Steelers who marched us to madness: Antwon Blake

by Joe Kuzma (joe_kuzma) on March 28, 2017

March Madness is everywhere you look, so we here at Steel City Underground felt like getting in on the craze with a Steelers-inspired tournament all our own: Steelers Who Marched Us to Madness.

The concept is simple. Over a period of the last five seasons, there have been a number of additions the Steelers have made who came in with high expectations. Several of those additions ended as subtractions for one reason or another, leaving Pittsburgh after a disappointing run with the franchise.

We have compiled eight of those names into a March Madness-style tournament, with you, the fans, voting on who was the most disappointing acquisition who “marched us to madness”.

Steelers who marched us to madness round one

Note: realizing this could be a bit insensitive to the actual player discussed, we would like to remind everyone that the tournament only involves past players and you should only consider their time with the Steelers when voting or leaving comments. This is merely an entertainment exercise to gauge fan expectation versus how a player’s tenure in Pittsburgh turned out, which may have disappointed for any variety of reasons.

A new player profile will be released each day of the tournament. Let’s look at today’s participant.

Antwon Blake

Antwon Blake’s 2015 season was so bad he had to go into witness protection.

Literally.

Antwon changed his first name to Valentino when he moved on from the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2016. However, that doesn’t change the poor season he had as a starting corner the year before: a season Pro Football Focus called one of the worst for his position in NFL History.

Blake was personally responsible for giving up over 25% of the a 30th ranked Steelers passing defense. Adding to the misery, a player known to hit like a truck also missed a league-high in tackles as well.

Blake’s career wasn’t all doom and gloom however. He scored a key touchdown off of a 70-yard interception return which was instrumental in a Steelers road win over the San Diego Chargers. But that was Blake in a nutshell: he would later on get victimized in a game against the Cleveland Browns where he allowed quarterback turned receiver Terrelle Pryor to connect on a 42 yard catch from backup QB Austin Davis. Despite the Browns being on their last string passer, the team early, and often, targeted Blake: and that’s the story of his time with the Steelers.