Friday, February 25, 2011

Big Change Coming to Happy Valley

Guido D'Elia let it slip.  There's going to be a major shake-up in Penn State football.

New play?

New Coach?

No more Sweet Caroline?

Bigger than those baby!  Penn State is changing it's uniform!

Give me a break. It's the off season, so this is what we have to discuss.

According to CBS Eye on College Football:
Penn State likely will tweak the appearance of its home and road uniform this fall, according to Guido D'Elia, the director of communications and branding for the football team.


Speaking to a class at Penn State, D'Elia indicated the home-uniform white trim around the neck and on the sleeves would be eliminated. Also, the road-uniform blue trim would be eliminated.
You can see a picture on the Morning Call's blog comparing the uniforms of yesterday and today, which now since things are reversed and today's uniform is going to look like yesterday's, that would make yesterday today, which would make me think I'm arguing with Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck.

Speaking of Ducks, thank God we don't have uniforms like they do.  One blog says Oregon uses it as a recruiting tool.  Seriously?!  Kids actually make one of the biggest decisions of their lives such as which school to go to, based on whether they think the uniforms are COOL???  No wonder Oregon couldn't beat Auburn!  Probably too worried about getting their dress greens all dirty.

And at least the "new" PSU uni's won't be eyesores like Virginia Tech's uni's.  Those are some nasty looking garments if ever I saw some.  Of course, when you start out with puke orange and bloody stool maroon as your color theme, it kind of limits how aesthetic the final product is going to be no matter who designs the outfit.  Betsy Ross would have shot herself before she would have used that color combination for a flag.

The concern here is that Penn State will be TOO plain.  Maybe Guido is trying to stir up some magic of Penn State football from the seventies with this change.  Good luck with that, because I fear those days are long gone.  They ARE long gone.  Forty years!

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Monday, February 7, 2011

There's Always Next Year, Right?

Super Disappointment

Every sports fan has those games--THOSE GAMES--which go beyond merely losing a friendly athletic contest.

The 1979 Sugar Bowl
Minnesota 1999
Iowa 6 - PSU 4
THEM 2005

For Penguin fans, there is the OT loss in game 7 to the NY Islanders in 1993

For Red Sox fans, there's the Bill Buckner game.

Heart breaking losses ingames that where the win just slipped away.

You get the picture.

This Super Bowl is among those infamous losses, at least for Steeler fans.

Of course, by all rights, it is simply surprising that they made it to the big game at all.  Their starting QB was suspended for the first four games.  The offensive line had only, I believe, two starters from the beginning of the season still able to play.  They had to get by the Ravens and the Jets.  Yet, despite all the odds, here they were. . . .in the Super Bowl.

But just as Christina Aguilera botched the national anthem (why can't they just sing our country's anthem without trying to turn it into some kind of Broadway operatic diva solo?  But that is a topic for another day!) the Steelers fumbled and bumbled away the opportunity to add trophy #7 to their already crowded showcase.

Three turnovers led to 21 points, and the Steelers fell 31-25.  Let's face it, Ben had a bad day and looked reminiscent of Matt McGloin in the Outhouse Bowl.  He wasn't on the same page as his receivers on several plays and the pick six was a dagger in the hearts of the Black & Gold faithful.

Yet, despite 3 TOs and a 21 point swing in favor of the G-men, Pittsburgh still had a chance with about two minutes to go in the game to win it with a touchdown.  But a stupid unsportsmanlike personal foul pinned them deep and poor play calling and execution doomed any chance for a winning drive.

I knew it was going to be a close game and I really thought that the losing team would be within a score and have a chance to win it in the final minutes, but I truly thought it would have been the Steeler defense closing the victory and allowing Dan Rooney to hoist another trophy amid the confetti.

Armchair QBs will argue things ad nauseum, but I think this loss falls heavily on the defense.  What happened to them?  Yes, it's tough to win games when your offense turns the ball over three times.  Teams are 35-4 in the Super Bowl when the opponent has 3+ turnovers.  Yet, the Steelers still were in this thing despite those mistakes.

And let's be honest, the fumble in the fourth quarter could have happened to anyone.  Those things happen.  Helmet meets ball.  Ball loses.  Other team recovers.  Bad break.

But a championship team should have stepped up and tried to get the ball back, or at least for crying out loud and for all that is holy, stop the other team from scoring.

It's not the defense's fault on the pick six.

But the other two turnovers still left the cheeseheads with a ways to go to score, and both times they did so with relative ease.  If we had just held them to field goals on those two turnovers, Pittsburgh would have won the game on the scoreboard, if not the stat sheet.  The Steelers outgained GB in total yardage and first downs.

Ghey looked lost in coverage.  Polamalu was a non-factor.  Seriously, where was he at?  One of the announcers made the comment on a play that he was out of position that that happens sometimes when you play on instincts.  Were his instincts wrong the whole game?  A single play I can live with someone being out of position.  But to be brutally honest, our best defense of the night was the Green Bay defenders that dropped passes.  This game could have been really ugly if not for those drops.

Defense wins championships.  That's why the Steelers don't have another Lombardi Trophy in their trophy case.  And with the age of this team, it might be a long time before they have another chance to climb the stairway to seven.

And apparently, Steeler fans aren't the only ones in pain.  According to Penn State Clips, Vegas took a pretty good hit on the outcome as well.  Serves them right for picking the Packers.

Friday, February 4, 2011

More Steeler Pictures

From the Winter Album of Teri Kitzmiller Thomas:



Wednesday, February 2, 2011

NLOID

We interrupt the Steeler March up the Stairway to Seven to bring you some Penn State football news . . .

Today, in addition to being Punxsutawney Polamalu Day, is also National Letter of Intent Day.  Here is a list of commits from Scout.com.

Of note is the change of heart of Adrian Amos, a 3-star safety who had committed to UConn, but then wavered after Randy Edsall left.  Black Shoe Diaries has a nice update.

We now return you to Steeler Football.

Groundhog Day

Punxsutawney Polamalu Day!

Punxsy Phil did not see his shadow . . . an early Spring!

Punxsy Polamalu did not see his shadow . . . another RING!

Here's the original TV ad:



HERE WE GO STEELERS . . . HERE WE GO!