SteelerWatch

Well, lack of time didn't keep me down long.  I'm an avid writer and, more importantly, a rabid Steelers fan.  While I don't have the time anymore to do this entirely on my own, I've been brought on board with one of the most respected names in sports blogging, MVN.com.  Beginning…well…sometime soon…I'll be one of the faces of The Steel Tradition on MVN.  So check me out along with Tony, Jim and Dave as we bring you all things Steelers.  And with that, SteelerWatch officially bids you adieu.

Due to circumstances beyond my control, SteelerWatch is closing indefinitely.  Maybe next season, maybe later this season, I'll re-open it.  I just don't have time to maintain it, which has become obvious on the last month.  Thanks to everyone who helped make this fun.  Go Steelers!

Now that the family issues have settled down to a dull roar, and I've consumed enough beer (even a few Iron City aluminum bottles thanks to my good friend John — they aren't easy to find here in North Carolina but he knows a place) to knock out a herd of elephants for a week and a half, I'm ready to get back on the horse.

I promise you I will never go away for this long again.  Not so much because readership is down to an all-time low, but because of the hundreds of spam comments I had to weed out of the legit ones.  Ugh.

Fortunately this week's game is on primetime, national television.  I won't have to catch the replay on the NFL Network during the week.  But here's what I saw:

- Don't fear for the running game.  If my count is right, they only kept the ball on the ground for seven — seven — plays in the first half.  Clearly, Mike Tomlin wanted to see the passing game under pressure.  And as long as they were between the twenties, they looked awesome.  Now it's time to make good on that promise to use the tight ends in the passing game.  Sending 6'-7" Matt Spaeth up to fight for a ball in the end zone sounds like a battle I'd be willing to let them fight.

- Willie Colon is clearly the top right tackle for the team.  And Max Starks can be an adequate backup if need be.  Let's just hope Marvel Smith makes it the whole season, because if he goes down, the O-line will look very different.

- I don't know if you're aware of this, but Ben Roethlisberger is 12-of-17 (that's 70.5 percent) with no interceptions so far in the pre-season.  His passes have mostly been crisp, aside from missing a golden opportunity in the end zone last weekend.  While it's far too soon to declare that he's "back," he sure looks like he has a ton more confidence in the pocket this year — even behind a line that has been shaky at best.  He's getting out of the pocket to buy time, and even scrambling when necessary.  That's the Super Bowl Ben, not the Windshield Ornament Ben.

- Alan Faneca may have turned into a royal asshole, but he's still the best guy on the offensive line.  Maybe — just maybe — the front office will take one last shot at making him happy.  The good news is that his backup, Chris Kemoeatu, hasn't been half bad so far.  But he's still no Faneca.

- Here's hoping the backup secondary gets their act together.  We've got a damn good defense as long as everyone stays healthy, but one injury among the defensive backs could cause a domino effect.  The only position that could handle an injury at this point is free safety, where either Ryan Clark or Anthony Smith can play with absolutely no fall-off between the two.

Tomorrow I'll have a preview of the Philly game.  This one is particularly close to my heart — because there's no team I love more than our Steelers, and no team I love to hate more than the Eagles. 

SteelerWatch keeps expanding to give you everything you need in one stop. Now on SteelerWatch: The SteelerGear store! Find your favorite player’s jersey — current, or old-school. Also look through the DVD collection and, a must for every die-hard, tailgating accessories.

You can get there by clicking here or by clicking the link below the featured product in the upper right-hand corner of the page.

To borrow a descriptive phrase from my “sports mistress” — auto racing — we’re in the home stretch.  Two weeks from today, the players and coaches will take to the field at St. Vincent College for the first training camp session.  Or, to put it in football terms, consider the next 14 days to be the first of two bye-weeks this year.

To celebrate the fact that we’re also less than a month away from the Hall of Fame Game in Canton, which should go pretty well since Ohio is the Steelers’ stomping ground away from home, we’re giving you our thoughts on the guys we consider to be the top ten Steelers currently on the roster.  Picking an all-time team would just be too hard — we’d get hung up helplessly at linebacker.

So sit back and enjoy the countdown.

One of the most obnoxious things about trying to find information about any subject with a search engine is the link that seem good, but ultimately have nothing at all to do with what you were trying to find.  Looking up Steelers information is no exception, because every sports site on the planet that covers the NFL has every single team in its keywords — which means you will likely find every single page of that site when you search.

I give you SteelerSearch.

Sure, it’s Google.  But it’s a “special” kind of Google search.  I decide what sites get added to the indexing, so you can be sure you are getting relevant information when you search on our beloved Steelers.

The current list of sites is small, but all the big boys are there.  If you would like to recommend a site, just send an email to steelerwatch@bfmn.net and I’ll look it over.  If it fits the very loose criteria (i.e., it must contain substantial Steeler info/news/opinion, or must have a major NFL section if it’s a large national media outlet like Fox Sports), I’ll add it to the list.

Please do not submit any sites that are currently listed under The Nation Speaks on the right-hand menu.  Those sites are in automatically.

Spread the word!

Training camp is just around the corner — less than three weeks away now. Will you be one of the fans to make the pilgrimage to St. Vincent College? Place your vote!

The move from Delaware to Raleigh was a success, and we are settling in nicely.  While my Internet may be sporadic this week, I hope to be fully up and running by next weekend.

So, who’s in Raleigh?  I’d like to hear from you!  Drop a comment, and we’ll open up a Raleigh-specific forum when I get the message board up and running in a week or two.

While general news has been slow lately, I’ve been even slower, and I’d imagine at least one other person is wondering why. I hope.

SteelerWatch is in the process of picking up to drop anchor somewhere else. For the last 17 years, this displaced Steeler fan has lived in Newark, Delaware. Now, I’m headed south for personal reasons, to the home state of Willie Parker (and new home town of our now-former head coach, Bill Cowher) in the suburbs of Raleigh, North Carolina.

That means new items will be a little less common until on or after June 5th. The entire move will be completed even before the Steelers complete their OTAs, so more of the Faneca soap opera is bound to find its way to the site.

Please hang with me. I’ll still post all the earth-shattering news (for instance, if James Harrison is traded to the Patriots in exchange for Tom Brady, Rodney Harrison, Bill Belichick’s cutoff sweatshirts and a reasonable likeness of the entire cast of Seinfeld carved out of butter, you’ll find out about it here) but the smaller stories I love to cover but don’t have time for between packing boxes will have to be overlooked for the next two weeks or so. Thanks for your loyalty, and I look forward to picking the pace up again soon!