All Souls Day, "Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed" & Day of the Dead

Dancing with the dead.

We've lost several former Steelers and other notables this year.  Rest in peace, L.C. Greenwood, and all others who have passed.

It's All Souls Day, also known as the day of the "Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed" and also continuing the festival that begins on Nov. 1, "Day of the Dead" or Dia de Los Muertos spanning the first two days of November.

Today we honor those loved ones who have gone before us, and those spirits who travel with us, in us, around us, every day -- the spirits, angels and saints, whom we also honored yesterday, All Saints Day.

As noted by Tom Waits, "They say that life itself is really just the dead on vacation."

And, as the philosopher Pierre de Chardin  said, "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience."

All Saints Day

It is All Saints Day, also known as The Solemnity of All Saints or Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead), as it is known in Mexico, where skulls are considered a symbol of life and regeneration.

The Steelers need some new life and regeneration, that's for sure. The team has so many issues, not one can be singled out as the problem.

We could start with leadership.

St. Bernard kneeling before Mary

"Excuses are the tools of the incompetent," said Mike Tomlin last November, and he may have been talking about himself, his coaches or any of the players.  

Tomlin also is fond of saying, "The standard is the standard."  This year, nobody is meeting The Standard.  
  
So, today, we shall look elsewhere for guidance, and since the Steelers need some heavenly help:

• All Saints Day (Nov. 1) commemorates those who have made it to heaven and “attained the beatific vision,” which Joey Porter’s Pit Bulls would like to see some day.

• Tomorrow is All Souls Day, which commemorates the departed faithful who have not yet been made it to heaven ‘cause they ain’t yet purified and sanctified, ‘n ‘at.

• Got it? Saints first, Souls to follow.

Just two years ago, the Steelers beat the Patriots.

Tom Brady walks off the field after a last-gasp pass.

Hard to believe, but it was only two years ago (Oct. 30, 2011) that the Steelers held Tom Brady to 188 yards passing in a rousing Steelers' victory over the Patriots at Heinz Field. How times have changed.

It seems so long ago. Bruce Arians was the offensive coordinator, and that raucous win featured the following, according to the write-up on Joey Porter's Pit Bulls:

• "The Steelers jumped out front, controlled the tempo, maintained a two-to-one edge in time of possession, converted 10 of 16 third downs (including multiple third-and-longs), and played well in every phase of the game, mistakes notwithstanding."

Can you imagine?  And then there was this:

• "LaMarr Woodley sacked Brady twice and played a monster game before leaving with a pulled hamstring."

Uh-oh. An ominous portent.  That was effectively the end of LaMarr Woodley that sesason, and he hasn't played to that pre-injury level of excellence, consistently, ever since.

How times have changed. Today, the Patriots are 6-2, and the Steelers are 2-5. They truly are different teams. This merits checking, but the Steelers must have 35 players from that 2011 team who are no longer here.

Happy Halloween.

It's Hallowed Eve: Buenos de Los Muertos

It’s Hallowed Eve, also known as All Hallow’s Eve, or Halloween, the eve of All Saints Day … or The Feast in Celebration of the Day of the Dead … or, Dia de Los Muertos, as it is known in Mexico, where skulls are considered a symbol of life and regeneration.

This celebration of Hallow’ed Eve is rooted in Christianity, since it is on the eve of All Saints Day (Nov. 1), which honors those who have made it to heaven and “attained the beatific vision,” which Joey Porter’s Pit Bulls would like to see some day.

The subsequent All Souls Day (Nov. 2) commemorates the departed faithful who have not yet been made it to heaven ‘cause they ain’t yet purified and sanctified, ‘n ‘at.

Got it? Saints first, Souls to follow. "We ain’t jaggin’ around."

Anyway, the celebration of Hallowed Eve dates more than 2,000 years to ancient Ireland and Scotland. The Celts believed their departed family and friends returned home during harvest time to eat and drink before going to heaven. Being harvest time, food was more plentiful, and some was left out in the evening for the souls of The Departed.

So, in this way, it was in Ireland and Scotland and England that All Hallow’s Eve became a combination of merriment and prayer; prayer and merriment.

Following the break with the Holy See, however, England’s Queen Elizabeth forbade all observances connected with All Souls' Day.

Tight-ass, no-fun prude, she was.  What was the "Holy See" anyway? It was probably when the Queen said, "See? See-ee? Three to five wins this year!  I told you so. I TOLD you so!"

Still, kids eventually started dressing like ghosts, goblins, witches, etc, to have fun and play along with the notion of the dead returning to their homes. The pranksters would demand treats of neighbors … or, you guessed it, threaten to play some sort mischievous "trick" on them.

