STEELERS BLACK -N- GOLD POST
A Pittsburgh Steelers Blog from the heart of Steelers Nation.

by Ramona Dye

Our Steelers who have never been very vocal in the NFL free agency have become the busy-bee.

Our Steelers have re-signed Ryan Clark to a four-year, $14 million dollar deal.

"Coach Tomlin talked with me about being a nomad, a journeymen, but if I finish my contract here, that's eight years in the same place, and that's an accomplishment. I didn't want to leave. My neighbors didn't want me to leave. They didn't want to get new neighbors."

                                ~Ryan Clark

Steelers signed free-agent safety Will Allen to a three-year deal. en's deal is worth $4.495 million with $975,000 to sign.

Pittsburgh also signed wide receiver Arnaz Battle to a three-year deal. Battle's deal is worth $3.975 million with $975,000 to sign.

Both Allen and Battle have links to the Steelers' coaching staff. Allen spent the past six seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he once worked with current Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin. And former San Francisco 49ers special teams coach Al Everett, now Pittsburgh's special teams coach, recommended Battle to Tomlin.

Battle is expected to help the Steelers as a backup wide receiver and offer help on special teams. He started 38 games for the 49ers from 2005 through 2007 and caught 141 passes during that span.

Allen, who lost his starting job in Tampa Bay, and Battle, whose playing time was reduced in San Francisco, should upgrade the Steelers' deficient special teams. Their four kickoff return touchdowns allowed last season led the NFL.

"That's what I'm good at, that's what they saw in me, I'm a good safety and a good special teams player."

                                        ~Will Allen

The Steelers are also bringing in offensive tackle Jonathan Scott, who played the last two seasons in Buffalo under new Steelers offensive line coach Sean Kugler. Scott started eight games last season but wasn't given even the lowest tender offer to stay with the Bills.

Now for news on Antwan Randal El.

Bringing back Randle El and signing Battle suggests the Steelers may not be counting on former second-round draft pick Limas Sweed next season. He was taken off the active roster late last season for reasons not fully explained by the Steelers, who still haven't commented on the move.

Randle El figures to be the Steelers' No. 3 receiver, although he could find himself in stiff competition for that job by second-year receiver Mike Wallace, who had six touchdowns among his 39 catches as a rookie.

Let's hope that this will help answer some of the problems we had last season. I am looking forward to the upcoming draft and hopefully our Steelers can take this team back to the top of our division and into the play-offs.

As Always, Here We Go!

by Ramona Dye

Steelers have been active in free-agency by re-signing DL Casey Hampton, while franchise tagging K-Jeff Reed. Steelers will continue looking for help at WR, CB, OL and LB positions.

Steelers are among the most patient teams in league, and sometimes wait out others to pick up players who are cast off in June.

Things could get interesting in the next few months.

As Always, Here We Go!!!

by Ramona Dye

Steelers have tendered starting tackle Willie Colon to a one-year, $2.5 million contract.

Based on the size of the contract tendered to Willie Colon (a restricted free agent) another team would have to forfeit a first-round draft choice to the Steelers if they wanted to sign him.

Colon, drafted by Pittsburgh in the fourth round of the 2006 draft, has played in 50 games, starting every one.

by Ramona Dye

Our Steelers averted a fourth-quarter collapse in hopes to extend the season, It ended three hours later.

Our Steelers defense sent two of the Miami Dolphins quarterbacks to the sidelines, including Pat White with a head injury, and beat the Dolphins 30-24 Sunday.

Little good that did considering the fact that our Steelers 9-7 were eliminated when the Ravens clinched an AFC wild-card berth by winning at Oakland, 21-13.

“I’d rather we go out with a win than a loss."

                                         -Ben Roethlisberger

Our teams undoing was due to losses to the Chiefs, Raiders and Browns in a span of 19 days during a late-season five-game losing streak.

“We didn’t do what we were supposed to do and take care of our business” “Therefore we have to suffer with what happens.”

                                           -Santonio Holmes

The Miami Dolphins trailed 27-10 before Tyler Thigpen led touchdown drives on his first two series.

“It irritates the heck out of you, but I didn’t sense a great deal of panic. The guys made the necessary plays to keep us in it.”

                                           - coach Mike Tomlin

With about 6 minutes left and the score 27-24, Joey Porter recovered a Roethlisberger fumble on a sack at our Steelers 13 to give Miami a chance to take the lead but Thigpen was intercepted by Ryan Clark at the 2.

Roethlisberger was favoring his throwing arm during our next possession, but he led Pittsburgh on a 14-play, 83-yard drive. It ended with a Jeff Reed field goal for a 30-24 lead with only forty seconds left.

Ike Taylor intercepted Thigpen on Miami’s next play to end the game.

“We finished the season the way we were supposed to”

                                          -Santonio Homes

“There are a lot of teams that are capable of going 6-10 facing the circumstances this group was faced with, They knuckled down, they hung together. They did the best of their ability to fix it. We won the last three ball games and gave ourselves a chance.”

                                          -coach Mike Tomlin

The Steelers added 202 yards rushing and held Ricky Williams to 31 yards. The defense came up with three interceptions. Roethlisberger finished with 3 touchdown passes by throwing 5 yards to Holmes, 54 yards to Mike Wallace and 3 yards to Heath Miller. Roethlisberger passed for 220 yards and ended the season at 4,328.

