Special Teams

As training camps across the NFL are getting underway, football journalism has kicked into high gear. After wading through the off months where you are lucky to get more than a couple stories a week, you can now log in to any sports web site and get a couple stories an hour. While I’ll read most articles about anything related to the NFL, I snap to attention when an article about the Steelers comes across the wire.

But much to my dismay, most of the articles about the Steelers this pre-season seem to be about either Ben Roethlisberger or our new coach, Mike Tomlin. I guess I can understand focusing on Tomlin because he is the new coach and it is interesting to see the new system he installs. The fixation on our quarterback is what is beginning to piss me off.

How will Ben come back from a sub-par season? How will he avoid all those interceptions this year? Has he already peaked after 3 seasons? And my favorite: The entire fate of the Steelers season lies on whether Big Ben can bounce back or not.

Were these idiots watching the Steelers last season? I agree that turnovers were possibly the biggest killer of our season last year, but it wasn’t Ben’s turnovers I am worried about. A decent amount of his interceptions were either because the receiver fucked up or he was trying to force long bombs at the end of a game where we really did need that kind of a desperation move to try to win the game. In the latter case, on a couple occasions his long interception on 3rd down ended up being no worse than a punt, which is what we would have done on 4th down anyway. I don’t have tape of all games to go back and study but I bet if you eliminated the interceptions that were due to other teammates or those other desperate situations you’d find that he had a very normal rate of interception.

Ben’s turnovers didn’t bother me last year. The ones that pissed me off were all the ones associated with receivers who couldn’t hold on to the ball and the god damned fumbles. And the single most fucked up part of the Steelers last year was not Ben, but those fucking special teams turnovers.

You see, the national media has missed the boat on the Steelers fall from grace last season. It was special teams turnovers and special teams play in general that broke us. A football team can overcome a lot of things but when you get sloppy special teams play you end up taking yourself out of the game. Bad coverage gives your opponent a shorter field. Bad returns give you a longer field. And motherfucking special teams turnovers are the final killer. You just basically give the team that your defense just stomped a free shot at the end zone. How much of a spirit killer is that to know that you are holding them off and then the momentum changes because you give them 1st and goal or 1st with 20 yards to go.

Football isn’t that complex when you strip it completely down. It is simply a game of ground. All those old sayings about football is a game of inches and it’s won in the trenches are around because they are true. You win a football game by controlling the inches. That’s why the Steelers have had so much success in the past with a power running game. You grind away the clock while you grind away the inches. That wins games. And all that hard work isn’t worth a squirt of piss if your special teams come out and give away all your hard earned field position.

I guarantee that the Steelers would have gone at least 11-5 last year rather than 8-8 if we had even average special teams play. But our horrible special teams directly caused us to lose at least 3 games. Those 3 games are the difference between making the playoffs and giving you a chance to make a run for the Lombardi trophy and sitting at home spanking off in January.

So while all other eyes are on Big Ben or coach Tomlin or maybe even the rookies we drafted my eyes are on special teams this summer. Our season this year will go how our special teams go, not how Ben’s season goes.

That said, last week finally brought my first dose of hope that we will indeed return to glory this year. I picked up on a few articles stating that coach Tomlin is dedicating a large portion of his training camp to special teams. He is apparently scheduling entire sessions in his two a days for nothing but the special teams. He is also playing starters on special teams, which I am a big fan of.

So while the national media doesn’t get it I’m so happy that coach Tomlin does because he is the one that counts. More than ever I have faith that he will do a great job with the Steelers. If he and his staff can actually fix those fucked up special teams, they won’t have to worry about any other aspect of the game. The offense will get the job done. The defense will get the job done. Have no worries there. As long as the special teams doesn’t shoot the team in the foot, we’ll do great this year. And I’m glad to see that coach Tomlin seems to be thinking along the same lines.

So I leave you today, optimistic. We will be back in the playoffs this year. You can take that to the bank.

-David

Chupacabra: Dark Desert

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My day with the trophy

I can’t remember if I wrote about it before, but this past season I won the fantasy football league I’m currently in. The league known as the TFFL (Teapot Fantasy Football League) is run out of Newell, WV. My team, the Pecos Hillbillies, is the furthest team from the league headquarters but even with all the jet lag my boys managed to lay down a destructive path of whoop ass during last year’s season.