Soul, soul, an apple or two,

If you haven't an apple, a pear will do,

One for Peter, two for Paul,

Three for the Man Who made us all.

I went down to the St James Infirmary,

Saw my baby there,

Stretched out on a long white table,

So sweet ... so cold ... so fair.

Let her go ... let her go ... God bless her,

Wherever she may be,

She can look this wide world over,

But she’ll never find a sweet man like me.

When I die want you to dress me in straight lace shoes.

I wanna a boxback coat and a Stetson hat,

Put a $20 gold piece on my watch chain,

So the boys’ll know that I’ll be back.

– Louis Armstrong, “St. James Infirmary”

The 29th-Ranked Offense in the NFL

Ray Fittipaldo makes interesting points in the Post-Gazette's Steelers Blog entry, "Ben Roethlisberger is Running the 29th-Ranked Offense in the NFL."  

Here are some takeaways: 

"In the past 22 games without [Bruce] Arians calling the plays the Steelers have 10 wins and 13 losses. This season they are averaging 17.9 points per game, which ranks 29th out of 32 teams in the NFL. They have managed to score more than 20 points in a game twice this season, both losses. ...

But in many ways, this isn’t about numbers. It’s about a comfort level with the quarterback and his play-caller. ...

The point is a decision was made by the organization to change coordinators after going 55-25 during the regular season with Arians in charge. 

Haley and Roethlisberger continue to say the right things when asked, but something appears to be amiss with this offense. The bottom line is Roethlisberger is not having the same success with Haley that he did with Arians. 

To be sure, there are other reasons the Steelers are 2-5 and streaking toward a losing season, but the decision to change coaches following the 2011 continues to be easily second-guessed. 

If there is an organization that understands the concept of coaching continuity it’s the Steelers, who have had three head coaches since 1969. It's 20-20 hindsight, but the question persists whether continuity within the assistant ranks was vastly underestimated 22 months ago."

"The NFL is Running a Billion-dollar Con," by Sean Conboy

The current issue of Pittsburgh magazine features an excoriating article by the excellent Sean Conboy, who shines a light on how the NFL's extortion con game worked to extreme effect in Minnesota.  Highly recommended.  You can read it here.

When the Steelers played in London earlier this season, lots of casual observers wondered why, so Joey Porter's Pit Bulls felt duty-bound to tell the truth about why the NFL sends teams like the Vikings and Jaguars over there every year -- it's the NFL's blatant attempt to strong-arm the people (legislators) of those locales into building a new taxpayer-funded stadiums. The NFL basically tells the fans in those cities that if their tax dollars don't get spent on new stadium deals, their teams can be moved (to London, Los Angeles, anywhere).

Oh, and by the way, the 2-5 Steelers are still the only team the 1-6 Viking have beaten this year.

Where are the linebackers?

Now that the Steelers have gotten that dangerous "between" game out of the way -- between Baltimore and New England -- it's time to go to Massachusetts. With the Red Sox in the World Series, New Englanders have baseball to occupy their sports-mindedness this week, so this game maybe flies a bit under the radar in Boston. 

The Patriots are 6-2, but hardly anybody thinks they're very good. Hah.

The Steelers are 2-6, and nobody except LaMarr Woodley thinks they're very good.  Huh?

Woodley, you'll recall, had some interesting comments following Sunday's loss in Oakland, and the Post-Gazette's Gene Collier captured them beautifully, so we'll present Woodley's comments as Collier did:

"This is no step back for us; we're still movin' forward," said linebacker LaMarr Woodley, whose movements seemed almost designed to avoid tackles in a 21-18 loss to an almost equally dreadful football team. "We just had some mistakes out there and the Raiders capitalized on it. So, we're still a good football team, but we gave up some big plays. That's the only thing you can really look back on. You gave up some big plays. I wouldn't question us as a football team.

Huh. There's something to be said for Collier's throw-in line about Woodley, "whose movements seemed seemed almost designed to avoid tackles."

Well, he's got a point, and it underscores a very real concern that's been gnawing at us most of the season: Where are the linebackers?!  

• Lawrence Timmons is the only one making plays, as demonstrated in an outrageous 17-tackle performance against the Ravens and 12 tackles (with a broken hand) in Oakland.  

The others  have been mostly invisible. On Sunday, to recap:

• LaMarr Woodley had zero tackles
• Jarvis Jones had one tackle
• Jason Worilds had two tackles
• Vince Williams had three tackles
• Chris Carter was on the inactive list

The linebackers are supposed to be the core of this defense. Time for them to step up, although ... it remains to be seen whether they can.

• LaMarr Woodley is looking less and less like the dominant player he was for a brief time before the Steelers awarded him with a $65 million contract. 

