Kovacevic: Ben taking over? That's quite the consolation

By Dejan Kovacevic

Jan 18, 2018 • 1:31 am

11.5K

So it was already embarrassing that the Steelers got bombed by Blake Bortles, right?

But to follow that up with only booting Todd Haley, and not Mike Tomlin or Keith Butler or even any of Butler's various defensive assistants, all of whom had to be at least partly culpable for that 45-point flop?

I'm feeling you, Bitter Nation. I really am. We won't see eye-to-eye on everything, but I'm sensing and empathizing with some of the lost hope that's flooded the fan base over the past few days. Nothing's more deflating, not in any walk of life, than bona fide built-up optimism followed by the biggest of busts.

But you know, there's also been one glaringly bright ray of sunshine of late, and I'd be remiss if not emphasizing it: Your franchise quarterback, seemingly all of a sudden, is deeply, demonstrably invested in this franchise's future.

And that just might be more meaningful than all the rest, including the loss to the Jaguars.

Think about it: Ben Roethlisberger started this season so sluggishly, had everything about him doubted from his arm strength to his conviction to keep playing, and he bounced back to perform at arguably a career peak. On Sunday itself, while others wilted, he decimated the NFL's No. 1 defense for 469 passing yards and five touchdowns. And after the game, after being asked a question that he's typically dodged for more than a year, he gave a completely clear answer that, yeah, he'd love to come back in 2018 for more.

And now, he's going to basically handpick his coordinator?

I'll share my thoughts on Randy Fichtner as Haley's successor in a moment, but regardless, here's what's by far the most uplifting thing about this cumulative development: The Steelers still have their single most vital piece toward winning a seventh Super Bowl with the current group. Maybe for many years to come.

Don't dare take that for granted. And don't pretend we could have assumed that as recently as, oh, Sunday morning.

• We've got no clue what kind of coordinator Fichtner might be. We couldn't possibly. He's spent a decade of his life in the role, sure, but that was at the college level in 1997-2001 at Arkansas State, then 2002-06 at Memphis. But since joining the Steelers in 2007, he's coached the wide receivers and the quarterbacks and, in all that time, might not have diagrammed a solitary X or O.

What's a whole lot clearer is that the Steelers really didn't have much choice.

I'm not being disrespectful at all. Just pointing out that, with an offensive group this experienced, this ingrained, there was no way Tomlin could waste weeks or even months of the coming offseason and training camp learning new lingo and jargon. Any football player at any level will attest to this being the greatest burden with a coordinator change.

Plus, Roethlisberger implicitly trusts Fichtner, to the point that he asked in the middle of this past season to have him brought from the booth to the sideline to be a closer confidante.

Again, nothing matters more.

• On the topic of trust, there's no tighter player/coach bond on this team than what's between the offensive line and Mike Munchak. The big men are beaming right now.

• I don't like Butler being retained. I wrote what I think of his broader body of work right after Sunday's loss, and I don't see it as worthy of a new contract that, presumably, would need to extend him by multiple years.

That said, the one argument I can make in favor of that is that Tomlin, his entire staff and his entire roster would then be tasked with adjusting to new coordinators on both sides of the ball. And this window, though still open with Roethlisberger's apparent second wind, might not be open that long.

• It doesn't take the brain of Scotty Bowman to know that conceding a half-dozen breakaways tends to minimize the chances of winning in hockey, as the Penguins painfully illustrated Wednesday night in Anaheim.

But I will add, at the risk of tapping a still-hot button around here, Marc-Andre Fleury's career-long brilliance in one-on-one duels with shooters, whether on breakaways or shootouts, is sorely missed. It shouldn't be as big a part of the game as the current team has made it, but the fail-safe is always welcome.

• Trade Ian Cole already. This is silly. He's done nothing to deserve being scratched, and it isn't helping the Penguins, either, to diminish his value by portraying him as unworthy of participating on a defense corps that's using Matt Hunwick.

• Preseason predictions are worthless, Part 11 billion: The top four teams in the NHL, as this is being typed, are Tampa Bay, Vegas, Washington and Winnipeg. The Lightning and Jets missed last year's playoffs, the Capitals lost a ton of veteran talent to a cap crunch, and the other one didn't even exist.

• The Pirates traded Andrew McCutchen and Gerrit Cole for a combined zero of baseball's top 100 prospects. That's according to journals and publications everywhere.

But not, apparently, according to Neal Huntington, whose tour of front office-friendly media since the Cutch trade included him telling a radio station that his scouts' internal rankings actually have three of those prospects among baseball's top 100.

The delusion is so very deep and so very real.

• Hilarious but true: One of the four players acquired for Cole, Class AA outfielder Jason Martin, was available to all 30 teams in Major League Baseball's Rule 5 draft in December for a paltry $50,000 payment ... and all 30 teams passed. Including you know who. But then, a month later, he was sought as part of the Cole package.

Hey, maybe it's because he came at a $50,000 discount this way.

WHAT'S BREWING

• We’ve had a ton of passionate, emotional ... and yeah, irrational reaction from local baseball fans after the Pirates’ two trades this week. The latter is how I’ll safely describe anyone urging or even politely recommending that we participate in any kind of protest or boycotting. That’s not journalism, plain and simple. If you protest or boycott, we’ll cover it. That’s journalism.

Might we adjust how we cover the team?

That’ll be up to our readers’ interest level and nothing else, just as it is with everything else. It sure won’t be about any boycott or protest.

We’re reporters. We report.

• We would love to meet you in person! Friday night brings the latest of our Miller Lite Live Qs sessions, and this one will be at the new Wahlburgers at The Block Northway from 8-10 p.m. Christopher Carter is the M.C., and a bunch of us will be there with him. Details are here.

• Matt Gajtka is out in California with the Penguins all week, and he's got detailed coverage of the game in Anaheim late last night. He also did a pregame Facebook Live session, in addition to holding a subscriber meetup during the first intermission. The man does it all.

• Speaking of California, one of our longtime subscribers, Christopher Althari, won the Ducks' 50/50 raffle last night at the game!

@DKPghSports @Dejan_Kovacevic I won the 50/50 so I'll give that all 3 stars tonight. pic.twitter.com/NZpCIhQyRv
— Christopher Athari (@TrinityEer) January 18, 2018

• My weekly visit to the 105.9 the X studios with Mark Madden presented no shortage of possibilities for discussion related to the Steelers and Pirates:

• Do you follow us on social media? If not, we're available on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter. We'll make it worth your while, as we've got some fun initiatives planned on those fronts toward signing up new subscribers.

VIDEO

Lance Lysowski and Chris Mueller go heavy on the grid in Java: