Your Daily Dose of "WTF?"...

The internet is an amazing place.

Not only can you find a site catering to just about any interest, but it has now become such a pervasive medium that athletes and celebrities are regularly leveraging it's awesome power in ways that are usually more or less brilliant revenue generators.

And here I am blogging for free.

What can you do?

Anyways, yesterday the internets were quite a boon for me, as a lowly Steelers blogger.

So as a result, I have several interesting tidbits to share with you this morning...beginning with Jeff Reed...because, why not?

ITEM #1...
If you want a glimpse of the Super Bowl XLIII ring up close, check out Jeff Reed on Fox Charlotte's "Got Game" segment. This is the same segment in which he relates that when the Steelers went to the White House to meet Obama, he forgot he was a team captain...which should surprise no one.

And if you just can't get enough of Jeff Reed, and I know you can't, in clip 2 he talks about watching the Pens win the cup, the pressure of being an NFL kicker, and he reveals his stylish new haircut.

Thankfully for everyone at Fox Charlotte, it appears their bathroom was chock full of paper towels.

Otherwise, shit could've gotten real ugly.

Moving on...

ITEM #2...
Earlier in the week, thanks to The Pensblog, I thought I had found a new ringtone...

I'd give you the High Quality version of that, but we all know it doesn't exist.

But that was until Mikey from the Kiss 96.1 Freakshow alerted me to this set of magical ringtones from Super Bowl MVP and erstwhile "Pussy Monsta," Santonio Holmes.

Big PM has given us eight fantastic tones to choose from - including such gems as - "Gotta Score This Touchdown," "Hey Yo Homeboy," and "You Screening Your Calls Now?"

Conspicuously missing were "Because I Got High," "Smoke Two Joints," and "I Saw The Sign."

I'd say something else about this, but honestly, they're ringtones...I've got nothing.

ITEM #3...

Chuck Norris ain't got shit on Samurai Big Ben.

Also, notice the lack of helmet, there.

.../I'm a terrible Steelers fan

And lastly...

If OFTOT looked like this for you at any point yesterday, I apologize. I've mentioned blogger/blogspot's shortcomings before, but never has anything quite like the entire site showing up in italics happened.

...I'm so happy to be finally getting off this shithole.

Which reminds me - I'll be [tentatively] unveiling the "new" OFTOT tomorrow for Meeting People Is Easy. But, since I make it a point never to be like Anthony Smith, I can't guarantee that.

Until then, email me if you want in on MPIE, OR if you'd like to contribute to the "Cotter is broker than the City of Detroit and writes this thing for free" fund.

Yes, I do accept payment in mint milano cookies.

I can haz eight hours of sleep?

...not likely

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Everything's Coming Up..."Pussy_Monsta?"

Last night, Super Bowl XLIII hero and MVP, Santonio Holmes got a surreal new piece of jewelry.

Today, those pesky weed charges against him were dropped ("no probable cause" for stopping him in the first place...IE - see line above about Super Bowl XLIII).

But lost in all of this is his change in Twitter identity, which is another WIN - albeit more for us than for him.

If you aren't on Twitter, or hadn't noticed...

WOW. I mean, A+ for creativity?

At first, I was somewhat morally conflicted about whether or not to post this - effectively "blowing up" the man's stealthy spot.

Plus, given the natural difficulty in verifying whether someone is or is not, in fact, the Pussy_Monsta, there's still a chance that it's not him.

But then I realized, no one reads this blog.

So you can all thank my virtual anonymity for this one.

And also The Bish, who gave me the tip in the first place!

Only the most hard hitting news here at OFTOT...nahmeen?

As you were, then...

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Santonio Holmes Was Going To Have A Preliminary Hearing...

But then he got high.

You know it's a bad day when you find yourself making the most blatantly obvious joke in the history of blatantly obvious jokes.

Speaking of jokes, Jeff Reed is an asshole.

I actually had this whole long rant of about three paragraphs written about this, but then I realized, who cares. I said all that needed to be said about it two sentences ago.

