Allegany Communications News

01/07/2026

Harbaugh out; Tomlin stays in?

MIKE BURKE
Allegany Communications Sports

The Pittsburgh Steelers opened as a three-point underdog to the Houston Texans for Monday night’s NFL wild-card playoff game in Pittsburgh.

While the Steelers have been rather underwhelming and have benefitted this season (December 7 in Baltimore to be precise) from help from above, if I were a betting man, which I am not (that often), I’d take the Steelers, not only to cover the three, but to win the game.

Yes, the Texans are on a tremendous roll, having won nine games in a row, and are a far better team than I thought they were the day I saw the Ravens belly up to them in Baltimore; and defensively, they’re just out of sight.

Just thinking Aaron Rodgers, with DK Metcalf back in the fold, is going to have a day as he begins what could be the final playoff run of his Hall of Fame career.
It’ll be a Monday night, cold with wind gusts up to 20 mph, perhaps with slight precipitation, and Acrisure Stadium is going to be loaded (in more ways than one). Not exactly comfortable for the Texans who are used to playing in a more controlled environment.
Plus, even though they are the AFC North Division champ (which this year was like being the tallest munchkin), the Steelers will have nothing to lose because Houston is the hottest team in the league and far greater things are expected of them.
Of course, great things are always expected of the Steelers, oftentimes unrealistically, because 50 years ago they won four Super Bowls in six years, which just doesn’t happen too often anymore.

It just doesn’t, because the NFL doesn’t want it to happen and seems to have the invisible knack for controlling such things as to who wins a particular game (see December 7 in Baltimore). Plus, there’s that pesky thing known as the salary cap that necessitates the annual rebuilding of most NFL rosters.

The NFL’s dream is for half of the teams in the league to go 9-8 and the other half to go 8-9 (Actually, the real dream of the robber barons is a 20-game regular season so that even more players can have potential career-ending injuries. What swine). Thus, they operate their league accordingly, even though New England twice and most recently Kansas City came remarkably close to throwing that system into haywire. What’s really funky about that is both teams did so with great help and assistance from the NFL itself.

Steelers fans I know are very hard on their head coach Mike Tomlin and wish him gone immediately if not sooner, despite the fact the Steelers haven’t had a losing season in the 19 years he’s been the coach, which is extraordinary.
At the same time, neither have the Steelers won a playoff game since January 2017 when they beat Kansas City in the AFC Divisional Round, which is extraordinary in not such a good way.

So it’s not as though Steelers fans are demanding to win four Super Bowls in a single postseason (well, some of them do). But a single playoff win, particularly at home, would be nice, which one of us in this conversation has a hunch will finally happen this Monday night, which, hopefully, will keep the “Fire Tomlin” venom at bay for at least another week, because I just don’t see the Steelers firing Mike Tomlin.
Of course, I didn’t see the Ravens firing John Harbaugh, even though the subject was a cinch to come up, particularly after the mess that was the 2025 season.
A lot of Ravens fans around the world, though, got their wish early Tuesday evening when the Ravens fired Harbaugh, who, like Tomlin, an opposing coach he faced 40 times in his career, was the head coach of a Super Bowl champion and who had just 3 losing seasons in 18, which is not 0 in 19, but is pretty darn good.
Knowing the possibility was real, it still came as a surprise, because I just didn’t think Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti would go through with it. But this is a man who has made his living and who knows how to hire the right people, and he proved that 18 years ago when he hired John Harbaugh.

It’s unfortunate, of course, but, truthfully, it seems as though it was just time. Maybe even past time.
There have been too many inexcusable playoff losses for the Ravens and this season was just embarrassing from the beginning.
Wherever Harbaugh ends up – New York Giants? Cleveland Browns? – he’ll succeed. He’s a great coach.
Who knows? Maybe he’ll be remembered as Baltimore’s next Don Shula once his career is complete.
It just seemed his time in Ba
ltimore was over because it seemed as though he had lost the locker room. On top of that, reports are that he was more agreeable to the understanding during his meeting with Bisciotti than one might believe.
Just seemed to be time for everyone involved.
More on Harbs later.
Most importantly, 77 days until Opening Day.

