Beer We Go Steelers

If you are reading this you already have a pretty good idea what goes down tonight. The Steelers take on the Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots tonight.

Keys to victory:

-Stop the run: People are talking about how poorly the Steelers secondary will do against Tom Brady, however stopping the run will be key. This is a very solid front seven, and could be great if Jarvis Jones and Bud Dupree develop. They need to lean on the Patriots and keep gap integrity. The Pat’s are an unholy 40-1, since 2000, when they get a 100 yard rusher.

-“Get out of the gate fast”: DUH, contrary to popular belief the Steelers completely have the Patriots out manned in almost every offensive position, and they are playing with three backups! Even the Steelers maligned O-Line is as good if not better. So the Steelers need to trade punch for punch with the Brady bunch. While Brady is the better player, Ben is the playmaker! So keep Ben upright and watch him go.

-RUSH THE PASSER: If Jesus is God’s one true son, Tom Brady is like his nephew or his cousin. He is a Hall Of Fame Top Five QB of all time. His only “weakness” is he has trouble with a serious pass rush. The Giants proved that. They need to try and keep him off balance all day, and DIAL UP the blitzes. I would rather see the Steelers go “out on their shield” with blitzes then try and play the coverage game with Brady and crew.

-Knock their jocks off!: Win or lose, let them know they played the Steelers by pounding them.

Here is a very fun article:

http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/why-the-pittsburgh-steelers-will-win-super-bowl-50/ar-AAe8Tlb?ocid=iehp#page=11

Steelers ended their lousy preseason! Last night was fairly uneventful. I have not seen the game film yet, but here are some of my takeaways:

-Jordan Berry won the punting contest! The Steelers traded Brad Wing to the Giants today.

-Josh Harris will most likely make the team. He had a nice night playing behind a mediocre line.

-Chris Hubbard needed a good night and he had one!

-Landry Jones played okay.

The Steelers meet the Panthers tonight in the final game of the preseason. This will be 16 years straight and while the game is meaningless, there are several story lines. The 53 Man roster will be shaped by tonight’s game. Several players need to have big games;

-Big night tonight for Darrius Heyward-Bey v. Sam Coates in the Martavis Bryant sweepstakes! One guy could win the starting job.

-Ethan Hemer and Howard Jones need to show something as well. Both are huge upside guys but have to standout. SPECIAL TEAMS!!!

-The punting battle which has been exciting will finish up tonight. Look for Berry to make it happen.

-Ross Ventrone and B.W. Webb both need to make a play to stay on the team, Webb is battling Kevin Fogg who looks lost at times on defense.

-Do or die for Chris Hubbard tonight, he needs to beat out Doug Legursky which will be a tall order.

-Tyler Murphy has a shot to crack the receivers group and he is a fun prospect to watch. The sleeper here is Shakim Phillips who has looked spectacular at some times during the season and a little shaky at other times. One should make the practice squad.

-On a personal note, Dante my youngest guy is rooting for Anthony Chikillo, because he likes him in Madden!

-NO ONE CAN GET HURT!!!

Steelers will face the Brady Bunch on opening night!

The Steelers were absolutely wrecked by the Buffalo Bills on Saturday.

The Good:

-Martavis Bryant, who will miss at least four games, is an absolute force of nature on the field. He was solid.

-Cody Wallace filled in and did well.

-The controversial Michael Vick looked very good.

The Bad:

-Another preseason game another injury!! Garret Hartley went down with and injury!

-The defense was awful, I mean absolutely 100% awful.

-The defense was awful. I didn’t mistype that twice it was that bad!

With the uncertain status of Maurkice Pouncey, the Steelers turned to old friend, Doug Legursky to rejoin the team. Legursky who has played for the Bills (Where he started at Guard) and the Chargers since leaving, gives the Steelers a good veteran backup. BWG has always been a fan and we are glad to have him back!

The more controversial signing was Michael Vick. Vick is coming off a lousy season with the Jets and he has enough baggage to fill two 747’s, but he also paid his debt to society and the Steelers needed a veteran backup. I like the signing and think this gives the Steelers a more capable backup than what they currently were looking at. I have seen Vick play twice, once beating the Steelers last year in the Meadowlands. and the other the infamous tie game against Atlanta!

Bruce Gradkowski is done for the year now!

The Steelers pulled out an entertaining victory against the Packers, but both teams suffered serious losses that weren’t reflected in the score. The Steelers might have lost Pro Bowl Center Maurkice Pouncey for the Season! The Packers lost Jordy Nelson!

The Good:

-The “Varsity” offense looks very good against the Packers. They scuffled a little but you can see them moving forward and rounding out into form. When the Steelers needed to convert they did.

-The Defense bounced back after they slept through the first series, including great looking sacks by Jarvis Jones, Bud Dupree and Silverback, who absolutely erased Aaron Rodgers on the safety. All the linebackers played well.