Anyways, the purpose of this post was to tell you that Sansmokio has waived his right to a hearing and will either get a fine or probation, or he'll have a trial, at which he'll probably get either a fine or probation.

And remember, kids...


Still dealing with what feels like several tiny people hacking away at my brain with pick axes. Good thing I've got 40 pages to read right now. That should work out pretty well.

Thoughts?

Didn't think so.

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Who's Up For Some Speculation?

Question.

Would the Steelers have had any more success yesterday if Santonio had played?

Let's discuss...

We Really Couldn't Have Asked for Much Moore...

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that picture has very little to do with what happened in Cincinnati yesterday. It is, however, fun for me to look at. And frankly, that's enough.

Well friends, thankfully I think this is the first time since Week 1 that I don't have to write - "it wasn't pretty, but a win is a win." Whereas our last three wins were achieved by an average margin of 4 points, yesterday we enjoyed a slightly more favorable differential of 28 points! Yeah, we destroyed them. I particularly liked the part where MEWELDE MOORE had THREE TOUCHDOWNS. Let me repeat that. MEWELDE MOORE had THREE TOUCHDOWNS. How many of you thought I'd be writing THAT this morning?

And so we increase our record to 5-1, as the score is now Big Ben - 11, Ohio - 0. The Steelers took care of business by way of "the big three" (Hines, San Antonio and Nate Washington) combining for 206 of the Steelers 250 total passing yards, and 2/3 of the number of touchdowns that Mewelde Moore had. Not altogether a bad performance.

On the other side of the ball, the Steelers Defense had seven sacks - the tandem of Wooderson contributing a combined FOUR, The Law contributing two more and James Farrior rounding things out with the seventh. No picks. But a fumble recovery and plenty of solid plays nonetheless.

Still, before I get too amped up, it WAS the Bungles. I mean, they were 0-6, starting Ryan Fitzpatrick at QB and struggling with perhaps the biggest waste of talent this side of the Mississippi (wait, Cincinnati is on this side of the Mississsippi, right?). The fact is, we should have won this game by even more than we did. Not necessarily because the Bengals were so shitty. But really because of that offensive dearth for the entire 2nd Quarter.

Whatever. We won! We're 5-1, leading Bawlmore, who unfortunately took care of the Dolphins yesterday, by two games in the division and will undoubtedly increase our profile in the conversation about playoff contenders. Not that we need that last part. But listen, without Master Fly W Large, Big Snack or Marvel Smith, we still put up 38 points and held the Bangles to just 10. Probably should have been 3, but I'm not going to split hairs.

5-1 feels good, right? I know it does for me. So let's go through the weekly recap of "Things That Were Awesome," "Things That Were Not Awesome," and "Things That Sucked Mini Horse Balls." You'll notice I expanded the "Awesome" section to 10 instead of the normal five. I couldn't pick just five. Go with it.

Things That Were Awesome...
1. Mewelde F'ing Moore - 120 yards, 3 TDs (no brainer)
2. This hit on Keith Rivers...

3. Silverback...No need for anything more clever
4. Punt coverage (Bengals return avg. = 2 yards)
5. Santonio Holmes' 5 catches, 89 yards, and 1 TD
6. 0 sacks allowed!
7. 0 offensive turnovers!
8. Did I mention, Mewelde Moore's 120 yards and 3 TDs?
9. Timmons, Woodley and Harrison combining for six sacks
10. Face Me Ike playfully nudging Ocho Cinco out of bounds

Things That Were Not Awesome...
1. Kemoeatu's 500th false start penalty in the 1st six games
2. Letting Chad Johnson score his 1st TD against us since 2005
3. The Browns (as we knew they would be)
4. Kickoff coverage (Caldwell's return avg. = 29 yards)
5. Marvin Lewis' post-game demeanor

Things That Sucked Mini Horse Balls...
1. Troy leaving the field after a helmet to helmet with Cedric Benson...
2. With McFadden in tow
3. Our offensive production in the 2nd quarter...or lack thereof, rather
4. Watching Ryan Fitzpatrick orchestrate a 14 play, 92 yard TD scoring drive
5. Being sick and not drinking at the bar

One other thing that was awesome - yesterday's liveblog, courtesy of Tobiathan. I wasn't able to join, because the game wasn't on regular TV here and I don't have the kind of coin that would fund me getting something fancy like Sunday Ticket. But I checked it out last night and it looked to be as awesome as usual! Well done, Tobiathan!

