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Roberto Clemente Day was celebrated throughout PNC Park Wednesday night. -- GETTY

Matt’s Stats: With clean slate, pick ideal infield

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MATT
You heard it straight from Clint Hurdle last weekend: Once the lineup card comes out, second-guessing replaces baseball as the great American pastime.

That’s especially been the case around these parts since Jordy Mercer and Josh Harrison returned from the disabled list nearly a month ago. Over the span of about four weeks, Hurdle and the Pirates have juggled no fewer than seven viable MLB infielders, with Jung Ho Kang, Neil Walker, Pedro Alvarez, Aramis Ramirez and Michael Morse rounding out that portion of the roster.

Matts Stats

No matter which foursome Hurdle selects for duty on a particular afternoon, someone out there is going to be upset.

Kang on the bench? The Pirates are coddling him. Mercer in the lineup again? Coach’s pet. Alvarez at first? You can’t have a defensive liability like that. Ramirez at first? Don’t experiment in a pennant race. Harrison at second? It’s not 2014 anymore. Walker against a lefty? He’s a platoon player now. Mercer on the bench? They’re not prioritizing defense.

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The Penguins are expecting a more intense Derrick Pouliot this season. -- GETTY

Johnston seeks more snarl from Pouliot

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JOSH
LONDON, Ontario — It happened during the second period of the Penguins’ rookie tournament opener against the Canadiens last week. Derrick Pouliot, in the rarest of moments, became angry and confronted a player. There were nasty words exchanged and a shove.

The 21-year-old defenseman is perhaps the most low-key of the Penguins, which made the incident, while not terribly violent, noteworthy.

Mike Johnston loved it.

“Someone must have really done something to make Pouliot mad,” Johnston would say roughly 24 hours later. “That was great.”

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One of the Pirates' biggest fans, Tammy Jamison, has been through a lot this month.

Good Dudettes: Tammy Jamison, Pirates fan

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JOSH
Through the first 11 weeks of writing my “Good Dudes” column, I’ve selected 11 men who were very well deserving.

Pick No. 12 is a woman and, trust me when I tell you, she’s tougher than those 11 guys combined. And she’s quite a good dudette.

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Tammy Jamison is a sports fan unlike any I’ve encountered.

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Pitcher maintenance ‘more art than science’

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MATT
On a different team, or in a different time, the Pirates’ recent decision to bump Gerrit Cole back a few days in the starting rotation would have been a controversy.

A healthy 25-year-old ace-in-the-making practically skipping a turn in the heat of a pennant race? Well, I’d never!

Instead, the moment was notably drama-free. Clint Hurdle might as well have yawned when he announced it six days ago in the Great American Ball Park visiting manager’s office.

“He’s already past his (previous MLB) workload,” he said of Cole, who has thrown 180 2/3 innings in 28 starts. “So we found a way to unplug him.”

That’s not to say there wasn’t tension behind the scenes, but when it came time to go public, the principals seemed united in purpose.

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Rob Gronkowski catches one of the easiest touchdowns he'll ever get. -- GETTY

Steelers PATs: So what happened in coverage?

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NEAL
It’s hard not to think, after watching the Steelers’ 28-21 loss to the Patriots at Gillette Field Thursday, the defensive game plan was catered specifically to the Patriots, and not demonstrative of what they’ll be doing this year.

PATSThat brings up two major issues:

1. They might want to re-think the strategy should they face the Patriots again this year.

2. They might want to throw a lot of it out before they host the 49ers in Week 2.

The Steelers were shredded in the air by one of the game’s best passers, but they didn’t make Tom Brady work much for the stats he put up. And overall, the Patriots only had 361 yards, leaving the feeling it could have been much, much worse.

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Anna’s Web: Twitter embraces #headsetgate

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Byline_Anna
Anna’s Web is back!

After a long hiatus, I’m back with the social media news after tonight’s season opener for your Steelers, in which the defense formerly known as the Steel Curtain was not exactly present in a 28-21 loss to the Patriots up in Foxborough.

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The game was full of social media buzz, from the much anticipated return of Tom Brady, to the newest possible controversy for the Pats: #headsetgate.

And here, in the new format for Anna’s Web, we’ll take a look at it all. From Boston’s local coverage to reactions from the Steelers’ players themselves, there was much to discuss.

Just click the links below and head over to our Tumblr page to see what the ever-opinionated Internet had to say about tonight’s game.