Mike Burke writes about sports and other stuff for Allegany Communications. He began covering sports for the Prince George’s Sentinel in 1981 and joined the Cumberland Times-News sports staff in 1984, serving as sports editor for over 30 years. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow him on X

01/06/2026

01/06/2026

True to form, Ravens finish what they began

MIKE BURKE
Allegany Communications Sports

The good news is Baltimore Ravens fans won’t have to watch anymore. The bad news, as it turns out, is there was very little to see.
Sunday night’s 26-24 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers for the AFC North championship was just the latest example of that, as you just knew defeat would be snatched from the jaws of victory.

You were waiting for it, even as rookie kicker Tyler Loop was lining up for the 44-yard field goal that he would miss badly on the final play of the game. You were waiting for the final shoe to drop late in the fourth quarter when the Ravens twice retook the lead because that shoe had dropped in every big game the Ravens seemingly had won, but then lost – the season-opener in Buffalo as well as losses to Detroit, Pittsburgh, New England, and now Pittsburgh again.
It was inevitable, and the inevitability came to be as true as the reality of the entire season that had led to the season-ending fate.
The Ravens have a lot of great players and always play hard for head coach John Harbaugh, but they have no edge – not only a dominant edge rusher, but no edge as a team.

The Ravens have no kill shot in them. If they did, they would have won at least one of the aforementioned games and we’d be talking about next Monday’s home wildcard playoff game rather than Sunday night’s gut-wrenching game that the Steelers not so much won, but the Ravens lost.
Loop’s missed field goal alone did not cost the Ravens the game, but his extremely poor kickoffs did nothing to help.

Holding penalties on tackle Ronnie Stanley and center Tyler Linderbaum effectively ended potential drives after the Ravens had exploded to take the lead on the game’s first possession. Once again, the Ravens were on the verge of putting an opponent on the ropes early, but squandered their opportunities.
The game turned for good early in the second half when safety Kyle Hamilton went down with a concussion. Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, a pretty bright guy, immediately began to work the seam to tie the score, as the Ravens didn’t have the personnel to even match the Steelers’ depleted receiving corps.

To wit: According to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats, the Steelers offense with Hamilton on the field averaged 3.9 yards per play with a 37% success rate on 38 plays. On the 35 plays Hamilton was not on the field, the Steelers offense averaged 6.9 yards per play with a 60% success rate.

One thing the Ravens never seem to understand is clock management, and while this isn’t to criticize Zay Flowers for going straight into the end zone on his second go-ahead touchdown in the final 1:23, had he stopped at the 1, the Ravens could have milked the clock down to almost nothing with the Steelers inexplicably out of timeouts.

The Ravens, of course, had all three timeouts remaining.
That said, it was fairly remarkable that the Ravens were even playing for the AFC North title after getting off to a 1-5 start, but that is also a testament to the Steelers’ own ineptitude.

The Ravens had injuries, they had bad breaks, they took the hose from NFL officiating in the first Pittsburgh game, but they also had breaks go their way, including Steelers coach Mike Tomlin not taking free points at the end of the half, which kept the Ravens in it until the end of the game.

Big turnover will be coming this offseason because the Ravens simply aren’t good enough. Will that start with Harbaugh? Possibly, though as we said last week that would be surprising unless Harbaugh decides himself he needs a change of scenery, which doesn’t seem likely given the three-year extension he signed last offseason.

But the Ravens can count on changes on the roster and on the coaching staff because the song remains the same every year, as the Ravens have blown eight double-digit fourth-quarter leads in the past four seasons.

In that regard, that likely is on Harbaugh, but the truth is general manager Eric DeCosta failed this team in not acquiring a legitimate NFL pass rusher, and it was never more evident than on Sunday night. As Cris Collinsworth said on the NBC broadcast, “If the Ravens fail to make the playoffs (which they did) it will be because they could not pressure the quarterback. They have absolutely no pass rush.”

Certainly the season-ending injury to interior lineman Nnamdi Madubuike did not help, but DeCosta’s top priorities this offseason should be securing the future of the quarterback in Baltimore, adding a legitimate edge rusher and upgrading the offensive guard positions so the quarterback can live long enough to have a future.
And why did the Ravens even bother to sign wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins? They certainly didn’t use him. Such a terrible waste.
Some have speculated that it is the Ravens’ Camden Yards neighbor, the Orioles, who just had the most disappointing season in franchise history, which, while extremely disappointing, was not the case.
In reality, it is this Ravens team – given the hype of the roster, the injuries, the mind-boggling non-use of Derrick Henry in the New England game, the overall failed expectations through consistent underachieving, yet another wasted year in Lamar Jackson’s prime – that is the Baltimore team that delivered the most disappointing season in its franchise’s history.
As it turned out, there really was nothing here to see.
In the immortal words of Todd Appel, “Sad, really.”
Just 78 days until Opening Day.

Mike Burke writes about sports and other stuff for Allegany Communications. He began covering sports for the Prince George’s Sentinel in 1981 and joined the Cumberland Times-News sports staff in 1984, serving as sports editor for over 30 years. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow him on X

01/02/2026

Curbside Christmas Tree Collection for Frostburg MD.
Curbside Christmas tree collection dates:
- Monday, January 5, 2026
- Monday, January 12, 2026
Please remove all decorations, tinsel, ribbon, etc. and place the tree on the curbside for pick up.

01/02/2026

Look for seasons 20 and 19 to happen

MIKE BURKE
Allegany Communications Sports

As we found out the last time the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens played, the team the NFL wants to win Sunday night’s AFC North winner-take-all in Pittsburgh will be the team that wins it.

It’s that simple.
The Steelers won the week 14 meeting in Baltimore, 27-22, thanks in part to three overturned calls by NFL officiating, only one of which the NFL admitted it got wrong, with that call alone costing the Ravens four points in a five-point game that ended with them with the ball in field goal range.
And now, for the final game of the NFL regular season, we have a winner-take-all between the two rivals for prime-time television. You tell me.

Of course, not even the NFL could have arranged the Steelers losing to the Browns last Sunday, right? Then again, the league did suspend receiver DK Metcalf for the final two regular-season games for “initiating physical confrontation with a fan” who allegedly used a racial slur and made a derogatory remark about Metcalf’s mother.
(I believe I would have initiated physical confrontation myself, but it is bad optics for a uniformed NFL player to be taking swings at fans during games, even if the fan is lewd and bigoted.)

Metcalf, along with quarterback Aaron Rodgers also had a big hand in the Steelers’ win over the Ravens in week 14, as Rodgers torched Baltimore’s flammable secondary for 284 yards, including seven completions to Metcalf for 148 of those yards.
The Ravens’ pass defense is the fourth worst in the NFL, giving up 245 yards per game as well as a league-worst 32 completions of 20 yards or more, including six last week in their 41-24 win at Green Bay, and three to Metcalf in week 14 for 121 yards.

Thankfully for the Ravens, Metcalf will not be playing on Sunday night, and given what we saw last Sunday afternoon in Cleveland, Rodgers is going to have a much harder time going vertical on the Baltimore secondary this time than he did the last time. Of course, with the Ravens’ lack of a pass rush, anything big downfield is always possible.

The Steelers will also be without 6-foot-7, 300-pound tight end Darnell Washington, who is out with a fractured forearm, so look for Rodgers to throw a lot to his backfield, particularly, Kenneth Gainwell (which is a great last name for a running back).

For the Ravens, obviously, it will boil down to how healthy quarterback Lamar Jackson will be – he’s been a full participant in practice the past two days – and if the Ravens can keep their strong running game going with Derrick Henry.
That won’t be easy, of course, against the Steelers, even if the Ravens allow Henry to carry more than 10 times, because since giving up 217 yards to the Ravens and 94 to Henry in week 14, the Steelers run defense, led by rookie tackle Derrick Harmon, has been lights out, holding the last three opponents to an average of 52 yards.

And with edge rusher T.J. Watt likely to return, and with Cam Heyward, Alex Highsmith and former Raven Patrick Queen playing like madmen, Baltimore will not have an easy time establishing anything offensively in the type of game, frankly, they’re very fortunate to even be playing in given they began the year 1-5.
Jackson has not been healthy all season, having missed three games with a hamstring injury and last week with a back contusion, playing in between with ankle, toe and knee injuries.

Nor has it been the kind of season the Steelers had envisioned as they are on the verge of blowing at least a two-game lead over the Ravens in the season’s final weeks for the second season in a row.
All of which is said to have made Sunday night’s game a possible swan song for one or both of the head coaches, Mike Tomlin of the Steelers and/or John Harbaugh of the Ravens.

Keep in mind, all of this noise has been coming from outside of the respective organizations, as the players for both teams swear deep allegiance to their respective coaches, while not a peep from either front office or ownership group has been heard, nor is likely to be.

