Friday, October 21, 2011
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Big Ben vs. Whiz: Ice Bowl II
By Mike Bires
Beaver County Times
http://www.timesonline.com/
mbires@timesonline.com
October 20, 2011
Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and former assistant coach Ken Whisenhunt -- now the Cardinals' head coach -- worked together at a practice the Friday before Super Bowl XL in 2006. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
PITTSBURGH -- There's a perception that the relationship between Ben Roethlisberger and Ken Whisenhunt is a bit on the cool side.
Apparently, Roethlisberger was never enamored with the way he was handled early in his career when Whisenhunt, now head coach of the Arizona Cardinals, was the Steelers' offensive coordinator.
It was Roethlisberger himself who hinted that there may be some tension between the two when asked about Whisenhunt before Wednesday's practice.
Although Roethlisberger wasn't asked specifically if he has any problems with Whisenhunt, part of his answer was "there are no grudges."
There is a small faction which believes if Roethlisberger would have given Whisenhunt a strong endorsement after Bill Cowher resigned that Whisenhunt may have been named coach before Mike Tomlin got the job.
"Whiz was good," Roethlisberger said. "It took me awhile to realize ... I think he was very good because I was a young quarterback. He really held those reins real tight. He felt that was the way to approach a young quarterback. There are no grudges. That's the way he wanted to do it.
"I mean, as a quarterback you want to go, and you want to do no-huddle stuff and have the opportunity to change plays and do things. But either he didn't feel I was ready for it or that his system was the way to go. That's his prerogative."
Roethlisberger, the 11th overall pick in the 2004 draft, became a starter in Week 3 of his rookie season after Tommy Maddox suffered an elbow injury. Roethlisberger went on to win all 13 of his regular-season starts. He didn't experience a loss until the Steelers lost in the AFC Championship Game to New England.
A year later, Roethlisberger became the youngest quarterback to win a Super Bowl.
In both those seasons, the Steelers had a great defense and ran a run-oriented offense. Roethlisberger threw 295 passes as a rookie and 268 in the 12 games he played in '05.
Since Bruce Arians succeeded Whisenhunt as offensive coordinator in 2007, Roethlisberger has thrown less than 400 passes only once. That was last year when he threw 389 passes after missing the first four games of the season while on suspension.
"Obviously, (Ben) was thrust in the starting role after Tommy got hurt in that second game, and a lot of that was making sure he was ready," Whisenhunt said of the way Roethlisberger was handled as a rookie.
"You always defer to your head coach -- a lot of our staff felt that was the approach we should take with him -- try to do things he was comfortable with and giving him those things. We felt we had a lot of good football players around him and we were able to run the football, and that always helps. But any time you've got a young quarterback and you're trying to bring him along, the biggest thing is assessing what he does well and trying to make sure he's put in the right situation. A lot of that was Coach Cowher. That's what he believed in."
Since Whisenhunt went to Arizona, the Steelers and Cardinals have played twice. The first time was in 2007 when the Cardinals won at home, 21-14. In that game, Roethlisberger didn't play particularly well. He threw for 244 yards and two touchdowns. But he also threw two interceptions and was sacked four times while compiling a 72.9 passer rating.
The next season, the Steelers beat the Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII. In that game, Roethlisberger posted a 93.2 passer rating. He threw an interception and was sacked once. But he threw for 258 yards and the game-winning touchdown, a 6-yard throw to Santonio Holmes with 35 seconds left to play.
"It was fun," Roethlisberger said when asked if that Super Bowl win was the greatest moment of his career. "It ranks up there pretty high."
When asked if he now appreciates how he was handled by Whisenhunt from 2004-2006, Roethlisberger gave the politically correct answer.
"Yeah, probably," he said. "Thankful? Who knows? Maybe I would have liked to have done some stuff. But I appreciate the way he coached me. He was a good coach."
Beaver County Times
http://www.timesonline.com/
mbires@timesonline.com
October 20, 2011
PITTSBURGH -- There's a perception that the relationship between Ben Roethlisberger and Ken Whisenhunt is a bit on the cool side.
Apparently, Roethlisberger was never enamored with the way he was handled early in his career when Whisenhunt, now head coach of the Arizona Cardinals, was the Steelers' offensive coordinator.
It was Roethlisberger himself who hinted that there may be some tension between the two when asked about Whisenhunt before Wednesday's practice.
Although Roethlisberger wasn't asked specifically if he has any problems with Whisenhunt, part of his answer was "there are no grudges."
There is a small faction which believes if Roethlisberger would have given Whisenhunt a strong endorsement after Bill Cowher resigned that Whisenhunt may have been named coach before Mike Tomlin got the job.
"Whiz was good," Roethlisberger said. "It took me awhile to realize ... I think he was very good because I was a young quarterback. He really held those reins real tight. He felt that was the way to approach a young quarterback. There are no grudges. That's the way he wanted to do it.
"I mean, as a quarterback you want to go, and you want to do no-huddle stuff and have the opportunity to change plays and do things. But either he didn't feel I was ready for it or that his system was the way to go. That's his prerogative."
Roethlisberger, the 11th overall pick in the 2004 draft, became a starter in Week 3 of his rookie season after Tommy Maddox suffered an elbow injury. Roethlisberger went on to win all 13 of his regular-season starts. He didn't experience a loss until the Steelers lost in the AFC Championship Game to New England.
A year later, Roethlisberger became the youngest quarterback to win a Super Bowl.
In both those seasons, the Steelers had a great defense and ran a run-oriented offense. Roethlisberger threw 295 passes as a rookie and 268 in the 12 games he played in '05.
Since Bruce Arians succeeded Whisenhunt as offensive coordinator in 2007, Roethlisberger has thrown less than 400 passes only once. That was last year when he threw 389 passes after missing the first four games of the season while on suspension.
"Obviously, (Ben) was thrust in the starting role after Tommy got hurt in that second game, and a lot of that was making sure he was ready," Whisenhunt said of the way Roethlisberger was handled as a rookie.
"You always defer to your head coach -- a lot of our staff felt that was the approach we should take with him -- try to do things he was comfortable with and giving him those things. We felt we had a lot of good football players around him and we were able to run the football, and that always helps. But any time you've got a young quarterback and you're trying to bring him along, the biggest thing is assessing what he does well and trying to make sure he's put in the right situation. A lot of that was Coach Cowher. That's what he believed in."
Since Whisenhunt went to Arizona, the Steelers and Cardinals have played twice. The first time was in 2007 when the Cardinals won at home, 21-14. In that game, Roethlisberger didn't play particularly well. He threw for 244 yards and two touchdowns. But he also threw two interceptions and was sacked four times while compiling a 72.9 passer rating.
The next season, the Steelers beat the Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII. In that game, Roethlisberger posted a 93.2 passer rating. He threw an interception and was sacked once. But he threw for 258 yards and the game-winning touchdown, a 6-yard throw to Santonio Holmes with 35 seconds left to play.
"It was fun," Roethlisberger said when asked if that Super Bowl win was the greatest moment of his career. "It ranks up there pretty high."
When asked if he now appreciates how he was handled by Whisenhunt from 2004-2006, Roethlisberger gave the politically correct answer.
"Yeah, probably," he said. "Thankful? Who knows? Maybe I would have liked to have done some stuff. But I appreciate the way he coached me. He was a good coach."
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Steelers' Keisel improves 'D' by more than a hair
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
The beard is taking over center stage again. I get that. But this is ridiculous: "The beard is back and it's helping our team win," Steelers defensive end Brett Keisel insisted.
Nonsense.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it until I see Keisel's beard make its first tackle or bat down its first pass or get its first sack.
Hey, don't get the wrong idea. I like a good beard as much as the next man. Keisel has a beauty going again, just like last season. It was nearly as hot of a topic at Super Bowl XLV in February as star quarterbacks Ben Roethlisberger and Aaron Rodgers. It even had its own T-shirt -- "Respect The Beard, Fear The Diesel" -- and raised a lot of money for charity.
It was great fun.
But enough.
The story here this morning is not about Keisel's beard or its new T-shirt -- "Da-Beard" -- which can be purchased at www.brettkeisel.com. It's about Keisel's ability, which too often gets lost in all of his hair and doesn't get nearly the recognition it deserves. He was the best defensive player on the Heinz Field lawn Sunday in the Steelers' 17-13 win against the Jacksonville Jaguars, apologies to linebacker LaMarr Woodley, who had two sacks.
What a difference Keisel has made since returning to the lineup after missing two games with a knee problem. The same defense that was gashed for 86 yards and a touchdown by Indianapolis running back Joseph Addai and 155 yards and a touchdown by Houston's Arian Foster in his absence stiffened almost immediately. Tennessee's Chris Johnson managed 51 yards on 14 carries in the Steelers' 38-17 win Oct. 9 and, although Jacksonville's Maurice Jones-Drew ran for 96, he needed 22 carries and took a solid beating.
Still, Keisel isn't satisfied, not after the Jaguars scored 10 second-half points to make the game far too interesting.
"We have to be better if we want to be great. We've got to put people away when we have the chance."
Certainly, Keisel did his part Sunday. There was so much more to his performance than his work against the run. He tackled Jones-Drew for a 3-yard loss on a screen pass. He batted away another pass at the line of scrimmage, something he seems to do just about every week. And, I almost forgot, he had two sacks.
The second one was huge, coming on the first play after the Jaguars took possession at their 23 with no timeouts and 1:01 left. "It's always devastating when you take a sack in your two-minute offense," Keisel said.
It's not much of a reach to suggest Keisel, 33 and in his 10th NFL season, is the Steelers' best defensive lineman. Aaron Smith and Casey Hampton have been out with injuries after slow starts. Chris Hoke was injured Sunday. Ziggy Hood, in his third season, still is learning. Rookie Cameron Heyward is a mere baby in Dick LeBeau's defense.
"I'm just trying to be a mentor and a leader for these young guys," Keisel said. "I'm trying to be someone who is accountable. To do that, I have to go out in practice and work hard, then carry it into the games and help this team win."
What's remarkable about that is one of the young guys surely will take Keisel's job one day and push him into retirement.
"That's just the way this game is," Keisel said, shrugging. "When Aaron, Casey, Hokey and I are gone, I still want this to be the same tough, hard-nosed defense that it's always been."
The end doesn't appear to be as near for Keisel, who is signed through the 2013 season, as it does for Smith and Hampton. He still has a little jump left in his game. Literally.
"Yeah, I still have a little vertical left," he said, grinning.
In the Tennessee game, Keisel leaped to deflect a pass that was intercepted by Woodley. Sunday, he got way up again to swat another pass away. That makes at least one such breakup in eight of his past 12 games going back to last season when he made his first Pro Bowl.
"That's something I've tried really hard to incorporate into my game," Keisel said. "I know I'm not going to get to the quarterback every time. But I'm long. I try to get my hands up on every play."
The man's athleticism is impressive, as good as any defensive end's in the league, if you believe the Steelers coaches. That goes back to his high school days when he was a basketball player of some renown in Wyoming. "I was decent, but I always fouled out. I guess I liked to get physical."
Big surprise there, right?
Keisel was better than decent in hoops. A number of smaller colleges offered him scholarships to play basketball. Montana and Montana State wanted him for football and basketball. He decided to stick with football at Brigham Young.
"I made the right decision."
For him, clearly.
For the Steelers, absolutely.
And, yes, I hate to admit it, for Da-Beard.
Monday, October 17, 2011
It's too soon to believe in pass defense
Monday, October 17, 2011
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/
Seeing is believing, goes the oversimplification, but at the highest levels of professional football, particularly in the way the Steelers approach their pass defense, believing isn't seeing.
Not even close.
"I saw it; I just didn't believe," Ike Taylor was saying Sunday after he got scorched for the only Jacksonville touchdown in a wobbly 17-13 Steelers victory at Heinz field. "There was no move [by Jaguars wideout Jason Hill]. I just didn't trust what I saw. I second-guessed myself during the play."
So with the benefit of rejected foresight, Hill beat Taylor on a long, loping post for an 18-yard touchdown that brought the Jaguars to within a touchdown near the end of the third quarter, or about an hour after they had fallen into a 17-0 ditch on their way to a fifth consecutive loss.
Taylor was virtually inconsolable, so excellent has his season been to this point, but he's not the only one who sees what the Steelers defense has done against the pass and still simply doesn't believe it.
Coach Mike Tomlin would be another.
It never comforted the coach in the least that this team had the league's top-rated pass defense, as he knew better than anyone that statistic is completely reversible. Opponents were chopping the run defense so successfully there was simply no time for, nor purpose in, piling up gratuitous passing yards.
Broken into smaller empirical bits, however, it got very tempting to feel some quantum of security.
As of this morning, three-eighths of the way through this NFL season, the Steelers have allowed only two touchdown passes in the previous five games, have rung up eight sacks in the past two games, and have not been victimized by even a single 100-plus receiving performance in a season blizzarded by air yards.
