FAN: Who Said These Words?

I read these words online tonight. Who said them? I'm going to cut out the fluff and just leave the meat.

On Thursday night the Steelers went from being a great defense to merely a good defense in just one play against the Titans.


People will say, "Well, they still have James Harrison and Casey Hampton and so on..." Irrelevant. Troy's really the only guy on this defense that I see as a full playmaker.


I expect to see him out on the longer side of the projected three to six weeks. If it goes longer, could they win another Super Bowl without him? I don't think so.


One more reason Pittsburgh's in trouble: these Steelers are a mediocre running team on their best day.


The running back I like least on that team is Frank Summers, the rookie fullback. He doesn't seem to understand what's going on. He's missing plenty of blocks, and that's affecting everything. That definitely has to be addressed off the field this week.


The bigger problem, though, is the offensive line. They have no continuity.


This problem isn't anything new, and I blame the coaching staff for not addressing the line in the offseason. How did they rationalize not doing anything about it? Well, they won a Super Bowl. They won't be so lucky twice in a row.

Who said all of those things?


Why your own Jerome Bettis. I only clicked on the link because of the one teaser about John Fox should be fired. I think Coach Cowher called him up and asked him to write that. I remember when Jimmy Johnson set the table for himself by boldly picking the Dolphins to win the Super Bowl the year before he took over coaching them. He wanted to make it seem like a slam dunk so people would be disappointed when they didn't and blame Don Shula.

FAN: Steelers Titans Game Thoughts

My chronological thoughts from the game:

Pop acts completely blow live. Completely. When your music is mostly over produced, why even try? I mean Fergie is fun to look at and maybe she can sing a little....but how could you tell? I would rather hear the song on the radio than watch that snooze fest. Tim McGraw wasn't any better. Blech.

What is with Al Michaels hair? His top front reminds me of me below the waist in 9th grade.

Two huge Special Teams plays in the first five plays of the game. Logan's return and Danny's punt and the cover. Long overdue.....both.

Neither Ed Reed or Bob Sanders can make the play in the backfield that Polamalu made coming from where he started from.

We wuz robbed on the Polamalu PI call. Not even close.

Holmes TD looked too easy, didn't it? Then again, so was the subsequent Titans score.

After Ryan Clark got beat he really messed up. Instead of getting under control and getting his man down on the ground, he went in all crazy and let him go and he went for another 15 easy yards.

Jesus Christ, Jay Leno overload. How on Earth can you take a 30 year old girl seriously on a commercial who says she's been waiting all summer for him to return? Really?

Willie Parker up the middle on their first 3rd and 1? WTF? Are you kidding me? You don't prove you can run up the middle on 3rd and short against the Titans with your small back. There's more.....especially on a night when you're averaging about .3 yards per rush! No way Ben called that play. The retard did.

Through three quarters, Collins is impressing me. He's the Marty Schottenheimer of quaterbacks.

I'm not sure I'm buying what the Steelers are selling about continuity on the O line. They aren't showing me much. If I was O Line, I wouldn't want to watch this game tape tomorrow.

I didn't miss John Madden. Shrug.

Mewelde Moore may want the ball more than Willie Parker and Mendenhall. Still, why do we have to prove we can run for it? How about play action or something...anything else? Please!

Hines should have had two hands on that ball.

Did you see Hines Ward kill Fuller in an OT block?

The fact that we can win that game with that pitiful excuse for a running game is amazing. They need to send the O-Line out to a bar to get into a fight. They need attitude to run the ball.

You Can't Ice A Psychopath!!!!!

Pro Bowl, Who Cares?

Can we please cancel the Pro Bowl this year and for every year after that? It's a sham anyway with the vanilla offenses and blitzless defenses. The stars are already pulling out. Troy Polamalu and Brett Favre pulled out today. Anyone with even a hangnail is going to cancel. Nobody wants to go, especially folks who have been done playing for weeks - it's not like they're still in game shape. They should continue to name the Pro Bowl players, but not play the game. Donovan McNabb was added to the Pro Bowl multiple times after someone bagged (dropped out, not barfed). That doesn't stop it from showing up on his resume though. I would be embarrassed to call myself a Pro Bowler if the only reason I made it was because someone else couldn't go. It's stupid. It's meaningless. It's boring. Not one person I know watches it. Bag it.

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.

T-R-A-P Trap Trap Trap

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.

How Can You Not Like Troy?

A very interesting article on Mr. Polamalu. I got the link from PittGirl's BurghBlog. Thanks for posting it PG.

No Lambert? No Ham?

Peter King from Sports Illustrated was given the task of listing 3 All-Star teams for SI.com. The first is a lineup of All-Time players, the second of current players and the third of future players. For the All-Time team, neither Ham or Lambert is to be found...not even as backups! The four starters are LT, Butkus, Nitschke and Ray Lewis. The backups are Bednarik, Harry Carson and Mike Singletary. You could write paragraphs about one versus the other...but don't tell me for one second that Harry Carson is better than Ham or Lambert. Lambert was also better than Singletary in the middle. It makes me mad to even think about it. Woodson and Blount are the two reserves in the defensive backfield to Deion Sanders, Lott, Lane and Baugh. Joe Greene starts but Mike Webster is missing. I know the entire team can't be Steelers, but Mel Hein at center? He was picked because he played both ways. So what? That's not what this was about! Was he a better center than Iron Mike? Worse, for the current team, Troy Polamalu is not on the list. Nor is he on the list for anyone younger than 28 for the future team!!! What is Peter King smoking? For the current team, he has Ed Reed and...(gulp) Kerry Rhodes starting in the middle. The backup is Bob Sanders. I dare Peter to ask any GM in the league to name the top 3 safeties and lay money on Troy not being one of the 3! My God. On the future team, it's Weddle and Landry in the middle. What a clueless butt of a monkey Peter is. I feel bad for him. He has Tomlin as the coach of the future, but dissing Troy like that? Watch the email flood Steeler Nation piles on his ass over night.

