Friday’s “First Call” has news about Dallas Cowboys star Micah Parsons suffering an injury Thursday night as his team now prepares to visit Pittsburgh next week.
We look back at some hot starts in the Mike Tomlin era for the Steelers. Paul Skenes has an interesting showdown slated for the final start of his rookie year.
And we tip our cap to a former Pirate wrapping up an impressive 2024 campaign.
Parsons’ problem
The Dallas Cowboys (2-2) got a 20-15 win over the New York Giants (1-3) on Thursday Night Football. Now they have a long layoff before visiting the Steelers (3-0) next Sunday night in Week 5.
One question is if they will have defensive star Micah Parsons in uniform for that game. The former Penn State linebacker left the sidelines in New York on a cart with a leg injury.
Via Mike Garafolo of the NFL Network, Parsons “knows ‘very little’ about the severity of his ankle injury. Has an MRI (Friday) but will try to be back for next week at the Steelers.”
Parsons is a two-time All-Pro and a three-time Pro Bowler. He has one sack and 14 total tackles this year over four games.
Past experience
The Steelers are favored by 1½ points to win in Indianapolis on Sunday. If that happens, they’d be 4-0 for the second time under Mike Tomlin.
The Steelers also started 3-0 and won their fourth game under Tomlin during the 2020 season. That contest was a 38-29 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles. Chase Claypool had four touchdowns that day for the Steelers, three through the air and one on the ground.
However, the other two times the Steelers began the year 3-0, they dropped Game No. 4. That included a 17-14 defeat at home to the Baltimore Ravens in the last game of Ben Roethlisberger’s suspension.
The other time was Tomlin’s rookie season as head coach. After winning his first three outings the Steelers dropped a 21-14 contest in Arizona.
Sizzling September
Former Pirate Jameson Taillon will make his final start of a solid year in Chicago. The Cubs right-hander takes to the mound Friday against the Cincinnati Reds in search of his 12th win.
Taillon is 11-8 with a 3.41 ERA. He has 123 strikeouts against just 31 walks over 158 1/3 innings pitched. Twelve wins would be the second most in a season for Taillon since he broke into Major League Baseball in 2016. He posted 14 victories as a Pirate in 2018 and 14 as a Yankee in 2022.
The 32-year-old has been particularly sharp in September. Over 25 innings, Taillon owns a skinny 1.08 ERA, a .178 batting average against and has racked up 19 strikeouts.
The Cubs have been eliminated from playoff contention at 81-78. They are tied with the St. Louis Cardinals for second place in the National League Central with three games left. The Reds are in fourth place at 76-83, two games ahead of the last-place Pirates (74-85).
Milwaukee has won the division at 91-68. Their final regular-season series is at home against the New York Mets.