"I think the jury is still out on us and I don't run away from that; as a matter of fact I encourage it," Tomlin sniffed after his team had won for the fourth time in six weeks. "It's a good working mentality for us to have. We've done some nice things, but due to some circumstances one way or another, we haven't been tested like we will be."
Larry Fitzgerald awaits them in the desert come Sunday, and the following appointment is with Tom Brady in the North Side twilight on All Hallows Eve Eve.
In the meantime, several variables have taken on an ominous density, especially the status of Troy Polamalu. After flashing into the Jacksonville backfield to abort a critical third-and-1 play in the fourth quarter, Polamalu left the field with what Tomlin called concussion-like symptoms. It didn't help that as Polamalu tottered to his feet after his final play, Ryan Clark head-butted him a hearty congratulations.
"I hope not," Clark said about the possibility of that helmet-to-helmet aggravating the situation.
Clark had been trying to help the entire game, right down to the final play when he knocked a potential interception away from Taylor in the Steelers end zone.
"Our turnover ratio has been so bad [two takeaways against 13 giveaways] I was just trying to get one," he said.
His better effort was probably in trying to encourage Taylor, who walked the sideline, sat with his head in a towel, stalked away from Clark, and finally took a phone call from the upstairs coaches telling him to forget about Hill's score because there was still more than a quarter to be played.
Corners are going to get beat once in a while, someone pointed out in the winning locker room. If you're an NFL receiver and you can't beat the corner one on one now and again, you won't be an NFL receiver for long.
"I don't want to hear that," Taylor said. "I don't want to understand that. I don't want nobody getting' nothin' on me."
Pretty much all they've gotten this year is nothing, but somehow the pass defense has been ascribed the same brand of vague imperfection Taylor was feeling.
"Ike wants to be perfect," Clark said. "And it's that determination that makes him a great cornerback."
That said, this team's defense wasn't going to be perfect, or even reliably ferocious, unless it started getting consistent pressure on the quarterback. Five sacks Sunday were half as many as the defensive front seven had totaled in the first five games, never mind that they came against a Jacksonville offensive line as jumbled by injuries as its Steelers corollary.
"I thought we did a good job," said linebacker LaMarr Woodley, who with Brett Keisel each had two sacks (Farrior had the fifth). "When we put pressure on the quarterback we give the secondary a chance to make some plays."
All five sacks Sunday were crippling to the confidence of rookie quarterback Blaine Gabbert and to any momentum the Jaguars were building, which is nifty, but all five sacks were also highly necessary to thwart an offense that has scored only six touchdowns in six games.
What to make of all that remains an enigma. I'm seeing a good pass defense, but I'm not fully believing it.
Messrs. Fitzgerald and Brady will pass judgment soon enough.
Gene Collier: gcollier@post-gazette.com. More articles by this author
Mendenhall quiets critics
By Dejan Kovacevic, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/?_s_icmp=nav_sports
Monday, October 17, 2011
PITTSBURGH, PA - OCTOBER 16: Rashard Mendenhall(notes) #34 of the Pittsburgh Steelers looks for running room between William Middleton(notes) #29 and Dawan Landry(notes) #26 of the Jacksonville Jaguars at Heinz Field on October 16, 2011 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh won the game 17-13. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
Wave after wave, various versions of the same question came for Rashard Mendenhall as he was surrounded by cameras and microphones in the Steelers' locker room Sunday.
Did he hear or read his critics all through the week?
"No, not at all," he replied, expressionless.
What about the calls for Isaac Redman and/or Jonathan Dwyer take his place?
"I don't get into all that. We have a great relationship."
Any additional motivation?
"I prepare the same every week. There was nothing different for me."
Any advice from the coaches about maybe changing his style?
"No. After running the same way for 24 years, I don't think you change your running style in a week. This was just business as usual for us."
It sure was business as usual for Mendenhall — at least the 2010 version — in the Steelers' 17-13 closer-than-necessary edging of Jacksonville at Heinz Field. He ran for 146 yards, including an 8-yard pylon dive for the Steelers' first touchdown and a 68-yard burst through left tackle that set up a field goal. It was the fourth-highest rushing total of his career, and it nearly doubled the 173 he mustered in his first four games.
He was outstanding.
But I'm sorry, I'm not buying that there was no extra motivation. Not with all the noise around town about how the Steelers' 1,273-yard man suddenly was tiptoeing to the line, failing to hit holes and going down far too easily. Nothing underscored that like watching Dwyer break loose for 113 yards and Redman battle for a hard 49 last week, when Mendenhall had a hamstring injury. Same offensive line, different result.
I wrote in this space after that game that, although Mendenhall is the superior talent, Redman's visibly superior determination should have earned him at least the first drive Sunday. Most of the fan base, it seemed, was far harsher on Mendenhall than that.
There's just no way he wasn't moved by it, right?
To be sure, I checked with Dwyer: "Oh, no, I don't think so. To me, Rashard is one of the best backs in the NFL. He just went out and did what he does."
Next was Redman, who sounded unsure about Mendenhall's feelings on the criticism but plenty sure of his own: "It made me really mad, hearing all that about Rashard. All he does is help this team win football games. Things weren't going well for our team, and he was getting the majority of the blame. It wasn't fair. But today, he came out and shut a lot of people up."
In response to the criticism?
"Well, of course it's going to make a difference," Redman said. "When a guy's getting criticized and we run the ball well when he's out, yeah, he's going to feel an urge. He went out there and shut up all his critics."
Inspired anew, I went back to Mendenhall's stall, long since isolated, and offered yet another version of the same question: What was it like seeing Dwyer and Redman succeed the previous week, only to have the narrative turn so sharply against him?
"Yeah, I know, that's part of it," Mendenhall replied. "Look, what my teammates did was no surprise to me. I see them every day. I know they're talented backs. It's unfortunate, though, for as much work as you put in, how people turn that fast."
We sure do.
Mendenhall is the Steelers' featured back, now and for the foreseeable future. He can run inside and out, he can catch passes, and he even rushes for touchdowns, with 16 now over the past two seasons. Not many backs find the end zone anymore. And he's still growing at age 24.
Look, Mendenhall will never be beloved in this town. I get that. Anyone who tweets all the nonsense he did in the offseason is never going to be a sympathetic character. It won't help that he doesn't have the most gregarious personality.
But the man can run.
And, whether he admits it or not, he can generate an extra vapor trail or two when he gets ticked off.
PITTSBURGH, PA - OCTOBER 16: Blaine Gabbert(notes) #11 of the Jacksonville Jaguars drops back to pass in front of LaMarr Woodley(notes) #56 of the Pittsburgh Steelers during the game on October 16, 2011 at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)
Game balls
Columnist Dejan Kovacevic chooses the game’s top performers:
LaMarr Woodley, Steelers OLB: No one's questioning the $61 Million Man's whereabouts after another big game, with two sacks, a quarterback hurry, a tackle for a loss and eight total tackles.
Rashard Mendenhall, Steelers RB: Stuck it to his critics with inspired rushing for 146 yards, reaching 100 just three minutes into the second quarter. Maybe he heard Isaac Redman's footsteps.
Brett Keisel, Steelers DE: The Beard is something to fear again. No. 99 recorded two sacks, a tipped pass and tackle for a loss on a screen pass, and he helped the run defense stuff cutbacks
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/?_s_icmp=nav_sports
Monday, October 17, 2011
Wave after wave, various versions of the same question came for Rashard Mendenhall as he was surrounded by cameras and microphones in the Steelers' locker room Sunday.
Did he hear or read his critics all through the week?
"No, not at all," he replied, expressionless.
What about the calls for Isaac Redman and/or Jonathan Dwyer take his place?
"I don't get into all that. We have a great relationship."
Any additional motivation?
"I prepare the same every week. There was nothing different for me."
Any advice from the coaches about maybe changing his style?
"No. After running the same way for 24 years, I don't think you change your running style in a week. This was just business as usual for us."
It sure was business as usual for Mendenhall — at least the 2010 version — in the Steelers' 17-13 closer-than-necessary edging of Jacksonville at Heinz Field. He ran for 146 yards, including an 8-yard pylon dive for the Steelers' first touchdown and a 68-yard burst through left tackle that set up a field goal. It was the fourth-highest rushing total of his career, and it nearly doubled the 173 he mustered in his first four games.
He was outstanding.
But I'm sorry, I'm not buying that there was no extra motivation. Not with all the noise around town about how the Steelers' 1,273-yard man suddenly was tiptoeing to the line, failing to hit holes and going down far too easily. Nothing underscored that like watching Dwyer break loose for 113 yards and Redman battle for a hard 49 last week, when Mendenhall had a hamstring injury. Same offensive line, different result.
I wrote in this space after that game that, although Mendenhall is the superior talent, Redman's visibly superior determination should have earned him at least the first drive Sunday. Most of the fan base, it seemed, was far harsher on Mendenhall than that.
There's just no way he wasn't moved by it, right?
To be sure, I checked with Dwyer: "Oh, no, I don't think so. To me, Rashard is one of the best backs in the NFL. He just went out and did what he does."
Next was Redman, who sounded unsure about Mendenhall's feelings on the criticism but plenty sure of his own: "It made me really mad, hearing all that about Rashard. All he does is help this team win football games. Things weren't going well for our team, and he was getting the majority of the blame. It wasn't fair. But today, he came out and shut a lot of people up."
In response to the criticism?
"Well, of course it's going to make a difference," Redman said. "When a guy's getting criticized and we run the ball well when he's out, yeah, he's going to feel an urge. He went out there and shut up all his critics."
Inspired anew, I went back to Mendenhall's stall, long since isolated, and offered yet another version of the same question: What was it like seeing Dwyer and Redman succeed the previous week, only to have the narrative turn so sharply against him?
"Yeah, I know, that's part of it," Mendenhall replied. "Look, what my teammates did was no surprise to me. I see them every day. I know they're talented backs. It's unfortunate, though, for as much work as you put in, how people turn that fast."
We sure do.
Mendenhall is the Steelers' featured back, now and for the foreseeable future. He can run inside and out, he can catch passes, and he even rushes for touchdowns, with 16 now over the past two seasons. Not many backs find the end zone anymore. And he's still growing at age 24.
Look, Mendenhall will never be beloved in this town. I get that. Anyone who tweets all the nonsense he did in the offseason is never going to be a sympathetic character. It won't help that he doesn't have the most gregarious personality.
But the man can run.
And, whether he admits it or not, he can generate an extra vapor trail or two when he gets ticked off.
Game balls
Columnist Dejan Kovacevic chooses the game’s top performers:
LaMarr Woodley, Steelers OLB: No one's questioning the $61 Million Man's whereabouts after another big game, with two sacks, a quarterback hurry, a tackle for a loss and eight total tackles.
Rashard Mendenhall, Steelers RB: Stuck it to his critics with inspired rushing for 146 yards, reaching 100 just three minutes into the second quarter. Maybe he heard Isaac Redman's footsteps.
Brett Keisel, Steelers DE: The Beard is something to fear again. No. 99 recorded two sacks, a tipped pass and tackle for a loss on a screen pass, and he helped the run defense stuff cutbacks
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Steelers' Ward says he'll know when it's time to step aside
Sunday, October 16, 2011
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/
PITTSBURGH, PA - OCTOBER 9: Hines Ward(notes) #86 of the Pittsburgh Steelers runs after the catch and scores a touchdown against Tommie Campbell(notes) #37 of the Tennessee Titans during the game on October 9, 2011 at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Steelers defeated the Titans 38-17. (Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)
The question is not: Is Hines Ward finished as a player? He most certainly is not. Did you see him leap over safety Michael Griffin to score his second touchdown against the Tennessee Titans last Sunday?
The question is: Will Ward be content all season to play a lesser role for the Steelers? That one is harder to answer. It's always difficult for a future Hall of Famer to step aside. It's especially difficult for a player with Ward's pride.
"I don't want to be a cancer on this team," he said last week.
I believe him. I believed him when he added, "It's not about Hines Ward. It's about the Pittsburgh Steelers winning ballgames." He mentioned the great Larry Fitzgerald, an All-Pro wide receiver with the Arizona Cardinals and a former Pitt All-American. "He has 10 times more ability than me, but what has he won?" Ward asked. "I've talked to him about it. He told me he would trade it all to have one of my Super Bowl rings."
There's no doubt Ward -- at least in his mind -- is sincere when he says those things.
But I also know what his personal stats mean to him. I will bet you anything that he knows the exact numbers: 974 catches for 11,892 yards and 85 touchdowns. He's a lot like Pete Rose, who likely still remembers every one of his 4,256 base hits.
You, too, would be proud if you had those numbers next to your name.
But a player's staggering individual success, which, in Ward's case, has contributed mightily to great team success, can lead to an awkward situation as the player nears the end of his career. We might be getting close to that point with Ward. He said he feels as if he has lost nothing and plans on returning next season. But what if the Steelers don't want him back?
