Those are fair assessments.
The last few games have been all over the place. Many bullshit calls against the raiders but it was a fairly easy win. Lots of penalties against Buffalo but most of those were on O-linemen and were completely legitimate. I thought last nights game was pretty fairly done aside from the Miller non-call; that was a big one though.
Sure, it might have been easy to miss the blow to Roethlisberger’s face if you weren’t looking. I think the point is that it seems they look pretty clearly for some quarterbacks and not for others. For instance, last week, Ben was injured after a second Bill piled on when he was down on his knees, and there was no flag thrown. Similarly, did they change the rule about facemasking including the rim of the helmet all the way around, including on the back of the helmet? Used to be that you couldn’t grasp the back of the helmet either, but during Ben’s Great Escape last night, he took some blows to the head and Suggs restrained him by grabbing the rim of his helmet on the back.
I guess if you choose where to look, you can miss a lot of these kind of calls.
I don’t necessarily agree that the refs are quicker to protect some quarterbacks than others – how could you make that determination with any kind of certainty? – but I’m also not sure that it wouldn’t make sense to treat a QB like Ben Roethlisberger a little differently. His whole game (hell, for that matter, the Steelers’ whole offense) is built around using his feet and his bulk to evade and shrug off defenders as he extends the play and makes something happen. If you’re going to behave like a really physical ball-carrier who just happens to be in the pocket most of the time, should you really expect the same kind of protection that a Manning-type pocket passer gets? In spirit, these rules are intended to protect defenseless players from vicious hits, but, more than any other QB, Roethlisberger is hardly ever defenseless.
I had forgotten about the facemask from Suggs. That one should get called every time too. It wasn’t intentional from Suggs, he let go very quickly but even so it’s a penalty that they rarely miss. The swat where Ben’s nose got twisted was certainly a blow to the head and should have been a penalty but, broken nose or not, doesn’t have the danger of a facemask or helmet-to-helmet hit on a defenseless Heath Miller. I can file that one under “shit happens”. Speaking of Heath. As much as we all like to argue about whether Ward or Harrison play dirty no one can accuse Heath Miller of playing beyond the rules. It’s a shame to see that happen.
Hey, believe me, I’d prefer to see things called in a more “old school” fashion. I’m not a fan of this move towards “any contact to the quarterback’s head” draws a flag business. But if the league decides those are the rules, those should be the rules. Just because Ben is big and tough and can play with a broken foot and broken nose, doesn’t mean the threshold should be any different for him.
Personally, the only helmet to helmet stuff that I think should reliably draw the flag is the classic DB leaving his feet to nail a receiver after the ball sails out of bounds by 15 feet kind of thing. The hit by Clark on Wes Welker, for instance, or Ronnie Lott’s whole career are the sort of thing I have in mind.
I was thinking about Roger Goodell a little bit last night, and I was wondering if for some reason the league office was under the impression that what the fans really wanted to see was more involvement of the refs in determining the outcome of the game through extremely subjective decision-making. Just from the pure standpoint of keeping your customers happy, embarking on this mid-season merry jaunt into a highly subjective and game-impacting revision of how refs are to look at things seems like it ought to be the end of Goodell’s term.
I’m a Pats fan, so I’m generally rooting against the Steelers, but I must admit I was pulling for them by the end of last night’s game. There were so many bullshit non-calls and bullshit calls by the refs, it overpowered my innate Steeler dislike 
If that were my team, I would be quite proud of the way they pulled that one out (if one can be proud of something one has absolutely nothing to do with).
I hate to admit it but I’m impressed with Bruce Arians’ playcalling of late. The protection issues aren’t his fault and we’ve seen some nice quick passes which were missing from the arsenal. If he resurrects the TE screen that I think would work so well for this line I might even join his fan club (OK, I wouldn’t actually do that).
Very nice clutch catches by Johnson and Redman following some poor play by veterans like McFadden and Ward.
The only guy in the league who’s more is a Steeler killer than Suggs is Tom Brady. He’s been doing this to our guys for his entire career.
It was strange to see an end around get blown up for a big loss and not have it be the steelers on offense. I didn’t see all that much short yardage passing last night even though I was screaming for it all night long, but there was more than usual. We still rely way too much on the deep drop 20 yard passing routes with a checkdown option.
What did you think about the pass to Wallace on 3rd and goal from the 5? I suppose it had the advantage of being something that no one in their right mind would expect. Perhaps Arians hoped to make them so cross that they would make a mistake.
I think that was Arians not having faith that the line could protect long enough to get anyone open. I’m having a selective memory about the short passes but the hot read to Redman (of all people!) and the slant to Wallace were nice. No one in the building would have faulted Redman if he had dropped that pass but he snagged it, protected it and turned downfield. I loved that.
It’s so hard to tell how well the D-linemen are doing unless they are getting blown up but I thought Ziggy Hood held up well last night.
Does anyone else understand why Randle El is still in the lineup? I don’t see him bringing anything to this team right now.
These words…you say these things, but they make no sense!
Does not compute!
Does not compute!
Overload…
Overload…
OVERLOAD!!!..
poof
Great game!
The ref’s on the other hand…
The good news however was I honestly thought Heath Miller was never going to walk again after seeing the replay while he was still on the ground. So glad when he got up under his own power.
Aaron Smith started lifting weights today. Next MRI in two weeks. Fingers crossed, this could be huge for our defense.
Here is a great article by a former O-lineman discussing the methods Baltimore used to get favorable match-ups against our line last week. Warning: it’s not pretty. Unsurprisingly, the only guy to get a favorable review is Pouncey. I’m quite sure the second blitz described in this article, the delayed TED is similar to one of the blitzes Dick Lebeau has been using.
What a great analysis. Clearly there is a lot for opponents to exploit regarding our offensive line, and the fragility of the team in that and a lot of other areas makes me quite pessimistic. I’m actually very concerned for the future, because we clearly need to draft offensive linemen, but we also need to shore up our secondary and our real strengths at linebacker and d-line are starting to push up against age boundaries. I’m just not sure how we address all those needs in a reasonable time frame.
The team doesn’t need to be perfect, just good enough to win. So far Colbert hasn’t shifted on a first-round pick so we can have some faith there. I agree with you in our needs; we’ll need a free safety before long too. Hopefully we can have another draft like last year’s. They did a pretty good job there I think.
^ “shifted” should have been “whiffed” - stupid auto-correct.
The march hits a bump in the road this afternoon, boys and girls!
And that bump the Steelers will feel will likely be them steamrolling the Bengals.
badump
“Did we just run over something?”
“I don’t know, back up and check!”
thump-thump
“Hey, there’s a dead tiger here in the road!”
Well, it does seem like the away team in the Pit/Cin series wins way more than they should.
Go… Bengals…
Yes, go Bengals!
The score will be closer than the records indicate. Cincinnati wasted a lot of time tryin to establish the run last time. This time they should be smart enough to target TO early and often until Pgh shows an ability to adapt to it.