Regardless of who wins Sunday, and no matter how deep the winning team’s ensuing playoff run is able to go, the Steelers and the Ravens are both in line for significant changes over the offseason, though in spite of the circumstances of such disappointing seasons, particularly for Baltimore, it would be a bit of a shock if any of those changes involved Tomlin or Harbaugh, unless either or both would initiate their own change of scenery.

That isn’t likely to happen, as Tomlin, in his 19th season, has two years left on his contract, while Harbaugh, in his 18th season, signed a three-year extension with the Ravens last offseason.

There may be, and, frankly, should be changes mandated that neither coach will like, but likely not to the degree that either coach would leave.
Truthfully, unless either organization is considering breaking it all down and rebuilding its team, as maddening as this season has been, a new head coach at either place would likely do more harm than good.

Mike Burke writes about sports and other stuff for Allegany Communications. He began covering sports for the Prince George’s Sentinel in 1981 and joined the Cumberland Times-News sports staff in 1984, serving as sports editor for over 30 years. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow him on X

12/31/2025

Garrett County Commissioners Set January 5 Public Meeting

Garrett, M.D. -- The Garrett County Board of County Commissioners will hold a public meeting on Monday, January 5, 2026, beginning at 4:00 p.m. at the Garrett County Courthouse. The meeting will be livestreamed on the county website.

An administrative session will begin at 3:00 p.m., including a Deep Creek Watershed update and a review of administrative and managerial matters. The public session will open with the call to order, invocation, and Pledge of Allegiance, followed by agenda updates and approval of previous meeting minutes.

Items on the agenda include a proposed road closure or abandonment of a section of Betts Lane and a public commentary period. The board may also enter an executive session if required by law. Public comments on agenda items may be submitted by email in advance.

The commissioners’ next regular public meeting is scheduled for Monday, February 2, 2026, at 4:00 p.m.

12/31/2025

Baltimore is familiar with regrettable trades

MIKE BURKE
Allegany Communications Sports

Since the turn of the 20th century, there have been at least 12 iconic Hall of Fame, MVP, face of the franchise, seemingly untouchable professional athletes who started out or made their hay in Baltimore, with five of them having walked away from their careers untouched – Brooks Robinson, Jim Palmer and Aberdeen’s Cal Ripken Jr. of the Orioles, Wes Unseld, who played and coached his entire career with the NBA Bullets, even after they left Baltimore in 1973, and middle linebacker Ray Lewis of the Ravens.

Unseld, just one of two men in NBA history, with Wilt Chamberlain having been the first, to be named Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player in the same season, continued to live in and contribute to Baltimore even after the Bullets had moved to Landover and then Washington.

Some other seemingly untouchable Baltimore alumni have been Baltimore’s Babe Ruth and Lonacoing’s Lefty Grove, who played for the International League Orioles in the early 20th century, John Unitas of the Baltimore Colts, the quarterback who made the NFL the NFL, Frank Robinson of the Orioles, Earl Monroe of the Bullets, Eddie Murray of the Orioles and Ed Reed of the Ravens.

All of them entered their respective sport’s Hall of Fame in their first years of eligibility, as did offensive linemen Jim Parker of the Colts and Jonathan Odgen of the Ravens, both of whom played their entire careers in Baltimore.

Ruth and Grove, arguably the greatest player and greatest pitcher in baseball history, were sold by Jack Dunn’s minor-league Orioles, Ruth to the Boston Red Sox and Grove to the Philadelphia Athletics, because selling their best players was pretty much how non-affiliated minor-league teams made most of their money in the early 20th century.
Unitas, clearly at the end of his career, was traded to the San Diego Chargers out of spite in 1973 by the impudent Robert Irsay Colts. Frank Robinson, after leading the Orioles to four World Series in six years, was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1971, Monroe to the New York Knicks in 1971 after a bitter contract dispute with owner Abe Pollin, and Murray to the Dodgers in 1988 after Orioles owner Edward Bennett Williams foolishly questioned Murray’s work ethic.
Reed, after 11 years in Baltimore, finished his career in 2013 playing for Houston and the New York Jets.

With Ruth and Grove being the exceptions, because that’s just how the minor league did business then, the common denominators in the departures were the returns to Baltimore falling short in value (though the Bullets did pretty well in the Monroe trade), and no Baltimore fans wanting to see any of those players go; and, all of these years later, remaining sorry to have seen them go.