I repeat: Awkward.
Ward promised no one will have to tell him when it's time to quit. "I'll know when I can't get open consistently against a cornerback I know I should beat." But a lot of players say that and don't know when it's time or don't want to face the truth. What if that's Ward?
One more time: Awkward.
The situation already is a bit uncomfortable. Clearly, Ward no longer is the preferred target for quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. "Mike [Wallace] is a rising superstar and Antonio [Brown] has a great rapport with Ben," Ward acknowledged. But it came across as a tough admission.
This next Ward quote did nothing to change that perception:
"My numbers might be down, but I can't control where the ball goes."
A lot of people took that as meaning there is an issue between Ward and Roethlisberger. It's no secret the two don't have a warm and fuzzy relationship, the low point coming when Ward publicly called out Roethlisberger for not playing against the Baltimore Ravens in 2009 after a concussion. But I don't believe that's what prompted Ward's observation about who controls the ball. He and Roethlisberger never have been anything less than true professionals and never have taken their feelings toward one another onto the field. Every quarterback and receiver should have such a lousy relationship if it means the kind of success Roethlisberger and Ward have shared. The two hooked up seven times on underneath passes for 54 yards and the two touchdowns against the Titans, the result, all agreed, of the Titans playing double coverage deep to take away the home-run ball to Wallace.
It's much more likely that Ward was speaking out of frustration and anger. Not anger toward Roethlisberger. Anger toward those who are saying he is washed up. And -- don't underestimate this -- anger toward the clock that keeps ticking unalterably toward the end of his wondrous career.
"I know it's an easy story to write that I'm 35 and I'm done," Ward said. "I'm no writer and I could write that one ...
"I feel like I'm still getting to my spots. I still think of myself as being a playmaker."
Ward mentioned his leap over Griffin. Few receivers have fought their way into the end zone with the zeal that he has during his 14 years in the NFL. This was his 50th red-zone touchdown catch since 2002. Only San Diego tight end Antonio Gates (51) has more during that period.
Yes, in case you're wondering, Ward knows he trails only Gates.
"I knew I still could jump over [Griffin]," he said. "But after I landed, I thought to myself, 'I can't believe I just did that.' Griffin is a pretty good safety in the league. He even told me, 'Man, that was a pretty good play.' I think he was surprised."
Chances are Ward has a few more good plays left in him. But how many? Who knows?
That ticking clock ...
I saw the same anger in Ward last week that I saw in Arnold Palmer after he played his final U.S. Open round at Oakmont Country Club in 1994. When Palmer was finished, it was as if he couldn't believe his amazing run in golf was over. It hacked him off.
Ward's time is coming, maybe after this season, maybe after next. He knows it. I truly hope his departure isn't awkward. That would be such a sad ending to an amazing success story.
Ron Cook: rcook@post-gazette.com. Ron Cook can be heard on the "Vinnie and Cook" show weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on 93.7 The Fan. More articles by this author
NHL 'sideshows' getting old
By Joe Starkey, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/?_s_icmp=nav_sports
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Arron Asham after his fight with Jay Beagle on Thursday.
Had to wonder what Mario Lemieux was thinking the other night at Consol Energy Center when his beloved sport morphed into studio wrestling.
I'm not referring only to Arron Asham's antics, for which Asham immediately and sincerely apologized. I'm talking about the whole sickening scene. One that repeats itself at NHL arenas across North America whenever a fight breaks out.
What was the word Lemieux used in his scathing letter to the NHL after the Islanders ambushed his Penguins in a flurry of gutless cheap shots last season?
Oh, yes. Sideshow.
Exact wording: "It was painful to watch the game I love turn into a sideshow like that."
Fast forward to Thursday night, Penguins-Capitals, five minutes into the third period of a competitive and reasonably entertaining game.
What transpired next said a lot about hockey's warped culture -- a culture into which Sidney Crosby soon will be reimmersed.
Capitals forward Jay Beagle and Penguins defenseman Kris Letang engaged in a garden-variety scrum along the boards. Letang bumped Beagle, who responded like a puppy, pawing at Letang's face. Letang's helmet popped off. The two skated their separate ways.
No big deal.
Only it was.
Acting upon hockey's sacred "code" -- which is about as decipherable as "The Da Vinci Code" -- Asham went to warn the wayward puppy.
Stop messing with our best players.
Think about that for a second. Did Letang really need somebody to tell a rookie named Jay Beagle to leave him alone?
It got sillier. Asham says Beagle's response was to challenge him to a fight (by the flag pole after school, no doubt). Capitals winger Matt Hendricks says it was the other way around, though he credited Asham for abiding by the code. Which I guess calls for politely asking your opponent if he'd like to, you know, if it's not too much trouble, drop his gloves before you attempt to crack his skull like an eggshell.
"My understanding is (Asham) asked Jay in the way the fights are started," Hendricks told The Washington Post. "Jay obliged, and they scrapped."
That almost sounds civilized.
This doesn't: More than 18,000 people rose in giddy anticipation as the combatants circled. Beagle kept his plastic-shielded helmet on (code violation) but was no match for Asham, who dropped him with a thunderous right to the jaw.
The crowd exploded in delight.
Is this what it felt like inside the Roman Colosseum watching wild beasts tear apart a condemned man?
It was at once exhilarating and nauseating. The exhilaration quickly subsided. Beagle appeared to be out cold before he hit the ice. Asham, acting civilly in the midst of the assault, held Beagle's jersey to soften his face-first fall.
One of these days, somebody will die in an NHL fight. Will people be standing and cheering as it happens?
Having safely deposited Beagle as road kill, Asham skated away and made two gestures he would later describe, quite accurately, as "classless." He was apparently mimicking pro wrestler CM Punk's "Go to Sleep" act.
As if on cue, the Twitter site of WWE Universe -- more than 300,000 followers strong -- tweeted video of the fight accompanied by the following line: "Did this hockey player just tell his opponent to 'go to sleep?' "
Yes. Yes he did. And the site was kind enough to include @CMPunk on the tweet.
To recap the scene: Thousands of adults -- all of them followers of a franchise leading the movement to eliminate head hits -- cheered maniacally as a 25-year-old athlete lay motionless and bleeding because he'd just been punched in the face during a league-sanctioned fight.
It's a 'Rocky' Night in Pittsburgh!
Oh, well, at least both teams followed code by tapping their sticks on the boards as medical personnel helped Beagle off the ice.
Nobody made sense afterward, of course, because the code turns them all into hypocrites. Alex Ovechkin had the nerve to call out Asham for fighting a rookie.
"Not respectful," Ovechkin said.
That's rich, considering Ovechkin has nearly maimed multiple players with reckless hits.
At least Beagle saw it coming. This was not the same as the Islanders' actions last season, when they attacked unsuspecting Penguins players. But it wasn't exactly an advertisement for the sport, either.
Whether it's one enforcer (code for "can't play but sure can box") engaging another in an arranged scrap or a veteran tough guy pounding a puppy, fighting is nothing but a slaughterous sideshow.
And it's painful to watch the game I love turn into that.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/?_s_icmp=nav_sports
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Had to wonder what Mario Lemieux was thinking the other night at Consol Energy Center when his beloved sport morphed into studio wrestling.
I'm not referring only to Arron Asham's antics, for which Asham immediately and sincerely apologized. I'm talking about the whole sickening scene. One that repeats itself at NHL arenas across North America whenever a fight breaks out.
What was the word Lemieux used in his scathing letter to the NHL after the Islanders ambushed his Penguins in a flurry of gutless cheap shots last season?
Oh, yes. Sideshow.
Exact wording: "It was painful to watch the game I love turn into a sideshow like that."
Fast forward to Thursday night, Penguins-Capitals, five minutes into the third period of a competitive and reasonably entertaining game.
What transpired next said a lot about hockey's warped culture -- a culture into which Sidney Crosby soon will be reimmersed.
Capitals forward Jay Beagle and Penguins defenseman Kris Letang engaged in a garden-variety scrum along the boards. Letang bumped Beagle, who responded like a puppy, pawing at Letang's face. Letang's helmet popped off. The two skated their separate ways.
No big deal.
Only it was.
Acting upon hockey's sacred "code" -- which is about as decipherable as "The Da Vinci Code" -- Asham went to warn the wayward puppy.
Stop messing with our best players.
Think about that for a second. Did Letang really need somebody to tell a rookie named Jay Beagle to leave him alone?
It got sillier. Asham says Beagle's response was to challenge him to a fight (by the flag pole after school, no doubt). Capitals winger Matt Hendricks says it was the other way around, though he credited Asham for abiding by the code. Which I guess calls for politely asking your opponent if he'd like to, you know, if it's not too much trouble, drop his gloves before you attempt to crack his skull like an eggshell.
"My understanding is (Asham) asked Jay in the way the fights are started," Hendricks told The Washington Post. "Jay obliged, and they scrapped."
That almost sounds civilized.
This doesn't: More than 18,000 people rose in giddy anticipation as the combatants circled. Beagle kept his plastic-shielded helmet on (code violation) but was no match for Asham, who dropped him with a thunderous right to the jaw.
The crowd exploded in delight.
Is this what it felt like inside the Roman Colosseum watching wild beasts tear apart a condemned man?
It was at once exhilarating and nauseating. The exhilaration quickly subsided. Beagle appeared to be out cold before he hit the ice. Asham, acting civilly in the midst of the assault, held Beagle's jersey to soften his face-first fall.
One of these days, somebody will die in an NHL fight. Will people be standing and cheering as it happens?
Having safely deposited Beagle as road kill, Asham skated away and made two gestures he would later describe, quite accurately, as "classless." He was apparently mimicking pro wrestler CM Punk's "Go to Sleep" act.
As if on cue, the Twitter site of WWE Universe -- more than 300,000 followers strong -- tweeted video of the fight accompanied by the following line: "Did this hockey player just tell his opponent to 'go to sleep?' "
Yes. Yes he did. And the site was kind enough to include @CMPunk on the tweet.
To recap the scene: Thousands of adults -- all of them followers of a franchise leading the movement to eliminate head hits -- cheered maniacally as a 25-year-old athlete lay motionless and bleeding because he'd just been punched in the face during a league-sanctioned fight.
It's a 'Rocky' Night in Pittsburgh!
Oh, well, at least both teams followed code by tapping their sticks on the boards as medical personnel helped Beagle off the ice.
Nobody made sense afterward, of course, because the code turns them all into hypocrites. Alex Ovechkin had the nerve to call out Asham for fighting a rookie.
"Not respectful," Ovechkin said.
That's rich, considering Ovechkin has nearly maimed multiple players with reckless hits.
At least Beagle saw it coming. This was not the same as the Islanders' actions last season, when they attacked unsuspecting Penguins players. But it wasn't exactly an advertisement for the sport, either.
Whether it's one enforcer (code for "can't play but sure can box") engaging another in an arranged scrap or a veteran tough guy pounding a puppy, fighting is nothing but a slaughterous sideshow.
And it's painful to watch the game I love turn into that.
Book takes inside look at Penguins' decision to stay in 'Burgh
By Bob Cohn, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/?_s_icmp=nav_sports
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Imagine a long, cold, dark winter without the Penguins.
No cheering. No booing. No Stanley Cup. No Malkin or Fleury or Sid (assuming he comes back). No warm memories or sunny hopes.
In his new book, "Breakaway," Tribune-Review investigative reporter Andrew Conte describes how Pittsburgh came closer to such a reality than most people realized. Publisher Blue River Press of Indianapolis will release the book on Tuesday for sales in bookstores and online at www.breakawaypenguins.com.
Frustrated by seemingly endless obstacles to building an arena considered vital to the club's survival, Penguins owners Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle weighed moving the team to one of several potential landing spots. Of all the locations, Kansas City had put together the most attractive offer.
The Kansas City Penguins? It could have happened.
"When it came down to it in the end, the deal in Kansas City was actually sweeter (than the proposed arena in Pittsburgh) because they could begin making money right away," Conte said.
"Even with the arena deal here, they had to wait three years until they got the arena opened. So if they go to Kansas City, the deal there is comparable to the deal with the new arena here, but you get to start making money right away."
Team owners considered a scenario in which the Penguins moved to Los Angeles, and the Kings relocated to Kansas City, according to Conte.
In the end, of course, the Penguins moved across the street, swapping their original home -- the small, outdated Civic Arena known as "The Igloo" -- for the modern, spacious Consol Energy Center.
Conte, who covered the legalization of casino gambling in Pennsylvania and the arena negotiations, two weighty topics that were inextricably connected, tells the story in "Breakaway." It is a story, as he puts it, "of the Penguins from bankruptcy to the new arena, and from last place to the Stanley Cup." Conte spent more than two years researching and writing the book and conducted dozens of interviews.
