Week One - Steelers 34, Browns 7

Mike Tomlin did something that no other Steelers coach has done - he won his first game in Cleveland. Of course, those other coaches presumably played against real Cleveland teams rather than the pseudo-professional squad that took the field on Sunday. Here's a question for you - if you're a Browns fan, is it worse to follow this team than it was to deal with Art Modell taking your franchise to Baltimore and then watching the Ravens win a Super Bowl? The incompetence was evident throughout the game, but the lowlight for Cleveland was clearly the muffed punt snap by punter Paul Ernster, who was signed Saturday because starter Dave Zastudil decided to tell coach Romeo Crennel over the weekend that he felt like he might hurt the team if he played with an injury. Maybe Crennel should have flipped a coin to decide who his punter should have been. Wouldn't be a new strategy for him. Anyways, back to the travails of Ernster, who couldn't field a perfect snap and then finally retrieved the ball and kicked one off the side of his foot while on the run. If that wasn't bad enough, the Browns were whistled for FOUR penalties on the play. Just a few plays later, Ben Roethlisberger hit Hines Ward for a beautiful TD pass and the rout was on. Anyways, here's the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of this week's game.

The Good
The defense played great for Dick LeBeau on his 70th birthday. The pressure on the quarterback looked much better than last year, especially from the linebackers. Ike Taylor had a sack and an interception in his first step toward recovering his 2005 form. Roethlisberger was efficient, and threw four TDs and no picks. Even though his percentage wasn't great, you can chalk up a lot of that to dropped passes. And the Steelers even threw to the tight ends, with Heath Miller and Matt Spaeth catching touchdowns!

The Bad
The aforementioned dropped passes would have come back to haunt the Steelers against probably 30 other NFL teams. Luckily this was Cleveland. The offensive line wasn't exactly dominant, especially in the first half before the Browns basically gave up. Allen Rossum looked like he was intent on proving Tomlin right for trading for him a week ago, but in his haste to field and return every punt that went his way, he left me with a feeling that a similar attitude this week could lead to one of those fumbled punts that troubled the Steelers throughout 2006 and have already made Andy Reid want to try some of his sons' drugs in 2007. And the wasted field position in the first half makes me nervous for the future. And Cedric Wilson wasn't very involved in the offense, so I'm sure we'll hear from "Plaxico Without the Height" pretty soon.

The Ugly
The Browns. Plain and simple. Its hard to tell how good this Steelers team is because Cleveland played one of the worst games I've ever seen an "NFL" team play. The Steelers should have been up 35-0 at the half, but despite the wasted opportunities, the game was still never in doubt.

Up next: Buffalo (0-1)

Instant Thoughts - Steelers vs. Eagles

Here's this week's e-mail exchange of our thoughts following the Steelers' 3rd preseason game, a 27-13 win over Philadelphia.

From David to Mario:

Let me just start off by saying I will not watch Sunday Night Football unless the Steelers are on and then I will turn down the volume and try and find a radio feed. Madden is absolutely awful- unwatchable awful. I don't know if you had sound on but at one point he claimed Donovan McNabb's percentage was over 100%. I imagine you can see the problem with that statement. He meant to say QB rating I assume, but I'm not really sure.

Also, I really could only handle the first half due to fatigue caused by Drunken Bachelor Party Weekend but here were my quick notes:

Ben really needs to stop the stupid mistakes but on that one floater that got picked by the Defensive Lineman, he did a great job escaping, Willie was wide open, and it looked like his arm got hit at the line. Of course, our announcing team noticed none of that because of how fun it is when a Lineman intercepts a ball.

I'm still a big fan of Mike Tomlin, when Andrea Kramer asked him stupid questions he gave her great dirty looks and half answers.

I was shocked to see how few yards Philly had the half. I guess field position makes a huge difference.

Do you think Sepulvda was actively trying to channel Jim Miller?

I'm going to need a full breakdown of watching a Steelers game against the Eagles in a Philly bar. Any turnout? And there had to be at least on drunk Eagles fan being an ass right.

