DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
Welcome to Tuesday 12 Qs, our chat that takes place each week at 1 p.m., obviously in the immediate aftermath of the Mike Tomlin press conference, and offers you a chance to dictate the discussion.
The format is simple: Use the comments section below to submit an entry. No more than one per person, please. Submit it early if you prefer, and I’ll pick from that batch to get rolling, then monitor new entries once we go live.
All topics welcome, as always.
Stephen Dotts: Was the Steelers’ victory over the Texans a significant step in the right direction, or a product of three lucky minutes?
DK: I’m not, in any walk of life, a fan of analysis through omission. What happens actually happens. If Le’Veon Bell rans for 350 yards in one game, no more than 20 in any of the rest, he still ran for those 350. There are no rejected outliers in sports. Everything counts.
I’d also like to quantify luck, as it applies to those three minutes. The ball bouncing back to Brett Keisel off Lawrence Timmons’ helmet, that’s luck. But Keisel raising his hand to tip that initial pass that redirected it toward Timmons, that’s not. The goofy Antonio Brown TD pass might have had a fluky feel, but it comes out today that it was Mike Tomlin’s call, not Todd Haley’s, not Ben Roethlisberger’s. It was part of a plan. Not luck at all. Brown’s incredible athleticism, not just on that play but on those later catches — including the TD of which he was robbed — aren’t luck. Brice McCain blanketing Andre Johnson all night. Not luck.
I have a feeling we’re going to be reading and hearing all week about three minutes. Not from me.
David: Not sold on the defense creating turnovers. Mike Mitchell’s strip was nice, but otherwise it was a lucky fumble and a tip drill. Still seeing lots of blown coverage, an inconsistent pass rush, and no one trying to break up passes. Am I just too negative at this point?
DK: I don’t think it’s a matter of being too positive or negative or whatever. Again, I think it’s about cherry-picking highly specific events and assigning them to the luck or whatever category. I could take that same specific play you cite by Mitchell and add that it never should have happened because Cortez Allen remains completely clueless in coverage. But that play ends up in the positive ledger because of its outcome. Or lucky. I forget which.
The Texans also got lucky, for instance, with the refs blowing the call on Brown’s TD. And if they hadn’t, that onside kick that had everyone biting their nails never would have meant a whit.
Here’s the bottom line: The Steelers faced a team with the same record, with a fairly high set of stakes given what a loss could have done to their AFC North chances … and they won. They did enough things well — not for three minutes, but for all 60 — to win.
Can they get better?
My goodness, absolutely.
But speaking only for myself, I don’t feel the need to diminish what actually occurred, primarily because the end of the game — which, again, never should have played out as it did — left a sour taste.
chuckinrlp: Dejan, with Robert Bortuzzo coming back from injury, who do you see as the odd man out on defense?.
DK: Will be or should be?
If it’s the latter, there’s no hesitation with me that it should be Rob Scuderi. No need to pile on here. Starting Wednesday, there are three games in a four nights, all against teams built on speed. Not that Bortuzzo is Bobby Orr, but you’ll want to keep bodies fresh. Maybe players could alternate. But one way or another, Scuderi would be my odd man out.
If it’s who will be, I’m going to take the cop-out route of dressing seven D and sitting a forward. Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin have been sitting enough — especially 71 in the early going, because of all the penalty-kills — that both easily could be asked to take extra turns on the fourth line. Messes up opposing matchups, too., for the road games in Detroit and Nashville.
Oh, and on a related note, if Scott Harrington isn’t going to play, get him out of here already. Kid needs to be on the ice.
Vern: With the success Pitt had with the read option last Thursday and the success Paul Chryst had with Russell Wilson in Wisconsin, it seems like a no-brainer to build upon that going forward. Is it feasible to bring that into the offense this late in the season? Or will it be wait until next year?