Hockey is a violent sport, apparently not entirely confined to the ice. Among the book's revelations is how talks grew so testy that it appeared fisticuffs might break out in a meeting room during a particularly heated moment. Then-Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell became so angry that he "snapped," called team attorney Chuck Greenberg "a liar" and gave every appearance of going further.
Those in the room worried that Rendell might get physical. Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato stood up and advanced toward the governor, as if he might need to restrain him. The deal appeared to be falling apart. As Conte quotes Greenberg: "I really thought that if I had given him any cause to be incited, a line might have been crossed that would be very difficult to undo."
Rendell said later that he was trying to send a message with his voice and intimidating presence, Conte writes. "I like to create that impression," Rendell told him. "Part of it is real, and part of it is acting."
Conte reports that the deal nearly fell apart a second time, during a secret meeting in New Jersey.
In addition to describing the political and business machinations, Conte reveals -- with help from the reporting of Karen Price, then the Trib's hockey writer -- the intricacies of superstar Evgeni Malkin's departure from Russia and his strange and alarming "disappearance" that accompanied it. Malkin's interview with Conte was the only time he discussed his departure since joining the Penguins.
Even with a large and colorful cast that includes, among others, Rendell, Lemieux and Burkle -- who played an active role in the Marian Hossa trade and promoting Dan Bylsma to head coach -- Conte said that ultimately Penguins fans are the book's "heroes."
The fans, he said, showed up at the casino license hearings in force, wearing Penguins jerseys. The fans continue to support their team through lean years and fat ones, and they persuaded the owners to keep the club here.
"The fans get a lot of credit for sticking with their team, even when it looked like it was gonna leave town," Conte said. "The fans were still there. The fan base here was really the tipping point for why the team stayed."
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/?_s_icmp=nav_sports
Sunday, October 16, 2011
No cheering. No booing. No Stanley Cup. No Malkin or Fleury or Sid (assuming he comes back). No warm memories or sunny hopes.
In his new book, "Breakaway," Tribune-Review investigative reporter Andrew Conte describes how Pittsburgh came closer to such a reality than most people realized. Publisher Blue River Press of Indianapolis will release the book on Tuesday for sales in bookstores and online at www.breakawaypenguins.com.
Frustrated by seemingly endless obstacles to building an arena considered vital to the club's survival, Penguins owners Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle weighed moving the team to one of several potential landing spots. Of all the locations, Kansas City had put together the most attractive offer.
The Kansas City Penguins? It could have happened.
"When it came down to it in the end, the deal in Kansas City was actually sweeter (than the proposed arena in Pittsburgh) because they could begin making money right away," Conte said.
"Even with the arena deal here, they had to wait three years until they got the arena opened. So if they go to Kansas City, the deal there is comparable to the deal with the new arena here, but you get to start making money right away."
Team owners considered a scenario in which the Penguins moved to Los Angeles, and the Kings relocated to Kansas City, according to Conte.
In the end, of course, the Penguins moved across the street, swapping their original home -- the small, outdated Civic Arena known as "The Igloo" -- for the modern, spacious Consol Energy Center.
Conte, who covered the legalization of casino gambling in Pennsylvania and the arena negotiations, two weighty topics that were inextricably connected, tells the story in "Breakaway." It is a story, as he puts it, "of the Penguins from bankruptcy to the new arena, and from last place to the Stanley Cup." Conte spent more than two years researching and writing the book and conducted dozens of interviews.
Hockey is a violent sport, apparently not entirely confined to the ice. Among the book's revelations is how talks grew so testy that it appeared fisticuffs might break out in a meeting room during a particularly heated moment. Then-Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell became so angry that he "snapped," called team attorney Chuck Greenberg "a liar" and gave every appearance of going further.
Those in the room worried that Rendell might get physical. Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato stood up and advanced toward the governor, as if he might need to restrain him. The deal appeared to be falling apart. As Conte quotes Greenberg: "I really thought that if I had given him any cause to be incited, a line might have been crossed that would be very difficult to undo."
Rendell said later that he was trying to send a message with his voice and intimidating presence, Conte writes. "I like to create that impression," Rendell told him. "Part of it is real, and part of it is acting."
Conte reports that the deal nearly fell apart a second time, during a secret meeting in New Jersey.
In addition to describing the political and business machinations, Conte reveals -- with help from the reporting of Karen Price, then the Trib's hockey writer -- the intricacies of superstar Evgeni Malkin's departure from Russia and his strange and alarming "disappearance" that accompanied it. Malkin's interview with Conte was the only time he discussed his departure since joining the Penguins.
Even with a large and colorful cast that includes, among others, Rendell, Lemieux and Burkle -- who played an active role in the Marian Hossa trade and promoting Dan Bylsma to head coach -- Conte said that ultimately Penguins fans are the book's "heroes."
The fans, he said, showed up at the casino license hearings in force, wearing Penguins jerseys. The fans continue to support their team through lean years and fat ones, and they persuaded the owners to keep the club here.
"The fans get a lot of credit for sticking with their team, even when it looked like it was gonna leave town," Conte said. "The fans were still there. The fan base here was really the tipping point for why the team stayed."
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Has the Steel Curtain Gone Soft?
The Steelers defense has forced only two turnovers. Our football guru on what to expect for the rest of the season.
By Bill Barnwell
http://www.grantland.com/
PITTSBURGH, PA - OCTOBER 09: Nate Washington(notes) #85 of the Tennessee Titans attempts to handle a catch in front of Ike Taylor(notes) #24 and Troy Polamalu(notes) #43 of the Pittsburgh Steelers during the game on October 9, 2011 at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)
Something very strange is going on in Pittsburgh. The perennially superb Steelers defense is off to another great season, ranking first in passing yards allowed per attempt and fourth in points allowed, with the Steel Curtain giving up fewer than 18 points per contest.1 That's de rigueur by now. Something is missing, though, that doesn't make much sense. For some reason, the great Pittsburgh Steelers defense has stopped forcing turnovers.
Through five games, the Steelers have just two takeaways. That is the second-lowest total for any team through its first five games since 1990,2 and it's coming from a unit that averaged more than two takeaways per game last season. If you assume that the defense's 2010 turnover rate was an accurate reflection of its abilities, the odds against this measly turnover rate happening in 2011 are 785-to-1.
It's not even like the Steelers have had particularly bad luck. They've forced three fumbles in those five games and recovered one of them, a year after they forced 1.5 fumbles per game. Their one interception came last week, on a Matt Hasselbeck pass that was tipped. The schedule hasn't brought them a slate of stingy offenses, as their five opponents have averaged 1.6 turnovers per game when they haven't played the Steelers.
This would be easier to understand if the Steelers defense was also playing poorly, since we could attribute the decline to some combination of a slipping Troy Polamalu and a decrease in sack rate,3 but this mix of great performance and no turnovers is almost unprecedented. It raises two questions that we'll use history to try to answer: Is it possible for the Steelers defense to continue to play well without forcing turnovers? And, whether it's possible or not, will the turnovers come back?
Fake It 'Til We Make It
While we expect the Steelers to force turnovers more frequently over the final 11 games of the year, let's play devil's advocate and pretend it doesn't happen. Obviously, takeaways are an essential component of a defense's success, but are there teams over the past 20 years that have played great defense without creating turnovers?
As you might suspect, while they exist, those defenses are few and far between. Only four teams since 1990 have ranked in both the top five in (fewest) points allowed and bottom five in turnovers forced over a full season, and nobody's done it since the 2003 Bills. Better than 75 percent of the teams who finished in the top five in points allowed over that time frame did so with an above-average turnover rate. If the Steelers don't start forcing turnovers soon, it's going to be extremely difficult for them to maintain their elite level of performance on defense.
Takeaways: That Ball and Chain
Do teams that start the season sans takeaways swing back toward normalcy and start generating turnovers, or is a slow start indicative of a real problem with the defense? To answer that question, we can use the correlation coefficient, which we introduced in our Wednesday piece on the point spread. The correlation coefficient measures the relationship between two sets of variables and can tell us if one is a strong predictor of the other. What we're trying to figure out is whether a team's takeaway total during its first five games does a good job of predicting the same team's takeaways during the final 11 games.
The answer is a very swift no. Less than 2 percent of the takeaway rates posted by teams during the final 11 games can be explained away by the variance of their takeaway rates during the first five. It's a useless indicator. Put it this way — since 1990, the top 10 percent or so of teams in takeaways through the first five games each forced 14 or more turnovers. In the final 11 games of the year, they averaged a total of 21.6. Meanwhile, the bottom 10 percent or so of teams during the first five games of the year each forced no more than five turnovers. In their final 11 games, they picked up an average of 19.0 takeaways. After those initial five games to start the year, the difference between the teams that looked like takeaway factories and the ones that looked like they were incapable of forcing turnovers was just one turnover per every four games.
So, good news, Steelers fans: Polamalu & Co. should start creating takeaways sometime soon. This week seems like a great place to start, as they'll host rookie quarterback Blaine Gabbert and the lethargic Jaguars offense at Heinz Field.
Bill Barnwell is a staff writer for Grantland.
By Bill Barnwell
http://www.grantland.com/
Something very strange is going on in Pittsburgh. The perennially superb Steelers defense is off to another great season, ranking first in passing yards allowed per attempt and fourth in points allowed, with the Steel Curtain giving up fewer than 18 points per contest.1 That's de rigueur by now. Something is missing, though, that doesn't make much sense. For some reason, the great Pittsburgh Steelers defense has stopped forcing turnovers.
Through five games, the Steelers have just two takeaways. That is the second-lowest total for any team through its first five games since 1990,2 and it's coming from a unit that averaged more than two takeaways per game last season. If you assume that the defense's 2010 turnover rate was an accurate reflection of its abilities, the odds against this measly turnover rate happening in 2011 are 785-to-1.
It's not even like the Steelers have had particularly bad luck. They've forced three fumbles in those five games and recovered one of them, a year after they forced 1.5 fumbles per game. Their one interception came last week, on a Matt Hasselbeck pass that was tipped. The schedule hasn't brought them a slate of stingy offenses, as their five opponents have averaged 1.6 turnovers per game when they haven't played the Steelers.
This would be easier to understand if the Steelers defense was also playing poorly, since we could attribute the decline to some combination of a slipping Troy Polamalu and a decrease in sack rate,3 but this mix of great performance and no turnovers is almost unprecedented. It raises two questions that we'll use history to try to answer: Is it possible for the Steelers defense to continue to play well without forcing turnovers? And, whether it's possible or not, will the turnovers come back?
Fake It 'Til We Make It
While we expect the Steelers to force turnovers more frequently over the final 11 games of the year, let's play devil's advocate and pretend it doesn't happen. Obviously, takeaways are an essential component of a defense's success, but are there teams over the past 20 years that have played great defense without creating turnovers?
As you might suspect, while they exist, those defenses are few and far between. Only four teams since 1990 have ranked in both the top five in (fewest) points allowed and bottom five in turnovers forced over a full season, and nobody's done it since the 2003 Bills. Better than 75 percent of the teams who finished in the top five in points allowed over that time frame did so with an above-average turnover rate. If the Steelers don't start forcing turnovers soon, it's going to be extremely difficult for them to maintain their elite level of performance on defense.
Takeaways: That Ball and Chain
Do teams that start the season sans takeaways swing back toward normalcy and start generating turnovers, or is a slow start indicative of a real problem with the defense? To answer that question, we can use the correlation coefficient, which we introduced in our Wednesday piece on the point spread. The correlation coefficient measures the relationship between two sets of variables and can tell us if one is a strong predictor of the other. What we're trying to figure out is whether a team's takeaway total during its first five games does a good job of predicting the same team's takeaways during the final 11 games.
The answer is a very swift no. Less than 2 percent of the takeaway rates posted by teams during the final 11 games can be explained away by the variance of their takeaway rates during the first five. It's a useless indicator. Put it this way — since 1990, the top 10 percent or so of teams in takeaways through the first five games each forced 14 or more turnovers. In the final 11 games of the year, they averaged a total of 21.6. Meanwhile, the bottom 10 percent or so of teams during the first five games of the year each forced no more than five turnovers. In their final 11 games, they picked up an average of 19.0 takeaways. After those initial five games to start the year, the difference between the teams that looked like takeaway factories and the ones that looked like they were incapable of forcing turnovers was just one turnover per every four games.
So, good news, Steelers fans: Polamalu & Co. should start creating takeaways sometime soon. This week seems like a great place to start, as they'll host rookie quarterback Blaine Gabbert and the lethargic Jaguars offense at Heinz Field.
Bill Barnwell is a staff writer for Grantland.
Friday, October 14, 2011
Steelers should embrace the old
By Dejan Kovacevic, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/?_s_icmp=nav_sports
Friday, October 14, 2011
Steelers nose tackle Chris Hoke in action against the Titans at Heinz Field. At age 35, Hoke is one of the older members of the team.
