Brief and to the Point ...
In college, they teach Logic with a capital L. If one had to condense the curriculum to a single sentence, it would be this: If A is greater than B, and B is greater than C, then A must be greater than C.
Heady stuff like that.
Incontrovertible truth because on correlative comparisons.
So, having been stuck in one of these classes for a semester at Duquesne many, many losing basketball seasons ago, I thought I'd give a crack at applying Logic to the Steelers' 2016 season to date. And so:
• The Steelers blew away the Redskins on the road in their opener, 38-16, and Washington eventually went on to rattle off four wins in a row before narrowly falling to the Lions this weekend. The Steelers and Redskins are both 4-3. Because the Steelers blew away the Redskins, they're the greater property.
• The Steelers beat the Bengals in Week 2. The Steelers always beat the Bengals, for it is the way of the world. They're the greater property.
• The Steelers got embarrassed by the Eagles. Manhandled. Bullied. The Eagles are 4-2 with a plus-68 points differential that's second-best in the NFL only to the Patriots. The Eagles are the greater property.
• The Redskins beat the Eagles. Ugh. We take a Parity Pass on this.
• The Steelers annihilated the Chiefs, 43-14. And it wasn't that close. Still, the Chiefs are currently 4-2, including a 26-10 spanking of the 5-2 Raiders. So the Chiefs are good. But the Steelers are the greater property.
• The Steelers got stunned by the Dolphins, 30-15, though that looked a lot less stunning when the Dolphins roared back to beat a decent bunch of Bills and do it in the exact same way, the previously unknown Jay Ajayi again rushing for 200-plus yards. The Dolphins are 3-4, but they might be a team on the rise, and in the NFL that's only everything. Even so, I'll take a second Parity Pass here. (One only gets three in this self-made game.) Sorry, I couldn't take a Ryan Tannehill offense seriously if Ajayi were the next Earl Campbell.
• The Steelers got beat by the Patriots and Tom Brady. The Patriots are the Steelers' daddy. The Patriots are the NFL's best team. The Patriots are the Claw from the 'Toy Story' films ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-Esh4W3dfI
... except that they'd also rig the game to grab all the coolest prizes.
So what's it all mean?
Well, basically, it means two things ...
1. They're by far the best team of a very bad division:
2. When they have all or even most of their key pieces available, they're probably the second-best team in the AFC when one weighs that the only teams with better records are the Patriots, Raiders, Chiefs, Broncos and Texans.
And isn't that pretty much where everyone expected the Steelers to be, injuries or otherwise?
OK, thought so. Now, if you'll pardon me, I've got to stash away this third Parity Pass for safekeeping when the Steelers again inexplicably lose in Baltimore.
• All logic and even Logic aside, sometimes football begs for a purely emotional reaction. Which is why Ben Roethlisberger's awesome slice of sarcasm, shared Monday with our Mark Kaboly, and Cam Heyward's diatribe on the defense both bode really well for the immediate future.
First off, those are powerful indicators that both will be ready for Baltimore and the Steelers' biggest game of the season. No way either of them pops off without at least a belief of being back after the bye.
Second, man, they're right.
Roethlisberger is so, so far beyond any rational criticism for his response to injuries. If it was ever true, it sure isn't now. He's got every right to be peeved about hearing it under any circumstance, much less two weeks after playing the second half in Miami on a torn meniscus and a bruise on the other knee.
A fired-up Ben tends to lead to a winning Ben. Ask the Chiefs.
As for Cam's comments on the defense, particularly the inability to halt the run, those cut to the core of what the Steelers' defense is supposed to be about. Say what one will about tradition and the 1970s and all that, but it's irrefutable that the root of this franchise's identity is in defense. And that starts with stopping the run. Getting knocked back, or confused, or limp-armed ... nothing could reflect worse on this particular group as a whole.
Cam's the defensive captain. Someone else might look bad ripping his mates for two performances while he was out. Not this guy. He owns it all. He's the continuation of Brett Keisel, Aaron Smith, Casey Hampton and others who made this generation's defensive line what it was.
• That said, Keith Butler needs to start coming up with answers. Mike Tomlin's rather stark confession after New England that the Steelers were schematically lightening up on run defense ... wow, there are some principles you just don't let go.
• Hey, how about that Jarvis Jones going all 'special' on us?
Seriously, the last time I was that moved by a talented player finally looking like a talented player in the NFL was with the Jason Worilds breakout a few years back. And that proved very real, at least until Worilds retired.
Imagine what a game-changer it could be if Jones and a recovered Bud Dupree were able to bring real heat off the edges.
• The Steelers' MVP through the bye?
Never overthink this, and never take him for granted: Antonio Brown.
• The least valuable?
Well, the next interception by the secondary will be the first. Take your pick. So to speak.
• The most enticing?
Hey, more Cobi Hamilton, please. Kid's got some big-time X factor to him, doesn't he?
• All kinds of theories are being floated as to how the NFL's ratings have plummeted 11 percent, the silliest of which is that people are angry at Colin Kaepernick, as if he plays for all 32 teams. Or even the 49ers on a regular basis.
Here's mine, and I haven't seen it raised anywhere else: There aren't enough good quarterbacks.
Under the weather over the weekend, I was tied to my couch, a remote and a whole lot of NFL. And wow, we're talking unbearable. When a sport is in such dire shape that Ryan Fitzpatrick is one of 32 starters at your most important position, there's nowhere to run or hide from that. The football is awful. It's reduced to game-management garbage, riddled among a sea of incomplete passes.
And here's why it's like that: Because the NFL is too cheap to build a true minor-league system that would foster and accelerate quarterback play beyond the collegiate years. The old World League was a bona fide option in that regard, but it's been replaced by exhibition games in London. The Canadian Football League could be an option, as quarterbacks are exempt from the nationality requirement -- at least 21 players on the roster must be Canadians -- but the game is different enough that it's seldom used in that regard.
Why not minor-league football?
Plain and simple, the NFL wouldn't dare slaughter the golden goose that is getting all its talent developed for free by the NCAA.
“@NHL: Winnipeg has shown what #MyPlayoffsMoment is all about.https://t.co/QsGTmFxOru” @qcowboy4 Erica's famous! @KellyStarkell
— Ryan Hendren (@hendrenville) April 21, 2015