Despite the current grumpy rhetoric, which is usually the starting point of potential trades, the feeling is present-day Baltimore fans will feel the same way about two-time MVP quarterback Lamar Jackson if the Ravens decide to trade him this offseason.

Amidst Jackson’s most injury-filled season, the Trade Lamar chatter began on December 23 when Baltimore Sun columnist Mike Preston wrote that the Ravens and Jackson have arrived at their crossroads and that anything could be in play, including a trade to the Miami Dolphins. Jackson carries salary cap hits of $74.5 million in 2026 and 2027 after signing a five-year, $260 million contract extension in 2023, making a restructured deal or new extension likely.

Preston, long a respected Baltimore football insider, also questioned the relationship between Jackson, coach John Harbaugh and the team.
“Once the Ravens become critical of Jackson, he becomes more withdrawn,” Preston wrote. “It’s a shame because Jackson isn’t a mean-spirited person, just an overgrown kid in an adult’s body.”

On Tuesday, The Athletic posted a story by Mike Sando in which a prominent NFL agent suggested Lamar’s serving as his own agent makes his relationship with the Ravens more difficult and even proposed the Ravens trade him to Minnesota for three No. 1 draft picks and then sign free agent quarterback Malik Willis.
“Get Malik for $15 million a year, trade Lamar, get your three 1s and a player, and now you can justify it,” the agent said, “thinking we have a similar style quarterback who is not as good but is younger with way fewer miles.”
Oh, yeah … not as good. Let’s not overlook the obvious.

For Harbaugh’s part, he said last week he has a good relationship with Jackson and, despite the fine performance by backup Tyler Huntley in the Ravens’ big win in Green Bay, “if Lamar can play he will be the quarterback” when the Ravens play the Steelers Sunday night in Pittsburgh for the AFC North Division title, a title Baltimore has won the past two seasons with Lamar Jackson at quarterback.
Barring a win in Pittsburgh, though, and a miracle run through the playoffs, the Ravens have many things that will need to be fixed, made younger and less expensive over the offseason.

However that involves Lamar Jackson remains to be seen, but the aesthetics alone of trading him at this point of his career seem destined to be unpleasant for the Ravens in the not so distant future and, once again, for the Baltimore sports fan for a long time to come.

Mike Burke writes about sports and other stuff for Allegany Communications. He began covering sports for the Prince George’s Sentinel in 1981 and joined the Cumberland Times-News sports staff in 1984, serving as sports editor for over 30 years. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow him on X

12/31/2025

McHenry Water Customers Asked to Continue Conservation

Garrett, M.D. -- The Garrett County Department of Public Utilities is asking water customers in the Thayerville, McHenry, and Wisp Mountain service areas to continue conserving water through the upcoming holiday weekend. Officials say water tank levels remain extremely low following a system leak last week, and reduced usage is needed to allow tanks to refill. Residents are encouraged to limit non-essential water use until levels return to normal.

12/31/2025

NYE Ball Drop, Fireworks to Bring Temporary Road Closures

Cumberland, M.D. -- The Annual New Year’s Eve Ball Drop and Fireworks Display will take place today, Wednesday, December 31, from 8:00 p.m. to 12:30 a.m., with temporary traffic changes planned to ensure public safety and reduce congestion.

Road closures and no-parking zones will be in effect from 5:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. Baltimore Street will be closed between Mechanic Street and George Street, Centre Street from Dexter Place to Frederick Street, and Liberty Street from Frederick Street to Pershing Street. In addition, traffic on the Baltimore Street Bridge will be temporarily restricted after 9:00 p.m. during fireworks setup, ex*****on, and cleanup, with a detour in place. All roads will reopen once activities conclude.

12/30/2025

Capito Praises $199 Million Rural Health Care Investment for West Virginia

U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito applauded a nearly $200 million federal investment awarded to West Virginia through the Rural Health Transformation Program, calling it a historic step for rural health care. The funding, totaling $199.4 million, is part of a nationwide initiative created under the One Big Beautiful Bill, also known as the Working Families Tax Cuts Act.

Capito said the investment represents the largest federal commitment to rural health care in U.S. history and will help expand access to care, strengthen rural hospitals, and support a more sustainable health care system across the state. She noted that the program was designed to address the unique challenges facing rural communities like West Virginia.

State officials say the funding will play a key role in improving health outcomes and reinforcing health care infrastructure in rural areas throughout the Mountain State.