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My Thoughts on Ben Roethlisberger and Santonio Holmes

Pat — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 15:28:19 +0000

It sure has been a busy week for Steeler Nation and not because the NFL draft is quickly approaching. It’s not even because of free agency moves made by the organization. The Steelers have been experiencing some unusual off-season publicity.

I’ll start by talking about the problems with Santonio Holmes. Holmes was traded to the New York Jets for a 5th round draft pick this past Sunday. I know what you’re thinking, a 5th round draft pick? The Steelers top wide receiver and Super Bowl XLIII MVP who is coming off his best season as a Steeler traded for a 5th round draft pick.

Actually, I’m not surprised by this, Holmes has been in trouble since his rookie season with the Steelers. He has had some domestic disturbance issues, substance abuse issues and was suspended once for possession of marijuana. Holmes was given several chances by the Steelers and told after the possession charge that the Steelers would not give him any more chances. Santonio chose to violate the league’s policy on illegal substances and the Steelers took action by sending him to NY for a 5th round draft pick.

On a side note, the Jets were the only team that showed any interest in Santonio Holmes, the rest of the league didn’t want to take the risk. Holmes is a great wide receiver but needs to think about how his off field actions affect his status in the NFL and right now, it’s not good.

Ben Roethlisberger continues to have serious issues off the football field. The issues go back to the motorcycle that almost killed him a few years ago. Ben has made some very bad decisions in his off time and the most recent allegations will probably lead to a suspension. Many experts believe Ben will face a minimum 2 game suspension, while others say as many as 4 games.

I really hope that Ben spends some time with someone like Tony Dungy and straightens up. I understand he’s a young, single guy but he’s also a very high profile NFL football player. He can’t put himself into situations like he has most recently in the Atlanta area and last summer in Nevada. The allegations against Ben may or may not be true and yes, the charges were dropped in both cases but, he will always have this hanging over his head.

You can see how I feel about both players, they are both young and made some very bad decisions and they both are going to face consequences. Holmes was cut loose from a city that has embraced him and would have been proud to see him retire in a Steeler uniform.

The people of Pittsburgh love Big Ben and want to see him succeed but this most recent fiasco will test Steeler Nation and really put him under the microscope this coming season.

Written by Pat Lovell - The Steeler Fanatic
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Stick a Fork in Them, The 2009 Steelers are Done!

Pat — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 14:09:59 +0000

This Season, being a Steeler fan has been very tough for a couple of reasons. First, I was at the Super Bowl last year with my Dad, Son and Cousin and celebrated for months after witnessing the best finish to a Super Bowl in History. Second, I live in Indiana and I have to hear about the now, 12-0 Colts that about to win a record setting 22 regular season games in a row.

I feel like my sports faith is being tested by the Football gods.

Especially, after losing 5 games in a row and the last 2 games to teams with a combined record of 5 and 20, the Browns and the Raiders. Two teams that all Steeler fans despise and would love to see lose 16 games in a row every year. Oh wait, the Browns have come really close to that the last few years in a row.

What can I say about last nights game? Not much except, I’m embarrassed to be a Steeler fan today and have been for 5 weeks. I really don’t know what’s going on within the organization and am flabbergasted by what I’ve seen this season. We haven’t had many changes in personnel and you can’t tell me that Troy being out has this big of an affect on the team.

Is it Super Bowl hangover?

It’s a shame because I still haven’t seen this team get “Beat” yet, they have “Lost” all 7 games on their own and that’s a reflection on the team and staff. I just don’t see the heart and pride that I usually see out of this team. Hell, when the camera shows the defense on the sidelines, they look like they would rather be somewhere else. I don’t see a team captain taking a leadership role, I don’t see any player trying to get them fired up, I don’t see a coach..well, um… coaching, I don’t see anyone look pissed off at losing, I don’t see any emotion from the former #1 defense in the NFL and it’s sickening.

The offense and special teams is the same story, I don’t see anyone taking control of this team (Ben has shown some leadership and shows emotion on the sidelines but it seems like he’s forcing it to please the fans), I don’t see guys like Ward, Miller or Ben or stepping up and getting in the faces of the younger players. I just don’t see any emotion at all except, ….acceptance, these players have accepted the fact that they don’t want to win another Super Bowl.

