2011-A Look Back
The Beginning
The 2011 version of the ‘Stairway to Seven’ was supposed to pick up where the team left off last year, in the Super Bowl. This Steeler team was poised and ready to get back to the big game; this time not falling short of their ultimate goal; winning that 7th ring. Coming off a lockout shortened off season was expected to work in the favor of the Black and Gold. They wouldn’t have to learn new playbooks, learn many new faces or really rely on rookies to fill in and play right away like many other teams had to do. This team was already set and poised to make a valiant run. They plowed through the pre season going 3-1 with an additional loss that may have played a bigger role late in the season than people would ever realize, Byron Leftwhich was lost for the year, we’ll get back to this later. With the 3-1 pre-season the Steel Nation was excited for the regular season to get under way and to see how deep a run our beloved Steelers could make.
The First Quarter
The first quarter of the year started off shaky as opening day saw the Black and Gold travel to Baltimore and get annihilated and flat out embarrassed by the Ravens. The score was 35-7, the team had 7 turnovers, 5 of those by Big Ben. The vaunted Steeler defense allowed 3 TD passes by Joe Flacco and 170 yards rushing by the Ravens running backs. To make matters worse, starting right tackle Willie Colon was lost for the year. The critics were out; the team was considered washed up, old, a year past their prime and no match for the Ravens. The Ravens were now the new king of the North, the Steelers were has beens. Was it going to be another Super Bowl hangover? Was this team really going to fail to make the playoffs after going to the Super Bowl for the 3rd consecutive time? The following week the Steelers showed up and played the style of football we as fans are accustom to seeing, they destroyed an inferior Seattle Seahawk team at home 24-0 and all was right with the world. The defense clearly dominated with the shut out as did the offense putting up stellar numbers in all categories. The Steelers didn’t turn the ball over either, but for the 2nd consecutive week, they didn’t gain a turnover-a theme that would define the 2011 season. Week 3 saw the Steelers visit the Peyton Manningless Colts, a team that proved to be horrible without their star. The Steelers should have gone into this game and won by a landslide. While they did win, it was by a mere field goal and it was kicked with .04 left on the clock. Big Ben put up a big day yardage wise but accounted for another 3 turnovers. Defensively the Steelers gave up some big plays but did manage to gain their first turnover of the year. To finish off the first quarter of the year, the Steelers visited the Houston Texans, the eventual AFC South winner and pre season darling of many media outlets. They lost the game 17-10 and it was never even that close. They gave up big play after big play and allowed Big Ben to be sacked 5 times. To top it off, James Harrison broke his orbital bone and would miss the next 4 weeks and Aaron Smith tore a triceps muscle and was lost for the season. Through the first quarter of the season the defending AFC champs were a mere 2-2. The offensive line was in shambles, Rashard Mendenhall was nowhere to be found, the defense had only gained one turnover and the team was already -10 in turnovers on the year. It appeared this could be a long and disappointing season for our beloved Steelers.
The Second Quarter
As the 2nd quarter of the season began; the Steelers knew they needed to get re focused and re energized if they wanted to make another run at the playoffs and beyond. They had to prove they weren’t too old on defense, they weren’t too porous on the offensive line and that they had more than a passing attack too. The 5th game of the year was against the Tennessee Titans, an eventual playoff contender who had already knocked off the Baltimore Ravens earlier in the season. Sitting at 2-2, this was as critical a game as there could be for week 5 of an NFL season and the Steelers rose to the occasion. They blew the Titans away, putting up 38 points, rushing the ball for 174 yards, throwing for 5 touchdowns while only allowing 1 sack. To go along with all of that; they sacked Matt Hasslebeck 3 times, and a magical run of sacks by LaMarr Woodley began when he put up 1.5 in this game. Hines Ward had one of the finer games of his career leading the team with 7 grabs and scoring twice. It was great to see in what would prove to be his last big performance of the year and maybe of his Pittsburgh career. The team looked good and they were ready for their next challenge, the lowly Jacksonville Jaguars. The Jags were starting a rookie quarterback and were relatively unimpressive so far on the season. The Steelers held their own at home that week and escaped with a 4 point win. Rashard Mendenhall had the game of his season when he had 146 rushing yards and LaMarr Woodley added 2 more sacks to his season total. The defense held the Jags to just 209 total yards. At 4-2 things