The Steelers Versus Bad Teams
What is it with the Steelers and playing down to competition?
A few years ago I made a comic about how the Steelers, fresh on a massive offensive high, were going to obliterate a garbage Jets team. The Jets won, and I had to eat crow. Several commentors called it beforehand and pointed out that this happens all the time. I started paying attention and…they’re right. The Steelers do no show up against teams they have no business losing to. It’s like they take the week off when they think they should win. The mighty steel industry powerhouse shows up one week, then the next week they are a jenga tower in a jet engine test facility. It’s weird.
It’s not like they lose every one of these games, but there is a definite trend of playing down to the competition. The Steelers are a Super Bowl caliber team when they are clicking, but they can never stay clicking. This past week they lost to the 2017 Chicago Bears. The BEARS. The Bears are my pick for #1 overall pick this season, I have no faith in the Bears whatsoever. The Bears didn’t even play well! Mike Glennon completed roughly 2 passes give or take a wet fart. The Bears committed a likely candidate for special teams gaff of the year, if not one of the dumbest moves in the entire season. All the move ended up doing was sending the game into overtime because the Bears didn’t score again until regulation ended. At 17 points. The Bears tried like hell to bears away that game but ultimately, the Steelers steelered it instead. If the Steelers miss out on a bye week or just squeak out of the playoffs we are all going to look back at this game and go “Well, there’s your problem”.
Maybe they were distracted because their attempt to stay apolitical for the anthem backfired as the entire team wasn’t quite on the same page and it became a whole thing. Maybe Mike Tomlin looks at bad teams on the schedule and decides he’d rather spend a few more days in hollywood hot tubs pretending to be Omar Epps. Maybe Tomlin wasn’t even on the field, maybe it WAS Omar Epps! Epps is an actor, he could play the role. Maybe Tomlin takes time off and has Epps fill in against teams the Steelers should be able to take care of! Man, why didn’t I think of this BEFORE I made this comic? Goddamnit.
Anyway I know Antonio Brown doesn’t have the Tetris haircut anymore but I’m going to keep drawing him that way because it was amazing and everyone will know who it is anyway.
Discussion (43) ¬
I ain’t watching the Steelers until they all are out there (and standing) for the anthem
I’m sure they’re holding an emergency meeting right now just DEVASTATED about such an important loss.
I’m sure he’s the only one doing this. There aren’t heaps of other people who have the same idea, right?
One way to find out when the rating results comes up for this season.
WAIT! GUYS!! Be careful! I think someone’s feelings are hurt here!!
This man has a boo-boo on his fee-fee! SOMEBODY CALL A WAAAHMBULANCE!!!
I’ll get straight onto whine-one-one and inform them of the emo-gency.
I’ll get onto Whine-One-One and inform them of the emo-gency.
wouldn’t the solution be turn heinz field into away games? they’d go 1-15
great contribution
Same.
I’m not watching until players stand for the anthem. If you ask me about miami, I didn’t think a majority of the league did/agreed with the anthem protests.
Its not about how many agree with them. Veryone has an opinion. But if the want to do it, they can.
That is, of course, your prerogative.
The same freedoms that protect you, protect them.
Yeah.
Meh. I think they were trying to avoid politics and ended up seeming the most political. Football players play football. They’re not always the best at gauging how the public will react to symbolic gestures.
The players have a right to do as they wish. The fans have a right to respond as they wish. I don’t personally have a problem with kneeling or most of the Steelers staying in the tunnel. What I absolutely have a problem with is Mike Tomlin basically throwing Villanueva under the bus for exercising his right to do as he wished for the anthem. And yes, I know people will swarm on me and say “b-but Villanueva admitted he was wrong”, but anyone who can read even remotely well between the lines can see that Tomlin basically forced him to apologize for something he needn’t apologize for (just as kneeling players needn’t apologize for kneeling).
Back on topic, I took the Steelers in my suicide pool this week for this very problem they have beating bad teams away from Heinz. Nearly half of the pool got eliminated by picking the bears. Go me.
Boozing Hoosier, well said.
How long until Dave closes comments on this comic too?
I think losing to the Bears is punishment enough.
i almost feel bad for the bears
As a Bears fan, I don’t.
They suck.
hence, almost
It looks like you could put some Lego minifigure hair on top of Brown’s hair, which would be delightful.
Not gonna lie, I don’t think that the Bears are as terrible as you think Dave. Not that they’re good by any stretch of the imagination, but I think they deserve at least a little credit, they have a good O-line and running game. They’ll probably be a top 10 pick, but definitely better than #1
As a Bears fan, I had a feeling that Sunday would be our yearly trap game victory. It was a game of back-and-forth stalling and mistakes. But just think, if we can pull out a victory in spite of our quarterback throwing for a little over 100 yards, we’re in pretty good shape come Trubisky time.
I don’t know how you can count on the Bears having the #1 overall pick this year, the Giants are giving them pretty stiff competition.
Dave, how could you forget this gem: http://www.thedrawplay.com/comic/mike-glennon-gets-the-game-ball/
That Chicago bear is so cute.
Bad teams always are.
Is that Ben driving? When the F did he go bald? And if that’s not Ben “RossLessBurger”, then who is it? Lol
You should make a comic spoofing the direct TV commercials but have Ryan Kalil with direct TV and Matt Kalil with cable
MY GOD FINALLY THE BEARS ARE GOOD THIS YEAR
WRONG
Remember Kids, don’t change your jerseys while driving.
Someone should tell the Steelers never go full retard.
well, yeah, just a couple weeks ago they nearly lost to the pants-on-head BROWNS
Cooper picking up a blocked field goal, running 60+ yards, and then just stopping before reaching the endzone, politely allowing Steelers players to tackle him, is just so weird to me. You can’t blame it on stupidity, nobody is that stupid. You can’t blame it on fatigue, because actually stopped. It wasn’t an injury because he kept playing. Why did he stop?
He was showboating too early. That’s blatant stupidity. Celebrate AFTER you get into the endzone, not before.
Out of curiosity, what is your thought on claims of brain damage being responsible for Aaron Hernandez’s behavior?
It may have contributed but he had well-documented behavioral issues well before playing in the NFL, and while not as well-documented, I’m going to go out on a limb and say he had those same issues before college too. It may not be popular to say because we’re all supposed to believe that everyone is capable of being a super-nice sunshine and rainbows person and that it’s always something else’s fault, not the person, but he had a mean streak a mile wide, and there are plenty of people with brain trauma from football who don’t murder three people.
in contrast to my usual shitposting, i’m curious if he was also more susceptible to the effects of cte than other players, given his incredibly advanced progression at time of autopsy
(kind of talking out my ass since obviously cte is not “catching” like a transmittable disease and so it’s not like certain immune system pathologies can make one more or less susceptible, but i would still imagine that unique brain physiologies and neural wiring can nonetheless result in unique progression of cte between individuals that would sometimes manifest as, in some sense, “early-onset” cte)
though on your last note, it’s a tough call to make legally because–more generally–you can have someone who is literally no longer in control of their faculties (that’s kind of what happens when your brain mush-ifies). i think there was an episode of house on that (and probably every other medical show). the law accounts for this, but the tricky part is proving it, and yeah his behavior before the nfl would probably only have complicated things. i suppose my point is that, while you’re correct that there are plenty of people with brain trauma who don’t murder three people, there are also people with brain trauma who do. the hard part is whether they wouldn’t have if they didn’t have brain trauma
This should be amended to: Bad Teams and the Pats…