Well, I must say this season has been a complete let down after our Steelers winning last seasons Super Bowl. Injuries, loss of players and a multitude of other coaching complications hurt this Steelers team.

Hopefully we will see some big changes come next season, coaching staff and players alike. One thing is for sure, our beloved Steelers will not be down for long and I would watch out for this team next year. They will come to the battles of 2010 like a pack of vicious wolves ready to revenge themselves, the franchise and their fans!

As always, Here We Go!!!

by Ramona Dye

Our Steelers finally preserved a fourth-quarter lead, beating one of our rivals Baltimore Ravens 23-20 on Sunday.

While our Steelers are at 8-7, with our season seemingly ended by a five game losing streak and followed by a last-second 37-36 victory over Green Bay Packers and another close victory over the rival Baltimore Ravens.

"It's been do or die for us for a while, fighting to the last minute. We're like the cardiac kids''

                                   -Ben Roethlisberger

We know our defense has been struggling to stop teams at the end of the game, and this was big for us,' ''Hopefully it will carry over and we'll have teams do what need to do and we can get into the dance, because that's the ultimate goal.''

                                    -James Farrior 

Ben threw a touchdown pass making him the first Steelers quarterback to pass for 4,000 yards in a season.

Our Steelers have lost six leads in the last quarter during a season marked by wins over the Chargers, Ravens,Vikings, Packers and Broncos, who are all contenders for the play-offs. Along with losses to the Chiefs, Raiders and Browns.

Now, with our final regular season game at Miami our Steelers will have some reasons to win and show their pride in the franchise, although we could win and still be eliminated from the play-off race.

As always, Here We Go!!!

by Ramona Dye

Our Steelers will host the Baltimore Ravens this weekend in their second match-up of the season. It will be a bone crushing, jaw rattling smash mouth game per usual in this game of rivalry.

This game not only has huge implications for play-off berths but as well will be a game of revenge for our Steelers. Our last game against the Ravens came as a loss, one that has Steeler fans and players foaming at the mouth. Last game the Ravens faced a rookie back-up in Dennis Dixon, who did not do a bad job but threw for an interception in OT to give the Ravens a 20-17 win.

This game should be a little different because our veteran quarterback Ben Roethlisberger will be playing. Things to watch for in this game will be the amount of turnovers, and which team has the least amount of mistakes..

Big Bens' record against the Ravens is 6-2 and after this weekend I expect another win for him.

This game should be all that as fans we can ask for, with two teams whose hatred for one another is epic. Stats mean nothing because the players on both teams do not like each other. This game gives the Ravens the opportunity to own the trash talking until 2010, yet getting passed our Steelers will not be easy. Our Steelers will be ready to fight back and take out their aggressions of recent losses against a much heated rival.

As always, Here We Go!!!

by Ramona Dye

Roethlisberger ended the game the way he started it by throwing a 19 yard touchdown pass to Mike Wallace that gave Pittsburgh a 37-36 victory over the Green Bay Packers on Sunday that ended the Packers' five-game winning streak and the Steelers' five-game losing streak.

"The way the game ended was incredible, especially that last play," center Justin Hartwig said, comparing the last play of the game to Roethlisberger's 6-yard touchdown pass to Santonio Holmes that beat Arizona for the NFL title last season. "It was obviously pretty reminiscent of the Super Bowl."

Roethlisberger was 29/46 with three TDs and 503 yards passing while becoming the first Steelers quarterback to throw for 500 yards in a game.

One the final drive of the game Big Ben kept our Steelers on the move with an 86 yard drive.

Down to the last play, Big Ben found Wallace open in the left front corner of the end zone with Josh Bell in coverage. Wallace managed to keep both feet in on the play and Jeff Reed added the extra point to go ahead of the Packers 37-36.

Roethlisberger broke a team record of 473 yards set by Tommy Maddox during a 34-34 tie against Atlanta in 2002.

Bens 503 yard game is a NFL league season high.

"The guys were coming back to the huddle worn out, linemen, receivers, everybody," Roethlisberger said. "We didn't quit. Everybody believed we could do it."

Wallace had to get stitches due to a gash in his knee just prior to the last play of the game.

"It was kind of hard to run," Wallace said. "But that's just Ben. That's all I can say. That's just Ben."

Wallace also caught a 60 yard touchdown pass on Pittsburgh's first play of the game.

Our Steelers join five other AFC teams tied at 7-7 in the chase for the AFC's last playoff spot.

"Not dead yet," coach Mike Tomlin said. "We've got a little pulse here."

This game featured nearly 900 yards passing. Roethlisberger was 29/46, 503 yards passing, 3 TDs and Rodgers was 26/48, 383 yards passing, 3 TDs.

There is still some hope for our Steelers to make the play-offs, first of which means our Steelers must win out against a division rival Baltimore Ravens next Sunday and the Miami Dolphins week 17.

There is more we need to happen for our play-off hopes to stay alive, we need the Jets and Jaguars to drop at least one of their last two games. We need the Philadelphia Eagles to beat the Denver Broncos this coming weekend and possibly the Oakland Raiders to beat the Ravens.

As always, Here We Go!!!