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 the right up those big nostrils”. So that’s it. This is my 2 cents after sitting on the latest Steelers game for a bit. 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

Two times is a pattern. The Steelers two highest scoring outputs for the season have been the past two weeks (also their only times to reach the 30 point threshold), and Mason Rudolph was at the helm for both of them. Does that mean Mason is the man instead of Kenny? Not necessarily. Does it mean there could be discussion on that point? Absolutely. It was quite obvious that the Steelers offense has looked much better over the past two weeks with Mason taking the snaps. You cannot deny his ability to read defenses, make progressive reads, and hang in the pocket and make the big throws. While I’m not ready to say he should be the Steelers starting quarterback in the years to come, he has put himself into the discussion. All of this in the past two weeks from a guy who was a half a step away from being out of the league.

SOMETHING I’VE SOFTENED ON

Coach Tomlin losing the locker room. If that were the case there would be no way of the Steelers would have put up 30+ points each of the last two weeks. After the loss to Indianapolis I thought that Coach Tomlin had lost the locker room and that the Steelers would not win another game this season. Now we will get to see them go to Baltimore with a chance to still make the playoffs. Oh what a couple of weeks can do. I know there are a lot of fans out there who do not think very highly of Coach Tomlin and have wanted him gone for quite some time. I will disagree as anyone that could get the Steelers through this rough patch and back the playing decent football is a winner in my book.

SOMETHING THAT HASN’T CHANGED

The Steelers playing meaningful football games. I read a stat earlier today that the Steelers under Coach Tomlin have only played one game where they did not have a chance to make the playoffs since coach Tomlin took over the team. I believe that year was in 2012 they played one game, the last game of the season already eliminated. Say what you will about Tomlin, but this is a stat that not a lot of coaches have had the chance to put up. Even the hoodie from that dreaded team up north doesn’t have a stat like this. I will echo what I said above as I believe this stat has a lot to do with Coach Tomlin being able to take teams that are on the verge of collapse and keep them from collapsing. Not collapsing and not giving up is the epitome of Steeler football.

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.