• Jarvis Jones, the rookie first-rounder, is not making the kind of impact one might reasonably expect of a high-profile first-round draft choice who led the NCAA in sacks and tackles for losses his previous year. Jones still is looking for his first NFL sack. 

• Jones's performance on Sunday paled in comparison to that of Oakland rookie linebacker Sio Moore, who sacked Ben Roethlisberger twice, giving Moore three sacks for the season. Moore was no secret coming out of college (Connecticut), and pre-draft speculation suggested he would be a good fit on the Steelers.

• Oakland was fortunate Moore was still available in the third-round. Small sample size, but he's been playing a bit like a younger version of, well, of LaMarr Woodley. 

Oakland rookie linebacker Sio Moore sacked Ben Roethlsiberger twice on Sunday.

• Make no mistake: We're not writing off Jarvis Jones yet, but he just hasn't done much in his brief NFL career. It's time to stop playing like a rookie. Some people are starting to wonder if what we've been seeing is all we're going to get. Give him time -- he may prove to be very good, but the Steelers need him to start making an impact, and Sunday's game in Foxboro would be a good time to start.

• Now in his fourth year, Worilds fairly well qualifies as a second-round bust, which is all the more unfortunate because the Steelers selected Virginia Tech's Worilds instead of Penn State's Sean Lee, who has proven in Dallas that he is by far the better linebacker (Lee had two interceptions on Sunday). 

• Lee was the also the much more accomplished player in college, and he would have been a perfect fit on the Steelers -- not exactly the same identical role/position as Worilds, but the much better linebacker.

• That choice (Worilds over Lee) possibly had ripple effects that necessitated other personnel moves in the linebacking corps (including the re-signing of Larry Foote and the selections of Jarvis Jones and Vince Williams, which meant the Steelers didn't draft players at other positions of need). It's likely that if Worilds had shown more promise as the projected successor to James Harrison, the Steelers would not have selected Jarvis Jones.

• Vince Williams was a sixth-round draft choice this April, and he has been mostly invisible, although he's gotten playing time because of the injury to Larry Foote. As a sixth-round rookie, he more or less gets a pass, for now, but he's been thrust into the lineup, and that means he has to up his game. Like, now.

• Chris Carter, a 2011 fifth-round pick out of Fresno State, was projected to be a potential pass-rushing force. He's not been any kind of force, and it appears he is on his way out.

Jones is going to be around for a while, and since he and Sio Moore are fellow rookies, maybe Jones could take heart from something Moore himself said during the week before the Steelers game:

“I feel like I’ve made steady progress,” Moore said. “The player I was in Week 1 is better than the guy who went through training camp. The player I am after Week 6 is better than the player I was when the season started. I feel likeI’ve grown and gotten a lot smarter. That in-game experience has helped, and now I want to make the right turn into the second half of the season, so there are less errors and more big plays.”

A Signature Embarrassing Loss

"The first 30 minutes were poor football on our part, and I take responsibility for that, and it starts with me."                       -- Mike Tomlin

The Steelers were not ready to play on Sunday in Oakland.  Come to think of it, the Steelers were unprepared to start the season and unready for the entire first month of the 2013 season. Their record is 2-5.

Blame the coaches, the players and the front office. To think we pay them money. What a gyp.

The Defense Stunk

Oakland quarterback Terrelle Pryor romps 93 yards 
for a touchdown on the game's first play. (photo: Associated Press)

On the very first play, the Steelers surrendered the longest running play for a touchdown by a quarterback in NFL history. Think about that. 

After the game, the NFL Network's Deion Sanders gleefully mocked the Steelers: "How do you let a quarterback go 93 yards?"

It's a fair question. The Steelers deserve the mocking. As much as it pains Joey Porter's Pit Bulls, there's no denying our once-proud franchise has turned into a laughingstock. 

On that read-option touchdown dash, Pryor simply slid past the left side of the Steelers' defensive front seven and then outran everybody else -- all of whom looked really, really slow by comparison. Cameron Heyward, Lammarr Woodley, all the other linebackers, the entire secondary -- nowhere to be found.  

Pryor said, "I saw Woodley bite, and I was like 'jeez.'  And then I came out (wide), Rod made a phenomenal block (on Troy Polamalu), and it was off to the races."

To add further embarrassment, here's a telling post-game quote from running back Darren McFadden:  

"I talked to one of their defensive players, Ryan Clark, [and he] told me that he worked on tackling me in the middle all week. That’s what he was juiced up about and Terrelle just went around the end."

Do you ever get the impression Ryan Clark talks too much?

Keeping in mind that Oakland quarterback Terrelle Pryor was sacked nine times in his previous game, vs. the Chiefs, the Steelers managed one lousy sack.  The Steelers also couldn't stop Darren McFadden when they needed to, specifically on his two TD runs. 

