Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting (Steelers-Bengals Recap)

What a strange Saturday night! No one won the Powerball, and we learned that Sean Penn met with El Chapo as the Mexican drug lord was a fugitive. Sean Penn is welcome to further explain his actions right here on Sean's Ramblings. You know since his name is Sean? Oh, there was a playoff football game between the Steelers and Bengals too.

I have so many thoughts about this game, but that could take a while, so let's start with this non-comprehensive list of things to happen in Steelers/Bengals by Patrick Daugherty, a NFL writer for Rotoworld/NBC Sports:

A few items not mentioned above.

- Domata Peko's unsportsmanlike conduct penalty was actually amusing, especially if you imagine Michael Keaton or Christian Bale in the "cape" instead of Peko.



- Early in the game, Phil Simms said that Antonio Brown is a "tremendous catcher of the football." Is Brown just an adequate catcher of a baseball and basketball? Maybe he is a lousy catcher of the frisbee. Perhaps he is a catcher in the rye.

- There has been no discussion about the size of Steelers RB Fitzgerald Toussaint's forehead. I really want to find clips from I Married an Axe Murderer here, but we'll settle for the picture.

- I'd love to know what Joey Porter said to Pacman Jones to cause Jones to go nuts. Maybe he said Ms. Pacman is a better game (which is completely accurate) and Pacman disagreed.

- For Bengals fans upset about Porter even being on the field while the Steelers medical staff were treating Brown, let's check out this video from near the end of the third quarter.



Giovani Bernard was just leveled by Ryan Shazier. (I'm not going to debate whether or not there should have been a flag.) The call on the field was a catch, so the Bengals offense and the Steelers defense were on the field as the Bengals' medical staff was attending to Bernard. This was before Mike Tomlin challenged the play. So look who was out in the middle of the field? Bengals defensive player Vontaze Burfict. There were other Bengals folks there too who had just as much reason to be on the field as Porter did in the fourth quarter. Pause the video at the 10 second mark. Who is the person dressed in all black (clearly not an active player) at the top left that puts his hands on Bud Dupree? While Porter is going to get fined by the NFL, he shouldn't be alone in sending money to the league.

- Mike Munchak got a 15 yard penalty & Joey Porter helped draw one. These are both Steelers assistant coaches. So where was the leadership of defensive coordinator Keith Butler and offensive coordinator Todd Haley for not getting involved themselves? Or was this brilliant leadership by having their subordinates get involved?

This isn't from Ted Cruz, but someone should probably let the Cruz campaign know that telling a football team's fans that they do not deserve a team is not going to help to win the Ohio vote.

@dtsjr @NFL Really? Poor sportsmanship and stupidity lost that game. And the classless fans show they do not deserve a team.

— Ted Cruz 4 President (@Virginians4Cruz) January 10, 2016

So now the Steelers will travel to Denver to face the Broncos with a questionable Brown, DeAngelo Williams, and Ben Roethlisberger. However, if you want to read even more about this game, I recommend the following:

DK Pittsburgh Sports
PGH Sports Daily Bulletin
Behind The Steel Curtain
USA Today's Steelers Wire
Steelers Depot

Oh, let's end with Nick Lachey's thoughts on the game. (h/t Rob)

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.