DK: We’ve already seen a bit of it, Vern, as Chad Voytik has taken off — usually after moving to his right — more than once and occasionally for big gains. And yes, I’ve been surprised, too, that the Panthers haven’t done that more often, as it would not only take advantage of Voytik’s speed and toughness but also keep opponents from stacking 12 men in the box against James Conner.
Two questions arise for me:
1. Is the line athletic enough to handle it?
I recall Artie Rowell, the now-injured center, doing a lot of athletic pulling, but he’s been gone since Boston College. The rest would be mostly unproven.
2. As you ask, can it be taught quickly?
I was impressed with some sharp changes Pitt made during its bye week, most of the offensive ones involving Voytik, and how he was able to make some — not all — of that work vs. Virginia Tech. But especially in the context that the young man also had three midterm exams in the same period.
Funny how we forget the student half of student-athlete.
BrotherhoodOfTheRedus: Why is everyone overlooking the job the Steelers’ defense did in the second half to stop Arian Foster? The guy was on pace for 200.
DK: Overlook?
All that I’ll add to what’s already in today’s column is that, to a man, the Steelers insisted they didn’t alter much strategically, at least not in a broader sense. The way Cam Heyward was explaining it to me, Houston’s blockers were positioning themselves one way, with an intent to block the other way for the cutback. Once the guys up front adjusted, tackles started happening.
mjb607: DK, what do you see as the true value of Paul Martin? Salary cap hit aside, I would like to see a return of some more grit on defense. Bortuzzo really is all there is with any true sandpaper in his game. Is the organization giving any thought to that rather than once again a winger?
DK: Several Qs today about possible Penguins trades. Well, I’m here to temper any enthusiasm about this — impossible as that task can be — and here’s why: Martin isn’t going to get you much, at least not in terms of NHL-ready talent. He’s in his final year before going unrestricted, he’s not a child, and the teams that covet him most will be those who least want to part with players on their current roster. Because they’ll be contenders looking for a rental.
Check the recent market on those guys. It isn’t extravagant.
This is why, at the risk of repeating myself ad nauseam, I wanted to see the Penguins move Martin at the draft in Philadelphia. Made so much more sense. It’s not like Jim Rutherford didn’t know at the time the organization’s only systematic strength was on defense and that prospects such as Harrington, Derrick Pouliot and Brian Dumoulin would be knocking on the door.
Tom Kuhn: Bell caught two “dinks” for 23 and 46 yards, and AB caught two “sideways” passes for first downs, and nobody minded. I don’t recall any such plays attempted last week, just a lot of incomplete “forward” passes. When will the narrative change to players executing instead of playcalling?
DK: We’re watching different football games, Tom. Simple as that.
The Steelers attempted nothing significant forward until Ben Roethlisberger hit Bell in the flat for that 46-yard gain. That was an enormous play, not just in yardage but also in meaning. It was the first real movement all night, and it kind of woke up Heinz Field, to boot.
But if you look at the playcalling up to that point, it was more of the same garbage. Dink this, sideways that, run it blindly right into the line.
I’ll be blunt here: If you think criticism of Todd Haley’s playcalling is some ‘narrative,’ that’s just plain crazy. Really is.
I don’t know why the Steelers started airing it out. Roethlisberger said on his weekly radio show today that Tomlin called the gimmicky Brown TD. Maybe other changes were made, as well. Or not. Impossible to say with certainty. But the fact is, the Steelers did start throwing the ball forward, and the other fact is that it made a real difference.
Not narrative. Fact.
I’ll have more on one of these plays, one easily overlooked, tonight in the weekly Steelers PATs feature.
Jeffrey Schneider: Would you give Francisco Liriano a qualifying offer?
DK: Such an offer would commit the Pirates to one year at $15 million (and change), which is obviously high given Liriano’s inconsistencies from year. But I still say yes. For the simple reason that I’m willing to take the gamble he won’t accept it and, instead, will go on the open market, thus ensuring one of those valuable compensation draft picks. He’s 30 years old, still capable of great things. No need to accept one year under any circumstance.
And then, once Liriano is lost, I take that money and give Edinson Volquez a call to talk multiyear.
