Steelers Breakdown from PennLive.com

The Steelers’ big win in Baltimore has celebrating players rapping along to what’s now being billed as the 7-0 team’s official song: ‘Take Over Your Trap’ by the late Bankroll Fresh. The lyrics that are printable do show why the song has struck a chord with the Steelers. This, after the team walked into the Big Crabcake on a rainy, cold Un-Charm City Sunday and proceeded to pick off MVP Lamar Jack...

Big Ben Roethlisberger’s trio of troubling interceptions vs. the Titans ended up costing the Steelers points on long drives – but luckily not the too-close-for-comfort 27-24 contest. The lingering effect of those picks could be the proof that Big Ben isn’t the same gun-slinging Steelers quarterback of old. The new Ben isn’t the same as the old Ben. The difference could be big, as in the absence of...

 Pittsburgh’s proud pro football tradition was never just about the pigskin. It was about the community of fans that came to be known as Steelers Nation. It was the connection between town, team and stadium section mates that became strong as steel. It was the communion of excitement, shared experience and common purpose that brought together that cacophony of raised voices to chant the same, fami...

What’s worse than being forced by COVID-19 to take your bye in Week 4? For the Steelers, it’s watching the Cleveland Browns offense break out with 49 points against the Dallas Cowboys. But it’s not just the Browns. Offenses across the NFL are scoring like crazy. Yet, the Steelers, under a surgically repaired Ben Roethlisberger and despite plenty of weapons around him, have yet to really break out....

It’s now clear this coronavirus-shrouded NFL season will be a game of attrition and a survival of the fittest. With COVID-19 striking at least three players and five coaches on the Tennessee Titans as they prepare to meet the Steelers in the Music City Sunday, the real rules for this season like no other are emerging. One thing stands clear above all else: The NFL desperately wants to play the gam...

The Steelers defense is suffering from a serious case of split personality. In one respect, they’re on a record pace for pressuring quarterbacks, blitzing relentlessly and playing highly aggressive. The result has been sacks, interceptions and fumbles – all great! But then there’s the other side of this conflicted Steelers defense. This is the permissive personality that is allowing opponents with...

The Steelers look good on the field, but they’re facing a big backlash over their divided social justice stand off of it. It was a mixed message to say the least. The Steelers high profile Monday Night Football attempt to stand united against racism was seemingly sabotaged by a war-hero left tackle. With the rest of the team wearing the name of Pittsburgh-area police shooting victim Antwon Rose Jr...

For the Steelers, it’s long been a frustrating tale of two units -- offense and defense. During the best of times for the offense, the defense was in tatters and full of holes. Swiss cheese, instead of the Steel Curtain. When the defense shined last season, the offense crumbled, along with quarterback Ben Roethlisberger’s throwing elbow. But for the first time in a long time, both sides of the foo...

Notre Dame receiver Chase Claypool became the Steelers top draft pick in 2020. Yet, he was the 11th receiver taken off the board, as the Steelers lacked a first-round selection. No matter. Claypool has quickly become the most highly touted rookie receiver going into the 2020 season. But it’s one thing making acrobatic catches in practice. Can Claypool do it in regular season? And come December, wi...

Finally, the 2020 Steelers training camp at Heinz Field is starting to resemble an actual training camp. This week, players put on the pads, and the organization allowed the media inside to get a closer -- but not too close -- look at players from Big Ben Roethlisberger and his surgically repaired throwing elbow to irrelevant rookies who may or may not make a mark in this coronavirus-canceled NFL...

My, how times of changed for the suddenly shark-like Steelers secondary. Once a pathetic Pittsburgh weakness, it’s now a fast-rising strength that should strike fear in the hearts of opposing quarterbacks. The clear catalyst was the trade last September to acquire Minkah Fitzpatrick from the Miami Dolphins. Now, Minkah’s talking about ranking with the great safeties of the past decade or so: “The...

Steelers Nation, meet the new boss; same as the old boss. That being quarterback Big Ben Roethlisberger, who says he’s back and better than ever. In a training camp interview, Ben proclaimed his surgically repaired elbow is the best it’s been in years; he’s lighter than he’s been in some 14 seasons; and feels he has years left to his NFL career. So much so, there’s now a real bottom line business...

Whether it’s Juju Smith-Schuster’s skin-tight unitard dance on the China-owned social media app, TikTok, or Zach Banner’s unexpected Twitter blowup over Stephon Tuitt’s stand on the National Anthem, the Steelers seem to be sowing division at a time they should be coming together as a team in training camp. This has some long-time Steelers analysts predicting doom and gloom in Pittsburgh. They say...