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Arthur Moats is one of many veterans who provide leadership in the Steelers' locker room. -- GETTY

Steelers 2015 preview: Generational identity

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NEAL
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Arthur Moats is the work colleague you hope has a desk near yours. He’s chatty, intelligent, willing to talk, tremendous sense of humor.  And on this particular day, he wanted to be funny. 

“Hey Arthur, you got a second?” I asked, turning on my recorder. 

“WHO WANTS ME?” he bellowed to the point the decibel reading on my recorder went as red as the blood I’d assumed would soon be pouring from my ears.

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But then the man turned around, smiled and explained he was trying to be like James Harrison, who doesn’t typically greet reporters with a cup of coffee and a handshake. 

“I gotta let people know I’m tough, just like Deebo,” Moats fairly beamed.

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Matt’s Stats: Scheduled step back for Steelers?

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MATT
With the new NFL season on the doorstep, we’ve blessedly reached the end of prediction season.

You know how it goes: Everyone and their brother asks you how many wins the Steelers — or any other NFL team, for that matter — will end up with by the end of December.

Matts Stats

This phenomenon isn’t exclusive to football. There are over-under lines in Vegas sportsbooks for teams in all the major-league sports in North America, plus worldwide soccer and pretty much anything else one might have the faintest desire to wager on.

But there’s something about football, and the NFL in particular, that lends itself to rampant prognostication, more so than the other sports and leagues.

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Will Allen and the secondary will have to make quick calls Thursday in New England. -- GETTY

Steelers 2015 preview: ‘Butler 2,’ coming soon

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NEAL
Cam Heyward smirked.

“We’ll have to wait and see,” he said.

Steve McLendon was less playful.

“I don’t know, we’ll have to find out,” he said.

Arthur Moats flashed a smile. Shamarko Thomas was inscrutable. Stephon Tuitt was deadpanned. All said the same thing, more or less.

It was more what they didn’t say: We aren’t telling you how this defense will work.

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That defense, the one that will be led by Keith Butler — the first man not named Dick LeBeau to do so since 2004 — is a mystery shrouded in secret and wrapped in a phone-book-thick playbook that won’t be unleashed until roughly 8:30 p.m. Thursday in Foxborough.

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Antonio Brown laughs on the sideline last Thursday at Heinz Field. -- JARED WICKERHAM / GETTY

Steelers 2015 preview: Wide world of receivers

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NEAL
The situation is bleak.

It’s Week 17 of the 2014 NFL season. It’s Heinz Field. The Steelers are up on the Bengals, 20-17, but team MVP Le’Veon Bell is parked on the sideline, not expected to return, and it’s 3rd-and-8 with three minutes remaining.

Cincinnati is defending Antonio Brown with just Dre Kirkpatrick.

It seems unfathomable, considering the importance of the situation.

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It’s impossible, of course, that Kevin Colbert envisioned this scenario when he gave the green light to select Brown in the sixth round of the 2010 NFL Draft. There’s no measurable stat that says “indefensible in one-on-one situations.” If there were, veteran coach Marvin Lewis might not have employed such a coverage.

Still, the Steelers have been building their team for these kinds of moments. Hundreds of targets have been chalked up between Roethlisberger and Brown. Records have been shattered. Points have come in bunches.

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Josh’s Good Dudes: Tyler Boyd, Pitt

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JOSH
Even good dudes make mistakes. It doesn’t mean they aren’t good dudes.

Tyler Boyd, you might have heard, had a run-in with the law a few months back, resulting in a DUI charge and a one-game suspension from Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi.

What you probably haven’t heard is that Boyd is a terrific human being, loved by all who have encountered him. He’s this week’s Good Dude.

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I have known Boyd since he was 14. He hasn’t changed much over the years, even though he’s likely about nine months away from becoming a millionaire. What has always struck me about Boyd is his loyalty to his family, and his loyalty to his hometown.

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Steelers PATs: Hot night, cold defensive line

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NEAL
Mike Tomlin will say, fair or otherwise, that every snap in every preseason game, every training camp practice and every walk-through was evaluated before coming to a determination on the Steelers’ final 53-man roster.

PATSThe 23-6 loss to the Panthers Thursday at Heinz Field was ugly enough to believe that guys could have cost themselves jobs right then and there.

This was most obvious among defensive linemen and running backs: Josh Harris failed to win a job while rookie L.T. Walton might have clinched his despite a middling performance.

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