Steelers-Bills Recap

Remember last month when I took the blame for the Steelers poor season since I didn't wear my Louis Lipps jersey consistently? Well, the Steelers lost to the Raiders while I wore my jersey, so clearly, you could no longer blame me for the Steelers losses. However, perhaps you really can blame me. It is now November 11th and this is my first Steelers recap of the season. Maybe the Steelers just needed to know that I was going to write recaps to motivate them.

Here are my thoughts on the game that you probably won't read anywhere else.

- The Buffalo Bills feature several former Pittsburgh Steelers, Kraig Urbik, Doug Legursky and Frank Summers. The team's punter, Brian Moorman, was also in the Steelers' training camp this summer. While it appears that Buffalo has become Pittsburgh North, I didn't notice former University of Pittsburgh players Ruben Brown or Alex Van Pelt on the sideline.

- You see the date of this post, right? We're still at least six weeks from Christmas and about three weeks from Thanksgiving. We don't need Christmas commercials yet, Mercedes, Home Depot & Wal-Mart!

- Steelers punter Mat McBriar had five punts for an average of only 39 yards and an average net of only 34.9 yards. What did Daniel Sepulveda do to not get a try-out?

- Jerricho Cotchery was only targeted twice, but he made both catches for 31 yards and a great move on a TD catch. Cotchery has looked better than Sanders lately and has been a solid and valuable contributor to the team. While it probably makes sense for the Steelers to get rookie WR Markus Wheaton more playing time, I feel so much more comfortable with Cotchery on the field.

- Congratulations to Jarvis Jones on getting his first NFL sack! I'm sure that convinced the Subway execs that they made the right call in having Jones appear on their commercials.

- CBS is going to show a three-episode Person of Interest. Wouldn't that make it People of Interest?

- Overall, the Steelers defense played great. They gave up a field goal after the Bills started a drive on the Steelers 29 yard line. The Bills scored their touchdown on the last play of the game when the game was decided. By the way, the Bills didn't even deserve to score. Bills' QB E.J. Manuel should have been flagged for intentional grounding, but instead the ruling was a fumble that got overturned and the Steelers got a 15-yard penalty for unnecessary roughness. Plus, Bills' tight end Chris Gragg also moved early on the 4th down TD catch. Yes, I started the Steelers defense for several fantasy teams and am a little bitter that the team gave up 10 points instead of 3.

- Oh, message to Chris Gragg. You look ridiculous celebrating and pointing to the sky after catching a touchdown to make the score 23-9 with your team losing with 3 seconds left.

- Can someone explain the rumor that Roethlisberger wants to get traded. Here is the conversation between announcers and Marv Albert and Rich Gannon.

Albert - "As a key member of the media, as a guy who tweets, all you have to do is put out a tweet"
Gannon - "and it catches fire"
Albert - "and it's everywhere and we react to it and the teams react to it whether it is true or not."

So what media member put out the Tweet? Shouldn't we (or CBS) contact this media member and ask him/her for the source or to explain the story?

- Why did the Steelers cut Jonathan Dwyer again? All he did was have 6 carries for 38 yards in a supporting role.

For more on the Steelers game, check out the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, ESPN & Behind The Steel Curtain. (Yes, there's two links there for BTSC.)

Random Steelers-Titans Notes

That was a fun game! The Steelers led early and held a convincing lead throughout the second half to defeat the Tennessee Titans 38-17. I don’t think I bit my fingernails once during the game! While you can read a full recap of the game on the Post-Gazette or on the many Steelers blogs on the sidebar of my website, here are some notes that you may not read anywhere else.

The CBS telecast started with a nice story about Tennessee Titans Head Coach Mike Munchak growing up in Scranton and apparently returning to Pennsylvania. It was very nice, but there's one significant problem. According to Google Maps, Scranton is 283 miles from Pittsburgh. Scranton is also only 121 miles from New York City; 125 miles from Philadelphia; 201 miles from Baltimore; 242 miles from Washington; and 296 miles from Boston. Therefore, I hope CBS runs the "returning home" piece for Munchak whenever the Titans face the Jets, Giants, Eagles, Ravens, Redskins or Patriots. If you want to make the case that Munchak returned to his home state, how often do you see similar stories about players or coaches from New York City returning to a game in Buffalo?

At least for one week, the maligned and banged up offensive line played extremely well. The Steelers rushed for 174 yards (6.7 yards per carry) and only allowed one sack. Maybe Max Starks truly is the answer!

We interrupt my notes for a brief commercial. I don’t understand why guy #1 doesn’t ask for a haircut rather than casual Wednesday. Meanwhile, guy #2 has no right to get in Gary Cole’s face. You don’t do that to Gary Cole! I hope Gary Cole punched him as soon as the director yelled cut.



I like the Jonathan Dwyer era. 11 carries for 107 yards is not too shabby. With that written, if Mendenhall, Redman and Moore are all healthy next week, Dwyer should return to the 4th string running back.

Did you know that Ryan Mundy was an excellent wide receiver at Woodland Hills High School catching passes from current Kansas City WR Steve Breaston? He looked good on the terrific pass from punter Daniel Sepulveda who has proved that he can do anything on the football field. Seriously, if Dwyer got injured in the fourth quarter, I’m sure that Sepulveda could have filled in at running back.

Hines Ward had a very Hines Ward day with 7 catches, 54 yards and two touchdowns. Even more significant is that I don’t think the announcers referenced Dancing With the Stars after any of his catches.

In one of my many poor fantasy football decisions this week, I started Antonio Brown. Although Roethlisberger threw for 5 touchdown passes, none of them went to Brown.

I hate to give Dan Dierdorf credit, but he made a great point late in the game when he said that they had not mentioned Ike Taylor. “Face Me Ike” (who apparently changed his website name from Face Me Ike to officialiketaylor.com and hasn’t updated it since June) is truly an underrated cornerback.

Congratulations to Cameron Heyward on his first NFL sack!

I’m sure the Steelers D is excited to face 1-4 Jacksonville and their rookie QB Blake Gabbert next week.