U mad, bro?: Sharing lots of feelings on the Steelers, Skenes, Schoenfield, Sinatra and soggy pizza

The rapture didn’t happen this week. Some people seem really upset about that.

Personally, I’m angry because the Pittsburgh Steelers can’t get off the field on possession downs, and the Pirates never give Paul Skenes any run support.

It’s giving me a headache. Anyone got any Tyleno… nevermind.

Let’s discuss in this week’s “U mad, bro?”

Steve didn’t like Dave Schoenfield’s less-than-flattering comp between Paul Skenes’ 2025 season and Dwight Gooden’s 24-4 campaign in 1985 at ESPN.com.

“Why can’t we lose that aspect of baseball history when it clearly isn’t applicable anymore, and by no means is it the fault of the pitcher? Like QB’s, and Goalies, I think assigning these positions blame or reward for win and losses is inherently myopic. Why don’t other players carry W-L baggage?

Many of Skenes’ other measurables are superior to Gooden’s. Unlike ERA, strikeouts and other pitcher-centric derived metrics, W-L is almost completely a team created statistic. Clearly when a pitcher throws 11 scoreless games in a season and only ends up with 10 wins despite this, there’s a problem in assigning blame to the pitcher for their W-L record.

In addition to the Cy Young, Skenes should be given some baseball equivalent of a combat medal like the purple heart or medal of honor for achieving such greatness on a team that from the ownership down, did everything in its power to keep him reaching it.”

I agree with a lot of this. Almost all of this. Two things, though:

1. With football becoming more and more QB-centric (in terms of both pay and gameplanning), I don’t mind the win-loss attachment to quarterbacks. Not as bible. But at least as a guide.

2. If you heard people in Pittsburgh complain about the postseason records of T.J. Watt and Cameron Heyward during their contract disputes, you know other position players catch those strays too.

Well, when it’s convenient. That usually means, “when it’s about money.”

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Last week, Bob sent me an email about the Pirates mismanaging Paul Skenes down the stretch.

”After 30 starts, Paul had perfect stats for the Cy Young and had admitted to being OK with coming out after 5 vs. Baltimore and intimated he was tired or had/was arm weary. So why continue to throw him out there, especially when they’re out of even the wild-card chase?

He’s thrown roughly 3,000 official pitches and maybe another 2,000 practice pitches. And velocity and ball movement have diminished. His Cy Young may depend upon it! Voters will remember his last few starts. Your thoughts?”

Based on Wednesday night, my thoughts are: I hope they remember his last start.

Ed doesn’t have much faith in Mike Tomlin or the 2025 Steelers.

“I’m thinking 7-10 at the finish, I just don’t see them winning against any good teams this season, they’ve already shown they struggle against bad to mediocre teams. The question will be, does ownership finally send Tomlin packing?”

The answer is … “No.”

The Rooney family has rationalized 12 of the last 14 years without a playoff win by simply saying, “Don’t you know Mike Tomlin has never had a losing season?”

They can easily rationalize 13 of 15 by saying, “Don’t you know Mike Tomlin has only had one losing season?”

Michael sums up the Steelers’ win over New England perfectly.

Steelers just took the last slice of pizza after the Pats said they didn't want it for the 6th time

— Michael Dojcak (@BurghBot2010) September 21, 2025

Yes. And at that point, the pizza was cold, soggy, and the cheese was peeling off the top.

This guy didn’t like the fact that I pointed out how badly Patriots tight end Hunter Henry roasted the Steelers’ defense.

5 sacks, 5 turnovers, and only 14 points given up.

— CharDeeMacDennis (@CharDeeMacDen12) September 23, 2025

Ten conversions on third or fourth downs. Almost 370 yards allowed. A total of 71 plays run by the opponent. Over 33 minutes of possession time allowed.

See. We can do this all day. So, let’s not do that.

You have your stats to advance your narrative. I have mine. Mine is that, despite the win, there are plenty of things for the Steelers to fix.

Yours is that “a win is a win is a win is a win.”

Yeah. Sure, it is.

But there were 120 plays in that football game. The Steelers lost a lot of them. If you aren’t willing to at least talk about that, then why bother watching the games?

Just catch the final score on Monday morning and scream “Got the ‘W’” like a jackwagon.

Finally, Michael has a musical reference to illustrate the Steelers’ spotty but effective win.

As Sinatra sings, "I'm looking at the world through rose colored glasses, everything is rosy now."

— Michael Shettig Construction Manager Pro (@MichaelShettig) September 22, 2025

Well, Frank Sinatra also recorded a version of “Long Ago and Far Away.” Do you think he was singing about the Steelers’ playoff wins?