Or, your worst-case scenario here is that Liriano says yes, which isn’t exactly horrible. It’s a one-year commitment to a talented pitcher who will remain hungry as he sets himself up for his next big contract.
In the broader scope, the Pirates are a team that’s basically set financially at seven everyday positions, all but catcher, obviously. And bullpens never cost much. So there should be ample cash available to apply to starting pitching until the next round of prospect cavalry comes along via Jameson Taillon and Tyler Glasnow.
Don Detwiler: Four games into the Pens’ season, and we’ve seen a strong power play (expected), added grit and net-front presence (provided by Steve Downie and the Nashville two), a PK that seemed to find itself vs. the Islanders and a solid Marc-Andre Fleury in the net. New coach or real potential?
DK: New coach, new GM … and a whole lot of new ideas smartly mixed with old smarts.
It’s really been fun to watch, and I can tell you that the players from the captain on down — tough as the captain can be to crack — are excited about it. Very different feel to this team.
Even where Fleury is concerned, don’t dismiss the impact of the decision to not offer Fleury an extension. The new management wants to see him prove himself to them, not to the 2009 Red Wings.
SDBurghman: Any chance Tomlin can tell Troy Polamalu that the days of guessing the snap count and jumping over the line of scrimmage are over?
DK: Why? What’s the harm of a flag in that setting?
Moreover, what’s the harm of having the opponent be legitimately concerned that one of those flying leaps will actually result in something?
No issue with it here, no matter how awful that one looked.
Wild Bill: More than 9,000 unused seats last night at the Steelers’ game. A sign of fan rejection of the product, or of apathy, or is there something here symptomatic of an issue throughout football?
DK: It’s actually more complex than that, Bill. The Steelers’ season-ticket base, I’ve heard, is made up of — you’re not going to believe this — roughly 40 percent people who don’t live in Western Pennsylvania. They might have at one point, but they don’t anymore. And since no one ever gives up their Steelers tickets, they’ll commute eight times a year, whether by car or plane or whatever, to come to their share of games.
This is a problem for the Steelers, and a real one. Because it not only results in unused seats as soon as the mood gets even a little sour, but it also — and more important, in my mind — puts them further at risk of losing the younger fan base to the Penguins, whose grip on the local demo already is powerful. If local kids can’t get into games, they lose touch with the team. That’s why the Penguins have events like the preseason game that’s nothing but kids, as well as the practice earlier this week at Consol that brought 8,000 first-graders. It’s smart business.
But then, what do you do if you’re the Steelers?
How to solve it?
One more today …
seantcampbell3: Seems like you are going to obliterate your 10,000-subscriber goal before the one-year mark. What is your “big dream” for DK on Pittsburgh Sports now considering there seems to be potential for so much more?
DK: Wow, by far the hardest question of the day. Way to go, Sean.
I honestly don’t know. My own thought process is to do this chat, run to Starbucks, get back and work on Steelers PATs, then plan the coverage for Penguins-Flyers tomorrow. That’s it. But at the same time, I accept that any smart business thinks well down the road.
We’ll try to go smart, one step at a time. The app is the next big step. I’m getting my demo model within the hour, actually, and it could be shipped out to Apple as early as tomorrow. Our sponsorship deal will be visible to all come Nov. 1. That’s another step.
Only thing I know for sure right now is that I’ll be the only one writing. That’s important to me. I don’t want to sell one thing, then deliver another, even if there’s an excellent chance the other will be of similar or superior quality. Doesn’t feel right.
Our top priority will be subscribers, plain and simple, and that’s going to dictate where this goes. Nothing’s being taken for granted, including the 10,000 figure. We’re going to have to keep working for it, keep getting the word out, keep finding other ways — whether gift subscriptions or whatever — to maximize it.
Not much of an answer, I know. But I did just kind of give away that I haven’t been properly caffeinated yet, so I’ll be your forgiveness.
Thanks to all who participated! Good stuff today!