From Mario to David:

Why would you ever listen to network announcers anyways? Unless of
course its Gus Johnson in the final two minutes of a tie game.

Ben wasn't really that impressive, in my opinion. A lot of his yards
came on screen passes which Bruce Arians kept calling because the
offensive line was getting pushed around up front so he caught the
Eagles overpursuing. And on his interception, I still think he should
have taken the sack. Even if he made a nice play to try to get it to
Willie, I still see disaster happening about 40 percent of the time in
the future in a similar situation.

And as for watching the Steelers beat the Eagles in a bar in Center
City Philadelphia, well, it was a blast. There were probably 75
percent Steeler fans, 20 percent Eagles fans and 5 percent random
people there for the college welcome back night that was happening
from 11 p.m. til 2 a.m. Its definitely going to be my new regular
season Steeler bar. There was only one drunk Eagles fan being an ass,
and that's mostly because in the fourth quarter, he was still getting
into the game like a spot in the playoffs was riding on it.

Here's what I want to focus on - the punt return game is still awful.
Willie Reid fielded a punt inside the six yard line! That's the first
rule of returning - just let that ball go! And then he dropped one.
Mike Tomlin even resorted to putting Ricardo Colclough back there in
the third quarter to catch a punt.

My favorite play of the game was Fast Willie's touchdown, mainly
because of the blocking on the play. The lead block was by Dan
Kreider, who fighting to make the team because of the de-emphasis of
the fullback position, though he showed on that play why he's still
one of the best pure blockers in the league. The next block was by Max
Starks, who may or may not have lost his starting spot to Willie Colon
(but did he gain it back with that block?). And the final way was
paved by Santonio Holmes (quickly becoming my favorite offensive
player on the team), who sealed off two Eagles toward the end of the
run.

From David to Mario:

I can't help but listen to the announcers, they are talking. Boy, I do hate Madden though.

Did you see Skippy shaved his head? To me that is 100% more interesting than Gaydy Quinn doing it. Those were some hardcore locks.

I'm with you on punt return. I have no real issue with Cedric taking them except for the fact that he called a fair catch with 30 yards in front of him. I was thrilled to see him do that though, rather than drop the ball. Football Outsiders made the same point roughly:

If I am Mike Tomlin, I scan the waiver wire for any Michael Lewis or Eddie Drummond or Terrance Wilkins and I overpay for any punt returner who can cleanly field a punt. Maybe I even trade a fourth round pick for a guy, James Thrash or somebody, who can return punts but isn't doing it right now. I don't risk my season on all of these guys who just can't seem to cleanly field a punt.

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/2007/08/27/ramblings/audibles/5396/

Bizarro World of Passing Stats?!?

I know its preseason, and that most defensive coordinators are pretty vanilla with their schemes, but some of the quarterbacking numbers from this weekend's preseason games were ridiculous. Check out these 11 starting quarterbacks and what they did. Two of them (Rivers and Romo) played into the first possession of the third quarter, while Tom Brady played into the second possession of the third quarter and Drew Brees didn't even finish out the first half. The rest played the entire first half before putting on the baseball cap and enjoying the rest of the game.

Ben Roethlisberger – 13 of 25, 247 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT
Philip Rivers – 20 of 29, 282 yards, 2 TD, 0 INT
Matt Leinart – 10 of 16, 196 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT
Tony Romo – 14 of 22, 197 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT
Eli Manning – 17 of 25, 146 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT
Rex Grossman – 13 of 20, 211 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT
Peyton Manning – 23 of 27, 233 yards, 3 TD, 0 INT
Tom Brady – 17 of 22, 167 yards, 2 TD, 0 INT
Vince Young – 13 of 19, 162 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT
J.P. Losman – 9 of 20, 180 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT
Drew Brees – 17 of 19, 182 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT

So to recap, this group of 11 starting quarterbacks went 166 for 244 (68% completion percentage) for 2,203 yards, with 16 touchdowns and just four interceptions this weekend - while playing about one half each! That's a quarterback rating of 111.4. That means they averaged going 15 of 22 for 200.3 yards for about one half of play. Breaking that out to a four quarter average, these guys would be somewhere around 30 of 44 for 400 yards and three touchdowns each. That’s just sick - whether the defenses were blitzing or not. What's next, Brady Quinn shaving his head and turning into a competent quarterback???

