Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol. 36 - Number 5 i Steelers Digest

It was a long day, a very long and ugly day for the Steelers when they hosted the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday at Acrisure Stadium. Some of it was attributable to a freak of nature, an act of God. But way too much of it was their own doing, and that was the worst part of it. The Cardinals arrived in Pittsburgh with a 2-10 record, with a streak of 9 straight losses on the road dating back to Nov. 13, 2022, with an offense that ranked in the bottom third of the league in seven major categories and had turned the ball over 16 times, and with a defense that had allowed an NFL high 54 trips into its red zone and ranked second-to-last in points allowed per game.…

The 2016 Max Preps High School Football All-America team included some very familiar names. Future NFL players dotted the list, particularly on offense, where the wide receivers were Donovan Peoples-Jones and Tee Higgins, the offensive linemen included Walker Little, Wyatt Davis, Trey Smith, and Josh Meyers. But the real star power was at running back, where the No. 1 recruit in the country, Najee Harris was joined by future Georgia and Lions star D’Andre Swift and some kid out of East High School in Salt Lake City by the name of Jaylen Warren. While many of the other players on the All-America team were headed to major college programs – including Harris to Alabama – Warren had to take a different path. But that path brought him back to joining…

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From the notebook of a sportswriter who continues to watch the Steelers take two steps forward and one massive step back: • Those who’ve read this column over the past two decades know me as authentic. So please trust that this take comes from my heart: This Steelers team is not as far away as many might believe after a loss to the now 3-10 Arizona Cardinals. • First of all, this was a classic letdown scenario. A game against a getting-healthy 2-10 NFC team on the heels of two emotional road division games, the latter a win over an overrated team with a putrid defense that probably left the Steelers feeling better about themselves than they should have. • Relief from a chaotic week of change was no doubt…

Calvin Austin III never expected his rookie season to play out the way it did, basically ending before it got started. The Steelers selected Austin, a wide receiver and returner, in the fourth round of the 2022 NFL Draft, the 138th pick overall, and even though he was just 5-foot-9, he came to the NFL hoping to make an impact, but a Lisfranc injury before the preseason opener prevented him from playing a single snap in 2022. “It was tough, it was disappointing,” admitted Austin. “It was honestly crazy.” Through all the craziness, Austin never faltered and worked his tail off to get back on the field this season without losing a step. And his teammates took notice. So much so they voted him the Steelers recipient of the Ed…

It was Alumni Weekend, a time when players from the Steelers’ past are brought back to town for a celebration that includes a lavish dinner and speeches in a sold out banquet hall on Saturday night, and then a halftime ceremony during the following day’s game where all attendees are introduced to the crowd. On this Alumni Weekend, the Steelers not only honored a group of players from their past, but the current team played the style – especially on offense – those former players knew very well. The Steelers capped their 2023 Alumni Weekend with a 23-19 victory over the Green Bay Packers on Nov. 12 at Acrisure Stadium, and of all the reasons why that outcome was achieved none was more significant than the 205 yards rushing on…

Pat Freiermuth reacted with a crooked smile that said, “Weren’t you watching the game?” The question put to him had been about the changes to the Steelers’ offense in the game following the firing of coordinator Matt Canada and the promotion of running backs coach Eddie Faulkner to the position. What changed? “Well,” Freiermuth continued, “they fed my position group a little more.” Consider TE1 won over by the change. Freiermuth, of course, enjoyed the best game of his career, and it came under the stewardship of Faulkner and new play-caller Mike Sullivan, who doubles as quarterbacks coach. They called the play that sent Freiermuth down the seam for a 24-yard gain on his way to career highs of 9 catches for 120 yards. It was Freiermuth’s first 100-yard game,…

It’s the players, not the plays. Or maybe you’ve heard it explained this way: The Jimmys and Joes are more important than the Xs and Os. The Steelers got to 7-4 following a 16-10 win in Cincinnati on Nov. 26, and as Bill Cowher once said after something that looked similar, “It was no Mozart.” Indeed, there was nothing artistic about what happened on the floor of Paycor Stadium, but what happened was important for two significant reasons: It was a win, on the road against a division opponent, and it was achieved in no small part because their plan on offense was more about the players – both Pittsburgh’s and Cincinnati’s – than the plays. “I thought we spread the ball around, we changed things up schematically with different…

This time, the cupboard was bare. No late offensive surge. No fourth quarter magic from the quarterback. No complementary football after the defense took the ball away. No defensive plays that directly impacted the scoreboard. There were none of the things that were characteristics of the six wins they had posted in the run-up to their bus trip via the Turnpike for the second of the annual home-and-home series vs. the Browns. And as a result, the Steelers lost. Not only a game, but an opportunity. The final score of the game was 13-10, the deciding points came on a 34-yard field goal by Dustin Hopkins with 2 seconds remaining, and the kick was made possible by an 8-play, 48-yard drive during which rookie quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson completed 4-of-5 for…