Steel City Jim

So, there I was yesterday afternoon watching the Phillies-Nationals game with my son. Jeff, and grandson, Alex. It was a picture-perfect day with nary a cloud in the sky. Otherwise, the only things in the sky were the planes flying just to the right of right field on their way to land at the Philadelphia airport. The stadium was jammed. I think it was the 80th or so sellout.

The Phillies fell behind by three runs going into the bottom of the ninth. But as good teams do, they staged a rally. They scored once, putting them two behind. And then with with no outs and two men on, Werth fouled off about five pitches. Then he lofted a line drive to left center that cleared the fence, about 400-plus feet, and he trotted around the bases with a walkoff homer.

I was watching scoreboard all afternoon, and saw that the Pirates fell behind the Diamondbacks. But they too staged a late rally and won by one run. We were also following the score of the Eagles game, and they squeaked out a win against the Lions. That leaves us with the Steelers ...

By now everybody and his brother knows that the Steelers put on a ferocious defense in Tennessee, and despite an anemic offense, were able to pull out a win. What do we now know:

1. The Steelers can't do any worse than 2-2 without Roethlisberger.

2. The Steeler defense is awesome.

3. The Steeler offense is almost non-existent.

4. The Steeler special teams ain't bad.

As I said above, I was in Phildelphia. But thanks to Jeff's Blackberry and Ben Smolar's frequent calls, we were able to keep up with the game. As we were entering the stadium, we found out that Antonio Brown had returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown. I really cannot remember the Steelers returning a kickoff since the Ron Woodson era. Woodson would start up the middle and then veer to the right, at which time the Steelers would set up a wall of blockers, and Woodson would be off to the races. But the Steelers haven't had anybody close to Woodson since he left, and in most cases they struggled to get to the 20.

As the game progressed it was obvious that Tomlin created a plan that essentially told the defense that it had to suck it up and win the game practically on its own. It meant stopping the Titans premier runner, Chris Johnson, who, up to yesterday, had a dozen straight 100-plus-yard games. He didn't get near that yesterday. Additionally, the Steelers forced seven turnovers, unheard of. Hats off to the entire squad and LeBeau's scheming. But having Polamalu and Smith back makes an enormous difference. Another guy, Timmons, was all over the field. And, because of the heat, they had to substitute liberally along the defensive line. So, you can say that everyone contributed, even the rawest of rookies.

Tomlin also knew that the offense would be one-dimensional. Despite his speeches to the contrary, he really doesn't have that much faith in Dixon and wouldn't allow him to throw much at all. The Titans realized this as well and packed the box to stop the run. The Steelers had about 127 yards of total offense yesterday. This tells you how much the defense meant.

Finally, one of the weak links of last year's team was special teams. But a new coach and some new bodies have made a huge difference.

So, while we can't wait for the big boy to get back in action so the Steelers can open up the game. In the first two games, at least, the defense and special teams have allowed them to do just enough to get a win.

For many years, Super Bowls were ho-hum affairs, very one-sided and boring. But you can't say that about the last two. Last year's was thrilling, whether you are a Steeler fan or not, when Roethlisberger connected to Holmes for a TD to ice the game. Last night's game was a humdinger, particularly when the favorites took what seemed to be an easy 10-0 lead in the first quarter. At that point I thought that Manning and Company had the game well in hand and that it would be smooth sailing for them.

But I discounted Sean Payton's grit and game plan. Who would have risked an onside kick to start the second half? Tomlin tried it during the season. It failed, and he took a lot of heat for it. But being underdogs, Payton had to take some chances and he did. He also went for a 4th and 1 at the end of the first half. It failed. But Cowher rightly pointed out that by calling for the play, he signaled his team that he was going all out to win the game. It worked. It wasn't as if Payton and the Saints were awed by being in the game, a problem for first-time Super Bowlers in the past. He and his team were focused on winning. It was obviously the right attitude.

Last week the articles abounded with comments that it takes Peyton Manning a couple of offensive series to figure out what the defense is throwing at him. Then he adjusts and calls a great game. I, even I, thought to myself after reading and hearing this all week, why don't they give him one look one time, another look another time, etc., thereby not allowing him to get comfortable. Use as many schemes as you possibly can against him. Last night the commentators stated that Sean Payton had prepared different defenses for the first quarter, the second quarter, etc. So, I sort of took credit for this in my own mind. Hey, it worked. Manning never seemed to get the offense going consistently after the first quarter. In fact, the second quarter was all Saints. And with the onside kick going to Saints' way, resulting in a touchdown for them, Manning and his group never did much.