(Chaz Palla/Tribune-Review)
The Steelers were going to have one last grasp at glory with this aging group. That was the sentiment of just about everyone, as I recall, right about the time Aaron Rodgers was done slicing up their secondary in the Super Bowl.
If that's changed since then, it's only in this way: The Steelers have to see it now, too.
Whether it's on the scoreboard, on the upside-down depth charts, in the video sessions or in the packed trainer's room, it's got to be clear to everyone that this is it. One and done. The NFL's second-oldest roster has been so hyperbolically inconsistent that, even if this 3-2 season ends up a success, it doesn't look sustainable in the slightest.
Fine, then. Embrace the old.
It's worked, that win-one-for-the-Bus atmosphere in which the older players lead that final battle cry.
Be that team.
The Steelers have scoffed at the notion that they're old, as if it's some distorted narrative. But that mindset was what led to the complacency on display in Baltimore, Indianapolis and Houston. They strutted into those cities like cocky teenagers, with neither the passion nor the preparation of their opponents. Contrast that to the humbled, well-prepared, stay-within-yourself veterans who systematically dismantled Tennessee last weekend.
I'll take the humbled version, thanks.
Besides, to my eye, the heart of this team -- Ben Roethlisberger's perseverance aside -- has been embodied by some of the older players.
Chris Hoke couldn't have known this summer if he would return to the Steelers. The burly backup nose tackle was as beloved as anyone on the roster, but being 35 years old and taking a decade's worth of NFL beatings had him unsigned until August.
"I wanted to play," Hoke said. "I'm so glad the Steelers called."
It showed. Before his first drill at Latrobe, Hoke performed his familiar "Hokey Pokey" jig, cracking up teammates and coaches. But he also went to work. One afternoon, I saw Hoke alone on the St. Vincent College grass, bashing three tackling sleds in 80-degree heat as if they were mortal enemies.
The payoff came against Tennessee. In his first start, Hoke was active and aggressive, so solid that some crazily called for starter Casey Hampton to lose his job.
Later in the locker room, I witnessed Hoke's real victory: He politely paused our interview to hug his sons: Cade, 9, and Nathan, 7. The younger, wearing a No. 76 jersey with the nameplate "DAD," looked up at the old man the way that kid in the Coke commercial did at Joe Greene.
"This is what it's all about, man, right here," Hoke said, grinning wider than a chin strap, as he hoisted Nathan up high. "I love these guys. I love playing football. I love playing for the Steelers. For me, to come back and have a game like this, contribute to a win ... this is a big deal for me and my family."
Be that player.
Left tackle Max Starks went "from his couch to a game ball," as offensive coordinator Bruce Arians described it, with a superb debut against Tennessee. But there was more to it. Or less, actually.
Starks is just 29, but he had swelled to 400 pounds, which is still a fifth of a ton even on a 6-foot-8 frame. That had to look to the world like a guy ready to retire, and it's possible the thought at least crossed his mind. But he joined a gym in Arizona and went on a diet that was the rough equivalent of fasting. Just like that, 60 pounds vanished.
"I've achieved a lot in this game, especially being part of two champions," Starks said. "Anybody else might have been happy with that and rode off into the sunset. But I knew I had something left to give to the game of football."
Be that player.
Those guys are hardly isolated examples: James Farrior, 36, had runners blowing by him for a month but made 13 tackles last weekend. Hines Ward, 35, couldn't get open or hold onto the ball but handled both elegantly last weekend. Troy Polamalu, 30, was outraced by a tight end in the opener but was ablaze last weekend.
They realize this won't last beyond the coming winter, that this illustrious group is nearing the end.
We see it, too.
Let's just go with it.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/?_s_icmp=nav_sports
Friday, October 14, 2011
(Chaz Palla/Tribune-Review)
The Steelers were going to have one last grasp at glory with this aging group. That was the sentiment of just about everyone, as I recall, right about the time Aaron Rodgers was done slicing up their secondary in the Super Bowl.
If that's changed since then, it's only in this way: The Steelers have to see it now, too.
Whether it's on the scoreboard, on the upside-down depth charts, in the video sessions or in the packed trainer's room, it's got to be clear to everyone that this is it. One and done. The NFL's second-oldest roster has been so hyperbolically inconsistent that, even if this 3-2 season ends up a success, it doesn't look sustainable in the slightest.
Fine, then. Embrace the old.
It's worked, that win-one-for-the-Bus atmosphere in which the older players lead that final battle cry.
Be that team.
The Steelers have scoffed at the notion that they're old, as if it's some distorted narrative. But that mindset was what led to the complacency on display in Baltimore, Indianapolis and Houston. They strutted into those cities like cocky teenagers, with neither the passion nor the preparation of their opponents. Contrast that to the humbled, well-prepared, stay-within-yourself veterans who systematically dismantled Tennessee last weekend.
I'll take the humbled version, thanks.
Besides, to my eye, the heart of this team -- Ben Roethlisberger's perseverance aside -- has been embodied by some of the older players.
Chris Hoke couldn't have known this summer if he would return to the Steelers. The burly backup nose tackle was as beloved as anyone on the roster, but being 35 years old and taking a decade's worth of NFL beatings had him unsigned until August.
"I wanted to play," Hoke said. "I'm so glad the Steelers called."
It showed. Before his first drill at Latrobe, Hoke performed his familiar "Hokey Pokey" jig, cracking up teammates and coaches. But he also went to work. One afternoon, I saw Hoke alone on the St. Vincent College grass, bashing three tackling sleds in 80-degree heat as if they were mortal enemies.
The payoff came against Tennessee. In his first start, Hoke was active and aggressive, so solid that some crazily called for starter Casey Hampton to lose his job.
Later in the locker room, I witnessed Hoke's real victory: He politely paused our interview to hug his sons: Cade, 9, and Nathan, 7. The younger, wearing a No. 76 jersey with the nameplate "DAD," looked up at the old man the way that kid in the Coke commercial did at Joe Greene.
"This is what it's all about, man, right here," Hoke said, grinning wider than a chin strap, as he hoisted Nathan up high. "I love these guys. I love playing football. I love playing for the Steelers. For me, to come back and have a game like this, contribute to a win ... this is a big deal for me and my family."
Be that player.
Left tackle Max Starks went "from his couch to a game ball," as offensive coordinator Bruce Arians described it, with a superb debut against Tennessee. But there was more to it. Or less, actually.
Starks is just 29, but he had swelled to 400 pounds, which is still a fifth of a ton even on a 6-foot-8 frame. That had to look to the world like a guy ready to retire, and it's possible the thought at least crossed his mind. But he joined a gym in Arizona and went on a diet that was the rough equivalent of fasting. Just like that, 60 pounds vanished.
"I've achieved a lot in this game, especially being part of two champions," Starks said. "Anybody else might have been happy with that and rode off into the sunset. But I knew I had something left to give to the game of football."
Be that player.
Those guys are hardly isolated examples: James Farrior, 36, had runners blowing by him for a month but made 13 tackles last weekend. Hines Ward, 35, couldn't get open or hold onto the ball but handled both elegantly last weekend. Troy Polamalu, 30, was outraced by a tight end in the opener but was ablaze last weekend.
They realize this won't last beyond the coming winter, that this illustrious group is nearing the end.
We see it, too.
Let's just go with it.
Crosby OK’d for contact, timetable still uncertain
By WILL GRAVES, AP Sports Writer
http://sports.yahoo.com/
October 14, 2011
PITTSBURGH (AP)—Sidney Crosby has traded in his white helmet. There’s still no telling when the Pittsburgh Penguins star will be able to do the same with his practice jersey.
The former MVP’s comeback from concussion-like symptoms took a major step forward Thursday when he was cleared for contact by team doctors for the first time since being injured last January.
Crosby wore a black helmet like the rest of his teammates during a morning skate prior to Thursday night’s showdown with Washington. The 24-year-old had been wearing a white helmet during workouts to indicate he wasn’t to be touched.
While there were no major collisions, the simple change in headgear is another positive sign that the sport’s biggest star is close to returning.
“This is a good step in the right direction and we’ll see how it goes the next little bit,” he said.
How long that “next little bit” will last remains unclear. Crosby, as he’s done for the last 10 months, refused to put a timetable on when he’ll be ready to play.
Part of the problem is Pittsburgh’s cramped early season schedule. Thursday’s game is the team’s fifth in eight days and the next three weeks are nearly as busy, leaving little time for full-contact drills.
“I have to get hit at some point during practice but we’re playing so much it’s hard to get that right now,” Crosby said.
Coach Dan Bylsma says he may try to find some extra practice time for Crosby to help get him acclimated but added Crosby’s participation in nearly every drill during training camp means Crosby might not have that much further to go.
“He’s been with the line, he’s been in drills, he’s covered some drills that have contacted,” Bylsma said. “He was wearing a different color helmet but he’s been in those situations.”
While his teammates have done their best to protect their captain during practice, Crosby has admitted to some jostling at times with no recurrence of the symptoms that have sidelined him since take head shots in consecutive games in early January.
“Everything has gone really smooth,” Crosby said.
The question becomes who will be the first player to take it to the game’s best player. Bylsma said it will be up to Crosby to mix it up, but doesn’t think it will take long for the seven-year veteran to get a teammate’s attention.
“Sid’s the type of player that he instigates contact,” Bylsma said. “He’ll do something that will warrant that from a player. He’ll go out and do something. … I think every training camp when Sid’s been healthy he’s always ended up in some kind of jostling where the ire’s gotten up on both guys and that’ll happen again because of the way Sidney competes.”
The team is in no rush to hurry him back. The Penguins are off to their best start since 1994-95, going 3-0-1 in their first four games.
Their play has taken some of the pressure off Crosby, who insists he’s not frustrated or anxious even as his return inches closer to reality.
“When you’ve waited this long, you just want to make sure you do everything right and it’s exciting if anything,” he said. “I don’t think it’s hard to be patient at this point. We’re getting closer and we just want to make sure I respond to everything well in the however next long it is.”
Photo: Sidney Crosby takes part in a team practice in Vancouver, British Columbia October 5, 2011. The team was preparing for their game against the Vancouver Canucks to start the NHL hockey season October 6. Crosby is not expected too play. (Reuters)
http://sports.yahoo.com/
October 14, 2011
The former MVP’s comeback from concussion-like symptoms took a major step forward Thursday when he was cleared for contact by team doctors for the first time since being injured last January.
Crosby wore a black helmet like the rest of his teammates during a morning skate prior to Thursday night’s showdown with Washington. The 24-year-old had been wearing a white helmet during workouts to indicate he wasn’t to be touched.
While there were no major collisions, the simple change in headgear is another positive sign that the sport’s biggest star is close to returning.
“This is a good step in the right direction and we’ll see how it goes the next little bit,” he said.
How long that “next little bit” will last remains unclear. Crosby, as he’s done for the last 10 months, refused to put a timetable on when he’ll be ready to play.
Part of the problem is Pittsburgh’s cramped early season schedule. Thursday’s game is the team’s fifth in eight days and the next three weeks are nearly as busy, leaving little time for full-contact drills.
“I have to get hit at some point during practice but we’re playing so much it’s hard to get that right now,” Crosby said.
Coach Dan Bylsma says he may try to find some extra practice time for Crosby to help get him acclimated but added Crosby’s participation in nearly every drill during training camp means Crosby might not have that much further to go.
“He’s been with the line, he’s been in drills, he’s covered some drills that have contacted,” Bylsma said. “He was wearing a different color helmet but he’s been in those situations.”
While his teammates have done their best to protect their captain during practice, Crosby has admitted to some jostling at times with no recurrence of the symptoms that have sidelined him since take head shots in consecutive games in early January.
“Everything has gone really smooth,” Crosby said.
The question becomes who will be the first player to take it to the game’s best player. Bylsma said it will be up to Crosby to mix it up, but doesn’t think it will take long for the seven-year veteran to get a teammate’s attention.
“Sid’s the type of player that he instigates contact,” Bylsma said. “He’ll do something that will warrant that from a player. He’ll go out and do something. … I think every training camp when Sid’s been healthy he’s always ended up in some kind of jostling where the ire’s gotten up on both guys and that’ll happen again because of the way Sidney competes.”
The team is in no rush to hurry him back. The Penguins are off to their best start since 1994-95, going 3-0-1 in their first four games.
Their play has taken some of the pressure off Crosby, who insists he’s not frustrated or anxious even as his return inches closer to reality.
“When you’ve waited this long, you just want to make sure you do everything right and it’s exciting if anything,” he said. “I don’t think it’s hard to be patient at this point. We’re getting closer and we just want to make sure I respond to everything well in the however next long it is.”
Photo: Sidney Crosby takes part in a team practice in Vancouver, British Columbia October 5, 2011. The team was preparing for their game against the Vancouver Canucks to start the NHL hockey season October 6. Crosby is not expected too play. (Reuters)
James Neal looks like the real deal
Friday, October 14, 2011
The Washington Capitals did what they always do. They beat the Penguins in Pittsburgh. Their 3-2 win in overtime at Consol Energy Center Thursday night made it eight regular-season wins in a row here.
