The Pirates dodged a bullet with Starling Marte but need to rebound from a sweep to the Rockies (Flickr.com/Sports Crazy)
The city of Pittsburgh had a rough weekend. The Pittsburgh Steelers looked sloppy in their first preseason game against the New York Giants. The Pittsburgh Pirates traveled to Denver to build on a hot streak only to got swept by the Colorado Rockies. As far as I’m concerned, if these teams are going to be in a slump, this is the time to do it.
The Pittsburgh Steelers weekend started out rough as we saw Le’Veon Bell, the hyped running back, sidelined prior to the game with a sore knee. This did not sit well with Steelers’ fans who felt a bit misguided as this injury was reported to happen a week ago. William Gay got burned in the first quarter, it wasn’t all his fault; however it wasn’t a very good welcome back for Gay either. Cortez Allen needs to be ready for Week One against the Titans or opposing teams are going to exploit Gay on the regular.
There were sloppy plays throughout the game that we expect to happen and I’m more than happy to see these mental mistakes happen now in the preseason. However, special teams handed in a really poor effort overall and things must really improve for Danny Smith’s squad. Smith, a Pittsburgh native in his first year with the Steelers had a rough night as he watched David Gilreath fumble a punt and caught another punt way too deep in his own territory. Da’Mon Cromartie-Smith actually looked lost in his positioning on the field with a missed block that resulted in a blocked punt.
The Pittsburgh Pirates dodged two major bullets this weekend. Pedro Alvarez and Starling Marte both escaped from being seriously injured over the weekend. Alvarez was spiked on his left index finger by Dexter Fowler and Marte was beaned by Josh Outman. Even though the Pirates got swept this weekend, I’d much rather lose three games than two players of that caliber for an extended period of time.
That being said, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Pirates are going to have their ups and downs as do all professional teams throughout a season. For the Steelers, the best time to work out kinks and make mental mistakes is now. It’s preseason so one game or four games mean nothing in the big picture. The Pittsburgh Pirates need to have that same philosophy.
If you’re going have a slump, do it now and not in September.