Where were the linebackers?  According to the official stat sheet, the linebackers were mostly absent:

• Lammarr Woodley had zero tackles
• Jarvis Jones had one tackle
• Jason Worilds had two tackles
• Vince Williams had three tackles

Aren't linebackers paid to make tackles?  Aren't they usually the leading tacklers?  The defense clearly didn't do enough. 

The Offense Stunk Worse
Todd Haley's offense was putrid, and he had no answers. 

It's clear that Oakland's coaches read Joey Porter's Pit Bulls, because we've been writing for the past two weeks that Ben Roethlisberger's dislocated finger (sustained in London) has taken some zip off his passes and forced him to scale back his usual antics.

The Raiders' coaches clearly recognized that Roethlisberger either would not or could not throw deep effectively -- and he didn't.  Roethlisberger attempted all of one deep pass. The result?  The Raiders stifled Pittsburgh's running game, limiting Le'Veon Bell to 24 yards on 13 carries (a 1.8 yard-per-carry average).  On four plays, Steeler runners were tackled for lost yardage (11 yards total).

Bottom line: The Raiders didn't respect Pittsburgh's ability to throw deep, and the Steelers never adjusted.  Meanwhile, the Steelers' injury-ravaged offensive line surrendered five sacks. Again. 

The clock management was questionable, at best.  Again.  The Steelers' offense has scored just 11 touchdowns in seven games. 'Nuff said.

The Special Teams Stunk Even Worse
The kickers were abysmal.  Usually reliable Shaun Suisham missed two medium-range field goals (possibly because of bad holds by Zoltan Mesko).  Suisham also directed an onside kick directly to Oakland's Rashad Jennings.

Not to be outdone, Zoltan Mesko managed to shank a punt, kick two touchbacks and have a punt effectively blocked, after which the Raiders scored a touchdown. As noted above, he may have mishandled at least one of the holds on Suisham's missed kicks.  If Mesko's performance last week vs. the Ravens was "junior varsity," as Mike Tomlin described it, this week's was pee-wee league.

Mesko may not be around much longer. 

Speaking of players not long for the team, how what about linebacker Chris Carter and cornerback Curtis Brown?  They were on the inactive list again, making them useless. Again.  Sayonara to them, no doubt, sooner or later.

Elsewhere
Other news from around the NFL: Remember when Mike Wallace insisted he is an elite receiver?  He was able to con the Dolphins into paying him like one. Today he dropped a crucial pass in Miami's loss to Cincinnati. He's a bum.

By contrast, Detroit's Calvin Johnson showed what a real elite NFL receiver does: Johnson caught 14 passes for 329 yards -- 329 yards -- to lead the Lions over the Cowboys. Now, that's an elite receiver. Dez Bryant, take note.

Meanwhile, the Kansas City Chiefs are 8-0, and the Cincinnati Bengals are on a roll as the front-runner in the division the 2-5 Steelers used to own.

• Oh, and Mike Pouncey? "You've been served."

Game Day 7: Steelers at Oakland; plenty of reasons for optimism; and a new position, "far-right" tackle

This is a dangerous "between" game:  It's between Baltimore and New England.

One would hope the Steelers would take today's game in Oakland seriously.

Pittsburgh's record (2-4) is no better than Oakland's. The Steelers don't play in Oakland very often, but they haven't won there since 1995.

Look at it from the perspective of Raiders' fans: They're probably looking at today's match-up as a winnable game.

As noted by the Post-Gazette's Bob Smizik ...

"... the Raiders' four losses have come against teams that are a combined 20-7 -- Denver, Indianapolis, Kansas City and Washington. The Steelers losses have come against teams that are 13-14, Tennessee, Cincinnati, Chicago and Minnesota. 

The Raiders have lost to Peyton Manning and Oliver Luck. The Steelers have lost to Jake Locker and Matt Cassel."

Reasons for Optimism
On the other hand, and we hope this is more realistic, there is plenty of reason to believe the Steelers will win this game, handily.  Let's keep in mind teams actually do improve during the season, and the Steelers have won two in a row.

The top three reasons for optimism today: an improving, reshuffled offensive line; Dick LeBeau; the dislocated finger of Ben Roethlsiberger.

1) The offensive line, believe it or not, appears to be solidifying.

