on the clock and times out in his pocket, elected to play for a field goal to tie the game with the Giants yesterday rather than try to score a touchdown.  The fans at Ford Field made the displeasure with this strategy known, and Schwartz was seen turning towards the stands and jawing with the fans about it.  The Giants won the game in OT, and Schwartz is said to be on the ropes in Detroit.

King Art II Goes to Court

It was reported in the business section of the Post-Gazette this morning that the Steelers are going to court to sue someone (the Sports and Exhibition Authority? the City? Eric Holder?  who really cares?) over precisely who should be paying for the addition of the 3,000 seats that are to be added to the now somewhat inadequate 12 year old Heinz Field.  One thing for sure, Art II wants to make certain that the lion's share of the cost of these seats will be born by anyone BUT the Steelers, who will most directly benefit from the addition of the seats.  Oh, and rest assured of one other thing, that portion of the cost that the Steelers will say that they are paying will really be paid for by the ticket buyers in the form of higher ticket prices and parking fees.

The part of this story that is also dispiriting is the implication that Heinz Field, which is, as noted above, only twelve years old, is now somehow unable to properly support the Steelers with statements along the lines of it being 25th out of 32 NFL stadiums in revenue generation.  Should this lawsuit drag on and Art II doesn't get what he wants, I can't wait for the trial balloon to be floated of a new stadium in Washington or Westmoreland County that would provide a home for the Steelers that would enable them to compete forever with the Big Boys in New York and Dallas and blah blah blah.  You know, kind of like Mario Lemieux did with Kansas City a few years ago.  And like Lemieux, someone will blink and Art II will get what he wants.

Art Rooney Sr. might never have done something like this, and maybe Dan Rooney would hesitate, but Art II ain't his grandfather.  He is a cold-blooded, bean counting businessman, so don't be surprised if this happens.

You read it here first.

Why Don't They Just Go Back to the Single Wing?

Another story in the Post-Gazette this morning about how the Steelers have recommitted to the running game under new OC Todd Hailey and at the urging (meddling insistence?) of team Prez Art Rooney II.  All kinds of stats cited about how there have been more running plays called in the two practice games so far and blah blah blah.  

Here's what I think...

In Ben Roethlisberger, the Steelers employ one of the Top Five QB's in all of football.  That's my opinion, of course, and some will argue that he may not be a "Top 5" guy, but I don't think that anyone would place him outside of the Top Ten.  And he HAS led the team to three Super Bowls in his tenure over center.

In Wallace (when he shows up, and he will, eventually), Brown, Sanders, and Miller the team employs, maybe not an elite corps of receivers, but certainly a good to very good corps of receivers.

Their best running back, Rashard Mendenhall, is coming off major knee surgery, and who knows when, or even if, he'll be able to play.  The RB next in line, Isaac Redman, is also hurt (and I wasn't convinced that he would be able to do the job on a full time basis anyway).  The rest of the running backs are all pretty much untested and/or unknown.  Even at full strength, no one was going to confuse the current RB's with Jerome Bettis or Franco Harris.

When you put all that together, why the insistence on shifting the offensive emphasis on "running the football"?  The nearest that I have been able to tell, the answer to that question is some combination of "because that's Steelers football", "because that's what western PA football is all about", "because that's how the Steelers have always done it", "because that's what the fans want" (I thought the fans wanted Steelers wins), and "because that's what Art II wants".  I'm just a fan and not an expert, but I don't think that that is how the NFL game is being played these days.

I will admit to not paying the strictest attention to the two practice games so far, but in each game, I did see the Steelers come up with first and goal situations, whereupon the "new Steelers offense" ran three straight plays in both such possessions and produced negative yardage in both possessions, and settled for field goals.  I know, I know...they are exhibition games, you try things out in those games, who cares if you win or lose.  I get that, but I also know that there will be plenty of times this season, when the games DO count, that there will be first and goal situations when the Steelers will need to score touchdowns, and right now, I don't have a lot of faith that three straight hand offs to Isaac Redman up the middle will get the job done.  

We'll see where it goes from here, and I have a lot of faith in Mike Tomlin to coach this team as he sees best.  As for Art II, I have a lot of faith in his ability to squeeze every last buck from every available revenue stream, and very little faith in his calling plays from the owner's box.

Todd Hailey, the New OC

It looks like the Steelers are about to make official and name Todd Hailey (does he kind of look like Jerry Seinfeld, or is that just my imagination?) as their new offensive coordinator. Let me be the first to say that he's a bum, has no imagination, calls too many pass plays, and should be fired!