It’s seasons like this that make it hard to be a Steeler fan and not for the reason you think, it’s not because they have lost 7 games already or because they have lost 5 in a row (to terrible teams), or because the chances of making the playoffs are all but lost, it’s because this team is playing with NO HEART and NO EMOTION. If these games were going down to the wire with every player giving everything they have and “leaving it all on the field”, Steeler fans would still have respect for these guys. If this team was getting beat by the Colts, Saints and Vikings by a last second field goal and giving 100% on every play, I would be proud.

But, you know what, I am not proud of this team, I am disgusted with this team.

No Heart

No Soul

No Emotion

Nothing… The 2009 Steelers are an embarrassment and the front office needs to look very, very hard at replacing whomever is responsible for the lack of heart, soul and emotion and find players and staff that have what it takes to be a part of the Pittsburgh Steeler Organization, an organization that prides itself on accepting the responsibility of being one of the most storied franchises in the NFL.

Pat Lovell

Steelers Lose to Raiders and Need Help Bad

Pat — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 00:28:47 +0000

I haven’t been posting to the Blog that much but it’s not because the Steelers are stinking up the NFL. We are getting ready to sell our house and move out to the country so, we’ve been working on our house to have it listing ready.

These last few games have shown how vulnerable our secondary is and should tell the front office exactly where we need to draft or find a couple good corners via free agency.

Sure, Troy being hurt has been a big factor but our corners and back up safeties are not top caliber players. Townsend is getting old, Gay is terrible, Taylor is inconsistent, Clark and Carter are ok but, not what we need at safety, Mundy and Burnett are too inexperienced. You can see what I mean, our secondary is suspect and needs fixed.

Here’s the thing, Steeler fans go into every season with extremely high expectations and think we can win the Super Bowl every season. We love the Steelers and Steeler Nation puts everything they have into the game. Hell, sometimes I think the fans are more excited than the players each game and we probably are.

We don’t like losing seasons and this season we’ve lost 6 games and every one of them were winnable games. We didn’t get BEAT by any team, we beat ourselves every game, by terrible mistakes and most recently, horrible play by the secondary and special teams.

Don’t worry, I’m still gonna be rooting on the Steelers this thursday night when we travel to Cleveland to take on the Brownies. Cheap Steeler Tickets

Go Steelers

Pat Lovell

Steelers Lose Huge Game to the Bengals

Pat — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:36:04 +0000

Last week when thinking about this game I was pretty confident that the Steelers would come out on top of a very close game. I didn’t think the Bengals were enough of a team to handle our number one defense. Well, the defense played a pretty decent game but I didn’t plan for our offense, Ben specifically playing like crap.

I’m going to start with this and get it off my chest. I defended Jeff Reed after the Chicago game, defended him after the last Bengals game and even defended him after his 2 scuffles with the law. But, it’s time for Reed to be cut! He is personally responsible for missing the kicks in the Bears and Bengals games, he is responsible for missing tackles in every return Touchdown scored against our special teams. What the hell was that yesterday, he had a clean shot at slowing down or knocking the returner out of bounds and he let him run by. He is also responsible for his actions off the field, it’s obvious he has an alcohol problem and I’ve had enough.

Dear Pittsburgh Steeler Organization,

Cut Jeff Reed now, he is costing this team wins and responsible for terrible publicity off the field!

Sincerely,

Pat Lovell “The Steeler Fanatic”

Ok, enough about “the kicker”, which is how I will now refer to this worthless player. What on earth happened to Ben and the Wide Receiver’s yesterday. If Ben wasn’t over throwing them, they were dropping the ball. I still can’t believe Miller dropped a pass that hit him in the hands. Every WR dropped catch-able passes yesterday.

Why not work on establishing the run? Why not Blitz? Why did the Steelers step out of their game plan and play to the Bengals. That is very out of character and it cost us the game. A team should never let the other team dictate their game, especially at home.

We have a lot to work on this week and now 1st place is, in reality, out of reach, unless the Bengals implode. We have to fight and work very hard to end up with a wild card spot.

Suck it up and learn from the mistakes made in this game and most importantly, start looking for a kicker, NOW!

Pat Lovell
“The Steeler Fanatic”

Steelers Beat Broncos in Denver

Pat — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:34:35 +0000

In front of a national audience and on Monday Night Football, the Steelers put a beat down on the Broncos in Denver. I’ll admit, I was a little uneasy about this game and thought there was a chance for the Broncos to come out on top in this one, if it was close in the 4th quarter.

