Pittsburgh Steelers
January 22, 2015
BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC
Here’s the podcast of tonight’s check-in with my friends at Winnipeg’s TSN 1290 Radio to talk Deflate-gate, Penguins and, of course, the imminent visit from the high-flying Jets.
January 20, 2015
The Wells Fargo Center is home to two hugely successful major pro franchises. — GETTY
BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC
PHILADELPHIA — Welcome to Tuesday 12 Qs, our chat that takes place each week at 2 p.m. and offers you a chance to carry the conversation. This edition will take place live from my Starbucks of choice in South Philly, a few blocks away from the Flyers’ home at Wells Fargo Center. I just got done covering the teams’ respective morning skates, and I’ll be back there tonight to cover Penguins-Flyers with a full column, but all topics are welcome, as always.
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.
And if any subscribers want to stop by once the chat is done, around 3 p.m., I’ll still be here and would be delighted to buy the coffee.
UPDATE 2 p.m.: Away we go …
DerekR: With a healthy Patric Hornqvist and Blake Comeau, do you think this team has enough for a deep playoff run? They still seem short one quality defenseman and need help badly on the fourth line. Killing penalties and winning faceoffs is a big part of an effective fourth line, but they have to be able to contribute some offense. Look at teams like LA, Chicago, the Rangers, the Islanders … all with much stronger fourth lines than the Penguins that can chip in 10-15 goals in a season, versus the paltry three goals from Marcel Goc and Craig Adams.
DK: We love to vilify the bottom of a roster, whether it’s the fourth line in hockey, the 53rd man in football or the 25th man in baseball. It’s easy. They’re dispensable.
January 19, 2015
BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC
Here’s video of the opening segment of KDKA-TV’s ‘#1 Cochran Sports Showdown‘ late Sunday night, this covering the NFL’s conference championship games.
Click the above link for all four of the show’s segments, which covered Penguins, Pirates and Pitt.
January 19, 2015
LeGarrette Blount celebrates the Patriots’ AFC championship Sunday in Foxborough. — GETTY
BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC
News: LeGarrette Blount, released by the Steelers in November, rushes for 148 yards and three touchdowns to carry the Patriots into the Super Bowl against the Seahawks.
Views: This will serve as Exhibit A for classic sports hindsight, I’ll predict, for the next two weeks. And it’s sure to be ridiculous to the core.
January 18, 2015
BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC
Getting ready for kickoff …
Game: Indianapolis Colts (13-5) vs. New England Patriots (13-4), AFC championship, 6:40 p.m., Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, Mass.
TV, radio: CBS (national), Sirius XM
Online: GameCenter / Multimedia / Official game notes
January 18, 2015
BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC
Getting ready for kickoff …
Game: Green Bay Packers (13-4) vs. Seattle Seahawks (13-4), NFC championship, 3:05 p.m., CenturyLink Field, Seattle
TV, radio: Fox (national), Sirius XM
Online: GameCenter / Multimedia / Official game notes
January 14, 2015
BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC
Here’s the podcast of my weekly appearance in the 105.9 the X studio with Mark Madden. We talked about the Penguins’ failure to support Steve Downie, the Steelers changing coordinators, the Pirates and Jung-Ho Kang and more. A good time was had by all.
January 14, 2015
BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC
The NFL’s conference championships offer a chance to tackle the Steelers’ 2015 schedule, Keith Butler’s first priority, the fine art of fumbling, the fallacy of big/small market mentalities, the deification of Mike Pereira and my game predictions.
January 13, 2015
BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC
Welcome to Tuesday 12 Qs, our chat that takes place each week at 2 p.m. and offers you a chance to carry the conversation. I’ll be up at Consol tonight to cover Penguins-Wild with a full column, but all topics are welcome, as always.
Use the comments section 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.
UPDATE 2 p.m.: And off we go …
Wild Bill: Dejan, your News/Views entry today offers your view that Keith Butler will transition to the younger players. Does he, in your opinion, present any other likely forms of change to what the Steelers do on defense? Or will it be mostly the same scheme, but only slightly tweaked?
Until Butler speaks — and there will be no actual press conference, I was just told by a team official — there won’t be a hard answer to that. He’s never been a coordinator in the NFL, so it would be unfair to assume too much based on his work as a positional coach. That said, I find it unimaginable that either he or Mike Tomlin would alter the 3-4 scheme or, for that matter, the zone-blitz element on which it’s founded. Remember, this is Tomlin’s move. He’s getting the coordinator he wants and the defense he wants. If he didn’t want this base defense, he could have changed it long ago, even with Dick LeBeau is present. To think otherwise is naive.
January 13, 2015
Keith Butler instructs rookie linebacker Howard Jones during a preseason game this past August. — GETTY
BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC
News: Keith Butler will, indeed, be the Steelers’ new defensive coordinator, according to a report by Gerry Dulac in the Post-Gazette. That corroborates the information that led me to write on this site in a Saturday piece that Butler would be the choice to replace Dick LeBeau. An announcement by the team, per the report, could come Tuesday.
UPDATE 11:02 a.m.: The Steelers make this official.
Views: There’s nothing not to like about this move.
Butler, 58, is immensely qualified for this opportunity. Overqualified, actually. There aren’t many NFL positional coaches who stay a dozen years in one role, let alone one place. But Butler has served as the Steelers’ linebackers coach since 2003 — hired by Bill Cowher — and did likewise for the Browns the previous four seasons. Some will attach a stigma to that, but that’s unfair. Several teams offered Butler defensive coordinator interviews and even jobs, and he turned them down, in part because of his loyalty to Mike Tomlin and the Rooneys, in part — probably a larger part — because the team compensated him well to stay put. Regardless, he could have been doing this job somewhere else two, three years ago, maybe further back.