Just kidding, of course. I don't expect that there will be any such talk about the new OC until at least after the Steelers lose for the first time in 2012 (even if it is an exhibition game). Actually, when you read some of the stories about Hailey's supposed paranoia during his final days in Kansas City, it is kind of surprising that the Steelers would make this hire. Not the "Steelers Way", and all that. As recently as yesterday in his MMQB column, Peter King was speculating that Hailey would never get this job. Hailey did mastermind that Cardinals offense that almost beat the Steelers in the Super Bowl a few years back, so he does bring some credentials with him. The fact that he washed out as a head coach in KC only means that maybe he shouldn't be a head coach. Others say that his tough guy approach with players is just what Ben Roethlisberger needs, although, personally, I think that Ben needs offensive linemen who can contain a pass rush a whole lot more than he needs a hard ass coach, but that's just me.

Far more interesting to me is how this whole firing/hiring of the OC has seemed to smack of Art Rooney circumventing his head coach, and that could have some long term effects that may not end up being to everyone's liking. And does that fact that Hailey is the son of old-time Steeler and, presumably, a Rooney family favorite, Dick Hailey play into this at all?

One thing I do know is that Hailey, a professional football coach, is a whole lot more smarter than me when it comes to football, so who am I to judge, and I hope he's a huge success with Rooney U next season. Would you take it if he masterminded an offense that produced, say, 12 wins in 2012? I sure would, and I'm betting that you would, too. Twelve wins, by the way, being the same number of wins that the Steelers produced this past season with Bruce Arians as OC.

Art II Takes Charge

It is old news now, but I do want to add my two cents worth to the news that had Steelers fans all abuzz last week - the "retirement" of much maligned offensive coordinator Bruce Arians at the strong suggestion of team Prez Art Rooney II, and, apparently, over the objections of head coach Mike Tomlin, and to the surprise of Arians himself.

It is true that Rooney signs the checks, and we all know that the #1 rule in all businesses is that "the boss is always the boss", so no one is questioning Rooney's right to push Arians into retirement. What is surprising is that Rooney's move seems to temporarily, at least, emasculate his Head Coach, smacks of JerryJones-ism, and it flies in the face of the almost sacrosanct "Steelers Way" of doing business that everyone goes on and on about all the time. What next? Art II standing on the sidelines in the final minutes of games and dancing like Tom "Boogie" Benson in New Orleans?

As for Art II's insistence that the Steelers go back to an old school run-first offense, what has he been watching in the NFL the last few seasons? You have an elite quarterback, to whom you have committed over $100 million, a crew of young, fast, and potentially elite receivers, and he wants to bring back Fran Rogel and John Henry Johnson? I am missing something here.

It was interesting to hear Tony Kornheiser and Mike Wilbon really rip into Rooney over this move in a way that no Pittsburgh based commentator would ever treat a Rooney. I mean, really, just imagine Bob Pompeani saying anything critical of Art Rooney II.

And as for Arians' retirement, it lasted less than a week and how interesting it was to see who hired him to be his Offensive Coordinator - Indy Colts new Head Coach Chuck Pagano. Until recently, Pagano was defensive coordinator of the Ravens, and as such he was charged with having to devise the defenses that could beat Arians' offense twice, and sometimes three times, a year. The 2011 season aside, Pagano's defense usually lost to Arians' offense. Obviously, Pagano sees something in Bruce Arians that all the Arians Bashers in Steelerland has failed to see over the years.

Book Reviews: "Last Team Standing" and "Hound Dog"

OK, not one, but two, book reviews for your pleasure today.

The first is "Last Team Standing" (2006) by Matthew Algeo, a guy who is rapidly becoming one of my favorite authors. The sub-title of this book is "How the Steelers and Eagles - The Steagles - Saved Pro Football During World War II." Steelers fans over a certain age, say, 55 or so, may have some recollection of the fact that during the years of WW II the Steelers and Eagles combined to form one team in 1943 as a matter of war time urgencies. In the NFL Official history and records, that team is known as "Phil-Pitt." In Philadelphia, and the Philly part of this combo was the dominant partner, the team was still referred to as the "Philadelphia Eagles," but in Pittsburgh and around the country (at least that part of the country that cared about pro football), the team became known as the "Steagles." It should be noted that to this day, the NFL does not acknowledge the name Steagles as anything but a nickname. (In 2004, some enterprising fan registered the name "Steagles" as a trademark, something I am amazed that the money hungry NFL never did.)

The Steagles were comprised of players from two teams that pretty much stunk for their entire histories up to that point, but in that 1943 season, they surprised everyone, including themselves, to stay in the hunt for the Eastern division title up until the next to last week of the season and finish with a 5-4-1 record. This book is the story of that unlikely season.

Perhaps an even more interesting part of the book is how Algeo tells how the NFL was affected by the manpower shortage brought about by WW II. Everyone knows about major league baseball during the war, about the players (Feller, Williams, DiMaggio etc.) served and lost time from their careers, but to my knowledge that story has never been told to any great extent about pro football during that time. In all, 638 NFL players served in the armed forces during the war (the League only had 330 total roster spots in 1941, when Pearl Harbor was attacked), and 19 NFL players were killed in action.

Algeo tells the story of how the NFL fit into the American landscape during the war, and how it struggled for survival during those years, and actually thrived when not everyone figured that it would.

The post-script of the book takes place at Heinz Field during Steelers-Eagles exhibition game in 2003. I was not aware of this at the time, but Dan Rooney staged a "turn back the clock" night for that game to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Steagles' 1943 season. Six living members of the Steagles were introduced and honored at halftime that night. A nice touch.

Oh, and here is a little known fact that Algeo talks about. The original franchise that Art Rooney was granted for Pittsburgh by the NFL is NOT the beloved Black & Gold that the Steelers Nation of today adores. No, that franchise is now the Philadelphia Eagles, and the Steelers of today, the Steelers with the six Lombardi Trophies, was originally from Philadelphia. I'll not spell out the details here, but it's true. You can look it up.


The second book is "Hound Dog, the Leiber and Stoller Autobiography" by, naturally, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. The recent death of Jerry Leiber prompted me to check this 2009 book out of the library. I wrote about Leiber and Stoller at the time of Jerry's death last month, so I won't belabor it here.

I will say that it is a fascinating tale. Leiber and Stoller met as teenagers in Los Angeles in the late 1940's and for over sixty years, their's was a musical partnership that contributed so much to popular music, rock & roll, and rythm and blues. As one critic put it, it would be hard to imagine what American popular music and culture would be like if Leiber and Stoller had never met.

One thing amazed me about them. Throughout the book, they told stories of how they needed to come up with songs at a moment's notice, and were able to do so. For example, they sat at a piano and wrote "Hound Dog" in less than twenty minutes, and the book is full of stories like that. I am in awe of truly creative people.

Incidentally, the "Hound Dog" that Leiber & Stoller wrote for blues singer Big Momma Thornton, was very different from the "Hound Dog" that Elvis Presley recorded and that we all know so well. In fact, Leiber & Stoller never much cared for Elvis' version. That didn't stop them from cashing the checks, however. It didn't stop them from loving Elvis, either, and the stories dealing with Elvis in the book are great.

Selected Short Subjects

Selected Short Subjects for a Monday Morning....

Glad to see that the Pitt Panthers secured a #1 Seed for the NCAA Tournament, if for no other reason than to avoid listening the three days of angst and despair if they had gotten a lower seed.

Did you miss Billy Packer on the Selection Show? How fun would it have been listening to him bitching about 11 Big East teams in the field and only 3 ACC teams (and one in a play-in game at that) in the Tourney?

For what it is worth, I have a Final Four of North Carolina, Duke, Notre Dame. and Pitt.

*****
I watched little of the golf tournament from Doral yesterday afternoon. Very good event with Nick Watney edging Dustin Johnson for the title. Good stuff, and it seems that a new wave of young golfers are starting to come to the fore on the PGA Tour. Tiger Woods did manage a Top Ten finish in this event, but through the first 2 and 1/2 months of the season, he and Phil Mickelson are appearing to be just two other guys out there. Of course, I don't expect that Tiger and Phil will no longer be relevant, but it's looking like their days of domination may be over.

What might have been even more disconcerting was seeing Aussie Adam Scott, once hailed as a Young Lion on the Tour, using a long putter. I hate those things.

*****
You want to see an example of abject greed? Read the statement that Art Rooney II released after the NFL labor talks broke down last Friday. It reinforces my long-held belief that no one surpasses sports team owners when it comes to greed.

This morning I'm reading the PG story of the Gerry Dulac's interview with Rooney over the weekend. Halfway through I asked myself "why am I reading this?" Just let me know when it's over.

I am guessing that not one regular season game will be missed when all is said and done.

*****

My newest addition to my DVD collection is a box set "Definitive Edition" if the old "Twilight Zone" TV series. All 156 half-hour episodes with Rod Serling and done in glorious black & white. In the last week or so, I have watched about 10 episodes, and, for the most part, the stories and the production holds up very well after 50 years. A couple of them have been clinkers, but a few are very good. "The After Hours" with Anne Francis was good, as was "The Eye of the Beholder" which starred a pre-Beverly Hillbillies Donna Douglas. And as it did 48 years ago, "Terror at 20,000 Feet", starring a very young William Shatner, can still scare the bejeezus out of you!

*****
For the second year in a row, I volunteered this past Saturday at the Heinz History Center for National History Day, and got to view the history projects and presentations of 6th, 7th, and 8th graders from throughout the region. If you worry about the direction kids are headed in these days, your mind can be put at rest when you experience something like this. These kids are amazing.