HAPPY BLACK-N-GOLD NEW YEAR

     Welcome to 2016! New Year means new resolutions. Typically folks make resolutions to exercise more, spend less money, try to be nicer to people, that type of stuff. Today Mrs. Black-N-Gold has New Year's resolutions that apply to our favorite Black-N-Gold teams, the Steelers, the Pens and the Pirates.

STEELERS

Resolve to stop playing down to the level of competition. Following Sunday's beating at the hands of the Baltimorons, everyone is well aware of the Steelers inability to beat teams under .500. It's been in all the papers, on the internet, over the airwaves that the Steelers can't beat subpar teams. All of Black-N-Gold Nation is well aware of this. The only ones that haven't gotten the memo are Coach Tomlin and the players, themselves. In his weekly news conference this week, the Coach intimated that maybe the Steelers aren't playing "down" but it's their opponents that are playing "up". Whatever, Coach. The bottom line is, the Steelers are on the outside looking in with 1 game to go and need help in order to make the playoffs. Think about that during the offseason. And think about preparing your team in a manner in which they don't lay a big fat egg against some of the worst the NFL has to offer. Let's Go Steelers!!!!!!

PENGUINS

Resolve to meet expectations. Yes, our Pens did ring in the New Year with a 5-2 win over Detroit last night but they've spent the majority of the season as a disappointment. And why have they disappointed? Why are they looking at the outside of the playoff picture at the beginning of January? Because many of the players that have been counted on to take the Pens deep into the postseason have been playing well below expectations. How has this happened? Let Mrs. Black-N-Gold count the ways by naming names. This means you Sidney Crosby, Phil Kessel, Kris Letang, Ian Cole, etc. The job former Head Coach Mike Johnston was doing was also disappointing, that's why he's the former head coach. While it looks like the Pens may be finally breaking out of their season-long funk, upholding this resolution could REALLY go a long way towards making sure that expectations are met. Let's Go Pens!!!

PIRATES

Resolve to perform the fundamentals. Throwing to the wrong base, bad base running, lackadaisical fielding. Pirates fans saw too much of these types of mental miscues in 2015. It sometimes looked like the team forgot how to play baseball. Fundamentals are the bedrock of a team's foundation. Without the basics, a team's performance can falter. From the makeup of the team at this point, this will be especially vital to a Pirates team that will be counting on their wits more than ever before. They'll need to play stellar defense and not make any errors that could give their opponents an advantage. Keep your head in the game and execute. Let's Go Bucs!!!!!

Here is wishing all of Black-N-Gold Nation a happy, healthy Black-N-Gold New Year with lots and lots of championships. Happy 2016!