Some bad bounces aside, Ike Taylor did an amazing job at CB covering my favorite QB-WR combo in the game: Manning-Wayne. With the courting of DeAngelo Hall in the air this week, perhaps Ike had to remind us who we really do have.

I agree w/ Blitz that the O-line did some of their best work yet, and I was very proud of them. Only one or two O-line penalties all game, as well.

Since he’s my adopted Stilller, I gotta say: How about Gary “At least he didn’t fumble” Russell? I must say I’d rather see FWP learn to return kickoffs and punts, but it’s great to see him get the work!

..he is down in the territory of Orlovsky, Thigpen, O’Sullivan, etc. That is hard to justify. Rookies like Joe Flacco and Matt Ryan are clearly outplaying him at the moment. They don’t have better talent around them than Ben does. Better coaches, maybe, but not better teammates.

Somebody hammered it into Ben to get rid of the ball quicker. In the process of doing so, he gets out of his comfort zone and makes some bad passes that lose the game. It’s still a valuable lesson for Ben. His skills will improve, and he won’t need the best O-line in football on every down. This game proves he has more to learn, but he’s shown that he IS LEARNING.

..no way around it. Ben will have a tough time salvaging his season at this point, and Leftwich is the 270 pound….uh…..uh….uhhh…..individual….sitting in the corner of the room. Or on the corner of the bench, or whatever. Not to mention that Mewelde seems to have hit the wall and Parker is unlikely to make much of a difference for the remainder of the season. Nate Washington continues to contribute more than Santonio Holmes. Matt Spaeth, in his first game out of Heath Miller’s shadow caught some balls.

So assume that Leftwich gets a start soon, or at least Roethlisberger is on a short leash from this point on. Ben on the bench?

Assume (and it’s not a stretch) that Parker is nagged by injuries for the balance of the season, or at least a few more games. Can he beat out Mendenhall, or even Russell if he gets a couple games and looks good, next season? Not likely. Parker on the bench?

If Washington continues to get more yardage each game than Holmes, can they keep Nate as the third receiver? If not can they justify the big bucks first round draft choice as a third receiver?

If Spaeth keeps catching balls, does Miller become the blocking tight end?

Things are a little topsy turvy at the moment, and this will be a real test of Tomlin’s coaching skill if a couple or three of the situations come to a head. Also, does he pull the plug on Ariens/Zierlein, and if so, when?

For the most part, you’re indicating good depth in our offense.

Leftwich ain’t made of gold. He did a good job as a backup. But if Ben needs a rest, I’m with ya ethan.

Your FWP question is a good one. This is the second season in a row that Parker has missed out on a few games due to injury. His technique seemed to really improve, too. Mendenhall didn’t get enough work this year to unseat FWP. Maybe next preseason he will.

As for Washington, what a year he’s having! But I don’t what the problem there is. Ward is a cinch for slot receiver on 3wr sets.

I don’t think Spaeth is a number one man yet. Heath was missed against Indy.

I think they need to start Leftwich for a game. Ben just seems a litte out of sync, and has for most of the season, both physically and mentally. Yes, he had a good percentage yesterday, and led some good drives, but his errors were kind of unforced (that first interception was as bad a play as you’ll ever see), and it really looked like he couldn’t throw the ball downfield with any kind of zip. When we got the ball back in not terrible field position with two and half minutes to play, w/ 2 timeouts and the 2 minute warning, did anyone really have any faith we were going to score? Last year Ben quite likely leads us to a touchdown in that scenario; this year, predictable failure.

This is a team that could go deep into the playoffs. I’m sure Ben wants to play, and Blizburgh’s point that you don’t bench your franchise QB is well taken, but at this point I see no reason for Ben not to take a week off, let his shoulder heal a bit, and relax back into the game.

On another note: I wonder, with FWP out, why they’re not giving Russel more of a look. He did a pretty good job on kickoffs yesterday, and has impressed the (very few) times he’s carried the ball from scrimmage. Moore is doing a great job in general, but why not change it up for a series now and then and see what the kid can do? He might have had bit more success than Moore against Indy’s faster but smaller front seven.

because we lost. Other than that, they played a good, not great, game.

Ben’s first two picks were horrible. He is the goat of the week. Should he be benched? Hell no. He should re-learn how to manage the game and take what’s there when we’re up by two scores.