• Kelvin Beachum at left tackle may never make All-Pro, but he is a quantum-leap improvement over his predecessor; 
• Ramon Foster at left guard has limitations (mobility), but he can be physical and does some things well. 
• Fernando Velasco at center is solid. He will never be a pulling center in the mold of Hall of Famer Dermontti Dawson, but Velasco may be better than Maurkice Pouncey at handling big, physical nose tackles. Maybe.
• At right guard, David DeCastro is improving rapidly and playing as if he is trying to make a point; as if he's trying to make up for lost time. If Velasco is the anchor of the current iteration of the Steelers' offensive line, DeCastro is the linchpin. He's plenty strong enough, but even more impressive lately: his lateral crispness in spot-block maneuvering.
• At right tackle, well, we shall see, eh?  If the coaches have any sense, they would let incumbent Marcus Gilbert, who sat out last week because of an injury, remain on the bench to see if what we saw last Sunday was the real thing. Throughout his three-year career in Pittsburgh, Gilbert has been soft and ineffectual. 
• Last week, we saw the emergence of "Abdullah the Butcher," formerly known as Guy Whimper. Abdullah the Butcher played with a ferocity we haven't seen from Gilbert. His track record as an eighth-year journeyman isn't great, but ... he played well against Baltimore, and he deserves more playing time. What have we got to lose?  Abdullah's not exactly a finesse player, but he's not just a butcher, either; from what we saw last Sunday, he actually plays with decent technique and attention to detail.
• Abdullah the Butcher's efforts were augmented by the placement of former left tackle Mike Adams at tight end, but Adams is no tight end. Call him the far-right tackle (although the officials announce him as "reporting at tight end").

2)  Dick LeBeau's defensive schemes vs. a first-year starter at quarterback.  For more on this, we highly recommend a look at Neal Coolong's write-up here on Behind the Steeler Curtain.

3) Ben Roethlisberger's dislocated finger (covered in a previous post) the past two games seemed to have helped his game by making him scale back some of his risk-taking. Roethlisberger would scoff at such a notion, but his passes have not had their usual zip, and he's been throwing less frequently than he was before the injury*.  Two wins later, the Steelers are on the verge of getting on a roll.

Let's see what they do today.  

Game time: 1:05 p.m. Pacific Time (4:05 p.m. ET); CBS TV.

* Roethlisberger's passes haven't had their usual zip the past two weeks -- both wins -- but he seems to have had better touch, and his game has scaled back.  

• Against the Ravens, Roethlisberger attempted just 23 passes, completing 17 for a mere 160 yards (145 net yards, factoring in the three sacks he took for 15 yards). He would have had 18 completions but for a sure TD dropped in the end zone by rookie receiver Derek Moye.  

• Longest gain on a pass: 19 yards 

• Average gain per pass play: a mere 5.6 yards 

• No interceptions

The Steelers are a better team when Roethlisberger passes less frequently.

There's history between the Steelers and Raiders

An ugly place.

Maybe the Steelers should activate Frenchy Fuqua for Sunday's game vs. the Raiders. Lots and lots of history between these two franchises.

No fault of today's players and most fans, but it's too bad they could not possibly appreciate the intense vitriol between the Steelers and Raiders in the 1970s.  The Raiders back then were led by Oakland Al Davis.  

As Joey Porter's Pit Bulls noted on October 8, 2011, in our little obituary for Al Davis, "The late, great Hunter S. Thompson wrote often and at length about Oakland Al, and it is all worth reading. As HST noted, Al Davis was the persona and identity of the Raiders and everything that went with the team's mystique:

"Every game was a terrifying adventure, win or lose, and the Raiders of the '70s usually won -- except in Pittsburgh, where cruel things happened and many dreams died horribly. You could see the early beginnings of what would evolve into the massive Raider Nation, which is beyond doubt the sleaziest and rudest and most sinister mob of thugs and whackos ever assembled in such numbers under a single "roof," so to speak, anywhere in the English-speaking world. No doubt there are other profoundly disagreeable cults that meet from time to time in most of the 50 states."

Antonio Brown's fumble at the goal line, Sept. 23, 2012

While we're looking back, we would be remiss not to note the last few times the Steelers played the Raiders.
 

Last year, Sept. 23, 2012, was a 34-31 loss.  It was ugly.

Jonathan Dwyer's fumble, Sept. 23, 2012

Jonathan Dwyer fumbled early to set up a crucial Oakland touchdown that got the Raiders back in the game. That fumble got Dwyer into a doghouse that he's had trouble getting out of ever since. It appeared Dwyer was not ready to play that day, as if he was not in the greatest of shape that particular weekend and generally. 

The coaches seemed to lose trust in him, although he's gotten chances since then. With that fumble, however, Dwyer may have fumbled away his best chance to cement his status as a starting running back in the NFL. He's still here, of course, after being cut earlier this season.

• Mike Wallace fumbled. 

• Antonio Brown fumbled as he was about to cross the goal line.  Brown had an exciting, dynamic, great punt return into the end zone nullified because of a stupid penalty that happened behind the play.

