Well, good morning Mr. Jet Fan, A 'S' B. You must be feeling pretty good right about now. I was pretty confident in picking the Steelers over the Jets, but that's why they play the game. Not many good thoughts about this game, mostly bad stuff. Some of the few good things were the crowd. The Jets fans should be ashamed of themselves allowing Steeler Nation to take over their stadium like that. That was like half a home game, but it didn't help. I know I saw a million things I wanted to make note of here, but I'm so dehydrated delirious tired, I'm not going to remember them all. I just wish if we were going to lose games, they would be to NFC teams. I hope a week off wasn't lost by losing to a stinking rookie QB. I'm sure their heads weren't in this for first half and they didn't even wake up after the flea-flicker. Random thoughts from the game:
I completely saw Eason miss a block on a kickoff that I'm positive I could have made. All he had to do was get in the way. He didn't.
Willie Parker looked tired to me today. No burst. When he can't dominate the league's 31st best rushing defense, we're in trouble. No bounce to the outside today at all. Nothing. Plus, he went down easier than an 11th grade slut.
Najeh Davenport didn't do much better. True, he got the short yards when we needed them, but other times he looked completely baffled as to what to do.
What in the Mother Hubbard is wrong with our offensive line on pass coverage this year? Did Ben sleep with one of their wives? Two of their wives? C'mon dudes. As Ben goes, we go. He was slippery early, but then something changed and he got smothered a few times.
Nate Washington better learn how to squeeze a football and make a tough catch 50% of the time or he should be cut. On a bobble, you can see Hines Ward never taking his eye off the ball and fighting to get it back under control. The second Nate realizes he's not going to catch it cleanly, it looks like he gives up. Toughen up!
Good job by Jeff Reed today. I can't say the same for Dan. That last punt lost the game. No distance. No hang time. Dude caught it on a full run.
What's wrong with Phil Simms' logic going into halftime? Nance questioned why they didn't throw a Hail Mary. Phil said Ben couldn't reach the endzone from there so what's the point? Couldn't he throw it to the 10 or 15 and get a pass interference call? I was under the impression that the half nor the game can end on a defensive penalty. Am I wrong?
Spaeth caught a ball that wasn't a TD. Go figure.
Thomas Jones ate us for lunch....or dinner since it was a 4:00 start. My man broke a lot of arm tackles today.
And, I'll save the biggest criticism for last.....I know Pittgirl of The Burgh Blog won't like hearing this, but if she watched every play of the game she won't be able to disagree....Troy Polamalu had a bad game, nay, a very bad game - in my humble opinion. I saw the following several times today: a flash of yellow and flowing hair....and then a Jet running with the ball. Troy needs to play more under control in my opinion. Yes, his reckless abandon can be helpful in some situations, but more often that not today, he made the first move instead of reacting to what the ballcarrier or receiver was going to do. He left his designated area too soon on some plays as well. Rod Woodson did stuff like that early in his career as well. It pays off about 15% of the time. The other 85%, something bad usually happens. When Troy watches the tape this week, he isn't going to like what he sees.
If you would have told me prior to week 1 that we would be 7-3 after 10 weeks, I would have been very happy with that. As I sit here tonight, I'm not. This game was winnable and it was a weak opponent. Arizona's front 7 shut us down completely. Denver got up for us. In retrospect, we could easily be 9-1.
5 comments:
Since Fan is probably still sleeping off his marathon I'll give you the low-down on the Jets game and where we go from here.
Let's start at the top. Honeymoon is over for Tomlin. He consistently does not have his team ready to play road games after big wins. It appears his idea of preparation is allowing the players to read their glorious press clippings and preen like Ray Lewis all week. Very disappointing.
Coordinators: Bruce Arians sucks as badly as I always thought he did. I did not like this choice for our OC when it was announced and my fears are now justified. He brings all the things I hated about Cowher back to the team. Specifically no imagination and no in-game adjustment.
Dick LeBeau seemed to have his guys in place for every play the Jets ran. But he can't make the tackles for them can he? Poorest tackling I've seen on a Steeler team in a long time yesterday. Do our defensive players actually have arms?
QB-Some will blame Ben for holding onto the ball too long but for the most part green jerseys were in the backfield as soon as he was. Some will say he doesn't see the whole field but how much of the field can you see in 1.5 seconds? This week he did not get the chance to bail Arians and his lame-ass playcalling out because of the...
O-Line. Putrid, Horrible, Terrible, Awful. The friend I watched the game with was so incensed by our O-line play he said we should spend our first 6 draft picks on offensive linemen next year. Vodka, beer & wine talking but nonetheless. None of these guys can play. Simple as that. We won't miss Faneca. Mahan was Tomlin's buddy from Tampa but he's a patch at best. Simmons was the worst signing since Kordell. Marvel has not played well all season. Colon plays his heart out but just isn't that talented. As for Starks and Kemoautu, if they can't get playing time ahead of this bunch of clowns I doubt they offer much.
