Steelers and Panthers and Lions, Oh My

A brief look at the recently completed weeks, and in two cases, seasons for three of the local football teams.

STEELERS

Everyone knows that the Steelers, with nothing to play for in Week 17, sent out the junior varsity against the Browns in order to avoid key injuries as they head into the NFL post-season this coming weekend.  Incredibly, the awful Cleve Brownies jumped to a 14-0 lead and had the Steelers on the ropes in that game.  However, some poor decision making on the part of either the Browns' coaches or QB Robert Griffin III, combined with some equally poor play and execution demonstrated just why the Browns managed to lose fifteen games this season, and the Steelers prevailed, 27-24 in overtime.

The big winner in that game was undoubtedly Steelers backup quarterback Landry Jones.  After an pretty bad first half, Jones rallied in the second half, and in the overtime, he was positively Ben-like in leading the team on a 75 yard do-or-die drive, completing a pass on fourth and two to continue the drive, and then throwing the TD pass to win the game.

Jones' rookie contract expires at the close of this season, and he will be an unrestricted free agent.  Will his big game on Sunday  cause some Desperate-for-a-QB  NFL team to shower Jones with a big money contract? Seems unlikely, but look at what Houston did last year with Brock Oswieler.  Jones made the most of his opportunity, so I hope it works out for him.

PITT

The Panthers 2016 season ended in pretty much the same fashion as the 2015 season did with a loss in a bowl game that gave them a finishing record of 8-5.  Unlike last year's bowl, when they were clearly outplayed by Navy, this loss to Northwestern was frustrating due to the fact that stars James Conner and Nate Peterman were lost for much of the game due to injuries.  You can only wonder "what if" had those injuries not occurred.

It was a fun and entertaining season that Pitt provided its followers, including big wins over Penn State and Clemson at Clemson.  A lot to be excited about and look forward to in 2017, but Pat Narduzzi and his staff really need to get some help on the defensive side of the ball next year. And, oh, yeah, find a QB to replace the solid Peterman.

PENN STATE

When Penn State lost to Pitt in the second week of the season, and got pasted by Michigan two weeks later, most of the talk centered around who would be the next coach in Happy Valley after James Franklin, who was sure to be fired after the end of the season.  We all low what happened then...nine straight wins, including beating undefeated Ohio State, and a Big Ten Championship, and a tough loss in the Rose Bowl to USC last night by a score of 52-49, certainly the most entertaining and best game of the New Year's weekend, if not the entire Bowl season.  Certainly a better game than either of the two CFP games on Saturday.    I mean, Alabama and Clemson will have a long way to go next Monday to top that Rose Bowl game.

To me, James Franklin appears to be a really good coach, despite the curious propensity of this years' team to seemingly phone it in in the first halves of games.  A couple of years ago he was being talked about as a possible NFL head coach.  I haven't heard such talk this year, but if you were an NFL owner in need of a coach, why wouldn't you consider Franklin? Seems to me that that is what PSU fans should be worrying about insofar as their football coach is concerned.

Romancing the Jones

Quite a big football weekend here in Pittsburgh, but let's start out with what might have been the biggest surprise of the season thus far.

STEELERS 25 - CARDINALS 13

That the Steelers defeated the Cardinals yesterday was surprise enough.  That they did it behind the quarterbacking of Landry Jones was downright amazing.  You know the story by now: an ineffective Mike Vick was injured in the third quarter, replaced by Jones, playing in his very first regular season action after three years as the third team QB, who then proceeded to lead the Steelers on two field goal and two touchdown drives, and a 25-13 win over the favored Arizona Cardinals.  To say that this was shocking is an understatement, but the Ben-less Steelers now sit at 4-2.  Amazing.

Some observations:

• It was thought by many, including Yours Truly, that the defense of the Steelers would be its undoing in 2015, but, amazingly, the defense has played surprisingly well.  True, they did surrender about a zillion yards to Carson Palmer and the Cardinals offense, but all that the Cards could do with those zillion yards was score one TD and two FG's.
• And it needs to be noted that coming into this game, the Cardinal's 38 ppg scoring average was the highest in the NFL.
• Forcing four turnovers can have that effect on a team.
• Speaking of turnovers, the Steelers have forced eleven of them in six games thus far.  In all of 2014, they only produced 21 of them.
• Antonio Brown needs to shut up, stop hectoring his QB on the sidelines, and be more concerned with how his team can win a ballgame, as opposed to how he can pad his stats.
• The Steelers threw only seven passes in the first half with Vick at quarterback.  Have Vick's skills as a QB eroded to such a degree that the Steelers cannot trust him to open it up and pass freely?  If so, why did they sign him as a back-up QB in the first place?
• I didn't listen to any of the post-game call-in shows, but tell me, how long did it take for some Yinzer to call in and suggest that the Steelers now trade Ben Roethlisberger, while his value is high, and install Jones as the #1 QB?  I'll bet it didn't take more than thirty minutes.
• Kuddos to Facebook friend Dave Glass for being the first to observe that we might have seen the "Wally Pipp-ing" of Michael Vick yesterday by Landry Jones.
• While legions of Steelers loyalists probably hated it, I kind of got a kick out of Troy Aikman verbally slipping and referring to the Steelers QB as "Tom Landry".  Perfectly understandable mistake.
• Speaking of Aikman, that Miller Lite commercial of him buying beer at the convenience store is quite good.

But let's not allow that Steelers win to overshadow this one...

PITT 31 - GEORGIA TECH 28

In the excitement of an unexpected Steelers win, let's not lose sight of what I feel to be a really, really nice win for the Pitt Panthers on the road against Georgia Tech on Saturday.  It was wildly entertaining game, that was eventually decided by Chris Blewitt's 56 yard field goal, the longest field goal in Pitt history (that that, Freddy Cox!).  Memories of the beatdown that Tech put on Pitt at Heinz field last year (and really, the beat down that Pitt put on itself in that game with those six fumbles), made this one especially sweet.

What I liked best about this game was this.  With the score 21-21 at the half, and Tech scoring on and making big plays against Pitt, Pat Narduzzi gave the usual coach-speak blather to the on field reporter about how "we need to make some adjustments on defense", and guess what?  Pitt really DID make those adjustments, and held Tech to only seven points in the second half.  Seeing something like that really happening before your eyes is really encouraging if you are  a PItt fan.

So, Pitt now sits at 5-1 and has cracked the Top 25 for the first time since 2010.  The schedule is going to start to get tougher with Syracuse on the road, and then North Carolina and Notre Dame at Heinz Field in the next there weeks, but it is hard not to start getting excited about we are seeing out of Pat Narduzzi and his Panthers this season.

As I said, a nice weekend for Pittsburgh football fans, although the Penn State and West Virginia fans in the tri-state area can't be real pleased about how their favorite teams fared this weekend.  I'll just let it go at that.