Already Over the Bettis Story

This story about Jerome Bettis faking an injury to not get cut is already overblown. To say he faked an injury is not right. He faked when the injury happened, but the injury did happen on the football field while he was playing for the Steelers.

Of course The Bus has got to be thrilled with the amount of press that his book which comes out September 4th is receiving.

Apparently this is not an uncommon practice. Also, is there any Steeler fan anywhere who isn't thrilled they kept Bettis and didn't cut him for the immortal Richard Huntley?

Bettis also released another shocker in his book. Apparently he is from Detroit. Surprising that the media chose to completely ignore that during the Super Bowl week.

Instant Thoughts - Steelers vs. Redskins

Here's the post-game e-mail exchange between David and Mario after this weekend's third preseason game, in which the Steelers improved to 2-1 by defeating the Washington Redskins:

From David to Mario:
The defense has to get off the field on third down. Washington isn't exactly Indianapolis or Cincinnati. In fact they might be the only team with a shorter average receiver height than us. I think the Steelers fall in love with the blitz a little much. We almost never have coverage sacks and while its nice to see guys running free at the quarterback, Campbell was finding the open receiver easily, even Todd Collins wasn't fooled. If you come off of a receiver to blitz, you have to have someone cover that receiver. Wasn't that the point of the zone blitz?

The offense didn't look great either. It definitely felt like a small step back, but it is just preseason.

Santonio Holmes looked good again. I think he may have won the starting job with some of those catches.

Brett Keisel pulled out his inner Kimo putting Jason Campbell down. It almost became unsafe for him to visit our nation's capital.

I don't know if you watched it on NFL Network, but Joe Theismann was doing local color for the Redskins the first half. Oh how the mighty have fallen. He was unsurprisingly awful and his reaction to the Kiesel hit was vintage Theismann. He kept talking about how Kiesel should have pulled up (he was falling down), how a 15 yard penalty wasn't enough, going on and on, and then when asked if the hit was dirty went immediately to "no, it wasn't a dirty or intentional play". If you think he could of pulled up and didn't Joe, how is that not dirty?

It wasn't dirty anyway - Kiesel literally fell into his Campbell's knee.

Did I tell you the Pro-Football Prospectus is the greatest book ever?

From Mario to David:

Ummm, first of all, it became unsafe to visit our nation's capital a long time ago. Have you seen the murder rate there lately??

I know I sent you a message about this while listening to the radio broadcast of the game, but the main thing to focus on, as you said, was third down. Both first team offenses were equally (un)productive on first and second downs, but the third downs were what killed the Steelers. Actually, it seemed like more of Pittsburgh's third downs were of the 3rd and 3 or 3rd and 4 variety, while Washington was picking up 3rd and 9 or 3rd and 12 against the vaunted Steeler D.

And yeah, it was a little discouraging when Kiesel knocked out Campbell yet Todd Collins came in and sliced up the defense for the remaining 30 or so yards to get into the end zone.

Kiesel's hit wasn't dirty. I'm okay with the penalty, because that's the Kimo Rule that they put in after the 2005 playoffs - don't come in low at the QB. That's fine, make the call. But just don't say it was dirty. Classy move by Kiesel to go over and say something to Campbell as he was being carted off, though.

From David to Mario:
Yeah, it was tough to judge the receivers, because the offense didn't seem to be clicking. I did not watch the 4th quarter but St. Pierre is making a case for a roster spot. Do you think we hold three qbs this year? Most teams do, don't they? The Steelers always had Randlel-El as the third, who was listed last year?

Kiesel the Diesel isn't scared of some punks in DC.

The secondary looked bad. In man coverage guys were just not covering the players. In zone, the holes were huge. Maybe I did overestimate the Packers.

Sepulvda looked good though, he kicks the shit out of the ball.

