Lawrence Timmons as Homer Simpson

Although I've read plenty of recaps about this past Sunday's Steelers-Bengals game, I think I'm the first person to make a Lawrence Timmons-Homer Simpson comparison. This is not a very good video, but check out Timmons' move after making this interception.



Was Timmons going for a break dancing move from the 1980s? Personally, I think he was channeling Homer Simpson after Homer, serving as the nuclear power plant's union leader, got Montgomery Burns to keep the dental plan in exchange for him stepping down from office. (It's a great episode!)

This is Homer's move with unnecessary subtitles and music.



Yes, this is one of the dumbest posts I've ever written.

Sunday Notes (Steelers-Browns Recap)

I know that you get your Steelers coverage from major media outlets and blogs dedicated to the Steelers. That’s why I give you other items that you can’t get anywhere else.

I’m not going to get into Ben Roethlisberger’s off-field activities. Simply from a football perspective, it was great seeing him on the field yesterday. The Steelers are clearly a better offensive team with Roethlisberger in the line-up, and with three touchdown passes, he showed again that he is one of the elite NFL quarterbacks.

While 27 is a lot of carries for 84 rushing yards, what stood out for me about Rashard Mendenhall’s performance was his excellent blocking in passing situations.

Yes, he got injured in the second quarter, but the defense and special teams did a nice job containing Steeler-killer Joshua Cribbs when he played.

James Harrison (11 tackles, 1.5 sacks) and Lawrence Timmons (11 tackles, 2 sacks) continue to dominate. There’s not a better LB combination in football.

The Browns may have finally found a franchise quarterback. Despite his two interceptions, Colt McCoy didn’t look rattled in his first NFL start. 23 for 33 for 281 yards, a touchdown and 22 yards rushing is a nice debut.

I get that NFL coaches aren’t going to wear suits anymore, but there has to be some type of professionalism. Kansas City Chiefs coach Todd Haley wore a T-shirt during yesterday’s game against the Houston Texans. Haley couldn’t get away with wearing this shirt in 90% of the offices around the country.



I’d like to know the cost of all of the pink towels, hats, shoes, goal post pads, wrist bands, pom-poms, etc. displayed during NFL games to promote breast cancer awareness. It has to be in the tens of thousands, right? Who is paying for all of the pink equipment? The NFL? The individual teams? I hope that the NFL is donating at least the amount of money they are spending on the pink stuff to breast cancer charities.

I’m happy that Hiro of Heroes (Masi Oka) is getting some work in Hawaii Five-0.



Did you happen to see that DirecTV commercial that aired approximately 7,000 times yesterday where a guy steals films by shooting the employee with a blow dart? After the guy missed with his initial shot, shouldn’t the employee have tried to run? He just sat there as the attacker reloaded the second blow dart. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, check out the “See It Before It’s On Netflix” video on the “What To Watch” section of the DirecTV website.

Next week in South Florida!

Steelers-Falcons Recap

Full disclosure: I missed the entire first half of Sunday’s Pittsburgh Steelers-Atlanta Falcons game. I had a good reason though. $200. That’s how much I made working as a soccer referee for 4 games Sunday morning. The plan was for the games to end at 1:00 meaning that I’d only miss part of the first quarter. Unfortunately, since these were playoff games, we had to have a winner. Naturally the last two games had to be settled by penalty kicks meaning that I wasn’t finished until closer to 2:00. You really don't care, do you? Well, anyway, while I completely understand if you want to go elsewhere for your recap, I hope that you'll read my thoughts on the game below since you might appreciate my insight that you can’t get anywhere else.

- Congratulations to Hines Ward for becoming the first Steelers player with 11,000 yards receiving. He is also the first Steelers player with 11,001 yards receiving, 11,002 yards receiving, etc.

- It’s so nice to have Troy Polamalu back. He probably is the one player that the Steelers can’t afford to be without. 5 tackles and an excellent interception that should have given the Steelers the win in regulation (thanks Jeff Reed!) is a solid day’s work. He’s just so much fun to watch.

- Antwaan Randle El may want to consider calling for a fair catch as a punt returner. He got blasted at the start of the fourth quarter and was lucky not to fumble.

- David Johnson deserves a lot of credit for Rashard Mendenhall’s game-winning TD run. Without his block springing Mendenhall, the run would have been a five-yard gain.



(This photo is by Jared Wickerham of Getty Images. Seeing how happy the guys on the sidelines are makes me smile.)

