From the notebook of a sportswriter who doesn’t know whether to call him Captain Comeback, the Comeback Kid, or maybe Kenny Komeback.
• I’ll open the mailbox for suggestions.• In a huge game marked by the first-line play of six Steelers rookies, Kenny Pickett ran away with the team’s Rookie of the Year Award Sunday night in Baltimore.• Yep. It always goes to the quarterback.• It’s the eyes in the huddle, as his linemen said.• It’s the culture, though, as well.• Oh. That’s right. We’re firing• Snarky Jim. That’s what they’re calling me this year.• And a Happy New Year to you, too.• As the song goes, nothing changes on New Year’s Day, as the Steelers and Ravens have shown us once again.• According to T.J. Watt, that’s 33 games in a row between these teams that have been decided by three points or fewer.• He exaggerated a bit. It’s actually 18 of the last 30 games – since John Harbaugh began coaching the Ravens in 2008 – that have been decided by three points or fewer. And 24 of those have been decided by one score.• Much will be written about Pickett’s second late-game charge in a row to drive the Steelers to the brink of a playoff berth. But just as much should be written about a defense that has grown significantly since the Ravens pummeled it for 215 rushing yards only three weeks ago.• In that game, the Ravens basically just told the Steelers they were going to run out the clock, and did.
