The Pittsburgh Steelers (10-3) haven’t hung out with this type of crowd for quite some time. The air is getting more rarified with each win they rack up this season. This weekend, they get to fly with the eagles.
In fact, they fly into a trifecta of games against legitimate Super Bowl contenders, beginning with the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, followed up next week by the Baltimore Ravens. Then they take on the recurring champion Kansas City Chiefs.
Even their last game of the season is no limping pigeon, as the Cincinnati Bengals boast the league’s best passing offense by a wide margin.
This is easily one of the toughest end-of-season schedules the Steelers have ever faced. As it turns out, they might be eagle enough to handle it.
For at least the past five years, the Steelers have had no seat at the table of NFL elites. At best, they were considered playoffs squeaker-inners.
Now, they are being spoken of as a team that needs to be taken more seriously. Of course, let’s not get carried away. No one is bending the knee or laying a crown on their heads. At least not yet.
That respect could arrive soon, depending on how well they perform in these extraordinarily challenging matchups.
The Eagles are atop the league in defense and could keep Russell Wilson from getting out his cooking utensils. Especially with George Pickens sidelined again with a cooked hammy.
As big a task as the offense will face, the defense is really about to have its mettle tested—or, as in the Steelers’ case… its metal tested.
In the last lap of the season, Pittsburgh will face quarterbacks Jalen Hurts, Lamar Jackson, Patrick Mahomes, and Joe Burrow in succession.
Talk about a fantasy football roster. It’s not a bad real-life roster, either.
Suppose Pittsburgh’s defense can survive that continuous waterboarding with at least some of its dignity intact. In that case, it will positively foreshadow what could be a significant run for the Roses this year.
Will the Steelers be able to fly with the Eagles this weekend? Is this Pennsylvania intrastate squabble a preview of the Super Bowl? Or is the week when the Steelers’ balloon starts losing serious air? Let’s give it a Spin.
Delay Of Game
Probably less than five percent of Steelers Nation actually live in Pittsburgh. A sizable number of fans are ex-pats of the area, but that still only constitutes a modest percentage of the total base, which is global in scope.
Most Steelers fans are “in the wilderness.” I count myself one among them. I joined the Club in 1974 as a wee lad and have been following them ever since from afar, in many different cities and states in the Union.
Throughout the 80s, when the Steelers were only fair to the midlands, catching games was challenging. A sprinkling of nationally televised Sunday matches and whatever Monday Night Football games they scheduled were all you got.
In the 90s, it was still slim pickings until satellite television started making games available in smoke-filled bars. Still, if you lived in Reno, Nevada, chances are every television would be lit up with the San Francisco 49ers, which meant your only option for football was watching Steve Young throw to Jerry Rice.
In a casino, you could catch a break by having a wall of televisions to watch your favorite team play. But if the sportsbook guy happened to be wearing a Cleveland Browns jersey, then it meant your Steelers game would be showing on the only 14” monitor in the top corner with no sound.
It was a miserable life being in the wilderness.
That was…until DirectTV saved us all. Now, as long as you were willing to climb on the roof during a snowstorm with a broom to clean off the satellite dish every ten minutes, you could watch all of your Steelers games.
The real miracle occurred with the invention of TiVo. Wait. You could actually record live games on your DVR and then watch them…when convenient. So I can go to church with the family and come home and watch the game afterward?
This changed my life. And upped my Dad game in the same swoop.
Fast-forward to today. True confession: I rarely watch the games live. I long ago ditched my Sunday NFL Ticket because the prices got ridiculous, and as the NFL added Thursday night, Sunday night, and two games on Monday nights, many of those matches weren’t even available on that bloated satellite subscription.
Instead, I’m now an NFL+ raving fan. Shoot…80 bucks a year, they replay every game, AND they strip out all the television commercials on replays? Where do I sign up for that…forever? Don’t change. Don’t you ever change.
It’s a beautiful quality of life, I must tell you. But, of course, there is one massive problem if you’re a “Replayer.” You have to be exceptionally skilled at not hearing the outcome of the games ahead of time, or it trashes the whole experience.
No easy task. If I were a Carolina Panthers fan, it would be a cinch. But Steelers fans are everywhere. And they just can’t help themselves from blowing the result.
I remember getting home from church many years ago when living in my cabin in Lake Tahoe and thinking I would go for a quick telemark ski while waiting for the game to finish recording. Keep in mind that I was skiing in the middle of absolutely nowhere with nothing but a stray bear or deer passing by.
So I come back to my cul-de-sac adjoining the backcountry, and wouldn’t you know, a guy walks up the snowy trail sporting a wool Steelers cap. I make the terrible mistake of saying, “Nice hat.”
He shook his head and said, “Yeah…too bad about today.”
Game ruined. Destroyed. Foiled again.
This happened last weekend. I was fixing our fence with the neighbor when he showed up with a friend wearing a Steelers sweatshirt. I started panicking because I was watching the game later.
I say, “I’ve got to ask a favor…please don’t say ANYTHING about the game. Not a grimace…a smile, not a slight bending of your eyebrow. Nothing…I implore you.”
Of course, that means nothing, as they now know they get to tease and torture you relentlessly for two hours, with hints and haws and feints and jabs, which is not entertaining at all to me. At all.
“Please, I beg you.”
