OT: The Pittsburgher Thread: Pathetic Steelers

[Axman]

I'd have to say the biggest kick to the rear in my soccer interest was seeing an AGF game in person.

Mid-level Danish match, pretty uneventful 1-1 game...but the atmosphere was absurd. Had I gone to a game a couple months later that may have changed...AGF started red hot that season only to wind up being relegated. Bonus points to AGF for employing a US National Team player at the time, Benny Feilhaber.


The one thing that did suck, though, was that I had planned to go to a Barcelona game...but the one week that I was able to pull off my Catalonia/Andorra trip was an off-week for Barça...couldn't even get the experience of watching a road game at a bar. Now that would have been an experience. I didn't get to a second soccer game until this past December...when I watched the LA Galaxy have a second half comeback to win the MLS Cup...not too shabby of a first MLS experience


edit: Might as well get the rooting interests out there.
MLS: LA Galaxy - My #1 team, started by Landon Donovan and cemented by, you know, moving here. The Sounders and Timbers hold a special place in my heart, though, Seattle being the team that got me to give the MLS any sort of attention and the Timbers for being in Portland...which is where I'd be living if not for the fact that I'm trying to follow a dream here in LA. I love that city.
Denmark: AGF Aarhus - I lived in Aarhus for a six months.
England: Tottenham Hotspur - My first favorite team, basically chosen because I'd never actually met a fan before and I had an instant disdain for the larger teams there (it's too easy to be an American Man U. fan).
Spain: Barcelona FC - I reverse that stance in Spain, but I do have an emotional connection with Barcelona that I don't have with anywhere in England at least. Orwell & Gaudí, baby. Barcelona is my kind of town. Also I ****ing hate Cristiano Ronaldo, so there's that.
Germany: Bayern Munich - My motherland, of sorts. My paternal heritage is 100% Bavarian.

Ah come on Big, Theres far too much hardship in life to not have a winning football club, AND hockey team, AND baseball team
.

 

[JTG]

I know you have the "video" evidence to back that up, so I won't disagree with you.

Bazinga

 

[Ogrezilla]

Ah come on Big, Theres far too much hardship in life to not have a winning football club, AND hockey team, AND baseball team
.

with what sounds like a pretty severe lack of parity, I have a hard time picking a team that isn't competitive.

 

[Shockmaster]

Steeler o-line looking like trash.

 

[bradshaw06]

this team sure does get injured a lot.

Landry is the future.

 

[sniugneP]

Nice looking drive. Landry Jones plays well.

 

[Captain Hook]

Sucks to see Bell go down. He's getting an MRI for what Tomlin described as a mid-foot injury. Just have to hope he doesn't have the dreaded lisfranc injury but that is a possibility since it's a mid-foot injury and it would certainly end his season.

 

[Axman]

with what sounds like a pretty severe lack of parity, I have a hard time picking a team that isn't competitive.

Every supporter will have their loyalties for one reason or another.

When you begin watching the star players and bigger personalities on the clubs as the season goes on you will tune in each week especially now with better coverage here in the States.

I started to follow in '96 closely watching Arsenal who at the time had Dennis Bergkamp and Patrick Vieira and also Manchester United with David Beckham. If its one thing I would love to do, it's see a match one day at Old Trafford; I have a friend who supports Chelsea who says the experience at the stadium is absolutely ridiculous and blows away any tailgate experience he's ever had.

 

[Fire Shero*]

It's going to be a long year. I hate Todd Haley. Run on first and second down for maybe 4 yards total and then throw an effing screen or short pass to a tight end. I understand Big Ben kind of became a gun slinger, but there's no reason to turn him into Trent Dilfer and just manage the game, throw for 150 yards.

They need someone in between Haley and Arians. Both are too extreme.

 

[UnrealMachine]

Sucks to see Bell go down. He's getting an MRI for what Tomlin described as a mid-foot injury. Just have to hope he doesn't have the dreaded lisfranc injury but that is a possibility since it's a mid-foot injury and it would certainly end his season.

It was idiotic to play him in the first place. He's going to make the team regardless. Let him fully heal from his injury first. Now he has a new one that was no doubt caused by his lingering knee injury. Just bad.

 

[SteelFish87*]

It was idiotic to play him in the first place. He's going to make the team regardless. Let him fully heal from his injury first. Now he has a new one that was no doubt caused by his lingering knee injury. Just bad.

Tomlin teaching him how to unleash hell despite being injured ldo

 

[UnrealMachine]

It's going to be a long year. I hate Todd Haley. Run on first and second down for maybe 4 yards total and then throw an effing screen or short pass to a tight end. I understand Big Ben kind of became a gun slinger, but there's no reason to turn him into Trent Dilfer and just manage the game, throw for 150 yards.