From David to Mario:

This is funny, I was reading Peter King’s MMQB after I sent you that e-mail and he says "n. Special Teams Player of the Preseason: Pittsburgh punter Daniel Sepulveda. In his last two games, he's punted nine times for a 49.9-average ... and he's had only 15 return yards on those nine punts. The kid's a 6-foot-3 monster, and he could be quite a weapon."

I should have my own column on SI, but he really does look awesome, doesn't he? I'm just disappointed he hasn't come down and laid out a returner yet. It has to happen soon, right?

From Mario to David:

No, you should not have your own column on SI. You misspell at least one word each e-mail, and your grammar is pretty bad sometimes.

From David to Mario:

Yeah, but they have editors, right? I could probably spend more time on it if it weren't for this damn job problem I have.

Barlow is gone. Haynes made a case. I think Kreider is gone just because he is too limited. He does one thing as well as anyone else in the league - great blocks at the hole. But he doesn't catch passes, I never see him on special teams. If they are planning to keep Carey Davis or Gary Russell and run out of more single back sets than I can't see how they keep Kreider. I hope he catches on somewhere else if he goes though. I like him. I think right now it is Willie, Haynes, and Russell/Davis with the other of those two on the practice squad.
So we don't have any sense of how Arians and Tomlin feel about keeping two or three quarterbacks?

Is Cedric Wilson going to be useless if Santonio wins the starting job?

By the way, Willie looked pretty average. I would probably avoid him in Fantasy Football. I think he is going to have a down year.

From Mario to David:

That's my problem with Kreider. He's too one-dimensional. He used to be on one of the kicking teams - maybe field goal/PAT? But I'm not even sure if he does that anymore. I think Russell may have an edge right now on Davis, because I think with Haynes' experience, he'd earn the edge over Davis as they're both bigger guys who could fill either a tailback or fullback role. And then hopefully Davis wouldn't get picked up so he could go on the Steelers' practice squad.

I have no clue about the staff's feeling of how many QBs to keep. Obviously Arians has been around the past few years to see it done both ways with the Steelers, but when the third QB was Tommy Maddox, that didn't exactly entice him, I'm sure.

Cedric can make plays, too. I think he'll be a weapon. I think when they go to four wideouts its going to be tough to defend, because in addition to Willie Parker in the backfield as a breakaway threat, Cedric and Santonio, along with Nate Washington (if he catches it) are all deep threat guys while Hines will catch anything underneath.

I would possibly believe you about Willie if you weren't picking directly AFTER me in our fantasy league and you weren't salivating about the prospect of getting your favorite player in the league. Too bad. I'm taking him.

From David to Mario:

I don't know, he's looking iffy. I wouldn't take him until the third round.

My point on Cedric is will he become a problem with attitude if he gets bumped to third for Santonio. I love Cedric's talent, but I just hate his attitude.

From Mario to David:

Maybe if Mike Tomlin lets Cedric take a few snaps at quarterback, then he'll be happy. I'm still pushing for him to be the punt returner, too. He's been as consistent as anyone back there, which still doesn't say much, though its true. It just seems like they're pushing Willie Reid for the job so they can validate his third round selection last year since he missed practically the entire season, but if he's struggling on returns and not distinguishing himself at receiver, then what value does he have to the team?

And I'm assuming that even if Cedric starts to bitch about not getting enough touches, that will be drowned out by the cheers for Santonio if he keeps playing the way he has thus far in the preseason. I'm predicting 1,100 yards for Holmes this year, to lead the team. He won't have more catches than Hines Ward, who will probably put up his typical 70-80 or so catches for 978 yards, but his gamebreaking ability will make him stand out. Just remember how last season ended in overtime against the Bengals.

Tuesday News from the P-G

Hooray, Fast Willie Parker is going to get on the field this weekend. This can't happen soon enough for me, its already tough enough to justify taking him #1 overall on my Fantasy Football team. It will be interesting to see how long Tomlin keeps the starters in this next game. Usually the third preseason game is the one where the starters get most of the work. However he treated last game just like the first so this one will probably be played like their second game, which means maybe the starters will see a quarter.

