The Steelers road to the playoffs got stuck in a duck blind Sunday night. A win over Buffalo would have put the Steelers in great shape to advance to the NFL’s second season. The loss means the Steelers still have some work to do. They need at least one more win and a little help to wrap up a playoff position. It was a most disappointing performance by the Black and Gold. The offense did next to nothing all night long. I still don’t understand the offensive game plan. Instead of relying on their running game, the Steelers came out throwing. You saw how that worked. It could have been a great night at Heinz Field. Instead, it was pretty ugly.
• Duck Hodges is a great story, but he’s not a great quarterback. He was pretty much exposed by a really good Buffalo defense. Duck threw four picks in the loss. He made a lot of bad throws and never looked comfortable. Anyone who thinks Duck is the quarterback of the future is delusional.
• I was thrilled to see LSU’s Joe Burrow win the Heisman trophy. That made a lot of my friends in Louisiana who live and die with LSU football very happy. Burrow is a heck of a player and his story is an inspiration for future players who don’t get to play at one school but who can have success at another one. If I’m the Cincinnati Bengals I turn in my draft card right now. Burrow, who grew up in Ohio and is a Bengals fan, needs to be the first pick in next April’s draft. It’s that much of a no brainer.
• The battered Pens managed to win two straight after losing to Montreal. It’s amazing the Pens can win any games when you consider how many players have been sidelined. Heck, even Evgeni Malkin, who missed games earlier due to injury has been out of the lineup due to sickness. Yet, somehow some way the Pens are winning. Give a lot of credit to goaltender Tristan Jarry. He’s been money for the Penguins. Matt Murray, he of the two Stanley Cup wins, is still the number one guy. Jarry, who was thought to be traded this past summer, is a heck of a backup. He could be a number one guy somewhere else. Like I’ve said before, if the Penguins ever get healthy they could be a force to be reckoned with.
• The Pirates didn’t make any moves at the annual Winter Baseball Meetings. I was hoping new GM Ben Cherington would trade Starling Marte and let the other teams in baseball know he is open for business. That didn’t happen, but that doesn’t mean Cherington didn’t engage in some meaningful trade talks. I still think Marte is gone, and so are a few other Pirates. And if some team came to me with a blockbuster deal for Josh Bell I would certainly listen. The Pirates need to make a ton of moves to re-stock their barren farm system. Hopefully those moves will come before spring training.
• Former Pirate Gerritt Cole got an early Christmas present when he signed his new mega-deal with the Yankees. The deal makes Cole the highest paid pitcher in baseball and certainly positions the Yankees as the pre-season favorite to win it all. I always liked Cole, both as a pitcher and as a person. He was competitive and wasn’t afraid to speak his mind. I’ll never understand why the Pirates couldn’t make him the great pitcher he turned out to be in Houston. I blame that on the Pirates coaching staff, not Cole. I am not a Yankees fan at all, but I wish Gerritt Cole the best. I’ll continue to root for my second all-time favorite team, the Red Sox.
• Antonio Brown just can’t stay out of the news. He went on another social media tirade this past week. When he wasn’t playing the race card, Mr. Big Chest was also calling future Hall of Fame quarter, Ben Roethlisberger, a loser. AB may still end up in the NFL if some owner is dumb enough to bring him in. I remain adamant that I wouldn’t sign this clown even if he wanted to play for free.
• Another former Steeler, Le’Veon Bell, also made news. Bell was too sick to practice with his New York Jets for a couple of days and was held out of the Jets’ game because of his condition. That didn’t stop him from going out bowling until the night before the game, the game he was too sick to play in. Bell is another clown who just doesn’t get it. He’s been a bust in New York and he never did get the deal from the Jets that he turned down from the Steelers. What a genius.
