by Aubrey Bruce, For New Pittsburgh Courier
This past Sunday night, Oct. 13, the Pittsburgh Steelers, sporting a whopping 1-4 record, slid into Los Angeles to play the 2-3 Chargers. The Steelers defense seemed as if they may have been motivated by their predecessors that were a part of the “steel curtain” by covering the Chargers’ Hall-of-Fame bound quarterback Phillip Rivers like a “steel blanket;” well, at least until the fourth quarter of the game. The Steelers squeaked by with a 24-17 hard-fought victory.
Many of the “squawking” heads with their great and eternal wisdom basically anointed the Chargers and their all-universe QB the victors before the coin toss even took place. There was no way that Devlin “Duck” Hodges, an undrafted, almost unwanted third-tier rookie quarterback, could even in his wildest dreams think about not only playing against but even competing with Rivers because as sure as they appointed Rivers as one of the true disciples of “Red” Grange and Jim Thorpe could a young, milk-behind-the-ears, duck-caller like Hodges even think about a Steelers victory. The odds were just too stacked against it.
But Steeler Nation did not listen to the prognosticators because even though Devlin Hodges was appointed to sub for the Steelers’ injured QB Mason Rudolph, the Steelers defense was anointed by the God of defense, and wouldn’t you know it? “Anointees” almost always trump appointees. Watching the Pittsburgh Steelers perform that night was like almost watching the Steel Curtain perform from the Steelers highly chosen, Hall-of-Fame defense from the past. No, as far as the “experts” were concerned, the Pittsburgh defense was above average but their offense was far below average, especially in light of the fact that with no credible starting QB, there would be many three and outs for the Steelers providing multiple opportunities for Rivers to work his magic on a tired and befuddled Steeler defense filled with first- and second-year players.
But instead of Rivers licking his chops at having the opportunity to face Pittsburgh, he instead got busted in the chops. Rivers had to feel battered and bruised; wanting to win but wanting equally to get out of the stadium with all of his marbles and faculties intact. The Steelers were eating Rivers and the Chargers offensive line for breakfast, lunch and dinner, spitting out the bones and asking for a snack before halftime.
All of the writers that I read on the Pittsburgh beat and all of the broadcasters that I watch and listen to in Western Pennsylvania were just resigned to the fact that Pittsburgh was gonna be arriving back in the ‘Burgh with a 1-5 record; it was as simple as that: game, set, match. Someone forgot to tell the Big “nasty D” that they were playing Superman last Sunday night, even playing most of the game without defensive lineman Stephon Tuitt, who was injured early on and is now out for the rest of the season.
Now the “walking dead” are really getting bored. Who made up the rule that a player cannot lose his job to injury? I don’t care how much I am loved, if I become ill and someone subs for me, if they do a better job when I return six months later, I might be put in another position. Mason Rudolph was appointed to fill in for Ben Roethlisberger. Mike Tomlin had better stay with the hot hand.
Even before Rudolph was injured in the Steelers/Ravens game on Oct. 6 at Heinz Field, he had misfired on several open receivers and was a notoriously slow starter, a flaw that he might have inherited from his predecessor, Roethlisberger.
Game manager Devlin Hodges, along with the Steelers’ home-wrecking defense. Sounds like a lethal combination to me.
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