Goat #2 of the week is Kemo for getting shrugged off by a 265 lb DT on 3rd and goal. The play call was good. The execution was piss-poor. Kemo should put anyone that small on their back every running play.

This was a weird loss. It was almost like the whole thing happened in slow motion. I wasn’t even angry when it was over. I just looked around and said “what the heck just happened?” Another tough drop at home.

In the NFL, the more desperate team usually wins. The Colts were the more desperate team yesterday. Was anyone else upset with the lackadaisical “hurry-up” offense at the end of the game? It looked like Ben thought it was still the 3rd quarter.

I think it would be hard to make a case that Roethlisberger at,say,70% is better than Leftwich at 100%…And how about the risk of further injury with Ben playing right now..?

Flea flicker-underthrown. Another pass to a wide open Hines was wide left. A handful of short passes left and right were shoetoppers. He isn’t right and has become a liability.

Query: Does Ben’s play in the pocket, or more appropriately, his leaving the collapsing pocket differ from year’s past? It seems that he rarely breaks the pocket laterally and set off to his right or left as he did in the past. This year he seems to try to step up more, when the pocket collapses. When he did move laterally, he seemed to create more separation from the defenders which in turn allowed him to get off his passes with less pressure. We always noted how this was one of Ben’s unique talents.

Whatever it is, it does not appear to be the same. Is this my imagination, or do others see it as well? We used to joke that Ben needed to move (his legs) in order for his brain to work, since he often had his best moments when he broke the pocket and set off running laterally, whereas this year he seems to want to stay closer to home.

Cohesion created by playing together for an extended time is what makes O Lines. It is not 1st round draft picks. There are numerous examples of good O Lines with later rounders and non drafter players doing quite well. Recently one of the sights, ESPN or Cold Hard Football facts confirmed this in a study.

Considering how many “new” players are on the line (practically everyone except Colon at times), this line is playing brilliantly. More importantly, with every week they will be developing more of that cohesion which enables them to play as a unit. This is especially necessary in pass pro. Already, the recent pass pro is an improvement over the first of the year. They are a work in progress and considering the slim body of work together, they’ve made a lot of progress. Hopefully, by playoff time they will have developed into a playoff OLine.

- I don’t fault Arians too much in this game. But I do wonder about one thing. The Colts d lineman (Foster?) that tackled Mewelde Moore both times from the one late in the game said that the Steelers ran that same play 6 times in a row from in close. Obviously this goes back to the first half when the Steelers got 2 td from in close. But watching Tunch on Savran’s show, he talked about how the Colts tackles had been pinching in on the previous (successful) Steeler attempts but now on 2nd down from the 1, they pinched out. Kemo didn’t finish his block and the play was stuffed. They then ran the same play again and the same thing happened (Kemo didn’t finish his block and Foster made the play). I guess the majority of the blame should go on Kemo for being tooled twice in a row. But it would have been nice if Arians had called a different power running play. Not a pass or an end around. Just a different power running play. Maybe that’s why we score on our first drives so often and then go into a lull. Because the defense adjusts to us and then we have nothing to counter with.

- Yes the o-line only gave up 2 sacks. But keep in mind that the Colts had not recorded a single sack in 3 consecutive games prior to last Sunday. And the Steelers obviously went to a short passing game to lessen the pressure. That’s a good thing, but let’s not talk about the improved play of the o-line. The Redskins had only 10 sacks on the season before facing Pittsburgh and they got to us for 4. Those are our last two games. When we face a team that has trouble generating pressure, we make them look decent. When we face a team that is good at rushing the passer, watch out, our qb will be in for a long day.

- Ward did have a good day, although he did have another drop. But remember that Indy was missing it’s two top corners. Ward is all heart. If he’s facing dbs who aren’t that good, he can still post big days due to his smarts, toughness, guile, route running, etc. But if he’s facing above average dbs, he now really has a tough time because he doesn’t have the requisite physical ability to get open on them at this point in his career.

- Of course, if Ward has the heart of a lion, I don’t know what Holmes has. Expectations were high for him coming into the season. I know players don’t often meet expectations. But he’s not even playing to the level he has shown in the past, and it’s not even close. I don’t know what’s wrong with Holmes, but something is going on. Anyone have any ideas? It’s been 8 games now where he’s been mostly a nonfactor. That’s not a blip, it’s a trend.