Against the Titans - December 21, 2008

I'll start with the obvious statement: it seems the wheels came off the wagon this past week. We've already been traveling through our schedule with a spotty offensive line and special teams, and with a quarterback who gambles, Vegas-style, with each of his throws when flushed out of the pocket. But at least we had the consistent D to keep the other team's offensive numbers in check, no? It appeared to me that our D did not prepare well for the game and became a little too reliant on the media hype...and we watched the result. Suddenly team confidence begins faltering: Ben is throwing INT's and fumbling behind the line, the unflappable Reed is missing a FG and penalties are racking up. I have to hand it to the Titans: they played a tidy game and Collins stayed cool under pressure; we were thrown off our game. Anytime you see Roethlisberger with over 300 passing yards and a handful of lost fumbles, you know we're in trouble. I am hoping this dismantling of the defense will prove to be a good wakeup call to Tomlin about discipline in the home stretch. I'm channeling my dismay at this game using Wayne a la Wayne's World: "What the hell's going on? I lost my show, I lost my best friend, I lost my girl. I'm being sh*ton, that's right, sh*ton, and you know what really pisses me off....wait, where are you goin'? OK, things aren't that great, but I'll get 'em back, OK?"

Against the Ravens - December 14, 2008

As advertised, it was a real slug-fest in the trenches for the two defenses and painfully low-scoring. Knowing that M&T Stadium was going to be loud and hostile, I am still not sure why we did not utilize a no-huddle offense (Remember the Colts game in 2006?) and avoid those frustrating false start penalties early on. The defense, of course, to the end, played with heart and steel. I believe our special teams showed their warts, as evidenced by the muffed punt and the Ravens' favorable starting field position, time and again; this definitely has to be addressed before the playoffs. I am pleased that Ben Roe, Ward, Holmes and the O-line all engineered that final nail-biting drive to the endzone, but hope they know, for all of the fans' sanities, that it IS possible to score touchdowns during ALL four quarters of the football game within the playoffs?? ;) I will say that it was all worth it to see Ray "I Should Be in Jail" Lewis angry on the sidelines at the end. For that, I'll quote Tony Montana in Scarface: "Now you're talking to me baby! That I like! Keep it coming!"

Against the Cowboys - December 7, 2008

Another amazing defensive performance, shoe-stringing together a win when the offense was (no surprise there) sputtering. The offensive performance was so patchy and it certainly was not a play-off caliber performance either. It's always dangerous (and frustrating for team morale) to fail to convert scores from turnovers; we will face better teams than Dallas that will be able to handle the cold weather and not cough up the ball so easily. Nice of Nate Washington to show up to the dance and make some clutch catches; we will certainly need those types of plays since Ward is getting double-teamed more and more by those who want to draw more fines out of him. My larger opinion is that we should consider putting Leftwich in for those plays where we need a quarterback sneak into the endzone or for deep passing plays; Ben's injury is clearly holding him back in the short yardage situations. He seems too leery to scramble these days. To quote the NASA flight director in Apollo 13: "Let's work the problem people. Let's not make things worse by guessing."

Against the Pats - November 30, 2008

I have to say that there was some promising improvement in the o-line's play this week, despite the inclimate conditions, and the defense and special teams, like always, showed up to play a spirited four full quarters. Gotta love Harrison and Polumalu week in and week out. But I'm not altogether sure if it was that we were so good or whether the Pats just handed over the game: I would specifically finger Moss's dropped passes and Cassel's "uncharacteristic" (I hadn't bought into the Cassel = John Elway talk anyhow) skittishness around the pocket as pretty big culprits. Once again, Ben treated us to a stupidly thrown INT on the second play of the game: what was that all about??? I'm going to reserve judgment on this team, until I see another big road win. To quote Wooderson in "Dazed and Confused": "Patience, darlin', patience."

As a sidenote, in the wake of Plaxico Burress's suspension during the crucial final weeks of the season, quite more than 100 bucks says the Rooneys are privately thinking that, although we can't afford "premier" receivers under our particular salary cap, we unloaded one big loose ego grenade before it exploded.