This time was different, though.
This time, the Penguins were able to go home feeling good about themselves because of great news about Sidney Crosby earlier in the day and a big goal-scoring game by James Neal.
But many of their fans among the sellout crowd? Not so much.
They should have gone home feeling ashamed of themselves. They embarrassed the Penguins and the city when they raucously cheered Arron Asham's knockout of Capitals center Jay Beagle even after it was clear Beagle was more than a little bit hurt and couldn't get up without help from the medical staff. It was bad enough that Asham made a lights-out, sleeping gesture with his hands after the fight, a classless move for which he quickly apologized after the game. It was much worse that many in the crowd kept cheering even as Beagle was receiving medical attention.
How do those fans sleep at night?
They don't deserve having Crosby and Neal on their team.
Crosby was cleared for contact in practice in the morning. It appears we no longer will have to wait months or even weeks for his return from his concussion. Barring a setback, he should be back in the lineup in a matter of days.
It doesn't take a genius to figure out what the world's best player will mean to the Penguins when he is playing again. Heck, I'm thinking even the morons who cheered Beagle's distress can figure that one out.
But Neal's game also was huge. He scored both Penguins goals, giving him four in the first five games. That doubles his total last season in 27 games -- including playoffs -- after he joined the team from Dallas at the trade deadline.
Suddenly, the projections for Neal to get 30 goals this season don't seem so outrageous. They especially don't seem outrageous if he keeps playing with Evgeni Malkin -- as he did against the Capitals -- or with Crosby when he returns. He didn't get the chance to skate with either last season because of injuries to the two stars.
"Geno or Sid, I'll gladly play with either one," Neal said, grinning.
Malkin set up both Neal goals in this game after missing the previous two games with some vague "soreness" issue in his lower body. Linemate Steve Sullivan took Malkin's drop-pass in the first period and fired a cross-ice pass to Neal, who drilled the shot through goaltender Tomas Vokoun to give the Penguins a 1-0 lead. Malkin then found Neal with a pretty pass on the power play late in the third, and Neal buried the shot to pull the team into a 2-2 tie.
"It's great to play with him," Neal said of Malkin. "You saw how good he is. He was flying."
We also saw Neal's scoring capability. All summer, people wondered if the Penguins wingers were good enough to produce goals. So far, Neal has eased their concerns.
"James scores goals," Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said. "He's got a great shot. He's a faster skater. He's a hard skater to the net."
It helped that Neal scored his first goal of the season -- on the power play, no less -- on his first shot in the opening-game win Oct. 6 at Vancouver. He added the clinching goal in the third period in the 4-2 win Tuesday night against the Florida Panthers.
"It couldn't have worked out better for me getting that first goal early like that," Neal said. "I thought I had a great summer. I couldn't wait to get back here to redeem myself."
Neal took a lot of criticism in the spring for getting just one goal in the first-round playoff loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning after getting just one in the final 20 regular-season games. The Penguins traded promising young defenseman Alex Goligoski for this guy? Are you kidding?
Neal admitted he pressed, trying to justify the deal. That made things worse. The new season meant a new start for him. He's still just 24 and scored at least 22 goals in each of his first three NHL seasons. It took a while for him to adjust to the Penguins, but it's looking as if the wait might end up being worth it.
"I feel a lot more comfortable," Neal said. "When you get traded, it's tough. You get a call at practice and your whole life is upside down in seconds. The next thing you know, you're on a plane and in a hotel room in a different city. You have to leave your team. You have to leave your friends ...
"But you make new friends. The guys here have been unbelievable. I'm very lucky to be in this spot. This is a great organization. There are so many great players here. I'm excited about how good this team really is."
It will be a lot better once Crosby gets back. It will be hard to beat if he and Malkin stay healthy. And, certainly, it won't hurt if Neal keeps scoring goals.
I'm liking the Penguins' chances a lot more when they play the Capitals Dec. 1 in Washington. Actually, I'm even liking 'em when the Captitals return here Jan. 22.
Now that's saying something.
Ron Cook: rcook@post-gazette.com. Cook can be heard on the "Vinnie and Cook" show weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on 93.7 The Fan. More articles by this author
Thursday, October 13, 2011
It Went All The Way!
And so did Pittsburgh's Pirates when Bill Mazeroski swung his bat and hit the ball over Forbes Field's distant left field wall. Yankee hopes were dead, the seventh game was over and the Pirates had won their first World Series in 35 years.
By Roy Terrell
Sports Illustrated
October 24, 1960
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/
Credit: Image by Corbis - Bettmann
In one of baseball's most exciting moments, Bill Mazerowski hit the 9th inning home run in the 7th game that defeated the New York Yankees for the 1960 world championship. In doing so, Mazeroski became the first player in World Series history to to hit a game ending home run in the seventh game.
AN UNFORGETTABLE FINISH FOR AN UNUSUAL SHOW
The 1960 World Series ended just a week ago, but the Great Debate it engendered is still raging everywhere except, possibly, on TV. The question: Did the Pirates win on their remarkable determination and higher over-all level of skill, or did the Yankees lose through an amazing sequence of mischances?
The answer to Part 1 of the question is yes, and the answer to Part 2 is no. Certainly the Pirates got some breaks (see opposite page), and they took advantage of them, as a good ball club will. But the Yankees got breaks, too. They had to face perhaps the best Pirate hitter, Bob Skinner, in only two games; he missed the others because of an injured thumb. Dick Groat, the National League batting champion, was still recovering from a broken wrist. If there was one bad hop in the Series, there were a dozen for each team, a fact Casey Stengel admitted after it was all over. If a Bill Skowron home run curved foul, so did one by Vernon Law. The Pirates had breaks, the Yankees had breaks, and breaks have a way of evening out.
Hardly anyone has mentioned what really happened: the Pittsburgh Pirates, playing the same kind of baseball they played all year, beat a New York Yankee team which was playing over its head. If anything, the Pirates were subpar. With a season-long team batting average of .276, they were able to hit only .256 in the Series—and that, more than anything else, is a tribute to the ability of Whitey Ford. The Pirates were shut out only four times all season—never by Warren Spahn or Lou Burdette, not by Don Drysdale or Sam Jones or Mike McCormick or Larry Jackson—yet Ford did it twice in two attempts.
Not once could a Pirate pitcher throw a complete game, not even Vernon Law, who completed 18 during the regular season, or Bob Friend, who completed 16. Law beat the Yankees twice in three tries and he made them look bad, but Law was pitching with an injured ankle and he needed help in all three games from Roy Face. What happened to Friend is anyone's guess; during the season he was as good a pitcher as Law, sometimes better, yet the Yankees drove him out three times. Vinegar Bend Mizell failed, too. Harvey Haddix pitched very well for six innings, which is the way Haddix pitches. As for Face, he saved three games, and the surprising thing is that he failed to save a fourth, for Roy Face is the best relief pitcher in the business. So the Pirate pitching was generally subpar, too. But the Pirates won in seven games.
During the 1960 season the Yankees batted .260. They set an American League home run record of 193, but only one Yankee hitter was over .300 ( Moose Skowron at .309), and not another was over .284. Yet in the World Series the Yankees hit .338 as a team. Elston Howard was .462, John Blanchard .455, Mickey Mantle .400, Skowron .375, Bobby Richardson .367, Tony Kubek .333, Yogi Berra .318. Richardson, in particular, was sensational. A .252 hitter with one home run and 26 runs batted in for the year, Richardson set records for runs batted in during a game (six) and during a Series (12). As a team the Yankees set records for most hits (91), most runs (55), most RBIs (54) and highest batting average. It was a spectacular performance, but if anyone thinks this is the way the Yankees play baseball all the time he has not seen much of them in the last two years.
Until the final game, it was a World Series lacking in many things. The three games which the Yankees won were so one-sided that pity for the Pirates was the predominant emotion; there was no suspense at all. If suspense existed in the three early Pirate victories, it was there merely because of an awareness of what the Yankee hitters might do, not because of what they did. The Yankees, once behind, seemed content to stay there.
There were only two stolen bases, both by the Pirates in the first inning of the first game. Bill Virdon's wonderful catches and a superb job at third base by Don Hoak supplied most of the fielding excitement; the two shortstops made a total of five errors, and the two fine second basemen had nothing but routine chances.
Then came the seventh game.
It was not a great game, in the sense that a no-hitter or a 2-1 victory in 11 innings is. In some ways it was not even a good game. There was only one error, which did not affect the outcome, but there were several bad plays by both infields, and the pitchers on both sides made far too many mistakes. Yet it was one of the memorable games of World Series history. The Pirates won 10-9, and no one who was there will ever forget it. For dramatic impact, for climax piled upon climax with never an anticlimactic moment, it was unique. There are many who say it was the most exciting baseball game ever played. Some say it was the most exciting game that ever will be played.
The Pirates were ahead 4-1 in the sixth inning when Danny Murtaugh decided to take Vernon Law out. Rocky Nelson had hit a two-run homer off Bob Turley in the first inning and Bill Virdon had singled to center off Bill Stafford. Bill Skowron homered in the fifth for New York. Now in the sixth Law had given up a single and a walk, and it was apparent with each pitch that his ankle was hurting. So Murtaugh patted Law on the shoulder, took the baseball from his hand and called in ElRoy Face.
But now the Yankees caught up with Face. Mantle singled, and a run scored. Berra, whipping his bat around in the strange, violent arc which has turned so many previous World Series games upside down, hit a tremendous fly ball, up, up into the upper deck in right field. The ball was fair by inches, and when it came down the Yankees were ahead 5-4.
In the eighth the Yankees scored twice again off Face on a walk to Berra, singles by Skowron and John Blanchard and a double by young Cletis Boyer into left field. The score was now 7-4, and this seemed to be the end. But the Pirates would never have been in the World Series in the first place if they did not specialize in coming from behind in the eighth and ninth innings. That is the way the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates won ball games all year.
Gino Cimoli batted for Face and singled into right field. Bill Virdon hit a hard, skipping ball down to shortstop and, on the Pirate bench, Danny Murtaugh saw the double play coming, and he winced. But as Kubek moved into position to field the ball, it took a last quick hop over his outstretched glove and hit him in the throat. Tony fell backwards to his right, the ball dropped six or eight feet to his left, toward second base, and by the time Richardson got there to pick it up both Cimoli and Virdon were safe.
Kubek went off to the dugout and into the hospital with a bruised larynx, and up came Groat with two men on base and no one out. Perhaps the bad hop was the key moment of the game, the big turning point. In any event, it was a tremendous break for the Pirates—and they exploited it.
Groat lined a hard single into left field, scoring Cimoli and knocking Bobby Shantz out of the game. Jim Coates came in to pitch. Skinner bunted the runners along. Nelson flied out. Clemente, swinging wildly at bad pitches, topped a weak dribbler down toward first base. Skowron was playing deep, and he was slow getting to the ball; when he finally picked it up and turned to throw to first, there was no one there. Coates had failed to cover, and whether the Yankees could have caught the flying Clemente or not, they never had the chance. If this was a break for the Pirates, and it was, the Yankees—not Fate—provided it. Virdon scored, and Groat went to third.
It was then that Hal Smith hit his home run. Not many people know much about Hal Smith. They confuse him with the other Hal Smith who catches for the Cardinals, and they forget that this Hal Smith won half a dozen games for the Pirates this year with home runs and that he hit .295 while sharing the catching job with Smoky Burgess over the season. Coates worked the count to two-and-two and then threw a good fast ball across the plate just below the belt. Hal Smith swung and the ball was gone. It went over the left field fence just to the left of the 406-foot sign, and Berra, who was playing out there, did not bother to chase it very-far. He knew it was gone, too.
This caused quite a bit of noise in Forbes Field. It lasted while Groat danced hilariously across the plate, and it grew louder as Clemente came leaping down the line like a kangaroo. It grew to an indescribable ear-splitting confusion of sound as Smith stomped on the plate too, a huge grin crinkling his face into a hundred happy lines that stretched back to Kansas City and Quincy and Ventura and Twin Falls and all the places in baseball where he has been.
This should have been the ball game, for here was Bob Friend ready to keep the Yankees down.
Not the seventh-day Yankees. Richardson singled, a little looper into left. Dale Long, batting for Kubek's replacement, Joe DeMaestri, singled hard into right, and Murtaugh took Friend out. Harvey Haddix got Maris to pop out, but then Mickey Mantle came through with a single into left center field which drove in Richardson and sent Long around to third. Stengel sent in McDougald to run for Long. It was then that the curious 1960 Series produced its most curious play.