However this article about Faneca seemed like nothing more than a stir up the shit with the disgruntled player.The article, titled Faneca debates versatility question, basically asks Faneca if he was asked to move to left tackle because of injury would he. He says yes, because he would do anything to help the players on the field. But first he expresses some doubt about it. Is it really necessary to fan this flame? It really does seem like asking a disgruntled player a question hoping to escalate an already tenuous situation. When the player doesn't take the bait you go ahead and try and escalate the situation anyway. Maybe Bouchette is making his move to try and get with the New York Post? Or maybe I'm crazy, and people actually care about this.

Reaction to 2nd Pre-Season Game and Email Exchange

Mario and I have watched most Steelers games together for the past 3 years, with the notable exception of the postseason of the Super Bowl Year when we both found separate lucky spots. (Don't believe in that kind of thing? Read Super Bowl Year). This year we are far apart so we will be watching the games separately which will inevitably lead to some email exchanges about the games. If there is anything good or semi-interesting we will put them up. Just a warning, we are prolific emailers so this could get long.

From: David

Nate Washington dropped like a 40 yard bomb, although it looked like he might have caught it, there wasn't a good replay.

Max Starks played HORRIBLY. It was great to have the Steelers announcers for the first half. When something happened they specifically talked about how it affected the Steelers, such as the sacks, they weren't giving Green Bay credit they were crushing Max.

From: Mario

Yeah, from what I heard on the radio and read in the articles, that
wouldn't even be classified as a drop by the coaching staff because he
made a great effort and possibly even did make the catch.

From: David

It’s still factually incorrect.

From: David

Also, I think you underestimate how solid both the first and second team defense looked, the CBs were breaking up plays, getting to the receiver at the same time as the ball and knocking it loose. Closing down holes. Green Bay didn't get a first against our first or second team defense.

From: Mario

I think you overestimate the Packers offense. They were awful last
year and don't appear to have gotten any better at all. But yeah, I
was pleased with the D.

From: David

Like I said, what I was most impressed with was how the Cornerbacks were Ball Hawking, just being in the exactly the right spot all the time

From: Mario

That is good to hear, since they were basically awful all of last
year. You think McFadden beats out Deshea for a starting spot?

From: David

I don't know, he played well, DeShea had the penalty on Cedric’s punt return. Neither one seemed to get burned or anything

From: Mario

Here's another question - if Cedric does indeed get the job as punt
returner (or if Santonio does, for that matter), does Willie Reid make
the team? He hasn't really proven enough to earn a spot solely as a
receiver/special teams guy, especially without the return aspect, has
he?

From: David

No, Willie Reid does not make the team.

Would It Have Been Too Much to Ask Them to Settle It On the Field?

Anytime the Steelers struggle, at least we as fans have this to remember - at least we don't root for Cleveland. Tortured Cleveland fans now get to cheer for a team where coach Romeo Crennel decided yesterday's starting quarterback via a coin flip! Crennel couldn't decide between Charlie Frye and Derek Anderson (Where was Brady Quinn? Getting a manicure or something?) so he went to a coin toss. I wonder if he went with the same rules as the NFL game coin toss, where the call has to be made before the toss (after the 1997 Thanksgiving Day debacle with Jerome Bettis against the Lions). Did Frye get to call it since he's technically the incumbent? And if this had happened in Pittsburgh, would the coin toss have been carried live on all of the local networks? Frye did win the toss, for what that's worth. That may be his only victory of the year.

Preseason Game No. 2 - Steelers vs. Packers Recap

The Black and Gold made their first appearance of the 2007 season at Heinz Field on Saturday night for a game against the Green Bay Packers. Both teams' starters struggled a bit, though the Steelers second team got out to a 9-0 lead before the Packers rallied in the second half for a 13-9 victory.