were starting to look a lot better. The team would head west the following week to face an old friend, Ken Whisenhut and the Arizona Cardinals. Arizona was a team that the Steelers knew they’d have to put up a big number of points against and they delivered with 32. Big Ben tossed 3 TD’s and Mike Wallace and Antonio Brown would both go over 100 yards on the day. This is the game where you can say Antonio Brown really emerged as a true threat and a favorite target of Ben. The team actually went +1 in the turnover battle in this game and LaMarr Woodley added another 2 sacks. This team was rolling and now they had to face a long time nemesis, the Patriots. The Patriots have historically owned the Steelers since Tom Brady has been their QB. He has traditionally carved them up and this was the one offense the Steelers D could never seem to match up with. Not this year, this was the Steelers year and they proved it by going out and beating the pants off the Patriots. Big Ben slung the ball all over the field. The game plan had him throw it 50 times and he amassed 365 yards in doing so. Antonio Brown led the way with 9 catches and we saw Wallace and Heath Miller add 7 apiece. Emmanuel Sanders proved he was a good 3rd option on this team and he even added 5 catches of his own. To complete the offensive attack, Rashard Mendenhall added 70 yards. This very well may have been the best all around performance of the year for the Steelers offense. Defensively they looked solid as well, holding Brady to 198 yards and sacking him 3 times, 2 of those again by Woodley. Woodley however would leave the game with a hamstring injury and would never really be a factor for the remainder of the season. The 2nd quarter of the year proved to be their best as they went 4-0, improving overall to 6-2, the defense emerged as elite once again and the offense put up yardage and points like they should. The team was still -9 in turnovers after 8 games and the injury bug was really starting to rear its ugly head.
Third Quarter
The schedule makers weren’t kind to the black and gold as they had to come off a big game against New England and the very next week open up the 2nd half of the season with an even bigger game against the division rival Ravens. This game would be a season definer as it turned out. The Steelers knew that if they won this game they’d have the inside track at an AFC North title and a potential first round playoff bye. However a loss would mean a likely wild card spot and no bye in the playoffs. Unlike the first game where the Ravens had blown Pittsburgh out of the water, the Steelers kept it close all game, even rallying from a 10 point 4th quarter deficit to take the lead by 4 with less than 5 minutes to go. With just a shade over two minutes to play the Steelers could have gone up by a touchdown as they had the ball in Raven territory and ready to kick a long field goal; and then, a delay of game occurred. You could say this may have been the exact moment that cost the Steelers in the long run. This penalty pushed the Steelers out of field goal range and they now had to punt rather than go up 7. With just under 2 minutes to go the Ravens had the ball inside their own 10. Game over right? Wrong. The Steelers defense, who had been stellar all game behind James Harrison and his 3 sacks, allowed their rivals to drive the length of the field and with 8 seconds to go, score a game winning touchdown. The Steel Nation was stunned. That was the drive of the season and the team fell short. Thanks to that drive the Steelers lost all tie breakers with the Ravens, couldn’t get the AFC North title let alone a potential bye in the playoffs and would need to be a wild card team. The following week the team bounced back as they went into surprising Cincinnati and took care of business. The biggest news to come from this game was Hines Ward losing his starting job to Antonio Brown. Brown had been emerging all season and earned the job but to see number 86 benched was an odd site for Steeler fans everywhere. Nevertheless the Steelers were heading into the bye week 7-3 and were looking like a real good contender to win the AFC, even if it meant winning on the road throughout the postseason. Coming out of the bye the Steelers had to head to KC, a team that had started off really slow but was heating up in recent weeks. The team put up a sloppy 13-9 win and many wondered what they had been doing during their off week, it didn’t appear they had been practicing. No matter, they had to regroup for another battle with the Bengals-a team still eyeing the playoffs themselves. The black and gold put on a show, routing the Bengals 35-7. The team played a complete game and the defense was spectacular, again led by James Harrison who gained 3 more sacks. It was the team’s most complete game all around, including special teams in which Antonio Brown returned a punt for a TD to add to the domination. This was, however, the last time the Steelers would go over 30 points the rest of the season. Heading down the home stretch the Steelers were 9-3 and looking good.
