Miami working hard to make sure that first round pick is going to be worth something. Mason Rudolph doing his best on that too. Sweet lord, this is what it must be like to be a Bengals fan.
Sometime in the 2d quarter the Dolphins decided to work on the value of their own first round pick, and have been pretty successful with that.
A win is a win. We now have three. Two of which against the two worst teams in the NFL, and one against a team without home games. Hope springs eternal, of course, but I’m keeping mine un-sprung until after the Colts game. It sure was nice to see JuJu play, though, and the defense looked pretty good. Let’s put the earlier booing down to excess halloween zeal.
Once Rudolph settled down Pittsburgh looked pretty good last night. But, of course, that came at a price. Conner has a sprained AC joint and Snell has a knee injury, which means that they’re down to Edmunds if the injuries are serious.
The injury bug has hit Pittsburgh pretty hard this year.
Well, that was a gift.
Once again Rudolph has a steady game, only one real mistake that was his fault with the safety, and he stood in against a pretty good rush. Brissett got hurt early for the Colts, but given Pittsburgh’s injury woes that elicits no sympathy from me except that I’m glad it wasn’t serious. Hoyer almost took them home, but a really bad shank from Viniateri won the game for the Steelers.
The real story, though, was the refs. Again. That was terrible against both teams, and those last two calls nearly buried Pittsburgh on an obviously uncatchable ball that the defender was looking back at and so had equal claim, and a push off to get the Colts into field goal position.
That has to be fixed. They’re having a ludicrous impact on the games, and they steadfastly refuse to reverse calls that everybody agrees are bad. Except against Pittsburgh, of course, about the only one they have reversed killed them against Seattle.
Anyway, after a terrible start Pittsburgh is now 4-4 and back in the thick of it on the strength of a really good defense (man, did Minkah ever make a huge difference, and Watt is almost to the level of his brother) and steady backup quarterbacks leading equally steady backup players. This may be Tomlin’s best coaching job yet.
I don’t think Pittsburgh can make the wild card, not with Buffalo at 6-2 and a strong AFC South this year. They’ll have to hope the Ravens choke down the stretch.
We’ll see. There’s a long way to go, and rare is the season where at least one 9-win team doesn’t make the playoffs. Also, Pittsburgh has 4 more division games, including one against the Rats. Anything can happen.
Huh. You know what I just realized? This is actually the 17th of these threads. I jinxed it, that’s what it is. This season’s woes are my fault.
Remember, it’s only weird if it doesn’t work.
Thought it was 15 “marches” and 2 “defends”.
If so, 16 would be correct, and we suck because it turns out that losing all killer bees is more subtraction than addition after all.
We got lucky on that non-call for DPI near the end there, but I think the score reflected the game. Nice win. Very nice.
They’re winning as a team. You don’t hear JuJu whining about not having many catches or any of the other skill players. They’re doing their best and the defense is doing the rest.
As for the defense, anybody who still says that the Minkah Fitzpatrick trade was a dumb decision is a total, utter moron. He’s been transformational for the defense.
Minka trade was the best trade in years, and after the AB trade, that’s saying quite something. Defense is stepping up impressively as a whole, too.
Well, now we know what happens when the Steelers’ practice squad plays the Browns, while having our QB throw predominantly to Browns players. I hope our injured players are ok. That one hit was as ugly as they come.
Jesus Christ.
What else can you say about that game? The Browns have apparently decided to be the new Bengals. Three helmet-to-helmet hits, knocking out both of Pittsburgh’s starting receivers, and then the ending, where Garrett sacked Rudolph, stayed on top of him, and then ripped his helmet off and clubbed him over the head with it. Pouncey punched and kicked him, and I certainly don’t approve of it but I understand. His quarterback just got cracked on the head with his own helmet, for God’s sake.
Anyway, the defense did what it could, but the offense is beyond broken. There was almost literally nobody left that wasn’t on the practice squad earlier this year. You can’t win games with those players. Tonight was a disaster.
But the Browns are dirty-ass bullshit. Garrett should be escorted from the stadium in handcuffs.
I think Garrett is going to miss much if not all of the rest of the season, and that is still too kind. Calling the whole Browns team dirty isn’t fair, though. One very bad hit, appropriately resulting in ejection, and then whatever insanity came over Garrett. Both bad, the latter outstandingly so. But I didn’t see the hit on JuJu as deliberate. Damn, I wish Pouncy hadn’t kicked Garrett - I’m afraid that’s some sort of suspension as well.
We will now have to take next-man-up to ridiculous lengths. But the standard is the standard.
It’s only fair since the Bengals are the new Browns.
I changed my mind. Watching highlights (lowlights) again, and combined with Kitchens’ statements in the past and post-game, it looks like bounty-hunting to me. The Browns were dirty as fuck that game.
The AFC North has always been an…interesting division in this regard. (Browns, Bengals and Steelers going all WWF on each other)
Ravens get nasty at times too but it’s more about playing down to their opponents.