The game was blacked out in my area but replays are being shown multiple times this week on the NFL Network (see previous post). However, I was able to listen to Bill Hillgrove and Tunch Ilkin's radio broadcast for most of the game, and here are my thoughts:

The no-huddle offense that Bruce Arians had Ben Roethlisberger and the first team offense come out with is tough to exhibit in a preseason game. First of all, Arians is obviously going to want to hide a lot of the wrinkles the team has been working on in order to save them for the regular season. Secondly, the no-huddle is very dependent on a quarterback being in rhythm, and that's tough to ask that of Ben on the very first series of the game. And thirdly, and most importantly in my mind, the no-huddle is much more effective to use against a defense that is worn down at a later point in the game. Its not as if the Packers were gasping for air after three plays. I'm excited to see how the Steelers utilize the new package this year, but for this game, it didn't work.

Charlie Batch looked very good again. He's proving (if he hasn't already proved it) that he is one of the most dependable and serviceable backup signal callers in the league. Batch was 3 of 5 for 97 yards and a touchdown, with the score being on a 41-yard pass to Walter Young. Brian St. Pierre came in for the second half and was 10 of 23 for 99 yards in mostly ineffective play.

The offensive line is definitely a concern. For as good as the line looked last week in roughing up the Saints' defensive front, the opposite happened this weekend. The Disgruntled Alan Faneca was out, and that obviously hurt, but the Steelers gave up three sacks from the left tackle position, where Max Starks got some playing time in a tryout role as opposed to his normal right tackle spot.

The guy who was the darling of Steeler Nation last week, RB Carey Davis, didn't get the ball this week, though he did make some nice special teams plays. However, undrafted rookie Gary Russell looked good once again. After rushing for 41 yards on eight carries against New Orleans, Russell led the Steelers with 56 yards on nine attempts against the Packers. Najeh Davenport started once again in place of Willie Parker and had 34 yards on seven carries, though 21 of those yards came on one run. Kevan Barlow had 25 yards on six carries, including a 17-yard burst.

As for the receivers, Walter Young is trying his best to stay off of the practice squad this year. Young had two catches for 50 yards including that touchdown. Santonio Holmes continued to look like he's in for a big year, with a 49-yard catch and run. Nate Washington didn't even drop a pass!

The special teams play had its ups and downs. Daniel Sepulveda boomed five punts for an average of 49.8 yards, including a 59-yarder in the second quarter that went out of bounds inside the 20-yard line. Cedric Wilson staked his claim to be the punt returner with two runbacks for an average of 19 yards. However, Jeff Reed had a PAT blocked.

Defensively there were no individual standout performances, though rookie William Gay had another solid game, including recording the Steelers' only sack. Pittsburgh held Brett Favre to 2 of 7 passing for 7 yards. So for those keeping track at home, Favre and Drew Brees have combined to go 3 of 13 for 13 yards against the first-team D. Not too shabby. Up next for the Steelers is the third game of the preseason, Saturday at 8 p.m. at Washington.

Preseason Games on NFL Network

This year the NFL Network is televising all 52 preseason games not broadcast on National TV. This is great news for those with the NFL Network. Most of the games will be taped not live and many will be from local stations. The NFL Network will use the announcers from both teams, one for each half.

Here is the television schedule for the Pittsburgh Steelers on the NFL Network, so fire up your TIVOs

Green Bay Packers at Pittsburgh Steelers will air Sunday, August 12, 2007 at 5pm NFLN.
(The game will be played Saturday August 11 at 7:30pm)

Pittsburgh Steelers at Washington Redskins will air Sunday, August 19, 2007 at 2pm NFLN
(The game will be played Saturday August 18 at 8:00pm)

Philadelphia Eagles at Pittsburgh Steelers will be aired live on NBC's Sunday night Package at 8:00pm August 26, 2007.

Pittsburgh Steelers at Carolina Panthers will air Sunday, September 2 2007 at 11am NFLN
(The game will be played Thursday August 30th at 8pm)

The last game is a pretty brutal turnaround but the last game usually doesn't see many starters play for very long. The preseason games are great for watching the young talent that could be the future of the team. Carey Davis and William Gay both had great plays in the Hall Of Game and it will be interesting to see if they continue or if others step up. It will also be interesting to watch the defense adjust and see if any of Mike Tomlin's philosophy sneaks in.

