November 10, 2008

Your Move, Big Ben...


I had to take a shower after this one I felt so dirty. Like, Christina Aguilera circa 2002, dirty. I mean, if we wanted someone to shit the bed, we wouldn't have released Najeh Davenport this weekend. Am I wrong?

Of course, I'm joking. I don't know if I'd go so far as to say we "shit the bed." But that's how it feels right now. Honestly, I doubt I can say anything positive about losing the third game of the season when again, as with the last two, we had the game in reach only to be let down by untimely mistakes.

The story of yesterday's game - points off of turnovers. They got 'em, we did not. 14 points off of turnovers given to you in your opponents territory? That's how you win football games. I'm not going to say anything about the caliber of Peyton Manning's play. I'm just going to say that he did what he had to do to win the game. And at least yesterday, did not make any big mistakes.

You can say the Defense was also to blame for not stopping him. But when you give a perennial pro bowler, injured one or not, the ball at your 30 yard line, it's going to be tough for the Defense to keep him from getting points. Sure, they could've held 'em to three both times. And yeah, they definitely could've. But I think why I'm reluctant to put more heat on them is because they've been getting overworked. If the Offense doesn't turn the ball over and gets their job done, maybe they get more rest and maybe they're able to stop the Colts when it really counts.

But maybes are at this point, moot. We lost. So let's just do the Monday morning thing and sift through the "Things That Were Awesome," "Things That Were Not Awesome," and "Things I Have No Words For."

Things That Were Awesome:
1. Ike Taylor - water covers 71% of the Earth, Face Me Ike covers the rest**
2. Mewelde Mo' - 54 rush yds, 48 receving yds, 2 TDs. HUGE.
3. Matt Spaeth - 6 catches, 53 yds...with an allegedly broken right hand.
4. Hines Ward - 9 catches, 116 yds, 1 badass stiff arm, 1 beauty queen smile.
5. Flea-flicker - Ben to Hines for 41 yards and almost a TD! That's creativity at work!

Things That Were Not Awesome:
1. Defensive Holding penalties.
2. Only 3 pts off of an 8 minute drive capped by 3 runs in a row toward the same general vicinity.
3. Dallas Baker - did you wanna try and make a play on that Hail Mary?
4. 0 turnovers. Again. But Hank Poteat and Chris Hope got picks yesterday!
5. LaMarr Woodley being inactive.

Things I Have No Words For:
1. Still not sure who Ben was throwing that ball to in the 2nd Quarter...Besides Keiwan Ratliff...Who is a Colt.
2. Yo Sansmokio, you too stoned to try and wrestle that ball away from Tim Jennings?
3. Max Starks holding penalty in a crucial spot! What's the breakdown of $ to yds cost?
4. 1st 20 minutes of Game - 2 sacks. Rest of Game - 0 sacks.
5. End around to Santonio? Hey, Bruce - that shit ISN'T WORKING! Try something else.

Meanwhile in Baltimore, the Ravens won yesterday. That means we're tied for the division. Thankfully, right now, we hold the tie breaker.

The other good news is, while we've got the Chargers next week, who almost lost to the CHIEFS(!) yesterday, the Ravens've got, gasp, the Giants. And we've got the Chargers at home to boot, though home field obviously did us no good yesterday. The Ravens've got the Giants at the Meadowlands. Bodes well for us. But not if we continue to screw around.

Object of the today: Try not to hurt anyone at work. God help you if you work with any Colts fans.

Oh wait, I almost forgot - Willie Parker? Yeah, he's got a torn labrum that will require offseason surgery. And it's "unclear" if and when he'll return this season. Good thing we drafted Rashard Mendenhall in the 1st round. Shit. Nevermind. I'm gonna quit while I'm ahead...ah, whatever, feel free to voice your grievances along with me in the comments.

** Does anyone actually know where this saying came from? Dude, the rest is only like 29%. That's not really that much. Then again, the Earth is pretty big. OR I could have just completely made that saying up. That's easily possible too.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

How about a comment for Tom Coughlin, in Haiku form:

Not over the line?
Mark it seven, not zero.
World's greatest challenge.

(Sorry, it needed to be done.)

domski43 said...

At least the offense didnt look stuck in the mud again this week. But turning the ball over (esp before the end of the first half was a killer when the colts were about to get the ball back again after halftime)

how about the two tipped balls to reggie wayne? (how lucky can you get?) - ike taylor should have had that first one.

offensive line did a good job yesterday pass protecting

finally the ravens will start playing tough teams on their schedule, we'll see how good they are in a few weeks.

gotta beat the chargers.

tecmo said...

