What a beautiful game.The Steelers looked positively miserable last night, suffering a 9-0 loss at the hands of Byron Leftwich and the Jacksonville Jaguars.
"Big" Ben was 17 for 32 with 141 yards, 2 INTs, and no touchdowns against a stingy Jags' defense.
And man oh man, did it feel good.
After marching into the 2006 season with a definite swagger, the Steelers have looked anything but intimidating so far this year. Don't get me wrong -- you win the Super Bowl, you're allowed to talk smack. But you better be able to back it up, and right now Pittsburgh ain't.
After narrowly escaping the a god-awful Miami Dolphins team in Week One, the Steelers headed to Florida with star quarterback Ben Roethlisberger back behind the center. Now every sportswriter in the country is making excuses for Ben, and to be fair, he had a pretty rough off season. Well, a rough and stupid off season would be more accurate.
By the way, what adult is still too cool to wear a helmet? It's like he's eight years old, refusing to go to the bus stop in his new coat because it's not cool enough. Lesson learned, huh, Tough Guy?
But I digress.
As I was saying, after narrowing escaping a crappy Miami team, the Steelers were absolutely overwhelmed in Jacksonville last night. Their defense, as per usual, held up their end of the bargain, allowing only three FGs all night. But the offense . . . the offense was not so good. Couldn't get the running game going, Ben couldn't make his passes, Hines Ward kept crying and getting the ball wet . . . you get the idea.
My Game Thoughts:
Shut Down the Run, Shut Down the Steelers
Yes, Ben has shown some great stuff over the past few years, but he's still only an above average quarterback if the running game is firmly established. Willie Parker was held to 20 yards on 11 carries. That's an average of 1.8 per touch. Yikes is right. The Jaguars gave the Bengals a big treat last night by putting Pittsburgh's glaring offensive weakness on display (nationally televised, no less).
Jump on the Jaguars Bandwagon While There's Still Time
They looked purty good last night. I still have doubts about this team, especially in terms of durability, but their defense is top notch, and may be the best in the league. I'm glad we aren't playing them this year (in the regular season anyways). If Fred Taylor and Byron can stay healthy, however, I wouldn't be surprised to meet them in the playoffs.
Schadenfreude Can be Your Friend
It's not noble to enjoy other people's failures, blah blah blah. But damned if I wasn't happy as a pig in shit watching the Steelers get their collective ass handed to them last night. I was in one of those situations that inevitably arise if you play football pools. If the Steelers won and the combined score fell in the neighborhood of 31 points, I would've won 250 bucks. But screw the money, I'll take the press conference with Cowher making excuses with his mask of excruciating frustration on. Worth 250 bucks any day.
"Touchable"
Remember in The Untouchables when Capone orders a hit on Ness's boys? Costner opens the elevator to find his comrade's blood smeared all over the walls, with the word "Touchable" written on the wall in blood? Great movie. Even better to see it happen on national television. We owe the Jaguars a big debt for exposing the Steelers' weaknesses just a week before we play them in Pittsburgh. Should be great game. I'm getting antsy already.
Overall, good MNF night. Thanks again to Tony Kornheiser for making the game even more entertaining with his patented brand of genius.
Who's ready for Week Three?
2 comments:
Yeah, I think my girlfriend was a little confused at why I was so excited to see the Jags win.
Tony Kornheiser's patented brand of genius = constantly calling out Theismann = hilarity.
Very true. I loved how Kornheiser kept breaking announcer etiquette towards the end of the game by saying "This thing is over NOW, right?" after every Steeler botch job in the fourth quarter.
He's truly the fans' announcer, and I love him for it.
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