Today's Spin

Well, it certainly would have helped to have Troy Polamalu in the lineup today as the deep middle of the field got mauled, but every team has injuries this time and year and you have to overcome them. If you want to take the glass half full approach, you could say that at worst - this game could only change our playoff seed from 3 to 4 and if we beat Jacksonville next week, we'll still probably end up being the 3 seed and this game didn't affect our season too much. If you want to take the glass half empty approach, you would say that mentally, if we have to face the Patriots again in the playoffs, it will be in our heads that we got beat by more than 2 TDs. If you need to spin it in your head again to the full side.....maybe you can convince yourself that we played it close for 39 minutes and had our heart ripped out by the double lateral that maybe Troy could have covered. Of course, the half empty glass is screaming that they threw on almost every down and we didn't sack Brady once. It was a great gameplan by the Pats. Our defense is super aggressive and the second the first play-action stayed in Brady's hands....I knew it was a TD from the length of time it took to develop at that point. You just have to wonder if the double lateral play was only put in the gameplan because of Anthony Smith? Also, for Christmas, could somebody please get Ike Taylor a pair of hands that aren't made of granite? Thank You. The first half was very exciting to watch and I enjoyed it tremendously. The second....."meh". Ten years ago this loss would have bothered me a lot more than it did today. My glass is still half full. Smith was a hair away from knocking that ball down. What if he did? Football is a game of inches and momentum. It can change on a dime. Congrats to the Pats, see you in the playoffs.

TJ Houshmandzadeh OWNED

Steel City Slant will not be doing a thoughts from the game this week. Why not? Because everything can be summed up in one simple question and response:

Q: Hey Whosyourmamma, Who's Your Daddy?

A: Anthony Smith

That will be all for today, class.

Steelers Playing Sick

Well, it's really too bad there aren't 20 games in the regular season, because if there were, I think we'd be going to the playoffs. The Steelers have now won 5 out of their last 6 and the last 3 by a combined score of 84-13. It really makes you angry now to go back and think about some of the ways they lost earlier games. Some random thoughts from the game: Brett Keisel in his 5th year is showing that maybe he should have been starting 2 years ago instead of just now. Kimo always played the position well, but never had the sack numbers Brett is putting up. I was almost mad at Cowher for putting Holmes back out on the field after his fumble - now I'm glad he did. What a return. The other thing that surprised me about that return was the reception Santonio got when he came to the sidelines after the return. He must be well liked on the team because EVERYONE came over to him and the score was already a blowout. That told me something and it made me glad to see how the team responded to him after all the trouble he had at the beginning of the season. I've never thought of DeShaun Foster as a power back and to see him run over Anthony Smith and bounce off DeShea Townsend like a pinball was weird....especially after seeing Smith lay the wood to numerous players this year. How about that Kuhn? I was lobbying hard for him in the beginning of the year to make the team. He looks like a player. Davenport is very inconsistent as the big man in our rushing attack. On one play he looks like he can't be brought down and on another, he goes down easily in the backfield. I haven't quite figured him out yet. Not sure if the DumpTruck is the answer to the Bus yet. Will update playoff scenarios after tomorrow night's game between the Bungles and Indy.

Young Steelers Are Impressive

Much like last week, I continue to be impressed by the younger Steelers who simply dominated the Browns last night for the 20th time in 23 games and the last 7 straight. Willie Parker carved them up for a team record 220 plus yards on the ground. Ben looked sharp as well and moved around superbly in the pocket. Anthony Smith brought the wood and had two tremendous hits, almost breaking somebody in half. Collinsworth actually made me laugh when he referred to his playing days saying once the Steelers were up, they didn't care about interceptions - they were trying to send people to the hospital and taunting you and laughing at you while they were doing it. Nate Washington continues to develop and makes me wonder again....did we make the right selection in the first round this year? How much better than Nate is Santonio Holmes? Imagine for a second that we passed on Holmes and took LenDale White. We would have our big back - and maybe...just maybe....we would have won 2 of the games where Holmes fumbled away punts or kickoffs. Holmes has better numbers than Nate, but he's also had more opportunities. Time will tell. I'm not rooting against Holmes, I'm just trying to decide if our receiver situation warranted a move up in the draft and a first round pick.

The Hitters Are Back

Did everyone see Anthony Smith level JR Reid the other night? Was that classic? He was going to make the team anyway - but that hit sealed the deal. Sweet. Look at the hitters the Steelers have who don't even start....Smith, Carter, Harrison. I was impressed and not worried at all about their record. Their record is really a reflection of just how bad Boyd and Jacobs are. Pee-yew, they STANK. I'm fine with 2 QBs and Ced as the emergency QB. Also, I was glad to see Kuhn doing well. I seriously think Staley will be cut and Kuhn will be the new "big man". I just hope Cowher isn't a lame duck and allows Duce to hang around too long - it will remind me of Kordell. I still can't believe Korky almost took us the entire way in '97 and then forgot how to play after that. Well, it was a combination of things...too many Offensive Coordinators, defenses that adjusted to him, injuries to the line....but in the end, Cowher gave him too many chances out of being stubborn because he selected Korky and Donahoe wanted Jim Miller. In reality, neither was a bonafide NFL QB. Man, we had some laughers inbetween Bradshaw and Roethlisberger didn't we? Could we name them all? Let's try. Without using the internet - these are the bad apples I remember: Mike Kruzek, Cliff Stoudt, Mark Malone, David Woodley, Todd Blackledge, Bubby Brister, Neil O'Donnel, Korky, Jim Miller, Kent Graham, Tommy Maddox. Did I miss anyone who started more than a handful of games? Aha, Mike Tomczak. Glad they cut him....my wife thought he was cute.