Berra swung and hit a hard ground ball down the first base line. Nelson was there; he gloved it, picked it up and stepped on first base for the out. Then he straightened up, drew back his arm to throw down to second to complete the double play—and suddenly realized there was no reason to throw, for Mantle was standing within a few feet of him. Nelson is a good ballplayer, but Mantle is younger and his reflexes are quicker. He dived safely back into first base, eluding Nelson's frantic stab, and McDougald scored. The Yankees had tied up the game—and Pittsburgh, unable to believe that such a thing could happen, was stunned. Had Nelson tagged Mantle for the double play, the Series would have been over. Break or brilliance? Both.
When Bill Skowron ended the Yankee half of the ninth by grounding to Groat, Fate truly intervened. Fate's particular Pirate, Bill Mazeroski, came to bat. He had produced the deciding margin in two earlier Pirate victories, with a two-run homer in the first game, which Pittsburgh won 6-4, and a two-run double in the fifth game, which Pittsburgh won 5-2. He let one of Ralph Terry's fast balls go by. Then he hit the next one over the left field fence.
There was noise in Forbes Field then, too, and it went on for more than an hour. Mazeroski took off his cap and swung it around his head as he went leaping and frolicking around the bases. The fans spilled out of their seats and mobbed the Pirates, especially Mazeroski, who had to fight his way to home plate. A man ran out with a spade and dug up home plate, which may be hanging over some mantel in Pittsburgh right now.
Anyway, the pennant is in Pittsburgh, and the World Championship, too. It was fitting that the Pirates should win in the ninth and that they should come from behind. The only irony is that the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the New York Yankees with home runs, for the home run is a Yankee weapon, not theirs. But Pittsburgh is a good baseball team, and it makes use of what it has—pitching, defense, line drives to the opposite field. A bit more courage than most, a little more hunger. So why not home runs, too? The important thing is to save them for when they count. The Pirates had been saving those last three for 35 years.
A KEY MOMENT OF THE BIG GAME came in the Pirate eighth when Bill Virdon hit a hard ground ball to shortstop. It hopped off a spike cut in the infield (not a pebble) and struck Tony Kubek a wicked blow in the throat. Kubek went down, the ball bounced away and both Virdon and Gino Cimoli, the Pirate runner on first base, were safe. Down 7-4, the Pirates went on to score five runs in the inning on singles by Dick Groat and Roberto Clemente and the tremendous clutch home run by Hal Smith.
Find this article at:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1071904/index.htm
Memo From The Publisher
Sidney L. James
Sports Illustrated
October 24, 1960
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/
Danny Murtaugh and Bill Mazeroski celebrates the Pirates' championship.
There hardly can be a SPORTS ILLUSTRATED reader who does not know that we picked the Pirates to beat the Yankees—against the gamblers' odds and against the best advice of many readers themselves, bless 'em, who don't mind giving it. And hardly a man is now alive who doesn't know that the Pirates did that which we said they'd do.
For Pittsburgh's victory SPORTS ILLUSTRATED can take no credit. That belongs to the Pirates, along with all the cheers. But while the corks were popping last Thursday in a Forbes Field dressing room we raised a toast in our own office to Roy Terrell. In Pittsburgh at the time, he was spared a response, for which he no doubt is grateful, since he is that contradiction in terms, a modest Texan. He well deserved the toast, however. In the front line of our baseball coverage all season long, he drew a close bead on the Pirates in spring training and then kept it on them until Mazeroski drew his own on the last pitch of the season.
Here are some of the things he wrote in SPORTS ILLUSTRATED:
April 11 - "The Pirates are an unusually sound defensive team, with adequate speed and sharp, line-drive hitting. They are an extremely tough club to beat in a close game. They seldom scare an opposing pitcher to death but they give hardly anything away; they hang in there and eventually they beat you."
May 30 - "To play against them is torture. They protect the plate, they slice doubles into the opposite field, they bounce singles over your head off the hardest-packed infield in all baseball. And then along about the 27th inning they score a run somehow, and the ball game is over. So you go home and sleep a couple of hours and get up and have to face it all over again. It is very frustrating."
October 3 - "No one should count on seeing a seventh game; the Pirates will win in six, maybe even five—no matter what the bookmakers said. The Pirates have been ignoring the odds all year."
So Terrell, one might say, was wrong. It took the Pirates seven.
Of course we reserve the right to be wrong. We only hope that most of the time we're about as wrong as Roy Terrell.
By Roy Terrell
Sports Illustrated
October 24, 1960
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/
In one of baseball's most exciting moments, Bill Mazerowski hit the 9th inning home run in the 7th game that defeated the New York Yankees for the 1960 world championship. In doing so, Mazeroski became the first player in World Series history to to hit a game ending home run in the seventh game.
AN UNFORGETTABLE FINISH FOR AN UNUSUAL SHOW
The 1960 World Series ended just a week ago, but the Great Debate it engendered is still raging everywhere except, possibly, on TV. The question: Did the Pirates win on their remarkable determination and higher over-all level of skill, or did the Yankees lose through an amazing sequence of mischances?
The answer to Part 1 of the question is yes, and the answer to Part 2 is no. Certainly the Pirates got some breaks (see opposite page), and they took advantage of them, as a good ball club will. But the Yankees got breaks, too. They had to face perhaps the best Pirate hitter, Bob Skinner, in only two games; he missed the others because of an injured thumb. Dick Groat, the National League batting champion, was still recovering from a broken wrist. If there was one bad hop in the Series, there were a dozen for each team, a fact Casey Stengel admitted after it was all over. If a Bill Skowron home run curved foul, so did one by Vernon Law. The Pirates had breaks, the Yankees had breaks, and breaks have a way of evening out.
Hardly anyone has mentioned what really happened: the Pittsburgh Pirates, playing the same kind of baseball they played all year, beat a New York Yankee team which was playing over its head. If anything, the Pirates were subpar. With a season-long team batting average of .276, they were able to hit only .256 in the Series—and that, more than anything else, is a tribute to the ability of Whitey Ford. The Pirates were shut out only four times all season—never by Warren Spahn or Lou Burdette, not by Don Drysdale or Sam Jones or Mike McCormick or Larry Jackson—yet Ford did it twice in two attempts.
Not once could a Pirate pitcher throw a complete game, not even Vernon Law, who completed 18 during the regular season, or Bob Friend, who completed 16. Law beat the Yankees twice in three tries and he made them look bad, but Law was pitching with an injured ankle and he needed help in all three games from Roy Face. What happened to Friend is anyone's guess; during the season he was as good a pitcher as Law, sometimes better, yet the Yankees drove him out three times. Vinegar Bend Mizell failed, too. Harvey Haddix pitched very well for six innings, which is the way Haddix pitches. As for Face, he saved three games, and the surprising thing is that he failed to save a fourth, for Roy Face is the best relief pitcher in the business. So the Pirate pitching was generally subpar, too. But the Pirates won in seven games.
During the 1960 season the Yankees batted .260. They set an American League home run record of 193, but only one Yankee hitter was over .300 ( Moose Skowron at .309), and not another was over .284. Yet in the World Series the Yankees hit .338 as a team. Elston Howard was .462, John Blanchard .455, Mickey Mantle .400, Skowron .375, Bobby Richardson .367, Tony Kubek .333, Yogi Berra .318. Richardson, in particular, was sensational. A .252 hitter with one home run and 26 runs batted in for the year, Richardson set records for runs batted in during a game (six) and during a Series (12). As a team the Yankees set records for most hits (91), most runs (55), most RBIs (54) and highest batting average. It was a spectacular performance, but if anyone thinks this is the way the Yankees play baseball all the time he has not seen much of them in the last two years.
Until the final game, it was a World Series lacking in many things. The three games which the Yankees won were so one-sided that pity for the Pirates was the predominant emotion; there was no suspense at all. If suspense existed in the three early Pirate victories, it was there merely because of an awareness of what the Yankee hitters might do, not because of what they did. The Yankees, once behind, seemed content to stay there.
There were only two stolen bases, both by the Pirates in the first inning of the first game. Bill Virdon's wonderful catches and a superb job at third base by Don Hoak supplied most of the fielding excitement; the two shortstops made a total of five errors, and the two fine second basemen had nothing but routine chances.
Then came the seventh game.
It was not a great game, in the sense that a no-hitter or a 2-1 victory in 11 innings is. In some ways it was not even a good game. There was only one error, which did not affect the outcome, but there were several bad plays by both infields, and the pitchers on both sides made far too many mistakes. Yet it was one of the memorable games of World Series history. The Pirates won 10-9, and no one who was there will ever forget it. For dramatic impact, for climax piled upon climax with never an anticlimactic moment, it was unique. There are many who say it was the most exciting baseball game ever played. Some say it was the most exciting game that ever will be played.
The Pirates were ahead 4-1 in the sixth inning when Danny Murtaugh decided to take Vernon Law out. Rocky Nelson had hit a two-run homer off Bob Turley in the first inning and Bill Virdon had singled to center off Bill Stafford. Bill Skowron homered in the fifth for New York. Now in the sixth Law had given up a single and a walk, and it was apparent with each pitch that his ankle was hurting. So Murtaugh patted Law on the shoulder, took the baseball from his hand and called in ElRoy Face.
But now the Yankees caught up with Face. Mantle singled, and a run scored. Berra, whipping his bat around in the strange, violent arc which has turned so many previous World Series games upside down, hit a tremendous fly ball, up, up into the upper deck in right field. The ball was fair by inches, and when it came down the Yankees were ahead 5-4.
In the eighth the Yankees scored twice again off Face on a walk to Berra, singles by Skowron and John Blanchard and a double by young Cletis Boyer into left field. The score was now 7-4, and this seemed to be the end. But the Pirates would never have been in the World Series in the first place if they did not specialize in coming from behind in the eighth and ninth innings. That is the way the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates won ball games all year.
Gino Cimoli batted for Face and singled into right field. Bill Virdon hit a hard, skipping ball down to shortstop and, on the Pirate bench, Danny Murtaugh saw the double play coming, and he winced. But as Kubek moved into position to field the ball, it took a last quick hop over his outstretched glove and hit him in the throat. Tony fell backwards to his right, the ball dropped six or eight feet to his left, toward second base, and by the time Richardson got there to pick it up both Cimoli and Virdon were safe.
Kubek went off to the dugout and into the hospital with a bruised larynx, and up came Groat with two men on base and no one out. Perhaps the bad hop was the key moment of the game, the big turning point. In any event, it was a tremendous break for the Pirates—and they exploited it.
Groat lined a hard single into left field, scoring Cimoli and knocking Bobby Shantz out of the game. Jim Coates came in to pitch. Skinner bunted the runners along. Nelson flied out. Clemente, swinging wildly at bad pitches, topped a weak dribbler down toward first base. Skowron was playing deep, and he was slow getting to the ball; when he finally picked it up and turned to throw to first, there was no one there. Coates had failed to cover, and whether the Yankees could have caught the flying Clemente or not, they never had the chance. If this was a break for the Pirates, and it was, the Yankees—not Fate—provided it. Virdon scored, and Groat went to third.
It was then that Hal Smith hit his home run. Not many people know much about Hal Smith. They confuse him with the other Hal Smith who catches for the Cardinals, and they forget that this Hal Smith won half a dozen games for the Pirates this year with home runs and that he hit .295 while sharing the catching job with Smoky Burgess over the season. Coates worked the count to two-and-two and then threw a good fast ball across the plate just below the belt. Hal Smith swung and the ball was gone. It went over the left field fence just to the left of the 406-foot sign, and Berra, who was playing out there, did not bother to chase it very-far. He knew it was gone, too.
This caused quite a bit of noise in Forbes Field. It lasted while Groat danced hilariously across the plate, and it grew louder as Clemente came leaping down the line like a kangaroo. It grew to an indescribable ear-splitting confusion of sound as Smith stomped on the plate too, a huge grin crinkling his face into a hundred happy lines that stretched back to Kansas City and Quincy and Ventura and Twin Falls and all the places in baseball where he has been.
This should have been the ball game, for here was Bob Friend ready to keep the Yankees down.
Not the seventh-day Yankees. Richardson singled, a little looper into left. Dale Long, batting for Kubek's replacement, Joe DeMaestri, singled hard into right, and Murtaugh took Friend out. Harvey Haddix got Maris to pop out, but then Mickey Mantle came through with a single into left center field which drove in Richardson and sent Long around to third. Stengel sent in McDougald to run for Long. It was then that the curious 1960 Series produced its most curious play.
Berra swung and hit a hard ground ball down the first base line. Nelson was there; he gloved it, picked it up and stepped on first base for the out. Then he straightened up, drew back his arm to throw down to second to complete the double play—and suddenly realized there was no reason to throw, for Mantle was standing within a few feet of him. Nelson is a good ballplayer, but Mantle is younger and his reflexes are quicker. He dived safely back into first base, eluding Nelson's frantic stab, and McDougald scored. The Yankees had tied up the game—and Pittsburgh, unable to believe that such a thing could happen, was stunned. Had Nelson tagged Mantle for the double play, the Series would have been over. Break or brilliance? Both.
