Ben Roethlisberger, Pittsburgh Steelers / Image: Zuma Press

Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin was upbeat and optimistic afterward:

“Not dead yet. The guys hung together, fought, made enough plays to win. We haven’t won in a while so it feels good. To keep it in perspective, we’ve got a little pulse here. Good to stay in the fight, good to win one for our fans, we’ve got the greatest fans in the world. Good to perform for them and get them something to be excited about here at Heinz Field. Today, I’m just as excited about that as I am getting that five-week monkey off our back.”

Ben was 29-of-46 passing for 503 yards and three touchdowns. Yes, 503 yards passing—a team record. It would be tiring to throw a football for 503 yards without being chased and harassed. But as long as the Steelers defensive secondary continues to struggle without injured safety Troy Polamalu, Ben will need to carry the team with more performances similar to this one.

Source: Steelers.com

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Ben Roethlisberger Has Career Day

Troy Polamalu, Pittsburgh Steelers / Image: Zuma Press

Pittsburgh plays at Cleveland on NFL Network’s Thursday Night Football this week. And Troy has already been ruled out for that game. So his next opportunity to participate in a game will be December 20 when the Steelers host the Green Bay Packers. I believe as long as the Steelers still have a reasonable chance of making the playoffs (and that will be equal parts winning and having other teams lose), Troy will be back. But one thing seems certain. If the Steelers drop Thursday night’s game to the Browns, any hope of a Pittsburgh postseason will probably be gone. And any hope of Troy’s return, I’m sure, will disappear with it.

Source: NBC Sports

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Troy Polamalu Doesn’t Know if He’ll Be Back

Joined by children from the Washington, DC area, the President and players come together for a friendly game of touch football, reminding fans about the importance of being active as part of NFL PLAY 60, the league’s youth health and fitness campaign. Filmed on the White House lawn earlier this month by NFL Films, the PSA also encourages viewers to get involved in their communities and remember the importance of service.

Drew Brees, a PLAY 60 spokesman, said:

“Thanksgiving is a time when families come together, and it is also a perfect time to focus on the importance of keeping kids healthy and active. I was honored to spend time with the President on an issue that is clearly important to him. I was also impressed by his wide receiver skills.”

Designed to tackle childhood obesity, NFL PLAY 60 brings together the NFL’s long-standing commitment to health and fitness with partner organizations. Since the program was launched in 2007, the NFL has committed $200 million to youth health and fitness through programming, grants, and media time for PSAs.

President Obama launched United We Serve to challenge all Americans—young and old, from every background across the country—to create meaningful change in their communities by engaging in service that is sustained and focuses on impact. When volunteers commit to long-term service projects in their communities, they build expertise and strengthen the community’s capacity to meet its challenges. To learn more about United We Serve or find service projects in specific communities, the President is encouraging everyone to visit www.serve.gov.

In support of NFL PLAY 60, all Thanksgiving weekend games will raise awareness of the childhood obesity epidemic and showcase the NFL and its clubs’ commitment to help reverse this trend. Beginning on Thanksgiving Day and continuing throughout Weeks 12-14, teams will designate a home game as an ‘NFL PLAY 60’ game. On-field elements will include PLAY 60 field stencils, banners and goal post wraps. Teams also will invite ‘NFL PLAY 60 youth ambassadors’ to run on-field and stand alongside players for the National Anthem. These youngsters were selected by each team for their commitment to being healthy, through programs like NFL Punt, Pass & Kick, NFL FLAG Football and through participation in the NFL-American Heart Association PLAY 60 Challenge.

Fans can visit NFLRUSH.com/Play60 or Serve.gov to learn about volunteer opportunities and how they can get involved.

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NFL Players Join President Obama in PSA

Sources: HeadandShoulders.com, Real Talk Xpress

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Troy Polamalu Head & Shoulders Commercial

Troy Polamalu, Pittsburgh Steelers / Image: Zuma Press

Sources: Steelers.com, NFL.com

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Troy Polamalu Out 3-6 Weeks With MCL Injury

Madden NFL 10 Wii / Image courtesy EA Sports

The first thing you’ll notice is the new look. And most obvious are the cartoonish new player models. Five unique body types were created for quarterbacks, receivers, linebackers, linemen and running backs. But that certainly isn’t where it ends. There’s also new grass, new lighting, new unis, new stadiums, new crowds, new Jumbotrons and gameplay animations—plus unique face textures and an all new suite of cams that encompass pre-plays, touchdowns, passes, blimp shots, post plays, big hits and more. There are also new sideline characters, objects and sky maps. Very slick.

