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

Play action is an art. Call me weird, but one of the biggest things I noticed in the difference between Russell Wilson and Justin Fields is that play action looked so much more effective or impactful with Wilson at the helm. Russ looked more comfortable carrying out fakes on plays that weren’t play action, was more fluid with his play action movements and he appeared at times to gain just enough of an advantage from the play action to take advantage of it. It was beautiful on Sunday night if you were paying attention to it. Quarterbacks that take play action seriously and realize the impact it can have on a game really do turn it into an art form and should be commended for it.

SOMETHING I’VE SOFTENED ON

Danny Smith. Over the years when the Steelers have struggled on special teams I’ve heard people calling for the firing of Danny Smith, but at 70+ years and 8,000,000 pieces of gum later he is still around. This year in particular I am glad he is. The Steelers special teams units have been a return touchdown away from exceptional. The return touchdown seems like the only thing special teams hasn’t accomplished this year. Blocked punts, blocked field goals, great coverage… this unit has done a lot. The only knock could be some of the penalties, but from watching games around the league it seems like officials have been told to throw flags on special teams plays, even questionable ones. My guess? The NFL wants offense to make the impactful plays, not special teams. Either way, Coach Smith has done a great job with his units this year and it was fun to watch them celebrate with him last Sunday night.

SOMETHING THAT HASN’T CHANGED

Slow starts.  One of these days, the Steelers might come out of the gate firing on all cylinders. If they do, look out. They’ve been pretty formidable when taking 1-2 quarters to get started, imagine if they didn’t need all that “warm-up” time. What this really is for me, is something I haven’t seen from the Steelers in some time that I would like to see again, if for no other reason than to know they can. Some might say “well, that’s just pointless and arbitrary,” to which I could argue it is no more arbitrary than the people who wanted to see 400+ yards of offense, or 30+ points. Really what matters in the end are W’s, but sometimes it nice to see something just to know it can be done.

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.