Darius Heyward-Bey scores, Sept. 23, 2012

• Darren McFadden ran through, over and around the Steelers' defense on a 64-yard touchdown scamper. 

• Even backup Oakland tight end Richard Gordon (now a Steeler, but injured before playing a down) scored a TD for the Raiders.

• The Steelers' defense was awful. Casey Hampton truly looked done; Ryan Mundy was late and out of position all day; the linebackers were absent; and the Steelers allowed Carson Palmer to look like a competent NFL quarterback.

• Sebastien Janikowski kicked a last-second field goal to nail the win for Oakland.

Nearly four years ago on Dec, 6, 2009, the underdog Raiders, led by Pittsburgh native, current Steeler backup quarterback and former Seton-LaSalle Catholic High School star Bruce Gradkowski, beat the heavily favored Steelers by a score of 27-24.  

• Maybe the Steelers should start Gradkowski this Sunday?  eh?

Richard Gordon, Sept. 23, 2012

On Oct. 23, 2006, the Steelers went to Oakland Alameda Coliseum.  And lost.

That game was also ugly -- extremely so. 

Somehow, Oakland won, 20-13, despite having been "led" at QB by somebody named Andrew Walter, who was sacked six times, threw an interception, completed just five passes for all of 14 yards and had a QB passer rating of 17.3!  Seventeen. Point. Three. 

On the other hand, when the Steelers had the ball, the Raiders sacked Ben Roethlisberger five times, and he lost a fumble.  He was the Bad Ben that day. He threw four interceptions, including two (two!) pick-six returns for TDs.  One, a 24-yard TD return by Nnamdi Asomugha in the first quarter, only foreshadowed the game-sealing 100-yard TD return by Chris Carr in the fourth quarter.  That's right.  A 100-yard interception return.  In the fourth quarter.  It was not one of Ben's better games. 

Let's hope for a better performance on Sunday. 

*all photos shown on this post entry are courtesy of www.raiders.com

Oakland is Coming off a Bye Week and is Last in the NFL in Passing

Final score, Sept. 23, 2012 
(all photos accompanying this post are from that day, courtesy of raiders.com)

The headline above is pretty much all we know about the 2013 Oakland Raiders, other than the obvious, which is their record (2-4) and some familiarity with their neo-celebrity quarterback Terrelle Pryor -- who had a storied high school career at Jeannette H.S. in the Pittsburgh area and a tumultuous college career at Ohio State, which he left following his junior year to enter the NFL's supplemental draft.

Jonathan Dwyer's crucial first-quarter fumble, Sept. 23, 2012

Lest we forget, Pryor was a phenomenal high-school basketball player, scoring more than 2,000 points at Jeannette High School. More relevant, in football, he was just as good, if not better. In 2007, Pryor was named the USA Today and Parade Player of Year, when he had 4,238 career rushing yards and 4,340 career passing yards, the first 4,000-4,000 year ever in Pennsylvania.

The NFL ain't high school. Arguably, however, Pryor has the raw talent to be every bit as good as some of the other young but much more celebrated quarterbacks in the NFL like Robert Griffin III and Cam Newton.

Darren McFadden's 64-yard TD, Sept. 23, 2012

No doubt, Pryor is a talented young guy and has had some flash moments this year, including vs. San Diego three weeks ago when his passing was "off the charts," according to one Bay Area reporter. By all indications visible, Pryor works hard and takes the game seriously.

"Coming into this league there are so many different things to learn: the defenses, pressures, there’s so many things that you have to have an eye for," Pryor said earlier this month. "I think the main thing is that every day I’m trying to find a way to get better, and I knew that coming in, but it didn't catch me by surprise. I’m a guy who comes in early and leaves late. I just know that to play this position, and how great I want to be, and the places I want to take the team, I know that I have to be sharp and I have to keep learning, keep experiencing, and keep on just getting a feel for the game, because you can never stop learning at this position, at this level, ever."

Pryor remains a work in progress. In his last game, two weeks ago in Kansas City, Pryor took 10 sacks. Ten sacks in one game! To his credit, Pryor put accountability for eight of those sacks.

Ben hit hard by Lammarr Houston, Sept. 23, 2012 

Still, Pryor will be looking across the line of scrimmage at a Dick LeBeau defense for the first time. The Raiders have a couple of offensive linemen whose names will be familiar to Pittsburghers: guard Lucas Nix (from Pittsburgh Thomas Jefferson H.S. and Pitt) and center Stefen Wisniewski (Pittsburgh Central Catholic H.S. and Penn State).

Darrin McFadden is a very, very good running back, and wide receiver Denarius Moore is having a decent year. Their defense has a bunch of guys whose names are not familiar to most fans, but Lamarr Houston (Texas) is a disruptive force at defensive end. He'll be a handful. Bobby April, formerly on the Steelers' staff, is Oakland's special teams coach.