Also, OFTOT friend and compatriot, The Chief was there to witness the beating from some prime seats. And he was kind enough to send visual evidence. Check these out...

Looks like he found an island among a sea of insanity...


Hey, what's Najeh doing stretching? He ain't gonna play, is he? Wait, what?


If you look closely, you'll see someone has an even sicker 'fro than Tomlin...


Wow, I'll bet the guy in the Keith Rivers jersey is pissed off today...


The Chief kindly noted - even Anthony Smith got to play...


From 100 feet away, Ed Hochuli is still thicker than that towel holder's wrist...


As The Chief pointed out, somebody won't be getting laid tonight...


Wait, I think I see a Bengals fan...oh, no, that's just a guy in a hunting vest...


No two people are not waving a Terrible Towel...


Thanks Chief! Some solid camerawork. Looks like it was a blast! Beyond that, I think we savor the win for today, and begin to mentally prepare for the defending champion Giants next Sunday.

Now let's get his party started discussion going...

What did you all think? What were your "Awesomes," "Not Awesomes," and "Sucked Mini Horse Balls'?"

Two Days 'Til Antarctica...

So far this week...
1. The Steelers signed Orpheus Roye
2. Chuck Batch had shoulder surgery
3. Troy Polamalu returned to practice
4. Willie Parker stopped giving Wreckingball advice, and
5. Roy Lewis looks to have made a spot for himself on the active roster.

But forget all that, we have a preseason game on Saturday night.

Now, I'm sure you're all still reeling from the comedic goodness (read: sucking royally at life) of the last couple of days, but it's time to focus. Saturday is just two days away and preseason or not, if you're a real Steeler fan, you at least care about how the team fares. So let's discuss this thing, shall we?

Last week I did this in "three things I'll be watching" format. And that seemed to work pretty well for me. As for you all, who knows. Nonetheless, I'm going to go with it again this week.

As for that post title - well, Minnesota really is the god damned Arctic Circle (lest I get corrections in the comments, I'm well aware that Antarctica and the Arctic Circle are not one and the same). I've been to this state, and it's 95% ice, even in August. They're probably out there playing pond hockey right now. Which brings me to the point of all this...which is, they're playing in a dome. What does that mean to the post? Absolutely nothing.

With that, here are the three things I'll be watching for on Saturday...

1. Santonio returning punts
2. Wreckingball in the red zone
3. Justin Hartwig

First up is the great debate - should arguably our best receiver, who struggled readily with it during his first go around, be returning punts or not? For the record, I like Tomlin's suggestion that he might use San Antonio like the 'Skins of old did with Darrell Green (who's trading card I still have for reasons unknown). You know, put him in every now and then just to bust one (hopefully). But aside from that, I don't really think we need Santonio going anywhere near "Special" Teams. I may be wrong (which would make Tecmo wrong as well), but Santonio is going to have a monster year. The last thing I want to see is him regularly returning punts in the face of some of the NFL's most ravenous beasts. Just. Not. Necessary.

Moving on, I'd like to keep at least one eye on Wreckingball's goal line prowess. Obviously we didn't draft him to be a scat back, and he did well last week, but will he show us something again this week? No doubt in my mind. Again, I wasn't in love with the 11 carries for 30 yards stat. But the one stat that really counted for him was the TD. A six yard scamper, showing impressive poise for a guy who's really just a month into his professional career. So I'd like to see Wreckingball continue to demolish goal line Defenses, and Minnesota could be quite a test. Remember who they have up there - Pat Williams, KEVIN Williams, and JARED ALLEN. Not to mention Chad Greenway, EJ Henderson and Darren Sharper behind them. Wreckingball better equip his juggernaut armor and roll through those dudes...or else...something.

