Kovacevic: Thumbs down for AB the baby

Brief and to the Point ...

• Mike Tomlin and the Steelers have described Antonio Brown as a leader without peer. I've echoed that occasionally, having witnessed his extraordinary work ethic in addition to how he pushes his fellow wide receivers to match it.

But two weeks now of his relentless petulance have altered that for me. His pouting, gesturing and complaining to the coaches about not getting the ball, all while the team has been otherwise battling for two tight wins ... those are the acts of a child, not a leader.

Want the ball, AB?

OK, put away the pacifier and start creating actual separation the way No. 10 did time after time Sunday in the victory over the Cardinals. Martavis Bryant saw a couple of bad balls, too, but he kept making plays.

Then again, hey, maybe that's the real problem here.



Brown divulged Monday that Tomlin has spoken to him about his attitude stressing that he must prioritize the team ahead of the individual.

“He tells me that all the time, and I somewhat agree with it,” Brown continued. “I understand where he’s coming from there. But as a competitor, you want to make plays and you want to help the team get there. You want to be involved and part of that process.”

Wait, "somewhat?"

• I'm not a knee specialist, nor do I play one on TV, but there is no earthly way the Steelers should rush Ben Roethlisberger back to the field Sunday in Kansas City.

Never mind that he's yet to participate in his first full practice. Never mind that, at three weeks, he's barely halfway through the upper curve of his expected time out. And never mind that, if he only performed at 50 or 60 percent capacity, he'd represent an upgrade over Michael Vick or Landry Jones.

No, what should worry everyone involved is that the Chiefs get after the quarterback. Their 46 sacks last season ranked fifth in the NFL, and their current 13 sacks rank 10th. Dontari Poe is out with a high ankle sprain, which will mitigate that, but not by much. Justin Houston and Tamba Hali come off the edges for one of the league's most feared pass rushes.

Add to that Kelvin Beachum being replaced by Alejandro Villanueva at left tackle, and you might as well paint a target on Roethlisberger's bum knee.

No thanks.

Rest up for the Bengals.

• Vick vs. Jones?

Is that really even a debate?

• I loved seeing Tomlin seek out Antwon Blake after a rough overall game Sunday to thank him for his above-and-beyond physical effort. Blake will get beaten again, though maybe not as badly as Arizona beat him, but he's a big part of why the secondary has gone from soft to outright scary at times.

• Offer, please, one good reason why the Steelers shouldn't be considered one of the AFC's very top teams once Roethlisberger returns. Focusing on nothing but the outside, the Patriots are 5-0 with a plus-80 point differential, but they stand alone. The 6-0 Bengals aren't near New England in any facet, and the 6-0 Broncos are doing an admirable job of covering up that Peyton Manning has little to no arm left.

• Sidney Crosby will be fine.

He's without a point, he's one game shy of his longest point-less slump of his career, he's registered only eight shots in five games, he's showing the occasional distant gaze on the bench, and he's visibly frustrated on the ice ... but he'll be fine.

And anyone reading too much into this will soon be given two minutes for over-analysis.

He'll score. He'll score on this very Tuesday night against the Panthers, if I were wagering. And when he does, the temperament will die down, all concerned can relax, he and Phil Kessel can resume enjoying skating with each other as they did all through the preseason, the points will come.

Sorry if that's far from the hottest of takes, but I feel this extraordinary athlete has earned that. Check back with me in a week to weigh its accuracy.

• Quick, who has fewer points over the Penguins' past 28 regular-season games: Rob Scuderi, Craig Adams or Chris Kunitz?

Give up?

OK, Scuderi has three, Adams two and Kunitz ... one.

Through five games this season, he's got zero. And this despite curiously positioning himself as the trigger man on most shifts -- 11 shots to show for that -- as well as 16-plus minutes of ice time and regular power-play duty.

If Mike Johnston is serious about helping the captain snap out of it, he'll have Kunitz alternating line rushes with Bobby Farnham this morning at Consol. And he'll put Daniel Sprong on the top line where he belongs.

• Have you ever, in any sport at any level, seen a head coach lose three games with the same lineup, win the fourth game with a different lineup, then change it right back for the fifth?

Well, you have now.

• My respect and admiration for Crosby and Evgeni Malkin have no limits. But the second-best player in Pittsburgh hockey history will be on the ice tonight, and it won't be either.

• Heck, while we're comparing, Jaromir Jagr already has as many points, seven, as the Penguins have goals. And four of his points have come on goals.

He's 43. In February, he'll be 44.

• Has Rick Nash been named MVP by the New York media yet?

• If you'd like to see the Penguins' power play go better than 0 for 17, it might be an inspired move to let the assistant coach responsible for said power play actually run it. Rick Tocchet's got as much to do with the power play right now as you or me.

• Is there a more bizarre story in sports right now than the Blue Jackets, everyone's darling in the buildup to the NHL season, being 0-6 and outscored, 30-17?

And this after piecing together maybe the nastiest set of skilled forwards in the league, all with well established competitive streaks, not least of whom is Brandon Saad?

This, like Crosby's slump, just can't possibly go on. Too much there.

• I watch way too much hockey, even though the quality of the games rarely merits it. The NHL doesn't deserve any of us.

• All the praise being heaped upon Pat Narduzzi by Pitt fans, all the talk of buzz and excitement about the 5-1 Panthers has been richly deserved. Especially in James Conner's absence. The team plays with an edge and, every time you think something Pitt-like will happen, they flip it on you 180 degrees.

Add to that Narduzzi and staff crushing it with two big-time local recruits in the past week alone, and it starts looking even more special.

After this weekend's game at Syracuse, Pitt will round out its regular season with four of five games played at Heinz Field.

Totally legit, non-trolling question: Will any of those games, other than Nov. 7 vs. Notre Dame, be sold out?

That's the next step, the real riding of the wave.

• Say what you will about Narduzzi taking a clear shot at Penn State offensive coordinator John Donovan for his hatchet job of Christian Hackenberg's collegiate career, but he's right. And so is everyone else, including the Nittany Lions' faithful, who feel that way.

Besides, don't think for a second James Franklin doesn't have shots coming from this side of the commonwealth.

Remember when Franklin was hired and all that "dominate the state" stuff?

Well, I covered his introductory news conference in State College for the previous employer, and I tossed up a question that really ticked off a few of the shamelessly homer media types there by asking if Franklin had just thrown down the gauntlet at Pitt. His response dodged it, falling very much in line with the long-held Penn State stance that Pitt is so far beneath them that they barely exist.

I'm busy in Nashville and Kansas City this weekend, but if anyone else wants to ask the same question now, I'm not exactly holding a trademark on it.



• I like to think that Jose Bautista was flipping his bat at the Pirates with visions of Andy LaRoche in his head. But that's just me.

This was my one-on-one interview in 2008 with a devastated Bautista in the Wrigley Field dugout the day he found out the Pirates thought he was worse than LaRoche.

And no, what we thought of the trade at the time doesn't matter. We aren't paid evaluators.

• Baseball news is scarce this time of year, but word out of San Diego is that Rick Sofield, the Pirates' third base coach, is a serious candidate to become the Padres' next manager.

He'll be sure to wave goodbye.