- Did Ziggy Hood play yesterday?

- Atlanta’s Roddy White is a Top 5 receiver in the league. There were several occasions where Bryant McFadden had excellent coverage, but White still made the catch.

- Solid game for Lawrence Timmons. 11 tackles include 3 tackles for a loss. I expect (hope?) a new blog post about the game immediately!

- At the end of the game, FOX announcer Dick Stockton made a reference to Hines Ward as Dennis Dixon’s alter ego. Does anyone know what this is supposed to mean?

- A burger and fries followed by desert featuring a giant chocolate chip cookie, vanilla ice cream and whipped cream was quite tasty but not a great combination.

- Chris Johnson and the Titans offense against the Steelers defense should be fun next week.

Congratulations Dick LeBeau!

I'm not sure that I've ever been this excited for someone to be enshrined into a Hall of Fame. After playing 14 seasons with the Detroit Lions accumulating 62 interceptions, third all-time among pure cornerbacks (think about how amazing that statistic is considering that passing is a much bigger part of the game than it was during LeBeau's playing days), and working as an NFL coach for over 35 years, including an extremely impressive run as the Steelers' Defensive Coordinator, LeBeau entering the NFL Hall of Fame is well-deserved.



Take a look at this historic day from around the country:

This is LeBeau's Hall of Fame speech. I wish that NFL.com would let me embed the video. [NFL.com]

Bengals' coach Marvin Lewis admires LeBeau [Cincinnati Enquirer]

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; the Detroit Free Press; the Columbus Dispatch; and ESPN (the AFC North Blog) have more.

Plus, here are a few Tweets from members of the Pittsburgh Steelers:









OK, the last one doesn't have anything to do with Coach LeBeau, but I like Timmons' insights.

Photo by Peter Diana/Post-Gazette

Pittsburgh Athlete Twitter Updates

I joined Twitter a few months ago for the benefit of my blog. Specifically, I figured that I would share the thoughts of Pittsburgh athletes and coaches. This is my first post about such updates, so let’s see what famous Pittsburghers have to say:

Safety Ryan Clark was released by the Steelers on Thursday, and I really hoped the team would resign him. However, I'm sure that you'd much rather hear how this could impact the team from LB Lawrence Timmons than me. Let's see what he thinks about the team's decision.

Also check out new blog at my website www.timmons94.com
12:21 PM Dec 3rd, 2009 via web

Staying with the Steelers, there has been significant discussion recently about whether Willie Parker would become a free agent. (Sean's note: This was written on Thursday evening so Parker may very well be a free agent by the time this is posted.) What does his fellow RB Frank Summers think?

Vikings are coming to town. It should be fun to watch Brett hes a pretty good role model. Once againjust cheering....
6:29 PM Oct 21st, 2009

Pitt has had a remarkable season with a top 20 ranking despite losing four starters from last year's Elite Eight team. What does Coach Jamie Dixon think about the team's wins over Top 5 teams Syracuse, Villanova and WVU and last night's exciting game against Providence?

We are also holding the first Maggie Dixon Heart Health Fair.
9:57 AM Oct 2nd, 2009 via web

Finally, did you ever wonder what Bubby Brister does on a day-to-day basis?

Denver camps were a lot of fun. Thanks to all those who came out both days. See you in 2010.
8:27 AM Jul 30th, 2009 via web

Perhaps, I should stop following these guys!

If you want to follow Pittsburgh athletes that actually update their Twitter accounts, I recommend visiting Mondesi's House for his Guide to Pittsburgh Sports Twitter. Plus, you can always follow me on Twitter though I'm hardly a Pittsburgh celebrity or athlete (or am I?).


Finally, if you haven't done so already, please enter the Ramblings Giveaway by clicking here or scrolling down to the next post.

Steelers Season In Review

I've written and rewritten parts of this post several times. I'm trying to balance the disappointment of not making the playoffs after coming off of a Super Bowl Championship with the fact that the organization is still one of the best in football. I'm sure many of you don't see that today, but living in the DC area, it's easy to see that the Steelers are in significantly better shape than the Washington Redskins and many other teams in the NFL (ex. Detroit Lions, St. Louis Rams).

Before I share my thoughts, let's look back at the 2009-2010 predictions by drinkyourmilkshake of Behind the Steel Curtain; Phil of Phil's Occasional Musings; Michael Rizzo of Rizzo Sports (and the Rizzo Sports Blog); Messiah, Marc & Gobo of White Nerdy Wonks; Donald of Steelers Today; Steve of Steve Is Alive; Rob of The Bluey Blog; and me.

