FAN: Steelers Destroy Patriots

It was a beautiful day for football, wasn't it? The Patriots smacked around at home. Ahh, everything will be fine in the universe for the next 6 days. Not much to say about the game other than my random musings which begin now: Willie showed a nice burst on his first carry. During the Steeler's first offensive series, shouldn't we have run more? Belichick in hoodie down - stupid, Belichick in hoodie up - stupider. Early in the game, starting a series inside their own 15, after already giving up a pick and a score, we threw three straight times on a three and out. I like Russel and Holmes returning kicks and punts. After Holmes scored on a nice move off a pump fake - Dan Dierdork mentioned it 5 times and yet they failed to show the move on replay. Fat Casey got mad and had a sack 2 plays later....his first of the year. Does that mean he's not trying hard enough the rest of the time? Troy Polamalu's spin move to get an extra 15 yards on his pick was something out of 1940. Sweet. When you are winning 23-10 with 9 minutes remaining and your star RB has a recently healed knee....why is he still in the game? Especially when Moore was doing fine. When was the last time Gillette stadium was empty with 10 minutes to play? When Ike Taylor flipped the ball to Jabar Gaffney after Gaffney's miss, it was the most animated Belimort was all day! That's saying something. Instead of being mad that his defense gave up 180 rushing....he was mad at that??? I laugh at your stupidity. With less than 5 minutes to go you could hear Steeler Nation chanting "Here We Go", music to my ears. Last but certainly not least - Dan Dierdorf said 12 times today that the drops didn't look like they were being caused by the rain. Did you see how hard it was raining? He's a nut bag. When it's raining that hard, it's like a thin coating of oil is on the ball when it's spinning like that. It rained the entire warmup and game....hard. Don't tell me from your dry booth you old coot that the rain had nothing to do with the drops. Nothing? Maybe it was hard to see through....hard to pick up the ball.....rain in your eyes....surprised at just how wet the ball was when it hit you..... DORK!

FAN: Ernster Gone, Parker Down

Well, the Steelers cut Paul Ernster (thank God), but they brought back Mitch Berger (my God). Also, in what is becoming too routine, Parker may not play this week. I can't wait for next year to see what Mendenhall can really do. I may pickup the slack from Pittgirl's absence doing the What Were They Really Thinking? bit every once in a while. No time this week, maybe next.

Fast Willie?

Is anyone else getting tired of waiting for "Fast Willie" to be healthy? I think his new nickname should be "Last" Willie....as in how long will he last this time.

One Down, Fifteen To Go

Ok, so I borrowed the image from Pittgirl.......sue me. I know it was the Texans, but my God. We looked unstoppable. Ben was 13 of 14 and sat out the 4th quarter. Nice game. Fast Willie Parker was fast, and a little beefier(?) on the power runs. I'm not sure what I was disappointed about, but this is what I liked in no particular order. I liked Ben getting the ball out quickly. He was quick and decisive. I liked seeing Willie take the corner a few times....he didn't lose the speed when he got hurt last year. I like seeing Lamar Woodley doing his best Greg Lloyd impersonation. I liked seeing Timmons getting in there as well. We have six LBs who can start on any team in the league. I liked the spot on the 4th and 1 on the Shaub sneak (he he). I liked Tomlin's reaction to that play as well. He reminded me of a young Bill Cowher. I think I fell asleep in the 4th quarter at some point due to waking up at 5 AM and running 11 miles starting at the ass crack of dawn, then laying in a hot tub for an hour followed by cleaning out a flat stone patio in preperation for re-sanding it after the game.....why do I mention that? I'm wondering if I missed Limas Sweed? I wanted to see him and I didn't. To continue - I loved the kick coverage. Gay and that other running back did a wonderful job getting down and not allowing the guy to make a move on them.

What didn't I like? The announcers. Randy Cross is horrible. I swear he called Ben "Roethlisberg" a few times. They also say things out their asses that Steeler fans know to be untrue. In a nutshell, they suck. I didn't like seeing Ike Taylor get picked on early. I don't think he's the shut down corner we thought we had a few years ago. He's solid, no more, no less. I wasn't crazy about Anthony Smith making the team this year. Maybe he'll wise up and be more of a thinker this year. Other than that, you can't find many bad things to say. Take it in stride, it was the Texans, but it sure feels good to get week 1 out of the way with a win. Cowher had a knack for slow starts and I hated that aspect of his tenure. Maybe we can get out 2-0 with the Brown Underwear Stains next week.