October 21, 2014
Tuesday 12 Qs: Beard, Bortuzzo, Chad, Franky
by Dejan Kovacevic • Five Qs at 5 • Penguins, Pirates, Pitt, Steelers
The format is simple: Use the comments section below to submit an entry. No more than one per person, please. Submit it early if you prefer, and I’ll pick from that batch to get rolling, then monitor new entries once we go live.
All topics welcome, as always.
Stephen Dotts: Was the Steelers’ victory over the Texans a significant step in the right direction, or a product of three lucky minutes?
DK: I’m not, in any walk of life, a fan of analysis through omission. What happens actually happens. If Le’Veon Bell rans for 350 yards in one game, no more than 20 in any of the rest, he still ran for those 350. There are no rejected outliers in sports. Everything counts.
I’d also like to quantify luck, as it applies to those three minutes. The ball bouncing back to Brett Keisel off Lawrence Timmons’ helmet, that’s luck. But Keisel raising his hand to tip that initial pass that redirected it toward Timmons, that’s not. The goofy Antonio Brown TD pass might have had a fluky feel, but it comes out today that it was Mike Tomlin’s call, not Todd Haley’s, not Ben Roethlisberger’s. It was part of a plan. Not luck at all. Brown’s incredible athleticism, not just on that play but on those later catches — including the TD of which he was robbed — aren’t luck. Brice McCain blanketing Andre Johnson all night. Not luck.
I have a feeling we’re going to be reading and hearing all week about three minutes. Not from me.
David: Not sold on the defense creating turnovers. Mike Mitchell’s strip was nice, but otherwise it was a lucky fumble and a tip drill. Still seeing lots of blown coverage, an inconsistent pass rush, and no one trying to break up passes. Am I just too negative at this point?
DK: I don’t think it’s a matter of being too positive or negative or whatever. Again, I think it’s about cherry-picking highly specific events and assigning them to the luck or whatever category. I could take that same specific play you cite by Mitchell and add that it never should have happened because Cortez Allen remains completely clueless in coverage. But that play ends up in the positive ledger because of its outcome. Or lucky. I forget which.
The Texans also got lucky, for instance, with the refs blowing the call on Brown’s TD. And if they hadn’t, that onside kick that had everyone biting their nails never would have meant a whit.
Here’s the bottom line: The Steelers faced a team with the same record, with a fairly high set of stakes given what a loss could have done to their AFC North chances … and they won. They did enough things well — not for three minutes, but for all 60 — to win.
Can they get better?
My goodness, absolutely.
But speaking only for myself, I don’t feel the need to diminish what actually occurred, primarily because the end of the game — which, again, never should have played out as it did — left a sour taste.
chuckinrlp: Dejan, with Robert Bortuzzo coming back from injury, who do you see as the odd man out on defense?.
DK: Will be or should be?
If it’s the latter, there’s no hesitation with me that it should be Rob Scuderi. No need to pile on here. Starting Wednesday, there are three games in a four nights, all against teams built on speed. Not that Bortuzzo is Bobby Orr, but you’ll want to keep bodies fresh. Maybe players could alternate. But one way or another, Scuderi would be my odd man out.
If it’s who will be, I’m going to take the cop-out route of dressing seven D and sitting a forward. Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin have been sitting enough — especially 71 in the early going, because of all the penalty-kills — that both easily could be asked to take extra turns on the fourth line. Messes up opposing matchups, too., for the road games in Detroit and Nashville.
Oh, and on a related note, if Scott Harrington isn’t going to play, get him out of here already. Kid needs to be on the ice.
Vern: With the success Pitt had with the read option last Thursday and the success Paul Chryst had with Russell Wilson in Wisconsin, it seems like a no-brainer to build upon that going forward. Is it feasible to bring that into the offense this late in the season? Or will it be wait until next year?
