...or apparently that's how Tomlin feels, so I'll run with it.
Anyway, in case you hadn't noticed, just because it's a holiday meant to be celebrated by not working, that doesn't mean the world stops (coincidentally, it's days like this I wish I had some editorial backup). And indeed, the Steelers have been hard at work all weekend.
If you're just waking up from a beer-b-q induced coma, here's a rundown of what you missed (from most recent to least recent)...
1) Dennis Dixon's your man for Week 1.
If you don't like him, get over it, because Tomlin officially announced this afternoon that he's getting the start on Sunday against the Falcons.
Like I said last Friday, Dixon has three important advantages over Batch - 1) he's young and durable, 2) he's prepared this preseason as if he could be a starter (unlike Batch), and 3) he has the legs to play behind the Steelers o-line. Add to that the motivation he has to play well in this - his contract year, and I like the potential.
Obviously over these first four games you want your QB not to lose the game for you, but hell, you want to win too, and sometimes the best way to get a guy to shine is to just throw him in the water and let him swim.
And if he struggles, you've still got Chuck Batch on the bench.
I wasn't going to cry either way on this one, to be honest with you. I can see the good in both guys, and ultimately, I have faith in the Steelers to handle their business the way it should be handled. With Dixon you sacrifice experience, but his upside is a versatility that can keep a defense guessing. If the Steelers can get the running game going, all the better. Imagine Rashard Mendenhall is ripping off yards against you, and on top of it, you have to worry about a guy under Center who can both throw the ball down the field and/or burn you for 30 yards on the ground at any moment.
If I'm an opposing defense, I'd absolutely prefer a 35-year-old career backup who wasn't very mobile to begin with to a 25-year-old former Heisman hopeful who has sprinter speed.
2) Your 2010 - 2011 Steelers Captains are Hines Ward, Heath Miller (Offense), James Farrior (Defense) and Keyaron Fox (Special Teams).
There really isn't a whole lot to say here.
Obviously the glaring omissions are Big Ben, James Harrison and Jeff Reed who were all captains last season. But seriously, did anyone expect Ben to be captain after this offseason? Regardless of what you think about what transpired, I think we can all agree that maybe giving him a year off from Captainship might not be a bad idea.
As for Jeff Reed, I'm not really going to award a captaincy to a guy who's made more headlines leading up to the season with his mouth than his leg. If he was willing to contribute positively to the team morale, you vote for him. But if he's going to let his sore vagina get the better of him, despite the fact that he's making close to $3 million this season as a franchised kicker, give it to someone else. Keyaron Fox is consistently solid on Special Teams and even on Defense. He's obviously a hard worker and probably much better fit to be a leader this season, so good for him.
Silverback? Who knows. Suffice it to say - who needs the damn label as long as he has like 26 sacks this season.
3) The Steelers trimmed down to 53 on Saturday and signed 8 dudes to the practice squad on Sunday.
Among the 21 guys cut between last Friday and Saturday were the following notables - Justin Hartwig, Stefan Logan, Kraig Urbik, Sunny Harris, Patrick Bailey, Joe Burnett, Sean McHugh and Justin Vincent.
Frank the Tank, 2010 7th round pick Doug Worthington, and Tyler Grisham were part of the cuts as well, but surfaced on the practice squad Sunday (along with DE Steve McLendon, TE Eugene Bright, DB Da'mon Cromartie-Smith, OG Dorian Brooks, and OT Kyle Jolley) .
On the one hand, you've gotta feel for the guy who I doubt ever expected to be out of a job just a week before the season as the result of a rookie outplaying him in training camp.
On the other hand, Maurkice Pouncey is obviously a rare breed, and his youth, strength, speed and football acumen give us the best chance to succeed.
And so, such is life in the NFL. Good luck Hartwig, but HERE WE GO, POUNCEY!
This now of course gives them approximately 800 of the same type of receiver in that they already had Derrick Mason and traded for Anquan Boldin this offseason. Regardless, the Ravens receiving corps now consists of those three plus Donte Stallworth (eventually).
The natural reaction is fear. Previously, the Ravens best receiver was a guy who was old enough to have been part of the Music City Miracle. Now, they appear to be a much more formidable passing foe, which coupled with Ray Rice, Willis McGahee and La'ron McClain (and who can forget their offensive line) make them seem like quite a force.
And you really can't deny that on paper they've significantly upgraded one of the historically weakest positions on their team.
