Well the Browns get to be the ones to break the Bengals unbeaten streak, so there’s that.
Good luck. I’d be OK with that.
The Dri Archer Experiment is mercifully over. They should have cut him a long time ago. So who do they sign? Jacoby Jones, of the Tomlin field incursion. Bet that was a fun reintroduction.
In other news, Johnny Clipboard is acquitting himself well. Who knew?
A whole 168 passing yards on 33 attempts. I suppose after having to watch Vick and Jones, Steeler fans may have a lower expectation of what it is to acquit oneself “well”.
Reddit puts a lot of blame on his receivers. And apparently, Pettine threw Manziel under the bus after the game, so mebbe Airman feels sorry for him.
Yeah, there were some pretty bad drops. You could probably add another 60-80 yards if you include very catchable balls. A few bounced off facemasks and chests. His starting WRs were Taylor Gabriel and Travis Benjamin who would never start for anyone ever, although Benjamin is an awesome 4th receiver 9 route guy. Bowe was actually out there sucking it up, which is amazing that he even bothered. The guy took the guaranteed money and basically refuses to do anything for it - half assing everything and couldn’t even make it onto the field until everyone else was hurt.
He did alright, not spectacular but he didn’t seem like he doesn’t belong on an NFL field, so that’s improvement. Arm strength seems snappier than it did before.
Didn’t see the press conferences or anything but from what I’m hearing Pettine showed a very unusual level of blame from a coach to a player. It’s pretty clear he hates him. Which is probably not a great thing.
Pettine is pretty awful. After they fired Chud after a year, I said they’d have to give the new guy 3 years regardless of how bad he was simply because firing another coach so soon would make the job too radioactive for anyone to want. But what do you do, stick it out for another year with a guy who isn’t moving the team in the right direction?
Johnny was having success outside the pocket in the first half. In the first half interview, he talked about how he needed to force Johnny to stay in the pocket, because he’s a stubborn fuck. So in the second half, Johnny stayed in the pocket, and the offense stopped working. Good job there.
Then he put the blame on Manziel for everything that happened.
I suppose that’s the benefit of setting the bar so low for your performance that “not sucking for an entire game” is a win.
I didn’t watch the game that closely, but he looked like Manziel to me. When he runs around and buys time for his receivers to get open, he looks good. But when defenses adjust (it appeared the Bengals certainly did in the second half) and play to stop his style, he becomes absolutely useless. 4 for 15 for 40 yards in the second half.
If the Browns want to get the most out of Manziel, they’ll let him play to his style. I think that would result in a few really fun plays a game, a bunch of losses, and an injured Manziel. If they want him to play big boy football, however, I don’t think he’s ready for it yet.
I’m fine with them cutting Dri Archer, he clearly wasn’t working out. But I always thought the vitriol directed towards him was kinda weird. A 3rd-round draft pick didn’t work out? Stop the presses! Especially from a pretty good draft year that brought Shazier, Tuitt and Bryant, I don’t get why he became such a lightening rod.
Time of possession was 36-24 in favor of the Bengals. Defense couldn’t stop them, they were 8-14 on 3rd down.
We’ve got some real scrubs on this team. Taylor Gabriel, Bowe, Justin Gilbert, etc etc. Randy Starks makes a nice tackle when they’re behind and taunts the guy like he’s some All-Pro stud, then lines up offsides on 4th down near the goal line.
They can’t all be Aaron Rodgers. Besides, he looked better than McCown and the Browns were competitive in the first half when I said that. Given his lack of experience and likely a pared-down playbook he didn’t do half bad.
He wouldn’t take the hits. He never fought for yardage. And for a guy with his speed he never demonstrated it. Bad decisions combined with gutless football made him a dud from the beginning, and they still gave him opportunities. Wasted opportunities.
I’m stunned that my squad is 8-0 right now, and likely will be 9-0 after facing the miserable Texans next Sunday. We’ve never been here before, this is uncharted territory, but the team and most importantly, Dalton, seem to be handling it well.
Wow is Oakland ever improved. Carr looks like the real deal. It took the Steelers mustering 600 yards of offense to just barely beat them. Not sure I want my Bengals playing Oakland in the playoffs.
This season…I don’t even…
So Pittsburgh blows a 2-touchdown lead, penalizes themselves into oblivion, lets the game get tied up, and then they win thanks to a great play from Antonio Brown, who had an absolutely stellar game. That is, except for the fumbled kick that let the Raiders back in.
That’s the good news. The bad news? Ben’s foot is hurt and is being examined offsite. If I had to guess he’s out for the rest of the regular season, but I was surprised he came back from the knee injury so you never know. Anyway, that means that the Steelers’ hopes, at least for the short term, lie on the shoulders of Landry Fucking Jones. The team can’t catch a break.
Some of you are OK with that, I know. I certainly would be OK with all of your teams sucking, too. But man, this year they had so much potential, and it’s all ended up on the disabled list. First Suisham, then Ben, then Bell, now Ben again. Who’s next? Can Landry Fucking Jones help a loaded yet severely wounded team make the playoffs? I’m trying to be optimistic, but it gets harder every week as the team sustains crushing injuries and tries very hard to give the game away over and over again. The defense was expected to be garbage this year, and as it turns out they are probably the best unit on the field week in and week out.
It’s just all so surreal.
So the word on Ben is a mid-foot sprain, out for a few weeks. Again.
Can we go back and start over, please?
“A few weeks” starts with the Browns and the Bye. Not having your starting QB isn’t ever good, but it could be worse. Same for: sprained, not broken.
Also, if it wasn’t for Brown having the match of his career so-far, this would’ve been DeAngelo Williams’ game. So again - losing Bell isn’t good, but Williams is significantly better than typically associated with 2nd on the depth chart.
And in the end they don’t have to outrun the bear, they just need to be better than the Jets, Bills, and Raiders (as it looks like right now).
Well, how about today’s performance? The Steelers had the best-ever performance from a backup quarterback. Of course, that backup was Ben Roethlisberger. Landry Fucking Jones went down with an ankle injury in the second series.
I’ll tell you, though, I half-expected to see Heath Miller under center. Had Ben gone down that was the next option. But he didn’t, and the Browns got pooed on for the 13th consecutive year at Heinz Field. Now for the bye week, where everybody gets as well as they can so that they can be injured 5 minutes into the Seahawks game at the Clink. The Steelers are snakebit with injuries this year.
NM
I didn’t update this last week. Alas, life got in the way, but I’m still here.
What can you say about last week? The defense crapped all over themselves with the game on the line, Seattle was bequeathed with 2 gifts in crunch time (Sherman absolutely mugged Brown, wasn’t flagged, and got the interception out of the play and when Wilson was still inbounds and Timmons got flagged for unnecessary roughness for pushing him), and Ben got high-low tackled and took a shot to the head from Earl Thomas.
But what the hell, it’s a new week. Tonight they get the Colts and old man Hasselbeck, playing more like he did in 2005 than a guy who’s over 40. The Steelers are as they have been all year, incinsistent on both sides of the ball and riddled with injuries. No Miller tonight, so Jesse James is looking to get his first start at tight end. Don’t know if Ryan Chandelier is playing, he got hurt again last week. Same as it ever was.
It ought to be a good game. Wish I was there. I only have one more chance to go to a game this year, I ought to look into it.