If Pittsburgh and Philadelphia was a Super Bowl preview, the Steelers have some significant ground to make up if we want an entertaining rematch.

Sunday proved two things.

One, the Eagles are undeniably Super Bowl contenders and, dare I say, NFC favorites. The Lions are very good —and my preseason Super Bowl pick. The Vikings, Buccaneers, and Rams could all pick off a favorite come playoff time. However, the Eagles have the most complete team.

Two, the Steelers walk a very fine line to be Super Bowl contenders. Things have to align for this team to contend with the upper echelon teams. The good news is that both upper echelon teams reside in the NFC this year. The Chiefs are certainly not scary. They are still very good, but certainly not what I would describe as scary. The Bills are very good, but as the last two games have proven have a suspect defense. The Ravens are good, but playoff Lamar is not so great. Thus, the road to the Super Bowl is not as rugged in the AFC. The Steelers have a legitimate chance even after getting thoroughly manhandled on Sunday in Philly.

Some things can be taken away from Sunday’s game.

The Steelers could not handle the two elite wide receivers the Eagles employ. Pittsburgh got a fair amount of pressure on Jalen Hurts, but when they didn’t Hurts and the receivers chewed up the Steelers. Pittsburgh tried some zone coverage, but always seemed a step late to the receivers in the gaps of the defense. When Pittsburgh played man to man, neither Joey Porter nor Donte Jackson —or his replacements— had an answer for AJ Brown or Devonte Smith. Even when the coverage was tight, Hurts fit balls into small windows for completions.

Before being injured, TJ Watt was giving all pro Lane Johnson fits. Alex Highsmith and Cam Heyward were also playing at a high level. The fact is no team gets pressure every play, and when the Steelers didn’t it was bad news. When they did get pressure it was a different story.

Aside from one play where there was a truck sized hole and a quarterback draw where rookie linebacker Payton Wilson shot the wrong gap, the Steelers shut down the Eagles vaunted running attack. Saquon Barkley was essentially a non factor. The back that gave the Steelers fits was Kenneth Gainwell. Though his numbers weren’t impressive, Gainwell extended two drives with shifty moves in the flat causing missed tackles by a Steelers defense that has been, by and large, a good tackling team. That wasn’t the case on Sunday.

The Steelers offense is limited, especially without George Pickens. They are better because the team finally has a professional quarterback. Arthur Smith is an upgrade as an offensive coordinator —my sofa would be an upgrade over Matt Canada— but not by a lot. The offense is much more potent, but some of the play calling still leaves one scratching their head.

The Eagles defense taught a young Steelers offensive line some lessons. Unfortunately, veteran Dan Moore reverted to his old ways on Sunday as well. When Moore wasn’t holding he was getting beat. Consequently, the Steelers running game never gained any traction and often Russell Wilson was under pressure. A rare Najee Harris fumble as the Steelers were driving for a tying score pretty much sealed their fate.

Since taking over as GM, I have only questioned Omar Khan once. Khan lacked aggressiveness in finding wide receivers for this particular roster. Sunday, with George Pickens out, that lack of wide receiver talent really showed. Calvin Austin has become a solid number three receiver but no more. Van Jefferson is, as the kids say, mid. The rest are smart, hard working replacement level receivers. Then there is Mike Williams. Since trading for Williams, he has rarely been seen on the field. Even with Pickens out, Williams has seen very limited snaps the last two games making the trade inconsequential. I love the tight end room, but there were very few balls tossed their way aside from Pat Friermuth’s touchdown. Nobody was getting open with any regularity. It was a tough day without Pickens on the field.

Of course, Mike Tomlin didn’t go unscathed Sunday. Tomlin made his usual curious time/game management decisions. He even got testy when questioned about it during his postgame interview.

One last thing I would be remiss in not mentioning. The officiating was atrocious and one sided. Just ask George Pickens, who apparently has joined those of us who are NFL conspiracy theorists.

 

Let me be clear. The officiating didn’t decide the game. The Eagles were significantly better than the Steelers on Sunday. Still, this stuff is unacceptable.