When Bill Skowron ended the Yankee half of the ninth by grounding to Groat, Fate truly intervened. Fate's particular Pirate, Bill Mazeroski, came to bat. He had produced the deciding margin in two earlier Pirate victories, with a two-run homer in the first game, which Pittsburgh won 6-4, and a two-run double in the fifth game, which Pittsburgh won 5-2. He let one of Ralph Terry's fast balls go by. Then he hit the next one over the left field fence.
There was noise in Forbes Field then, too, and it went on for more than an hour. Mazeroski took off his cap and swung it around his head as he went leaping and frolicking around the bases. The fans spilled out of their seats and mobbed the Pirates, especially Mazeroski, who had to fight his way to home plate. A man ran out with a spade and dug up home plate, which may be hanging over some mantel in Pittsburgh right now.
Anyway, the pennant is in Pittsburgh, and the World Championship, too. It was fitting that the Pirates should win in the ninth and that they should come from behind. The only irony is that the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the New York Yankees with home runs, for the home run is a Yankee weapon, not theirs. But Pittsburgh is a good baseball team, and it makes use of what it has—pitching, defense, line drives to the opposite field. A bit more courage than most, a little more hunger. So why not home runs, too? The important thing is to save them for when they count. The Pirates had been saving those last three for 35 years.
A KEY MOMENT OF THE BIG GAME came in the Pirate eighth when Bill Virdon hit a hard ground ball to shortstop. It hopped off a spike cut in the infield (not a pebble) and struck Tony Kubek a wicked blow in the throat. Kubek went down, the ball bounced away and both Virdon and Gino Cimoli, the Pirate runner on first base, were safe. Down 7-4, the Pirates went on to score five runs in the inning on singles by Dick Groat and Roberto Clemente and the tremendous clutch home run by Hal Smith.
Find this article at:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1071904/index.htm
Memo From The Publisher
Sidney L. James
Sports Illustrated
October 24, 1960
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/
There hardly can be a SPORTS ILLUSTRATED reader who does not know that we picked the Pirates to beat the Yankees—against the gamblers' odds and against the best advice of many readers themselves, bless 'em, who don't mind giving it. And hardly a man is now alive who doesn't know that the Pirates did that which we said they'd do.
For Pittsburgh's victory SPORTS ILLUSTRATED can take no credit. That belongs to the Pirates, along with all the cheers. But while the corks were popping last Thursday in a Forbes Field dressing room we raised a toast in our own office to Roy Terrell. In Pittsburgh at the time, he was spared a response, for which he no doubt is grateful, since he is that contradiction in terms, a modest Texan. He well deserved the toast, however. In the front line of our baseball coverage all season long, he drew a close bead on the Pirates in spring training and then kept it on them until Mazeroski drew his own on the last pitch of the season.
Here are some of the things he wrote in SPORTS ILLUSTRATED:
April 11 - "The Pirates are an unusually sound defensive team, with adequate speed and sharp, line-drive hitting. They are an extremely tough club to beat in a close game. They seldom scare an opposing pitcher to death but they give hardly anything away; they hang in there and eventually they beat you."
May 30 - "To play against them is torture. They protect the plate, they slice doubles into the opposite field, they bounce singles over your head off the hardest-packed infield in all baseball. And then along about the 27th inning they score a run somehow, and the ball game is over. So you go home and sleep a couple of hours and get up and have to face it all over again. It is very frustrating."
October 3 - "No one should count on seeing a seventh game; the Pirates will win in six, maybe even five—no matter what the bookmakers said. The Pirates have been ignoring the odds all year."
So Terrell, one might say, was wrong. It took the Pirates seven.
Of course we reserve the right to be wrong. We only hope that most of the time we're about as wrong as Roy Terrell.
Hines Ward still thriving for Steelers at 35
By WILL GRAVES, AP Sports Writer
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/teams/pit
October 12, 2011
Pittsburgh Steelers receiver Hines Ward(notes) (86) heads to the end zone over Tennessee Titans safety Michael Griffin(notes), scoring a touchdown during the third quarter of an NFL football game in Pittsburgh, Sunday, Oct. 9, 2011. (AP)
PITTSBURGH (AP)—Hines Ward doesn’t know where it comes from, really.
The Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver doesn’t have many theories either. He can’t tell you why he leapt over Tennessee’s Michael Griffin at the goal line during the third quarter to score his second touchdown of the day in Pittsburgh’s easier than expected 38-17 rout.
Maybe it was instinct. Maybe it was the memory of pulling a similar move over Denver’s Champ Bailey a few years ago. Maybe it was the residual effects of all that nifty footwork he displayed while winning “Dancing With the Stars” during the spring.
Ward doesn’t know and to be honest, he doesn’t care.
“I can’t put a finger on what made me do that,” Ward said, “but just to do that and to be able to help this team get going, that’s all that matters.”
That’s all that’s ever mattered to the 35-year-old Ward, even as his career numbers have reached staggering heights.
The 14-year veteran needs 13 yards against Jacksonville on Sunday to surpass Hall-of-Famer Michael Irvin for 19th on the all-time list. He’s 108 yards away from becoming just the 18th receiver to reach the 12,000-yard plateau and is 26 catches away from 1,000.
Heady numbers for any receiver, astronomical ones for a player on franchise that has built its foundation—and six Super Bowl championships—on running the ball.
It’s an onus that isn’t lost on Ward, arguably one of the greatest blocking receivers in history. He’s never hesitated to stick his 6-foot, 205-pound frame in the face of a linebacker in hopes of creating a seam for a back. His blue collar work ethic in a decidedly white collar position has endeared him to one of the NFL’s most ardent fan bases and made him one of the team’s unquestioned leaders.
One who took it upon himself to help the Steelers break out of an early season funk. Ward sat quietly at his locker a week ago after the team fell to 2-2 with a decisive loss at Houston and stressed there was no need to point fingers, adding there was more than enough blame to go around.
He then responded with a vintage performance, grabbing seven passes for 54 yards and his first two score game in two years. His 7.7 yards per reception is deceiving. Six of his seven catches went for first downs or touchdowns, including his balletic dive over Griffin that gave the Steelers a 28-3 lead in the third quarter.
“That’s Hines,” fellow wide receiver Antonio Brown said. “He’s passionate. He’s tough. He’s a guy you can learn from because he’s been doing it at a high level for so long.”
Ward has accepted a somewhat diminished role in the offense with typical grace. Third-year speedster Mike Wallace is developing into one of the top deep threats in the game. Brown and Emmanuel Sanders are younger and quicker. Tight end Heath Miller remains a favorite of quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, particularly in the red zone.
Yet with the season at a critical point, Roethlisberger turned to the guy that’s been a dutiful security blanket for whoever has been under center since he joined the team in 1998. Kordell Stewart. Tommy Maddox. Mike Tomczak. Charlie Batch. Byron Leftwich. Whenever it’s third-and-6 there’s been little doubt where the ball is heading.
“I always pride myself on being the guy that Ben and this organization can lean your hat on, to be the dependable guy to go out and make play,” Ward said.
Though he knows his window is closing, don’t think it’s close to being shut.
“I can’t change my age, I know I’m 35,” Ward said. “That’s the story but for me it’s just a matter of just staying healthy.”
And Ward says he’s never felt better. While his teammates sat at home during the NFL lockout wondering when they’d get back to work, Ward was cha-chaing his way to the mirror ball trophy on “Dancing With the Stars.”
He’s reluctant to say all that two-stepping helped his footwork, but it certainly didn’t hurt. The glow of the victory, however, was tarnished by his arrest on a DUI charge in July. He apologized for the distraction but maintains his innocence.
If the arrest is a distraction, it doesn’t show. He’s on pace to top 60 receptions for the 11th time in his career, something Steeler greats John Stallworth and Lynn Swann combined to do five times, though Ward is quick to point out they have four Super Bowl rings and he has just two.
How many more rings, catches and well-choreographed touchdown dances does Ward have left? He’s not sure. Ward is signed through 2013, when he’ll be 37. If he stays injury free, he can see himself playing beyond that, though he cautions he won’t stick around along as fellow “Dancing With the Stars” alum Jerry Rice, who was catching passes until he was 42.
“I won’t play that long, trust me,” Ward said. “I take it one year at a time. When I look up and I’m going against a guy that I’m supposed to be getting open against all the time and I’m not, I’ll walk away from the game.”
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/teams/pit
October 12, 2011
Pittsburgh Steelers receiver Hines Ward(notes) (86) heads to the end zone over Tennessee Titans safety Michael Griffin(notes), scoring a touchdown during the third quarter of an NFL football game in Pittsburgh, Sunday, Oct. 9, 2011. (AP)
PITTSBURGH (AP)—Hines Ward doesn’t know where it comes from, really.
The Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver doesn’t have many theories either. He can’t tell you why he leapt over Tennessee’s Michael Griffin at the goal line during the third quarter to score his second touchdown of the day in Pittsburgh’s easier than expected 38-17 rout.
Maybe it was instinct. Maybe it was the memory of pulling a similar move over Denver’s Champ Bailey a few years ago. Maybe it was the residual effects of all that nifty footwork he displayed while winning “Dancing With the Stars” during the spring.
Ward doesn’t know and to be honest, he doesn’t care.
“I can’t put a finger on what made me do that,” Ward said, “but just to do that and to be able to help this team get going, that’s all that matters.”
That’s all that’s ever mattered to the 35-year-old Ward, even as his career numbers have reached staggering heights.
The 14-year veteran needs 13 yards against Jacksonville on Sunday to surpass Hall-of-Famer Michael Irvin for 19th on the all-time list. He’s 108 yards away from becoming just the 18th receiver to reach the 12,000-yard plateau and is 26 catches away from 1,000.
Heady numbers for any receiver, astronomical ones for a player on franchise that has built its foundation—and six Super Bowl championships—on running the ball.
It’s an onus that isn’t lost on Ward, arguably one of the greatest blocking receivers in history. He’s never hesitated to stick his 6-foot, 205-pound frame in the face of a linebacker in hopes of creating a seam for a back. His blue collar work ethic in a decidedly white collar position has endeared him to one of the NFL’s most ardent fan bases and made him one of the team’s unquestioned leaders.
One who took it upon himself to help the Steelers break out of an early season funk. Ward sat quietly at his locker a week ago after the team fell to 2-2 with a decisive loss at Houston and stressed there was no need to point fingers, adding there was more than enough blame to go around.
He then responded with a vintage performance, grabbing seven passes for 54 yards and his first two score game in two years. His 7.7 yards per reception is deceiving. Six of his seven catches went for first downs or touchdowns, including his balletic dive over Griffin that gave the Steelers a 28-3 lead in the third quarter.
“That’s Hines,” fellow wide receiver Antonio Brown said. “He’s passionate. He’s tough. He’s a guy you can learn from because he’s been doing it at a high level for so long.”
Ward has accepted a somewhat diminished role in the offense with typical grace. Third-year speedster Mike Wallace is developing into one of the top deep threats in the game. Brown and Emmanuel Sanders are younger and quicker. Tight end Heath Miller remains a favorite of quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, particularly in the red zone.
Yet with the season at a critical point, Roethlisberger turned to the guy that’s been a dutiful security blanket for whoever has been under center since he joined the team in 1998. Kordell Stewart. Tommy Maddox. Mike Tomczak. Charlie Batch. Byron Leftwich. Whenever it’s third-and-6 there’s been little doubt where the ball is heading.
“I always pride myself on being the guy that Ben and this organization can lean your hat on, to be the dependable guy to go out and make play,” Ward said.
Though he knows his window is closing, don’t think it’s close to being shut.
“I can’t change my age, I know I’m 35,” Ward said. “That’s the story but for me it’s just a matter of just staying healthy.”
And Ward says he’s never felt better. While his teammates sat at home during the NFL lockout wondering when they’d get back to work, Ward was cha-chaing his way to the mirror ball trophy on “Dancing With the Stars.”
He’s reluctant to say all that two-stepping helped his footwork, but it certainly didn’t hurt. The glow of the victory, however, was tarnished by his arrest on a DUI charge in July. He apologized for the distraction but maintains his innocence.
If the arrest is a distraction, it doesn’t show. He’s on pace to top 60 receptions for the 11th time in his career, something Steeler greats John Stallworth and Lynn Swann combined to do five times, though Ward is quick to point out they have four Super Bowl rings and he has just two.
How many more rings, catches and well-choreographed touchdown dances does Ward have left? He’s not sure. Ward is signed through 2013, when he’ll be 37. If he stays injury free, he can see himself playing beyond that, though he cautions he won’t stick around along as fellow “Dancing With the Stars” alum Jerry Rice, who was catching passes until he was 42.
“I won’t play that long, trust me,” Ward said. “I take it one year at a time. When I look up and I’m going against a guy that I’m supposed to be getting open against all the time and I’m not, I’ll walk away from the game.”
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