With Steelers defense, offense had better be good
Two exhibition games down and three to go for the Steelers and what do we know?
Aside from the fact five exhibition games are at least three too many, I mean.
The Steelers’ offense, when healthy, is ridiculously good, bordering on unstoppable. Obviously, that’s a big when, but it doesn’t apply to the Steelers any more than it does to every other team in the league.
Head coach Mike Tomlin has a mentality with running backs that is, “Ride him until his wheels fall off.” Just ask Willie Parker. But it’s different with Le’Veon Bell because of offensive coordinator Todd Haley’s offense.
Parker was rarely called on to catch a pass. Haley’s offense is a dream for backs who can catch.
There are hundreds of free yards out there to be made after catching the ball in space, but all it takes is one play to knock him out, and the more he’s called on the more likely he is to get hurt. He was second on the team in receptions last year with 83 and touched the ball 373 times.
I thought Antonio Brown was not only the best wide receiver but the best player in the NFL last season, and the young receivers, who benefit from all the attention he gets, appear to be getting better and better.
Ben Roethlisberger put up ridiculous numbers last year, but there weren’t enough touchdowns to go with all those yards and completions. That has to change.
We also know that the Steelers defense still has trouble tackling. That’s a league-wide problem that will only get worse because nobody is asked to make an open-field tackle in practice. The first-team defense has been made to look bad by second-string offenses in the first two exhibition games and looks like a unit that will need every point that the offense can get.
Landry Jones might have set a record for playing time by a third-string quarterback in the first two exhibition games and he’s done a really nice job of proving that he shouldn’t have been drafted in the fourth round.
He’s been playing with scrubs and has been hurt by receivers dropping passes, but he makes up for being slow by being inaccurate. The Landry Jones Era might be coming to an end.
• Those Major League Baseball one-game play-ins are exciting, but that doesn’t change the fact it’s ridiculous to see what so many teams, including the Pirates, are doing over 162 games for the chance to play in one.
The worst team in baseball beats the best team in baseball many times during the season and could do it in a play-in game. It needs to be changed to a best-of-three format.
• Wisconsin governor Scott Walker is in Iowa this weekend selling himself to Republican primary voters as a fiscal conservative who despises corporate welfare, even though he approved a plan for taxpayers to cough up at least $250 million for the Milwaukee Bucks’ new arena.
Walker actually used the tired, old argument that because of corporate taxes paid by the Bucks and income tax played by Bucks players and visiting opponents, it would cost the state more if the team moved.
Of course, Walker didn’t mention that those same taxes would be collected if the Bucks paid for their own arena, but the money could be used for legitimate government expenditures.
A real leader running for president would be calling on politicians in every state to stop wasting money on pro sports billionaires so that teams such as the Bucks would have no choice but to pay for their building.
Walker said it’s a “Good deal for Wisconsin and our return on investment will be three to one.”
David Boaz of the Cato Foundation said that any governor who thinks giving millions to pro sports teams is a good investment, “Shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the federal Treasury.”
By the way, before he approved the $250 million, 79 percent of voters said in a poll that they were opposed to the Bucks getting $100 million.
• Snoop Dogg’s son – I think his name is Snoop Pupp – has quit the UCLA football team. The reverberations will be felt throughout college football for years.
• Tiger Woods has missed four major cuts in the last two years. He’s missed three others in his entire career. He turns 40 this year and might want to think about focusing on the Champions Tour.
• Charlie Batch at 40 would be a better third-string quarterback than Landry Jones.
• ESPN spent almost an entire day analyzing an NFL quarterback getting sucker punched in the face. One moron punched another moron. End of story. Of course, Rex Ryan signed the moron who threw the punch about 15 minutes after he was released.
• Josh Harrison needs to go to third base when he comes back. Jung Ho Kang stays at shortstop. The Pirates need offense.
• Frank Gifford, who died last Sunday at 84, was one third of the last three-man TV sports broadcasting team that mattered. People tuned in to see him, Don Meredith and Howard Cosell. Since then, every third man in the booth has been superfluous.
John Steigerwald writes a Sunday column for the Observer-Reporter.