Blount is going to the Super Bowl! I got a feeling!
Commentary by PalmerSucks
January 23, 2015
Let me get this out this quickly, as I threw up a little in my mouth saying it: I, PalmerSucks, Stillers.com staff writer and devout Stillers fan, am officially pulling for the New England Deflate-- er uh, Patriots -- to win the Super Bowl.
There, I said it. Now let me explain why.
Yesterday, watching ex-Stiller LeGarrette Blount jam the ball down Indy’s throat, three words came to mind: flying… foaming… rage. Because that, boys, is exactly what I was experiencing as I watched him do it. The final tally: 148 big ones, and, as ESPN informed us, Blount becomes the first back in history to score 3 or more TDs in a single game in more than one playoff campaign.
Great job, Stillers, cutting Blount loose. You sure showed him, huh?
Yes, the man the Stillers wanted to teach a lesson has learned this: he’ll be playing in the Super Bowl while his former team will be watching from their couches. Now that’s how you make an example of someone!
Cutting Blount accomplished two fine things: a) derailing the Stillers playoff chances, and b) greatly aiding the Patriots’. Blount was the early Christmas gifts the Patriots ecstatically accepted, wrapped and delivered courtesy of those Einsteins on the South Side.
Cutting Blount is practically the equivalent of dumping Santonio Holmes, whose skills and experience the team desperately needed in their last Super Bowl (if you doubt it, go watch tape of the last failed drive, and the clueless arm-waving of Mike Wallace.) The fact is, both Holmes and Blount became ex-Stillers because the team couldn’t afford to let Ben Roethlisberger or Le’veon Bell become ex-Stillers. Not so much because of anything they did on -- or off -- the field.
I want the New England Patriots to win because I want to see Blount lift the Lombardi and utter the following words: “thank you, Pittsburgh!” Nothing would be finer than to witness this much-deserved rub-in directed at the guys who so richly deserve it. For the first time in my Bowl-watching history, I’ll be more interested in the post-game than the game itself.
I warned of the consequences of this near-sighted and hypocritical move a few months ago (“Blount Release Gets the Real Culprits Off the Hook,” November 21st). There I discussed the real motives for the move. I also included the predictable reaction of the local sports media, who practically elected Coach a saint.
Turned out Saint Michael of Tomlin had no Plan B for replacing Bell, though, in case he went down; the Stillers simply rode that horse as if horses never get hurt. They did promote promising rookie Josh Harris to the 45-man, but in true Stillers fashion, they gave him practically no reps until they had to. Thus, a basic lack of planning became the greatest contributing factor in their opening-round loss to Baltimore.
And what a shame, too. Had the Stillers gotten by Baltimore, the next stop was Denver and the worn-out Broncos, who’d looked beaten since December. This easily winnable game could’ve easily led to Blount Bowl in Foxboro. Yes, your Pittsburgh Stillers could’ve – maybe even should’ve – been playing last Sunday.
I don’t know that they win, but I am pretty sure they’d have made a better showing than Indy did.
But how can you criticize a division winner? For all the talk of winning the North, the fact is, the Stillers were a one-and-done playoff team. That doesn’t give them anything to boast about – that makes them the Cincinnati Bengals. Charlie Batch was right when he said the players need to burn those “We run the North” shirts – you don’t run anything.
Yes, you managed to squeak out a division title, but the fact is, your chief rival’s front office has been a step ahead of you for years. This season the Stillers “big” free-agent receiver signing was Heyward-Bey; the Ravens picked up Steve Smith. You tell me who did better. The linebacker the Ravens drafted in the first round made the Pro Bowl; the linebacker the Stillers drafted in the first round made the… roster. Again, which team came out looking better?
The fact is that without Ben Roethlisberger, this team wouldn’t have even reached mediocrity the last few years. Ben is the great deodorant who has masked the stink of an organization that’s been rotting since 2008. And this is a team that hasn't won a playoff game since Jan 2011. Maybe it’s time we examined why.
Once upon a time, the Stillers were the best-run organization in football, managed by an owner who grew up learning football operations, and how to find the men who know how to build great teams. (How fitting I write this on Martin Luther King Day, as I recall Bill Nunn as one of those superior hiring decisions.) Now? They’re fronted by an owner I call “Jerry Jones North,” who publicly preaches about how offenses should be run; a GM whose recent drafts save for last year have been failures, who hasn’t made a splash free-agent signing in years, yet who somehow always manages to escape accountability; and an overrated head coach whose in-game goofs have become the subject of jokes, and who, despite the massive man-crush he enjoys in the media, seems to get pissy and offended by something every other week.