To black and gold faithful, Antonio Brown stands as the ultimate fool’s gold. All flash, no substance. Plenty of style, but no steel. Stats, but no championships. A big talking, look-at-me player who put self above team. This makes Brown the ultimate failure and biggest disappointment in Steelers franchise history. But there’s another side to this coin – the bad Pittsburgh penny that was Antonio B...

Steelers Nation is in an uproar in wake of the new ‘Madden ‘21’ video game ratings that seem to diss one of their superstars, while hinting at a big comeback for a fan favorite. Is this simply the tale of two computer game ratings that won’t really matter much once the real season begins? Or a prescient prediction of things to come in 2020 – namely a reversal of Steelers fortunes with the Ben Roet...

The image of the Steelers as the ultimate NFL misers is a bygone trope that won’t die. The Pittsburgh football team founded for $2,500 by Art Rooney does pony up and pay its stars. They have the salary cap troubles to prove it. But would they ever go as far as the Kansas City Chiefs just did in locking up quarterback Patrick Mahomes to a 10-year extension worth more than $500 million? It’s a dilem...

Fans still have faith in seeing live, in-person football in Pittsburgh this fall. That’s why this Steelers season ticket holder plunked down cold, hard cash for 4 season passes, no questions or COVID worries asked. Why? Well, it’s Steelers football. That’s why. I’ve been part of it since the 80s at the old concrete bowl that was Three Rivers Stadium. I always imagined the place as a giant witch’s...

Ben Roethlisberger’s soul-baring comments have the feel of a man looking himself hard in the mirror, examining every scar, recognizing that some were self-inflicted, but accepting the long journey and the many mistakes it to get here. He’s not only still standing, but the better for it. Roethlisberger sounds like he’s stepping up for one last stand – a career comeback that could become legend. Jus...

JuJu Smith-Schuster was a second banana who flourished in the shadow of then-Steelers superstar Antonio Brown. When the spotlight -- and opposing defenses -- shone on JuJu in the No. 1 role, he wilted. Badly. Now with other receiving options rapidly rising as the Steelers retool and a returning Big Ben Roethlisberger looks to rev up the offense, JuJu will largely retreat to the comfort of his slot...

Colin Kaepernick’s kneeling National Anthem protests now seems prescient. Eight-plus excruciating minutes of video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd until his heart stopped beating has made it so. It sets up an explosive start to what was already going to be a very unusual football season due to the coronavirus pandemic. It’s a very good bet NFL players, including...

The Pittsburgh Steelers spent plenty of draft capital on its defense over the years. But for various reasons, many of those picks didn’t have positive returns. But the team brain trust admitted their drafting deficiencies and made up for them by trading for Minkah Fitzpatrick, signing Joe Haden and Steven Nelson and discovering Mike Hilton – and that’s just the un-Steelers-like renovation in the s...

For Big Ben, his bushy Brett Keisel-like beard was a marker of his long recovery from throwing elbow surgery after the second game last season. The fact that Ben’s locks and beard are now nicely trimmed – along so it seems with his body as seen in that slick 38-second video – signals the Steelers’ future Hall of Famer is back. And with everyone from Gov. Tom Wolf on down jumping on Big Ben’s back,...

You might want to pop a Prozac, Pittsburgh. There’s mounting gloom and doom swirling around the 2020 Steelers. I’ve rounded up all the recent arguments for why the playoff-starved team will struggle yet again. Unfortunately, it’s all here in this shocking – some would say, treasonous -- edition of the Steelers Update Podcast from PennLive. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information....

Antonio Brown – who’s looking to get back to the NFL on a paying basis anyway he can – would love to flock with the high-flying Ravens. In Pittsburgh, this prospect has spawned two schools of thought. On one side, Steelers fans' nightmares now run with Brown-Ravens highlight reels. This, as the social-media-savvy receiver rubs in every catch and celebrates each touchdown he scores in Charm City. B...

About the best you can say is the 8-8 Steelers added some special teams players for 2020 and brought in rookies who’ll replace second-tier stars like receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster and linebacker Bud Dupree next season. This, so the Steelers have the salary-cap firepower to re-sign true superstars like T.J. Watt and Minkah Fitzpatrick. Still, the Steelers’ odds of returning to the NFL playoffs after...