Rats

Well, the way our defense is playing, I don't think we can compete for the Super Bowl anyway - but Willie Parker being done for the season kind of puts another nail in the coffin. You might not want to believe that at first since Najeh had a good night, but he is too "hot and cold" for me. Maybe if Tomlin can get in his head and make him into an animal overnight.... Maybe he's a guy that needs to be "the man" and he couldn't do that behind Willie so now he'll shine? We'll soon see how tough he is playing against Baltimore in Baltimore. I just wish we had another back who has some speed. None of the other guys are burners, that's for sure. So, what did we learn tonight? Let's kick out some thoughts in no particular order.

I learned that the game (and a lot of other things) can be watched of www.channelsurfing.net even if it isn't on in your area. I'm going to continue to monitor this service to see if I still need to get Direct TV, although it's tough to curl up on the couch to watch a computer monitor. I have Verizon Fios for my phone and internet, but I can't get the TV because I need NFL Ticket to see my boys.

We cover about 1 out of 10 kicks the way a kick should be covered. The other 9 are like "oh shit....oh shit....get him...GET HIM.....shit!....". I'm getting sick of it. Bring back Chidi Owouma! I saw Anthony Smith running like he was a blocker for the ball carrier once instead of turning around and popping him. Did you see that? I backed up the DVR to confirm my suspicion and I was right. He is a raw talent that can hit. He needs to be taught so many other things.

My wife actually sat down tonight and watched 30 minutes of the game with me. First time this year she was there for the beginning of a game. It took her all of 6 minutes to ask "why can't they protect Ben?" When he got buried again 2 minutes after that question and we both "Ooooo'd" at the same time she was all like "he should be mad at them". Yeah. I wouldn't be buying the line Rolex watches for Christmas this year if I was him. I'd be buying them some steroids and/or HGH. The pressure continues to come from everywhere....up the middle...on the edge.... We don't have the ability to stop a pass rush and they refuse to max protect in certain situations. I guess Ben being 6'5" and well past 240 has something to do with that.

Rossum played well tonight minus the one muff. Ha Ha....I said "muff". He had a few decent runs after making the catch tonight.

Hello Nate Washington! Way to squeeze the pigskin, baby!

Hello Ike Taylor!! Pick-6! After failing to stop most passes that came his way tonight, he latched onto one and took it home. Good job. Stopping Bruce is a tough assignment for anyone. DeShea played well too as Torry Holt was madder than a hornet most of the night.

I don't think Sean Mahan is the man at center that we thought he was. Look for other experiments next camp.

Troy Polamalu is an outstanding talent and it's tough to critique anything he does, but is it just me or does it seem like he whiffs more times than not when he dives headfirst into people's legs? Would he be better off staying on his feet and meeting the ball carrier and holding them up waiting for help rather than going low and missing? Maybe he should just get in their way and get low and take the blow or wait a second longer before exploding into them, but from what I see, he launches too early giving the ball carrier time to make a slight adjustment and get around him. I don't know. It's tough to say. It just seems like that on a lot of longer runs and yards after a catch, I see a "43" come flying into the screen only to exit the screen quickly as the ball is still being advanced.

Nice fake punt! Danny has an arm!

Dick LeBeau needs to come up with a scheme this week to sack whatever shitty quarterback the Ravens throw out there about 8 times. The defense needs some confidence. The Ravens offense should provide it. We need to relearn punishing a quarterback and this is the week to do it.

And lastly, what the heck with Deion and Marshall in the booth? Where was Collinsworth? I'm not a huge fan of Chris Collinsworth, but compared to most people available today, he's in the upper echelon of announcers....especially for color during games. Deion and Marshall would let Bryant make the call and then they would go silent. When they did talk, I had a hard time understanding every word they said. Neither has a career in announcing. I don't enjoy either of them on NFL Network type programming, let alone doing a live game. Deion still thinks it's all about him and Marshall is too vanilla. Bryant tried to ask questions and tried to get them to follow up comments they made with substance, but substance never came. I'm pretty sure I could have done a better job then Beavis or Butthead.

"Till The Wheels Fall Off....."

