Rich's Sports Beat

Boy, is it good to be wrong, and I am so glad I was wrong! I thought it was going to be a tall order for the Steelers to go into Nashville and knock off a Titans team that practically dominated them for the years the teams had met in Tennessee. The law of averages caught up, as they always do, and the Steelers delivered a message to the rest of the league. “We are more than just one player, and our defense will kick your ***!” Yes, you can thank the Steeler D for this win, what with the seven turnovers and four sacks, not to mention the way it treated running back Chris Johnson. The opening kickoff for the touchdown did set the tone for the rest of the day and the defense brought its lunch pail to work and delivered the hits, the punches, and the shots to a Tennessee team that was not prepared for this physicality. What is still disturbing is the inability of the offense to get into the endzone after eight quarters of regulation. The only offensive player to record a touchdown t...

It is now official. Football is now underway. College football completed week two of its season and the NFL kicked off last weekend. By now, we know what happened Sunday at Heinz Field. Dennis Dixon was the caretaker of the offense and didn’t do anything (outside of one interception and some low throws) to put his team in jeopardy of losing the game to the Atlanta Falcons. A win in week one, mission accomplished. This game was close, right down to it going into overtime, the third time this has happened in as many games that these two teams have played. It is a mystery as to why Atlanta and Pittsburgh have such close games in recent years. It was a battle of field goals until overtime, although Jeff Reed had a chance to end it in regulation with a kick into the open end, which is normally a reliable kick from Reed, but the winds can wreak havoc on any kick from that spot. Nonetheless, he kept the Steelers in the game with his other three made field goals and allowed them a cha...

Last weekend, the college football season kicked off and none too soon for many people, including me. High school football got its traditional start the Friday evening before, and now the NFL will complete the trifecta by getting its season started this weekend. Football will now be in full swing. The NFL season officially kicked off Thursday evening with the defending Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints hosting the Minnesota Vikings in a rematch of last year’s NFC Championship game. The full tilt continues Sunday and concludes with a double header Monday Night. Here, then, is Sports Beat predictions for each division in the NFL, as well as a preview of the Steelers Atlanta Falcons opener Sunday at Heinz Field. Beginning in the AFC East, it is coming down to the New York Jets and the New England Patriots for division supremacy. The Jets have the young quarterback in Mark Sanchez and arguably the best corner in the league in Darrelle Revis. The Jets also went out and got LaDa...

Ugly is a four letter word. Not in the traditional sense, mind you. But this very easily defines what happened in Denver Sunday night. Dennis Dixon got his chance to run the first team offense and subsequently threw two picks, one for a touchdown. We all found out that running the first team is a lot different than running the second or third team. Anyone who knows football knows that. At this point, it looks like Byron Leftwich’s job to lose going into the regular season opener against Atlanta. The other side of that coin is Keenan Lewis with two personal foul calls on defense while filling in for Bryant McFadden. Neither call endeared itself to head coach Mike Tomlin, who rightly pulled Lewis from the game and got in his face to tell him what he did wrong and that it would not be acceptable behavior. Lewis responded by busting out some protective glass on a sign on the way to the locker room. Tomlin is making him pay for the damages which, again is the right thing to do. T...