Showing posts with label Steelers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Steelers. Show all posts

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Widdoes Preview of the Pats/Steelers Football Game

Bring it.
 
Sheesh, after reading the Hendrie's game preview I feel like I've been standing in line at the Cask 'n Flagon, getting heckled for not wearing black boots, a leather jacket and a head full of grease (covered up by a backwards Red Sox cap).  Rap sheet this, tabloid innuendo that, can we talk about football, please?

I mean, everyone knows the Pats haven't won a Super Bowl since being convicted of cheating...there just isn't much more to say about that. 

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Posted by Charlie Widdoes at 2:56 PM 3 comments
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Monday, August 29, 2011

Dissecting the "Elite 8" of the NFL

One of my recent posts broke down the contenders for the NFL title. My conclusion was that there was an "elite 8" in the NFL. These eight teams had a relatively equal chance of coming away with the Lombardi trophy this January. The other twenty four teams, in my opinion, only have about a five percent chance of winning the whole thing.
Thanks Todd and Company
Recently, Scouts inc. came out with their top 200 players in the NFL list. Although I disagree with some of the ratings, I thought it would be interesting to see how the "elite 8" stacked up with the rest of the league in terms of the best individual talent. I broke down the ratings by assigning a point value to each player. The top player (in this case Tom Brady) would be assigned 200 points while the bottom player would be assigned 1 point. This system resulted a teams elite player raw score (simply just the players values added up). One stat is that these eight teams have 75 players rated in the top 200. This is a testament to some really great drafting. Below I ranked the eight teams by their raw scores

Steelers (14): 1362
Packers (10): 1303
Eagles (10): 1160
Ravens (10): 1132
Patriots (8): 927
Colts (7): 777
Falcons (8): 759
Saints (8): 731

Next post, I will take a look at each on of these teams depth by taking Scout inc.'s player score (95 for Tom Brady) and adding them up for every starter. Until then, here are the elite player breakdowns by team.

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Posted by Dave Hendrie at 3:20 PM 2 comments
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Thursday, July 14, 2011

The Pittsburgh Steelers and the Public Consciousness: an Alternate Reality



For an organization known for its consistency, the Steelers sure do find themselves in the center of controversy quite often these days.  The most recent case, of course, is James Harrison speaking out on a number of topics in an interview with Men's Journal.

Maybe it is because of their place in the league, that their unmatched record of success naturally causes us to pay attention when their players -- their stars -- wind up in the news, and that may be a part of it.  But I think there is something more to it, and in addition to making headlines on the field, the quartet of Harrison, Ben Roethlisberger, Rashard Mendenhall and Hines Ward has managed to take center stage on just about every pressing social issue over the past year.  Each individual case has been a story in its own right, a display of how not to do something even if the intent was "right."  What's resulted is a polarizing (can something be considered polarizing if there is a near-unanymous feeling that these players are "wrong?") mix of big names doing public things that beg big questions about how athletes -- and football players in particular -- should act.

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Posted by Charlie Widdoes at 10:41 AM 2 comments
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Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Steelers NFL Draft Preview



 Another day, another dollar for the Steelers in the 2010 draft.

The Steelers will enter the 2011 Draft in the same position they often find themselves: towards the end of the first round, without any immediate needs, but tons of areas that could use upgrades in the near future.  They have shown a commitment to taking the best player available and have done so with unprecedented success in the first round.  They are able to pursue this strategy because of their tremendous record picking stars early and finding contributors in the middle rounds, especially in the last few drafts.


Everyone knows that they had the fortune of landing Pro-Bowler, LaMarr Woodley in the 2nd round in 2007, but there are other, slightly less celebrated draft value triumphs for Kevin Colbert.  Most notably, they have managed to reinvent their receiving corps after the first round, assembling the Young Money Trio of Mike Wallace (3rd round, 2009), Emmanuel Sanders (3rd round, 2010) and Antonio Brown (6th round, 2010) in the last two drafts.  That said, despite their strengths all over the field, they are not without weakness in the secondary and along the offensive line.  They also face real concerns about aging stars, particularly on the defensive line and at linebacker.


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Posted by Charlie Widdoes at 12:26 PM 1 comments
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