It was a short week for the Pittsburgh Steelers, as they played their lone Thursday night game of the season this week against the Carolina Panthers.  Pittsburgh has won four straight games and currently sits atop the AFC North Division.  Carolina has also been playing very well of late, but sit a game behind the New Orleans Saints in the NFC South.  Both teams were looking to stay sharp and prove that they belong among the best in the NFL.

The Panthers got the ball first and didn’t waste anytime jumping on the scoreboard.  Their opening drive was capped with a Cam Newton pass to Christian McCaffrey for a 20yd touchdown.  The rest of the quarter would belong to the Steelers.  On their first offensive play of the game Ben Roethlisberger would throw a 75yd touchdown pass to JuJu Smit...

Posted in Game Recaps & Reactions

The Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens are heading in opposite directions in the AFC North.  After their 23-16 victory this afternoon, the Steelers have won four straight games, while the Ravens have now lost four of five games.

With this afternoon’s loss, the Ravens fell three losses behind Pittsburgh in the division, while the Steelers stayed atop the AFC North with the victory.

Ben Roethlisberger threw for 270 yards and two touchdowns, while James Conner rushed for 107 yards.  JuJu Smith-Schuster had seven catches for 78 yards, while Conner also had 7 receptions for 56 yards, and Antonio Brown had five catches for 42 yards and a touchdown.

Baltimore took the lead with a 23 yard field goal by Justin Tucker to make it 3-0...

Posted in Game Recaps & Reactions

The Pittsburgh Steelers are currently in the midst of a very important three game stretch against their AFC North Division foes.  After defeating the Cincinnati Bengals two weeks ago, and having a bye week, they welcomed the Cleveland Browns to Heinz Field today.  These two teams faced off in week one of the NFL season and played to a tie.  Pittsburgh knew that a tie or a loss would put a big dent in their division title hopes, so they came to play today.

The first quarter of the game belonged to Cleveland, but the Steelers defense was able to hold them to just two field goals and ended the quarter down six points.  The offense of Pittsburgh was sputtering during this quarter and looked like they hadn’t touched a football in over two weeks...

Posted in Game Recaps & Reactions

While the Pittsburgh Steelers have gotten off to a difficult start to the 2018 season, the Cincinnati Bengals have burst out to a 4-1 start.  With a victory over the Steelers today, the Bengals could have made a big statement and taken control of the AFC North division.  But, as has been the case for years now, the Steelers got the best of the Bengals in Cincinnati, beating their division rivals by a 28-21 score.

Ben Roethlisberger threw for 369 yards and one touchdown for Pittsburgh, while James Conner continued to be the workhouse for this offense, rushing for 111 yards on 19 carries and two touchdowns.  JuJu Smith-Schuster led the offense with seven receptions for 111 yards, while Antonio Brown had 105 yards and a touchdown.  Vance McDonald also had a big game, catching seven balls ...

Posted in Game Recaps & Reactions

Pittsburgh Steelers fans have been waiting for their team to play four solid quarters at some point this season and today was that day.  The Atlanta Falcons aren’t a good team by any means, but a 41-17 victory by Pittsburgh today proved that they don’t always play down to their opponent.  The Steelers were rolling early and never let up until the final whistle was blown.

Pittsburgh got things started when James Conner rushed for a 1yd TD a little over four minutes into the first quarter.  Chris Boswell missed the extra point, but was able to connect on his next five later in the day.  The Steelers would add another touchdown with just :37 seconds left in the quarter.  Ben Roethlisberger threw a 18yd TD pass to JuJu Smith-Shuster to put their team ahead by 13 points.

Atlanta would ...

Posted in Game Recaps & Reactions

After winning their game of the season last week against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Pittsburgh Steelers returned home for a huge AFC North matchup against the rival Baltimore Ravens at Heinz Field.  In what is sure to be a highly competitive division this year, tonight’s game was a huge early season opportunity for both of these teams.  Unfortunately, the Ravens played a complete game on all sides of the ball, beating the Steelers by a 26-14 score.

Baltimore built a big lead early, responded to the adversity of a Pittsburgh comeback, and steadily built another lead that the Steelers couldn’t’ recover from to earn the victory.

The Ravens got off to a fantastic start tonight, putting the Steelers in a big hole early on much to the disdain of the Heinz Field crowd...

Posted in Game Recaps & Reactions

For a true fan, it is never easy to say goodbye to the boys of summer, but that is what we did today.  The Pittsburgh Pirates wrapped up the 2018 season this afternoon and did so with a 6-5 victory over the Cincinnati Reds in ten innings.  Plenty of names were used in the lineup that hadn’t seen much action at the big-league level, but they stepped up to end the season on a high note.

Cincinnati struck first when Billy Hamilton scored on a throwing error by Elias Diaz in the first inning.  They would tack on two more runs in the second inning on a two-run home run from Tim Federowicz.  Pittsburgh finally struck in the fifth with two runs of their own.  Kevin Kramer plated the first run with a sac fly to left.  Jose Osuna would then cross the plate on a wild pitch.

The Reds regained...

Posted in Game Recaps & Reactions

With an 8-4 victory last night, the Pittsburgh Pirates clinched a winning season.  This afternoon, they couldn’t plate a run, as the Cincinnati Reds won second game of this three game weekend series by a 3-0 score.

Just as Trevor Williams failed to record his 15^th victory of the season earlier this wek, Jameson Taillon also couldn’t finish the job either.  He took the loss today, giving up three runs on seven hits through six innings.  His mound opponent, Michael Lorenzen, gave up five hits and two walks in 5.2 innings to earn a victory.

The Bucs managed just six hits today, with no players tallying multiple hits.  Jung-Ho Kang got the start today at third base, and had one hit.

The Reds scored the game’s first run in bottom of the third inning on a sacrifice fly by Jose Peraza, ...

Posted in Game Recaps & Reactions

It has been an up and down season for the Pittsburgh Pirates, with plenty of bright and dark moments.  Tonight, the Bucs won their 81^st game of the season, beating the Cincinnati Reds 8-4, to clinch a winning season.

Nick Kingham started for Pittsburgh, lasting only 3.2 innings while giving up two runs on six hits with three walks and three strikeouts.  It was a game for the bullpen tonight, and the relievers did a nice job keeping the lead once they got it, with Steven Brault earning his sixth victory of the year.

Corey Dickerson doubled home the game’s first run in the first inning, and Elias Diaz’s sacrifice fly later in the inning made it 2-0.  A two run homerun by Eugenio Suarez in the third tied the game, but Diaz’s solo homerun in the fourth gave the Pirates the lead right ba...

Posted in Game Recaps & Reactions

The Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago Cubs played for the 19^th and final time in 2018 tonight and in the end, Chicago would take the game and season series with a 3-0 victory.  Pittsburgh didn’t have many chances tonight and the few they did have they could not capitalize.

Trevor Williams made his final start of the season and came one game short from reaching the 15-win plateau.  Instead he would collect his 10^th loss of the year after throwing five innings and allowing three runs on eight hits, with four strikeouts and three walks.  Two of those runs came in the second on a David Bote triple to left field.  The final run crossed the plate when Daniel Murphy hit an RBI single to right center in the fourth inning.

The Pirates offense couldn’t do any damage to Jon Lester in his six inn...

Posted in Game Recaps & Reactions