YinzPitt

I feel bad for the Cleveland Browns….well not really, I just feel bad for some players.  In preparation for this post I went to Yahoo’s sports stat page for the game yesterday and I saw just something so staggering and hilarious at the same time.  The Pittsburgh Steelers top performer was Big Ben, for having 417 yards passing, 2 touchdowns, and 1 interception.  Who do you think the Cleveland top performer was?  Jamal Lewis?  Nope.  Derek Anderson?  Not even worth putting on the field.  It was Lawrence Vickers, who had a monster day receiving with 1 reception, 1 yard, and 1 touchdown.

As far as I can tell, yesterday was a routine day playing the Browns.  Mistakes happened, turnovers all over the place, and as usual, both teams had slow starts, except the Steelers started throwing, and the Browns, well let’s just say the Browns most exciting player was Joshua Cribbs.  Now don’t get me wrong, I hate the Browns with a passion that you can’t even describe, but if there is one player who deserves credit, it’s Cribbs. Cribbs should of been Sunday’s top performer for them with a return of 98 yards on a kick-off for a touchdown(even if there was a hold).  I assume Cribb’s is a glutton for punishment though, as hes asking for an extension to be with that team any longer than he has to.

Derek Anderson’s play was sloppy at times, well  most of the time, but even fans have to see that if the Browns receivers could CATCH the ball it would have maybe of been a closer game.  Instead miscues for their receiving corp happened and continually dropped almost every pass thrown to them.  Either way, enough about the Browns, they are a sad joke in the NFL.

Big Ben had another spectacular day throwing with 417 yards.  That number alone is ridiculous.  Sure he threw in interception, but when you throw that many yards and two touchdowns you can do anything you want.

Rashard Mendenhall had a pretty decent game.  Sure he holds the ball like a loaf of bread, but I’ll let his fumble pass.  He was on top of a guy and someone just ripped it out, I could see how he could think he was on the ground and whatnot.

Willie Parker became the new Duece Staley yesterday.  If there is one person who fell out of favor yesterday with the crowd, it seemed to be Willie Parker.  I don’t see him being re-signed next year, unless he makes huge strides or shows that his turf-toe is healed, it’s a brutal injury that ends careers.

Hines Ward is having a huge start to this year.  Dude has been a play-making machine as always, he’s status quo at the moment.

Santonio Holmes could use some more looks his way, but he had 104 yards yesterday recieving.  There’s no real need to complain that much about getting only 5 passes.

Heath Miller needs to have the ball thrown to him over and over and over.  He can catch literally almost anything.  I really think he’s the best all-around tight end in the NFL.

Ike Taylor looked average yesterday, and by average I mean getting beat by a rookie when it was thrown his way.

Troy Polamalu, man is it good to see him back playing.  He made an immediate impact with an interception yesterday, good job, and glad that he wasn’t as hurt as seriously as I thought he was when he first got up after his catch.

The defense again for the most part looked stout.  The wildcat was in effect and had little difference to the Steelers holding it to the amount of I think 47 yards.  The only team that I think can use the wildcat to perfection is the Miami Dolphins.  Other than them, there is no one out there that should be using it exclusively.  When the Browns used it in the first half and realized they couldn’t do it very well, the Steelers just shut them down even more when the base offense went in.  Which brings me to my final point about the game.  How much confidence does Mangini have in his quarterback and starting players when you have to run the Wildcat to get some kind of movement going?  Derek Anderson must hate his life as much as Jim Zorn does.

Also, he’s an article describing Jeff Reed’s latest run in with the law:  http://kdka.com/local/Jeff.Reed.cited.2.935510.html

Finally, a video to end today’s post dealing with the two NFL ejections from yesterday’s games.