Wednesday, 26 December 2012 09:57

Written by Ed Bouchette

Good morning,

    Was Heath Miller’s right knee injured earlier in the game by what some are calling a dirty tackle by Cincinnati safety Reggie Nelson?
    According to Joe Reedy of the Cincinnati Enquirer, Nelson talked to Ben Roethlisberger on the field after Sunday’s game and they weren’t talking about the safety’s interception that set up the Bengals’ winning  field goal with four seconds left.
     Writes Reedy:
Nelson hoped to get a message to Steelers tight end Heath Miller about a play in the first quarter. Miller limped off the field after Nelson tackled him around the knees on a 16-yard catch.

“It was just purely business about Miller, and that’s it,” Nelson said of his discussion with Roethlisberger. “You don’t want to be labeled as a dirty player. I went low and that’s how the league teaches us. So I was just letting him know to let Miller know I wasn’t trying to end his career.”

Miller continued to play, but he left in the fourth quarter with what now has been described by Mike Tomlin torn ACL, MCL and possible PCL that will require surgery.
   Nelson is correct, it was not a dirty tackle; it’s what the NFL wants. James Harrison was quoted recently as saying similar things, that he no longer will go high, but go low for the legs. If a knee is wiped out in the process, so be it, because the NFL considers that a legal hit.
   Had Nelson gone high and exploded into Miller, the tight end’s knee would have survived but Nelson could have gotten flagged and fined for a hit on a defenseless receiver. There was no danger of that happening by him going low.
      NFL receivers now have something more sinister to worry about when they go over the middle.
 Onto some other post-Christmas stuff:
   --- It’s disheartening  when you buy someone an XL jacket and it doesn’t fit because it’s too small.
 --- When Mike Tomlin is faced with a decision such as trying that 53-yard field goal, going for it or punting, PG columnist Ron Cook often turns to me and asks, “What would Chuck do?’’ It’s a measuring stick for us, what would Chuck Noll do in that situation. Cook, of course, already knows the answer because he too covered the team when Noll coached. Noll would never have tried that 53-yard field goal, and he would have run out the clock with the ball on his 11 and 44 seconds left.
      --- I thought I heard someone say on the radio somewhere that the Steelers’ schedule next season is “easy.’’ Anyone who saw the Steelers play this year should know that no schedule is easy for them, even if they could schedule what remains of the Big East.
--- Losing to the Cleveland Browns at home would put a rotten cherry on top of this melting season for the Steelers. It also might help them make the kinds of difficult decisions they must a little easier.
--- Larry Foote doesn’t know if the Steelers want him back because he’ll be 33 next season. One thing the Steelers cannot do is drain their locker room of too much leadership the way they did in March. I thought they had enough leadership left but that may be an intangible that was lost on the 2012 season and, who knows, might have been the difference in a few of those 3-point losses.
 --- But then, all that leadership was still around when they went 9-7 and did not make the playoffs in 2009.
 --- Mike Tomlin has not won with Bill Cowher’s talent. You can still hear people say that. Cowher hasn’t coached this team since 2006 and most of the talent has arrived since then. Tomlin is the one who installed James Harrison as his starter, not Cowher. Also, Ben Roethlisberger is Dan Rooney’s talent because he’s the one who wanted to draft him when Cowher and others wanted to go for a guard from Auburn.
--- YOU: I can’t help but wonder how this season could have been different if the Steelers win just one of those pathetic losses (Raiders, Titans, Browns). You made a valid point about the injuries piling up, but when those games were played, there should have been enough healthy bodies to fend off lesser teams.
ME: You are correct, and I wasn’t making excuses for them. But when they lost to some of those teams early, they were missing James Harrison, Rashard Mendenhall, David DeCastro and the injuries just mounted from there. And if they would have squeaked into the playoffs, how would you have liked their chances in that opener at New England?
--- YOU: So I've lost track. I believe you said we had a total of 16 starters go
down at some point this season. That leaves a mere 6 who managed to
start every game (and are expected to start the final game against Cleveland).
Who are they? I believe Max Starks is one. Hampton, I think? Who else?
ME: Starks, Casey Hampton, Ramon Foster, Mike Wallace, Larry Foote, Lawrence Timmons, Keenan Lewis. Ziggy Hood, Brett Keisel. That’s nine. I did not count Foster because he was a backup until DeCastro was hurt. I also counted David Johnson, their starting fullback who was hurt in the preseason, among the 16 that now includes Heath Miller. It looks as though I mistook a few as starters because I cannot count Rashard Mendenhall as a starter and then also count Isaac Redman because he opened the season as a starter.
       Here are the starters I have who have missed time and the No. of games they’ve missed heading into the last one: David Johnson 15, David DeCastro 11, Troy Polamalu 9, Marcus Gilbert 10, Rashard Mendenhall 7, LaMarr Woodley 4, Antonio Brown 3, James Harrison 3, Ben Roethlisberger 3, Ike Taylor 3, Ryan Clark 1, Maurkice Pouncey 1. That will climb, of course, on Sunday when Miller, Taylor, Gilbert and Johnson all miss, and perhaps more.
 --- YOU: I want them to lose to Cleveland, and it pains me to say that. If you are not in the playoffs, your only reward is a higher draft choice. So maximize you reward by getting the highest draft choice possible.
ME: I would bet that many Steelers fans agree with you.