Since moving north this spring, I’m apparently only going to get to see the Steelers play when the Bills are at home. The Bills. Really? They still play football? And they’re going to make me leave the house on some Sundays because they still play football in Buffalo? Why couldn’t Cleveland be our blackout market in Erie? At least it would make me hate them more…but nooooo gotta be the Bills. It’s hard to muster up any feeling at all about them.
I’m with Weirddave on this one. 20-19 is a fluke. 26-21 could generously be called a fluke. But a combined score of 58-7 in two games, however, is the kind of score you’d expect from the Pats playing, oh, say, Michigan. That’s better than an eight-to-one scoring ratio. Enfant Terrible might even chalk that kind of score up to the Ravens’ (gasp) offense. Plus I bought my kid a Ravens’ onesie to wear this season, so they just gotta win. They just gotta!
I like you a bunch, Airman Doors, so I’ll root for your boys whenever they run into the Bears, the Browns, or oncoming traffic. Go Ravens, Hon!
Nonono. You misunderstand. The Steelers got outplayed quite handily last year. That is absolutely true. The fluke was that Steve McNair made it an entire year without suffering massive thoracic trauma. That accounts for the difference, because based upon the storied history of Kyle Boller I would be quite confident to see him under center against my beloved Steelers.
Good luck with the onesie, by the way. With any luck (and a dash of common sense) he’ll outgrow the Ravens as he outgrows his clothing.
Wow. Am I the only one who watched?
It was a great opening for us, although I must confess that towards the end I was rooting for the Browns to do *something *right.
Woohoo! 1 and 0 baby!
I had drill this weekend, so I was only able to catch the first half, bits and pieces of the third quarter, and the last five minutes. That said, it was a humbling defeat for the Browns. If I recall correctly, they were cocky all week about their chances. They got the dick, alright.
Great start to the season. Bring on Brady Quinn the next time so the Steelers can beat him silly and ruin his career for years to come.
No kidding! I mean… 4 flags on their first punt? What are the odds of that?
I didn’t see the pre-game, but Bill Cower was on CBS at half-time. Was this a guest stint or will he be back next week?
The commercials sucked. I guess I don’t watch enough TV to know how bad they are, but they sucked during the game.
One day you people will learn to stop doubting me. You said “we’ll see”. Did you see? 
I’m a little concerned the Steelers’ D allowed that Browns drive to score near the end.
Ok not really.
He’ll be on CBS for this year at least.
Boomer was being a dick to Bill during the Pregame show, picking the Steelers to be the surprise team of the year because they’ve gotten rid of all the coaching distractions from last year and other bull. You’d think anybody saying something like that would just be ribbing the new guy, but it didn’t seem to come across that way. To be fair, I don’t like Boomer so my preconceived notions may have clouded my view.
I don’t want to look to far ahead or anything, but our next are next 4 games should all be wins (Bills, 49ers and Seachickens at home and a road game at Arizona), we should be able to go into the bye 5-0.
I can see into Heinz Field from my roof – which, of course, means I’m a rabid Vikings fan. Trust me, if you had to put up with game day traffic all the time, you would be a Vikings fan as well.
But this years Black&Gold looks really strong. Them having the best coach “we” ever had helps but the whole team looks to be clicking better than it did even during the Super Bowl run.
Untill Ben chokes – then all bets are off.
Awesome - I completely agree with Boomer on that one. What did Cowher have to say about it? As far as I’m concerned, that schmuck is heading into his second year of retirement.
Hahahahaha! The Ratbirds went down to Ocho-Cinco and the Bungles. Who’s in first? I’ll give you a hint: NOT BALTIMORE!
Even better: Steve McNair didn’t even make it through the first game without getting jacked. Who called it? That’s right, I did. It wasn’t a flayed chest, but it does demonstrate the china-like fragility of McNair. For their sake I hope he gets well quickly, because with Boller they will go down like the Titanic.
Ah, what a weekend. Baltimore: 0-1. Philly: 0-1. Pittsburgh: 1-0! It just doesn’t get any better than this, guys.
Over in the season predictions thread I broke down the division thusly:
- Cincinnati
- Pittsburgh
- Baltimore
- Cleveland
Well, the whole point of that thread is to demonstrate how foolish you were with 17 weeks of knowledge in the books. It only took one week for my foolishness to show.
Nothing is anywhere near concrete after Week 1. There’s a ton of time for injuries or countless other problems to take a gigantic shit on your season. That said, Pittsburgh should walk away with the division. Cleveland is still Cleveland, and Baltimore is…well, mildly better than I expected, but that’s not really saying all that much. I really thought the Bengals had the title this year, but if you’re desperately trying to hold on to a lead inside of two minutes when you’re plus five on the turnover chart, then you’ve got some serious problems on offense. Note to Carson Palmer: your receivers may be very good, but they’re not nine feet tall.
As an aside, I hope the back judge enjoys the new boat that Billick bought for him. I can’t think of any other reason for that touchdown-negating offensive PI call that cost the Ravens the game.
Congrats, Doors – looks like you’ve got some January football to look forward to.
I think you mean Marvin Lewis.
The Bengals have to work on their special teams coverage units. Baltimore’s returners had way to much space to operate in, which culminated in that punt return for the touchdown. I think that Cincinnati’s problem may have been that they were too damn slow in getting down the team(or, alternately, that the punter wasn’t getting enough hang time on his kicks). Whatever the problem was, Cincinnati can’t be giving up that much field position for free(although it would help if Palmer could hit his wide open receivers to keep drives alive).
:smack:
That Ravens-Bengals game was awesome! What a Clash of the Incompetents! The Ravens turn the ball over 6 times (on turnovers, but I think you could argue that all the passing they did on short yardage conversion attempts were essentially turn-overs as well) and they only lose by getting jobbed in the end zone.
The Ravens just looked old! McNair, Ogden, Murderin’ Ray, Ed Reed, all of them just looked spent.
And what about the old rushing game? So, they get first and goal at the six after the make-up call, and rush for four yards on first down. What do they do next? Pass, and pass again, until they turn it over - again.
I know it’s a long season yet, but after watching that game, I like the Steelers chances in this division.
Yeah, it’s just a bit premature to celebrate, but I’d say that based upon that performance they can start thinking about removing the foil from the necks of the bottles.
You and me both.
Incidentally, has anybody seen Weirddave? He’s been about as invisible as Baltimore’s offense recently.
This just in:
Bob Kraft must have blown Roger Goodell exceptionally well for him to make him destroy his credibility like he did. The Patsies got off all but scot-free for their blatant cheating. Here’s the lowdown:
-The team lost a 1st rounder next year unless they miss the playoffs, in which case they lose a 2nd and 3rd rounder.
-Belichick is fined $500,000.
-The team is fined $250,000.
That’s it. A paltry draft pick for a repeat offense that renders everything the Patsies did during Belichick’s tenure as suspicious.
He should have gotten 4 games off. They should have lost another pick. Less than a million all told in fines? That’s shameful. If I were Pacman I’d be calling my attorney right now.
A first rounder is more than I expected, actually. You say “paltry draft pick” but GMs treat their first rounders like gold. I expected a slap on the wrist 4th rounder or something as punishment.
Although a suspension for Bellichick would’ve been interesting.