Recently I was thinking about my time writing about the Pittsburgh Steelers. Throughout my career doing so, I’ve essentially done it all.

Commentary, news, breaking stories, features and even took a stab at simple film room breakdowns.

The one thing I’ve never done is work on just a random thought type format.

I can’t speak for you, the reader, but I am always thinking about writing and the Steelers. Thinking about different aspects of the team and game. Thanks to reading Myron Cope’s biography I decided to put a unique spin on this type of feature.

Now, for the name of the article, anyone who is familiar with the Styx song “Renegade” should know where it came from. If not, this is where it came from…

The jig is up, the news is out
They finally found me
The renegade who had it made
Retrieved for a bounty
Nevermore to go astray
This’ll be the end today of the wanted man

The jig is up…time for some randomness.

Don’t look now…

The past few seasons have been dismal from an offensive perspective. If you liked points scored, you would want to watch 31 other NFL teams play football. But the Steelers points per game are creeping up. How much are they creeping up? Try 23.0 points per game. While that still has them sitting in the middle of the proverbial pack from a statistical perspective, to Steelers fans this is an avalanche of points scored. If I’m being honest, all offseason people asked me where I thought the offense would need to be, from a points-per-game perspective, for them to compete for a championship, and my answer was always around 24.0. Don’t look now, but they’re getting close…

Help is on the way

Beanie Bishop is coming off a tremendous game where he had two INTs and a big TFL vs. the New York Jets and Aaron Rodgers, but Bishop has mainly been a feast-or-famine type player. He’s an undrafted rookie, I get it, but for those who might be concerned about the secondary after Week 8, help is on the way. That help is in the form of two players, Cam Sutton and Cory Trice. Trice is able to return to practice off Injured Reserve (IR) after the bye week, and that’s the same time Sutton will be taken off the suspended list after serving his 8-game suspension. These two players, combined with the improved play of players like Bishop, would make the team’s secondary even more versatile, and deep, heading into the toughest part of the schedule.

Pro Football Hall of Fame a JOKE?

I have to be honest, there is a part of me which is starting to lose some respect for the hallowed halls of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. It isn’t like I won’t be happy if/when a new member of the Steelers gets inducted, but when it was announced this week legendary defensive lineman L.C. Greenwood wasn’t going to be getting his jacket, again, I can’t help but feel as if the process has lost something. Greenwood doesn’t just have the Super Bowl rings, but also the statistics to warrant his enshrinement. And if this is a case of the “No More 70s Steelers” theory, then the Hall of Fame has indeed become a joke. You keep a worthy player of getting inducted just because he was on one of the greatest teams of an era in football history? Yeah, that’s the stuff jokes are made of…

Najee Turning the Corner?

While the Steelers are starting to score more points, Najee Harris is also starting to look more and more like a top running back in the league. Think about what Harris must be thinking when the Steelers opted to not pick up his 5th year option this past offseason. He must have thought he was done in Pittsburgh after 2023, but according to our source inside the organization Tomlin and Harris had several conversations and the conversations all stemmed from Harris proving he is worthy of a second contract with the Steelers. So far he has done that, but I’m not talking about total yardage gained. The biggest knock on Harris has been his inability to provide a solid yards per carry. While he started off the season slow, the last two games he has averaged 7.6 and 4.9 yards per game. On top of that, it has gotten his season average per carry up to 4.1. He’s not where we want him to be yet, but it sure does look like he’s turning the corner, and what’s around the corner might just be a second contract with the Steelers if he keeps this up.

Impose Your Will

There is no doubt about the fact the Steelers defense vs. the Giants offense is a lop-sided matchup. Meanwhile, the Steelers offense vs. the Giants defense looks to be more of a fair fight. I really don’t care. To me, I want to see the Steelers impose their will on both sides of the ball. Last week the Eagles put up 28 points on this defense before taking out all starters in the 4th quarter. Saquon Barkley rushed for 176 yards before also being removed in the second half. Defensively, remember all those seasons when the Steelers defense was so good they almost dictated what the opposition did offensively? I’d love to see one of those performances Monday night. This is a game you’d like to see the Steelers impose their will on both sides of the football.

Monday Night Football losing its luster

I may be in the minority, but the NFL and their greed is ruining Monday Night Football. This week there aren’t two games, but the league, and ESPN, feel as if the product they are putting out there just isn’t enough. The double header games, which are more simultaneous games than a double-header, cheapens the product. It waters it down. If they wanted to have an early game and a late game, like they used to do, that would make more sense, but pitting prime time games against each other sounds counterintuitive. Throw in the fact last week’s Chargers vs. Cardinals game, which was aired only on ESPN+, drew only 1.8 million viewers shows how what they’re trying isn’t working. Go back to what works, and that’s making Monday Night Football a stand alone game which brings significance to the time slot.

Joe Buck and Troy Aikman

I’ve never understood the hatred for Buck and Aikman. I’ll admit I think Buck is better calling baseball than football, but he is hardly the worst to listen to when watching games. Throw in Aikman, and I don’t mind listening to this booth call games. I’ve heard some say Aikman is a homer at times, but it seems so infrequent he calls a Cowboy game I wouldn’t know it even if he was a homer during those occasions. On top of that, the Steelers aren’t playing the Cowboys, so I look forward to hearing Buck and Aikman on the call Monday night to see if they are as dubious as many make them out to be.

The Officiating Crew Review

It’s Scott Novak’s crew who will be on prime time Monday night. Let’s take a look at the crew…

To be honest, this is one of the best crew’s I’ve evaluated since starting this article a few weeks ago. Let’s start with Mark Stewart. He’s a rancher, but of what? Cattle? Sheep? Something exotic? What about Tim England? Not only does the guy not have an occupation, but he also shows he didn’t even graduate college. Does this concern anyone else? Brian Sakowski is a quality engineer, but does he work with Terrence Miles as a quality control manager? What quality are they controlling? Let’s hope it’s the officiating at Acrisure Stadium Monday night.

That does it…the jig is up, they’ve finally found me. This renegade is outta here…be sure to stay tuned to SCN for the latest news and notes surrounding the Steelers as they prepare for the Giants Monday in Week 8.