Monday morning NFL recap - week 6

Steelers: At least I still have the Broncos.

Red zone - We can't seem to get past the red and into the end zone. I understand the run game. I get it. But the game has changed and the Steelers need to change with it and throw the darn ball, especially in the red zone.

Ben Roethlisberger - Not his day. That happens. He overthrew and under threw and missed cues. Unfortunately our next three games are the Texans, Colts and Ravens and those are three teams that are way better than the Steelers.

Troy Polamalu - Something is very off with Troy, and I wish he would straighten it out. If he is unhappy with something on the team whether it be the coach or players, he needs to address it so he can get back to work. He is healthy and we are not seeing healthy Troy play. I'm not a proponent of the "he is old" thing. Something else is going on.

Receivers - I questioned our decisions in the off season to not try and keep certain players, mainly receivers Jericho Cotchery and Emmanuel Sanders. And sure enough we are hurting there. Antonio Brown is our only guy that can hold on to a ball, leap to make a catch, and who comes out each week to do his job. What? No one thought that other teams wouldn't pick up on that and cover him?

Browns - Kudos to them. They have energy. They have enthusiasm. They don't give up. All the things that we haven't had in years.

Other:

Hype - It is interesting to me how excited sports analysts get when a team pulls out a winner, or wins again, or loses big. No matter which one it is the analysts go nuts. Now the Cowboys are suddenly THE team since they pulled off an upset over the Seahawks. It was a good win. I'm not arguing that, but do I think this is the team that will take it all the way? Uh, no. Not yet. I picked Philadelphia back in week one and so far they haven't done anything to change my mind.

Tampa Bay - I didn't watch the game because I was busy watching my own game online, but I followed it through updates. Five touchdowns scored in the first fifteen minutes by the Ravens. That is on the Bucs defense period. Do I think this beating was on par with the one they took two weeks ago with Atlanta? No. This game this week was against the Ravens, a contender team for sure. The Falcons? They couldn't beat Chicago.

Joe Flacco and Aaron Rogers - I hate to give kudos to any Raven, but Flacco played so well yesterday I have to suck it up and hand it out to him. As for Rogers, if I had to pick a quarterback to stage a comeback he would be in line behind Peyton Manning. Plus, he earned points with me by showing some emotion and humor in his post conference regarding his fake spike.

Sacks - Last week was penalty week and this week it was quarterback sacks. Giants quarterback Eli Manning went down six times, five of those occurring in the first half, and Jacksonville's Blake Bortles joined him with six. Buffalo's Kyle Orton, and Buc's Mike Glennon went down five times. Jets quarterback Geno Smith and Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan were each saked for four, but poor Teddy Bridgewater of the Minnesota Vikings picked himself up off the field eight times. A few people are going to be sore this morning.

Victor Cruz - Ouch. The Giants number one receiver went down with a torn patellor tendon in his knee while trying to leap for an overthrown pass. It is always hard when the great ones go down. It is even harder when the rest of the team can't recover from it.

OT Tie - Seriously? You play all that time and you get nothing but a tie? Ugh. Why is it so difficult for the NFL to get overtime rules right?