A very long Steeler ramble
I simply cannot believe My Beloved Steelers this season. I didn't believe in the post-championship hangover before. Guess I still don't, since that certainly doesn't cover what I saw from them today.
Benjamin missing not one, but TWO snap counts. And I sure hope he wasn't conscious when he was motionless on that turf. He scared the ever-lovin' crap out of me when his arm was all twisted under his body and he wasn't making any attempt to move it.
More flubbed kick/punt returns. I mean, for all that's good and holy, Santonio -- it's tougher to pull in a pass on the sidelines with a big DB in your face than it is to plant your sorry self under a ball aimed right at ya. Freakin' catch it, tuck it securely, and run like whoa. (Semi-related rhetorical Q: When is Willie Reid due back????)
Um, O-line? Fast Willie needs bigger holes than Bus did when he's running up the gut. He doesn't have Bus' power to break his own hole. And it would be nice if, when he's waiting for his blockers to help him turn the corner, they actually showed up to help him turn the corner!
And Troy. My love, what possessed you to FREAKING CHASE Vick into his own backfield, rather than simply making sure he didn't gain a yard if he chose to tuck-and-run. He doesn't make that play, they gotta punt. I won't bash you for the running into the kicker, especially since I fail to comprehend how one can do that from a prone position.
BTW, I'm so not a fair-weather fan. I guess I'm just disappointed. I think they have the right team chemistry and talent to win every game this season, and it majorly blows when all that adds up to another number in the "L" column.
...
There's really only one thing I'm hoping is true, but this is gonna sound crazy:
I watched two seasons ago when Hines cried like a baby that he couldn't get Bus into the Super Bowl before he retired. Then, in the off-season, I heard that Ben promised Bus that if he came back for one more year, we'd get him to Detroit. Last season was dedicated to a single goal -- get Bus a ring.
Well, this year, in the off-season, rumors were flying that Bill Cowher might be considering retirement himself. My thought was that if we managed to win another Super Bowl, he'd go out the way Bus did.
Now, here's the crazy part. You know how teams who want to get the coach fired play like crap? Well, I'm thinking that if this team pulls that stunt, they avoid making the playoffs and Bill sticks around a little longer.
Yeah. Crazy. I know. But he can't leave! I want him to look like Marv Levy when he takes his final walk down the sideline. I know I'm being selfish, but I like the fact that I only recall two Steeler head coaches in my lifetime! (There's actually been five since March '64, but three of them served before I was in kindergarten.) Chuck Noll signed his contract the day after my younger sister's first birthday in 1969. I was seven weeks from my fifth birthday.
Bill Cowher signed his contract five days before that same sister's TWENTY-FOURTH birthday. Two months later, I turned twenty-eight. I'm forty-two now, and he's still here. I can't imagine anyone else coaching here.
...
Sorry about the looooonnnnngggg ramble. Just had to vent.
On the brighter side -- we get the winless Oakland Raiders next Sunday YAY!!