Yeah, there's definitely a big battle at center right now between Maurkice Pouncey and Justin Hartwig, but everybody is talking about a potential Byron Leftwich and Dennis Dixon battle at quarterback. Leftwich was thought by most to be the Steelers week one starter, but he didn't impress Saturday against Detroit ( 6/10, 43 yards, 70.0 rating). Dixon, on the other hand, shined with both his arm ( 6/7, 128 yards, 158.3 rating) and his legs (6 carries, 31 yards).

To be honest, I'm not too interested in this controversy at this point for a lot of reasons. The biggest one is simply that we've only seen one preseason game. It's an extremely small sample size (just four series for Letfwich) and it ispreseason football, not real, true NFL ball. Let's put it this way: If Peyton Manning put up a 70.0 QB rating in his first preseason game while Curtis Painter tossed three touchdowns would there be a QB controversy in Indianapolis? Of course not. That's an extreme example, but when you look through the lens of only one game, it is really easy for things to become distorted. No player should ever be evaluated after one game.

Dixon also had the benefit of playing with the second team offensive line which performed much better than the first team in Saturday's game. Poor Leftwich barely had time to throw and didn't have the support of any running game to speak of. Dixon was playing the bulk of his snaps with Isaac Redman, who averaged 4.0 yards/carry compared to Leftwich's backfield mate Rashard Mendenhall who was held to two yards rushing on five carries. Ugh. Any quarterback would have struggled behind that offensive line.

The two quarterbacks play pretty opposite styles which is naturally going to cause people to stir up a debate between the two. Leftwich has a strong arm and lots of experience, but lacks athleticism big time. Dixon has all of the physical gifts, but struggles in the pocket and doesn't have much experience. As Brian brought up to me, it is a classic conservative/aggressive argument. We all know what we are getting out of Leftwich at this point. He probably won't lose the game for you, but he'll make a few mistakes here and there. Dixon is much more of an unknown. He could be Kordell Stewart in 2001. Or he could be Kordell Stewart in 2002. Most running quarterbacks seem to fall into the boom/bust category. They will blow your mind with an amazing play and then turn around and make the worst decision you've ever seen. Nobody knows how good of a quarterback Dennis Dixon is right now. 

As I've been preaching for a while, I'd like to see both get substantial playing time come the regular season --- regardless of preseason play. Mike Tomlin has the luxury to roll with the hot hand for four weeks. He also has the luxury of being able to sub quarterbacks in and out during the same game without shattering any egos. It doesn't matter who plays how many snaps at quarterback, the Steelers just need to get through the first four games .500 or better and Ben Roethlisberger will be back. 

So while it is easy to get caught up in a quarterback controversy...and thank God we haven't had a real one in a long while... I don't think it serves much purpose. It's doubtful either guy will be terrible enough during the next three preseason games to say that he shouldn't get any snaps come week one. Both should get their chance to perform during the regular season and only after that would talking a lot about any controversy be worthwhile.  Most importantly, this will all be moot once Roethlisberger returns. After the season is over I just don't think the choice of who got under center for the first snap of 2010 will be all that important.

As I sat here chomping down on my delicious 99-cent Jr. Bacon Cheeseburgers from Wendy's, I debated what to do for tonight's game recap. It's no secret that you miss nuances of the game (and I love me some nuances) when you go see it live, so obviously I can't go into my preferred level of detail. But I will offer you a roughly chronological list of highlights from my experience tonight.

• I was going to do an Empty-Netters style picture journal where my friend and I park in a garage dahntahn and we walk across the bridge and along the river to the stadium... but I didn't.
  
• Anthony Madison led the team's charge onto the field before they brought out the starters one-by-one. That doesn't mean anything, I just thought he was a weird guy to do it.
• Speaking of, only the defense was announced starter-by-starter, with Foote, Timmons, and Farrior all labelled starting ILBs.
• Troy Polamalu was announced last and he got the loudest ovation by far.
  
• From where I was, I couldn't really tell if the crowd had a reaction to Ben Roethlisberger, especially since he never took the field.
• Totally did not even realize both of the teams are Dick LeBeau's until they honored him before the coin toss. Huge love from the crowd.
• Distinct lack of a Renegade montage.
  

