A hated rival of the Pittsburgh Steelers is mocking their recent acquisition of William Jackson III. One Steelers quarterback is backing up the opinions of the guy who took his job.
Speaking of quarterbacks, which one will Pitt see from Syracuse when the Orange visit Acrisure Stadium on Saturday?
We also preview Saturday games for the Penguins and Duquesne football in Friday’s “First Call.”
Rivalry restoked
We’ve long known that former Bengals cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones hates the Steelers organization.
It also appears that Pac has a particular dislike for the newest Steeler in particular.
Jones posted a profanity-laced tweet — with an accompanying video — targeting newly acquired Steelers corner William Jackson III.
“now your (backside) really on the Hot Seat !!! I new (sic) you wasn’t (expletive),” Jones posted. “now you over there with (expletive)burge!!!! @steelers great job lol, you (backside) bout to get barbecue grilled , you run but you can’t hide !!!”
Jones appears to have had some beef with Jackson for years, even though Jackson once praised Jones for being a good teammate when they overlapped in Cincinnati.
But I suppose Jones harbors some ill will since he was released by the Bengals after the 2017 season. Jackson was drafted at his position in 2016.
Meanwhile, Jackson told Pittsburgh media members that he is not on social media. That’s not quite true. He has a Twitter account. But Jackson hasn’t tweeted in about 14 months. That dates back to, roughly, one of Jones’ nasty attacks via social media.
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Truth from Trubisky
Before leaving for the bye weekend, Steelers quarterback Mitch Trubisky echoed many of the same complaints about the Steelers offense that Kenny Pickett recently made.
After the team’s loss in Philadelphia on Sunday, Pickett was critical of the Steelers’ study habits, practice focus and attention to detail.
The man Pickett replaced voiced the same frustrations this week.
“You are seeing basically the same thing (as) when I was in there,” Trubisky told me Tuesday. “It’s frustrating. We’ve got to get back to the fundamentals. Eliminating penalties. Just everybody being on the same page. Eleven guys playing as one. Find ways to score. Find ways to get some points.”
Trubisky also seemed to lend a second voice to some of Pickett’s concerns about long drives that stall out without points.
“We are moving the ball a little bit. We have to be better in the red zone. We have got to get better on third down. Everybody knows that,” Trubisky continued. “But, to me it all starts in practice. We’ve got to practice harder. We have got to be more detailed. We’ve got to be locked into the walk-throughs. We’ve got to get back to the fundamentals.”
To be fair, another similarity between results under either Trubisky or Pickett this year is that both have struggled to identify, target and hit receivers downfield with any semblance of consistency.
And that’s on those two as much as it is the other offensive players or offensive coordinator Matt Canada.
Krakin’ the code
The Seattle Kraken come to PPG Paints Arena on Saturday night. They’ll try to send the Pittsburgh Penguins to a defeat for a seventh straight time. If that happens, it’ll be just the second such losing streak in the Sidney Crosby era.
The Penguins’ last losing streak of more than six games was a seven-game skid during SIdney Crosby’s rookie season (2005-06).
Oddly enough, Mike Sullivan coached the Bruins for the final game of that streak:
(Via @hockey_ref and thanks to @bobgrove91 for double-checking me.) pic.twitter.com/KWwIMcfj8E
— Seth Rorabaugh (@SethRorabaugh) November 3, 2022
Seattle has been a…