1. Number of sacks James Harrison will have this season.
Steve predicted 12 for James and that Woodley would lead the team with 15.5. Messiah also believed that Harrison would have 12 sacks. The actual amount was 10 with Woodley leading the team with 13.5 sacks.

2. Limas Sweed's numbers (catches, yards & touchdowns).
The actual amount was 1 catch for 5 yards and 0 touchdowns. We all expected significantly more except for Rob who predicted "no more than 10 catches, 1 TD and 150 yards."

3. Stefan Logan: Reminds me of Antwaan Randle El as a Steeler; Greatest returner in team history; or Another Allen Rossum?

Well, Logan didn't have any touchdowns but he set the Steelers record for most kick-off return yards. Logan wasn't anything special returning punts and was often replaced by Mewelde Moore when a fair catch was probable. Overall, though, he was a solid returner and improved his special teams coverage as the year progressed.

Messiah - I'd say he's not quite Twaan, but certainly better than Colclough.
Donald - I predict that Logan will become the greatest 5'7" returner in team history.

Points for both Messiah & Donald!

4. Will Jeff Reed be arrested during the season?
Rob - Once, for drunk and disorderly conduct.

During the season, Reed was cited by police for disorderly conduct and public intoxication.

5. Who will lead the team in touchdowns scored?
Rob - Rashard Mendenhall. Mendenhall led the team with 8 touchdowns followed by Hines Ward, Heath Miller and Mike Wallace with 6 each. I need to take Rob with me to Vegas the next time I go!

6. Season prediction (please include the team record) + Any other thoughts/predictions:
All of us predicted division champs and playoffs. I think Phil's prediction was the closest though. 11-5. It's extraordinarily difficult to repeat as Super Bowl champions. I think we're going to have another good year and win the division but lose a close-game heartbreaker in the playoffs. Maybe that's just what I'm used to as a fan. Despite our success, I wouldn't know what to do with myself if I didn't have something to complain about when it comes to the Steelers.

Phil, that brings us to today. There were certainly positives to the season such as the pending stardom of LaMarr Woodley, the thought that Rashard Mendenhall can be a #1 running back and the fact that Mike Wallace may be the offensive rookie of the year. Unfortunately, there were more negatives. The kick return coverage was among the worst in NFL history and the defense rarely made stops when needed. The secondary struggled, particularly in the fourth quarter, though I wonder how much of this was related to Troy Polamalu's absence. Taking away one of the best players in football certainly impacts the rest of the team and especially the secondary. I'm a big fan of Tyrone Carter playing spot duty or in specific packages. Unfortunately, he was exposed playing nearly every down. It also didn't help that rookies Ryan Mundy (I know he's not really a rookie, but he never left the practice squad in 2008) and Joe Burnett were playing significant minutes and that another rookie Keenan Lewis couldn't get on the field.

Now here's the positive to all of this. The Steelers have had a history of getting little production out of players in their first season only to see great improvements during their second season. It happened with Mendenhall, Polamalu, Woodley, and Lawrence Timmons. If we get similar growth out of players like Mundy, Burnett, Lewis, Ziggy Hood, and tackle Ramon Foster along with a healthy Polamalu and Aaron Smith, I think the team will be in good shape coming into next season.

There are a few other items that should be addressed. I know that a lot of people think offensive coordinator Bruce Arians should go. I'm not so sure. The Steelers finished 7th in the league in total yards with better numbers than playoff teams such as Indianapolis, San Diego, Philadelphia and Baltimore. While we may miss the days of giving the ball to Jerome Bettis 25 times a game and watching him run for over 100 yards, the NFL is now a passing league and that's where the team excels. Unfortunately, the team isn't able to close games like we did in seasons past. To have Bettis run out the clock in the fourth quarter when everyone knows that the team is going to run. However, I don't think you can pin this on Arians. The team, and in this case I'm referring to the personnel department, hasn't adequately addressed the offensive line over the past few years.



Bottom line: Perhaps this was Super Bowl Hangover Part II. It's certainly possible that the team overlooked Kansas City, Oakland and Cleveland. They may not have said it, but I'm sure that the players came into those games knowing they were the better team and believed that they would win just by showing up. That won't happen next year. I also believe that having Polamalu and Smith healthy would have translated into at least one more win. One more win would have got the team into the playoffs.

