Steelers/NFL category, Page 279

Forget all of the positive vibes the Pittsburgh Steelers generated with their season-opening win at Buffalo. Any goodwill the Steelers established a week ago wilted in the 79-degree heat at Heinz Field amid a sea of injuries and big second-half plays that enabled the Las Vegas Raiders to spoil the...

All Pro Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker T.J. Watt left Sunday’s game against the Las Vegas Raiders because of a groin injury and did not return. Watt, who less than two weeks ago signed a nine-figure contract extension with $80 million in guarantees, played most of the first half of the...

Coming off a strong effort in the season opener last week, the Pittsburgh Steelers defense was without two of its starters for Sunday’s home game against the Las Vegas Raiders. Cornerback Joe Haden and inside linebacker Devin Bush were late additions to the Week 2 injury report, each being listed...

Keith Butler has a couple hundred reasons why he likes to develop a rotation at the Pittsburgh Steelers’ outside linebacker positions. It doesn’t matter if it’s hot and sticky in September or cold and damp in December that influences the defensive coordinator’s plan. It’s the size of the guards and...

1. Four is enough Going on three decades, a core tenet of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ identity has been an aggressive defense that pressures opposing quarterbacks. In the 2021 opener, the Steelers certainly pressured the quarterback, but they didn’t do it by being aggressive. After ranking near the top of the...

Maurkice Pouncey has retired, but a mark he left on the community is being carried on by a former teammate. Pittsburgh Steelers defensive lineman Stephon Tuitt is taking over an initiative in partnership with the Pittsburgh Police that distributes 25 tickets to every Steelers home game to the police department...

Carl A. DePasqua, who scouted Joe Greene for the Pittsburgh Steelers, recruited Dave Wannstedt to Pitt and coached the Panthers for four years before the arrival of Johnny Majors, died Wednesday in Mt. Lebanon. He was 93. Born in Williamsport, DePasqua was a three-sport athlete at Williamsport High School (football,...

The change in his role appears to be minor from what he balked at last season, but JuJu Smith-Schuster is saying all the right things about his responsibility in the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offense. “I was very happy with our playcalling and the position they put us in,” Smith-Schuster said Friday...

One by one, all week long, Pittsburgh Steelers players and coaches have discussed the eagerness with which they are looking forward to playing a game in front of a packed Heinz Field for the first time in more than 21 months. T.J. Watt, though, seemingly has the most to gain...

So much for the lack of “injury damage” that coach Mike Tomlin referred to in the wake of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ season opener. Tuesday, Tomlin indicated there were no injury concerns for the Steelers leading up to Sunday’s home opener against the Las Vegas Raiders. But by the time the...

The NFL season is just one week old, but things are looking up to a delightful degree for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Baltimore is falling apart. Its running back room imploded. Two cornerbacks are hurt. All-Pro left tackle Ronnie Stanley is sidelined. The Ravens are ravaged by injuries of varying degree....

Friday’s “First Call” features a harsh rebuke of Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. The injuries keep mounting in Baltimore. A shakeup for HBO’s “Hard Knocks” series. And cornhole is trying to become an Olympic sport. Seriously. I think. Tell us what you really feel NFL Hall of Famer Cris Carter didn’t...

Part of the reason why some Pittsburgh Steelers fans are convinced that their team has had so much trouble with the Raiders in recent years — five losses in seven tries since 2006 — is that the Steelers haven’t been emotionally prepared for the Raiders. The theory being that the Steelers...

For the Steelers, it could have been a case of necessity being the mother of invention. Or maybe a successful rollout of a grand plan. Either way, Mike Tomlin doesn’t want to talk much about the three-man rotation at outside linebacker we saw from his defense during Sunday’s Week 1...

It’s not just a new home season kicking off for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Sunday marks the first time in almost two years for a full capacity crowd at Heinz Field on Pittsburgh’s North Shore. Here are some refreshers for fans planning to attend the game at 1 p.m. Sunday, when...

Tight end Eric Ebron and defensive lineman Carlos Davis did not practice for the Pittsburgh Steelers on Thursday because of injury, but linebacker Robert Spillane returned to work. Spillane suffered a shin injury during warm-ups for Sunday’s game at the Buffalo Bills. That prevented him from playing and also kept...

Canada geese are a common sight throughout Pennsylvania. And now a Duck that made his home in Pittsburgh is heading north to Canada. Quarterback Devlin “Duck” Hodges signed a three-year contract with the Ottawa Redblacks of the Canadian Football League, the team announced Thursday. “Usually ducks migrate south around this...

The way Minkah Fitzpatrick was deployed on defense in the season opener for the Pittsburgh Steelers, it was reminiscent of a certain safety who just a few weeks earlier was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Defensive coordinator Keith Butler isn’t calling Fitzpatrick the next Troy Polamalu, but...

Offensive coordinator Matt Canada didn’t grade Ben Roethlisberger’s performance at Buffalo as harshly as Pro Football Focus, which rated the Pittsburgh Steelers passer as the NFL’s worst quarterback in Week 1. Yes, he was ranked even lower than Aaron Rodgers, who finished with a 36.8 passer rating in a 38-3...

All nine of the Steelers’ 2021 draft class members came from Power 5 conference programs. One benefit of that is the players come to the NFL having a feel for big-time football. The daily mechanisms and framework that exist on that scale. The pressures and expectations associated with being a...

The Steelers season is just starting. The Pirates season is finally ending. Pitt’s fan base is starting to wake up. And the emotions from all sides are equally raw. That’s abundantly clear in this week’s “U mad, bro?”. After their win Sunday over the Buffalo Bills, this Twitter follower remained...

The Steelers may already be scouting a quarterback for next year’s draft. The Bengals have signed a former Steelers free agent. The Raiders Maxx Crosby raised eyebrows with his performance Monday night against the Baltimore Ravens. And we celebrate a Pitt football legend’s birthday. All of this in today’s First...

The absence of defensive end Stephon Tuitt wasn’t felt Sunday when the Pittsburgh Steelers swarmed Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen throughout a 23-16 victory. Allen, who was in MVP consideration last year, was sacked three times and led the Bills to just one touchdown in the season opener. The Steelers...