-Shamarko Thomas had a standout game!

-The Steelers had great punting performance by Brad Wing and Jordan Berry!

The Bad:

-Maurkice Pouncey looks like he is lost for the season and Stephon Tuitt was injured as well. Both are major losses and could sink the season. Hard to find something worse than that.

-The Pouncey injury led to the Bruce Gradkowski. Grad looked shaky at best.

-Landry Jones, had very little help but again played skittish. He showed some flashes but really needs to put together a huge performance over the next two weeks.

-The Secondary still is a work in progress.

My thoughts on next week:

-Many players need to have big weeks.

Sorry for the delay in putting this together. As many of you know I am not in the Pittsburgh Market and I didn’t get to see the game film until Sunday. I was actually quite pleased with the game, Maybe I am used to losing in the Preseason so I don’t freak out anymore, but I thought there was some excellent signs.

The Good:

-The “Varsity” offense looks very good again. I honestly thought Ben might play a second series because the offense were on the field for a whopping six plays. I don’t even think they needed to wash their uniforms after the game. I could describe it like this, “Balanced and explosive”

-DeAngelo Williams looked very good and very competent. While Le’Veon Bell played well, Williams looks up to the task and maybe we can balance the load a little better this year. What Ravens fans conveniently forget is that Bell didn’t play in the playoffs last year and it made a huge difference. Williams gives us that competent player we need.

-Garrett Hartley looks very good as well and doesn’t look like we are skipping a beat.

-Ryan Shazier is having his coming out party. He looked scary fast and was throwing out beatings all game. When he was teamed up with Sean Spence they looked extremely formidable.

-James Harrison is a “FREAKING” Monster. He has barely practiced but was able to run over the Jaguars and had a strip sack. He looks like THE Old Silverback not an Old Silverback.

-No one was hurt!

The Bad:

-Shazier and Harrison were the lone bright spots on defense. (Spence played well also) I am hoping the defense is just vanilla but the pass rush was pretty weak.

-The secondary is a work in progress at best. Shamarko Thomas was way out of position on a touchdown.

-Landry Jones, was not bad. But he didn’t impress again either and he is about to be out of a job.

The Ugly:

-SPECIAL TEAMS? Seriously, I have been a Steelers fan my whole life, a very active Steelers fan for over twenty years. Are we ever going to get special teams straight. It goes in phases but it is always the issue at some point or another.

My thoughts on next week:

-Steelers have the Super Bowl contender Packers this weekend!

We were remiss in talking about the Bus’s induction in the Hall of Fame. There has been so many great articles about it and I wanted to write something worthy of my thoughts on him. Let me just say, the Bus is one of my favorite players in Steelers history. The Steelers traded a 2nd round pick in 96 and their 4th in 97 to the Rams for Bettis. The Rams picked Lawrence “Lady Killer” Phillips as their starter, the Steelers went with Bettis. Bettis is now in Canton, Phillips is now in a California State Prison. Guess the Steelers chose wisely!

People always forget that on the depth chart the Steelers had RB Erric “PeeWee” Pegram ahead of him, I remember wanting to see Bettis in action. It didn’t last long and while Pegram played well “the Bus” was born. Bettis put together a monster year. He rang up 14oo yards and 11 Td’s. It would be a string of SIX straight 1000+ yard seasons for the Bus as he was the lynchpin of the Steelers offense.

The Steelers experimented with other backs, but Bettis always held off all challengers. In 2004 after a few slower seasons, the Steelers brought in Deuce Staley. Staley started out great and they were a great tandem together. Unfortunately Staley was injured after he rushed for 125 yards against the Patriots and “The Bus” was called upon again.

I was at the game and got to meet Bettis in the Hotel Lobby. When I saw him, I knew it was going to be a special day. We watched as Bettis destroyed the Philadelphia Eagles rushing 33 times for 149 yards! The Steelers won out the rest of the season and Bettis had five more 100 yard games. Including a 140Yard Performance against the Giants. (Which I was at.) The Steelers sat him out the last game of the season, opting to let their backup’s backups beat the Bills, and Bettis was denied another 1000 yard season. He finished the year with 941 yards! It was a magical season with a bitter end as the Steelers lost to the Patriots. (Who everyone knows cheated.)

Of course we know how the story ended. He came back for one more year, while he only had 110 touches he had a whopping NINE Td’s and finished as a Super Bowl Champion in his home town!

We are proud to dedicate this year’s shirt to “The Bus” Jerome Bettis!

Some cool links!

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/B/BettJe00.htm

Steelers square off this week with Jacksonville. I will try and cobble a game report together depending if I can see the game in the NY market.

Also we were totally remiss in not writing about “The Bus” this week and will have something.