But am I going to piss and moan about it?
Come on, I think you know where I'm going here.
I obviously realize that this makes it that much harder for the Steelers defense. But the Steelers defense is predicated on stopping the run and making sure the opposing QB doesn't have time to even think about throwing the ball before he's mauled for a loss of 10 yards.
It doesn't mean they don't have their work cut out for them, but let's just see how this new look works for the Ravens over the first few weeks and we'll be sure to be ready for them on October 3.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to try and enjoy some of what's left of this beautiful day of labor.
Let's get it going in the comments - What do you think about any/all of this?
If you haven't already, become a fan of OFTOT on Facebook and follow Cotter and Steve on Twitter. Or don't. Your choice, really.
So, you may have noticed for the past couple of years (2008, 2009), Willie Colon has been part of the Pittsburgh Lupus Loop 5k. As I mention pretty much every year, Willie's Mom is unfortunately afflicted with the chronic disease (Lupus, that is) and so your participation in the event naturally means a lot to the big guy. He may not be able to make an impact on the field with the Steelers this season, but at least he can hopefully make an impact in the fight against Lupus, beginning with an Autograph Signing/Pre-Registration this coming Wednesday from 6:30 - 8:30 PM (as in two days from now - September 8, 2010).
If you're in the Pittsburgh area, Willie and several other Steelers will be at the North Hills Outback Steakhouse handing out free autographs. Plus, they'll be raffling off a Steelers helmet signed by 38 Steelers including Hines Ward, Big Ben, Silverback and of course, the Person of Interest himself...
Willie Colon.
Not to mention there will be "complimentary appetizers" and you can pre-register for the actual Lupus Loop 5k, which itself takes place on Saturday, September 18.
Anyway, if you're feeling philanthropic, or maybe you just want to do something good for your body and the world at large, come out at least for the Loop on the 18th - registration begins at 8:30 AM, the race begins at 9 AM for runners and 9:30 for walkers. For all the info in one place/or to register online, check out http://www.lupuspa.org.
Elsewhere in September events, we've got the The Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon's Whatever It Takes exhibit...
[Click to enlarge]
As you probably gathered from that poster there, the exhibit is an amalgamation of just about any type of Steelers fan art you can think of - from tattoos to pictures to video to pretty much whatever. These guys solicited Steelers fans for at least the last six months or so(?) in order to put this thing together, and it looks like it's probably a fantastic collection.
In addition to taking in all of the fan art, you can also get in on the fun, inserting yourself into video of the immaculate reception, or video conferencing with patrons at a Steelers bar in Rome.
Seems like a pretty solid experience.
Anyway, this Friday at 5 PM, they're giving what I would believe to be the first tour of the new exhibit, and then from 6 - 8 PM they're holding an "Immaculate Reception," which by virtue of its name has some pretty high expectations to live up to.
If you can't/don't make it out Friday, don't worry. The exhibition will be around all season. So just another thing to check out in case that type of thing does it for you. For more info, check over here.
If you haven't already, become a fan of OFTOT on Facebook and follow Cotter and Steve on Twitter. Or don't. Your choice, really.
But the other piece I mentioned we were all looking for is confirmation on Leftwich's injured MCL.
Like I highlighted earlier, the Trib's Scott Brown says it's an MCL tear and that Leftwich is out indefinitely, and that Leftwich's "agency" tweeted as much last night.
But now, ESPN's Chris Mortenson is reporting that (his "sources" say) it's just an MCL sprain and that Leftwich wants to avoid surgery and play.
Everybody wants to be the first to report things, and unfortunately, you can't trust anything until it's independently verifiable through multiple sources. And even then, who the hell knows. Yet, I'm the asshole for waiting on "confirmation."
ANYWAY, the Steelers - keeping to form - have said nothing on the situation.
So we're still waiting.
But like I said on Facebook and Twitter, let's assume Leftwich did only sprain the MCL and that he feels like he can play - do we really think we're better off with the world's least mobile QB hobbling on an injured knee playing behind the Steelers offensive line?
Oh, and rest assured, I'll let you know if/when we ever get confirmation from the Steelers.
UPDATE (3:54 PM) - Apparently at around 12:43 PM, which was literally two minutes after I left my laptop and stepped out the door (in keeping with how things go for me), Ed Bouchette reported that Leftwich SPRAINED his MCL and will be out two to four weeks...still nothing from the Steelers, though.
