Also, Airman, your “start for any team in the league” argument is ridiculous. When people say that they mean that there’s no team in the league that has so much talent at that position that they wouldn’t start that player. For positions that have multiple starters (corner, WR, etc) this can mean the player wouldn’t necessarily be the best player on the team but would still be better than at least one of their current starters. Your argument, which seems like a post-hoc silliness made up to cover saying something ridiculous in haste rather than just admit that, is quite an odd attempt to deviate from that. Your argument could be said about Jamarcus Russell on his rookie contract - if someone is going to have him on the roster, well, he’s clearly going to be the starter. It’s silly.
Meant to edit to add - I don’t think anyone would interpret what you said in the way that you say you now meant it, so it’s wrong to claim “you know precisely the argument I was making” - I reacted the same way as RNATB and I would guess that the vast majority of people would.
Of your “starters on every team” argument, the one I would really point a finger at is Troy P. He is now in the same stage of his career as Jeeter - an all time great who just can’t play at that level any more. He did make a great play on the strip for a fumble, but there were two touchdowns in that game where he was futilely lunging at players crossing the goal line.
I bashed Arians relentlessly but I don’t get the Haley hate. He doesn’t control the patchwork offensive line and he didn’t drop all those passes and he didn’t hold on to the ball too long. Those are the things to fix on offense.
Polamalu had a bad game but has had a good season. He’ll be alright; I wish they would have played more in the heavy nickel package yesterday. He looks even better there. The entire defense played poorly yesterday and when the whole Steeler defense looks bad you have to look at the NT first. I like McLendon a lot but he doesn’t have what it takes to be the linchpin. We need a true Nose Tackle and have McLendon play the role Chris Hoke used to: high-motor backup who plays passing downs. Unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of those guys sitting around waiting for a phone call from Colbert.
Ike Taylor is a great cover corner by the way. I only saw one play where he looked beaten and even then it looked like the other corner released him. It was the safeties and the play up front that led to yesterday’s big plays (plus, Tom Brady and the Patriots’ offensive plan deserve some credit).
Not much for positives notes yesterday. Heyward looked good I guess. Entering the soft part of the schedule but with this team that may not matter. Getting DeCastro back will be a big help.
Several really stupid Def penalties, too. Esp the Pass Interference calls. They were pretty blatant (imho), but even worse, they didn’t really affect the actual scores, since the D was ineffectual overall. Next play or two, and N.E. scored anyways. Poor play compounded by dumb play.
Big Ben played oddly. Right on the money (but dropped) and then so far off it looked like I was throwing it.
If he were dead, Bradshaw would be moaning in his grave.
The entire AFC North looks bad, tho, except for Cinci. And even they are showing some pretty big holes, tho.
True fans: I feel for ya. I know how it goes in the wacky NFL…
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That’s how I took it also. I took it as “they’re so good, they’d start anywhere” rather than “they’re paid so well, they’d have to be starters”. I was even going to reply to that quote, but then I realized that I kinda like it that some Steeler fans think the team is under-performing rather than the roster is too old and too untalented.
Then allow me (Pats fan) to gloat: that was a hugely satisfying win. The Pats offense finally came to life with Gronk and Amendola back healthy and the Steelers could not handle it. It was especially gratifying to see Polamalu repeatedly make the wrong decision and get beat. But the best was just ramming down their throats at the end with Ridley and Blount. I am very happy that the Patriots will be on the Steelers record books for many years to come, having put up 55 points on them for the first time ever. Delicious!
(I doubt the Pats are going to make much noise this post-season, so this is probably the high point of the season, and I shall enjoy it).
In today’s news, it looks like Ben is going to be traded in the offseason. If that’s the case, we couldn’t have asked for a better year for the Steelers to be bad. God knows I’d ask for a trade to get away from Haley. Anyway, you know who the frontrunner is for Ben, right? Of course you do, it’s Pittsburgh West. To get him they’ll have to give up a great big shit-ton of players, picks, or both. If he wants to “play for a winner”, laughable in context even though he was alleged to have said that, he probably shouldn’t ask for a trade. The price of his acquisition will wreck any team he might go to.
Wow. So, do they plan to start over with with an Andrew Luck kind of guy, do they hope to poach some other experienced QB or what? Heck, I don’t know who the Steelers have on back-up. Maybe they already have Ben’s replacement? Interesting story.
The backup is Gradkowski, and he’s not bad for a backup but certainly not a long-term starter. The Steelers would have to draft a quarterback, because there’s nobody in the league that isn’t either locked in or someone who isn’t worth a damn for the price they can afford to pay.
Everyone’s so quiet. Still in disbelief I take it.
Loved the solid tackling yesterday. That was a big highlight for me. Gay made a couple of nice tackles, Timmons went into beast mode a couple of times, Heyward was solid. I didn’t notice McLendon particularly but the linebackers were flowing to the ball and maintaining their gaps so it would appear he did a good job. Good news on D aside from Woodley getting hurt. Shamarko Thomas injured as well but we still have Golden and they moved Gay to safety for a few plays and he didn’t look out of place.
As happy as I am with the win and as much as I have supported Haley I am a bit disappointed that they didn’t score more points. What was good enough yesterday won’t be good enough for every game and they need to perform better in the redzone.
A win against Detroit puts them back into the playoff discussion. Think about that.
Yeah. Denver, KC, NE, and Indy are definitely going to the playoffs. Cincy is likely. That means there’s one playoff spot left in the AFC, and the Steelers would have to leapfrog NYJ, Miami, Cleveland, Baltimore, SD, Oakland, and Tenn for that final spot. It’s still mathematically possible, but it would be a pretty stunning turn of events.
