The title “My Worthless 2 Cents” that I came up with isn’t one I feel I can take full credit for, but is a story in itself, so here it is. I was in the 8th grade at the time, and found myself tagging along with my older sister (a senior in high school), as she was a part of the high school theatre group who would work as ushers for local community theatre productions. Working as an usher at a production of “Harvey”, the dad for one of my baseball friends came up to me at intermission and handed me two pennies and asked me to go back to the dressing area and find the lead actor in the play. I was to give him the pennies and tell him “this is from the guy with the big nostrils, giving you his two cents worth”. I thought this was funny so I agreed to do it, especially since I knew the two were friends. I go to the dressing room and deliver the message and the “gift”. The response I was given was even better. The actor told me to return the pennies and I was to “tell the guy with the big nostrils to take his worthless 2 cents and shove them right up his big nostrils”. So that’s it. This is my 2 cents after sitting on the latest Steelers game for a bit. This is quite the opposite of my Knee Jerk Reaction article, so I get to bring everything full circle. You might tell me to take my worthless two cents and shove them up my nostrils, and that’s okay, because we are friends and I don’t look at it as personal.

I am going to break things down into three categories: One, something I feel stronger about. Two, something I have softened on a bit. Three, something that didn’t really change.

SOMETHING I FEEL STRONGER ABOUT

Russell Wilson is not washed up. He still has the physical skills needed to play the game, but more importantly he shows the mind of a good veteran quarterback. There was a larger number of times in the Bengals game he was checking out of plays to get the Steelers into a play that was a much better look against the defense. There were people after the game saying “sure he got all those yards, but most of that was yards after the catch”. To me that actually was showing Russ’s ability to take everything the defense would give him. The Bengals were cutting off the moon ball, so Russ was adjusting and throwing the ball to the open spots in the zone. That’s the type of quarterback play and leadership the team has been lacking since Ben Roethlisberger’s retirement.

SOMETHING I’VE SOFTENED ON

The Steelers offensive philosophies. It was nice to see the Steelers make the changes they needed offensively to have success against a particular defense. It was nice to see that the Steelers could throw the ball all over the stadium if that’s what the defense was giving them. We all know the Steelers like to run it, but now I think they’ve proven better that they can pass it as well. Ultimately, I feel this leads to more unpredictability in the Steelers offense, which could be very important over the next several weeks.

SOMETHING THAT HASN’T CHANGED

The Steelers know how to find and use outside linebackers. Sure you can say that T.J. Watt is a no-brainer here, but I’m talking more about the other guys that the Steelers find. This week in particular it was Nick Herbig. There were plenty of people that said this guy was too small to play outside linebacker in the NFL. They said he would get man-handled by NFL caliber tackles. Boy has he shown that not to be true. He continues to not only make plays, but make splash plays. He has been good at using his time to learn from one of the best in the game in Watt. With T.J., Alex Highsmith, and Nick Herbig in the Steelers outside linebacker rotation for the next few years, opposing quarterbacks better have their head on a swivel.

There you have it. My worthless 2 cents. Maybe you liked it, maybe you didn’t. Maybe you want to tell me to shove my worthless two cents up my big nostrils. Maybe you have your own worthless 2 cents you would like to share. If so please feel free to share it in the comments below, I might look at it and tell you to shove it up your big nostrils…but that’s okay, because we are still friends.