Madden NFL 10 captures Wii’s pick up and play mentality with a host of new game modes designed to provide short, easy-to-digest gaming experiences. Madden Showdown is a 1-4 player tournament where you can enjoy classic 11-on-11 football or a quick 5-on-5, custom competition. There are three major feature components to Madden Showdown—Game Changers (like Tug of War, Fumbilitis, Turbo Mode, It’s Alive, Invisibility, All Passing Plays, All Running Plays and a Random option where you never know what you’ll get from one game to the next). There is also a Prediction System where you have a chance to guess the outcome of different categories in each game. And Spotlight Moments is where the gameplay slows to allow you to influence the biggest plays of the game (like open field tackles, a battle for the ball, sprinting to the end zone and a sack attack). Finally, Road to the Super Bowl allows 1-4 players to work together and play as a team through a partial or entire NFL season.

If you remember last season, Madden NFL 09 set a great precedent with their All-Play game mechanics. And since All-Play really lends itself, again to the Wii’s pick up and play style, it can be applied to features (of which I’ll name a couple) that appeal to both hardcore and casual players. A new passing mechanic features point and pass controls where you simply point at the receiver on the screen and press the A button to pass the ball. Same concept with All-Play Defense. Users can make an impact on defense by simply pointing and locking onto targets which then causes their defense to focus on that particular player. Swinging the Wiimote at the right time will perform the action appropriate to that situation, like swatting or picking off a pass, sacking the QB or sticking it to a running back.

Finally, there are a bunch of supporting features to round out your 2010 Madden experience. These features range from classic game modes to fan favorites. For instance, classic modes contain Franchise and Superstar in their entirety. Triggered Celebrations continue to be a fan favorite. And an all-new Wii specific roster screen contains all roster and player management functionality. The mini games are the same but they’ve been retrofitted with the new mechanics to let everyone hone their skills.

I’ve been at this game for almost a week (thanks to EA Sports for the pre-release copy—my review was embargoed until this morning at 9 a.m. ET) and I can say it’s definitely the best looking, most enjoyable Madden experience ever. Madden NFL 10 will be in-stores everywhere this Friday, August 14.

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Madden NFL 10 Wii Review

Madden NFL 10 / Photo: Business Wire

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Fitzgerald, Polamalu on Madden 10 Cover

National Football League Blogcast, NFL Blogcast

The Arizona Cardinals spent some of their practice time in the rain today. A steady drizzle hit the Cards about an hour into a two hour and 15 minute workout. But it didn’t stop injured defensive players Travis LaBoy and Antonio Smith, who both worked extensively. Running back J.J. Arrington did some offensive reps but was held out of special teams’ work at the end of practice to protect his knee.

For both yesterday’s and today’s practices, the Cards had defensive scout players wear the jersey numbers for Pittsburgh linebackers James Harrison and LaMarr Woodley, and safety Troy Polamalu. Head coach Ken Whisenhunt said the visual could help some of his players:

“It helps our receivers and Kurt (Warner) in order to identify defenses — where a certain defensive player shows up. You may have plays predicated off of that. Now, this is something we do all year on a weekly basis. I saw one thing this year before Tennessee played Pittsburgh — they had a player running around on the field with a big, long wig hanging out of his helmet to impersonate Troy.”

Just for the record, there were no wigs at this practice.

One possible cause for concern is the confidence of kicker Neil Rackers. He had a close call with the left upright in a special teams drill, bouncing a 37-yarder off the upright that went through for a good kick. Later, he barely snuck another one through from the same distance before drilling his last kick, a 42-yarder. OK, maybe there’s no need to be concerned.

Bottom line. Coach Whisenhunt said the team focused on what they were doing and had “really good work” again today.

Yesterday’s injury report remained unchanged — RB J.J. Arrington (knee), P Ben Graham (left groin), DE Travis LaBoy (biceps), and DE Antonio Smith (knee) were still listed as having limited participation in practice.

Thanks to fellow PFWA member John Czarnecki for today’s pool report.