If you haven't already, become a fan of OFTOT on Facebook and follow Cotter and Steve on Twitter. Or don't. Your choice, really.
Of course, with the events that have transpired in the media this week, you have to call this a REPORT at this point.
But let's get serious, I'd hope that NFL Network would be a source you could trust for NFL news.
So, Ben's got four weeks to play a lot of Madden before he's allowed to return to the team just in time for the Week 5 bye, which is good since that'll give him a solid TWO weeks of work with the team (or a week plus as much work as the team does during the bye week, anyway) to get his proverbial groove back.
UPDATE (11:22 AM) - Commissioner's "official" statement straight from NFL PR Man Greg Aiello - "You have told me and the Steelers that you committed to making better decisions. Your actions over the past several months have been consistent with that promise and you must continue to honor that commitment."
Now, let's watch this for four weeks...
While we wait for this...
Here we go, Steelers...
HERE WE GO!!!!
If you haven't already, become a fan of OFTOT on Facebook and follow Cotter and Steve on Twitter. Or don't. Your choice, really.
Alright, let's not try and pretend it didn't happen.
Last night, amidst something that I'm not sure I'd even bother qualifying as a game, Byron Leftwich caught some friendly fire from Jonathan Scott (who later himself was injured) and friends, and went down with a left knee injury.
Leftwich left the stadium to get an MRI and the initial word was some type of MCL damage. "His agency," according to everyone who has reported it, tweeted last night that it was a tear...but while you'd like to assume the report is genuine, not knowing exactly who's in charge of the account, I'm not sure I trust it until I hear the news from someone I KNOW I can trust (I'm told that the Trib's Scott Brown has confirmed that it's an MCL tear...though his current "report" still uses the word "apparently").
Anwyay, assuming this is true it obviously shakes things up rather obnoxiously with the first game of the season just over a week away.
The team brought Leftwich in as a veteran presence to bridge the gap while Ben is out on suspension, but presuming he's out for the foreseeable future, would they be best to just put him on IR and use that roster spot on valuable and healthy talent? Do they bring in another guy to back up either Dixon or Batch (presumably Dixon)? Questions abound, not the least of which is - can we please get an official prognosis from the team?
Amazingly, all those people who were so rabid to call for Dennis Dixon to start have now started to panic, which frankly is something I'm not sure I understand. But then, there were a ton of people who called for the team to trade Big Ben this offseason who have now rejoined the cheering section, so I suppose this isn't anything new for Steeler Nation.
On the positive side, if Dixon even plans on being a viable backup (here or elsewhere), he's gotta play some time. Maybe this is a good thing for the Steelers. Dixon gets to do work with the starting offense, providing mobility, improvisation skills and youth, and the Falcons, Titans, Bucs and Ravens (assuming Ben's suspension gets reduced today) have to plan for a lot more than just a statue who drops 20 feet back in the pocket.
On the negative side, Dixon is way less experienced, and these four (to six) games are about making it to the other side with a serviceable record. Whether Dixon will make young mistakes and hurt the team more than it's already shown that it's capable of hurting itself is a question mark.
But frankly, it doesn't do a lot of good to talk about hypotheticals.
The reality is, Dixon will start.
I love Chuck Batch, you love Chuck Batch, but I think we can all agree he's not a kid anymore. First, I'd worry about his old bones getting injured every time a defender so much as glances in his direction. And second, he hasn't gotten nearly the same reps with the first team as Dixon has (not that Dixon has even had that many either).
So, here's where we start to hope for the best and root for Double D.
As for last night's "game," in case you missed it, you really didn't MISS much of anything beyond those injuries I mentioned (Leftwich and Jonathan Scott) and Chuck Batch going 3/4 for 10 yards passing.
No Steelers RB had less than a 4 yards per carry average (except Justin Vincent who probably won't make the squad anyhow)...
Jonathan Dwyer helped his cause with 20 carries for 86 yards, including the 36 yard gem pictured below...
Isaac Redman had 4 carries for 35 yards, for an almost 9 yards per carry average.
Mendenhall carried 5 times for 22 yards, and Mewelde Moore carried 5 times for 20 yards.
Manny Sanders had a solid night catching 3 balls for 66 yards, including a 23 yard connection from Dixon, which coincidentally was the only pass Dixon threw and was the only TD scored throughout the entire game...
The Steelers nabbed four sacks, including one by Nick Eason that generated probably the best pictured ever captured of him...