And as for the actual football aspect of a football game:

• Leftwich looked bad. The whole first team offense looked bad. The Lion defense is definitely improved, but it didn't look good out there to get things rolling.
• On the defensive side, Lawrence Timmons was playing like a first-round pick seemingly every play. Nice to see Ryan Clark find a wayward football too.
• Daniel Sepulveda didn't kick off the whole night as far as I could tell, but Jeff Reed did boot a couple of them pretty well. Jury=out.
• Keyaron Fox looked like a starter playing amongst second-teamers.
• Emmanuel Sanders made a very Ward-like catch on a hot read on third and short. Got the ball, took the hit, came up with the catch. First down.
• Antonio Brown's TD came at the perfect time. Just as I was explaining to my friend (a predominant fan of hockey as opposed to football) how QBs read defenses and check for blitzers, knowing where his hot receiver is if things get dicey, and seeing if that receiver can take advantage of the blitzer's absence in coverage, well... That's exactly what happened. That was just a perfectly executed, great looking football play.

Oh, and the rain. If that rain had a fan page on Facebook, and it probably does because what doesn't anymore, I would Like it for sure. When the game started, the stadium was packed. But as the rain came, a woman sitting a few rows behind me aptly pointed out, "Lookit all the fairweather fans leavin' early! Yinz ain't even real Stiller fans!" Well said, Pittsburgh accent. The sky opened and the rain was cold and violent. The diehards sat there through it all, watching every snap of an exhibition game against one of the worst franchises in professional sports.

Nothing better than seeing the fans that remained in the downpour immediately start a Here We Go chant while the rest of the "fans" hid inside. And then Isaac Redman scored a touchdown and it felt he scored it just for us.

Then came the lightning with 1:53 left in the first half. The teams scurried into the locker rooms and the fans were herded inside. We waited. We didn't know how long we'd be inside. Some kid looked like Jarome Iginla. All we could do was wait for the storm to pass over...

45 minutes later (they just did halftime during this break), or something to that effect, we were allowed back into the open air. The rain had stopped and we enjoyed a cool evening (although we were soaking wet so "cool" felt a lot like "hypothermia"), or as some might call it, great football weather. And now that we had weeded out the weak fans, the remaining diehards got to enjoy our very own half of football, plus 1:53.

Telltale sign of the change in fans? In the first quarter, there's some bumping between a Steeler receiver and a Lion DB in the end zone. Pass is dropped, no flag is thrown. The boos are deafening, because dammit touchdowns are important in August exhibition games! Same play happens in the third quarter, perhaps even a bit more questionable. Only minor boos are heard. That makes sense with the thinning crowd, but a guy sitting a couple of seats down from me looked over and he said, "You think that was pass interference?" to which I replied, "It was a little bit iffy but I'm giving the DB the benefit of the doubt here; I think he just made a good defensive play." (And yes, I do use semicolons in speech) He agreed with my assessment. Those are the kinds of people that were still there. Reasonable ones. I was in heaven.

JERSEY SIGHTINGS:

Again, I'm not Seth Rorabaugh. He's a professional. I didn't get pictures of every jersey I saw, but I did take note of some of the better or more unusual ones:

• Kid in a Brian Urlacher jersey
• Byron Leftwich Jaguars
• A few Charlie Batch Lions jerseys.
• Actually a lot of Stafford jerseys too. Mega props to Lions fans that will travel to see their shitty team in a meaningless game.
• Guy in a blue Sidney Crosby jersey. Take that, people who wear Ward jerseys to Pens games!
• Kid in a Guerin jersey too.

We'll have more in-depth preseason coverage in the coming week. Hopefully my DVR recorded the whole game and that lightning delay didn't screw everything up. Either way, Steeler football is back. No better feeling.

Here We Go

7:30 PM : Heinz Field : TV - KDKA

The wait is finally over. After months of Big Ben talk and feeling like a sports law blogger, I'm finally sitting down with a huge smile on my face to write a post about an actual game of Pittsburgh Steelers football. Ahhhhhhh.

It might only take until the third quarter to realize that yes, preseason football can be pretty lame...but the rush of seeing the team take the field again with all of the new additions will easily be the most exciting football-related thing in months.

Here we go.