They need someone in between Haley and Arians. Both are too extreme.

One TD in two preseason games. Ben looking less and less like a franchise qb. Pouncy kind of sucks now. Gilbert looks like he spent his off season chain-smoking at a buffet line. Barely any targets to A. Brown. Definitely off to a rough start.

 

[Shockmaster]

One TD in two preseason games. Ben looking less and less like a franchise qb. Pouncy kind of sucks now. Gilbert looks like he spent his off season chain-smoking at a buffet line. Barely any targets to A. Brown. Definitely off to a rough start.

Hard to look like a franchise QB when you're reduced to throwing screens and dump-off passes because the team you play for can't get over the 70's.

 

[UnrealMachine]

Hard to look like a franchise QB when you're reduced to throwing screens and dump-off passes because the team you play for can't get over the 70's.

He even had trouble throwing screen passes yesterday. My friends and I had a good laugh after that slant pass (which was awesome btw) when Gruden said that was a typical Steelers play. I might be able to count the number of quick slant passes we threw last season on one hand.

 

[Sivek]

It was idiotic to play him in the first place. He's going to make the team regardless. Let him fully heal from his injury first. Now he has a new one that was no doubt caused by his lingering knee injury. Just bad.

Yep, missed 1st game, left practice during the week on this game, leaves this game after a couple of plays. Why did he even play?

Also, does this team throw the ball down field anymore? Thought Haley would of learned something from last year. Looking more and more like a bad hire with the constant barrage of passes that don't travel more than 5 yards in the air down-field and "Steeler Football" mentality of running on the first two downs to set up 3rd and long. O-line has also looked quite poor as well.

 

[SomeDude]

I have 2 tickets to the game against the Chiefs on Saturday and can't make the game. Face value is $164 for the pair, only looking for $70 for them. If someone here wants them, drop me a PM. I'd rather sell them to someone here then on stubhub.

 

[Shockmaster]

Yep, missed 1st game, left practice during the week on this game, leaves this game after a couple of plays. Why did he even play?

The lingering injury Bell had from last week was on his left knee. The injury he sustained last night was to his right foot.

Also, does this team throw the ball down field anymore? Thought Haley would of learned something from last year. Looking more and more like a bad hire with the constant barrage of passes that don't travel more than 5 yards in the air down-field and "Steeler Football" mentality of running on the first two downs to set up 3rd and long. O-line has also looked quite poor as well.

It's because the Steelers think time of possession is more important than scoring. They think as long as the offense merely holds on to the ball, the defense will be better and they'll be able to grind out low-scoring wins. Only when they're down in the fourth quarter do they take the handcuffs off of Ben, hoping he preforms a miracle. And when he isn't able to bail the team out, it makes it easy for yinzers to blame him rather than the Steelers' outdated philosophies.

But the more I think about it, the less I think Haley should be blamed. When Haley was in Arizona he had Warner, Boldin, and Fitgerald and the Cardinals were a passing team. When Haley was in Kansas City he had Jamaal Charles and they ran the ball a lot. In his first year in Pittsburgh he had Ben Roethlisberger, but decided the ball would be better in the hands of Dwyer and Redman. So did Haley get stupid between 2011 and 2012, or does he not have final say of this offense?

Frankly, it really looks like Art II is a quieter version of Jerry Jones. He seems to be enamored with an outdated style of football and refuses to allow the team to adjust to how the game is played today. Perhaps he just thinks the rest of the NFL is wrong, or perhaps he's worried that Ben could become bigger than the Steeler logo if the team did modernize. Either way, it's just beyond stupid that this team continues to try and go against the grain.

One might say "the NFL will eventually shift back to a ball control league!" Really? Considering how the rules favor passing and how the NFL loves to advertise its star QBs, do you really see that happening any time soon? And even if it were to happen, how many mediocre to crappy seasons will the Steelers have in between because stubborn little Artie wants to play like the 70's Steelers did?

 

[UnrealMachine]

The lingering injury Bell had from last week was on his left knee. The injury he sustained last night was to his right foot.

It's extremely common to have an injury on one leg that causes an imbalance and thus injure the other. You think it was a coincidence that he had 3 lower body injuries in 2 weeks that are unrelated?

 

[SuburbanRhythm]

He even had trouble throwing screen passes yesterday. My friends and I had a good laugh after that slant pass (which was awesome btw) when Gruden said that was a typical Steelers play. I might be able to count the number of quick slant passes we threw last season on one hand.

...now, the patented bubble screen, on the other hand...

 

[JTG]

Bell and his injuries are annoying me. Gotta love a battering ram back who cannot stay healthy.