Fourth Quarter
The Steelers needed a quick turnaround after their domination of the Bengals as they needed to face the other team from Ohio 4 days later on Thursday Night football. This game should have been a slam dunk for the black and gold as the Browns had been awful all season long. While the Steelers ended up winning the game by 11, it was a 4 point game until late in the game when a very injured Big Ben threw a TD strike to Antonio Brown to seal it. That injury to Roethlisberger was another one of those moments we can look at now and say changed the entire outlook of the season. He was hurt very badly in the first half of this game and missed the last 6 minutes of the first half. He had to be helped off the field with a severe limp; it appeared his season could be over. The old man Charlie Batch got his bones off the bench to play those 6 minutes and he looked atrocious. Ben miraculously returned in the 2nd half visibly in a lot of pain and willed this team to victory. The toughness of Ben was amazing, but the questions were there, would he be ok? Could he play the next week and beyond? To top it off, Maurkice Pouncey, the teams all pro center had a high ankle sprain as well and would miss significant time down the stretch. The inept play of Batch in this game most likely changed the Steelers plans for the following week at San Francisco. The Ravens had just lost their game the night before; opening the door for the Steelers to break the tie between the two teams with a win and move into the top spot in the AFC along with it. Internally the team knew that Charlie Batch gave them no chance to win this game and they elected to go with Big Ben. Had Byron Leftwhich been available, we suspect he would have been given the nod and Ben could have rested that very gimpy ankle. Instead the coaches put Ben out there and the team was bludgeoned. They were never in the game and the coaches in many peoples’ eyes made a drastic error, they let Roethlisberger play the entire game. He aggravated the ankle even more and missed the following game against the lowly Rams. Charlie Batch was able to lead the team over the Rams easily on Christmas Eve as the Rams were just that bad. The final game saw the Steelers visiting the Browns. The game had some possible potential if the Ravens were to lose their game, but overall it seemed pretty set this game was not going to mean much and the Steelers, who had already locked up the 5th seed, would stay at the 5th seed. Mike Tomlin and company elected to play Big Ben and bring Pouncey back as well. The team struggled on offense but did win the game 13-9. The two major highlights to come from this game were Hines Ward becoming the 8th player in NFL history to record 1,000 career receptions and Antonio Brown the first player in NFL history to have 1,000 receiving yards and 1,000 return yards in the same season. The lowlights, Pouncey and Roethlisberger re aggravated their ankles and Rashard Mendenhall tore his ACL and was done for the playoffs. The questions were there, should Tomlin have played those guys in a meaningless game? What was he thinking? The team had no time to sulk however, they were 12-4, a 5th seed and on to Denver to start the postseason the following week.
Playoffs
Coming into the game against Denver the Steelers were 9 point favorites. They were 12-4, the Broncos a mere 8-8. Denver had just lost 3 straight and despite Tim Tebow going 7-4 as a starter, he was one of the most inefficient passers in the league. This game should have been a sure victory. As it turns out, the Steelers thought so too. They played horribly in the first half being outscored 20-0 in the 2nd quarter and never really able to fully bounce back from that. Tebow was passing the ball all over the Steelers number 1 defense. The defense saw LaMarr Woodley play, but ineffectively due to his hamstring, it saw Ryan Clark miss the game because of sickle cell anemia, it saw Brett Keisel (who had a career year) and Casey Hampton go down in the game and not return as well. The Broncos beat them up and were not afraid of the bully on the block. On offense, they couldn’t get it going either, Ben was still hobbled and Pouncey didn’t even play. With Mendenhall out, Redman started the game and he ran the ball really well but being down by so many points the run game was a second option. The second half saw a furious comeback by the Steelers to tie the game and have a shot late to win it. Not shockingly at all the offensive line blew the game by allowing Roethlisberger to be sacked and pushed out of field goal range. It was on to overtime. The Broncos won the toss and within one play, the game, an 80 yard game winning, season ending, pass from Tim Tebow. The Stairway to Seven ended in a flash.
The Afterthought
The 2011 season was a roller coaster ride with a lot of ups and downs. To come off a Super Bowl run in 2010 and put up 12 more wins was impressive. The Ravens losses really destroyed the chances of a long playoff run as this team wasn’t built for games on the road. The offensive line was weak, the defense a little old and unable to create turnovers and in the end, it saw mostly backups playing as the injuries just became too much to overcome. Big Ben has the ability to carry this team a long way on his own but even he couldn’t do that once he was injured too.
