RIP 2016 Steelers…

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via Steelers.com

I’m not going to say much of anything right now. The hurt is still too fresh. There is plenty to be said, and I suspect we’ll all dissect it when we emerge from our depression, but at the moment I just want to celebrate the guys that came up big.

Chief among them was Ben. He didn’t always receive the help he needed from his motley crew of guys, but he made the throws and looked, at least temporarily, like Heinz Field Ben. And he passed Terry Bradshaw’s record of 300+ yard games in the post-season, which, given the recent history with Bradshaw, is a really good thing.DeAngelo Williams did yeoman’s work out there when Le’Veon Bell went down. It would be interesting to know how successful he could have been had they not had to come from so far behind.

Jesse James and Eli Rogers deserve a mention, although Eli’s fumble took some of the shine off of his otherwise good game. And did anybody else notice Phil Sims’ blooper in re Eli Rogers? Sims claimed that “Mike Tomlin has been talking to him all season about us.” Guess what, Phil—it’s not all about you…

There were some big moments for some of the defensive guys, including the rookies. Javon Hargrave’s sack near the beginning of the game gave me great hope. It was sort of bookended by Sean Davis’ sack near the end. Unfortunately there weren’t nearly enough sacks or pressures or hits in the middle.

Well, that’s all I’ve got the heart for at the moment. Luckily I made some blackberry-apple crumble Saturday night, so I can console myself with a bowl of the leftovers, a la mode. Plain crumble isn’t enough for this sort of situation.

And as a post-script, here is a comment Earthling made on yesterday’s post. He actually made two, describing the first as polite [and] sane. And for that matter it dealt with the subject of said post. Here is the second:

Here’s my not so polite or sane comment.

I read your sidebar news feed, clicked on Lolley’s article about the alarm that went off at the Steelers’ hotel and read Alan Faneca’s comment that this happens every time you play in NE. I feel a ridiculous amount of rage.

These people are cheaters in large and small ways and for years. It doesn’t matter if they cheated when they didn’t need to cheat to win. That just makes them stupid. It doesn’t matter if they cheated and everyone else did too. Maybe they cheated more often or were sloppy and arrogant about it. They cheated, they were caught and they don’t get to be the best of anything that way.

A few hours ago, I was optimistic but thought maybe it was still a year too soon for both offensive and defense for the Steelers. Now I hope the rookies, the mistakes, not-so-great Ben and whatever else makes this team seem flawed are just part of what makes the victory so sweet.

On the menu for the Patriots: DIRT.

Earthling
Go Steelers!

Here is my reply, written, obviously, after the game:

Well, I wish you had gotten your wish. I too was totally outraged by the team hotel thing. Is no indignity too low for the Patriots (or their fans) to stoop to it? Deflategate was stupid, and Goodell wasted a lot of capital (and possibly fired Brady up even more) over it, but does anyone doubt they were actually cheating? That’s an indictment right there…

I will merely add, Go, Falcons!!!! The thought of having Roger Goodell hand over the Lombardi to Tom Brady is almost as repugnant to me as it must be to Goodell. And while I wouldn’t ordinarily spare a thought for his feelings, in this case we’re temporary allies.

 

 

11 comments

  • cold_old_steelers_fan

    The NFL is dead to me for the rest of the season.

    Rest up and take care. Let’s meet again when it is time to discuss the draft.

    Liked by 1 person

  • Yea, I pretty much feel the same way right now. I live in the Atlanta area, so I will be pulling for the Falcons. Gonna make it a hard Super Bowl to watch. My wife is a Cardinals fan, and we’ve watched them get their butts kicked in person twice here in the last 3 years. She is less than enthused about even wanting to watch the game.

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  • RIP 2016 hope that the team continues to improve and get back to the Championship game again. Just came over from a visit at the BTSC and as usual read everything from fire coaches to trading Ben just in 1 thread line – I don’t know why i even go to that site anymore.. Thanks to Momma Rollett and the other contributors for the work that you guys do to keep this site going at least there is some level of sanity here….

    Like

  • I miss Ike.

    Like

  • When do we get Ike’s replacement?

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  • I don’t feel bad. BB (the N.E. coach, not Ben) always has us figured out, and always has a game plan to frustrate us. I envisioned this game going exactly as it did after the red zone performances of the previous week……
    There are so many positives to the season though, that I feel good about the future.
    Defense:
    Three rookies and a guy from last year’s practice squad starting in a championship game! Butler showing a willingness to play inexperienced players and experiment. Less holes to fill than in most years. A secondary that will grow and become a strength.
    Offense:
    Dropped passes, but… a receiving crew that seemed to be a strength at the beginning of the season, and then underachieved, is a crew with fantastic upside. A great returning offensive line. A strong running game. Much potential with tight ends that are only going to improve.

    Bring on the draft…. and let’s hope the 2017 picks will be as effective as this year’s picks; as a hole the 2016 draft class will probably turn out to be the best (so far) in the Tomlin era.

    Go Falcons !!!

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    • Well said, and I think we will be concentrating a lot on those things. The big question already in my mind for the off-season is, do the Steelers re-sign AB and Bell to giant contracts? But there’s all too much time left to ponder these sorts of questions…

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  • After the Dallas game, a whole bunch of those angry fans gave up on this team–and wanted people to be fired and traded, etc. Then we got an exciting 9 game run. Probably the same group of people are angry now because this team didn’t live up to expectations the fans didn’t have 2 months ago. Around and around they go! It can make me dizzy just to think about it.

    The team has a lot of young and exciting players. We have a few missing bits, maybe a couple of bits not as good as they could be. But we got all the way to the last four teams still standing, and that’s impressive. The Patriots are the better team. I think most of us knew that but hoped for an otherworldly performance and a few strokes of good luck.

    We’ll be back. Deebo said so.

    The Patriots still deserve to eat dirt. Go Falcons! I think we’ll make Rebecca’s Mom’s brownies and go hiking that day.

    Earthling

    Like

  • First time commenting as my mind does not have a good working relationship with my keyboard. First off, been reading here since you started it, Momma, and I love the even keel this site provides. Hombre, Homer, OCSF, and yourself were some of my favorite reads over at BTSC, whether as a writer or when leaving comments. Thank you for the introspection, I guess.
    That being said, I’m satisfied with this season overall. Yes, I was disappointed about the loss but, honestly, I was expecting it. We have a good team with a potential for greatness, IMO. Looking forward to the next couple of years.

    Like

    • Thanks for commenting, and thanks for your encouragement. The whole point of the site was to try to provide a sort of antidote to the bi-polar nature of so many fan sites. It’s good to know we are succeeding! You and your keyboard seemed to have done just fine—so don’t be shy : )

      Like

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