Pittsburgh Steelers

Tuesday 12 Qs: Sid, J-Hay, Jarvis, Blake, Elias

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Maxim Lapierre gains the Nashville blue line Sunday at Consol Energy Center. — GETTY

BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

Welcome to Tuesday 12 Qs, our chat that takes place each week at 9 a.m. — a new time — and offers you a chance to carry the conversation. Use the comments below to submit an entry. No more than one per person, please. Submit early if you prefer, and I’ll pick from that batch to get rolling, then monitor new entries once we go live.

Tuesday12Qs

UPDATE 9 a.m.: And away we go …

Joey Pittsburgh: I realize this may be an unpopular opinion….but at what point does Sidney Crosby start getting a share of the blame for the past five years’ worth of playoff letdowns?

Coaches coach and players play the game but the guy who wears the C is a peer leader, the voice in the locker room who leads by example. Letting a team sink to the level of the Flyers, rolling over for the Bruins, losing to the Rangers after being up, 3-1 … and this team is in yet another funk. It’s body language and attitude. This team gets up for one game and forgets to lace up the skates the next.

I’m not advocating pulling the C, but where are the results to match his leadership and talent?

DK: That’s obviously pretty broad for a chat, Joseph, so I’ll bypass playoffs from the past and focus on your latter emphasis on the current team.

Here are the results.

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Video podcast: Carroll, Penguins on ‘Showdown’

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BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

Here’s video of the opening segment of KDKA-TV’s ‘#1 Cochran Sports Showdown‘ late Sunday night, this one on the Super Bowl and Pete Carroll’s madness.

All four segments are right here, also covering the Penguins and Pitt basketball.

BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

Coming up tonight at 11:35 p.m., I’ll be part of the panel on KDKA-TV’s ‘#1 Cochran Sports Showdown‘ that also includes Colin Dunlap and Jeff Hathhorn of 93.7 the Fan. The host, as always, will be Bob Pompeani. Video podcast will follow on this site Monday.

You can be part of the show, too. We’re taking tweets for all three individual panelists on the @SportsShowdown official Twitter account.

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News/views: Dumbest call in sporting history?

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Super Bowl XLIX - New England Patriots v Seattle Seahawks

Bill Belichick and Pete Carroll meet at midfield following the Patriots’ win Sunday in Glendale, Ariz. — GETTY

BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

News: Patriots win, 28-24.

Views: How deflating.

And I don’t just mean for the Seahawks, the Pacific Northwest or the nation as a whole that wanted New England to fall on its face after yet another cheating scandal.

I mean for … man, the fundamental concept of sanity.

Seriously, what was Pete Carroll thinking?

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Patriots 28, Seahawks 24, Super Bowl XLIX

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superbowl

BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

Getting ready for kickoff …

Game: New England Patriots (14-4) vs. Seattle Seahawks (14-4), Super Bowl XLIX, 6:30 p.m., University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale, Ariz.

TV, radio: NBC (national), Sirius XM

Online: GameCenter / Multimedia / Official game notes

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News/views: This Bus goes right to Canton

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Photo-illustration — PRO FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME

BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

News: Jerome Bettis was just elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Views: This is excellent. And richly deserved.

Nobody in our city with a sporting pulse needs a synopsis of why that is, but suffice it to say that Bettis, 42, was the iconic power back of his generation and the iconic member of the Steelers’ first post-dynasty Super Bowl championship.

It was the late, great Myron Cope who popularized calling him The Bus, and it’s a nickname that became only more brilliant over time, as we watched Bettis grow into a relentless, no-nonsense, straight-ahead runner the likes of which the NFL, to be candid, hasn’t seen since his retirement. Others could ricochet or run around end, but the Bus would drive and park any place he pleased. He wound up sixth on the all-time rushing list with 13,662 yards and amassed 50 100-yard games for the Steelers, but it’s the how that captured hearts and minds and even had fans wearing miniature school buses on imitation mining helmets.

