From the notebook of a sportswriter who hadn't really thought much about the approaching end of the season, of perhaps the age, until now, and for whom the abyss awaits:
* It's just like the smoke's clearing on this season and we're seeing it had been all only a dream.
* Coach of the Year, Duck Season, elite defense; hey, there's still another week, and still hope for the playoffs, but i feel we will see that it's now getting to be four months of speculation about Ben Roethlisberger, followed by four more months of elbow updates, while wondering if a 38-year-old can recapture past magic.
* Yep, there's still every week, but, man, it's getting nasty out there. I walked my dog after the sport, as seemingly the remainder of the neighborhood did. One woman asked what i assumed about JuJu Smith-Schuster. I asked why she would pick that one seemingly insignificant player from the loss to the Jets, and she or he said, "Well, he hasn't played alright."
* then in fact I returned home to the call-in show still on my TV together fan after another complained about him. i do not skills y'all take this stream of negativity hebdomadally.
* But Twitter was worse. The JuJu hate is unconscionable. Are we actually talking that fourth-down prayer that went over his head? The pass that kinda, from one angle, seemed like it's going to have skilled his outstretched hands as he tried to twist his body? Really? The guy playing in pain at the top of an injury-plagued season?
* It's almost like this hatred is propaganda, and therefore the other side is really winning. How stupid have we become? and that we can't blame the Russians for this one.
* Are we mad because he's charismatic and likable? Because he doesn't need traditional media to speak to fans? can we await the child to screw up in order that we within the media can, what, steal his following? How unconscionably dumb.
* Growing up during this business, i could not stand the Pollyanna sort of sportswriter. They were everywhere and that we cool kids grew to mock them. But there's actually a requirement for them lately during this age of self-pronounced expertise that we will not escape.
* So, i assume I'm that pollyannish guy now. I've become that which I wont to hate. and i am comfortable with it.
* This game decreased to at least one play, and Duck Hodges made his best throw of the sport, even his career. He hit his target in middle of both hands - within the hay-baling, strong hands of James Washington - from 44 yards away. It would've been the game-winner had Marcus Maye not made the simplest play of his career to interrupt it up.
* i think a number of you remember Maye beginning of Florida a few of years ago. tons of you liked him. tons of you wanted the Steelers to draft him. Great call by you.
* So, subsequent pass - a prayer picked up off the bottom after yet one more poor shotgun snap - was heaved within the general direction of Smith-Schuster. It fell incomplete and therefore the Christmas hatred in Pittsburgh was on.
* We could mention the offensive line - and many are. i actually can't accept as true with the common perception that this group didn't protect these young quarterbacks. However, the stat sheet says they allowed four sacks, so, your argument has merit. The sack when the Steelers were in tying-FG range with 10 minutes left is additionally proper fodder for the perception. The player came unblocked for the critical loss, and therefore the next snap was again low and fumbled because the hope of a 13-13 tie was gone. But I still, really, do not have a drag with the O-line. such a lot of that's on the quarterback.
* As I always say about assistant coaches, only the top coach knows who's getting the work done. So, if Mike Munchak's replacement this season, Shaun Sarrett, isn't performing up to expectations, that's up to Mike Tomlin to understand and for him to act. But I've heard nothing negative about the young coach.
* i might use one among my early picks on an indoor lineman to exchange B.J. Finney, who's likely a goner in representation.
* My other early pick would be for a decent end, as I leave that potential void at blind-side pass-rusher alone.
* I'll assume Bud Dupree is gone, also, but this has got to be an offensive draft - and an uneventful offensive draft at that. Offensive linemen and tight ends within the second and third rounds are boring.
* the opposite criticism that has some merit is that the playcalling once the Steelers crossed midfield. i do not accept as true with the criticism, but it's thousand percent more credence than the criticism of Smith-Schuster.
* There's a minimum of some math we will use as evidence: Seven times the Steelers had first down in Jets territory and only twice did they score points. But, otherwise, I'm unsure the criticism is valid. There was no discernible pattern to the playcalling. I mean, they tried everything and tiny worked.
* My only criticism is that they didn't hand the ball to Kerrith Whyte enough, especially after James Conner got hurt. aside from that, I'm just not as down on Randy Fichtner because the fan base. Such is that the lifetime of an offensive coordinator.
* What I did like about this game - and within the end of the day it's going to convince be more important than winning or losing - was the return of Mason Rudolph. I've written a few of times, and talked about it during radio spots, that he's finally looked good again in practice these last few weeks. But I didn't expect him to seem nearly as good as he did Sunday.
* unsure what Dan Fouts was talking about during the printed, but Rudolph's always been an accurate passer. His arm's not as strong as Fouts was saying, but it's strong enough. Rudolph also, for the primary time since the Rams game, showed field presence. He put all of it together in directing the offense to 10 points in three first-half possessions.
* Rudolph's third possession of the last half was doomed when Maurkice Pouncey got hurt. Finney stepped within the next play, and stepped on Rudolph's foot as he was sacked on his shoulder and made to go away the sport soon thereafter.
* The performance by Rudolph put him back to the role of primary developmental backup behind Roethlisberger this coming offseason.
* even as I warned to not write off Rudolph when his world came crashing down earlier this season, don't write Hodges off either. Both of those young QBs are through a grinding process. Diamonds are coal that's been squeezed and pressured. Young quarterbacks are an equivalent. The Steelers have a minimum of developed depth at that crucial position this season.
* That thing about diamonds and coal, don't hold me thereto. I can throw some math out there every now and perhaps fool some people, but my science, uh, no.
* So Rudolph's re-emergence offers hope that he, as, say, Kirk Cousins, can eventually lead this outstanding defense deep into the playoffs should Roethlisberger not return to full health.
* in fact, that's not getting to shine much light into our coming abyss. It's getting to be long and difficult. Get your rest.