 

[wheelz87]

Interesting article by Mark Madden, won't post it, its pretty long but it talks about how we are wasting Ben's career. Couldn't agree more with it.

-Had 2nd best time of possession last year. (yea that worked out well) Again reiterated that we are stuck in the 70's, trying all these zone blocking schemes out so we can run the ball. (lol like running backs are even relevant anymore, and like we even have ONE decent running back)

You look at the NFL, and base offenses are no longer iform, singleback, or any of those. It's shotgun, 3 wide, plus a tight end who is going out for a pass. I more than anyone else hate what the NFL has become, which is just glorified flag football. (see that hit on Will Johnson last night? It's a problem when a homer like me is criticizing a ref for calling a flag against our own player, it was a beauty of a hit. Even Gruden was pissed, saying how do you hit the proper 'strike zone' when the receiver is constantly changing it) Defense is an afterthought, at the very least it simply pays to have an overaggressive defense to either A. force a turnover or B. give up points and get the offense back on the field. Ours is C. give up LONG possessions, while enduring a slow and painful death.

Why we refuse to let Ben do it all, is beyond me. He IS a top 5 qb in the NFL. I see rookies throw for more yards than he does, and it's like.. what's going on here? Oh yea, they have 250 more pass attempts. It's a joke. You telling me a healthy Steeler offense (with Heath) along with Brown, Manny, and Wheaton/Cotchery couldn't be a nice base offense? Enough with this 'Steeler way' bull****. Catch up with the rest of the NFL.

 

[Captain Hook]

Bell update

Steelers RB Le'Veon Bell's injury to right foot not as significant as teammate Matt Spaeth's Lisfranc.

— Ed Bouchette (@EdBouchette) August 20, 2013

At least the early word on the Bell injury is somewhat good. If he would have had the same severity of injury as Spaeth he would have been out 8-10 weeks. A more significant lisfranc injury could have knocked him out for the whole year. Looks like the Steelers dodged that bullet.

It is frustrating that he's had a few injuries so far but he was never injury prone in college despite being quite a workhorse.

 

[Al Smith]

I guess it's too early to make the Bell/Greg Hawthorne comparisons. But if he starts having a perpetually pulled hamstring . . .

 

[Shockmaster]

Interesting article by Mark Madden, won't post it, its pretty long but it talks about how we are wasting Ben's career. Couldn't agree more with it.

-Had 2nd best time of possession last year. (yea that worked out well) Again reiterated that we are stuck in the 70's, trying all these zone blocking schemes out so we can run the ball. (lol like running backs are even relevant anymore, and like we even have ONE decent running back)

You look at the NFL, and base offenses are no longer iform, singleback, or any of those. It's shotgun, 3 wide, plus a tight end who is going out for a pass. I more than anyone else hate what the NFL has become, which is just glorified flag football. (see that hit on Will Johnson last night? It's a problem when a homer like me is criticizing a ref for calling a flag against our own player, it was a beauty of a hit. Even Gruden was pissed, saying how do you hit the proper 'strike zone' when the receiver is constantly changing it) Defense is an afterthought, at the very least it simply pays to have an overaggressive defense to either A. force a turnover or B. give up points and get the offense back on the field. Ours is C. give up LONG possessions, while enduring a slow and painful death.

Why we refuse to let Ben do it all, is beyond me. He IS a top 5 qb in the NFL. I see rookies throw for more yards than he does, and it's like.. what's going on here? Oh yea, they have 250 more pass attempts. It's a joke. You telling me a healthy Steeler offense (with Heath) along with Brown, Manny, and Wheaton/Cotchery couldn't be a nice base offense? Enough with this 'Steeler way' bull****. Catch up with the rest of the NFL.

But little Artie wants to run the team just like they did back in the 70's.

 

[JaymzB]

Hey Pittsburgh fans, I was hoping you could help me with some advice.

My buddy is getting married shortly, and since he’s a giant Steelers fan, were gonna do a road trip from Toronto to Pittsburgh for the Sept. 22nd game against the Bears. Any help with the following questions would be greatly appreciated:

-Were looking to get the cheapest tickets possible. Found tix in Section 520, which is the upper bleachers, on one of the endzones. I know there will be seats far away from the action, but it is still a good atmosphere? Can you still “somewhat†see the action on the field from there?

-Found a hotel (rooms are hard to find) on the south side of the river, near Homestead? I know it is fairly far away from the stadium, but is that a decent enough area? We can always cab back from the Stadium/Downtown.

-Any good golf courses in the area? Looking to spend $100 or less. Any recommendations are appreciated.

-Finally, any good Gentlemen’s Clubs that you could recommend would be great as well.

Thanks!!