Yeah, I thought about it. I can afford it and to be honest, watching the Steelers is one of the few things I genuinely look forward to. But I hate Comcast so much that I am reluctant to give them any extra.
Every year it’s the same thing from you. I understand, though. It’s OK to be bitter, I would be too if I were a Browns fan.
I’m concerned about today as well, but I think that the defense is going to shut down Chris Johnson, leaving Vince Young to win it. It remains to be seen whether he can do it with his arm. If Dixon makes good decisions the Steelers will be fine. I predict another low-scoring game, and because of that Pittsburgh has a decent chance.
14-10 Pittsburgh.
I agree with your analysis, in terms of us shutting down their run game, and I hope you’re right. However, I think Young will have a bit more success than just one touchdown, and I fear that the Titans d-backs will hold on to more errant Dixon passes than the Falcons did.
I’m curious to see how our running game does. I don’t think it will help us win, but it may be a better test than the Falcons. If we can average about three yards against the Titans, I’ll feel even better about our chances this year. Heck, I’ll be pleased if we are able to use the running game with marginal success from a situational perspective.
I’d be happy to see the running game work well enough to just keep moving the chains and eating up the clock. Beat Chris Johnson the same way you beat Peyton Manning. By keeping them off the field.
I’m off to watch the game. Here’s hoping that as usual, I’m wrong… 
Go Steelers!
Geez, TD, Turnover and fights in the first minute. Don’t miss a minute of this game!
So, the Steeler D appears to be simply awesome this year. I hated the offensiveplay calling today, but the D was so good I just can’t complain much. 7 turnovers. Wow. And they were almost all forced by the D, not mistakes on the Titans part. Hold Chris Johnson to practically nothing was impressive as well.
So, 2-0 to start, and a good chance to go 3-0 next week. Sole possession of first for now. Anyone still think we’ll finish last?
Am I reading the box score of the Pittsburgh game correctly? Did the Titans have seven turnovers?
ETA: Should have read JMan’s post more closely. Apparently they did. Along with another 3 fumbles that they recovered on their own. Was the weather awful?
Well I was completely wrong. The Titans are way more one dimensional than I thought they were. I knew we would contain Johnson (although the Steelers run D completely shut him down), but I thought Young was better than he appeared to be today. Nice work by Hoke filling in more than adequately again today.
Our offense performed about as well as I expected, but I was disappointed that Batch wasn’t more productive. Much of the time, he was making good throws and not getting help, or getting a TD play called back for holding.
Our run game wasn’t special, but if we had the ability to pass for short yardage reliably, it would have been fine. Mendenhall averaged 3 yards a carry. We’re not going to be able to control the clock with the running game, but when Roethlisberger’s back, people won’t be able to key on the run as much as they are.
Being 2-0, with Baltimore and Cincinnati being 1-1 and Cleveland 0-2, halfway through Roethlisberger’s suspension, feels pretty damn good.
Holy hell, what a game. Are the planning on testing my BP meds *every *week? Great D, thank goodness Troy is back!
I called that, though I had no idea that the Titans would turn the ball over 7 times. As expected, the Steelers offense was ineffective, but with a defense like that you have to ask whether it even matters. Just imagine how potent they’ll be when Ben comes back. I think it’s safe to say that even if the Steelers win all 4 games during Ben’s suspension there won’t be any quarterback controversy.
Are you ever right there. When you get solid play from a position you sometimes forget what it was like to get mediocre play there. We’re seeing just how good Ben is. The offensive line will still be the shits with him in there but at least 3rd and 8 will be makeable again. Right now they might as well punt or run it up the middle on those downs. I love Pouncey but the rest of the line is below average. Adams is a shell of his former self, Essex is just plain bad, Kemoeatu has moments where he looks great but just as many plays where he’s completely lost out there.
I agree. 3rd and 4 shouldn’t be an insurmountable down and distance, and with Ben back, it won’t be.
If they don’t go with Leftwich, they ought to strongly encourage Dixon to use his feet more. At this point, I don’t care about his developing his skills as a passing quarterback. I care about winning two games, and the offense was most effective yesterday, such as it was, when Dixon was taking off and running.
On the other hand, how many times is Hines Ward going to drop a ball like he had in the end zone? Not many, I’d wager. Even the one that Heath Miller dropped, which was tough given the coverage, is one he’s probably going to make more often than not. And clearly, the one ref didn’t know the rules, often observed by SenorBeef, that you don’t call holding against the Steelers, especially when it nullifies a touchdown reception.
Troy is great and the D plays so much better with him but I think Aaron Smith being back is almost as important.
Also nice to see the special teams can score points instead of just sucking.
Me neither. Actually, at this point I don’t have much confidence that he’ll ever be anything more than the stopgap he is right now. His scrambling skills are nice and all but I don’t like being surprised that my QB throws a ball twenty yards downfield. Of all the things that Ben does well it’s his third down performance (which he honed so well in the running era with Jerome Bettis) that makes him so special. I know Dixon’s only started three games but he hasn’t looked right back there. Batch played better, I think guys were surprised to see balls thrown near their hands.
We can all see the change in the D when Troy is on the field. When Smith is playing well we see the change in Timmons and Harrison being able to get to the ball and force things to happen like we saw yesterday. I thought it spoke volumes when Lebeau said last season that he could count on one hand the number of times he’s seen Aaron Smith effectively blocked by opposing teams. He’s huge to this defense.
The weather was perfect (if anything, it was a little bit too warm for some of the players).
I have a question about the spectacular goal line play where Polamalu leaped over the line at the exact snap of the ball and landed on Collins as soon as he touched the ball (seen here). Since they were already at the one yard line, and being penalized half the distance to the goal isn’t much of a deterrent at that point, what’s the downside to having a player continually try to jump the snap until the get it right? If they time it wrong, the ball gets moved forward a few inches and you try again. Is there something in the rulebook that would prevent Polamalu from trying to leap over the line 30 times in a row until he got it right?
The report on Dennis Dixon: torn lateral meniscus. He’s going to be out a few weeks. Byron Leftwich was re-signed today (he was cut to open up a roster spot for a defensive player on Sunday), but nobody is sure if he can go or not. So it looks like Batch, maybe Leftwich, and then who? Hines? Randle-El? Me?
The offense is in the hurt locker. If I were Tampa I’d stack 9 in the box and dare Batch to throw. Tampa already sucks, they have nothing to lose by doing it, and thus far there’s no evidence that the Steelers can even complete a pass under pressure. If Mendenhall gets 50 yards this next week I’ll be surprised as they’ll be waiting for him on every play. Thank God the defense is one of the best I’ve ever seen, maybe they can score the points that the offense can’t.
Dang. Batch and a limping Leftwich. I wonder if they’ll do some roster juggling again and sign another QB for insurance. Sunday, the Titan’s announcers said that Randel El would have been the next in line if Batch went down, and that sounds right to me.
BTW, injuries aside, I think the Steelers have a great lineup of backup QB’s. Batch does quite well for a backup, and I remember back when Leftwich was with the Jaguars. He led them to a win against the Steelers in 2005 (their Super Bowl year), and he looked incredible that game. Dunno much about Dixon, but he didn’t give the game away on Sunday, so that’s a plus. It would be nice if any of them could stay healthy.
BTW, looks like someone had some fun with Wikipedia:
[quote=“Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank, post:78, topic:553239”]
that’s classic. Wiki is great like that
the question really was, however…how long would Batch really get to play.
2008 didn’t even make it out of pre season
2009 1 game (not the whole game) 1 completion
Relevant link on Aaron Smith. Not much but nice to see him finally getting credit for all he does.