Monday football recap - Week #14

Steelers:   Regis Philbin analyzed the Giants and said they win against the good teams and lose when they play the bad teams. I thought then that he could have been talking about the Steelers. I still think that. The Chargers? Ah, Pittsburgh, I love you guys, but something ain't working.

Offensive Line - Had a hard time holding the Chargers so that Ben could have some time to throw. He did quite a bit of scrambling for a man wrapped tightly with Kevlar.

Phil Simms/Jim Nantz - I'm not thrilled with CBS's team of game callers. I think Kelly and I could do a better job and be more entertaining, and I certainly wouldn't get player's names wrong (Wallace called Brown by Simms) and then admit it and say, "They look alike". Seriously? Anybody catch that but me?

First Downs - The Steelers had only three first downs in the first half. You aren't going to win games that way.

Ben - A bit rusty in that first half especially on his first few passes, but again his line had trouble holding the defense.

Penalties - I'm thinking Tomlin needs to go through the rules with this team because every game we have penalties, penalties, penalties. Offsides on Polamalu; as a veteran you can't make those kind of mistakes.

Wrong side - For most of the game we had bad field position with no first downs and good punts from the Chargers.  Not going to win games if you can't move the ball and chains.

Home game - We shouldn't be losing games at Heinz Field, especially to losing teams.  That field and those fans are the greatest and how a team can come out with the energy that generates through that stadium and not be pumped is beyond me.  What is it this team is looking for?

Philip Rivers - Only thing of happiness was watching Rivers simply give up sit down anytime Steelers James Harrison got lose and started toward him. 

Touchdowns - How great did we look in the fourth quarter? If only we could play like that in the beginning. Ben is best when the team is down. I wonder if he was one of those last minute homework project kind of guys too.

Other:   I got to watch a few of the other games since I was at my buddy's house watching the Steelers. Actually cheered for the Cowboys for the first time in my life. Their win helped our loss and the Ravens losing to the 'skins helped as well. Almost a wash across the board.

Tampa Bay - Came back from a huge deficit and lost in the last two seconds. The Eagles sighed a huge relief, but we have a history with the nasty Philadelphia fans so this loss was hard to swallow...especially on the day the Bucs celebrated the Super Bowl win from 10 years ago.  How they got there?  Through Philadelphia.

Bucs 10th Anniversary - It was big stuff here in Tampa that January night back in 2003.  This was a team that had been in last place for so long people called them the Yucks.  Now they had new owners and new uniforms and were playing in the biggest game in the NFL.  And then they won it.  Won it with guys from those losing seasons that people in Tampa knew as well as they knew their neighbors.  Why then did Fox not show the half-time presentation?  And when some of the guys dropped by the booth to chat with host John Lynch, a member of that very championship team, did Fox not have microphones for them to speak?  Fox dropped the ball on this one.

Redskins - RGIII went down and the rest of the team went forward behind back-up quarterback Kirk Cousins who played the game of his life in the Redskins win over the Ravens in overtime.  God Bless the Redskins.  Nice to see another back-up come out and score big.

Ravens - Lost two in a row?  Wow.  That was huge, but unfortunately the Steelers didn't step up this week and take advantage.  The Ravens fired their offensive coach after the game and gave the position to former Indianapolis Colts coach Jim Caldwell.  I predict they win their next three games.
 
58 - 0 - As crazy as Seahawks coach Pete Carrol is you can't blame him for running up the score on this one.  Seattle's defense had eight takeaways in a game that went completely Seattle's way, and Arizona was left standing with egg on the face.  Quarterback rookie Russell Wilson even sat on the bench the last 25 minutes and still the Seahawks scored.  Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt took the blame and the embarrassment.  Something tells me the Cardinals are going to be flying long and hard all week.