Injuries

Steelers

This is a mystery for the most part, but I do know the following:

Jason Worilds - Questionable (Hamstring)

Lions

OUT:
K Jason Hanson
LB DeAndre Levy
DE Jared DeVries
S Louis Delmas
CB Aaron Berry
TE Brandon Pettigrew
RB Kevin Smith
WR Mike Moore
CB Jack Williams (PUP)
S Ko Simpson (PUP)

Three Things to Watch

1. Big Ben's (possible) return
Mike Tomlin has been playing games all week when asked about who the starting quarterback would be for tonight's game. That makes me think that Ben Roethlisberger will be the guy. After all that he has been through, Tomlin making a huge deal about the starter and telling the fans to "come to the game" to find out, not starting Roethlisberger would be a little bit of a slap in the face. I think coach is building up all of this hype to have Big Ben lead the team out as a public showing of the team's support. That is my theory anyway. I'm also eager to hear how the fans respond to him....I'm guessing 70 percent cheers and 30 percent jeers.

2. Byron Leftwich
By almost all reports, Leftwich is the team's starting quarterback going into week one. After struggling mightily last year in Tampa Bay, how will he look back in the black and gold? 

3.  Polamalu's return
There aren't many things I enjoy in football more than watching Troy Polamalu patrol the defensive backfield at Heinz Field. He's finally healthy and watching him run around for a series or two will be inspiring.

Predictions

Bam says: The Lions suck, obviously, though they have been able to throw the ball around a lot against the Steelers in recent years for whatever reason. But hey, it is the preseason and there's no reason to be a downer at this point. The Steelers are back and they are winning in style. Steelers 31 Lions 17

Brian says: Preseason is weird and scores do no matter. Lions 16 Steelers 11

We're a day away from the first look at Steeler football in 2010 (excluding our week 17 matchup against the Dolphins on January 3rd, 2010, of course). Are you excited? If you aren't, leave.

For the rest of you however, stick around for our preseason coverage. There won't be a traditional play-by-play recap, but let's be honest, you don't care about every single play in a preseason game. I mean I didn't even know who the Steelers were playing until this week. The reason for a different strategy from last season is that I myself will be attending the game at Heinz Field because an old friend offered me one of his tickets and I nearly exploded at the chance to go to do a little investigative journalism regarding Steeler fans' live reaction to Ben Roethlisberger and the rest of the team, all to bring the best information to you.

Coming up, some storylines to keep an eye on tomorrow night.

Well, this might be one of the better pieces of news so far in training camp. From Steelers.com:

Sepulveda got a chance to kick off, and he showed himself to be quite accomplished at it. On four kickoffs, Sepulveda’s hang-times were 4.07, 3.93, 3.87 and 3.70. The 4.07 kick also carried 2 yards deep in the end zone, and earlier in the evening, one of his mis-hits went 8 yards deep in the end zone.

“I liked it,” said Tomlin. “Daniel Sepulveda might provide us with a legitimate options there. I liked his placement of the ball, I liked his hang time. He’s worked a lot at it. He didn’t have any exposure in that area prior to getting here. That just speaks to what he is – he’s always willing to do whatever for us.”

Jeff Reed's kickoffs were by far and away the worst in the NFL last season and Sepulveda would most definitely be an upgrade. He's got a stronger leg and can actually tackle somebody if, God forbid, they make it past the first few waves of defenders.

The suggestion has long been thrown around that the Steelers should add a kickoff specialist to the roster a la David Buehler in Dallas. I'm not too excited about a move like that simply because it wastes a roster spot on a guy who will only kick the ball off, costing some depth in another position that the Steelers might desperately need. Adding another kickoff man is especially dumb when you already have an upgrade in Sepulveda on the 52-man roster. Hopefully this all works out.

As a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, August should be a time for my attention to turn toward training camp and the start of preseason football. However, this year it has been very difficult to take my attention away from the NFL draft, and more specifically the ridiculous process that rookie signing has become. Records have been set this year. Rams QB Sam Bradford received a contract that guarantees him $50 million dollars. Lions DE Ndamukong Suh received $40 million in guaranteed money…and remember they have as much NFL experience as you, me, and almost every person I have ever spoken to in my life.

All of the football news the past week or so has been great for a few different reasons. It is always awesome to finally get training camp started and launch a new season, but this season it has felt especially refreshing to watch/talk about real football after the Ben Roethlisberger saga this summer.

