...randomness surrounding Guided by Voices, Robert Pollard, and other great indie rock bands; a quasi objective look at "my" sporting teams; the random horror film; plus other crap as we see fit...all with a Pittsburgh based feel.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Steelers DON'T win the Superbowl


My my how things change in less than 1 month. OK...so I was dooped into thinking our O-Line woes were behind us after an impressive performance against Houston. WOW, was I wrong. And that's a first (the "me wrong" part).

There. I said it. I WAS WRONG. Because our offensive line is...

Atrocious. Pathetic. Abysmal. The WORST in the NFL (at least in terms of pass blocking). There is absolutely no way Ben Roethlisberger makes it through this season. Dude is running for his life every time he drops back to pass. Matter of fact, I'd wager that Dennis Dixon will see significant playing time at some point this season. You know Big Ben's flair for the dramatic, and if he's not legitimately injured, he'll at least cop out at some point. And if #7 doesn't stand a chance of surviving, how's a big armed statuesque Byron Leftwich gonna salvage himself. I see visions of Byron's Marshall days when his O-Lineman had to carry him down the field after he got his tits continually buried in that bowl game. Analysts said last week that teams would copycat Philly and blitz us from every angle. But I'm not sure that's necessary. Why blitz everyone when you can get pressure simply RUSHING 4 on 5 EVERYTIME?!?!?!?

The sad part of this whole situation is: WE KNEW ABOUT IT. The poor OL play was the downfall last year. And it wasn't addressed. Instead of getting help in the draft, we get a back-up RB and a WR who can't even get dressed...let alone get on the field. OK...I understand the whole "draft the best athlete" strategy, so maybe an OL-man wasn't in the cards come draft day (speaking of...where's Tony Hills?). But what about free agency?!?! Max Starks goes from a Superbowl winning OT...to a $6 million/year waste of a substitute who NEVER sees the field. Whose bowl of soup did Max fart in?? Surely that $6 mil could've been spent elsewhere...dare I suggest on Alan Faneca?

Sorry...but I'm tired. MAKE PLAYS!

Speaking of making plays, faithful EC readers (all 3 of you) know I'm hard on Ben at times. But #7 came up BIG TIME last night. Remember the "leader" talk last week? I retract that...for the time being. Big Ben led last night. Perhaps this is a sign of things to come up. Unfortunately, he's gonna end up getting kilt before this evolution of Ben can continue.

And now Kendall Simmons is OUT for the YEAR. The hits just keep coming.

The burning question is this:

What's Worse? The Steelers O-Line or the AFC North? Because I have a feeling it's the latter, so we'll fortunately make the playoffs again. But just as predicted in the pre-season (before the Houston game), that's about as far as it'll get us.

Speaking of the AFC North...how 'bout that Browns / Bengals match-up? Riveting stuff. And people don't understand why I advocate soccer. We watched about 10 minutes (OK..half of that was commercial time) before we were saved by the Milan derby (Jose?!?! WTF is going on??? Not so special, my friend.)

More Props for the Beloved (after all, we did win the game):

Mike Tomlin. As bad as I believe the personnel strategy has been been in the off-season, at least he got Bruce Arians attention after last week's performance. So kudos, for that. Coach doesn't seem the type to sit back. Arians sucked last week, and Tomlin obviously won't tolerate it. I like that. Holding people accountable is obviously one of Tomlin's strengths.

And kudos to Arians for at least showing the willingness to adjust this time. The hurry-up that Ben employed was a great change, and I believe we saw some max-protection, sending only 2 guys into routes at times. But how long will that last? It's only a matter of time before the ultimate deficiency on the OL will be revealed again. Hopefully, there are no more casualties.

Hines...beautiful beatdown block on Ed Reed. Loved it!

Welcome back Najeh!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Whos bowl of soup did you fart in?" haha

That Ward hit on Reed was phenominal.. did you see that punk take a swing at Hines after the fact?

Also.. check out this vid at about 1:17 and watch Santonio's block:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2BDmtW3nkk

I love that effort. At this point in his career, I would seriously doubt he'd be doing that without having played with Hines. We have sound from Holmes AFTER his touchdown going crazy, not about his score but about his block, haha.

And Gary.. about all of these injuries and offensive line woes and blah, blah, blah... There's one thing you need to keep in mind.


Our standard of expectation hasn't changed.

Anonymous said...

that last post was from me by the way.

gary said...

Our standard of expectation hasn't changed

HILARIOUS!!!!!!!!!! I just spit on my new monitor, dammit.

Dave Weldon said...

The Redskins on the other hand gang...will win..the...su..per...b..o.wl..

Pittsburgh Pickup Broomball said...

Geeze, with all these injuries, Tomlin had so many excuses not to make.

I'm displeased with your lack of faith, Gary. This will be noted in your records.

P.S. Wasp is so going down this week.

gary said...

Rohde called me a fair weather fan the other. I'm just trying to be realistic, my fellow fans of the Beloved.

When I said at the end of the NHL regular season last year, that the Pens will win the Cup...I subjectively thought so. Same goes here...I think the Stillers will win the Division, and bow out early in the playoffs. A team with an offensive line like ours doesn't win Superbowls.

Trust me...i'll root and scream and smack you in the face with my Terrible Towl just the same. I hope I'm proven wrong. But if past history is any indication...

I am never wrong.

And you just made the list with that last comment, buddy!

I christen thee...THE FLYING WASP!