A few days ago the team gave Dick LeBeau, the legend, the Bruce Arians treatment; do you really believe that whole “mutual decision” story holds any water? (If you do, I’ve got a bridge that connects to the Fort Pitt Tunnel to sell you – cheap!) Not according to a fan named Eleanor Gallagher, whose family announced – and I’m not making this up – that LeBeau’s forced exit may have actually contributed to her recent death.
The fact is, LeBeau should’ve been told to walk five years ago, when the team still possessed a lot of quality defensive players, and the reins handed to the overly-patient Keith Butler. Instead Dick’s shown the door after a season when I thought he did one of his best jobs, considering the lack of talent with which he had to work. But the legacy lives on even after the legend leaves.
Watching the Packers blow an almost impossible game in Seattle (“Discount Double Choke,” anyone?), I thought I was looking at the Stillers. For all the money the FOX studio guys make, they spent the halftime show fixated on Wilson’s poor performance and how Green Bay was shocking the world. Not one of them mentioned the obvious: three field goals and one TD. And how about not going for it on 4th and less than a yard for the TD? Remind you of another team you know? You saw it all come home to roost in the second half, complete with timid playcalls and softee-cushion defense. It was as if the Packers were afraid to put the game in their superstar QB’s hands, trying to eat clock and escape with their lives.
In other words, the classic Stillers formula. One that’s been devised at the top and worked its sorry way down. But back to the matter at hand: Blount.
Fact: the time to find a replacement wasn’t after Bell got hurt, all panicked; the time to look was two minutes after they released Blount. Instead, the Stillers cruised through the rest of the season and that fateful Sunday Night, when down went Bell. Afterwards the Stillers waffled like Aunt Jemima, first announcing they’d go with Harris against the Ravens, then starting Ben Tate -- which turned out to be a disaster. Tate gave us a preview of the whole fiasco by fumbling early, before going on to blow a blocking assignment and bat the ball to the Ravens for the game-clinching pick -- all on one play.
Now, you can blame Tate, but the guy had been in street clothes a week before the game. So whom does that make accountable?
Anyway, pardon me if I sound a little harsh today. The fact is, I don’t make a dime for doing this, I write these out of a passion for a team I’d like to see succeed – the same passion that brings you here to read this stuff. Success comes through management, particularly adhering to a stated set of principles, as anyone who ever played for Noll I’m sure can attest. One of those principles is this: if you have a superstar player, prepare as if he’s going on IR tomorrow.
And one Super Bowl note: I can’t tell you how tired I am of hearing Stillers fans pulling against certain teams to protect our precious most-trophy titles. You know what the best way is to guarantee your lead in Lombardis? Keep winning the frickin’ thing yourself. And stop cowering in the corner all afraid of Green Bay or Dallas doing it.
That starts with better drafting and free-agent moves. You know, the kind of thing GM’s and head coaches are supposed to handle. The dumping of Blount deprived the Stillers of a vital veteran runner, whose familiarity with the offense was desperately missed in the playoffs. That’s not a player problem, it’s a management one. More than anything else, dumping Blount cost the Stillers the chance to move on to Denver – regardless of the fact the Pittsburgh sportswriters won’t ever dare say it. And it’s all because of some sacrificial-lamb, bow-down-to-the-torch-and-pitchfork crowd antics that ended both Holmes’s and Blount’s careers in Pittsburgh prematurely early.
“Thank you, Pittsburgh.” Three little words that would mean so much. Yes, I not only want the Patriots to win, I want Blount to be voted the MVP. I want to see him gain 200 yards and score 6 touchdowns. Most of all, I want him to hear him interviewed after the game, congratulating the guys who made it all possible.
Then I want to see Ron Cook write another column congratulating the Stillers for a job well done. Now, once again, here for your enjoyment, are those oh-so-profound sentiments in the wake of Blount’s departure:
“Congratulations to the front office and coach Mike Tomlin for doing the right thing… They should be applauded…. The swift way he removed Blount might be his finest moment.”
How finest is that moment looking now?
So, uh, “go Pats.” Now, excuse me while I go fetch some mouthwash.
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