Beating Ravens easier to say than do
PITTSBURGH — The task is easy to identify, tough to accomplish.
The Steelers need to beat the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday.
If they manage that, they’re in the playoffs and can spend that last week of the season preparing to put the finishing touches on an 0-16 season for the Cleveland Browns. No scoreboard watching needed, no tiebreaker formulas to decode.
The problem is the Ravens are playing pretty well. They’ve won big games in Pittsburgh before. The Ravens are not the Cincinnati Bengals, who can always be counted on to self-destruct when it matters most.
The Steelers have shown improvement on defense. That may not continue if Stephon Tuitt has to join Cam Heyward on the sidelines because of the knee injury he sustained in Cincinnati on Sunday.
There’s equal concern for tight end Ladarius Green, who went into concussion protocol in the Bengals’ game. He’s had concussion issues before.
With the Steelers desperately looking for pass-catching alternatives to Antonio Brown, Green’s return has been especially helpful. If he can’t play Sunday, the passing game suffers.
It could be a stressful Christmas for Steelers fans, so:
Deck the halls with lights and candy.
Fa la la la la la la la la
Keep the Pepto Bismol handy.
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In the interest of clarity and honesty, let’s start designating all college athletic positions with the adjective “interim.”
Pitt was just getting over losing offensive coordinator Matt Canada to LSU when the news broke that athletic director Scott Barnes was being courted by Oregon State.
Canada was here for one season. LSU offered him the same job, but a lot more money.
Little wonder. Canada had Pitt’s offense scoring like a pinball machine.
By comparison, Barnes is a veteran. He’s been at Pitt for 20 months. That means mail is probably still catching up to him from his previous stop, Utah State.
Barnes issued a statement through Pitt indicating a report saying he had taken the Oregon State job was not true. He didn’t say whether that might change soon.
Job-hopping is an epidemic in college sports, and has been for a while. That’s why schools write contracts with hefty buyout provisions. If they can’t keep their people, at least they can bank some money when they leave.
Pitt has plenty of experience with this practice. Johnny Majors left the football program after the 1976 season because Tennessee called him home. His successor, Jackie Sherrill, took off in early 1982 after Texas A&M showed up with bushels of money.
Pitt has had two football coaches who would have been willing to stay as long as the university wanted them — Foge Fazio and Dave Wannstedt. Of course, Pitt fired both of them.
It remains to be seen what happens with Barnes. The football program has been vexing for some time because those bright yellow seats at Heinz Field show up so well when nobody is in them.
Now there’s a similar problem with basketball. There’s suddenly a lot of elbow room at the Petersen Events Center.
Perhaps Barnes would be happy to bequeath those issues to someone else.
We’ll see. A couple of conclusions can be drawn from the carousel, which is gearing up for another football offseason ride:
1. When a hire is made, don’t delete the file of other candidates. There’s a good chance that list will be relevant again. Perhaps soon.
2. Don’t ever believe that someone’s stay at a college is etched in stone. Hey, the commitments are almost in invisible ink.