Oakland head coach Dennis Allen is about as nondescript as a coach can be in the NFL, and except for Pryor, his team is fairly vanilla, too. The following nuggets of typical coach-speak are from his press conference this week:

Reporter: Your passing game is last in the league right now; what do you guys have to do to be more effective? 

Coach Allen: It’s a lot of different things. I think it’s Terrelle, as a young quarterback, still continuing to learn how to play the quarterback position, to make the right reads, to get the ball out on time, throw the ball with accuracy. I think it’s protection, which is the offensive line, it’s the backs, it’s the tight ends, everybody is involved with that. And then it’s the receivers getting the timing down and making sure they’re in the right spots for Terrelle. There’s a lot of factors that are involved in that. I also think our ability to run the football and run the football effectively will help us in the passing game. There’s a lot of elements that are involved in it. We’ll continue to work on it and I think we’ll continue to get better."

Got it? Competent, maybe; inspiring, not so much.

Let's Revisit Last Year's Calamitous Maximus in the Oakland Coliseum, Shall We?

Why is it every time the Steelers have visited Oakland in recent years -- like, say, the last 18 years -- they seem to sleepwalk through a calamity against what appears (on paper) to be an inferior team?

Perfect example: Last year's Sept 23rd debacle marked by Jonathan Dwyer's early fumble and the defense blowing a 10-point fourth-quarter lead. Oh, and Darren McFadden ran over, through and past a lunging Ziggy Hood, Lawrence Timmons Ryan Mundy and a late-arriving Ryan Clark on a 64-yard touchdown run.

Mistake followed mistake throughout the game. Antonio Brown made two great plays negated by mistakes: First, he had a long punt return nullified by a penalty; later, Brown fumbled as he was about to cross the goal line. The defense was flat-footed, slow and out of position all day.

It was bad. The Steelers allowed Carson Palmer to look like a legitimate NFL quarterback, and Sebastien Janijowski kicked a game-winning 43-yard field goal as time expired. Here's a recap:

... Granted, two fumbles opened the door to 14 Raiders points.  The first one, by Jonathan Dwyer, was especially damaging.  It was arguably the turning point in the game.

It looked like Dwyer just, well, fumbled the handoff from Ben Roethlisberger.  A lack of concentration?  A lack of preparation?  A lack of focus?  A lack of sleep?  Dwyer's fumble gave the ball to the Raiders at the Pittsburgh 30-yard-line and put them in position to tie the game at 14-14.  Did he even see the field after that fumble? 

Ten penalties didn't help, either, especially the ones that nullified Antonio Brown's nifty punt 73-yard punt return for a would-be touchdown early in the second quarter, as well as Brett Keisel's airhead offsides on fourth-and-two deep in Steeler territory late in the first half.

Still, even with the two fumbles and all the penalties, the defense never made a big play, just like in the opener at Denver.  The pass rush was lacking, again, despite a good effort from Lamarr Woodley. 

Where was Chris Carter? Jason Worilds?  Anybody, anybody from the front line?  Ziggy Hood? Cameron Heyward? Casey Hampton?  Even usually reliable veteran Brett Keisel inexplicably made a very un-veteran bonehead move when he went offsides on forth-and-two at the six yard line.  

On Darren McFadden's 64-yard first-quarter touchdown run, Ziggy Hood missed a tackle, and Lawrence Timmons and Ryan Mundy both looked flat-footed and out of position.   

In the second half, the defense allowed the Raiders to score 20 points.  Not good.

On offense, Ben Roethlisberger and the receivers were generally good.  Roethlsiberger completed passes to ten different receivers in the first half alone, and Todd Haley's play calling helped orchestrate a dominant time-of-possession advantage despite a lackluster running game. Just 54 yards rushing?

Unfortunately, the offensive line never got any push up front for the running game, and to our untrained eye, it looked like Willie Colon and Ramon Foster both struggled, badly, again. 

Make no mistake: This was a bad loss. This team has warts and blemishes, and all were on display yesterday in the harsh Oakland sun. 

Wherever Oakland Al Davis is today, he must be grinning fiendishly, wolfishly, malevolently.

Game Day 6: Ravens at Pittsburgh; and a lingering question about Levi Brown

"Family" by Pittsburgh artist
Zivi Aviraz

Almost certainly we will never get an answer.

Apropos of nothing, Joey Porter's Pit Bulls have a question that's been bugging us since Levi Brown went down with a season-ending triceps injury during pre-game warm-ups before last Sunday's game vs. the Jets:

How thorough was Levi Brown's physical?

