50 Sense...Or Sleepless In Cincinnati

I've been watching the Steelers for too long to consider anything but ugly. Steeler football is root canal. Grip the chair. Smell your teeth smoking as you listen to the sound of the drill. Hope Dr. Tomlin gets the cavity. Give me the W lollipop when it's over! That's why I'm always Mr. 3-2 on any predict the score thread. On the road in an AFC Division game against last years AFCN Champion that swept us any W is a great W. 6-2 looks a lot better than 5-3. Some initial thoughts and feel free to add yours.

• Mendenhall "manned up" and carried the load. To beat this team we were going to have to run the ball. The 6 straight carries on the 4th quarter drive to set up another clutch miss by our broken down drunk of a kicker was his signature moment so far. HUGE.
• Harrison and the D were quite impressive on 3rd and 4th down, especially when it counted with under 1 minute to play and the Bengals inside the Steelers 20. Troy, Woodley, Farrior and Timmons all had big plays all night. Ike & the secondary held their own against the Bengals allowing only TO to hurt them. The PI on Ike was very weak. 
• Arians went to sleep after the pass from El to Wallace. Instead of celebrating he should have worked on a time consuming drive to put the game away instead of the 3 drives preceeding the 6 straight carries by Mendenhall.
• Willie Gay made some big plays on special teams and in the secondary. Even when he missed he was around the ball.Pouncey is a stud sucking it up and coming back from the injury. E Sanders looked a lot more comfortable after a vote of confidence from Coach T. Loved his strip on the opening KO.
• Gruden is awesome in 50s book. Many cast him aside as a great football mind by saying he had Oakland's playbook. 50 say the definition of a great coach is one that can beat yours with his and then beat his with yours. That's Gruden. Some great words of wisdom from the next HC of the Cowboys; On Arians 2nd quarter goal line play calling "Nothing like a slow developing draw play on 3rd and goal." On Mike Wallace "Mike Wallace is a dominating WR in this league" On James Harrison "Good luck blocking him" On James Farrior "Father Time"
• With 3 on the road and 2 against AFC foes, the Steelers got the 2 wins they really needed and lost the one game that meant the least. HUGE game next week against the Pats* and Belicheat*. These guys know how to beat the Steelers. Brady will abandon the run, spread out the WRs and throw 60 times. He will put up points. The Steeler D will need to play bend don't break defense. The Steeler D will need a couple sacks and a turnover. The Steeler O will need to run the ball, possess the clock and keep Brady off the field. When you run the ball, good things happen. Most of all the Steelers will need to score TDs because they can not rely on a drunken broken down kicker to make 40 plus yard FGs when it matters most anymore. 3 has jumped the stack IC Light cans. 7-2 looks a lot better than 6-3. Here We Go Steelers!