They Are Who We Thought They Were

Wow. I mean I expected to win, but geez. The Bengals are in complete disarray. They need to fire several people and I fear the head coach might be one of them. Maybe he can come back to Pittsburgh if LeBeau retires anytime soon. Some random thoughts from the game:

When the announcers said at the very beginning of the game that the fumbled snap was a product of the bye week, I say patooties. They still practiced the entire week leading up to the game. They are professionals. They've been snapping and accepting snaps for a long time.

When the announcers said Bruce Arians' offense has evolved, I was thinking, "evolved into what exactly?" I love how they wait for a 39 yard play before they say that. If Hines is tackled right after the catch, does he make the same comment?

I forget who said it, but after an immediate hit of a returner by Ryan Clark, the one announcer made a comment about the Steelers always being good in the kicking game. Huh? What? Are you shitting me? Has he watched this team the last 4 years, cause I have. This is the first year in a long time that I haven't been holding my breath on every kick...and I'm not completely past it yet.

Najeh makes me nervous catching kickoffs. Do you see how high he catches it before tucking it away?

That rookie Rivers got welcomed to the NFL bigtime courtesy of Hines Ward. He'll never do that again without looking around. I think having Hines out there is enough to make those guys nervous on plays like that.

It took 5 guys to tackle Heath Miller. I think Heath and Spaeth are the best 1-2 TE combination in the league. Also, if that announcer said "Two Tights" one more time I was going to throw something through my new TV.

Mewelde Moore may be the free agent pickup of the year for any team in the league. had they not signed him, where would we be?

I've seen maybe 20 games where Leftwich has QB'd. Has he always had that big and slow of a windup, or was it more pronounced today?

Did you see Carson Palmer on the sidelines? He's a young man and he already looks like a 45-year old science teacher. He's like Phil Mickelson. When Phil was 27 he looked 40. Damn! As I get closer to 40 I pay a lot of attention to those things!

Steelers - Jags Guest Post : The Dog Weighs In

Game Recap By Still A Dog:

Big Ben gave us a gutsy 300-yard, 3 TD performance. James "Silverback" Harrison and LaMarr Woodley caved in the Jags pocket in a classic pinser movement. But as I reflect on last night's win in Jacksonville it's the unsung and taken for granted players that made it happen for us.

To start, those guys are Aaron Smith, Darnell Stapleton, and Chris Hoke. Linemen all. You all will remember how our defense crumbled when Smith did not play at the end of last season. And last night you saw how effective Dick LeBeau's defense can be when Aaron Smith comes to work and does his job. Everything Le Beau does with his safeties and linebackers is predicated on rock solid line play. If the line play is weak, all his fancy schemes and stunts are just French pastry.

And that leads me to the next guy who is taken for granted, Chris Hoke. Hoke has filled in time and again for Fat Casey Hampton. When Fat Casey is out of breath Hoke comes in, when Fat Casey is hurt, Hoke comes in, when Fat Casey is in Tomlin's doghouse, Hoke comes in. And in the last two weeks Hoke has more than filled in for Casey Hampton. He has clogged the middle AND made plays in run stop and pass rush that I dare say I haven't seen Hampton make recently. So if strong line play is essential to Le Beau's defense it is Hoke and Smith that are the reason the talking heads are telling you what a great tackler Troy Polamalu is. I don't even think Troy's the best tackler on this defense let alone the NFL. But John Madden (once a Raider always a Raider) is just a windbag anyway. Hoke and Smith do give us the ability to play Polamalu in some unusual situations that an offense is not prepared for.

And on offense, Darnell Stapleton. I watched his play carefully last night and he is better than Kendall Simmons hands down. Why this man was riding the bench when that putrid Simmons started the first 3 games, I'll never know. But I was very pleased with Stapelton's play. He sealed the lane twice which sprung Mewelde Moore on long runs. And it was not his man that got to Big Ben, not once that I saw. And speaking of other things offensive line related that I don't understand, when Marvel Smith went out why did Trai Essex come in? I thought for sure we'd see Max Starks at LT. He finished the season there last year and did a decent job. We pay the man 7 million dollars but we never see him except as a Tight End in the goal line jumbo package? Have we not all seen enough of Starks and Essex to know which is the better Tackle??

I'm starting to take Jeff Reed for granted too. But those who have lived with lesser kickers know how many gray hairs those guys can put on your head... right Still A. Dad? Reed has simply become "money" on his kicks. It's easy to take him for granted but he is mucho important to this teams success.

And finally, a big hats off to Still A Fan for gushing over the signing of Mewelde Moore. He was so excited when we got that guy I was dumbfounded. I knew very little of Moore's work in Minnesota and did not see a great deal of value in the signing. Yes, we definitely needed a punt returner. But I did not see the man running the ball from scrimmage much. On punt returns, I was happy to just see Moore able to catch the ball which was an improvement over the last couple years of special teams play. But I had no idea he'd do so well as a pass catcher and runner out of the backfield! He is a "shifty" back. Where Willie Parker relies on pure speed, Moore has more moves than a pole dancer in Vegas. Combined with Parker for speed, and Dump Truck (in lieu of Mendenhall) for power, he is a great compliment RB to have. And Fan was justified in his exhuberance at the signing.

No bitching about Arians this week. Makes me wonder how much input Roethlisberger had in the play calling. I venture that Big Ben called a lot more of the game than we know and than we've seen to date.

We got a bye week now which we desperately need at this stage of the game. I hope everybody heals up and we can make a run from here. I am very pleasantly surprised at the team so far. As with everything else, time will tell.

Steelers Ink Mewelde Moore

Mewelde Moore becomes the next person to try returning punts and kicks for the team. He's young (25) and is a solid 209. Can't remember much about his speed, but he has averaged close to 5 yards per carry for his career, but I'm guessing more than a few of those runs came on 3rd and long as he has a lot of catches and must be in on 3rd downs a lot. He also has tackles listed on his stats so he must be a special teamer in both directions. I'm sure this is also a little protection against Willie Parker injuries as Moore started for a period as a Viking. A typical Steeler free agent signing - nothing fancy, but fills a need.....plus, Moore for Rossum gets the team younger.