Deshea showed Ike how to tip the ball later in the game: away from the receiver and towards the ground. Sure, it would've been nice to tip those two up and have a Steeler come down with it, but you gotta do anything that keeps it away from the O. Different game if Ike gets those two to the ground. That's 7 points off the scoreboard and like a cumulative 50-60 yards of less offense for Indy. Total underlying theme to the loss.

Cotter said...

random asshole ~ Nice Haiku. I can always appreciate a little creativity, even on a day of much anger.

domski ~ Plus the Ravens've got some key guys banged up too [Mason, McGahee, McAllister - who I believe is going on IR, Rolle, Bart Scott(apparently?)]. So it certainly won't be easy to get the Giants, Eagles, Skins, us and the Cowboys all down the stretch run. But like you said, we gotta get our shit together and beat the Chargers either way.

tec ~ I can't remember exactly, but I don't imagine it was Ike's intention to tip the ball up to be caught by Reggie Wayne. Besides, he made at least one other play where he batted a pass down the right way. Plus, maybe he didn't bat that down or pick it, but if he doesn't get his hand on the ball at all, Wayne probably makes that play anyway. And quicker. Then again, like I said, I don't remember the way it looked exactly. By the way, Deshea also showed Ike how to get called for Defensive Holding twice...that was fun.

Business Horse said...

Sometimes those tips fall like that. Almost fell into Dallas Baker's hands at the end.

That's not going to happen every week.

Cotter said...

Yeah, I mean bottom line - they got 14 points off of the two interceptions. Take those away, and we probably would have won that game (though nothing is for certain).

Still, I wish Dallas Baker had even TRIED to go after that ball.

Anonymous said...

I just don't understand the offensive play calling. What's wrong with Arians? He just doesn't make sense. I used to ENJOY watching the games, now I'm always on edge with my stomach in knots. And Ike Taylor, C'MON man you're killing me! We all know you can't catch. You know you can't catch. So don't try to catch the ball! Just knock the damned thing to the ground! This isn't volleyball, it's football. If you could catch, you'd be a wide reciever. ugh.

getfreshdesigns said...

going to the well too many times last night. was tomlin/arians trying to pull one over on dungy or something?

seems like the ball just isn't bouncing the steelers way, especially when it hits Ike's hands.

Pat said...

I could be wrong, but the first iteration I've ever heard of "Water covers 2/3rds of the Earth, [Insert awesome athlete here] covers the rest," was Phillies' outfielder Garry Maddox in the 1970s and 80s. I'd guess the saying is much older than that, though.

/slinks back into his baseball cave

tecmo said...

I'm not saying it was his intention to tip both balls up in the air, but as a starting d-back in the NFL, you can't have the exact same thing happen twice in a game. Ben isn't taught to throw interceptions. If he throws one...its a mistake. If he throws two, I'm starting to get pissed. Willie isn't taught to fumble. If he does once in a game, its a mistake. Twice in a game, and he's obviously doing something wrong. I thought Ike played a fantastic game yesterday...even applauded him in my writeup this morning, but he was either going for interceptions that were beyond his skill set or trying to tip the ball for a teammate to grab. I could see that the first one was out of his reach, and he was good enough to get a hand on it, but if his hand is 90 degrees to the right or left, its an incompletion. All I'm saying is, if he tips one and Wayne comes down with it, I can forgive. Twice, and I'm wondering what was going on in his head for those two plays.

Cotter said...

Right, I should've clarified. Obviously I didn't mean that he meant to tip the ball to Wayne. That would be silly.

What I meant was that he was just trying to tip the ball and make a play. Not to tip it up, after which some lucky receiver could grab it.

It was a valiant effort in my book. So it took an odd bounce? Sometimes that happens. He was still there to make a play and I'm not going to fault him for not having his hand cocked at the correct angle.

tecmo said...

Yeah true. Its just frustrating to see the same thing go against us twice in the same game. We can look at all of our losses and point out little things like this that we'd really like to have back in order to possibly change the outcome.

Cotter said...

My finger is firmly pointed at Domski. This is his fault for picking the Colts in the pick 'em pool.

Anonymous said...

damn you domski this loss is all your fault your banned from steelers sites for the rest of the year lol if they banned stickem in the nfl did ike switch to un stickem and by the way since no one answered my post in the quid ro bama how do i meet christy??????

Anonymous said...

and also notgomu understand what you mean about the knots in your stomach seem to be getting them every game anymore