We made great progress with the fence. I was able to distract them with deep philosophical musings about whether nails or screws should be used to fasten the wood boards.
I thought I had survived the potential disaster.
But just as I was walking away…the dude in the Pittsburgh Steelers sweatshirt said, “Hey!” Then he lit up with a big smile. “Enjoy the game.”
Game ruined. Destroyed. Foiled again.
A Replayer’s life is a hard one. As if it wasn’t hard enough being a Steelers fan.
Finding Freiermuth
Whenever an NFL team has any success in a season, the rest of the league starts ogling the assistant coaches with a “Hey, good-looking” wink and a nod.
Despite getting booed and hissed mercilessly out of Atlanta, Steelers Offensive Coordinator Arthur Smith looks hot again. He’s being talked about in many circles as being on the shortlist for vacant or soon-to-be vacant head coaching positions again.
Personally, I think if a guy was unimpressive for three seasons as a head coach, he ought to stay as an assistant coach for at least that same amount of years as penance for losing that many games and bringing rampant depression to so many tens of thousands of people.
I think Smith was a major improvement over his predecessors in Pittsburgh, but then again, his predecessors were sitting in high chairs and throwing Cheerios while serving as offensive coordinators.
Still, although I don’t believe the Steelers’ offense is overly impressive, considering all of the games played, there is one area where I give Smith huge props.
He was able to bring the tight end position down from the Steelers attic, where it was gathering dust and cobwebs.
Ginormous Darnell Washington was completely ignored as a pass catcher in his rookie season last year, which, considering his size, is an amazing feat when you think about it. It’s pretty much equal to magician David Copperfield making an airplane disappear.
This year has been a eureka moment for the coaches for what has been Captain Obvious to the fans for quite some time…”Throw the big guy the darn ball and let him bowl!”
It seems odd that one of Smith’s best contributions is reminding Coach Mike Tomlin that tight ends actually ARE eligible receivers.
Yet, this oddity has revived Pat Freiermuth’s career. Remember how, during his rookie season, people said he was going to be the NFL’s “next great receiving tight end”?
The dream may be alive again, as Russell Wilson has really started to dial up Freiermuth’s number.
And why not? He’s got excellent speed and size, has extremely reliable hands, and brings joy to stadiums nationwide.
“Muuuuutttthhhh.”
Pour Me A Pint O’ Guinness
Rumor has it that the National Football League is about to announce that Dublin, Ireland, will host a regular-season game next year.
Even more juicy (and poorly kept) is the rumor that the Pittsburgh Steelers will be one of the two teams playing in that country’s debut.
I’ll be honest. I haven’t had any desire to go see an away game in Mexico, London, Munich, or even Brazil.
Heck…if I’m going to watch football in England, it will be a Manchester United game.
But Dublin, Ireland? Sign me up. Better yet, pour me a pint of Guinness for that one.
Real story. One of the reasons I started writing for this online publication many years ago was because Dan Rooney was serving as the United States Ambassador to Ireland at the time.
I was deep into promoting my historical novel trilogy at the time, the Heirs of Ireland Series, and in my steel pipe dreams, I thought I would write about the Steelers, and then Dan would notice my writing and our shared heritage and love of his team. In a fit of shared joy, he would fly me over to Dublin, introduce me to all the proper dignitaries, and together, we would make me famous and get all of my books turned into mega movies, where shortly thereafter, I would be seen in a floating chaise on some luxurious pool, thumbing through magazine ads of superyachts.
Some eleven years after toiling away here, I haven’t even received a Christmas card from the team’s public relations department. Despite composing hundreds of articles, I’m completely invisible to them, each word carefully etched and polished to a steelish shine.
Still…I wouldn’t be bitter about them ghosting me for all of these years. If the Steelers play in Dublin next year, count me in. Who wants to come along?
Run, Eagles, Run
Fly, Eagles, fly? Actually, the Eagles fly more like ostriches these days.
Philadelphia’s offense leads the league in rushing, and they boast the league’s most prolific turf eater in Saquon Barkley.
Barkley is reveling in his Escape From New York with one highlight reel of a run after another. They’ll be replaying his reverse leap over the defender in NFL promo clips for decades to come.
He’s well on pace to eclipse 2,000 yards this season, as he already has 1,623 in the bank. When you get past 2,000 you start getting mentioned along with names like Barry Sanders, Adrian Peterson, Terrell David, Eric Dickerson, Chris Johnson, and another one who won’t be named.
The Steelers proved they were up to the task against the Baltimore Ravens’ Derrick Henry, who is just about everyone’s King when it comes to running backs.
However, Barkley is a different horse altogether. The Steelers have struggled with some of the shakers and bakers in open field, and without safety Donte Jackson being healthy, this is a deep cause for concern.
One of the key decisions the Steelers will have to make is whether to rely on Payton Wilson to deal with Barkley’s speed or Elandon Roberts to better handle his power (as well as that of Jalen Hurts).
That positional chess move will be one of the critical keys to whether the Steelers’ defense seizes their proper glory…or ends up doing the walk of shame when it’s over.
Yet, above all, this game is primarily going to come down to life in the trenches. The marquee matchup is not among the skill positions but the Steelers’ defensive line against the Eagles’ offensive line.
Whoever wins that battle…wins Pennsylvania.