Quick Hit Thoughts From the HOF Game

The Hall of Fame game is in the books and football season has officially started. The Pittsburgh Steelers rolled the New Orleans Saints. The first preseason game means next to nothing but it was nice to see the players hitting hard and executing well so early in the season.

Here are some quick thoughts from the game.

Hopefully Cedric is happy now. He got most of the looks when he was in the game and did well with them. He's needs to stop complaining and recognize that this is a team where you sacrifice stats for wins. He is becoming a short Plaxico Burress in his attitude, it will be interesting to see how long Tomlin and Hines Ward are going to put up with that.

Woodley looked solid in his time in the game, breaking up a pass by diving in front of the receiver.

The overall defense looked strong and looked like a Dick LeBeau defense.

Nate Washington needs to learn how to catch if he is ever going to make an impact on this team.

Great to see all the coverage problems have been fixed. The refs saved Reid on that fumble. The Steelers have to do better in that respect.

Carey Davis looked very solid. It will be interesting to see if he can keep the pace up. He was more impressive than Najeh or Barlow.

St. Pierre's fade to Santonio was beautiful. As was Ben's deep toss to Cedric.

Hey Robert Meachem, welcome to the NFL, a guy named Gay laid your ass out.

The Not So Lazy Days of Latrobe Are Here!

I happened to be looking at my calendar yesterday and noticed that it was only two weeks until the Steelers kick off their preseason schedule in the Hall of Fame game against the Saints. Wow. Now I'm excited to see how many two-a-days Mike Tomlin can fit in before that contest, as your 2007-(hopefully)2008 Steelers will report to St. Vincent's College in Latrobe today at 4 p.m. for the start of training camp. Here are a few links to get you ready for camp:

The P-G's excellent two-part feature on our new fearless leader (Part I) (Part II)

Ed Bouchette's Five Pressing Topics

Bouchette's Position-by-Position Look at the Team - Love the description of a Hines Ward as a "Rolex in a Timex Body" and Ricardo Colclough, summed up by "the bloom is off his rose".

The Trib gives us a look at what diversions the players are bringing to camp. I like Nate Washington, second-guessing himself after being asked the question, after first saying that he'd bring a TV.

"No I take that back, a computer. I have to have Internet. I love playing on the Internet, anything from e-mailing, MySpace, playing little games on the computer to YouTube."

Here's John Harris of the Trib's "Five Issues Steelers Must Address"

In the Beaver County Times, Mike Bires has a Q&A with Tomlin.

And just in case you haven't had enough of it, here's the BCT's version of Five Burning Questions.

Omar Khan is Awesome

I think it's fair to say that most Steeler fans weren't exactly thrilled to see that uberagent Drew "No Comment" Rosenhaus was the representative of first-round draft choice Lawrence Timmons. But apparently ubersalary cap guy Omar Khan is just that good, as Timmons signed a five-year deal today worth between $12 million and $15 million, depending on incentives. Just over $8 million of that is guaranteed, and it appears to be right in line with what last year's 15th overall pick received. And most importantly, all of the Steeler draft choices are now signed and will report to camp tomorrow, along with The Disgruntled Alan Faneca (yes, that's his official name now, at least here on IWIWAR). So far, so good, for Mike Tomlin.

Meet the New Coaching Staff - Amos Jones

Leading to the start of training camp next week, we'll be taking some time here at IWIWAR to introduce you to the new Steelers coaching staff, culminating with a look at new head coach Mike Tomlin. Click on the Meet the Staff tag below to see previous articles. Today, we'll take a look at new assistant special teams coach Amos Jones.








Amos Jones - Assistant Special Teams Coach
Age: 47
Education: Alabama
Professional Playing Experience: None

What to Like: Obviously his first name, Amos. Could he be a member of Bill Simmons' Reggie Cleveland All-Stars? Plus he played for Bear Bryant at Alabama. How much did he play? Eh, not so sure. His official bio says that he played on the 1978 and 1979 teams, but that he lettered on the 1980 squad, so he definitely got some PT that season.

