Sitting Pretty

Maryrose did a great job of counting our blessings for us in his piece today. While always on the nervous side of comfortable with the Steelers, I find that I'm much more relaxed an confident this year. At the bye, I have full confidence in the Steelers and where they will end up at the end of the year.

I have to get this out early: For those of you who have taken note of the fact that the baseball team from accross the state is once again in the World Series, and that the hockey team that shares a city with the Steelers is possibly headed back to the big game, I say this to you about all the possible repeats: SSShhhhhhh...

If you troll the power rankings like I do, you will notice a definate surge in respect for the Steelers. I have seen them as high as four.

Why not? They beat the Vikings, and as much as the media wants to portray that game as a loss by the Vikings and not a win by the Steelers, I say B******T. If it weren't for mistakes by the Steelers, they would have destroyed the Vikings. Four plays: Miller's penalty, Mendanhall's greased hands, Reed's girlscout impression, and Ben's fumble. If Miller doesn't make the penalty, Mendanhall holds on, Reed makes the tackle and Ben converts the third down, the Steelers roll on Minnesota. Unfortunatly, Fox and CBS don't run sports programs every day, so we are stuck with ESPN (I don't have the NFL Network). And, I don't know how a team gets on their favorite list, but if they are, look out (Don't get me started on how bad ESPN is these days).

I heard one of the media's talking bags of gas actually say that the Vikings dominated, out-passing and out-rushing the Steelers. Really? Did that fat bag of guts happen to look at the actual game stats before making this blatantly innacurate satement? No!... Why do I say that? Because, the Steelers out-rushed the Vikings (24 yards). Who was the fat bag of guts? Tom Jackson, ESPN (Okay, I got started).

Man is ESPN bad. I mean, bad! I have watched the fall of a once great network and can only attribute it to two things. ESPN's purchase by ABC and their studios in L.A. Does anyone remember how ESPN used to cover the NFL after the games on Sunday? Every game was highlighted in detail. Now? I only saw highlights for the Steelers-Vikings game and the Saints-Dolphins game (The Saints are another ESPN favorite). You see, I didn't want to watch all the other stuff ESPN wanted to insert in between football highlights, so I would switch back every few minutes. It appears to me, ESPN is using the NFL as the hook to make it's viewers watch all their other crap. If you want to see all the football highlights, you are going to have to sit through baseball, nascar, preseason basketball, the tear-jerker story of the week, half baked opinions, and mistatements by some fat bag of guts. This is where it goes back to L.A. Only some entertainment executive jackass in L.A. could come up with this scenario. These are not the decisions of a sports person.

Back to the game.

What struck me the most was the Vikings lack of a dominant pass rush with their hearalded front four. Did anyone, while thinking that Max was improving, ever think Starks could shut down Jarred Allen? What a great job by him. And, how about the running on the right side? Devistating. Too bad for that fumble by Mendy. No matter how much he protests, it's time to go back to making Mendanhall carry a football everywhere with him. If someone takes it away?...He has to give them a B.J. Seriously. Just one and he never fumbles again, ever.

A lot was said about the Vikings' Winfield being absent for the game. Everyone thought that the Vikings would be vulnerable, but they weren't. It seems that they took a page out of Tomlin's book about expectations being the same. Good for them. Ben still got the sick touchdown pass though. That was a beautuful pass. It looked so effortless.

Well, the defense is back. Troy is the glue that holds them together. The Steelers can lose other players, but not Troy. Keyaron did a fine (Great) job of replacing Timmons. He was a real steal. Thank you Chiefs. Lets not forget the three man effort to replace Aaron Smith. Another, well done. The only negative was how Old-Man-Favre racked up the passing yards. But, that wasn't a surprise. He is still one of the best in the NFL when he is on.

The forth quarter is why I stay home and watch the game by myself. I tend to get a little excited, for a grown man, when things like defensive scores occur. The camera-man shooting Fox's interception added a little mystery by losing the ball. I thought I saw the interception, but then, the camera-man kind of flailed about until Fox re-entered the picture with the squeeler under his arm. At that point, I may have digressed by a muturity facter of 3 or 4 (Using a scale of 1 to 10). 

Even the commentators couldn't fail to mention Pittsburgh's fine blocking for the guy with the ball on both plays. There were a couple of Vikings giving it the good old college try too.

How about the vikings right tackle on the second turnover return. He may look slow compaired to other pro athletes, but he can outrun you and I (Well, most of us) pretty easily. What a great effort on his part. Loadholt, that's his name.

The refs have been mentioned several times. I have finally come to the conclusion that they are not going to get better, ever. We, Steelers fans and Vikings fans alike, are going to have to accept the fact that the refs will always make bad, game-changing calls, every game. Did anyone watch the Monday night debacle? The refs in that game made a 45 yard mistake. 45 yards! Called the penalty on the wrong team! Almost gave the Redskins special teams coach a coronary. He couldn't even calmly point out the mistake. He had to scream like a gut-shot spaniard to finally get the refs to correct their error. As for the ref that got run over in the Steelers game: Several options have been presented to safeguard their health, except the one that makes sense. Why doesn't the NFL replace that slow, crippled ref with the plastic hip and the 120-120 vision with a young, athletic, well trained professional. Problem solved.

I looked at the Saints schedule, I think they have a real shot at going 16-0. No shot at winning the Super bowl because...Well, you know...I don't want to jinx anything.

And what-do-you-know, the Cowboys are a great team again this week. My question, if you are a Cowboys season ticket holder, do you watch the game or the big screen T.V.? Because if the fans are getting a better view of the game on the screen than in the nose bleed section, why don't they just invest in a big screen T.V. and save the money they spend on season tickets? Otherwise they are just going to the game for the crowd. Which I still don't get, because given enough beer and deep fried food, a basement full of psychotic fans can be just as fun, if not more.

Uh-oh, Carson and the mouth are back. Just another reason to want the Bengals to lose: Crazy-boy Johnson should never be given this much attention in the press. What a clown, and not in a good way!

Ravens-Broncos: Who to pick? The only reason to root for the Broncos, besides they are my bosses favorite and she is a total sweetheart, is so the Steelers can knock them off (Oh yeah, the whole division thing too). Two games, two unbeatens beaten. Kind of like '04. Of course, I would like to see that smug little grin wiped of McDanials face whenever it happens. I wonder if he brought cheating to the Broncos from the Hated Patriots. Something to keep an eye on.

Back to this unbeaten thing. You know, if the Broncos, Saints and Colts all continue on the path they are on, the Steelers could be the first team to beat them all. Of course, the Colts and Saints would have to go 16-0 in the regular season for that to happen, but you never know.

I looked through the pictures of the cheerleaders at SI.com today. Clearly, that activity is being run by women who take it way too seriously. Look, the cheerleaders don't have to be good dancers, coordinated, smile all the time, or be particularly dedicated. All they have to be is smoking hot. A lot of these weren't. If they are smoking hot, they can just stand there and they will please the people who come to the game just to see them (Except maybe their parents). Smoking hot and a camel toe.

I may have stepped over the line there. I would like to oppolagize to my female readers, if I have any.

Okay, time for lunch.

Go Steelers.