Mark Madden Columns category, Page 50
Mark Madden: Steelers have wasted golden opportunity in AFC North
It took a little over 24 hours to truly sink in. But once Johnny Manziel Jr. stunk out the joint in Cleveland’s 31-3 loss at San Francisco Monday night, the Steelers found themselves staring straight down the barrel of wasted opportunity. The AFC North really does reek. The Steelers could...
Mark Madden: Amid injuries, Penguins need to adopt more rigid, defensive structure
In 2015-16 and 2016-17, the Penguins could have survived losing Evgeni Malkin for a month or so at season’s start. But now, they probably can’t. The news of Malkin’s long-term injury hits the Penguins like a sucker punch. A solid playoff bet prior, that status is now extremely tenuous. The...
Mark Madden: Time for Steelers to expand game plan for Mason Rudolph
I’ve been told all week via Twitter that throwing the ball an average distance of three-and-a-half yards doesn’t translate to a popgun offense. In fact, I’m told it equates to Tom Brady’s offense with New England, or the Steelers’ offense during Ben Roethlisberger’s rookie season in 2004. Those Steelers went...
Mark Madden: Penguins will be better than last season
Are the Penguins going to win the Stanley Cup in 2020? Let me answer that question with a question: Did anybody predict St. Louis would win the Stanley Cup in 2019? The NHL is wide-open, with salary cap-dictated parity seeming to grow by the year. But I can predict without...
Mark Madden: Pirates’ horrible season didn’t put damper on Steve Blass’ career
It was some year for the Pirates. The black cat that crossed their path was a rabid panther on meth. The Pirates went 25-48 after the All-Star break, finishing last in the NL Central. There were three fights between Pirates personnel that we know about. Closer Felipe Vasquez got arrested...
Mark Madden: It takes a cockeyed optimist to like Steelers’ chances
If you’re thinking rationally, you know the Steelers’ chances of significant accomplishment this season lie in a bloody heap. Being 0-3 is the head of the spear. Ben Roethlisberger being out for the year twists the knife. Either of those facts bodes poorly. Combine them, and it’s time to get...
Mark Madden: Penguins’ Dominik Simon will force way into lineup
Dominik Simon’s role with this year’s Penguins isn’t yet determined. But one thing seems certain: Simon will have one. Last season was the Czech-born winger’s first full NHL campaign. He had eight goals, 20 assists and a plus-8 mark in 71 games. Simon didn’t score in his last 14 games....
Mark Madden: Steelers coaches live in their fears with game planVideo
It’s difficult to blood a second-year quarterback into starting duties, especially when it wasn’t supposed to happen this way. Mason Rudolph isn’t proceeding on the expected timetable. Rudolph is deputizing for future Hall of Famer Ben Roethlisberger because of the latter’s season-ending injury. Rudolph is a third-round pick. It was...
Mark Madden: Complementary players must step up for Steelers offense to succeed
“When in doubt, write about the quarterback.” A wise, old sportswriter said that. The Steelers quarterback situation is obviously in major flux. Between that and the acquisition of safety Minkah Fitzpatrick, other headaches are lost in the shuffle. Like James Conner’s pathetic 2.6-yard rushing average. JuJu Smith-Schuster not yet blossoming...
Mark Madden: Desperate trade for Minkah Fitzpatrick won’t save Steelers season
Yinzer Nation loves the trade that brought safety Minkah Fitzpatrick from Miami to the Steelers. That’s because Yinzer Nation can talk itself into anything. So can the Steelers, apparently, because dealing for Fitzpatrick was designed to save this season. That’s an impossible task given the 0-2 start and Ben Roethlisberger’s...
Mark Madden: Ben Roethlisberger’s injury tops long list of Steelers’ problems
It was hoped the departure of Antonio Brown would make the Steelers a more focused and disciplined team by way of removing distraction. It hasn’t turned out that way. Losing Ben Roethlisberger for the rest of the season trumps any other problem. But the Steelers are in a state of...
Mark Madden: Penguins have tough decisions to make with defensemen
For those who pin all of the Penguins’ woes last season on Jack Johnson and bludgeon everyone who disagrees with a club fashioned out of fancy stats, I feel you. That’s absurd simplification dipped in illogical scapegoating, but the numbers don’t lie. Unless they do. If you’d like to deal...
