Monday NFL recap - week #9

Steelers: Again, with Big Ben getting hurt? Seriously? Protect your damn quarterback O line!

• I don't know what happens with our guys when we lose a player, but we just crumble. Great teams suck it up, but the Steelers just run around the field looking lost. By the time they pull it together, it is usually too late. Thank goodness this time they did enough to eek out the W.
• I knew Ben and Antonio Brown would do well today. I just felt like they would get back up and get back into it and they did. Ben with 334 yards and Brown with 284 yards which set a team record and another team record of 17 catches in a single game. But what really gets me is how great Antonio Brown really is with those toe-tapping catches that he makes. It is crazy good.
• But Brown had a huge fumble that turned the game around in the fourth quarter. He more than made up for it, however, with less than a minute to go in the game with a huge catch and run that got the Steelers down in red zone territory.
• I texted my buddy, who I thought was at the game, to let him know that Ben had left Heinz Field for further evaluation because when you're at a game it is hard to get precise information like we get here at home. (Plus he has a flip phone for god's sake) This entire time I kept picturing my buddy cheering and waving his terrible towel at the game and instead he texts me back that he is in a hospital in Cleveland with blockage to his kidney.  

Other:

• How nasty did that lip look on New Orleans Drew Brees in the post-game conference? That lip hurt me. Add that injury with a loss in overtime and whoa, I felt sorrier for him then I did for Big Ben. For a minute.
• On a recap of games on the Redzone Channel, the two announcers were yucking it up as they described the hit on Minnesota's Teddy Bridgewater that knocked him unconscious immediately. I thought it very inappropriate considering all of the players who have serious health issues resulting from their hits. I also felt like the hit was not intentional, although one point made was a quarterback running is still a quarterback and a tackler should probably keep that in mind. True. Bridgewater was already sliding when he was hit and most likely suffered the concussion from hitting his head on the turf. Minnesota's coach, Mike Zimmer,  made some veiled references to the Rams defensive coordinator, Gregg Williams having a history of dirty plays, but I didn't see it that way. I didn't mind the reference, however, as Williams is the ding dong that was involved in that bounty scheme in New Orleans a few years back. Hey, buddy, once you screw up you've got that on your shoulders.
• I like Cam Newton and I get what he wanted to say in his post-game conference, but holy, spit it out, Cam! He started off trying to pay tribute to "his" military person as the NFL has deemed November military month and are wearing camouflage, but he just kept babbling and babbling trying to get the words out. After that was out of the way, he muffed a few more questions by repeating his answer over and over and stressing the point WAY too much. I won't even talk about the "ums", but someone needs to help him give interviews.
• Green Bay's Aaron Rogers was messed with all night by the Panthers defense, and after he threw an interception in the end of the fourth quarter while trying to stage a comeback he went to the bench and threw a tablet or Ipad on the ground in a fit of frustration. Luckily, he doesn't have kids because that tantrum was caught on camera and could have been used against him during a parental teaching moment.
• I'm tired too of announcers mentioning the Colts' kicker, Adam Vinatieri's, age every time he makes a field goal. He's money. Who cares how old he is? Old people can do still do things.
• So the NFL historian was at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis just in case Peyton Manning managed to become the NFL's career passing leader. He fell 3 yards short and instead snapped the Broncos undefeated season. Great. The historian gets to travel again next week.