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”.

The standings for the semifinals are as follows:

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.

Let’s look at how this semifinals came to be.

The fans have spoken

Josh Scobee faced Michael Vick in the “veteran’s” quarterfinal bracket.

https://twitter.com/steelcityundrgr/status/845623332435349504

Fans overwhelmingly still dislike Scobee for his snafus while in the Steel City, voting for him to continue on in this “madness” tournament by a nearly 3/4 victory.

In the “cornerbacks” bracket, Blake had a closer competition with Brandon Boykin, but moved on by virtue of 60% of the votes.

https://twitter.com/steelcityundrgr/status/846338081208852480

About the players

Josh Scobee

Speak for yourself, but has there been another player ever made you break fixtures in your own home as much as Josh Scobee?

I remember being excited about the trade for Scobee. The Steelers had lost reliable kicker Shaun Suisham for the season, due to a freak special teams accident on the awful turf used in Tom Benson Stadium at the Pro Football Hall of Fame (yes, during a preseason game – an extra one at that.)

Their first “fix” was picking up former Saints kicker Garrett Hartley, but he too would go down to a preseason injury.

On comes Scobee, who had been a reliable kicker for the Jacksonville Jaguars. All that was needed in exchange was a future sixth-round draft pick? What could possibly go wrong?

How about everything?

In Pittsburgh’s first game of the 2015 season, Scobee missed his first two field-goal attempts in a 28-21 loss to the New England Patriots.

Three weeks later, the Steelers would host the Baltimore Ravens in a dismal Thursday Night Football game, in which Michael Vick subbed for an injured Ben Roethlisberger. Struggling to move the ball all game, the Steelers still led the Ravens 20–17 part-way through the fourth quarter. However, Scobee would miss not one, but two field goals which would’ve closed out the game. Instead, the Ravens reliable kicker, Justin Tucker, tied the game, sending it into overtime.

Scobee was so untrustworthy that the Steelers coaching staff opted to “go for it” on fourth down in OT, not once, but twice, rather than risk another Scobee miss.

Pittsburgh would lose that game, and days later, Scobee would lose his job.

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.

Who’s your pick?

Vote now for who you feel was more disappointing as a Steeler:

https://twitter.com/steelcityundrgr/status/847781177503219712