You'll excuse some Steelers' reminiscing at one point last night. I refer to when Manning morphed into Neil O'Donnell near the end of the game. In Super Bowl XXX, the Steelers played the Cowboys. Near the end of the game the Steelers trailed by less than a touchdown and they were marching. But Neil O'Donnell threw a pass directly to a Dallas guy named Larry Brown who took it to the house and dashed any hope of a win. Not that you can compare O'Donnell, pretty much of a journeyman who ended up with Tennessee, with Manning. Manning will go down as one of the greats of all time. But for one fleeting second he misread Porter who jumped a pass and ran it in for a touchdown. Guess what? Manning is human after all.

A couple of things impressed me. Both quarterbacks last night have an uncanny ability of getting the ball off quickly. It's one, two, three and out. Both also can look over the field and back-pedal to buy a few more seconds. Both did this and were successful. Caldwell, the Colts' coach, is a class guy.

OK, the Super Bowl is behind us. Now, let's concentrate on the draft and avoiding a lockout. The latter may be an impossibility. But if it happens, it stinks.

Last week was the week that was nothing. It was pre-hype week for the Super Bowl leading up to the Pro Bowl. Here's some things on my mind:

1. Why do they play the Pro Bowl? They should just appoint a virtual team and let the pundits jawbone about which will win, who will star, etc. Kind of like trying to figure out how the 1975 Steelers would do against the 1968 Packers. All these sessions accomplish is using up air time when there's not much else to talk about. Getting back to the Pro Bowl, why should they risk any players getting hurt? I did catch snatches of the game last night and I noticed that there wasn't much passion. They went through motions, but no one hit anybody. That's why the score was so high. The whole exercise is ridiculous.

2. I see that Kiper's first-round draft picks are coming in at the bottom of the screen. I don't think I ever remember Kiper or any other draftnik predicting who the Steelers would pick in the first round, or in ensuing rounds. It makes for some interesting punditry, but it is highly inaccurate. And we have more than two months to go before the draft.

3. I'm glad I don't have to make decisions on which older NFL players to sign, let go, or put the franchise tag on. I think the Steelers have been pretty good at sizing this up in the past. They have let quite a few guys go who didn't have much gas left in the tank. But there were a couple of exceptions. One was Rod Woodson who played very well for the Ravenzzz. Another was Chad Brown. Finally, Alan Faneca has been doing very well with the Jets. I heard last week that Joey, the Mouth of the South, was on the bubble in Miami. Joey hasn't done much since leaving the Steelers but pick up big paychecks and exercise his vocal chords.

4. The Orioles will carry on spring training in Sarasota in coming years. Sarasota lost the Reds, who went on to greener pastures. Sarasota will build a new stadium for the Orioles. Interestingly, they will vend crab cakes, a Baltimore staple, and Boog's barbeque. The food could be the best part of going to a game. (I am in Sarasota as I write this.)

5. It looks like the Pitt basketball team is seeking its own level. After starting the Big East schedule with five straight victories, it has lost to the likes of Georgetown (the real deal), Seton Hall and South Florida. One thing about coach Jamie Dixon, he'll get the most out of what they got. But maybe they ain't really got that much after all.

6. It has just emerged that Mario Lemieux and his partner, Ron Burkle, offered to buy the Pirates. But the current owner, Mr. Nutting, turned them down. Nutting is pretty shrewd. He's a bottom line guy. His payroll is $35 million, I think that is the lowest in the Major Leagues. He is hoping that some of his youngsters can blossom and that some of the free agents (the ones no one else wants) will miraculously rise from the ashes and have a stellar year. This hasn't happened in the past 17 years. But Nutting can dream. In the meantime, the Lemieux-Burkle combine could be THE answer to the Pirates problems. They would breathe life and cash into the team that currently has neither. It would bring the Pirates into line with the other ridiculous payrolls in the Major Leagues and make them competitive. It's sad but true. Baseball sucks.