The dig would be childish if it weren’t in response to your incessant repetition of “Stealers”, which is not correct and is far more childish than anything I might say. And yes, history does repeat itself, with alarming regularity. Especially in the NFL, and especially with the Lions, who manage to crawl from the muck for a few years and then firmly entrench themselves in it for another decade of futility.
Damn, I should be the one trashing the Steelers since I’m from Baltimore, but I really have no desire to do so. The Ravens’ offense looked almost as bad as the Jets’ last night, but Flacco only gave the Jets one touchdown, while Sanchez gave the Ravens 3.
I’m not going to count the Steelers out, I’ve seen too many times where they get themselves together and make a run into the playoffs and do well there.
Not at all. It goes along with the Pirates, another Pitt institution.
I am not sold on the Lions yet. They have managed to win games that were lost . They could easily have 2 losses by now. I am not about to start a Lions march to the Superbowl thread. It would be setting myself up like you did.
Both lines are looking bad. When people talk about the defense looking old it’s really the d-line getting pushed around. Teams are able to steer Casey Hampton around more than they used too and Aaron Smith just doesn’t look as strong as he used too. That was a big part of the weak run defense yesterday, along with Woodley overrunning the cutback lanes several times. Full credit to Foster for the athletic move he made to dance away from Polamalu’s tackle behind the line of scrimmage. That was unbelievable.
Most of the o-line would be overmatched against a CFL team. I can’t even think about them.
James Harrison out indefinitely with a broken eye socket. That won’t help the defense in intensity or skill. That means Timmons will move outside for this game and Foote will start next to Farrior. I assume Sylvester is the main backup for all the LB spots now with Worilds out. It will be interesting to see what he can do. He appears to be quick enough at least.
The Steelers made a roster move today, and it should be a big help: they re-signed Max Starks and cut Chris Scott. I know why they cut Starks, they were way above the cap and had to get down below it, but I think the Steelers learned a valuable lesson from this whole mess: no matter how good your quarterback is at keeping plays alive, you still have to give him some protection. They tried to cheap out on the offensive line more than usual and it bit them.
I didn’t see the terms of the contract and I’m still not sure about the esoteric details of football finances, but this has to put them over the cap again, doesn’t it? They didn’t have any cap room to spare, if I recall, and Starks must have taken a hell of a pay cut to come back because he hadn’t gotten any offers elsewhere.
Anyway, this is a promising development. Maybe Ben can go a game or two without getting crushed every play.
What fun would that be? 
I’m interested to see this game Sunday. I’ve always felt Matt Hasselbeck could do better if he wasn’t in Seattle, and it looks like he can. With Steeler injuries and bad start, might be a nail-biter.
The Titans, along with the Bills and 49ers are the surprise teams so far this season. I would say the Lions but they were giving indications that they would be good this year at the end of last season.
Hey…maybe Thanksgiving football will be meaningful and fun to watch this season rather than white noise to snooze off the tryptophan to.
I.m happy to hear Starks is coming back but my enthusiasm is tempered by the knowledge that part of the reason for his release was that he lost a lot of strength and gained a lot of weight while he was injured. Hopefully he’s gotten back in shape a bit.
Whoa! When did that happen? I’ve been concentrating on the West again, AFC and NFC. Was it a play? Off field?
He knocked helmets with a lineman and his helmet pad slid down and hit his eye. He stayed with the play though and was in on the tackle but you could tell something was wrong after the play. They were checking him for double vision on the sidelines for a while but he returned so I assumed he would be OK. He had surgery today.
I’m hoping he got into a bit better shape because of his recent tryout with the Vikings; then again, they decided not to pick him up, so I’m not sure that’s a good sign.
No, that doesn’t sound encouraging. On a brighter note, he took half the snaps with the first team in practice and players afterward commented positively on his conditioning. He said all the right things and genuinely has a good attitude about being released and now coming back. If he isn’t ready to go this week at LT I hope we’ll still see him get some reps whether at LT or as an extra lineman to get the run game going.
Casey Hampton has been declared out for this game. I’m afraid this is sounding an awful lot like another loss unless Tennessee has been playing over their heads so far.
This is real class, on a par with Coach Tomlin’s comments about the Ravens after they thoroughly beat the Steelers. Thank you for that, Who_Me?
I wish we had more of this instead of the typical “My team’s great, your team sucks” stuff.
Regardless of inidividual loyalties, it’s shaping up to be a far more interesting season than I think anyone imagined.
Bri2k
Holy Cow what a game!
I confess: I had to work right up until the game, else I would have been eating crow right now. I was going to post that it was not looking good and I was expecting a loss.
I love when I’m wrong on something like this.
Could Max Starks really have been the missing piece on the O-line? I doubt it, but we’ll see how well they play going forward.
And I think Hoke and Hood played well enough to prove that it might be time to start phasing Hampton and Smith out for good. They’re in their 11th and 13th years, respectively, and it’s looking like their best years are behind them now.
I would have posted sooner, but I was at the game and had no time for the Internet this weekend.
The Steelers looked great yesterday. This time you can’t say that it was against the Seahawks (who beat the Giants, hahaha) or some other bottom-feeding team, they beat a solid team and did it soundly. It could have been a lot worse but for that pick that Ben threw at the end of the first half and for the garbage time scores.
I enjoyed seeing the Steelers breaking out the fake punt. I enjoyed it a lot less when the Titans recovered that onside kick, but the interception on the very next play made that a moot point.
If they play like that every week this year will get immeasurably better. It’s good to see that my optimism was not misplaced.
Man, these guys are trying to kill me! First it looks like a blowout, then the second half comes!
A win is a win, but man, I’d rather they didn’t do this to my heart!