The Rundown

Congratulations are in order to the Pitt football team who somehow (despite their coach) went 9-3 earning the second best bowl game in the Big East. Apparently some team called the Bearcats won the Conference. But it will be Pitt squaring off against the Oregon State on New Year's Eve in the Sun Bowl. I think this will be a really good matchup but I predict a Pitt victory (of course) 42-35 in OT.

Speaking of Bowl games Penn St get's to take on USC in a classic Pac Ten - Big Ten matchup. Both teams are worthy of a shot at the National title but since the NCAA and the BCS suck more dick than a gay man in San Francisco we'll never know how far they would have gone in an actual playoff. Instead we have to watch Florida play Oklahoma. You know ... '#2' Oklahoma who has the same record as #3 Texas but lost to Texas when the two squared off earlier in the season. Yeah .... but this championship system is cool. Nobody really wants to see who the best team is. We'd rather let some douchebag who knows more about 'html' code than actual freakin' football games tell us who are the top two teams than see a playoff.

I've come to realize that I've been extremely harsh on Mr. Ben Roethlisberger as of late. I mean he hasn't been playing great football lately but like a lot of other people I seem to blame him a lot for our lack of offense more than he deserves. The facts are that Ben has been playing hurt and without the same arm strength that he can when he's healthy thus affecting his ability to throw the deep ball or to be as accurate a he is capable of. The guy is a warrior and unlike quarterbacks of old (see Kordell Stewart) Ben has that ability to make a special play at any moment and bring the Steelers back in the game. Ben is capable of greatness when he has a competent (not all-star but competent) offensive line and even more importantly a competent coordinator calling in the plays.

So for the second game in a row the Pens lose but this one was worse than the Ottawa game. This game was at home and the Pens again blew a lead to the Buffalo Sabres. They let the Sabres score three unanswered goals and win the game in regulation. On a side note Hal Gill went down in the Ottawa game and will be out 2-4 weeks.

The Bucs released their Spring Training schedule and things couldn't be more exciting. Awesome! Soon we'll find out which new overpaid underachievers will be playing for us this year! And we still have a few weeks left to sign more of them! Oh joy! If that didn't get your heart pounding maybe this will:

Then again ... maybe we'll just get that record of 17 losing seasons this year.

Steelers Offense Plays bad, Steelers D saves the day against the Cowgirls

I seriously think I cussed the Steelers offense out for three quarters and rejoiced for one
half of another. You can't say enough about the Steelers defense. Four turnovers in the first half against a playoff caliber team is amazing. You can't say much about the Steelers offense. At least nothing too good anyways. Three points off of four first half turnovers is pathetic.

"Seriously man! Those guys are lighting you up!"

You can try to say that the Dallas defense was up to the task but seriously quit kidding yourself. The Offense was awful top to bottom. The line was porous, couldn't run block and was barely pass blocking. Ben wasn't making poor decisions he just wasn't making any decisions and ended up taking sacks when he clearly could have/should have thrown the ball away. The running game was non-existent and Bruce Arians .... well I don't think I have six hours to write what I think about him. But from what I saw Arians couldn't out scheme a pee-wee football defense right now. I will say this though. When it came to crunch time Ben and the Offense made the plays it needed to and secured a tie. And as much as I cussed him out last night Ben still has that X-factor that few other QB's have.

But without the juggernaut defense we would have been nothing. After scoring to tie the game at 13 Dallas got the ball back with plenty of time to drive the field and win the game. Instead the defense forced a quick throw out of Tony "Mr. Simpson" Romo that Deshea Townsend picked off and after some good moves ran into the end zone for a touchdown. Speaking of interceptions who the hell taught Ike Taylor how to catch? Never mind. So Jeff Reed punches in the extra point for a 20-13 score and that was all she wrote. Mr. Simpson wasn't able to do anything else and the Steelers won, despite their offense.

"Quit making fun of my quarterback ... *sniffle sniffle* .... that's my quarterback!"