Lastly, in continuation of last week, Justin Hartwig with the first team Offense. I didn't really get to see the Buffalo game, so I had nothing tangible to draw from in forming an opinion about him. But after reading further into it, it seems like Mahan is the real starter right now and Tomlin is just evaluating how Hartwig fits with the rest of Big Ben's oxen up front. From a purely uninformed perspective, I've gotta think, "shake things up." Make it Hartwig's job to lose. You obviously brought him in for a reason. The Steelers don't just sign free agents for the hell of it. The guy must have SOME talent. Then again, Sean Mahan was a free agent pickup as well, so...

What do you guys think? Is all this preseason talk just a giant tease or what? Anything you'll be watching for on Saturday? And did anyone hide Steely McBeam's keys? That guy is smashed...

PS - if any of you are in the greater Minneapolis area, or by some odd twist of fate will be there on Saturday, my man Neal Coolong (formerly of the now-defunct, Die Hard Steel) will be in attendance at the game. Or so he tells me. So if you see him out there dancing bare assed in the parking lot by himself, be sure to take a picture and send it to me. That sucker's going on the wall of shame.

Santonio Holmes > Plaxico Burress...

You know, I don't remember too many people saying Santonio doesn't like working hard. But according to this Trib report from yesterday, apparently someone did.

And so it seems, San Antonio feels he has something to prove. Because someone said he doesn't work hard? I don't know. Maybe it's because the team drafted Limas Swede Sweed in the 2nd round. Maybe it's because he averaged more yards per catch than Randy Moss, Terrell Owens, Reggie Wayne, Torry Holt and Chad Johnson last season and no one even noticed. Or maybe someone shit in his cereal the day he gave this interview. Your guess is as good as mine.

One way or another, the man seems to be very vocal this offseason about his dedication. First, he more or less demanded to return punts. Which...you know...I mean, ok...maybe. We'll see if he can hang on to the ball long enough to return anything. But beyond that, now he's giving us the "see, I really do care" routine.

Frankly, I don't particularly care what his motivation is. I never doubted Santonio's work ethic for a second. I mean, after all, he did (according to the Trib) "lead the Steelers in receiving yards, yards per catch and touchdowns, AND recorded the team's only three 100-yard receiving games" in 2007. It'd be awfully tough for him to accomplish that while cutting routes short and making careless mistakes...you know, like spiking a live ball or something (hypothetically speaking, of course). So where's the lack of motivation?

Nevertheless, all this "hard work" has a purpose. Apparently, Santonio would like to make his first trip to Honolulu this coming February. I guess no one told him the Pro Bowl is a gigantic waste of time. Either way, I applaud his effort and I absolutely hope he accomplishes what he's set out to do. Go forth San Antonio, and dominate.

Any comments from the peanut gallery? Or are you all out to a permanent lunch this week?

PS - this headline is a blatant rip-off of Tecmo's patented > (greater than) method...sorry man, it was for a good cause.

REFERENCE MATERIAL:
Holmes Defends Work Ethic [Trib]

Big Ben - 9 | Ohio - 0

"That's why they're 5-2 and we're 2-5. Good teams put it in the end zone. Teams like us kick field goals."
- TJ Houshmanzadeh

Whine all you want, Cincinnati. Had you gone for it on 4th down instead of kicking a field goal, A- there's a good chance you would've gotten ZERO points off that drive and B- the 2nd guessing would be even worse than it is already. So I'd just take your loss like men, and deal with the fact that you've fallen way behind in the division and probably won't even make the playoffs. That ought to occupy you for a while...Oh yeah, and Anthony Smith slept with all your mothers...