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Friday Insider: Lambo ‘beyond excited’ for chance

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Chicago Cubs v Pittsburgh Pirates

Andrew Lambo trots off the field at PNC Park during a game last September. — GETTY

BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

Weekly roundup of a lot of randomness from a lot of time around our teams …

• The reason the Pirates traded Travis Snider to the Orioles two nights ago wasn’t money — only $1.5 million was saved — but rather that Neal Huntington has been and remains eager to see what Andrew Lambo can bring with 250-300 plate appearances in the majors.

And Lambo, to hear him, is both appreciative and apprehensive about that.

“I’m excited. I’m beyond excited for the opportunity,” he was telling me Thursday from his California home. “At the same time, I liked Travis. Everyone liked Travis. I know he was a big part of the team, a big part of the clubhouse and … well, I just have to be myself. I have to be the player, the person I am and show up every day to help the Pirates win. I’m grateful to be getting that chance.”

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It really shouldn’t be a surprise. Huntington stood behind Lambo, a 2010 trade acquisition, in a rare anointing of a young starter last spring, and he stuck by Lambo even through the catastrophic 4-for-42 Grapefruit League that followed. But Lambo recovered from that and from a subsequent thumb injury to bat .328 with 11 home runs in 238 Class AAA at-bats and was back in Pittsburgh by late August, then went 10 for 39 in 21 games.

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Tuesday 12 Qs: Fleury, Liz, Lemon, Pat, Pats

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Marc-Andre Fleury squares up during a two-on-one drill Monday at Consol. — DEJAN KOVACEVIC

BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

Welcome to Tuesday 12 Qs, our chat that takes place each week at 9 a.m. — a new time — and offers you a chance to carry the conversation.

The earlier start is happening in large part because this file was getting buried too quickly, I thought, by going up in the afternoon. This buys more time atop the site, as well as more time for Qs to be submitted by going up at midnight.

Tuesday12Qs

Use the comments below to submit an entry. No more than one per person, please. Submit 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.

UPDATE 9 a.m.: And off we go …

Acorrie2011: DK, what do you really think of the Penguins’ new coaching staff thus far? If they continue to stay the course currently taken, do you think they have a chance to make a Cup run? I’d obviously love to keep the hope, but if they don’t raise their compete level, I think the Pens will be lucky to make it past the first two rounds.

DK: In any piece I write or speak publicly, I’m telling you what I ‘really’ think of something. I feel compelled to start right there, because your phrasing is something I hear from readers a lot and, fair or not, I kind of take it as a suggestion that I’m not usually telling you what I ‘really’ think.

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Kickoff: 70th NFL Pro Bowl

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BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

Getting ready for kickoff …

Event: 70th NFL Pro Bowl, 8:02 p.m., University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale, Ariz.

Participating Steelers: Antonio Brown, Lawrence Timmons, Maurkice Pouncey

TV, radio: ESPN (national), SiriusXM

Online: GameCenter / Multimedia / Official game notes

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Podcast: Rapid fire w/ Todd on 970 ESPN

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BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

Here’s the podcast of my weekly rapid-fire segment with David Todd on 970 ESPN. We talked Deflate-gate, Steelers, Penguins, NHL All-Star Game and more.

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Friday Insider: Worilds, Steelers not worlds apart

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Pittsburgh Steelers v New York Jets

Jason Worilds wraps up the Jets’ Michael Vick in a Nov. 9 game in East Rutherford, N.J. — GETTY

BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

Weekly roundup of a lot of randomness from a lot of time around our teams …

• I’m more convinced than ever, based on conversations in the past week, that the Steelers’ most compelling decision this offseason will become academic: They want Jason Worilds, he wants to stay, and all concerned would prefer to have that happen on a multiyear contract.

This time for real.

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Management’s thinking is that, first and foremost, it wants more from the pass rush and that includes Worilds, who had 7 1/2 sacks, 16 quarterback hits and 28 hurries while performing at an average level on run defense. He had two superlative games — against the Chiefs and Jets — but also his share of thoroughly forgettable ones. He has to be better in all areas, especially considering he’s seldom asked to drop into coverage. The team knows that. The player knows that.

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