What Not to Like: Not only does Amos not have any professional experience, but he has multiple instances of high school coaching experience, including in the past 10 years. Looking back on his coaching stops, he went from Temple to Shades Valley High School in 1986 (although that might have been a step up, given Temple's football history). He was the kicking game coordinator at Pitt in 1992 and parlayed that into an assistant coaching position at Eau Gallie High School in Florida. After jumping back into college coaching at Tulane in 1995-96, he pulled off that rarely seen coaching jump - NCAA to CFL to high school. Must've been a great experience for those players at East St. John High School in Louisiana! Oh yes, and it appears that he got fired from his most recent job, with Mississippi State!

Random Internet Find: The new coach shares a name with one of the lead characters of Amos 'n' Andy. Also, not only did Mississippi State fire him, but apparently Cincinnati did, too!

Good news for Browns fans!

Guess what, Cleveland? As if your last place ranking by SI.com's Peter King wasn't enough, now a water pipe burst at your stadium and the Browns have canceled Family Fun Night as a result! I'm sure that a photo of Brady Quinn deliberating screwing with the pipes will pop up on the Internet sometime soon.

The Quinn Quiz

With all of the random funny Brady Quinn pictures floating around the Internet (Thanks, Deadspin and Mondesi's House!), we decided to blur the line between fact and fiction and show you a set of photos with Quinn in them. You just need to decide if they are real or fake. Which is real and which is fake? Or more appropriately, which pictures have already been taken in real life and which are sure to be snapped in the next few months? Ladies and gentlemen, starting at quarterback for your 2007 Cleveland Browns, #10, Brady Quinn!










Brady in a pink shirt, grabbing some kid's junk.













Brady with Hollywood Hulk Hogan.
















Brady with Bret Michaels of Poison fame (and also a big Steeler fan).














Brady with former NBA player John Amaechi and *NSYNC star Lance Bass












Brady with the Village People on the cover of the re-release of their Greatest Hits album.

YouTube Clip of the Week

I'm just wondering how these people got a camera in there.

Mistaken Identities

These people may share the same names as your favorite Steelers, but they are most definitely different.


Willie Parker

Charlie Batch

Heath Miller

Kendall Simmons

Willie Reid

Meet the New Coaching Staff - Randy Fichtner

Leading to the start of training camp in July, we'll be taking some time here at IWIWAR to introduce you to the new Steelers coaching staff, culminating with a look at new head coach Mike Tomlin. Click on the Meet the Staff tag below to see previous articles. Today, we'll take a look at new wide receivers coach Randy Fichtner.



Randy Fichtner - WR Coach
Age: 44
Education: Purdue
Professional Playing Experience: None

What to Like: A Meadville native, Fichtner coached with Mike Tomlin at both Arkansas State and Memphis, where he had been the offensive coordinator for the past six seasons. One of his best seasons came with current Carolina Panther DeAngelo Williams in the backfield in 2004, as the Tigers finished 10th in the nation in scoring.

What Not to Like: Fichtner has no NFL experience. And he has a daughter with the same first name as our new running backs coach (Kirby) - that's never a good sign.

Random Internet Find: While there are serious doubts about this, it is always fun when someone speculates on a message board that Fichtner's new house used to be owned by Mr. Rogers.

Carson Palmer Loves the Black and Gold

Cincinnati quarterback Carson Palmer has put up some great numbers in his first few years in the league, but he's had his struggles against the Steelers, throwing seven interceptions in his six career games against the Steelers (well, that's counting regular season games, and I'm pretty sure he didn't throw any picks in that playoff game two years ago because of a guy named Kimo). So it should not surprise anyone that Carson was playing in a celebrity golf tournament last year and managed to hit a wayward approach shot that nailed an 8-year old kid on the back - a kid who happened to be wearing a Steelers jersey. Somehow Carson's golf shots, as well as his passes, just end up going right to the Steelers jerseys.

“I got up there and I said I was sorry, and I said, 'At least you're a Steelers fan, I don't feel so bad,'” Palmer said.

Neither do we, Carson. Neither do we.