But Steeler fans - Guess what? - we needed a win and we got a win! We took an embarrassing loss on the chin and shrugged it off this week to put down our not-so-worthy division rivals, the Bengals, and reaffirm our position atop the AFC North...for now. The bad news, if there is any at all, is the Browns (!) beat the Rams this afternoon 27-20, which means they're still just a game back, moving into 2nd place ahead of the Ravens. So the division is quite unsettled right now. But let's not go there. We won today. Let's just revel in that. Bask in the glory of beating a team whose city wanted a win so bad that elephants in their zoo were crushing pumpkins with Big Ben's picture on them. What a bunch of assholes.

The final score was 24-13, but it might as well have been 42-13 the way we controlled that game. Big Ben, FWP, Hines Ward and company took care of the ball today, mixed it up, and played the balance game we needed to stand victorious, while Farrior, Ike Taylor and Anthony Smith kept a lid on the Bengals so-called "electrifying" offense, holding their big three - Carson Palmer, Chad Johnson and TJ Houshmanzadeh to a respectable 205 yards through the air and only 1 TD. Pretty, pretty, pretty good, I'd say.

Now that we've won, let's take a look back at my thoughts from Friday and how the Steelers followed or did not follow what I thought we should do:

• Run the god damn ball: Check! Run it, then run it some more, we sure did. FWP carried exactly 22 times (whoa...prophetic...) for 126 yards and 1 score and Najeh added 8 carries for 23 yards. I'd say that's pretty successful indeed.


• Deploy a balanced offensive attack: Check! In addition to the 30 rushes by FWP and Deuce Davenport, the Steelers threw the ball 26 times, with Ben completing 19 passes for 230 yards and 2 TDs. Sure, he threw a pick...in the red zone...and that's pretty bush league. But I'm going to let it slide since he played a pretty decent game otherwise. I will say this though - Ben needs to get his passes down. There were too many balls above Hines and Santonio's heads that could have gotten them hit hard had the Bengals played any defense today. Watch out for those guys Ben, they're your lifeblood right now. Still, as I mentioned we needed to do on Friday, the Steelers mixed it up well, and were able to control the game with sustained, efficient drives. In fact, 3 out of 8 Steeler drives lasted 6 minutes or longer and 2 of those 3 were scoring drives (the 3rd would've been another score had Ben not thrown that pick). Can you say efficiency?


• Stop the Bengals passing machine: Check! Carson "I like wieners" Palmer - 23 for 31, 205 yards and only 1 TD. Chad "I just gotta be me" Johnson - 5 catches, 51 yards, 0 TDs. TJ "I'd like some cheese with my whine" Houshmanzadeh - 7 catches, 81 yards, 1 TD. Ok, that last stat wasn't exactly ideal. But neither of the twin towers broke 100 yards or had more than 1 score. So I consider that a success. Although, at the risk of being a wet blanket - we did not register a single sack, and I really didn't see us in the backfield often enough to make Carson Palmer sweat. That was unfortunate. Plus, the other thing I would have liked to have seen that I didn't see from a defensive scheme POV was pressing the receivers a little more. We kept giving them the 8-10 yard cushion we gave the Denver receivers and for at least the beginning of the game, they took it. We just can't continue to allow this. What more can I say? Good receivers will take that cushion and exploit it. We need to move up to the line and knock them off their routes. Get on their case a bit. Don't make it easy on them. Sort it out.


• More facetime for Woodley: Fail! I hardly saw Woodley at all. I guess when you're winning it's the ol' "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mantra. And I can respect that. Nonetheless, I'm not sure Woodley saw the field at all today, and he certainly didn't make any tackles. So just another thing to think about in the future. One man we did see a lot of today though, was Anthony Smith. And thank god for that. I don't think I have to say much more about him than his hit on Houshmanzadeh said for itself. The team's leading tackler this week - Smith made 10 tackles, 9 solo - Fear the wrath of Anthony Smith. Maybe Ryan Clark should get injured more often? (kidding...sort of)


• No stupid penalties: Check! 3 penalties for 30 yards but none at crucial moments in the game. Though just about anything (and everything) Kendall Simmons does right now is stupid. Thanks for the false start asshole. Way to make a positive contribution to the game.


