Monday NFL recap week 9

Steelers:

• Defense - What can I say that I haven't said before?  For the last three years.  Missed tackles.  Wrong positions.  Penalties.  Only thing worse would have been to have been ahead by twenty something and lost like the Bucs in overtime or like the Texans did Sunday night. 
• Offense - We can score.  We tied the game at 24.  But then the defense allows another score and it just seems to deflate the offense.
• Home field advantage - Most lopsided officiating with the pass interference calls I've seen in a while.
• Ben's 200th pass - Only Terry Bradshaw had done it for the Steelers and now add Roethlisberger to the list.  Ben threw for his 200th and adding two more for 202 career touchdowns.  Doesn't mean much without the win is what he will say, but it is a feat nonetheless. 
• Polamalu - What is with him and the penalties?  By now you ought to know where you should stand and what is right and wrong.  No excuses from a great veteran player like Troy.  I don't know what is going on in that locker room, but something ain't right.

Other:

• Fox NFL Sunday's show -  The show had a nice interview with Cam Newton, quarterback of the Carolina Panthers.  He talked about how he was a loner and very unapproachable to any of his teammates.  He talked about how he misbehaved after coming into the league and how his father and his brother sat him down and made him watch his antics on television.  They discussed if that was the kind of person he truly was, and knowing he wasn't, why was this happening and how would he change it?  Newton said he began watching the greats; Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, and Drew Brees and the way the three of them handled football, life, and those around them.  He didn't want to be who he was playing on the field.  He wanted to be like the three "greats".  Now his teammates feel they can talk to him and approach him at any time.  He makes an effort to call them up to hang out together.  I thought it a great interview and just along the lines of what I've been saying about Manning.  We need these guys to show the others how it is done.  The fact that Newton recognized that.  Wow.  Power to him.
• Staying with the Fox show -  I laughed when Terry said he had a million things running through his head on a question that Curt Menefee asked him.  The guys kidded him and said, "Only a million?"  Terry counted back by telling them he had 15 other voices in his head that he needed to keep placating.  Hilarious.  
• Johnathan Martin - The Miami tackle left the team for "reasons other than football" raising concerns about his mental health among other rumors.  One such rumor is that he was being bullied by his teammates.  The NFL has got issues if this is a reality.  It goes back again to my first entry on "other".  You have great leaders that can play on the field and off the field without incident.  The NFL has got to utilize those guys.  The NFL has got to provide help for players, especially these young guys just entering the league.  Some need help from wacky coaches.  Some need help from players.  Some need help from outsiders and some need help from themselves.  I think the NFL has got to step up and offer some assistance to these players if they want to keep the league clean.
• Gerald McCoy - Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive tackle mentioned on his radio show this week that some of the coaches were unhappy with his helping the opposition up after a tackle.  See?  This is what I'm talking about.  Seriously?
• John Fox - The coach of the Denver Broncos went to visit his heart doctor this bye week and discovered that surgery he had put off for February would need to be done now.  He will miss out on over a month of football, maybe more.  I'm not worried at all and something tells me that John Fox ain't worried either.  He has Peyton Manning and we all know that Manning coaches the team through the game anyway.  Plus more motivation for a team to win.  Look at the Colts last year with their coach.  I'm cheering the Broncos all the way.
• Jets & Eagles - Whoa!  Where did they come from?
• Nick Foles - The backup, yes the backup, quarterback to Michael Vick threw 7 touchdown passes all before the fourth quarter when the coach took him out as a show of sportsmanship.  Foles had a day that only Peyton Manning understands and that many dream of.  Good for him.
• Bucs - We should have watched this game instead of the Steelers, but then again after a 21-0 lead the Bucs couldn't hold on and lost in OT to the Seahawks.
• Gary Kubiak - The Houston Texans coach fell to his knees walking to the locker room at halftime and ended up going to a local hospital by ambulance. Later in the third quarter NBC cameras went to the Texans GM and owner sitting all cozy watching the Texans choke. Nice to know the coach means enough to your organization that one of you could follow him to the hospital.