as usual Blitz…

I have a question, has anyone else seen a ton of holding calls not called on Harrison this year? There were two this game, where an offensive lineman had his arm up under Harrison’s and his hand was jamming up under JH’s chin. It seems like there are two or three of those a game.

Also, was anyone else able to see the ‘forward pass’ on the play that ended the game? I know it’s meaningless, but i would have liked Troy getting that sack. It’s just weird how it ended.

You’re right, Ben played great today. There were at least three drops too. I’m sure that his detractors will find something though. They always do.

I have to give some props to the old man, Hines Ward. Another 100+ yard game, 2 in a row!

Penalties aside, the Steelers played a great game. The play where the SD guard should have had a hands to the face on Harrison, the other O lineman blcoking him was also holding. Harrison still hurried Rivers on that play. You can not ask a defense to do more than that. Fernando Bryant and William Gay played huge as fill ins.

Willie is a franchise running back. With Mewelde’s pass catching and Gary Russell possibly being a short down back, our stable of RBs is impressive.

Not sure about the love for Ben though. We are too tough on him in losses but let’s not be too generous in a win, either. On the first drive, Santonio beat his man when Ben threw it short. Also, I’m not sure Ben had great decision making today, despite his decision making. Receivers were running wide open all over the field and Ben did not always make the choice. On another play late in the game, Ben threw a ball to Hines between two guys short of the first. Hines broke a tackle to get the first, which saved Ben from criticism because he had a guy with more room to run on a drag. On another play, even brain dead Phil Simms pointed out two guys running open deep when Ben checked down. This happened on more plays also that I won’t go into. Ben played better, which is a good sign, but he’s far from “back.”

There is no reason 410 yards of offense should yield 9 points.

…If not for the 2 points the D picked up, and Kaeding missing a chip shot FG, the team would have went home empty handed.

When your defense holds LT to 50 yards at around 3 ypc average, and Rivers to 0 tds, 2 int, and a 43 QB rating, the club should win by 30 points.

Speaking of mustaches, didn’t Weathers work in porn back in the 70s? Pretty sure he did…:)

I thought this was the difference in the offense today. There were a few sacks, at least one was on Ben. And there were a few rushed plays. But for the most part, Ben had time to look around. And that brings production.

I thought Ben was overly careful….I’m sure Tomlin has been in his face all week. That’s why he was checking down at times he didn’t have to. But if I had to choose between overly-careful Ben and careless Ben, I’ll take the former. At this point anyway. Especially if Willie/Moore/Russell (who I’ve been calling for on 3rd downs) can keep it up.

The obvious problem in this game was penalties. And that the bs call at the end of the game took a TD away from my fantasy team.

More just trying to respond to the some of the comments above. If he was missing reads, it’s because he’s been told all week to make the safe plays. And he did just that. Playing carefully is not playing poorly, as we just saw.

So hopefully Tomlin and Co. can keep him focused on completing the pass and making the safe play while the line continues to gel and he regains his confidence, and then we’ll have the old Ben back just in time for the postseason.

Some great points! I’d call it sort of an ugly win, but a W is a W. The D was awesome as usual. And our O showed promise….not quite there yet, but promising. Just need to finish off drives now! I’ll take the “safe Ben” any day over the “multiple Int Ben”. With our D this good, he needs to just not lose it for us. We have enough talent to pull out a win in most games without Ben throwing for 3 TDs.

Yes, this team has issues. Its QB thinks throwing the ball away is a sin. The OL is subpar and this team is a finesse offense. But our “D” is nasty, and will only get better when we can get back a healthy B-Mac and Deshea and hopefully avoid injuries down the stretch.

- Do you get the feeling that this team’s coaching staff just doesn’t quite get it? Like playing Haggans over Lamarr Woodley this past year. Only allowing B. McFadden to get a starting position when Townsend went down when he should have been starting long before that. And finally, finally, — they’ve decided to give the ball to Gary Russell as their short yardage back. HELLLOOOOOO!!!!! I think I’ve been saying that Russell is the best short yardage back on this team for 2 years. Everyone on this board has my back on that. But even Jim Brown in his prime can’t pick up yards consistently if he’s getting hit by 2 or 3 different people 2 and 3 yards behind the line of scrimmage.

- Maybe next they’ll realize that McHugh needs to be your lead blocker on all short yardage plays and not Davis. Nah, I guess they can’t process two things being right at one time.

- Anyone who thinks M. Spaeth was a wasted 3rd pick this past year is singing a different tune now. Let’s hope he doesn’t disappear when Miller comes back, but I just don’t have much faith in this coaching staff to keep Spaeth involved. See a theme developing here?

- Can anyone get through to Ben how important it can be and how he can save his team some valuable field position by just learning to throw the ball away. It’s not that hard. If no one is open and you begin to feel the rush, throw it into the ground in the vicinity of a receiver wearing your colors. It really is simple. These garbage sacks take away valuable field position, put more pressue on our shaky OL and inconsistent offense in general, and gives the other’s teams D confidence. And if I am one of his OL, I’m getting upset because Ben is taking money off the table for me in the future.