• Put some breathing room between us and the Ravens: See above...Check!

Some other moments to cherish, not mentioned above:

• Silverback stripping the ball from Kenny Watson in dramatic fashion. Looked like Harrison brought the friggin' hammer down on that ball. I don't blame Watson for coughing it up. Bravo Silverback!


• Marvin Lewis' post-game quotables - "We are not overmatched. We were outplayed, outexecuted, and I was outcoached." Sounds like a personal problem to me...


• Big Ben hooking up with Santonio for 42 yards on the Steelers 2nd drive. Funny how much easier it is to throw the home run ball when your offense is rolling...


• Remember Hines Ward? He's not dead yet. Ok, he's not that old. But considering how much of a non-factor he has been this season, today was a pleasant surprise. Obviously we should be looking his way more often in the coming weeks. Bonus.


• Hope you didn't adjust your TV set. The Bengals did only have 10 players on the field for that last Pittsburgh TD. Sucks for them. I don't know what else to tell you.

One way or another, I'd say I'm very please with the way things went on the field today. We played our game, plain, simple and disciplined (for the most part). But again, coming in, we regarded this as a winnable game. The kind you need to have to gain momentum. This coming week we've got another big division game against the dirty birds of Baltimore, the Ravens. Another big MONDAY NIGHT game at that, in which I hear we'll be celebrating the Steelers 75th anniversary. Yellow helmets, great. Consider me psyched...

With that, it's 11:00PM and I'm beat. So that'll be all for today. Feel free to comment and tell me your thoughts on the game. Good, bad, outlandish. Any and all are encouraged. Let's have 'em!

Post-game coverage:
[DC Steeler Nation]
[Joey Porter's Pitbulls]
[Behind The Steel Curtain]
[Non-Stop Steelers]
[Pittsburgh Sports and Mini Ponies]
[Blitzburgh Report]
[The Steel Tradition]
[Die Hard Steel]
[Fanhouse]

[KDKA]
[Associated Press]
[Post-Gazette]
[SteelCityInsider]
[CBS Sportsline]
[Tribune-Review]
[Steelers.com]

Attention Cleveland -- Thanks for Making My Job Easy...

I mean, a 34-7 victory in which Big Ben threw 4 TD passes? That just about says it all! But let's talk about what was really telling - 0 interceptions. Ben just about exceeded all expectations yesterday, and while it was Cleveland, which may or may not be a true test of how efficient the Steelers offense will be, this is very promising for the rest of 2007.

But it wasn't just Ben. Willie Parker pitched in to the tune of 27 carries (!) for 109 yards, the Defense came up with 3 fumble recoveries, 2 interceptions, 6 sacks and limited Jamal Lewis to just 37 yards(though it's kind of tough to run the ball when you're behind by like 21 points...), and Allen Rossum held onto each of the kicks he fielded (sad as it is...Upgrade).

Here's some other things I liked:

• The 1st quarter, 40 yard Ben to Santonio hook up, capitalizing on a Browns turnover
• Ben did not appear to force the ball at any point(though he did hold it a bit long at times)
• Najeh Davenport - 8 rushes for 43 yards, a 5.4 yard per rush average (and 1 catch for 17 yards)
• Rookie [monster] TE Matt Spaeth's 1st Career NFL TD...now I kind of feel bad shitting on this pick...
• Heath Miller Touchdown!
• Ike Taylor picks up his 1st career sack (can this be true??) and adds an interception. Questions answered?
• Sepulveda continued to shine...pinning the Browns deep on a couple of different occasions. I think he can do better than his 37.2 average, but these things tend to happen when you don't have to punt often and punt on a short field, word.
• Jeff Reed appeared to be sober for the entire game...APPEARED to be...

And that's all well and good, but my STAT OF THE GAME was:

Braylon Edwards was credited with 3 tackles, one more than LB Kamerion Wimbley...hahahaha

Sorry, couldn't help myself.

