YinzPitt

Well, it was almost the perfect weekend for the city of Pittsburgh.  The Pittsburgh Penguins win an exciting game that went down to the final seconds(partial recap, due to Chris Bourque sucking can be found here via ThePensBlog.com), and the University of Pittsburgh Panthers took Notre Dame and made them their girlfriends for the night.  While both of the Saturday wins were wonderful, the real headlining game of the weekend turned out to be a total snore fest, and a defensive battle that Cincinnati controlled.

Lets make this completely clear, the Pittsburgh Steelers left a lot on the field out there.  The Bengals, executed their game plan to perfection, even without an injured Cedrick Benson.  Hat’s off to the Bengals however, they are a good team, and good teams find ways to win.  I also noticed that Chad OchoCinco was hardly noticeable.  I enjoy when he talks crap and only has a two or three catch game.  Hardly the superstar he claims to be against the Steelers and Ike Taylor.

However, him just being on the field led to Laverneous Coles being open a lot, and Carson Palmer provided.  Either way, what can you do.  Take the loss and look to make up for it next week.  It’s just a huge hole now because barring something catastrophic for the Bengals, the AFC North is all but theirs.

Make no mistake about the game yesterday, Ben Roethlisberger was off.  In fact, he was pressured most of the day against a Bengals front

Steelers D Trying To Stop Coles

line that was missing their star defensive end Antwan Odum.  It was just one of those days where things didn’t click, the receivers couldn’t catch, and the offensive coordinator forgot how to play Steelers football.  I have never been so angry at a coach in my entire life as much as I have been with Bruce Arians.  Why was the running game all but abandoned yesterday.  Rashard Mendenhall had a 5+ YPC average coming into the game, yet he was hardly seen in the second half.

Heath Miller had a few good looks in the first half, yet was also abandoned for the most part in the second half for bombs that went to an often covered and under-thrown Mike Wallace.  I am completely lost as to why they continued to waste downs throwing for the home run, when the game was known at the point as a defensive battle.  Either Ben was calling these plays and Arians was going with him, or Arians was out of his mind and either way should have been relinquished of his ability to speak yesterday.

Finally I’m moving on to what special teams wasn’t able to accomplish, and Mike Tomlin acknowledged it yesterday after the game.  Field Goals are great, and I’m glad Jeff Reed was atleast there to kick them.  But giving up a run back for the 3rd time this year is embarrassing.  That alone cost us the game.  I’ve also had enough of Jeff Reed at the same time.  He can kick the ball well, and whoever says he isn’t paid to tackle is an idiot.  On kick-offs, your expected from pee-wee and up, no matter what position you play, if there is a break out you TACKLE at all cost.  Two times now he’s either half attempted or not even attempted to make a tackle at all.  It’s just amazingly frustrating.

In other news, Pittsburgh was ranked in the top 15 for commuter friendly cities on Yahoo Travel.  Also, University of Pittsburgh’s Jonathan Baldwin was named Big East player of the week.  The Pitt News has it going on for the details, so check it out!  Finally, here is a list of links to check out on your boring Monday morning/afternoon:

Troy Polamalu re-injures left knee against Cincy

Guenin re-called, GoGo out 2-3 weeks

Joe Greene awarded at Steeler game for commercial

Greensburg Parade Ready To Go