- If I’m Tomlin, I’m auditioning punters again this week as well. That Ernster guy was pretty horrible.

- I wonder if the NFL will reverse that last play and give Polamula his TD. Probably not, but that definitely wasn’t a forward pass. That interception by Palomula in the first half was beyond incredible. When he’s healthy, he’s a tonesetter for a D. So is Aaron Smith, James Harrison, Lamarr Woodley, and B. McFadden.

- Don’t look now, but our special teams coverages are … looking like what a team’s special teams coverages should be. They are playing pretty well. I think G. Russell will be fine as the kickoff returner. He just has to remember that you must catch the ball first before you can run. He does what all good returners do, though. And that is “Get it and Go!”

- Too many penalties. And that pass interference on Ike was bogus. William Gay played a heck of game tonight. He probably allowed the team to rest B. McFadden on Thursday, giving his forearm another 2 weeks to heal.

- Did anyone else’s heart skip a beat when D. Stapleton went down? It doesn’t say much for our offensive line, but he just might be the team’s best OL at this point. Hartwig has played pretty well and Starks has done a decent job as well. Chris K is very inconsistent and Colon isn’t a tackle.

- For those of you who like good reading, read the audible section in Pro Football Weekly each week where team officials and scouts throughout the league talk about teams, players, and coaches to the magazine and the mag prints their comments anonymously. This past week, one scout said he is amazed that the team is winning with Starks, Colon and Trai Essex on the line. He said those 3 lineman were ‘terrible" and "couldn’t even play dead in a Western." Ouch!

- I get the feeling that Larry Z and Bruce Arians won’t be around next year. And as long as Dick LeBeau is, who cares?

- You give me 24 points from this offense the rest of the way and this team will run the table. However, with our OL and a QB that won’t throw the ball away, this team is a long way from being able to put up 24 points consistently a game.

Thoughts?

Go to this URL -

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/football/nfl/11/16/blown.call.ap/index.html

and read the ref’s explanation of what they were doing, and when you’re done laughing, watch the embedded video. You will get a chance to see Troy’s pick and watch the final play. There is no way that any call other than TD for Troy could have been made. No ball touched the ground, Rivers only had it once, etc.

On the no illegal contact because Ben was outside the tackles—hooey, it was holding pure and simple. Blatant BS on the Ike Taylor pass interference.

Lot’s of yardage, too many penalties [a little one-sided from my foxhole] and not enough points. 11 a game isn’t going to get it done.

I thought Trai came in and performed soldily as a fill-in late in the game.

Harrison is a monster, pure and simple. How can you not like harrison, Keisel and Smith.

Spaeth played over the top today. He is no Heath Miller, but Matt was their for the team today.

Off the schneid on 1600 games.

Ben can’t throw long and should quit trying-unless he flings it 50 yards while the receivers are 30 yards up from the LOS. Nothing wrong with the passes chosen today; they got the job done.

Yes, we did not punch it in, but that was before we “found” Russel as our short yardage guy. After that the penalties just killed us from finishing the drives. Overall, I’m extremely pleased at how the offense moved the ball, much better than previous weeks. One step at a time, next week against the Bungles we can run up and down the field and punch it in.

Exactly my thought. Now looking forward, with FWP playing and Russel’s success yesterday, we should not be seeing MM get stuffed at the goal line anymore.

The refs were BLATANTLY shaving points in this game. It was only blatant because the Steelers outplayed the Chargers to the point of embarassment, and even then everyone acts like they don’t notice.

Points:
1) The PI on Ike in the end zone on the pass that was overthrown by 5 yds giving SD a gift TD.

2) The illegal formation on Willie Colon. I have never, in 15 years of playing and watching football, seen that called on an OL before. I have seen warnings, I have received warnings (when I was a OT in middle school), but I’ve never seen it called. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that it happened in the same game that the Steelers were penalized 13 to 1 over the Chargers. Right.

3) The 5-6 blatant holding calls on SD’s OL that were IGNORED. One of them involved 92 splitting Diehlman and McNeil and bursting into the backfield, at which point both SD OL practically mugged Harrison, allowing Rivers to get the ball away. Other than that play, Harrison was held on almost every passing down that he didn’t drop into coverage, but that was the most blatant.

4) The “misinterpretation” of the illegal forward pass rule. “There was some confusion about which pass we were looking at.” What he really means: “We had to take a quick break to count our money before we made up a reason why we could blow the call.” Pretty convenient how this sealed the win for Vegas, with roughly 70% of the bets vs. the spread and 65% of the money line bets losing as a result of that blown call. Quite a coincidence, and quite a windfall for the sports books.

Any 1 of these things by themselves isn’t a big deal. Put them all together and it looks like a black eye for the league. I hope those responsible get caught and go to prison.