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Cardinals Thursday Practice Report

Here is the AFC Pro Bowl roster. Starters are listed in bold.

OFFENSE

QB: Peyton Manning, Colts; Brett Favre, Jets; Jay Cutler, Broncos
RB: Thomas Jones, Jets; Chris Johnson, Titans; Ronnie Brown, Dolphins
FB: Le’Ron McClain, Ravens
WR: Andre Johnson, Texans; Brandon Marshall, Broncos; Reggie Wayne, Colts; Wes Welker, Patriots
TE: Tony Gonzalez, Chiefs; Antonio Gates, Chargers
T: Joe Thomas, Browns; Jason Peters, Bills; Michael Roos, Titans
G: Alan Faneca, Jets; Kris Dielman, Chargers; Brian Waters, Chiefs
C: Kevin Mawae, Titans; Nick Mangold, Jets

DEFENSE

DE: Mario Williams, Texans; Dwight Freeney, Colts; Robert Mathis, Colts
DT: Albert Haynesworth, Titans; Kris Jenkins, Jets; Shaun Rogers, Browns
OLB: James Harrison, Steelers; Joey Porter, Dolphins; Terrell Suggs, Ravens
MLB: Ray Lewis, Ravens; James Farrior, Steelers
CB: Nnamdi Asomugha, Raiders; Cortland Finnegan, Titans; Darrelle Revis, Jets
S: Ed Reed, Ravens; Troy Polamalu, Steelers; Chris Hope, Titans

SPECIAL TEAMS

K: Stephan Gostkowski, Patriots
P: Shane Lechler, Raiders
KR: Leon Washington, Jets
ST: Brendon Ayanbadejo, Ravens

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2009 AFC Pro Bowl Roster

Here’s the rule explanation for the end of yesterday’s Steelers-Chargers game I received from the NFL this afternoon. It didn’t make any difference in the outcome, just the final score. And in case you don’t already know, this occurred during a Chargers desperation multi-lateral effort on their final play from scrimmage, trailing by one point with five seconds to play in regulation:

“On the final play of Sunday’s game between the Chargers and Steelers, Pittsburgh safety Troy Polamalu returned a loose ball 12 yards for a defensive touchdown. After an instant replay review and crew conference, the on-field ruling of touchdown was incorrectly reversed to no touchdown due to an illegal forward pass by San Diego. There were three passes on the play. The first was a completed forward pass from San Diego’s Philip Rivers to LaDainian Tomlinson. The second, from Tomlinson to Chris Chambers, was initially ruled a legal backward pass but then reversed in replay to an illegal forward pass. The third, from Chambers, was a legal backward pass that hit the ground and was returned for the touchdown by Pittsburgh’s Polamalu. The incorrect reversal of the on-field ruling of touchdown was acknowledged immediately following the game by referee Scott Green in the pool report interview with a representative of the media. If any forward pass, legal or illegal, hits the ground, the play is dead immediately. The officiating crew mistakenly determined that the backward pass that Polamalu legally recovered and returned for the touchdown was the pass that was reversed in replay to being forward and illegal. Therefore, the crew ruled that the ball was dead when it hit the ground and the play was over. (The actual illegal forward pass — Tomlinson to Chambers — did not hit the ground and therefore the play is allowed to continue.) If the situation had been handled properly, the defense (Pittsburgh) would have declined the penalty for an illegal forward pass from Tomlinson to Chambers and taken the touchdown. The rules relevant to this particular play are as follows:

• Rule 8, Section 1, Article 1 (b) states “When any illegal forward pass is caught or intercepted, the ball may be advanced and the penalty declined.” (page 49 of 2008 Official Playing Rules of the National Football League)
• Rule 8, Section 1, Article 5 states “Any forward pass (legal or illegal) becomes incomplete and the ball is dead immediately if the pass strikes the ground or goes out of bounds.” (page 50 of 2008 Official Playing Rules of the National Football League)
• Rule 8, Section 4, Article 1 (b) states “A defensive player may catch a backward pass or recover it after the pass touches the ground and advance.” (page 58 of 2008 Official Playing Rules of the National Football League)

Thus, the final score will remain Steelers 11, Chargers 10. And it’s the first time in the history of the NFL that a game ended with that score.

Source: NFL Media

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Rule Explanation in Steelers-Chargers Game