In addition to all the fame and money that comes with being the TFFL champion, there is one other accolade that is second to no other honor in all of sports.

Like the Stanley Cup of the NHL, the TFFL trophy spends the off season with the team until August comes around and it’s time to go into the team’s trophy case to show the whole world who is “The Man”. And spending even a few moments with this legendary trophy is the single most coveted honor on Earth.

As Owner, GM, and Coach of the Hillbillies I chose to take my weekend with the Teapot last… because that’s just the kind of guy I am… so respectful of the team… so giving... Anyhow, let me tell you, its journey through this off season will make all those stories of the Stanley Cup being left by the side of the road and drop kicked into a lake sound like a calm afternoon at Vacation Bible School.

From Donald Driver running cross country nude with the trophy balanced on his head to Rudi Johnson taking it with him on a trip to Mars in a rocket that Billy Bob Thorton made in his backyard. From Marques Colston using it as a tool to single handedly rebuild the entire city of New Orleans to Chris Henry using it to pick up a busload of Jr. High Girls and then turning it into a joint roller for the rest of the night in a remote, Kentucky Holiday Inn. From Maurice Jones-Drew smashing Fred Taylor repeatedly in the knee with it to Kellen Winslow using it to beat a man to death. The trophy’s time with the Hillbillies has been legend.

So what did I do with it for my weekend, its final weekend out on the town until next season’s champion is crowned? Well, as your luck would have it I chose to document all the excitement with the help of ESPN The Magazine. These pictures won’t be released until the 8/6/07 issue but I’ll give you a sneak peek of it today on the blog. Enjoy!

As for this upcoming season, I plan to repeat as TFFL champ and also re-start a league of my own. I think I’m closing in on a good number of people but am always looking for a few more great trash talkers. Knowledge of football is optional. Join if you dare…

NFL training camp starts next week so the long drought is finally over!!!! Thank fucking Christ.

-David

Religion will be the death of us all

It really disturbs me to think that someone would base their vote during a democratic election in the United States based primarily on the religion of the candidate. I imagine that happens all the time as I figure that is also part of the reason that our current incompetent president was elected (and re-elected).

Why would a person’s religious beliefs have anything to do with their ability to execute the job of being a public servant? Why would their religion make them qualified to do the job?

I assume this kind of person would vote that way because they think other religions are immoral. Or maybe inferior? Inadequate? Or maybe they think our democracy is so weak that one evil person could undermine the entire thing?

I know that last one isn’t the case because Bush hasn’t destroyed the world (yet).

What frustrates me about this is that I feel you should vote for a person based on what kind of a job you’ll think they’ll do. And a person’s religion has nothing to do with their job performance. I work with people of different religions and I’ve never been able to draw any conclusions that one religion is better at doing a certain job than another. I just don’t think you will find any data that can support that.

When I vote for a president in the next couple years I can guarantee you that religion will be very low on the list of things I’m looking at. I really don’t care if the president is a Christian or a Jew. For that matter, I really don’t care if they are a Muslim. Does it really matter? Is a Muslim inferior than a Christian as a leader? Is a Jew?

Maybe it’s easy for me to say this because I have no religion so I can’t really align with any candidate based on that belief. So it naturally would fall to the bottom of my list, yes? But I don’t think so. I was raised as a Christian and I think there is still enough Christian residue in me to understand that just because a person is a Christian does not necessarily make him competent.

In the end, I really think that dangerous thoughts and actions like people equating competency with religion will be the death of us all. Having faith in a higher power is one thing but placing all your faith in a human being just solely based on their religious belief seems mighty risky. Many lives have been lost that way in human history and it is only a matter of time before some fanatic does something that really does end it all for all of us. The ironic thing is that it would probably make a lot of people happy because then they would finally get to meet their maker! Maybe it is a self fulfilling prophecy, that tricky book of Revelations?

As for me? I’m not yet ready to give up on this Earth so I’ll vote based on critical thinking, not my religious beliefs.

Won’t you join me?

-David

Math hates me

Played some pretty damn good poker tonight. Ended up a big loser.

I guess I'll look at it as paying off the math gods... either my dues were up or I'm about to run very hot.

Either way - I'll always be a winner in the long run playing like I did tonight.

-David