Tell me about it. Great article btw. Surprisingly Cromartie has played very well since his disastrous game in Pitt. I think it's because of the pressure returning from Phillips and Merriman. Quick note, when Antoine Winfield is healthy, I believe he stands his ground as a top 3 corner. Very, very good tackler and incredible vision.
My mistake, I meant the final 5 minutes. Its final 2 minutes at the end of the first half. He ran out of bounds, but there was still 5:10 left, so the clock kept moving.
I had a total abundance of running backs so I traded Ricky Williams to a guy who is in last place in my league for Pittsburgh's defense. I thought I had timed this correctly with the Dolphins headed to the crapper and the Steelers about to his their stride. Now if only Ricky would start sucking.
Another game, another dominant performance from Mendenhall....and yet another red zone fumble. Called it! Oh well, I'll take it.
Always enjoy watching the Broncos getting punked in their own crib. The Steelers are a joy to watch, they have a bunch of scrappy players littered all over the field who just go out and win, much like a certain basketball team I'm sure we're all familiar with.
I called it before the Broncos lost their first game, but today may signal their demise. Kyle Orton reverted to Kyle Orton and this game may indicate the rest of their season. There is no way in the world Kyle Orton can play at a high level over 16 games. Hines Ward made Champ Bailey look total chump on that TD. It was also funny that Ward was smiling right after he caught the ball before jumping over Bailey. James Harrison is a dangerous player. That hit hurt me.
I avoided this thread last night as I knew that I would probably lose my cool and post some stuff that would have been really juvenile. Let me just say congrats to the Steelers - they played the better game and were definitely the better team. With that being said, no offense to baller, but I really really really really hope that they don't win the Super Bowl again as I personally detest that team and always have. I especially don't like Roethlisberger and their Omar Epps lookalike coach. A lot of it stems from bitterness about how they beat my Broncos in Denver for the AFC Championship Game several years ago. But it also is the same factor that people have in hating teams like the Yankees, Lakers, Cowboys, etc. These teams are ones that have been good for a long time and have their share of passionate fans but also the bandwagon ones who will admit to you that they only like this team because they are "good". These fans are the ones that will drive you insane - act like they know everything about the team when in reality they don't have a clue (with that being said, I know that baller isn't a bandwagon fan mainly due to his fandom for the Pirates and living in the Pittsburgh area. Because the Pirates have been so bad for so long, the man deserves a medal for continuing to root for them, IMO). At any rate, I had a feeling that the Broncos were going to lose to both the Ravens and Steelers as these are 2 teams that have always given them (the Broncs) lots of problems with their schemes and are just overall bad matchups for them (mainly because Denver has always been a finesse team while the Ravens and Steelers have been very physical teams). And wouldn't you know that there is an article by ****** Williamson that talks about how the Broncos are already choking the division away "just like last season". Forget the fact that there are still 8 games left and not 3, but what makes that article so utterly ridiculous and asinine as well as sensationalism journalism at its finest (a hallmark for ESPN and their writers) is that the Broncos have a different head coach, a different starting QB, and pretty much an entire different starting defense with the exception of a couple of guys. I mean McDaniels hasn't experienced a collapse like last season the way that the "Mastermind" did neither has Kyle Orton saw his playoff berth go poof in the thin air the way Cutler saw it. It is a different team with different coaches - they are not going to win every game and the Steelers and Ravens have also beaten the Chargers in addition to the Broncos. I looked at the Broncos remaining schedule and the Chargers remaining schedule, and at first glance, the Chargers' schedule seems to be the easier one. They have games left at Cleveland and at Tennessee as well as home games against the Chiefs and the Redskins. The only tough games, it seems, for them is the home game against the Eagles, the road game against the Broncos, at Dallas, and then a home game against the surprising Bengals. I think the best that the Chargers can do is go 11-5 and the worst would be 9-7. The Broncos still have to play the Chiefs twice as well as a home game with the Raiders plus a home game with the Giants and on the road with the Redskins and with the Eagles. To me the only definite, impossible to win game is the road game against the Colts (another team that the Broncos have traditionally struggled against because of their schemes and because Peyton Manning is just damn good). I think at the very worst, the Broncos will win 10 games (beating the Redskins, the Chiefs twice, and the Raiders) but they should have a good shot at beating the Chargers at home because unlike the Steelers, the Chargers are not a good run-blocking team. The Broncos had to respect the run with the Steelers and as a result they weren't able to blitz Roethlisberger like they did against the punk Rivers. If you give Roethlisberger time, he will kill you and add the fact that he might be the best throwing QB out of the pocket, there is not much you can do if he is on (and he is usually on when he plays the Broncos). So, I think the Broncos will still get in, even if they just win 10 games and the Chargers win 10 or 11 and take the division. This is very different from last season when all the Broncos had to do was win 1 of their last 3 games and yet dropped them all to finish 8-8 and miss the playoffs altogether. So ****** Williamson needs to remember that before he starts waxing nostalgic about how this season is a repeat of last season. But last night showed me that the Broncos are not a Super Bowl team and that if they are able to get in the playoffs (which I think they still will), they won't be in for long (one and done). Hopefully, next season McDaniels can build on this season and try to get a better QB than Orton (who to his credit has been playing very well until recently). baller - you were talking about the dinking and dunking that the Broncos offense likes to do and how that is Orton's favorite way of passing the ball. The reason why that type of passing game doesn't work against the Steelers is because they, like the Ravens, are one of the best (maybe the best) tackling team in the NFL. The dinking and dunking is very effective against a team that doesn't tackle well (which is a lot of teams in the NFL) but it won't work against the Steelers and the Ravens of the world.
Manny, I wouldn't compare the Steelers to the Yanks, Lakers or Cowboys for 3 big reasons: (1) The NFL has a hard salary cap that levels the playing field, (2) The Steelers don't sign high-priced free agents from other teams, they DRAFT well and have done so for years and (3) We're talking about Pittsburgh, which is a very unglamorous city and offers nothing that a rich athlete would want other than a rabid local fan base and winning tradition. The sole reason the Steelers have been good is because they run a first class organization that does things right. I doubt any other franchise spends as much time and energy on the NFL draft. I strong dislike the Yanks, Lakers and Boys for a lot of reasons, none of which apply to the Steelers who have been my favorite team since childhood. I've liked them since 1970 when they were bad. It's a good thing when a "middle America" team from a not-so-big city does well in sports.
A_3PO, You bring up good reasons and I see where you are coming from, but wouldn't you agree that the Steelers have as many or more bandwagon fans than any other team in the NFL, outside of the Cowboys? Which you know that is a result of them being good for such a long time - the bandwagon fans usually like the teams that have been consistent winners over the years.
Not because I was a bandwagoner! Seriously, only Miami had won anything when I started rooting for all those teams. So I was, technically, a Miami bandwagon fan but then I was only 10 at the time that I started liking them, lol. I started liking the other teams because I didn't really care for the Atlanta teams (although I did like the Falcons for a brief period of time) as that was the only professional sports city close to me (long before the day that the Titans were even a twinkle in Bud Adams' eye). I liked the Red Sox because of Roger Clemens and Wade Boggs (ironically), the Broncos because of your favorite player of all-time moe in Elway, and the Rockets because of Hakeem.