Going into the 2nd half, I thought, here we go, another 2nd half collapse by the Steelers. This was one of those times I didn’t mind being wrong. After a few mistakes in the 3rd quarter, Ben decided he was going to take control of the game.

Wow, is all I can say about Ben and his performance last night. The guy gets a lot of criticism about his play and unwillingness to get rid of the ball. I say this is a good competitive trait and not a downfall. Ben played a damn good game last night and showed his critics that he is a good quarterback. Strike that.. a great quarterback.

The offensive line gets a ton of criticism from everyone (me included) but they are creating some huge holes and running lanes for Mendenhall. I was impressed with the time Ben had on a lot of the passing plays, sure they collapsed a few times and made some assignment mistakes but overall, they played well.

The defense played at their level of smash mouth football and completely stopped the Broncos from running the football. Actually, they stuffed the run and with the pressure on Orton they controlled the flow of the game. Troy brought his A game, Carter made some big plays, Kiesel played a great game and the line backers kept Orton hurried and under pressure.

This creates some urgency with the Bengals coming to town this weekend, I think this is a MUST WIN game for the Steelers, they have to beat the Bengals at home to stay on top of the AFC North and set themselves up to win the division.

Steelers Beat Brett Favre and the Vikings

Pat — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:01:18 +0000

The Vikings and Brett Favre came into Pittsburgh this Sunday, 6-0 and confident. Riding the wave of a resurgent, recently out of retirement, aging Quarterback that is having an incredible year.

Enter, the Pittsburgh Steelers Defense…

The Steelers love to face teams like the 2009 Vikings. The Vikings were unbeaten, boasting a very tough defense, and have the best running back in the league. Oh, yeah, they have Brett Favre.

I talked to several people this week and I was very confident that we could beat the Vikings. We just need to accomplish a few small tasks. Stop Adrian Peterson and pressure Brett Favre into making bad decisions. Sounded easy enough to me.

In the first quarter, we did just that. We stopped Peterson and we hit, hurried and sacked Brett Favre. The battle of the punters/kickers was about to start and I was confident that our kicker Jeff Reed would take a “fighting stance” and win this game for us. (Sorry, had to get that in there some how).

However, Reed almost cost us the game near the end of the 4th quarter. The Steelers defense, led by Brett Kiesel, forced a fumble and Woodly returned it for a touchdown to go ahead by 10 points, 20-10. Forcing the Vikings to score twice to tie or take the lead. On the kickoff following the TD, Reed had a chance to tackle, knock down or divert the runner and pretty much gave up on the play thus allowing the Vikings to score and bring the game back to 3 points, 20-17.

Enter, the Steelers Defense, again….

The defense saved the game once again, intercepting Brett Favre in the closing minutes, Fox returned the interception 82 yds for the touchdown and putting the game out of reach for the Vikings. 27-17.

This was a great win to head into the bye week and gives our players a much needed rest.

Bring on the Broncos…. (could they still be undefeated on Nov. 9th?)

Steelers Go Wide Left Against the Bears

Pat — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 23:53:21 +0000

The Steelers went into Chicago as the reigning Super Bowl Champs and riding the high of beating the Titans in overtime at home 10 days ago. They came out and dominated the first quarter controlling the ball for over 12 minutes and scoring on their first possession of the game.

Then came the 2nd quarter and the rain. I don’t know if it was the weather or the adjustments but the Bears turned around and dominated the 2nd quarter tying the game and going into halftime tied 7-7.

Well, you know how it ends….. Jeff Reed misses 2 field goals in the 4th quarter and Robbie Gould hits one with 30 seconds left in the game to win it.

I don’t know what to think about this game. We looked good for the most part, ran the ball decent (for a change), stopped the run (as usual), special teams played well and Ben played well except for a few under thrown balls but, I’m not sure that wasn’t from the rain.

The defense…. It’s funny how a team can take advantage of a starter being hurt and the Bears did that, well. They abused Aaron Carter all day long.

We are feeling the loss of Polamalu right now and Carter and the rest of the Defense need to step up. Did you notice the big plays took place right in front of Carter? I don’t think the two TD’s happen either, if Troy is in there. I don’t think the big pass plays to the Tight End happen either. We need Troy back and fast.