Mark Madden: Pens camp, Steelers’ loss, Pitt-Penn State make for refreshing sports notes
The Steelers lost by 30. The Penguins open training camp Friday. Pitt football plays its only interesting game of the year Saturday. All bases are covered with refreshing sports notes! • If recent reports are to be believed, Evgeni Malkin has pondered what went wrong for him last season and...
Mark Madden: No way Antonio Brown conforms to ‘Patriot Way’
The moon landings weren’t faked. The earth isn’t flat. 9/11 was not an inside job. Antonio Brown did not intend to finagle his way to New England dating to when he was with the Steelers. Oh, it’s a believable story in the era of rigged “reality” TV. But Brown’s primary...
How did Steelers fall so flat vs. Patriots? Tim Benz, Mark Madden analyze
Who’s to blame for the Steelers’ season-opening blowout loss to the Super Bowl champions? A little bit of everyone. TribLIVE columnists Tim Benz and Mark Madden break down Sunday night’s Steelers disaster in Foxborough, laying blame on everything from the game plan, to the inexperience on defense, to a lack...
Mark Madden: No need for Steelers to treat Devin Bush with kid gloves
How much rookie inside linebacker Devin Bush plays Sunday at Gillette Stadium won’t determine who wins the game between the Steelers and New England. Unless it does. At the very least, it’s an interesting sidebar that showcases the Steelers’ conservative (perhaps antiquated) philosophy of putting rookies in safe, limited roles...
Mark Madden: Pitt football long on problems, short on fixes
Pitt football might not quite be broken, but elements of it certainly are. Pitt sold 47,144 tickets for its opening-night loss to Virginia. You can be encouraged by that, or discouraged by more than 21,000 left unsold. (It didn’t look like every ticket-buyer showed up, either. About 35K in the...
Mark Madden: Hype around Steelers vs. Browns is excessive but warranted
With the start of the NFL season less than a week away, here’s the verdict on the upcoming battle in the AFC North between the Steelers and Cleveland: It’s a dead heat. The Steelers either added by subtraction or just subtracted re: Antonio Brown. The former seems more likely, but...
Mark Madden: Colts fans had every right to boo Andrew Luck
After news of Andrew Luck’s retirement broke this past Saturday during a preseason game at Indianapolis, the fans present serenaded the quarterback with a chorus of boos as he left the field. Jacoby Brissett, now the Colts starter, said the reaction “sucked. Especially a guy like that, who has done...
Mark Madden: Francisco Cervelli’s hero status with Pirates a joke
When your team is awful, heroes have to be invented. Such was the case when catcher Francisco Cervelli ended his tenure in Pittsburgh. The Pirates are 11-30 since the All-Star break and are too frequently routed. They have sustained losses of 7-1, 11-1, 13-0 and 7-1 in the past nine...
Mark Madden: Verlander conflict more interesting than anything he might say
All heck broke loose Wednesday when a Detroit baseball writer was briefly barred from the Houston Astros clubhouse because Astros (ex-Tigers) pitcher Justin Verlander perceives a bad history with said writer, whom he labeled “unethical.” The writer, Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press, had his entrance to the clubhouse...
Mark Madden: Roberto Clemente was great but not nearly greatest
Roberto Clemente would have turned 85 this past Sunday. If he’s not the best player in Pirates history, he’s definitely the most revered and rightly so. Clemente oozed class and poise, conducting himself in forthright fashion. His plane crashed while on a mission of charity, further sanctifying him in the...
Mark Madden: Jay-Z sold out Colin Kaepernick all the way to the bank
It’s a rollicking time for the sociopolitical aspect of sports. For the Pirates, not so much. Colin Kaepernick hasn’t been under NFL contract for 899 days despite being ready and willing. Whether Kaepernick is able is the oft-ignored part of the debate. The further he gets from playing, the more...
Mark Madden: Raiders finding out Antonio Brown is exactly as advertised
It took time, but Antonio Brown finally did right by the Pittsburgh Steelers. Forget about his statistics. Brown compiled those for himself, not the team. The Steelers never won a Super Bowl with Brown. (Told you so.) But upon departing for Oakland, Brown immediately proved the turmoil that enveloped him...
Mark Madden: Steelers’ Ben Roethlisberger might earn NFL MVP, but he won’t win it
Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes is Las Vegas’ favorite to be NFL MVP. His odds are 11-2. Mahomes won MVP last year. Baker Mayfield did well as a rookie last season, but Cleveland finished 7-8-1. Yet Mayfield inexplicably ranks fourth among MVP favorites at 11-1. Those odds are too short....
