Monday morning NFL recap week #7

Steelers: Watched from home on the TV. Big rivalry with just a tad of nasty thrown in.

• Okay, I'm thrilled the NFL took away the penalty for celebrations (although it seems somewhat subjective), but I really am not a fan of them. I guess because less is more in my book. Also, this isn't the pee wee league.
• Yay for the rookies stepping up and playing big. JuJu Smith-Schuster, the youngest football player in the NFL at twenty years old and James Connor are definitely showing they are worth their contracts.
• The Bengals Vontaze Burfict, he of the dirty, dirty hits that have gotten him suspended for many games, came on to Heinz Field reported mouthing off about how the fans and Steelers weren't going "to like" him today. First, he refused to shake hands with the Steelers captains at the coin toss, and then on the second play of the game he kicked Steelers Roosevelt Nix in the head as Nix rose from the ground after a tackle. The referee immediately came over, but a flag wasn't thrown. Let's hope the NFL takes a look at that, and a look at how he smacked Nix in the head later in the game as Nix walked past him. Come on, NFL this guy shouldn't be playing in this league. What's it going to take?
• I'm not a fan of Jim Nantz' calling the games. For this one, he was paired with former Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo who seemed to be the butt of jokes from the studio yahoos anytime a Dallas update hit the screen. Ugh, men acting like boys. I thought Romo had some useful insights, but Nantz just makes me nuts. Especially when he "gave props" to that stupid "hide n' seek" celebration the Steelers did early on.
• Only one penalty this game from our side. Now that's what I'm talking about!
• The defense started out slow, but they pulled it back together again and suddenly caught on fire, sacking Andy Dalton and intercepting twice. If only the offense could have turned those into 7 points.
• On 4th down, as the Steelers went to punt, they instead did a trick play with Robert Golden taking the snap and throwing down field for a great completion to Darrius Heyward-Bey for a first down that sealed the game and got the Heinz Field crowd roaring. It was the perfect time to play Renegade and close it all down.

Other:

• Fun, close games in the first half of football yesterday. This is where the NFL Network's Redzone wins out in television of the NFL. I could see all four tied football games at once.
• Another quarterback bites the dust with the Arizona Cardinals Carson Palmer going down with a broken arm late in the second quarter. Unfortunately, this game was in London. It's bad enough to fly that far to play football, but to fly back with a broken arm? Ugh.
• Cleveland Browns' offensive tackle Joe Thomas made his 10,363 consecutive play on Sunday, having never missed a snap in eleven years, and then he got hurt and the streak came to an end. Bummer.
• Tampa Bay, just like last week, started out incredibly sloppy and slow, but pulled it together and staged a comeback, but again like last week they fell short, fumbling the ball in the last few seconds to allow the Bills to win it with a field goal.
• Enjoy when our local kids get a nod on the TV. Kudos to Tampa's Miles Teller for his intro into Fox NFL Sunday.