U mad, bro?: Steelers' preseason anxiety meets Pirates' late-season despair

It’s late August in Pittsburgh. For local sports fans, that marks the annual nexus of Steelers preseason obsession, meeting yearly late-season Pirates fan dejection.

Preemptive quarterback concerns. Acute offensive line panic. Defensive back denial. All stirred with long-simmering Pirates angst and frustration.

We mix it, shake it, chill it and pour a tasty late-summer cocktail called “U mad, bro?”

William wants Jack Suwinski called up to the Pirates.

”Why is Jack Suwinski not being mentioned at all in being brought back up to the team? Is his play that poor??”

I don’t know why either, William. He’s hitting .145 with one home run in August in Indianapolis. I think he’d fit right in.

Tom has the Steelers QB situation figured out.

”The verdict is in. We’ve seen enough. Mitch Trubisky is a game manager. Mason Rudolph throws a nice deep ball. Too slow in the pocket, though. Kenny moves the ball! Start Kenny game 1! In Kenny We Trust!”

Only in Pittsburgh can we deem three quarters of two preseason games as “seeing enough” of a quarterback.

I mean, we all saw four years of the guy in Chicago. Did we “see enough of him” then? Or were we just willing to endorse Trubisky’s signing until Pickett came along because we at least thought Trubisky was better than Rudolph?

Isn’t that actually the truth, Tom?

The psyche of being a Stillers fan is quite unique, isn’t it? We will talk ourselves into — or out of — any vehement belief based on what we assume to be the best possible hypothetical outcome.

Until it doesn’t work out. Then we’ll just talk ourselves into the exact opposite.

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Ed doesn’t want to see Trubisky start either. He draws an analogy to Ben Roethlisberger’s memorable rookie year.

”In 2004, if Tommy Maddox doesn’t get hurt, when does Big Ben start playing meaningful games for the Steelers? If Maddox somehow could have cobbled together a 9-7 or 10-6 record, does Ben play at all that year? If Ben doesn’t play that first year, is he a Super Bowl QB his second year? Not that two preseason games is much to go on, but sitting Pickett in favor of Trubisky is as wise as starting Maddox over Roethlisberger was 18 years ago. Start Pickett. Game plan for his success, and see how he develops. Anything else is a huge waste of time.”

To answer your first question, no. Roethlisberger likely wouldn’t have played if they were 10-6 en route to the playoffs in ‘04. Is he a Super Bowl QB in ‘05, starting for the first time? I dunno. Maybe he is anyway.

Big Ben began that ‘05 season with 14 regular-season starts under his belt and two playoff games. Yet, the ‘05 team still started 7-5 and barely got into the playoffs as the last AFC wild card. So keep that in mind.

Plus, ask yourself this. Who had the benefit of playing behind the better offensive line and with a better defense? Big Ben in ‘04 or Pickett in ‘22?

Also, Ed, I wouldn’t say it’s a waste of time. It’s more of a waste of a signing — a waste of money and cap space if they went out and got a quarterback in free agency only to draft the alleged most NFL-ready QB in the draft.

But that’s the scenario they knew they were potentially creating for themselves when they signed Trubisky before knowing if Pickett and Malik Willis were still going to be on the board when they drafted at No. 20.

Which, I assume, they believed would not be the case.

Ace is dubious of the Steelers’ approach of deploying multiple defensive backs in many various packages.

Schemes are indicative of lesser talented players as opposed to being able to run a base defense "straight up."

— AcePrimero ???????? (@AcePrimero) August 24, 2022

Sure. Theoretically. Play your best 11 every down and make the offense figure out a way to beat it. Sounds wonderful.

In the good ol’ days, that may have been true. When the Steelers defense was great in the early 2000s, they’d stuff the run on first and second down. Casey Hampton and Kendrell Bell would come off the field. They’d go dime and get a sack on third down. And that was the extent of their sub-package play.

Or, in the 1970s, maybe the starting 11 could play practically the whole game.

Offenses have evolved since then. The expansion of the passing game has forced that. It’s forced more scheming and player-specific packages to counter what offenses do.

If the Steelers get five Hall of Famers on the same defense for 10 years in the salary cap era as they did in the Steel Curtain days, we’ll revisit the topic. Until then, get used to seeing a lot of different players playing in a lot of different positions.

Dave is not a fan of the Steelers’ pass protection.

People yapped about the ball coming out quick the last two years. Maybe they can see why now?

— Dave (@PTDukie33) August 20, 2022

Dave, if we couldn’t see it the past two years, we must’ve been watching the games with our eyes closed. In the words of Mike Tomlin himself, time for us to “cut our eyelids off.”

Finally, Chris wants to make a slight alteration to the “Hodgepodge of Nothingness” shirts people want to sell after Dennis Eckersley’s comments last week.

@TimBenzPGH whatdya think Tim? pic.twitter.com/Kz1u3sQDTb

— Chris Reilly (@otis4president) August 17, 2022

”Change that t-shirt to ‘Hodgepodge of Nuttingness,’ and I’d buy two. C’mon, outside vendors … you’re sitting on a gold mine … get to work!!!”

Good call, Chris. Then maybe you can get a picture with him to post on social media. I’m sure that’ll turn out great.

Bob Nutting ???????????? #SellTheTeamBob #Pirates pic.twitter.com/mMsbu61OrA

— SirBoywonder513 (@SirBoywonder513) August 4, 2022