I’ll go easy on Reed after this game, he has done way too much over the last few years to get crap for missing a couple field goals, on the road and in the rain.

The loss stinks but it’s a long season and we know where the weaknesses were in this game. Time to regroup and go into Cincinnati and beat the Bengals.

Go Steelers.

Pat Lovell

Steelers Home Opener Photos

Pat — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 20:48:33 +0000

Some photos from the Steelers home opener on Thursday, Sept. 10th, 2009

Steelers Win Home Opener in Overtime

Pat — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:58:14 +0000

What a day.

I started the day getting up at 5am, eating breakfast, checking email and heading out on the road to Pittsburgh. I arrived at my Dad’s house around 1pm and was on the road to the game by 2:30. We got to our spot in the parking lot around 3:30.

We headed into the stadium around 6:30, walked through the Great Hall to see the new Super Bowl XLIII trophy (it was awesome and I’ll post a photo here in a while). We headed to Club West early for some food and and were in our seats early. It’s not every year, you open the season as the reigning Super Bowl Champions. I knew they would have a great opening ceremony and I was right. They started with a video montage of the Super Bowl, raised a giant 6 time champs flag and fireworks. The crowd was loud, proud and ready for some football.

Leading up to the game there were many activities going on around the stadium. Tim McGraw was live in Point state park, The Black Eyed Peas were there as well and they both played songs for the beginning of the game. I’m not a big fan of either, so it was ok for me. The excitement and enthusiasm of the crowd was great though.

Kickoff!

This is a good place to start the critique of the game, ladies and gentleman, we have a kick/punt returner and probably the best since Randle El left. Logan started off with a 40 yd kickoff return and did a great job all game. He’s going to be a big help this year.

The Offense was a little flat at first but Ben hooked up on a few nice passing plays. He also proved to me that he needs the pressure of the clock to make him very good. He was exceptional at the end of the half, the end of regulation and the OT. He is cool as a cucumber when the clock is ticking.

We are going to be in trouble unless Tomlin gets this running game in shape and that starts with the offensive line. We have 4 healthy running backs and need to take advantage of this now. Total Offense Grade = C (the running game brings this average way down) Big Ben and the WR crew Grade = B+

The Defense… wow. Troy came out and took control of the game early. He was in on every play, made some great tackles and a highlight reel interception. That one hand grab was incredible. We stopped the run and until Troy went out hurt, we dominated the Titans. After Troy went out, the Titans took advantage and did very well. Defensive Overall – Grade B+

The punter… Sepulveda was a stud and I am glad he is back. He backed the Titans up several times and bailed us out of some situations with his leg. Special Teams Grade = A

We played well when we needed to and walked away with a big overtime win but it cost us Troy Polamalu and the O Line is going to be criticized for a week. I think they are down playing Troy’s injury, the official report is MCL ’sprain’ and after seeing that injury on tape, he is going to be out 8-12 weeks (in my opinion) and that will hurt us.

A great day and I’m glad I went to the game, it was a great time.

Go Steelers.

Pat

The NFL Season is Here! I’m Ready for Some Football

Pat — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 14:13:45 +0000

Ok, first let’s remember that The Steelers are going into this season as the defending Champions and 6 time Super Bowl Champs! I’m still riding the high of going to the Super Bowl with my Dad, Son and Cousin, it was a weekend that will go down in history as one of the best weekends of my life.

I’m also very excited to be going back to the game and seeing the 6th trophy and welcoming the Champs back to the NFL! We are definitely in contention to make a repeat visit to the Super Bowl. Yep, I said it. We have a very good chance with pretty much the same team as last year. Actually, right now we are a better team than last year.

But I digress, I’m ready for some football and glad the pre-season is over at the same time. Thank goodness, we got through the pre-season with minor injuries but a couple do worry me.

Big Ben and Willie Parker both are going into week 1 with injuries that could end up much worse if not healed properly before they start playing. I’m really hoping Ben stays healthy and this injury doesn’t bother him all season. Willie, on the other hand, can be replaced pretty quickly with Mendenhall, so that’s not too bad.

I’m not going to critique the pre-season play, I’ll wait until after Thursday before I give a review and prediction of this year’s team.

Go Steelers!