DK: We’ve already seen a bit of it, Vern, as Chad Voytik has taken off — usually after moving to his right — more than once and occasionally for big gains. And yes, I’ve been surprised, too, that the Panthers haven’t done that more often, as it would not only take advantage of Voytik’s speed and toughness but also keep opponents from stacking 12 men in the box against James Conner.
Two questions arise for me:
1. Is the line athletic enough to handle it?
I recall Artie Rowell, the now-injured center, doing a lot of athletic pulling, but he’s been gone since Boston College. The rest would be mostly unproven.
2. As you ask, can it be taught quickly?
I was impressed with some sharp changes Pitt made during its bye week, most of the offensive ones involving Voytik, and how he was able to make some — not all — of that work vs. Virginia Tech. But especially in the context that the young man also had three midterm exams in the same period.
Funny how we forget the student half of student-athlete.
BrotherhoodOfTheRedus: Why is everyone overlooking the job the Steelers’ defense did in the second half to stop Arian Foster? The guy was on pace for 200.
DK: Overlook?
All that I’ll add to what’s already in today’s column is that, to a man, the Steelers insisted they didn’t alter much strategically, at least not in a broader sense. The way Cam Heyward was explaining it to me, Houston’s blockers were positioning themselves one way, with an intent to block the other way for the cutback. Once the guys up front adjusted, tackles started happening.
mjb607: DK, what do you see as the true value of Paul Martin? Salary cap hit aside, I would like to see a return of some more grit on defense. Bortuzzo really is all there is with any true sandpaper in his game. Is the organization giving any thought to that rather than once again a winger?
DK: Several Qs today about possible Penguins trades. Well, I’m here to temper any enthusiasm about this — impossible as that task can be — and here’s why: Martin isn’t going to get you much, at least not in terms of NHL-ready talent. He’s in his final year before going unrestricted, he’s not a child, and the teams that covet him most will be those who least want to part with players on their current roster. Because they’ll be contenders looking for a rental.
Check the recent market on those guys. It isn’t extravagant.
This is why, at the risk of repeating myself ad nauseam, I wanted to see the Penguins move Martin at the draft in Philadelphia. Made so much more sense. It’s not like Jim Rutherford didn’t know at the time the organization’s only systematic strength was on defense and that prospects such as Harrington, Derrick Pouliot and Brian Dumoulin would be knocking on the door.
Tom Kuhn: Bell caught two “dinks” for 23 and 46 yards, and AB caught two “sideways” passes for first downs, and nobody minded. I don’t recall any such plays attempted last week, just a lot of incomplete “forward” passes. When will the narrative change to players executing instead of playcalling?
DK: We’re watching different football games, Tom. Simple as that.
The Steelers attempted nothing significant forward until Ben Roethlisberger hit Bell in the flat for that 46-yard gain. That was an enormous play, not just in yardage but also in meaning. It was the first real movement all night, and it kind of woke up Heinz Field, to boot.
But if you look at the playcalling up to that point, it was more of the same garbage. Dink this, sideways that, run it blindly right into the line.
I’ll be blunt here: If you think criticism of Todd Haley’s playcalling is some ‘narrative,’ that’s just plain crazy. Really is.
I don’t know why the Steelers started airing it out. Roethlisberger said on his weekly radio show today that Tomlin called the gimmicky Brown TD. Maybe other changes were made, as well. Or not. Impossible to say with certainty. But the fact is, the Steelers did start throwing the ball forward, and the other fact is that it made a real difference.
Not narrative. Fact.
I’ll have more on one of these plays, one easily overlooked, tonight in the weekly Steelers PATs feature.
Jeffrey Schneider: Would you give Francisco Liriano a qualifying offer?
DK: Such an offer would commit the Pirates to one year at $15 million (and change), which is obviously high given Liriano’s inconsistencies from year. But I still say yes. For the simple reason that I’m willing to take the gamble he won’t accept it and, instead, will go on the open market, thus ensuring one of those valuable compensation draft picks. He’s 30 years old, still capable of great things. No need to accept one year under any circumstance.
And then, once Liriano is lost, I take that money and give Edinson Volquez a call to talk multiyear.
