About an hour ago
The first “Are you crazy, bro?” 2021 begins with Steelers fans in Pittsburgh. Then it hits Philadelphia, New York, Washington and Miami along the way.
We have tight ends that turn into running backs. A cure for everything to referee the NFL. And dismay at the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Oh, and a grammar lesson.
Yes. It’s humdinger. We are starting the new year to a high standard here.
Jake has a … um … “out of the box” idea to fix the Steelers’ sagging racing game.
“Steelers need to consider turning some tight end candidates into running backs. Why not? The narrow ends are bigger, have good hands, are adept at traveling short passing routes and are trained to block.
Someone like Lance McDonald could be a great candidate next year. It would be great to have a guy like that to catch blitzers in blocking passes, or who could be a great third down receiver, and who would be better able to catch crucial first downs in short yard situations merely because of his size and power. McDonald punishes the attackers. “
IT’S OK. Too much to undo here, Jake.
First, just because, say, Derrick Henry is built as a tight end, it doesn’t mean that every tight end can be Derrick Henry.
Right. Every now and then, you have a guy like Rod Bernstine, who went from the tight end to the running back with the Chargers in the 1990s. However, he was just a pound heavier (235) than James Conner (233) .
But I have to take that example from long ago, because I can’t think of many others who have done it well since then. Especially if we don’t count the defenders.
And there is a reason for that. They are totally different skill sets and positions. Especially in today’s game. There is a difference between blocking a forward striker in the scrimmage line and catching an intermediate or security linebacker.
I mean, you saw Eric Ebron’s block, right? And you want that guy closer for Ben Roethlisberger? While he tries to recognize who to catch? Where are you from? Instead of knowing who he should hit immediately after the snap?
No thank you!
And his friend “Lance” McDonald weighs 267 pounds. Not like Henry. I kind of have a hard time seeing “Lance” stretching an off-tackle run and popping one for distance around the edge.
“Lance” and Ebron are well advanced in their careers to make such a drastic change in position, don’t you think?
How about Steelers – and I’m just spitting here – just draft or signal better running backs?
Is that something you might be interested in?
Like me, John is furious at the number of missed penalties that were not scored in the Steelers-Browns game.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen arbitration as inconsistent (and poor) as this year. And, believe me, that says a lot.
I almost think there should be 11 referees on the pitch, with 1 responsible for each player in the attack. They would then be responsible for the combined defensive player. It wouldn’t fix an employee’s awkwardness, but it would eliminate missed calls.
Honestly, it becomes very difficult to watch a game.“
It’s true, John. But what makes the game even more difficult to watch is an excessive number of flags. Especially from officials who wanted to play them just to keep up with their other 10 pairs on the field – in their setting.
Filling an already crowded playing surface with four more guys who just aren’t very good at what they do is not the answer.
Requiring a general statement of more or less infractions will not correct your level of anger. It will only change the reason for your anger.
What needs to happen is more consistency in the connections themselves. We will create a more stable limit to hold, interfere with the pass and attack the quarterback. And stay with him.
Don’t call a ticky-tack hold in the first quarter so that you can fulfill some kind of imaginary “quota” because – technically – you were right to whistle an offensive attacker quickly. But then ignore a blatant link that materially affects a big gain.
This is the problem that NFL officials are dealing with now.
Thomas is not at all pleased with the state of the local baseball team.
“Throughout my life, the Pirates have had some really bad teams, but in the old days they had at least a few top players. Now, it seems that the organization is happy to play the role of a team of farmers lucky enough to be in the MLB.“
When you say “old days”, what exactly do you mean? Like, in the 1970s when they had Willie Stargell, Dave Parker and Roberto Clemente?
Or the 1990s, when they had Barry Bonds, Bobby Bonilla, Andy Van Slyke and Doug Drabek?
Or 2013-15 when they had Gerrit Cole, Andrew McCutchen and Neil Walker?
In spite of everything, all these teams look a lot like the “old days” in my mind, I imagine them playing in the Parque de Exposições.
Mike is out of shape after the infantile reaction from New York on the heels of the Philadelphia Eagles tanki … oops … hmmm … ”
This defeat sealed the NFC East to Washington and eliminated the 6-10 Giants from a division title.
6 wins and still had the chance to reach the playoffs in the last snap of the regular season. And they received a gift from the referees at their own game today.
– Mike Ross (@IronCity_Mike) January 4, 2021
I agree, Mike. And I can’t help thinking about what it must have been like to be a Miami Dolphins fan on Sunday night, going through all the New York hypocrisy and grinding teeth on Twitter.
I mean, on 6-10, should Giants fans really proselytize about “how the game should be played” just so that their team could go back to being the worst division winner in NFL history?
Meanwhile, if you’re a fan of Miami, your team has had a surprisingly strong turnaround season. But they missed out on the 10-6 playoffs because the AFC is very deep and their division had a 13-game champion in Buffalo.
But do Giants fans want to throw a pity party after they fail to catch Washington 7-9 in their own division or Bears 8-8 as the last wild card?
What a joke!
Finally, I received a quote from the grammatical police, specifically “Officer Beau”.
“You never start a sentence with MAS !!!!!!! If you start a sentence with So, there must be a comma after SO !!!! Dear God man …“
First, Beau, your points are not entirely true by the letter of the law. And as a sports columnist, I’m not indebted to the letter of the law anyway. Whether that law of grammar 101 or the AP style.
I adhered to both as much as possible. BUT the goal is to be more colloquial than to write according to what would give me an A + in my third grade newsletter.
Also, I’m pretty sure that 10 exclamation points for two words break a rule. Just like ending this sentence with an ellipsis. Just like lifting a standalone word as an example of a reference point without quotes around it, as you did with “then” and “but”
In addition, we may question whether or not the use of “god” should be capitalized and followed by a comma.
BUT, why care? My guess is that there are bigger issues in the world to discuss now.
SO, essentially what I’m saying, Beau, is that you can kiss my … (fill in the ellipsis).
Tim Benz is an editor on the Tribune-Review team. You can contact Tim at [email protected] or via Twitter. All tweets can be posted again. All emails are subject to publication, unless otherwise specified.
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Sports | Steelers / NFL | Breakfast with Benz