I don't remember the exact date that new head coach Mike Tomlin told the world he was going to run Willie Parker until the wheels fell off, but I remember being happy about it. Especially since I had been hearing Bruce Arians crow the entire off-season that the offense was opening up and we should get ready for some vertical football. I did not like hearing that. I don't mind opening up the offense a little, but you don't mess with success. Now, being that Parker was in the mix of league leaders for rushing and being that the Denver Broncos were so bad statistically against the run, you would think that Fast Willie would be in for a long day. In fact, he got used less than Rosie O'Donnell's treadmill. After the game everyone wanted to know 'Why?'. Tomlin explained that he knew Shanahan would gear up to stop the run this week. Plus, I'm not sure Tomlin said it, but Champ Bailey couldn't go and that meant fresh meat in the secondary. After a few days to let all of this marinate - here's what I think about the number of times Willie touched the ball. Let's say they did put 7-8 guys in there and we still pounded it up the middle for 3 quarters getting nowhere. Then, the Monday morning pundits would have called them idiots for not throwing on Bailey's replacement. Had Hines squeezed a few more balls and had the offensive line pass blocked a little better, maybe we would all be calling them wizards for constructing such a great game plan. I want to say they adjusted well because we came back in the 2nd half, but when your QB is saying "Hike" and then immediately running for his life, don't you have to run a little more to try and curb that? I don't know. Sometimes the best thing against a pass rush is a screen pass. I'm not too sure how many screens we saw that night. Anyone? What I know is this, every time the Steelers lose a game and they throw more than 22 times, all you hear out of the blathering idiots is "The Steelers need to get back to running the ball....". Fine. But, if the defense held after the TD and somehow we kicked a FG as time ran out - then what? Would the critics still be saying we need to run more to win? I doubt it. I think the TV analysts have a secret decoder ring. If you turn the ring to Team: Steelers and Outcome: Loss the secret code analysis is always "They need to run more". I hope they don't get too tricky and think "Well, The Bungles know we're going to really try to run it down their throats this week......so let's pass!" We don't need to be 65-35 or 60-40. We don't need to be 50-50 either. How about a nice conservative 56-44? We shouldn't change mule fritters based on the other team's strengths and weaknesses. Our strength is running the ball. In the beginning of games, we run the ball until they prove they can stop it.....then adjust accordingly. Until they stop it, why ruin a good thing?

Things That Make Me Go "Hmmmmm"

Willie Parker is listed at 5-10, 209. I'm guessing that 209 is more like 201. Najeh Davenport is 6-1, 247. Local Pitt guy and childhood Steeler fan Kevan Barlow came in for a free agent visit last week. He's listed at 6-1, 234. If Barlow happens to come on board, that would give us three very diverse runners. Parker would still get the bulk of the carries, but having 2 bigger backs would be nice in short yardage situations. Alas, before we get too excited about bringing in Barlow instead of Verron Haynes (who they are still in contact with) look at these numbers: AVG first three years 4.1, 4.7, 5.1. Nice. AVG last 3 years: 3.4, 3.3, 2.8. Yikes! He was more of a role player in the beginning of his career and when asked to carry the load later, he faltered. Maybe a situation of sharing the load again would do everyone good? I'm on the fence about this one. To me, it looks like it may be an insurance policy for Parker. Having an experienced runner if Fast Willie goes down would be better than what's on the waiver wire at that point in time. If the price is right - I could be convinced.

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.

Fast Willie Makes Some Fast Cash

Doing what they do best, the Steelers today locked up Willie Parker for 4 years while he was already under contract. The deal is reportedly worth $13.6 million dollars with a signing bonus of around $3.5 million. What's super about a deal like this is that they get a young player, who gained notoriety in the Super Bowl, who isn't making a ton of cheddar yet...and they dangle $3.5 million in front of him to sign right now and he has little choice but to do so. These guys want money and they don't want to wait for it. The Steelers would MUCH rather have $13.6 over 4 years with less than $4 million guaranteed as opposed to $13.6 over 4 years with $8-$9 million up front. It's a wonderful job by the front office and a fantastic contract in my opinion. Now we'll see if they get Ben or Troy done before the season starts. I would think Troy comes first, but we'll have to wait. I don't think he's more important, but he has fewer years left on his contract.