So yeah, one could not script an opener better than that which the Steelers enjoyed yesterday. Let's hope this momentum continues and we have even close to the game we had yesterday against the Bills this coming Sunday. The Bills are coming off a last second loss to Denver, which I'll admit surprised me. I figured the Bills would be pushovers after the departures on Defense and Willis McGahee (though of course now they have Marshawn Lynch). But it doesn't look that way. The good news is it seems like Tomlin isn't taking anyone or anything for granted. So he will likely have the team heads down all week so that this Sunday ends up looking a lot like last Sunday (maybe with 0 turnovers and 0 dropped passes this time)!

Anyone else have any thoughts? Likes? Dislikes? Does Hines Ward like Heinz ketchup?

Cheers to a great 1-0 start!!

- Cotter

These Are NOT Your Father's Pittsburgh Steelers...

The theme of the day is acceptance. Acceptance and embrace of the NEW Pittsburgh Steeler offense. Not that it's all that new. Most of us remember a similar foray in 2003, with a man once known as Tommy Gun running the show. But as Steel City Insider Adam Gretz notes, do not make the mistake of thinking that this year's Steelers are anything like the 2003 Steelers. Tommy Maddox is no Ben Roethlisberger. Amos Zeroue is no Willie Parker. Plus, now we're working with Tight End Heath Miller, and most importantly Wideouts Santonio Holmes, Cedrick Wilson, Nate Washington, and Willie Reid (also of course Hines). So no, this offense is nothing like that offense. We should be ready for this change. We saw how the Steelers shocked everyone by throwing the ball during the 2005 playoffs en route to a Super Bowl victory. Our personnel is only better now, with Willie becoming an established back and the additions of burners Santonio Holmes and Willie Reid. The future is bright for the Steeler offense under Bruce Arians.

And also, don't kid yourself in thinking we aren't going to run the ball (not that any of you are necessarily). The Steelers will always run the football. It's ball control, a big part of winning games. But with an offense that threatens the long pass at any moment, things can really open up for the running game, especially with Willie Parker coming out of the backfield. If you think 213 yards in one game is where he stops you're deluded. It's not out of the question that Willie could break his own record this year if the circumstances are right. Plus, with Carey Davis or Gary Russell, we have our traditional between the tackles back. Sure, we're hoping Najeh will be able to be successful at this too. But I'm just being realistic with my expectations. Najeh hasn't shown us that he is much of a threat, and I personally would love to see Davis or Russell take over the 2nd back duties at some point this season.

So as you watch the game this evening (that is if you're lucky enough to be in the 'Burgh and not have it blacked out) try and wrap your head around how great the Steelers can be this season with a new approach. It may be hard to digest since the Steelers have pretty consistently played the same "pound the rock" game of football for the duration of their 75 year existence. But don't let your love for the past cloud your vision of the future. Does it really matter how the Steelers win so long as we're winning? We'll still get our running game, but we'll also get some fireworks from the passing game. I envision a lot of excitement from Big Ben, Santonio, Ced, Nate, Willie Reid and Fast William Parker. God I love Steeler football. Why can't it be September 9 tomorrow?

Movin' On Up...

Good news on a Thursday morning! Mike Tomlin announced two fairly significant modifications to the team's starting lineup for this weekend's game against the Washington Redskins.

Among the "improvements" (relative term of course) are -

• Bryant McFadden starting at right Corner over Deshea
• Santonio Holmes starting at Split End over Cedrick "The Entertainer" Wilson

What this means for the longer term is anybody's guess, that is at least with any degree of accuracy, but I'm pretty sure it means Tomlin is willing to give these guys a shot at starting if they're able to perform when given the chance, NOW. In my opinion, and I'm sure I'm not alone here, both of these are inevitable "changes." McFadden and Santonio are the future, while DeShea (no offense to him) is definitely the past and Wilson was never really meant to play that central a role in the Steelers passing attack. He has made great contributions thus far, but there's a reason we drafted Santonio so high last year.

Something to keep an eye on...