Monthly Archives: August 2015

suisham

Shaun Suisham Suffered A ‘Potentially Significant’ Knee Injury

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Kicker Shaun Suisham left the game early after suffering what Coach Mike Tomlin later called a ‘potentially signifcant’ knee injury. Suisham appeared to sustain the injury while making a tackle after the kickoff to start the 2nd half. He limped to the locker room, and was later seen using crutches.

https://twitter.com/C_AdamskiTrib/status/630583404589936644

The injury is to his left (non-kicking) leg. There is no back up kicker, so if Suisham’s injury is significant, the team will need to bring someone in quickly. He will have testing done tomorrow, so we’ll have to wait and see just how serious it is.

The other two players injured tonight were OT Marcus Gilbert, and RB Cameron Stingily. Gilbert reportedly was poked in the eye, and his injury didn’t appear to be serious. Stingily injured his knee during the second half forcing him to leave the game. He is being evaluated.

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Steelers Lose To Vikings 14-3

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If you didn’t like Landry Jones before, you probably didn’t start liking him tonight. The 3rd string QB took nearly all the reps under center tonight as the Steelers fell to the Vikings 14-3.

While Jones did show improvement from the last time we saw him in preseason, he left a lot to be desired. To his defense, he was surrounded by several guys who had never seen NFL playing time before. TE Jesse James dropped what should have been an easy touchdown. Regardless, Steeler fans haven’t seen him throw a touchdown outside of practice in…a while. It certainly wasn’t all bad. While Jones hesitated to look down field for much of the night, he did seem more comfortable overall, and made changes to protection on various plays.

If you’re freaking out over this loss, you should relax. The game was mostly about putting inexperienced guys in certain situations to see how the perform. Ben Roethlisberger, Le’Veon Bell, Heath Miller, Antonio Brown, Maurkice Pouncey, James Harrison, Martavis Bryant, Markus Wheaton, Jarvis Jones, Mike Mitchell, and Shamarko Thomas were not in uniform tonight.

Like Jones, Dri Archer saw lots of action tonight. It was his birthday. The second year RB/WR looked like he might actually belong on a NFL offense tonight. He saw playing time during every series tonight, totaling four carries, six receptions, a kickoff return and a punt return.

Some quick observations before I re-watch the game tomorrow:

Jesse James had some pretty bad 1st game jitters, or at least, it looked like that’s what it was. The rookie TE dropped an easy would-be touchdown pass, and later had a bad fumble.

Bud Dupree was slower than I expected and looked a step behind at times. I’m assuming he’ll need a couple games to shake his camp legs.

The front 7 looked pretty good. While most of the offensive starters had the night off, the defensive starters were in, and they looked pretty sharp.

WR Sammie Coates showed promise. He did have some miscommunication with his QB, and he drew an OPI call on a deep ball, but he looked better than what I expected his first night out.

The Steelers face the Jaguars Friday night at 7:30.

 

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Jerome Bettis Was The Main Event In Canton

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The Bus made his final stop last night. Jerome Bettis was the clear headliner at a ceremony that honored stars of NFL past like Tim Brown, Junior Seau, Charles Haley, Bill Polian, and others. “We’ve gotta get one thing understood tonight,” Bettis said to an audience dominated by Steelers fans, “we’re in Canton, Ohio, but this is Steelers Country.” He wasn’t kidding. The audience looked like a Steelers 1:00 home game.

Bettis exemplified humility and class as he told the story of his journey from meager beginnings in Detroit to Hall of Fame inductee. He thanked several people, and said heartfelt thanks to his family.

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What came as a surprise, to me at least, was his thanking Ben Roethlisberger for “the tackle”.  “Brother, without you saving that tackle, I still might be on the doorsteps, brother,” Bettis said as the camera closed in on a laughing Roethlisberger. “I owe you for life.”

His public speaking prowess was on full display as he spoke to the sea of spectators at the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I got goosebumps when he started a chant of “Here we go Steelers” and looked for my towel when he led the first of a couple Terrible Towel waves. Here’s his speech in its entirety. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFXbJNg1MV4

 

 

Jordan Dangerfield

Steelers Sign Dangerfield, Waive Isaiah Lewis

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Jordan Dangerfield got a little respect this week. Saturday the Steelers announced they had waived Isaiah Lewis and signed safety Jordan Dangerfield. It’s getting hard to keep track of how many times the Steelers have signed the former Towson DB. He held his own in preseason last year, but didn’t make it out of training camp cuts.

Lewis was somewhat of a fan favorite. The undrafted free agent who was signed in January was known for his hard-hits.

The Steelers have been dealing with many defensive injuries during training camp, resulting in many roster changes over the past few days.

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Clifton Geathers To IR, DE Okafor Signed

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It’s that time of year when teams are making frequent roster moves. This time, the Steelers faced the disappointing decision to place veteran DE Clifton Geathers on injured reserve. No immediate word was given as to the nature of his injury. The 6’8″ Geathers had previously played with the Eagles and Redskins. To fill the opening, the team signed DE Joe Okafor.

Okafor was an UDFA in the 2014 draft. After playing for Oklahoma State in 2011, he played at Lamar University from 2012 to 2014. He received an honorable mention for All-Southland Conference in 2014.

https://youtu.be/l1ckGJ7XnbI

 

The loss of Geathers is a hit to the defensive line depth chart, and pretty much solidifies Cam Thomas’ roster spot. The move does open the door for Ethan Hemer, L.T. Walton, as well as Joe Kruger. It will be interesting to see who steps forward during preseason and takes advantage of the extra playing time.

Rob Blanchflower

Steelers Waive TE Blanchflower, Claim TE Hamilton

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Tight end Rob Blanchflower has been waived/injured to make room for tight end Ray Hamilton, who the Steelers claimed off waivers from the Dallas Cowboys. Hamilton, out of Iowa, had been acquired by the Cowboys on May 9th as an undrafted rookie. During his 4 years at Iowa, he caught for 305 yards in 29 passes.

Blanchflower was a seventh round draft pick by the Steelers in the 2014 NFL Draft. I thought Blanchflower was a steal coming out of UMASS, but he just couldn’t escape the injury bug.

If he should clear waivers he would find himself on the Steelers injured reserve list. However, from there he’ll likely be waived with an injury settlement.