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.