where is beerman13????

horny for zorny

i am so happy with this position in our division right now. the schedule ahead is not just tough for the steelers, but also for the rest of the division. ours is toughest, perhaps, but this two game cushion sure feels nice.

that locker room is a freakin’ hospital!

alright, i’m out. gotta go finish my iron city beeer. see you in a couple of weeks, stiller fans.

So maybe I just wasn’t paying attention, but I only saw one BS call, and thought we played well…Stapleton was amazing, Hines has drops every now and then, but nothing major, and our OLBs are simply…I can’t even put it into words.

It’s even more unreal for me because I’ve seen Woodley playing since high school (I played against him. That wasn’t pretty).

What a difference winning a tough game before the bye. We’re in good position in our division, although Cinci is playing very well despite their record and their messes. I have too many thoughts, but here’s the first few:

- In a possible contract game Arians was good. He had some great moments and some not so great, but games like this aren’t what makes me want to dump him. I would have liked to see us keep the TOP dominance and wear the defense out more with the run, but we played well. He seems to have good games against bad defenses and horrid games against good ones. This game doesn’t make him good at what he does.

- Hines Ward is making $6.7M this year. Maybe he should hold onto the fing ball. I’m glad he came through in the end, but holy crap, he had like 3 drops and he barely held onto the last TD. If we pay him the $7M he’s scheduled to make next year I’ll be upset.

- LaMarr Woodley is a freaking star. He’s not a just a pass rusher; he was making plays all over: getting sacks, generating pressure, stuffing runs, and tackling receivers. He beat his guy around the edge, he pushed his guy into the QB, he countered his guy, he fought through double teams. In short he was amazing. Some guys gets sacks at the expense of everything else, Woodley does his job every play and solidly beats his guy on a lot of those plays. It’s a joy to watch him and Harrison on every play.

- Mewelde Moore: great signing or greatest signing? Why was Mendelhall even in there? Moore had to be the best #3 back in the NFL. Now he’s #2 and Russel should suit up most games. Our backfield is outstanding from top to bottom.

- The officiating was ridiculous – esp that RIDICULOUS call on Harrison – but it was pretty even. They called some big penalties on the Jags earlier, including that odd taunting call after 3rd and long, so we shouldn’t complain. I think Bud Light (or whoever made the commercial) got it about right: “I totally blew that call – but don’t worry. I’ll throw a flag on the other team in the second half for no apparent reason.” Bottom line, though, the officials have been way too visible so far this season.

- As a group, the pass pro wasn’t a disaster. We picked up blitzes better than the past weeks, but we shouldn’t confuse the Jags defense with the Eagles. We still gave up 3 sacks to a team that had 5 all year (so 2.4 times as many sacks as other teams). Ben may have caused a sack or two, but he also saved at least 2. One big advantage of getting embarassed like we did so early in the season is that we’ll see the same thing every week, and eventually our special ed OC will figure out what it takes to beat the blitz, as well as Ben and the WR’s. Ben looked good against a lot of the blitzes, and if Holmes doesn’t slip on the first drive, he’d look a lot better. Stapleton played well but Hartwig was helping him out a awful lot. Essex did not play well, but at least he was a backup. I don’t think we can trust him even as a stop gap next year. As much as I could see, Colon was wretched. With Stapleton playing well, I don’t know why we’d move Colon inside now, but I wouldn’t mind just benching him for Starks. I’m assuming Marvel is okay and just had cramps.