Or, your worst-case scenario here is that Liriano says yes, which isn’t exactly horrible. It’s a one-year commitment to a talented pitcher who will remain hungry as he sets himself up for his next big contract.
In the broader scope, the Pirates are a team that’s basically set financially at seven everyday positions, all but catcher, obviously. And bullpens never cost much. So there should be ample cash available to apply to starting pitching until the next round of prospect cavalry comes along via Jameson Taillon and Tyler Glasnow.
Don Detwiler: Four games into the Pens’ season, and we’ve seen a strong power play (expected), added grit and net-front presence (provided by Steve Downie and the Nashville two), a PK that seemed to find itself vs. the Islanders and a solid Marc-Andre Fleury in the net. New coach or real potential?
DK: New coach, new GM … and a whole lot of new ideas smartly mixed with old smarts.
It’s really been fun to watch, and I can tell you that the players from the captain on down — tough as the captain can be to crack — are excited about it. Very different feel to this team.
Even where Fleury is concerned, don’t dismiss the impact of the decision to not offer Fleury an extension. The new management wants to see him prove himself to them, not to the 2009 Red Wings.
SDBurghman: Any chance Tomlin can tell Troy Polamalu that the days of guessing the snap count and jumping over the line of scrimmage are over?
DK: Why? What’s the harm of a flag in that setting?
Moreover, what’s the harm of having the opponent be legitimately concerned that one of those flying leaps will actually result in something?
No issue with it here, no matter how awful that one looked.
Wild Bill: More than 9,000 unused seats last night at the Steelers’ game. A sign of fan rejection of the product, or of apathy, or is there something here symptomatic of an issue throughout football?
DK: It’s actually more complex than that, Bill. The Steelers’ season-ticket base, I’ve heard, is made up of — you’re not going to believe this — roughly 40 percent people who don’t live in Western Pennsylvania. They might have at one point, but they don’t anymore. And since no one ever gives up their Steelers tickets, they’ll commute eight times a year, whether by car or plane or whatever, to come to their share of games.
This is a problem for the Steelers, and a real one. Because it not only results in unused seats as soon as the mood gets even a little sour, but it also — and more important, in my mind — puts them further at risk of losing the younger fan base to the Penguins, whose grip on the local demo already is powerful. If local kids can’t get into games, they lose touch with the team. That’s why the Penguins have events like the preseason game that’s nothing but kids, as well as the practice earlier this week at Consol that brought 8,000 first-graders. It’s smart business.
But then, what do you do if you’re the Steelers?
How to solve it?
One more today …
seantcampbell3: Seems like you are going to obliterate your 10,000-subscriber goal before the one-year mark. What is your “big dream” for DK on Pittsburgh Sports now considering there seems to be potential for so much more?
DK: Wow, by far the hardest question of the day. Way to go, Sean.
I honestly don’t know. My own thought process is to do this chat, run to Starbucks, get back and work on Steelers PATs, then plan the coverage for Penguins-Flyers tomorrow. That’s it. But at the same time, I accept that any smart business thinks well down the road.
We’ll try to go smart, one step at a time. The app is the next big step. I’m getting my demo model within the hour, actually, and it could be shipped out to Apple as early as tomorrow. Our sponsorship deal will be visible to all come Nov. 1. That’s another step.
Only thing I know for sure right now is that I’ll be the only one writing. That’s important to me. I don’t want to sell one thing, then deliver another, even if there’s an excellent chance the other will be of similar or superior quality. Doesn’t feel right.
Our top priority will be subscribers, plain and simple, and that’s going to dictate where this goes. Nothing’s being taken for granted, including the 10,000 figure. We’re going to have to keep working for it, keep getting the word out, keep finding other ways — whether gift subscriptions or whatever — to maximize it.
Not much of an answer, I know. But I did just kind of give away that I haven’t been properly caffeinated yet, so I’ll be your forgiveness.
Thanks to all who participated! Good stuff today!