NFL Football at its best. NFL Football at its craziest.

Big Ben Roethlisberger looks like he had his arm sowed on wrong in this picture

If you watched the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Washington Redskins on Monday Night Football, you came away with some definite impressions.

First off, you could feel the pain of the Steeler fans when Big Ben Roethlisberger got hurt.

Roethlisberger re-injured his right shoulder while scoring from one yard out on a quarterback sneak near the end of the first half in last night’s 23-6 victory in Washington. Byron Leftwich replaced him and completed 7 of 10 passes, one for a score.

source

Ben is not the best quarterback in the business, but he is a good one and a quick decision maker and a tough guy like the Steelers represent.

The second impression is that the Steelers defense is awesome. Even with Byron Leftwich at quarterback, the Steelers will be tough to beat.

It is unfortunate that Ben either won’t be there or won’t be at full strength for this week’s Colts game.

Photo source Newscom

Be sure to check out my companion blog at NBA Obsessed.

As always, any NFL Football related comments are welcome.

More blogs about football.

NFL Football at its best. NFL Football at its craziest.

Rashard Mendenhall taking in the whole Steeler thing

Image details: Pittsburgh Steelers Rookie Training Camp served by picapp.com

Ok, Steeler fans, weren’t you supposed to take an offensive lineman?

Even RB Willie Parker was surprised the Steelers waited until the fourth-round to draft an offensive lineman.

“Everybody said what I need is an offensive lineman,” said Parker. “That wasn’t my call to pick an offensive lineman. It would have been good to get one, but we didn’t.”

source

Isn’t your offensive line a mess?

Most mock drafts in cyberspace assumed the Steelers were focusing on adding an offensive lineman. But a furious run that saw six tackles come flying off the board in the first 21 selections was over by the time it was Pittsburgh’s turn to pick. “There was a panic attack on offensive linemen,” Arians says. “It just worked out that Rashard flew right into our laps.”

source

Don’t you have to protect Big Ben Roethlisberger?

And what about a running attack?

That final question got answered on draft day. Offensive Coordinator Bruce Arians had this to say.

“I compare Rashard to Edgerrin James,” Arians says. “Except that Rashard is 10 pounds heavier and a tick faster than Edge was with the Colts.”

Arians served as the Indianapolis Colts’ quarterbacks coach from 1998 to 2002. James joined the team in 1999 as a first-round selection out of Miami.

One of James’ most underappreciated skills with the Colts (and now with the Arizona Cardinals) is his ability to pick up blitzes. One of the most worrisome duties that keep rookie running backs from seeing significant playing time early is pass protection.

That’s where Arians thinks the Steelers’ new Edge-like rusher is the exception to that rookie rule.

“The pass blocking is good with Rashard, and he’s got great hands,” Arians says. “You’re not afraid of letting him cover Ben’s back side in pass protection.”

source

NFL Football Hines Ward factoid -

• Hines Ward was scheduled to make his second trip of the year to South Korea, where he was welcomed as a hero following his Super Bowl MVP in 2006. Since then, he’s made the trip twice a year to work on his foundation to aid bi-racial people in that country. Ward was born in South Korea, son of a Korean native mother and black U. S. serviceman father.

source

Now if only that offensive line can hold!

Be sure to check out my companion blog at NBA Obsessed.

As always, any NFL Football related comments are welcome.

More blogs about football.

NFL Football at its best. NFL Football at its craziest.

Towards the end of the game, the announcers showed Pittsburgh’s stadium and all of its bright yellow seats with no fans in them and remarked “All you can see is a sea of mustard in a house built by ketchup”.

That of course is in reference to the Heinz ownership of the club.

Steelers won 38 - 7.

But more indicative was the fact that the Steelers were so far in front on this rainy night and the Ravens looked so helpless that all of the Steeler fans went home.

The announcers kept making references to possible Baltimore offensive records for least this and least that. Read more

NFL Football at its best. NFL Football at its craziest.

Rex struggles

You have to admit that sometimes the best part of the NFL season is all the surprises that take place.

Your intrepid author could not even begin to guess at some of this stuff.

It appears that the Chicago Bears are going to replace Rex Grossman with Brian Griese.

OK, that one could be guessed, even though the Squibster is a supporter of Rex Grossman, based on the fact that Rex has started very few games in his career. Oh, he will never be Peyton Manning, but Rex can be effective.

The Bears were hoping Grossman would play the way he did the first five weeks last season and ditch the inconsistency he showed the rest of the way.

Well, he is more consistent.

The problem is “Bad Rex” keeps lining up behind center, and that’s bad news for the Bears.
source

Well, about time you say. Stop. Think about it. Will Brian Griese Read more

NFL Football at its best. NFL Football at its craziest.

This one has been building up in me all week.

It is time to spit it out. There are just not many good quarterbacks anymore. There, it has been said.

Quarterbacks - where are they?

My Lions start Jon Kitna at quarterback. Now in spite of Rex Grossman taking the Bears to the Super Bowl, there is no way Kitna is taking the Lions to the Super Bowl. Even if they had a defense.

Jon Kitna has become the Rony Seikaly of Quarterbacks

Back when Rony was dating the SI Swimsuit model and playing basketball for the Miami Heat there was a list of the centers in my local paper. Your intrepid author will never forget it. Rony was about 10th on the list.

That was not the unforgettable part. What really stood out was that all the centers listed above his name were really really good. You might say, great. All the centers listed below Rony stunk.

Rony was the dividing line. Read more

NFL Football at its best. NFL Football at its craziest.

(John Wayne at USC) You Fantasy Football Geeks. Why don’t you get a life? We played real football!

The modern world.

To get a little perspective you have to go way back in time to a very different age and a very different kind of football fan. First off there was no internet at all. In fact during the summer there would be weeks at the cabin with not even a television. There was no satellite and no cable.

Now before you start shouting back at me, and using the word geezer and stuff, try to think of how peaceful those times were. My football game was a board game with plays on cards, a roll of the dice, and a plastic laminated football field that you could draw on and wipe off with a paper towel. Read more