Brown, now on injured reserve without having played a down for the Steelers, was felled by the same ailment that put him on injured reserve last year in Arizona ... and, for all we know, still afflicted him this year. He'd been lousy for the Cardinals, and they couldn't wait to get rid of him.

It's fair to ask: Did Brown carry the injury with him to the Steelers? ... and somehow pass a cursory team physical? .. and just go through the motions until the pre-game warm-ups last Sunday?

Now Brown is on Pittsburgh's injured-reserve list, and collecting an NFL paycheck for being there.

The waste-of-space trade for the much-maligned Brown, who'd been called "unfixable" and a "turnstile" while he was with the Cardinals, seemed one of desperation for the Steelers.  They needed somebody -- apparently anybody -- to replace left tackle Mike Adams, who was starting to be referred to as "EZ-Pass" here in Pittsburgh.

Left Tackle is Kelvin Beachum's Job to Lose
Now, the Steelers are giving Kelvin Beachum every chance to earn the job at left tackle. He may do okay, says Tunch Ilkin, former Pro Bowl tackle and current announcer on the Steelers' broadcast team, as reported earlier this week in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Into the forge goes Kelvin Beachum

At this point, we trust Ilkin's ability to evaluate offensive linemen better than the Steelers' front office and coaching staff decision-makers.

"His hands are good enough, his feet are good enough, and he's athletic," Ilkin said. "I've always thought size was overrated."

Beachum may not be the prototypical left tackle, but Beachum will almost certainly fare better than the clueless and slow-footed Adams, who was so lost during the Vikings game that CBS's Bill Cowher said at halftime that he "looked like he was tying his shoes on that last sack" by Minnesota defensive end Jared Allen in the second quarter.

Today, Adams is listed on the Steelers' depth chart as second choice at left tackle and third choice at right tackle, behind ... Guy Whimper?

Talk about a lack of confidence -- Adams was the starter at right tackle just last year.

Surely, that placement on the depth chart makes it clear that the Steelers have cooled on Adams. Maybe Mike Tomlin actually meant what he said on Oct. 3rd, following the Steelers' fourth loss of the season (to the Vikings in London):

"We are going to focus on getting better. That's what's going to change the outcome of these football games. Those that don't aren't going to be a part of us. I have great patience. We'll continue to work and get better as long as I see belief and effort and continued improvement in detail, because that's what's going to change the outcome of these games. Those that don't, they won't be a part of it, whoever it may be. It's just that simple."

-- Mike Tomlin, Oct. 3, 2013

Juice

"Squashing Grapes," Mike Tomlin called it.

Has a Steelers-Ravens game ever had less juice?  

The history, enmity and vitriol between these two teams should dictate there more buzz, but ... pheh.

We could drone on, but today for some reason Joey Porter's Pit Bulls look at the Steelers' offensive line and think of Trai Essex, of whom it was said, more than once, "soft."

When we look at the defensive line (Ziggy Hood in particular), it evokes memories of those long-ago days of the unspectacular Kevin Henry, whose name for some inexplicable reason was pronounced "Keevin."  Blah.

That about sums it up. More pearls of wisdom to follow. Stay tuned.

Pre-Ravens Observations

Terrell Suggs and Elvis Dumervil vs. Marcus Gilbert and Kelvin Beachum: What could possibly go wrong?  

Everything should be fine.  Then there's Haoti Ngata, Chris Canty and Co., but so what?

The Ravens are an unimpressive 3-3 and showing symptoms of a Super Bowl hangover.

They must be looking forward to taking on an even less-impressive 1-4 Steelers squad on Sunday, but this is a winnable game for the Steelers. Did we really just say that?

What Rivalry?
Yes. On the other hand, as much as we'd like to assume this will be another classic Steelers-Ravens slugfest ... we don't know what to expect.

The impulse is to say the Ravens and Steelers know each other so-o-o well, but they don't.

Both teams have many new faces. The Steelers now have -- we've lost count -- but the Steelers now have something like 25 players who weren't even on the roster at the beginning of last season.

Many of the players apparently have no idea what it means to be a Steeler, and some no doubt have zero comprehension of the longtime, built-up virulent enmity between the Ravens and Steelers.

Do you think Felix Jones has any idea?  Vince Williams?  Le'Veon Bell?

Speaking of whom, the somersault antics of clueless Emmanuel Sanders last Sunday bring to mind the backflip into the end zone Bell executed on his first NFL touchdown a few weeks ago in London.

After the game, Bell said he "tweaked" his foot (Lisfranc injury) during the game. That little comment went overlooked, but Joey Porter's Pit Bulls' ears perked up when he said it because, if you look at the video of his backflip, he came up on his foot hard and seemed to jam it.  He hasn't shown much burst since.

Just an observation.