Finally, not everything is bad in the world. The Steelers have won two Super Bowl Championships over the last 5 seasons. How many teams would dream of having even one?

Steelers-Lions Recap: Turkey Win

If three strikes in a row in bowling is called a turkey, what do you call three sacks in a row in football? For the sake of this post, we'll call this a turkey as well.



With Pittsburgh leading 28-20 late in the fourth quarter, the Steelers defense decided to finally pressure QB Daunte Culpepper instead of playing a prevent defense that allowed Detroit to get back into the game. Let's set the scene. After marching down the field and scoring on a Dennis Northcutt (who must be approximately 58 years old) touchdown, the Lions defense forced the Steelers into a three-and-out. Then, Culpepper led another successful drive leading to a 1st and 10 from the Steelers 21 with less than 2:00 minutes remaining. Momentum was totally on Detroit's side, but that's when things changed. LaMarr Woodley and William Gay teamed up to sack Culpepper for a loss of 6 yards. Second down was Gay as the cornerback sacked Culpepper for a 5-yard loss. Lawrence Timmons then completed the turkey with a 13-yard sack. The Lions tried a Hail Mary pass on 4th and 34 but that fell innocently to the turf meaning game over.

In continuing with my fabulous theme, Sunday was the first time the Steelers played in Detroit against the Lions since the Jerome Bettis/coin flip game held, wait for it, on Thanksgiving. Plus, Ben Roethlisberger had THREE touchdowns (one each for Hines, Heath and Mike Wallace) and James Harrison had THREE sacks. As a result, turkey for everyone!


(Too soon for this picture?)

The most important key to the Steelers victory was the fact that I wore my Louis Lipps jersey for the first time this season! You may be skeptical, but the Steelers are 43-3 when I wear the jersey (this record may not be correct).

In other random notes, I made a last-minute decision to watch the game at Fast Eddie's in Fairfax. It's much nicer watching a game at a Steelers bar rather than a bar/restaurant that shows all games. (I'm looking at you Champps and Buffalo Wild Wings.*) However, I can't wait until the Virginia law stopping smoking in bars/restaurants goes into effect. I'm going to smell like smoke for days.

There were some smaller televisions showing other NFL games. The guy next to me referred to the Washington quarterback as Jason Candle. He also called Ravens QB Joe Flacco, Shane Falco. I don’t understand how either of these are insults.



Overall, the Steelers are now 3-2 heading into next week’s game against the Cleveland Browns. The team is now one game behind the Cincinnati Bengals and tied with the Baltimore Ravens in the division. Basically, the team is in pretty good shape at this point of the season and will hopefully get a healthy Willie Parker and Troy Polamalu back next week.


* I've been a Buffalo Wild Wings customer on many occasions, but I have never had a football referee or baseball manager ask me my opinion on a play or coaching decision. To be fair, I haven't visited a Buffalo Wild Wings recently, so perhaps this is a new feature.

Toilet Paper Poll

Can you believe that I’ve made it all the way through February without a bathroom post? Wait, what do you mean it’s only February 6th? It seems like the Steelers won the Super Bowl weeks ago. Anyway, inspired by Jason’s incredible TMI Friday (NSFW if your office reads every single word on every webpage you visit; there are no pictures and the language is generally PG-13, so you’re fine otherwise), I created a poll on the top right of the page with an extremely important question: Do you fold or crumple your toilet paper?

Feel free to add your answer and any thoughts in the comments section.


Here are your Friday links:

I love Ithaca, New York, though the politics of the city is fascinating and sometimes crazy. Ithaca had a socialist mayor when I first lived there and I remember an off-beat guy with his own public access show running for mayor and doing fairly well. This week’s council meeting featured a shoe-thrower which seems like to be the "in" thing to do to politicians.

Raccoons invaded the White House grounds. I hate raccoons.

Lawrence Timmons has a blog (h/t Three Rivers Sports) including this:

This is such as great feeling. I still can’t believe we won it. I’m so overwhelmed, it’s just crazy to win a Super Bowl when you’re 22.

We were in Tampa, but it was like a home game for us. Every time we did something on the field, I could hardly hear myself talk. Every time the Cardinals did something, you could hear just fine. Our fans are the real deal.

HHR interviewed Stefan Fatsis, the author of A Few Seconds of Panic, one of the best books I’ve read over the past few years.