This is Ben Tate. After a hard-fought season, the Pittsburgh Steelers may enter January depending on him for half of their offense. That is… less than ideal. There are two things I know for sure about running backs: You can find a serviceable one anywhere, and special ones are very hard to find. Le’Veon Bell […]

We were wrong about this team. We were all wrong, in the best way. The Pittsburgh Steelers are the AFC North champions with an 11-5 record. They will host the rival Baltimore Ravens on Saturday night at Heinz Field. I think that means the regular season was… entirely successful. Huh. Really didn’t see that one […]

Heppy Decemberween, Steeler Nation. The recap is late, but it’s been a big week for all of us, off the field, so to speak.

Does anyone else feel weird about liking this team? They had us primed early in the season for a phenomenally bad year, but a couple months later they control their own destiny en route to the playoffs. I’m still starting to come to terms with the idea that the 2014 Steelers can be competitive, and […]

We really have no idea what to expect every week. The Steelers were a middling team before Ben Roethlisberger let loose on Indianapolis and Baltimore, then fell back to this mortal plane against the New York Jets. A few up-and-down games later, Big Ben still looks imperfect, but no problem: The Steelers still have Le’Veon […]

Okay, so Le’Veon Bell is essentially the only running back the Steelers have who’s worth anything. Dri Archer is… not a running back, and Josh Harris exists but that’s about as far as it goes. Halfback is a position that demands depth. Ben Roethlisberger already voiced his concerns that Bell is going to hit a […]

I don’t normally buy into the platitudes Mike Tomlin serves in his postgame press conferences. In my opinion, Tomlin is great at using a lot of words to say exactly nothing. In fairness, that’s a handy ability to have when part of your job is talk to the media as often as he does. However, […]

The Pittsburgh Steelers return from their bye-week to an inter-conference matchup versus the New Orleans Saints. Pittsburgh, coming off a 27-24 victory over the Tennessee Titans, is 7-4 on the season. They have had some monstrous wins and some terrible losses. Pittsburgh has beaten teams like the Indianapolis Colts and the Baltimore Ravens by scoring […]

It hasn’t been a great season for the defense. An already-shaky unit only faced more adversity as players they rely on left with injury, one after another. The team’s last two first round picks, linebackers Jarvis Jones and Ryan Shazier, have missed most of the season. Troy Polamalu, the ever-present former superhero, has been replaced […]

Mike Mitchell isn’t great at football. He isn’t the worst free safety in the league, but his salary is above average and his play is below average. Many of us have noticed that discrepancy and aren’t very impressed with the Steelers’ big free agent signing. It’s one thing to be overpaid. It’s another thing to […]

Quick note before I get to work on the game recap. LeGarrette Blount bailed on the team last night in Tennessee. On a night when the running game was infallible, Le’Veon Bell was having a career night charging up the middle, over and around defenders and generally willing the Steelers to win. Well apparently that […]

We had to know it was too good to be true. Ben Roethlisberger was playing video games on opposing defenses and the Steelers were rising through the ranks in the NFL. And then Mike Tomlin’s squad went on the road to play a 1-8 team, and we should know what to expect by now. The […]

Don’t look now, but the Steelers are one of the better teams in football. When they lost to Cleveland and won unconvincingly in Jacksonville, we all looked at that Houston-Indianapolis-Baltimore homestand and figured we should start checking out who’s lighting it up in the NCAA. And over those three games, the Steelers scored 124 points. […]

You want to complain about Todd Haley this week? You can’t. Bruce Arians never put up 51 points. Okay, take away that pick-6 by William Gay. Arians never put up 42, either. His offenses maxed out at 41 points, and Ken Whisenhunt put up 45 in 2006. I’m not going to bother going back to […]

This is Norm Van Brocklin. He set the single-game passing yardage record in 1954. That record has stood for 60 years. The man who set it has been dead for 30. Ben Roethlisberger could easily have been the one to finally etch his name over that record. Marino didn’t. Warner didn’t. Manning didn’t. It could have […]