licked one round too far, it was Hurts who broke free. The most old-school c

LATROBE, Pa. -- Pittsburgh Steelers center Maurkice Pouncey is happy to be playing football again after the All-Pro nearly had the game he loves taken from him.Pouncey suffered a broken ankle that required surgery in the Steelers third preseason game last season. He was placed on the teams short-term injured reserve and planned to return later in the season, but several unexpected setbacks threatened his career.He couldve lost his leg, Steelers offensive lineman Ramon Foster said. To have it almost taken away . that guys career almost ended. Hes excited to be back on the football field and Im looking forward to seeing him in the first preseason game.A severe infection set in, resulting in additional surgeries -- seven according to Pouncey, who underwent three major procedures and four he described as `clean ups.Playing football was never a concern, Pouncey said. The biggest concern was the infection. Whenever you have an infection, you cant predict that. The medicine really has to work the right way. Everybody was hoping for the best. You really cant blame anyone. Things happened and it went downhill.His teammates were concerned.He would get done with a surgery and go right back into another one, Foster said. It was trying. You can say its just cosmetic stuff, but thats painful and time consuming.Pouncey initially planned to return in late November at Seattle, a week after the teams bye.It makes it even more frustrating, having a chance (to return) and then losing it, but he handled it well, offensive line coach Mike Munchak said. Im sure it was depressing because you feel like youre not part of the team even though you still are. Its a hard thing mentally for a player.Members of the offensive line tried to help by going to his house every Thursday.It was very important because you feel left out, Foster said. He was just glad to have us around. He would order the food and he would pay for it. He wanted us there. When you have that type of situation, and you finally get him back healthy, hes not taking it for granted.Pouncey didnt hold back in his return either, taking part in spring offseason workouts. Hes participating fully during training camp practices at St. Vincent College.Hes a hard guy to rest because he only knows 100 percent, Munchak said. Well do our best to rest him, especially preseason when we can control him, but you cant be worried about things happening. Thats how he plays the game.Pouncey hopes for a return to form this season.He became the first center in NFL history to be selected to the Pro Bowl in each of his first three seasons. The Steelers were confident enough to make Pouncey the highest paid center after he missed all but eight snaps of the 2013 season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament. He followed it up with his second All-Pro and fourth Pro Bowl season in 2014.Theres really nothing he cant do, Munchak said. 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It should have been captured on spools of film, developed in a darkroom and then shipped to Tuscaloosa and Baton Rouge theaters to be shown between Steamboat Willie and newsreel updates from Normandy.Your final score: Crimson Tide 10, Tigers 0. No, that wasnt the score at the end of the first quarter or even the half. It was indeed the final score.People are always saying they want old-school football, LSUs Ed Orgeron said as he looked over a one-sheet box score that had just been handed to him, mere moments after being handed his first loss in four games as interim coach. That was as old-school a game as I can remember in a while. Im sure some will say it was ugly, but thats probably because it was just different than what theyre used to these days.Just take a look at the very day this game was played. This was one of only two contests between members of the College Football Playoff committees Top 25, and they combined for 10 points. Of the 20 members of that poll who were in action on Saturday, 10 scored 40 or more points, six topped 50 and three exceeded 60. Another, 17th-ranked Baylor, scored only 22 but surrendered 62 to unranked TCU.This is a season of spread offenses and 500-yard passers and 200-yard rushers and basketball-ish final scores of 66-59. It has been a video-game season. But while others have been playing on PS4s, the Tide and Tigers werent even using an Atari 2600. They were playing bumper pool.Nick Saban started his postgame news conference by saying, Talk about winning ugly. By the time he had wrapped up his remarks 10 minutes later, on the TV behind him Washington and Cal were already at 28-20 with 505 yards of offense ... with 6:02 remaining in the second quarter. By halftime in Death Valley, the Tide and Tigers had combined for zero points and 220 yards of offense.How ugly was it? Even the descriptions were ugly.This was a game thats going to test your nuts, Alabama linebacker Ryan Anderson said after logging six tackles and a sack. You know what I mean, it was old school.Old school, like the 102,321 fans in attendance should have been asked to check their smartphones at the door and told they could call home via a bank of pay phones in the concourse. Dont worry, Sarah the operator will patch you through.The contest started with an Alabama drive that ended with an interception and an ensuing LSU drive that was thwarted via a sack and a blocked field goal. It had a failed fourth-and-1, a pair of missed field goals, a pair of interceptions, 13 punts and a yards-per-play average of just a Band-Aids thickness over 3.5.During one particularly unseemly stretch, an LSU run out of bounds turned into a shoving match that turned totally WWE, complete with a bent folding chaair, trampled by fleeing reserve LSU linemen.ddddddddddddVeteran SEC referee Matt Austin even threw in some theatrics, rattling off the four offsetting unsportsmanlike conduct penalties with a pace and a pecking order that sent the crowd into a frenzy. Minutes later, on the opposite sideline, LSU was slapped with a flag for a late hit that was borderline at best, but the real hit was when quarterback Jalen Hurts was clotheslined by teammate O.J. Howard as the tight end was trying to catch him before he fell ... but only after a member of the SEC chain crew was flattened in the process.This game has been so rough that its spilled over into the rest of us, too, a longtime Tiger Stadium security guard said as he was helped from the ground after being run over by a pair of LSU tacklers trying to chase down Hurts.That task was one that became more and more difficult as the night wore on.It felt like one of those games where if the field ever started to tip just a little bit, just a little opening, then that might be the difference, Orgeron recalled.He was right. After three quarters of zeroes on the scoreboard and three quarters of each team being forced to start drives deep in their own territory, Alabamas possessions began to slowly shift from starting at the 14 or the 12 or the 9 to, in the third quarter, the 40, 46 and 42.Finally, Orgeron confessed, we just gave the kid too much to work with.The kid was Hurts. And when this medieval rack of a night had finally been clicked one round too far, it was Hurts who broke free. The most old-school contest of 2016 was won by the youngest player on the field. Less than two minutes into the fourth quarter, he impossibly wove his way through LSUs tackling machine defense for a 21-yard touchdown run.Only one player managed to put a three-digit number beside his name in the final box score, and Hurts did it twice, with 114 yards rushing and 107 passing. A game played in a nearly 92-year-old stadium between a pair of teams meeting for the 81st time, who were turning the clock back on modern football at least 40 years, was decided by an 18-year-old true freshman who one year ago was getting ready for the Texas high school football playoffs.The nations No. 1 team entering the weekend will still be its No. 1 team at weekends end -- still the queen, beauty or otherwise.People know that we can compete in the track meets because weve done that plenty, said Saban, reminding that his team had averaged nearly 44 points per game in the eight contests prior to Saturday night. Now we know we can win when we play ugly, too. There will be a lot to learn from this film, but itll be ugly film to watch.Coming soon, to a nickelodeon near you.<a href="http://www.chinawholesalejerseysnfl.com/">Wholesale Jerseys</a> ' ' '