pitt Page 8 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

2022 Rookie Wide Receiver Ranking Week 1: Washington’s Jahan Dotson doubles up
Last season we did our weekly rookie quarterback tracker, but with only one taken in the first round in 2022, we’ve moved onto another highly coveted position. This season we’ll keep up with all six first-round wide receivers and track their progress throughout the year. In Week 1, we’ve already see...

Matt Ryan and Joe Burrow overslept and missed the first 3 quarters of Week 1
It takes a second for muscle memory to kick in when you haven’t played a game in eight months. Joe Burrow and Matt Ryan seemed to forget that in the NFL, you can’t wait until the fourth quarter to focus and execute....

Even when Mike Tomlin is joking, he stays on brand
Of course, no one is as ready for some football as Mike Tomlin. He isn’t simply employed as a football coach, he is the living embodiment of every person who has scolded someone for walking while on the field. ...

There’s losing to Kentucky and Marshall, and then there’s losing to App State and Georgia Southern
The unassuming weeks are always the most dangerous for college football, but especially so early in the season when the rankings are more guesses than earned distinctions. Still though, when you schedule an FCS school and pay them to come play non-conference patsy during homecoming or whatever else,...

Deadspin’s NFL gambling guide/futures bets to make for 2022 season
The term “same faces, new places” has never been more relevant after the NFL hosted probably its wildest and most active offseason in history. We even witnessed the greatest of all time do a complete about-face on his retirement....

AFC South Preview: It’s all about Indy
Logical outcome: The last few years have been a song of Matty Ice and Fire. He’s either an MVP-caliber passer or he’s a borderline starter watching defenders react faster while he gets slower. For the first time in Ryan’s career, he’ll share the backfield with an All-Pro-caliber running back, which ...

The Marty McFly Rankings Week 1: Which college football program is most on its way to being ‘back’?
It feels like an abundance of college football programs are “back” this season more so than in recent iterations. USC beat Rice 66-7, and they’re already the Pac-12’s best hope of making the College Football Playoff. Florida State topped LSU (who’s still a candidate to make this list if Brian Kelly ...

AFC North Preview: Healthy Ravens return, but don’t forget about the Steelers
The favorites in the AFC North are the Cincinnati Bengals and the Baltimore Ravens. The Bengals scratched and clawed their way to the Super Bowl last season, and were a handful of plays away from winning the game. Injuries derailed the Ravens’ 2021 season before the train left the station, and they ...

The SEC is obnoxiously perfect in Week One
The upset of Week 1 in college football wasn’t really an upset — if you ask SEC fans. Bill Napier, in his first game as the head coach of Florida, knocked off defending Pac-12 champ, No. 7 Utah, in a contest of physical strength that featured six lead changes and a tie....

Temper your expectations for USC, but not Caleb Williams
All of the delusional SoCal bros flooding Vegas with USC national championship bets would be better off taking that money and stapling it to bar walls or burying it. A title team constitutes more than Lincoln Riley and Caleb Williams as it takes pallets of talent to face down the Alabamas, Georgias,...

Desmond Howard… explain yourself
College football season kicks off today and already people are looking to the future, making predictions for conference championships and national titles. Some of these takes are scalding hot....

What to watch in college football's Week One
Anyone else so excited that we’ll have college football in less than two weeks that they could throw up? No? Just me? Well, maybe you’ll be excited enough to read our Week One previews for the 2022 season (that starts in 10 days! AAHHHH!). Labor Day weekend is going to be one of those Saturdays wher...

Malik Willis has all the tools — he just needs to pull them out of the box much quicker
There was a lot of attention on Kenny Pickett during his first preseason performance for the Pittsburgh Steelers. They selected him with the 20th overall pick, meaning they hope that he will be the successor to Ben Roethlisberger. That succession plan may have to start soon considering Mitchell Trub...

College football’s non-conference schedule never fails to out a few frauds
Whether you’re in school or graduated, we’re conditioned from a young age to circle June through August with a big red sharpie and write “HAVE FUN” in big, bold letters, so when September hits, the dopamine from just seeing July before a date subsides. There is a consolation prize for summer ending ...

The George Pickens show continued Saturday, this time he was in game uniform
Surely the Pittsburgh Steelers would’ve hoped that the star of their 2022 training camp would be Kenny Pickett or maybe even an improved Mitchell Trubisky. Going into their first season with a new starting quarterback since Ben Roethlisberger became the unquestioned starter in 2005, the Steelers sig...

Diontae Johnson deserves way better
The last of the star wideouts holding out (or in) during contract negotiations, Diontae Johnson finally came to an agreeable contract with the Pittsburgh Steelers. For Johnson to hold out longer than the likes of Deebo Samuel and DK Metcalf, it must have been a solid deal, one that rivaled the $25 m...

DK Metcalf has his flaws, but he’s worth every penny of his new contract
Fourth-year wide receiver DK Metcalf is a pretty polarizing player. Depending on who you ask, Metcalf is either a top-tier talent with elite physical attributes or a deep threat who wouldn’t be able to carry a passing attack without Tyler Lockett on the opposite side of him. You can’t deny his stati...

Get your torches and pitchforks ready, it’s time for Bengals slander
The Cincinnati Bengals were every analyst’s nightmare last season. Nobody expected them to win the AFC North. They did. Nobody expected them to reach the Super Bowl. They did. Now, in 2022, everyone is expecting similar results, maybe not another Super Bowl appearance, but at least 10 wins and a pla...

Pittsburgh seems intent on running its halfbacks into the ground
During a podcast appearance earlier this week, Pittsburgh Steelers’ head coach Mike Tomlin told listeners that he expected second-year halfback Najee Harris to be a “bell cow” for the team this season....

The Steelers’ lack of spending on offense is...worrisome
Heading into 2022, there are 14 teams whose biggest cap hit on offense is their quarterback. There are seven teams whose biggest cap hit on offense is an offensive lineman. Six teams are spending the most on a wide receiver. Three on a tight end (JAX, MIA, NE) and one on a running back (CIN). That m...