The offensive line looked about as solid as my bowel movements the morning after taco night, allowing a sack and way too many close calls on Big Ben...
Other than that, not a whole lot you need to take away from last night.
At this point, we now sit and await two important pieces of information... 1) Confirmation on Leftwich's injury from the Steelers 2) The outcome of today's Big Ben-Roger Goodell tea party (UPDATE - Suspension reduction, secured! Four games)
Feel free to make any observations you might have on any of this in the comments.
If you haven't already, become a fan of OFTOT on Facebook and follow Cotter and Steve on Twitter. Or don't. Your choice, really.
I hope you'll excuse the lack of posts between yesterday and today.
Oh right, AND Monday.
Your faithful editor has been preoccupied with things that need not be discussed.
Needless to say, the full recap I promised is meh. I thought I'd get to something, but then, life happened, and I didn't. You'll have to forgive me if I don't find highlighting every single detail of a preseason game to be my top priority.
Anyway, not like the news has stopped while my brain has been on hiatus.
Over the past few days, a bunch of things have happened...including...
- Some guys you probably didn't think were going to make the team anyway, got cut (don't cry for me David Pittman...er, other way around?)
- Peter King put a hex on the Steelers by picking them as winners of Super Bowl XLV (personally, I'm not worried about the Super Bowl just yet, so much as I am worrying about getting a healthy record out of four to six games without Ben)
- Some idiot columnist from the Washington Post fabricated a rumor that Ben's suspension would be reduced to five games (coincidentally, apparently some are now saying Ben plans on asking for three games or less...a proposition which head honcho Art Rooney II apparently supports)
Of course, if you were a fan of OFTOT on Facebook, you'd have already heard about all of this and more...well, you would've heard about all of it from me, anyway.
As for the rest of the goings on, not much to report.
Ben starts tomorrow night (excuse me, probably starts), Willie Gay starts in place of McFadden (and in spite of Keenan Lewis), I doubt anyone who is any value to the team plays more than a series or two, and currently, I'm working on murdering a bag of Lay's Sour Cream & Onion chips that I'm way too into.
I'll hopefully resume regular [meaningful] posting sometime in the next few days.
Until then...
Smiley with teeth.
It's ok if you don't know what to do with that.
If you haven't already, become a fan of OFTOT on Facebook and follow Cotter and Steve on Twitter. Or don't. Your choice, really.
The first thing I can think of to say about tonight's game - I'm amazed such a sloppy mess could happen without the Heinz Field turf being involved.
If you didn't see it, the final score was Broncos - 34, Steelers 17.
But it might as well have been Broncos - 56, Steelers, 3.
I've got a few things I'll mention now, the rest will follow tomorrow...ish.
Here are the things that should have stood out to you...
1) Penalties - 11 for 93 yards 2) Turnovers - Namely, THREE interceptions (two of which were returned for six) 3) Special Teams - Obviously still broken
But beyond that, the other thing everyone will be buzzing about is Dennis Dixon.
After dominating 3rd stringers for the past couple of weeks, he finally earned some solid playing time with the 1st team offense, relieving Ben early on in the game.
How'd he do?
Well, I wouldn't exactly pencil him in as the game 1 starter.
He went 9/16 for 94 yards, and threw TWO picks - one in the end zone that he should've just thrown away, and another that led to six Broncos points at the end of the 1st half.
Needless to say, neither was acceptable.
And then Leftwich came into the game.
He literally played just under four minutes total, going 0/4, getting sacked once and generally looking like he would have rather been getting a colonoscopy (which probably would be about as painful as what would've happened to Leftwich if he stayed in the game any longer).
Though, to be fair, he did hand off to Jonathan Dwyer for one of the Steleers two TDs.
Anyways, this of course instills no confidence in either QB with the season just a couple of weeks away.
The good news is, no one ever lost a chance at the playoffs in the preseason.
So, for today, we hold our noses and hope that the stench of tonight's game doesn't linger any longer than the next few days, as the Steelers play the Panthers on Thursday night in their final preseason game.
The only other thing you really need to know is that Roger Goodell will be meeting with Ben following Thursday's game to let Ben know whether he'll have to throw passes to his dogs for the first four or six weeks of the season.
For all our sakes, let's hope it's four.
At least we all got a laugh out of it.
Feel free to deposit your own initial thoughts in the comments.
If you haven't already, become a fan of OFTOT on Facebook and follow Cotter and Steve on Twitter. Or don't. Your choice, really.
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