WRs - Hines is still a great blocker but he drops way too many balls nowadays. On the way down the hill. Holmes makes our offense go. When he went out, the passing game (what there was of it) ground to a halt. Washington cannot catch consistently. Wilson does not belong on an NFL roster. Reid does not get a chance.
RBs - Wheels are already falling off of Willie Parker. Najeh is OK. To be fair, part of Willie's failures has been Arien's playcalling. Horrid O-line play makes this situation even worse. But no bounce to the outside indicates fatigue.
DL - OK but not real good. Aaron Smith knows better than to shove a QB 2 seconds after he's let the ball go though. Dumb. Thomas Jones racked up over a 100 on them, enough said.
LB- Sure am glad we got two young 'uns waiting in the wings. Outside of Silverback, the other three need a refresher course in tackling. Far as I know you can still use your arms and hands to tackle a ballcarrier in the NFL.
DBs - Anthony Smith has got to stop his stupid Ray-Ray imitations after every play. He is a fierce hitter but he is an idiot. Ike is fine. He can't catch but he can cover receivers as good as anyone. DeShea is still a quality corner and if he teaches William Gay and McFadden well, we should see little dropoff as he ages. And Polamalu is a complete mystery to me. An enigma. I'm not sure LeBeau knows how to use him still. He sure whiffs at a lot of tackles and must practice tackling with Clark Haggans (look Mom, no arms!).
Be nice to see our big draft pick punter really boom one once in a while. The Steelers have taken the approach of short kicking to protect their woefully weak coverage teams (on both KO and Punt) and Big Bad Dan has forgotten how to pull the trigger on a big kick.
Time to bring in Willie Reid as returner. Rossum brings us nothing but the ability to catch the ball. I realize that is a huge improvement over last year's return teams but still, I'd like to get a few return yards every now and then.
It's Thanksgiving. And I've said for years you don't know what kind of team you've got until Thanksgiving. At 7-3 we're in good position to make a playoff run. But we must improve in a multitude of areas starting now or a one and done playoff season is very likely. If we continue to play like yesterday 10 wins will be hard to come by. I think the team will rally and I'm prediciting an 11-5 season. But the real work starts now. My comments be damned. Let's see what kind of men we have on the Steelers this year.
Embarrassing. The Jets are a team that the Steelers should've easily blown out. Guess it proves the Steelers are not a Super Bowl contender quite yet. It was a bad, bad loss because it was not only against a horrible team, but it also put some other AFC teams in the running for that second seed.
Despite the horrible record, the Jets have a good secondary so I wasn't expecting a big passing game from Ben, but man our running game sucks! At first I felt our running struggles in recent games was just a fluke, but now it's happening every single week and against very bad run defenses. I don't blame Willie. It wouldn't matter if Walter freaking Payton was back there. He wouldn't gain any yards either because our O-line is getting crushed no matter who we play! Our defensive line got blown away yesterday as well. Pathetic effort from them.
At the end of the game when Pittsburgh was leading 16-13 and had the ball, they were much too conservative. Reminded me of Cowher! With the game on the line why run the ball up the middle when they were having zero success doing that for 3 3/4 quarters? They played not to lose instead of playing to win!
We're not going to have to worry about Cincinatti or Baltimore this year but the Browns are right there. The toughest and scariest stretch of the Steelers schedule is coming up. As far as getting home field and the bye week, I hope we don't! We play much better as the underdog and when we are under the radar. Why is it that every single time the media jumps on the Steelers bandwagon, they lose? Whenever they are favored or have an "easy" game they can't do the job and handle the pressure. Are they watching and reading too much of the NFL Network or ESPN? Geez.
Silly me.......I was all pumped for this game and actually looking forward to New England.
Y'all can smack me on the forehead now.
I think Ben had a huge orgy with EVERYONES wifes and girlfriends.....heck, throw in mothers too.
Damn.
Damn. Damn. Damn.
mis, Jerame Tuman has an extremely hot wife. And Brian St. Pierre's mom is a Milf supreme.
But it wasn't those guys laying down intead of blocking for Ben. If your theory holds true, I bet Willie Parker is in on the "action" too. Looked like the line was trying to get him killed also.
Maybe Benny and Willie were too tired from all the 'action' they were getting.
I couldn't even read the paper this morning.
The thought made me ill.
I just want to kick something - no wonder Jeff did so well!
We just got a 55 inch tv too and put in in our Steeler/Penn State gameroom - I may send the sucker back!
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