The season saw some young receivers emerge as Antonio Brown (voted team MVP) and Emmanuel Sanders (when healthy) along with Mike Wallace; made some big plays. It saw 5 team members make the Pro Bowl as Roethlisberger, Brown, Wallace, Pouncey and of course the future Hall of Famer Troy Polamalu were elected to the team. It was a season that also saw the potential end of a true era in Pittsburgh Steeler history. It may be the last time we see some all time Steelers who were all a big part of this run of success and only time will tell who will be back and who we’ll just have to remember fondly.
Mike Tomlin is known for preaching the “Standard is the Standard” and around Pittsburgh the “Standard is to win Championships”. We in the Steel Nation all agree with that sentiment. Sometimes however, you just fall short.
Interview With Steel Nation Magazine
February 3, 2012 by admin
Filed under uncategorized
Our Featured Member of the Month is John Wagner of Pittsburgh, PA.!
John is a co owner of Steel Nation Magazine (www.steelnationmagazine.com) Steel Nation Magazine is a great online periodical that provides all of us with a plethora of information on Pittsburgh Sports. They are great friends of ours and allow us to contribute to their website and magazine as well! Check out our work in their magazine this month! Steel Nation Magazine is out in the community often and brings you the fans everything you want. We HIGHLY recommend you get your subscription today! We took a little time to sit down with John and learn a whole lot more about what they bring all of us. Check out our interview below!
SNA: When did you form Steel Nation Magazine?
JW: First off, thank you for wanting to have us as your Pittsburgh business of the month, it’s an honor
The magazine was started in the spring of 2011. There are four of us that have an equal share in the business. Bill Laurence, Carlo Prati, Rich Cassarino and myself. We all have our areas of strength and have a great commitment in what we do.
SNA: What made you decide to put together the magazine and what do you guys hope to achieve with the magazine?
JW: Well first off we are all born and raised in Pittsburgh and lifelong Pittsburgh Sports fans. So it’s always been a passion of mine. I’ve watched and talked about sports for as long as I can remember. So when the idea was brought to me about doing something like this, I was very excited. I started thinking about just writing articles on a weekly basis about Pittsburgh sports but then I just got so caught up in the complete aspect of the magazine. That made me branch out into getting in contact with Pittsburgh athletes/ personalities and doing personal interviews with them. That took me to wanting to start covering their respective sports on a consistent basis. So it’s been kind of a whirlwind ride the last few months. The athletes and personalities that I have had a chance to talk to have been awesome. I get credentialed for sporting events all over the country now. So I was once sitting up in the balcony enjoying a sporting event, now I’m in the press box or on media row ringside covering the event and enjoying it just as much. I think people will appreciate my perspective on sports because I am coming at it from a fans perspective.
We would love for our magazine to become a staple in the Pittsburgh sports market for years to come. There isn’t any publication out there with the same format as us. We don’t have specific agenda’s like some outlets do. We come at it from a fans point of view. So we think we have something pretty special that the fans of Pittsburgh really like. The reaction we have gotten back from people so far has been incredible. So we just look at this to get bigger and better every month!
SNA: How would someone go about subscribing to your magazine and are subscriptions free?!
JW: Yes! It’s absolutely free. You can go to www.steelnationmagazine.com and all it takes is you to put in your email. We will send you a link to our magazine every month. The website itself has a ton of information on it as well. We have weekly contributors that have their articles posted on there all the time. Along with a bunch of other cool stuff, so check it out!
SNA: Aside from owning the magazine, you do a lot of the writing for it too, is that correct?
JW: Yes, I am the lead writer and editor for the magazine. I handle the cover stories, interviews and covering events. I will add a few articles of my own to the magazine each month but we have a great stable of talented writers that help contribute to making this magazine work.
SNA: What will subscribers find in your magazine that sets you apart from the rest?
JW: Well first off, it’s all online. So whether you’re at work, at home or sitting in an airport and don’t want to buy a magazine. You can read the whole magazine from your laptop, ipad or your phone totally free. That’s the convenience we give the fans, you can take us wherever you go. Being online gives us so many more options than print publications. We can add video interviews at any time to any article. We do a lot of interactive things with the magazine online that you just can’t do in print. We also offer a great benefit to advertisers. Their quarter, half or full page AD isn’t just an advertisement, it’s a link to their website. So not only can you read about the advertiser you can be instantly directed to their website for detailed information. As we continue to grow we will get even more interactive with our readers.
