…..after they butchered the situation with Alan Faneca. They couldn’t backtrack on Fanceca because he called out Zeirlien and by extention, Tomlin, who hired the guy. Presumably Max toed the company line, and was overcompensated for his efforts. It’s a festering boil that won’t go away for awhile.

..temporary (or chronic) insanity? The circumstances for a league fine don’t get much more clearcut than his situation.

..for the rest of the season. They have half a dozen players who are pretty much interchangable at the running back spot, so they will be run into the ground to protect Roethlisberger.

where are Bmore and that Jags fan that ranted how much better Leftwich is than Ben? And have we had a kwoog sighting recently?

Many, many years ago, in my high school shop class there was a “swear jar” that we had to drop a quarter into for every swear word we dropped in class. One day, particularly mad at my teacher, I gathered up $2 and told him off … told him off bad … then dropped the money in the jar and went back to my workspace. If you know the consequences ahead of time, and have the loot to cover it, say whatever the fuck you wanna say. 92 said what anyone who plays with emotion and determination would say, and he’s not gonna have to scrape together the funds from a minimum-wage job to pay it off. Next week it’ll be a different player and different words, but the semantics will be there: if we notice the ref, he’s doing a bad job.

I’m in much agreement with on the short passing game. And even if we don’t use it much, it still serves well for opposing defenses to wach out for, Good point.

And I also agree with this bye period, to continue to assess heavily our weapons on offense and how we can utilize them to the fullest extent. I remember early in the season how everyone was commenting who many weapons on offense we had.

Arians, this is the time to really develop the offense for the long haul.

I just read an article on SI.com about how the Steelers fans are truly the best fans in the nation. Check it out. The article says that Steelers fans negate home field advantage with large percentages of the Steelers Nation showing up to away games. Dallas saying they are “Americas Team” is like a politician hoping we believe their B.S. Dallas only wishes.

For those of you jonesing for the Steelers this week, you can throw some love Penn State’s way (I’m sure a lot of you are Pitt fans though). Penn State plays Wisconsin Saturday evening. I should be a great game.

As the bye weeks crawls by, we have to be fairly excited about the future for the year. some of the teams on our schedule that made it a scorcher are less than originally billed. San Diego? Patriots? Colts? All beatable. And, we play the whole NFC East, so we get to look at the team we would probably play you-know-where.shhhhhh. That is where the challenge is. Oh what a challenge!

Thanks to cgolden for picking up the slack today. Great job.

A lot is being said about Arians lately. Here is something to ponder: We have massive talent at the skill positions (Do those at non “Skill” positions resent that label?) this year and into the next few. How many years are we going to waste trying to develop the O.C.? The window of opportunity is only so big and every year wasted waiting for Ariens to learn to adjust narrows the window. It’s now obvious that the Hated Patriots window is only as large as the lenght of Tom Brady’s career. None was wasted. Tic tic tic, Bruce.

I would be very disappointed to learn of any squabling between the front office and the coaching staff. That would be wasting the window! I think Colbert has proven his worth. If this Starks mess is some kind of pissing match, then we are truly in trouble in the coaching department. Yes, Max was transitioned for some strange reason. Then, he showed up to training camp in the best condition of his life and has kept his mouth shut. If Max is doing the right things, it is time for the coaches to coach, and turn him into a good lineman. Players can not just be motivated, they have to be coached too.

The Bungles are a trap game. If anyone recognizes that, it is Tomlin. At least, I hope so.

Go Steelers!

Cincy played very well against the Cowboys, fell short, but they played well. They could very easily take the field and beat, not surprise, the Steelers. If it happens, it will not be because the Steelers had a mental breakdown or looked to next week, or were dreaming about the Super Bowl halftime show; it will be because the Bengals were able to play good football without making mistakes. I don’t know if they are the best 0-5 team to play the game, but they are not early history Buccaneers either.

I read Mr. Tomlin’s explanation for playing Trai, but I can also imagine his surprise when Trai immediately showed the defense the clear path to Ben’s backside. He settled down in a couple of plays, but early in his appearance it looked very dicey.

James didn’t hint at gambling, he made the accusation. He deserved the fine in regards to the gambling comment and shouldn’t be wasting anyone’s time and effort appealing. As to the hit, I’ve seen worse not get called and I’ve seen the same get called. If he had to question something, James should have questioned that aspect of the play.

Steelers have the toughest schedule and that is no big deal, but for the Patriots to have the weakest, well that just signals that the scheduling formula needs to change. Within division-gotta live with that; critical rivalries-factor them in; schedule roundout games-schedule those in a manner that evens out the schedule toughness ratings. It won’t result in parity, and game day actualities aside, it will get close.

The offensive line performed credibly, not perfect but very well. One can’t blame them for Ben’s escape decisions gone bad or awry. Ben needs to make his escapes moves within the context of situational awareness. For example, trying to escape into an area where a lineman has pushed or allowed an opponent to go isn’t on the lineman.

The question is going to become less about whether Byron is better than Ben and more about whether Byron is better than Charlie. At this point, it would be nice if Charlie could settle for the number 3 role until retirement.

Chris Hoke stepped up more than nicely and is certainly deserving annointment as Player of the Game. A four-man front centered by Casey and Chris would be interesting to see.

I’m not convinced that letting Alan go was either a mistake, poor decision or botched front office work. The natural halo effect may cause folks to think he was playing to Hall of Fame standards at the end of his Steelers’ tenure, but he wasn’t. However, I’m not convinced we prepared well for his replacement, moreso from an on the field experience aspect vice particular person.

I don’t think we’re going to see running back by committee once Willie gets healthy. Besides, we don’t have running back by committee; we have running back by last man standing.