Example 1:

 

Oh, they called the penalty on the Eagles. However, the Steelers keep the ball if it happened before the punt. The officials said it occurred after the punt. You be the judge.

Example 2: 

 

The rule states that you cannot intentionally hit the long snapper on a field goal attempt. Clearly the Steeler player is being blocked causing incidental contact to be made with the long snapper. The penalty was called and the Eagles kept the ball.

Example 3:

 

This is the most egregious of the poor calls. The head referee told pool reporters their was no evidence of the Eagles throwing punches. Not only is there video evidence, but there is an official right there watching all of it transpire. The Eagles didn’t get called for the punches, but not to worry, the Steelers were called for two penalties in the scrum.

Monday, Mike Tomlin gave a clear and succinct answer to the officiating issue.

 

 

Officiating aside, we learned some things about both teams.

The Eagles are really good on both sides of the ball. The defense up front can create havoc. The offense has an abundance of weapons. They possessed the ball all day, including the final 11 minutes of the game. The meager 41 plays the Steelers ran was their least since 1991. 

The Steelers learned they aren’t there yet. It isn’t that they can’t get there, but it means they still have some leaps to make. The good news is that the AFC is somewhat average this season.

Both teams should still feel very confident about getting to the Super Bowl. The Eagles are favorites to make it out of the NFC. When healthy the Steelers have enough to get out of a mediocre AFC and reach the Super Bowl, though I would not look forward to a trip to Buffalo in January.

Health could play a pivotal role for both teams. Saquon Barkley is injury prone, and he is a big piece of the Eagles offense. TJ Watt went down late in the game, but appears to have avoided a major injury. The Steelers need all hands on deck, especially George Pickens. 

The Eagles have all but wrapped up the NFC East, and will keep scrapping with the Lions for the top seed.

The Steelers can clinch the AFC North with a win over Baltimore Saturday evening. It is starting to appear that the Steelers will either earn the three seed or drop to the fifth seed. We will find out how resilient the Steelers are with a game at Baltimore on Saturday quickly followed up with a home game against the Chiefs on Christmas Day. That is the NFL’s version of the Vince McMahon concocted Montreal screw job of Brett Hart.

Sunday may have been a Super Bowl preview. Maybe it isn’t likely, but it is very much still in the realm of possibility. One thing is for sure, an all PA Super Bowl would make it tough to have that corny governor’s bet on the game.

For now it is simply a Keystone dream.

Two Cent Takes

NFL

~Tom Brady makes me long for Tony Romo. Here is Greg Olsen, who got screwed by Fox, telling it like it is.

 

Olsen should be the number one analyst on Fox. Period.

~I don’t get players dropping the ball before crossing the goal line. Do they think it is cool? The latest idiot to do so was star running back Jonathan Taylor.

~Speaking of the Colts…think about the worst gadget play you’ve seen recently. The Colts said, “Hold my beer.”

 

~I said it last week, and here I am about to say it again. Someone close to Dan Campbell needs to tell him how foolish —and not macho— his decisions are. This week it was an onside kick —a 7% success rate— only down ten points with most of a quarter left. His response was that he thought they’d get it. Really?

~I liked a lot of the color rush uniforms in the NFL this past weekend. The Vikings all whites were not one of them.

MLB

~The Pirates traded for Spencer Horowitz, a glorified platoon first baseman. Sunday they traded for Emanuel Valdez, a man hitting .175 in winter ball. Bob Nutting and his faithful servant Ben Cherington certainly are making the splash in the offseason we all expected. As usual, there isn’t any water in the pool.

~Any word on whether the gag order issued to commissioner Rob Manfred has been lifted yet? After suggesting his magic batter or whatever the hell he called it, he should never be allowed to speak again. The magic batter would allow a team to send a player of their choice to the plate one time a game regardless of whether it is that players turn.

College Hoops

~Dusty May is proving at Michigan why every team in need of a coach last offseason wanted May.

~Don’t bury Dan Hurley and UConn just yet.

~The SEC is no longer just a football conference. Right now the SEC has 3 of the top 4 in the polls, 5 of the top 7, 6 of the top 12, 7 of the top 14, and 8 of the top 17. Plus the top 3 teams receiving votes are SEC schools. This is a tremendous start for the conference.