SNA: Aside from the obvious big Pittsburgh sports, you guys write about a lot of other sporting events going on around the area, can you tell us a little about that and what got you involved with these other sports?
JW: Definitely! It’s not just the Big 3(Steelers, Pirates, and Penguins) that we cover. We cover a wide variety of events. I am credentialed for the Pittsburgh Power and cover that on a weekly basis. The Mylan Golf Classic came to Southpointe last summer and we were there to cover all 4 days of that event. We cover the High School scene with our “High School Athlete of the Month”. The popularity of Mixed Martial Arts in this country has grown so much in the last decade we cover Pittsburgh events and Pennsylvania MMA fighters all over the country. The Boxing scene in Pittsburgh is very strong now with World Champions like Monty Meza Clay, Rayco”WAR”Saunders, Brian”The Beast”Minto along with a slew of other talented local boxers. There are boxing events in the city just about every month and Steel Nation Magazine has definitely thrown its hat in the ring!
SNA: What’s been your favorite sport to cover since you’ve been at the magazine?
JW: To be honest, I love the Boxing scene here in Pittsburgh. Getting to know all the boxers personally and covering their fights have been great. I grew up watching Mike Tyson on HBO, never missing a fight. I always loved the sport of boxing and was fascinated with it all my life. Now I am sitting ringside here in Pittsburgh and places like Caesers Palace in Atlantic City. That’s been a lot of fun.
SNA: Do you attend a lot of events around town?
JW: Yes, I try to make as many as I can. My schedule gets pretty hectic from time to time but I make as many as I can. I love getting out and meeting Pittsburgh sports fans and hear what they are talking about and what’s going on around town. I have attended a lot of fantastic events in the last couple months and have met some really remarkable people along the way and just can’t wait to see what else the future has in store.
SNA: Do you have Steel Nation Magazine souvenirs like T shirts etc and if so where can people find those?
JW: We sure do. We have an online store on our website and you can find all your Steel Nation Magazine needs right on the site! www.steelnationmagazine.com
SNA: Anything else you’d like to add about the Magazine that we may have forgotten here?
JW: Yeah. This magazine is going to go as far as the Pittsburgh Fan’s take it. This is a magazine about the Pittsburgh fans for the Pittsburgh fans. We always spotlight local fans for a variety of reasons in our magazine. Whether you have a talent in sports, writing, painting we want to hear about it and want to let the rest of Pittsburgh hear about it also. Two of our last cover pieces for the Issue included the world record holder in terrible towels. His name is Emmett Newsome and lives in Lower Burrell and works for Fed Ex. We loved his achievement and put him on the cover and did a full story about him and his life in Pittsburgh. Another one was Larry Klukaszewski. Larry is an incredibly talented sports artist who does designs on football helmets, footballs, terrible towels, even the felt on a pool table. He has designed hundreds of pieces of art for numerous sports celebrities all over the world. So it’s not just about being a sports star here in Pittsburgh. We spotlight you the fans of our great city!
SNA: Thanks for all of that! It sounds great and we’re glad to be associated with you guys. Each Month we also ask our members of the month the below questions and we’d like to ask you as well!
SNA: When did you become a Steeler Fan?
JW: I’ve been a Steeler fan all my life. I don’t remember not having a Steeler shirt. I couldn’t imagine not being a Steeler fan. They are the best NFL franchise ever and have the most passionate fans in the world.
SNA: Who is your favorite player all time?
JW: I would have to go back to my childhood on this one. I loved Greg Llyod. That guy was just terrifying. His style of play was what I liked the most.
SNA: Who is your favorite current player?
JW: Heath Miller. The guy is just a class act and fantastic football player. He epitomizes what a team player should be.
SNA: What is your favorite all time Steeler moment?
JW: Well all apologies to Franco Harris and the Immaculate Reception, I wasn’t alive at the time to enjoy that one. I would have to say it was Santonio Holmes catch to win the Superbowl in 2008. I was in Vegas at the time watching it from a sportsbook and I just went crazy.
SNA: Do you have a quote from a sports personality that you’d like to leave us with?
JW: “Don’t give up, don’t ever give up”- Jimmy Valvano