West Coast My Ass

To everyone who thought Troy would play out his contract and go back west, I say "Thhwpt!!". I don't know how to spell a raspberry - but that was my attempt. Polamalu will make $2,810,000 this year with a cap hit of $1,632,000. The extension will begin next season and $15,375,000 during the 2008-2011 seasons is in guaranteed money. The total contract is for $30.19 million over 4 seasons. Football money is getting crazy! I never thought the Stillers would dish out that kind of cheddar for a safety, but with the cap approaching $100 million, I guess arguably the best player on the team deserves that much. Now, what will Ben get next year? Congratulations Troy! It couldn't have happened to a classier guy.

Polamalu Deal Getting Worked Out

Talks have begun between Troy Polamalu's agent and the Steelers on a new deal. Finally! Some good news coming out of Steeler Nation. Some of the complaining over not signing Porter got out of hand given the amount of money the Dolphins were willing to throw at him and his complete disappearance from some games in the past 2 years. It was easy (for me at least) to cut through the sentiment and see why they cut him. Not signing Troy would be the equivalent of trading Babe Ruth to the Yankees in my opinion. You could make a case that if you had to sign either him or Roethlisberger - he should be the choice. I'll get into this more as the negotiations proceed. I'm just hoping the deal can get done for a little less than Ed Reed type money. Troy doesn't seem to be all about the dollars, but he is without a doubt one of if not the best safety in the league. In other Steeler news Chris Hoke resigned for a mere $6 million dollars for 4 years which included a $1.5 million signing bonus. Not a bad contract at all for a career backup type player who knows the system and was very solid the year he filled in as a starter.

I Learn Something New Every Day

After believing the rumors that I constantly read about Troy Polamalu craving the west coast and a return to California, I read something that raised my spirits this morning. Troy and his wife stayed in Pittsburgh for all but 3 days during the off-season. The free spirit who was raised in Oregon and attended college at USC loves the mountains, rivers and valleys of western PA. That's good news for Steeler fans as I thought as his contract came to an end he would look to return "home". One thing that is a little scary in the same article has Troy pointing out that Coach Cowher treats his players well and that's another reason why he would like to remain here. Well, hopefully this won't turn into a situation where Cowher leaves and then the players scatter! If Bill Cowher decides to retire after this season or next, I can only hope and pray that they already have an agreement in place with Russ Grimm to take over. There aren't too many people that I would be happy with, but having a guy coach the team that grew up playing highschool ball less than 10 miles from where I grew up would be fantastic. The Rooneys believe in building from the center out, starting with the offensive line.....who better to take over?

Upon Further Review

I rewatched Super Bowl XL last night on NFL Network's Game of the Week. It's sort of the Reader's Digest version which is edited down to 60 minutes of slow motion, Harry Kalas voice-overed clips. It was very entertaining to say the least because Bill Cowher was miked-up and hilarious. In no particular order, here are the things that stood out to me seeing the game for the second time:

D-Jack's pushoff looked worse when I saw the angle from further away and you could actually see Hope's knees react to the pressure. He actually "jumped" backwards about 6 inches. Since this all happened right in front of the ref, he simply had to call it. No doubt.

Ben's "phantom TD" as some people are calling it was most definitely a TD. What's funny is that he was telling people on the sidelines that he didn't think he got it in. Troy Polamalu went up to Coach Cowher and asked him if he wanted him to take it over the top (if they went for it on 4th down). I wonder if that's something they practiced?

Jeremy Stevens absolutely caught and made a football move before losing the football early in the game.

Bill Cowher screamed "CLOCK!!" about 15 times in a row late in the game when the officials failed to run the clock after resetting the ball after Townsend's sack. He looked like he needed to be medicated at that point. It made me laugh out loud. He did thatnk Bill Leavy after 6 seconds were put back on even though he asked for 10.

Someone on Seattle's sideline called Joey Porter a bleepity bleep coward in the third quarter pointing out that he was quiet the entire first half and was now talking smalck once they were up 14-3. I couldn't identify the player but he was a large white man leading me to believe that it was an offensive linemen.

Cowher asked Whiz (Ken Whisenhunt) for a gadget play to get something going and Whiz complied by calling the reverse to Hines Ward that went for about 15 yards and did get something started.

The people complaining about the bad call on Hasselbeck's "block"/tackle (which in truth was a bad call) seem to forget that the reverse pass TD came shortly after that and it would have scored a TD from wherever they ran it. Those penalty yards were almost meaningless.

Antwaan Randle El made a hell of a play when he chased down Herndon after the interception near the endzone. He may have scored had Antwaan not chased him down. Much like the Champ Bailey pick in the Broncos/Patriots game - i cannot believe the blockers in these situations don't look around for people to hit. Randle El went around 2 people to get to Herndon and if either of them had turned and looked, they would have seen him and picked him off. Lucky for us I guess.

Hines Ward's non TD catch was CLEARLY more catchable than I had originally thought. They didn't show enough replays of this, but he really should have caught that ball. Thats another thing you can add to the long list of things Seattle fans don't want to remember. It could have very easily been 14-3 at the half.

Willie Parker may have a Shawn Alexander type season next year. Think about it, he got 1,200 yards and they were pretty quiet. Imagine him getting 20-25 touches per game. 2 Seattle defenders could have stopped that play but they both underestimated his speed. One was slow to the HUGE hole created by Alan Faneca and the other (Pruitt I think) took a poor angle once he was through the hole. Much like the Colts, the Steelers may force defenses to play mostly base sets next year if they can't guess what's coming at them.