~Kentucky beat Louisville again, but Brandon Garrison should have felt fortunate to finish the game. These two plays went with no technical foul calls.

 

 

 

Mind you, the first video was reviewed and still nothing was called.

The Weekly Shiny Penny

You could smell it in the air this past Saturday. The smell of a March Madness. Saturday was littered with great games. Fox TV was fortunate enough to have back to back buzzer beaters.

 

 

 A Penny For My Final Thought…

Maybe I will just make this a weekly segment where I rail on the fact that college football is being ruined.

This week my target is the scheduling of things.

Having the early recruiting signing day in early December is moronic. The season is still going and coaches are balancing too many balls in the air with this schedule. Plus the February date was always must watch TV and kept the sport in the news cycle for another month. More on a fix for this later.

Over the weekend Penn State backup quarterback Beau Pribula announced he was leaving the team and entering the transfer portal. Of course the problem with this would be the fact Penn State is in the playoffs. Now the Nittany Lions enter the playoffs without a guy they used 5-10 times a game in different situations, and they also go into the playoffs without a proven backup quarterback.

By all accounts, Pribula didn’t want to abandon his team but felt he had no choice considering the NCAA opens the portal as soon as the regular season is over. Some guys on playoff teams are transferring but remaining with their teams. They aren’t quarterbacks. There are only so many spots available for quarterbacks, so if Pribula waits until Penn State is done he may not have anywhere to go.

Everything about this idiotic system is broken.

It should be an easy fix to just not open the portal until all postseason games are finished. Why wouldn’t you want the focus to be on the playoffs rather than total chaotic nonsense like this. James Franklin should be solely focused on preparing his team for their playoff game against SMU. Instead, he has to split his attention between the playoffs and wooing transfers.

 

Again, unfair and idiotic.

Franklin agreed, stating college football has a real problem. Listen to the full statement. Franklin is right on the mark.

 

Franklin mentioned having a commissioner. No problem. I’ve got you covered, James.

Here are five fixes that I would institute immediately if I was commissioner of college football.

  • Move signing day back to February. No reclassification or early graduation for high school kids. Sign in February, attend the spring game, show up in summer for workouts on campus. It was always good enough before, so why not now?
  • The portal would open the day after the championship game. There would be a three week window for athletes to enter the portal. There would be three more weeks for the players to find a new home. No second portal window would exist.
  • Players would get one free transfer. If they choose to transfer more times, a one year wait would be instituted. Again, it used to be like that so why not now?
  • NIL should have been simple. If your name, image, or likeness was used for a profit the athlete would get a cut. Also athletes can work, including things like advertising for businesses. Alas, the genie is out of the bottle and we are now essentially paying all players. Many recruits are signing with the school who drops the most money in their bag. Since that is the case a salary cap for all teams would be in place.
  • No contact can be made with another team’s players until their season is over. This one will take a vigilant staff to monitor this potential activity. It would also take integrity from coaches.

More is needed than just these five things, but it is a start. All of these, aside from the last one, should be easy to fix. Somebody in charge should be able to put at least some of these things in place immediately.

Education is clearly being thrown out the window. Guys going to four schools in four years can’t seriously be up to date with their academics. With that in mind, you are basically looking at a minor league system. The problem is very few players take the leap to playing professionally. Those other guys need to fall back on their education.

Another thing is players back in the day had to wait their turn or bust their tails to beat out the other guy at their position. Pribula is a perfect case. He knew Allar was signing at Penn State in the same class. He chose to go there anyway and fight for the starting job. After three years he wants to transfer and get a shot at starting elsewhere. I get it, but the alternative is to stick it out and impress the scouts at your pro day. Matt Cassell never started and rarely played at USC, yet he had a solid pro career.

I could go on forever with these issues. There is plenty of blame to go around, but it all comes back to money. Players now look for the biggest bag, coaches sign big contracts with even bigger buyouts to protect that money, and all the other adults from AD’s to TV network executives want more, more, more.

Wherever you point your finger it all leads back to one very obvious conclusion. College football is in serious trouble.

Just my two cents…