Hey Steelers Fans. Welcome to Tuesday!
The Kickoff
You don’t need me to tell you that the Baltimore Ravens are playing very well right now. Last night they rolled up 41 points and over 500 yards of offense in beating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers by ten. They are running the ball well and they are throwing the ball well but I can also say that we’ve seen this movie before. How many times now have we seen the Ravens dominate teams only for the Pittsburgh Steelers to slow them down? For whatever reason the Steelers have had Lamar Jackson’s number and they’ll need to again as he appears well on his way to another MVP type season. The Steelers will not see the juggernaut Ravens until a home date on November 11th which means any number of things can happen between now and then. That said, it won’t be easy because it’s never easy when we play Baltimore.
Admit It When You’re Wrong
I’ve grown very tired of Steelers’ Fans who struggle to admit when they are wrong. So much so I felt the desire to actually write about it this morning.
Tomlin Tuesday
I don’t expect Mike Tomlin to stroll up to the podium today with the confidence of a king simply because he knows this is a long season. His decision to go with Russell Wilson was the right call for this past week. Time will tell if it continues over the last half of the season. He will speak to the media at Noon today. The players have their day off.
Give and Take
The Steelers play the New York Giants on Monday night heading into their BYE week. My guess is that the players are less than thrilled to be giving up a day they could otherwise use as part of their time away. Once again, the NFL is sticking it to the Steelers. I suppose if there’s anything good it’s that they have a short road trip to Washington following the BYE week.
Larry O and the Personal Foul
Steelers’ defensive lineman Larry Ogunjobi made a terrific play early in the game against the Jets when he brought down the ball carrier for a loss. Because he spun the player into the ground he was hit with a personal foul penalty. While defenders are told not to do this, the Jets would go to do the very same thing as many as three times during the game with no flags thrown. Just as important are two things. First, Ogunjobi was playing through the whistle as players are taught. From my recollection, the whistle had not even blown yet. Secondly was how it affected the defense for almost the entire half. You’ll recall that the Jets went on to build a 15-6 lead and much of it was on the back of some really poor tackling. Maybe the Steelers were gun shy? Seemed like strange irony to me.
Random Reads
The film of Mason McCormick isn’t perfect. But I have no doubt that they’ve found a guy for the foreseeable future. He’s a solid player already as a rookie… Not sure how anyone can question how Najee Harris plays the game in terms of effort. It’s remarkable that he’s been as available as he has been in his career with how hard he plays every week… Awful injury to the Bucs’ Chris Godwin last night. Hope he can make a full recovery as he heads into a free agency year… I wish I cared more about baseball. The fact that the World Series is Dodgers and Yankees makes me care even less… Two weeks to go until election day… I’m pretty sure Myron Cope wouldn’t have been thrilled to see his Terrible Towel used as a political prop.
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Hot Reads is presented by Frank Walker Law.