I'm sure Big Ben was more excited for training camp than anybody...and so far he has made the most of it. Since he arrived last week with his offensive lineman in a fleet of Mini Coopers, Roethlisberger has been a model of good behavior. He's been signing autographs for fans, interacting and joking with the media, and putting in work on the field.

I thought it was interesting hearing all of the beat reporters and the like remarking that Roethlisberger was greeted with cheers and no audible boos were heard on the opening day of practices and I haven't heard about any heckling directed towards Big Ben since. I'm sure he will hear it at every away venue for the rest of his career --- opposing fans don't forget things like sexual assault chargers. But, as things are shaping up now, at least Roethlisberger will feel welcomed at Heinz Field.

(Don't get me wrong, I'm not condoning Roethlisberger's immature partying, rude behavior, and whatever may have happened during that summer night in Georgia. But at some point, you have to say enough is enough and move forward. No matter how loud people boo Roethlisberger, he can't go back and time and change things, though I'm sure he wishes he could. I guess I can't get upset with Steeler fans booing him, but I don't really see what it will accomplish.)

Professional athletes who hit rock bottom usually do not stay there for very long. As much as the media and sports fans love tearing an athlete down, they too love building one back up. See: Kobe Bryant, Alex Rodriguez, and especially Tiger Woods. Woods was a punchline and a laughingstock for a long time. But now he has tons of people rooting for him and his popularity among golf fans hasn't really taken that much of a hit. When he finally wins a tournament, he will be cheered for more with more gusto than has ever experienced. And the win will probably be among the most special in his career, even if it is some two-bit tournament in Nebraska or something.

Roethlisberger still has a long hill to climb, but I really think he is working his way up from rock bottom. He is already making progress in the first step in his road to redemption --- earning back the trust of Steeler Nation.

If Roethlisberger keeps acting like a real man should and plays well when he comes back from his suspension, his image and popularity will be as strong as ever. And it certainly won't hurt the Steelers offense either.

Today the Steelers signed fullback Dwayne Wright, cutting rookie LB/DE/FB hybrid Demetrius Taylor. Wright has bounced around between Buffalo, New York, and Philadelphia since he was drafted in 2007.

The Steelers must really have not been impressed with Taylor -- or at least saw he had no future at fullback -- to cut him on the third day of camp. Hopefully it ends up working out for him too. Maybe another team will give him a shot at a position he is more accustomed to.

While Wright is probably not a long term solution at FB (I'm still hoping for the huge guy wearing number 43 below), it will be nice to have a fullback with at least some experience on the roster for now.

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One of my favorite bits of news from camp so far was Frank Summers brief glimpse of stardom when he donned Troy Polamalu's number 43 jersey yesterday. [Image from Steelers.com]

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Isaac Redman is supposed to be in much better shape this year. If Redman has a spectacular camp again this year, he has a chance to make the opening day roster. A lot depends on how confident the Steelers are with Jonathan Dwyer at the end of camp.

Before we get started, I'll preface this post by saying I don't have the means to really attend training camp, so any analysis I can offer is based on what I read in the Post-Gazette, other blogs, or the Steelers official website. That said, here's my brief take on the goings-on with the Steelers lately:

On Flozell Adams: I don't usually like the Steelers to go after big names, especially if they're ex-Cowboys, but realistically, is Adams the best player on the offensive line right now? Very possible. Starks has some experience and Kemoeatu is a mountain, but neither of them really stand out as exceptional players. Flozell Adams is, at the very least, a name that people know. And when you're an offensive lineman, that's the best recognition you can get. Excluding Pouncey, I think The Hotel is the biggest upgrade for the Steelers' offense this season. Take that in whatever sense you like.

News just broke about 20 minutes ago that the Pittsburgh Steelers reached an agreement with former Pro Bowl LT Flozell Adams. Terms of the deal haven't been released yet, but Adams is expected to be in Pittsburgh in time for the start of training camp.

With Willie Colon on IR, this is a move that a lot of people saw coming. We mentioned Adams as a possible solution to the open tackle spot a while ago. Adams was released by Dallas in the spring.

I went back through and read all of the comments on Blogging the Boys from Adams' release story. Most weren't upset to see him go after an inconsistent and injury plagued 2010, but if he is healthy he is still a solid tackle.