September 8, 2014
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
A look at the week ahead on DKonPittsburghSports.com:
• Monday: I’ll post the first regular-season edition of Steelers PATs, our day-after analysis.
• Tuesday: Tuesday Twelve Qs chat at 1 p.m.
• Wednesday: Column advancing Steelers-Ravens.
• Thursday: From Baltimore, column covering Steelers-Ravens.
September 7, 2014
The Steelers swarm Shaun Suisham after his winning 41-yard field goal Sunday at Heinz Field. — GETTY
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
The Steelers’ defense stunk.
I saw it, you saw it, and there’s no denying it.
Those were the Cleveland Bleeping Browns out there. No, check that, those were the Browns with Brian Hoyer at QB not long after carrying clipboards on the South Side, with a third-round rookie back out of Towson named Terrance West filling in for injured Ben Tate, with tight end Jordan Cameron joining Tate on the bench … and still, somehow, that sorry cast came full-throttle at the home side for the final 30 minutes of what wound up a 30-27 victory only through the grace of a buzzer-beating Shaun Suisham field goal.
Until that, the Browns’ second-half drive chart showed the following grizzly progression:
Good thing for that last series, too, or the Steelers’ 82nd season opener might have ranked No. 1 on the all-time you’ve-got-to-be-kidding list in light of their 27-3 lead, as well as the 24 points and 288 yards conceded after the intermission.
September 7, 2014
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
If you missed KDKA-TV’s announcement on Twitter, I’ll be rejoining the panel of the ‘#1 Cochran Sports Showdown‘ beginning tonight. The show, a fixture on the local sports scene since 1996, airs every Sunday at 11:35 p.m. and is hosted by Bob Pompeani.
Also on tonight’s panel: Paul Zeise of the Post-Gazette, Andrew Fillipponi of 93.7 The Fan.
September 6, 2014
Niko Katic gathers the Riverhounds’ players at midfield after season-ending loss Saturday. — DEJAN KOVACEVIC
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
The only thing more damp than the Highmark Stadium pitch was the mood itself late Saturday night. The Riverhounds were all strewn about, Danny Earls seated with elbows on knees, Matt Dallman over at the bench staring into space, Jose Angulo limping on his bum knee toward a group of fans to either console or calm them.
It was hard to tell which was needed most at the moment, given his animated, how angry the sellout crowd had been mere minutes earlier leading up this season-ending — literally — 2-1 loss to Arizona, one that mathematically ended an almost surreal bid to make the USL Pro playoffs after failing to win any of their first 10 games.
“Tough,” Angulo called this one. “Really tough.”
Tougher for the league’s reigning MVP than most. Angulo hurt his knee a month ago and, after missing two games of the Riverhounds’ stretch, he met with Niko Katic, the team’s interim coach, and asked to play, anyway.
With a promise.
“Put me in,” Angulo told Katic, according to both men. “I’ll get you into the playoffs.”
September 6, 2014
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
Allen
The Steelers wrapped up Cortez Allen on the eve of the 2014 season, signing him to a five-year extension that could pay him more than $26 million. And in the process, they effectively sealed the deal on all the players Kevin Colbert hoped to extend, except Jason Worilds, who now will try to prove himself on the $9 million transition tag.
I was OK with the other extensions — Maurkice Pouncey, Marcus Gilbert and Shaun Suisham — but this one for Allen leaves me apprehensive at best, holding my nose at worst.
Let’s be blunt: Allen owes this extension to the Steelers having messed up two years ago and letting Keenan Lewis, a better player then and now, walk to the Saints for essentially the same money.
September 6, 2014
Pitt’s James Conner bursts through a hole in the Boston College defense Friday night. — PETE MADIA / PITT ATHLETICS
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. — The official Pitt football playbook is as thick as a small tree trunk and weighs a solid three pounds, if you ask Chad Voytik. And as the guy responsible for making every page of that book count, he ought to know.
Here’s something else the first-year quarterback knows: “You get the ball to your playmakers, and they make plays.”
Yep. All it takes sometimes is a page or two.
Or maybe, as was the case for the Panthers’ oddly stirring 30-20 breakdown of Boston College in both teams’ ACC opener Friday night at Alumni Stadium, it’s just a paragraph or two.
September 6, 2014
PHOTO-ILLUSTRATION: ALEX MESSMER
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. — A weekly look at what’s new and what’s coming on our site …
• The new login system I mentioned last week is just about ready. Didn’t think it would be too smart to activate it on the NFL’s opening weekend, so we’ll give it a bit longer. As always, you’ll be kept fully informed before, during and after.
• Another new feature is coming, also based on customer demand, in the form of accepting straight credit-card payments via Stripe. It’s exactly what it sounds like: Nothing but a credit card gets entered. It’s an increasingly popular alternative to PayPal, and we’ll be happy to add it here soon.
September 5, 2014
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
A weekly feature aimed at rounding up a whole lot of odds and ends from a whole lot of time spent around our local teams …
• The numbers and narratives that get tossed around in public about the Pirates’ finances often border on the insane, but a few of late have crossed definitively into that territory. The latest — and maybe greatest ever — is that the team took on $25 million, no $35 million or is it now $45 million in new monies since last season.
Do I have a taker for $55 million yet?
It isn’t true. It isn’t close to true, and I’m about to waste my breath here sharing why.
September 3, 2014
Dri Archer turns the corner on the Eagles in a preseason game two weeks ago in Philadelphia. — GETTY IMAGES
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
But then there’s that schedule.
See, for all the other analysis that can be performed in predicting the Steelers’ 2014 season, from Ben Roethlisberger being burdened by too many new targets to the running backs being dopes to the defensive front being too young to the secondary being too old, I keep coming back to the same thought: The cumulative winning percentage of the opponents on the 2014 schedule is .469, making for an eighth-place tie for the NFL’s easiest.
The opening seven weeks alone afford an outstanding opportunity for a strong start, including both meetings with the Browns (4-12 last season), the Ravens (8-8), Buccaneers (4-12), Jaguars (4-12) and Texans (2-14), with the Panthers (12-4) providing the only winning record in the stretch.
The Steelers can’t talk about that and, predictably, won’t.
“Cleveland, man. We’re talking Cleveland,” fullback Will Johnson playfully shot back when I broached the topic Wednesday before practice. “I’ll be honest: I don’t know if I’ve even looked at the schedule. I just know we’re opening with Cleveland. Nothing else I can speak to.”
Fine, but I can and will: This schedule stinks. And especially the first half. There’s no good reason not to start out 6-2, or 5-3 at the worst.
September 8, 2014
Steelers PATs: More Gay, less D-line rotation
by Dejan Kovacevic • News/views • Steelers
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
One last look at the Steelers’ last game …
• Funny, but it at least sounded like Mike Tomlin watched the Cleveland film and came away with the right conclusions … only to completely ignore those and stay stubborn.
In Sunday’s column here, I called for more Willie Gay, which is to say more than just nickel back. And Tomlin, after already having answered my question right after the game by praising Gay’s work, reiterated that even more strongly at his press conference Monday on the South Side, describing his play as “significant.”
Great! So Gay will start ahead of Ike Taylor, then?
Uh, no.
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