September 14, 2008
Wrap it up! I'll take it!
Whew!
The Steelers escaped Cleveland with a 10-6 win. They'll meet again the last week of the regular
season. But until then, the Steelers still have the upper hand in the rivalry.
Despite the boos of the Cleveland
fans, Romeo Crennel did not make the wrong decision to kick the field goal with 3:24 left. He was trusting the defense and
the Browns still had all their timeouts.
That defense held up when they stopped Willie Parker for no gain at the
Steelers 31. But then Ben Roethlisberger found the HOG. That's Heath "Hands Of God" Miller, for a 19-yard completion
to get the ball to midfield. I coined the nickname Hands Of God for Miller the last time the Steelers beat the Browns. I hope
it sticks.
Two plays later, Willie Parker picked up another 19 yards to cause the Browns to burn their last timeout.
I was a little perplexed about the Steelers going for it on fourth down instead of kicking in the field goal and ensuring
no worse than a tie. Did they not want to kick off to Joshua Cribbs? Are they that afraid of him? But hey, no harm, no foul.
This goes back to the old adage. You take a road win against a division opponent any way you can get it.
11:26 pm | link
They're getting closer!
Phil Dawson's 38-yard field goal make it 10-6.
The Steelers have to do something with the ball now. And
I'm scared shitless of what the kickoff return team is going to to do now!
Score: Steelers
10, Browns 6, 3:24 left in game
10:56 pm | link
I don't like this!
They're just not getting off the field on third down!
10:52 pm | link
D-FENCE!!!
Time for the D to hunker down and make something happen.
Score: Steelers 10, Browns 3, 10:59 left in game
10:45 pm | link
Could have been worse
The Browns are on the board with a 31-yard field goal by Phil Dawson.
The scoring drive was aided by a roughing-the-passer
penalty by LaMarr Woodley. You're not a rookie anymore, stop acting like one!
An unsportsmanlike conduct penalty
was also called on James Farrior. That doesn't sound like him.
Now it's time for that time-consuming
touchdown drive to put the game away.
Rashard Mendenhall is a rookie. And he acted like it by muffing the
ensuing kickoff, putting the ball on the 2-yard line. But thank God for Hines Ward, catching a 31-yard pass to get the Steelers
out of the shadow of their own goal post.
Score: Steelers 10, Browns 3, end of third
quarter.
10:36 pm | link
Reed does it again!
I was hoping for a clock-chewing scoring drive that gave the Steelers defense a long rest, but I'll take a
Jeff Reed 48-yard field goal against the wind. In this kind of game, those three points are going to be huge.
Santonio
Holmes has five catches for 94 yards. Let the breakout season begin!
Score: Steelers 10, Browns
0, 7:58 left in third quarter
10:17 pm | link
Moore is less
Mewelde Moore is going to give me a heart attack!
10:11 pm | link
That's why they're the Browns!
A combination of idiotic clock management and penalties caused the Browns to waste their only decent drive of the game
at the end of the first half.
They should have just gone for the field goal with eight seconds to play and no
timeouts. Instead, Derek Anderson throws an interception to Troy Polamalu, who looks like vintage Polamalu, by the way.
Anderson should have just spiked it after getting the first down on 3rd and 1. Instead, the Browns let the clock run
down to eight seconds before coach Romeo Crennel finally called timeout.
HA! HA!
And the best thing
about all this is that I still have 3 1/2 beers left at halftime. I was hoping Beer No. 3 would get me through the second
quarter. But I still have some left. I'm under my beer budget!
Halftime score: Steelers 7,
Browns 0
9:53 pm | link
Tomlin off the hook
Looks like Mike Tomlin won't have to run laps in practice.
The Steelers coach called timeout just before
the Browns jumped offside on 4th and 1, negating the penalty and first down. But it didn't matter because Willie Parker
gained 13 yards on the next play.
You have to figure Hines Ward wanted the ball on that touchdown. He must have
been dying to make up for those drops.
The Browns kept the drive alive with penalties. Tisk. Tisk. That's not
what playoff teams do, Brownies.
By the way, who needs wind?
Score: Steelers 7, Browns
0
9:30 pm | link
First quarter over
On the Steelers' last full possession of the first quarter, why the hell were they throwing deep to Willie Parker.
He's not a receiver! We don't know how many passes Roethlisberger has in that shoulder, and they're wasting one
on a non-receiver? C'mon.
Hines Ward should have caught that third-down pass.
Why do they even bother
having Moore back there on punt returns? They should just use him as an extra guy trying to block the punt.
9:06 pm | link
Phelps in the house
They just showed Michael Phelps on NBC. One of these teams might have to sign him. The way the rain is coming down,
swimming might be a useful skill in this game.
Mewelde Moore is really lighting it up returning those punts, isn't
he?
8:48 pm | link
All about field position
The Steelers just downed a punt inside the Browns' 10. This is looking like a 13-10 or 17-13 rock fight. I think
the Steelers are going to need the defense to score a touchdown in this one.
8:42 pm | link
Going with the wind
The offensive line strikes again. Roethlisberger sacked to force a punt on the Steelers' first series.
The Steelers have to get some points on the board in the first quarter while they have the wind at their backs. That's
not the way to do it.
8:32 pm | link
Great. Just great.
Now we hear that Ben Roethlisberger has a separated shoulder. I wonder what kind of pain killers he's on to be able
to play tonight. The Steelers have to take advantage of that tattered Browns secondary.
8:20 pm | link
That's no peace sign
Wow!
After Jay Cutler's touchdown pass to Eddie Royal pulled the Broncos to within 38-37 with 24 seconds
left, Broncos coach Mike Shanahan held up two fingers. The Broncos went for the two-point conversion and got it! Royal also
caught the conversion. How about Eddie Royal?
For Shanahan to make that call took balls the size of boulders.
I've never seen a coach go for two in that situation. The rule among the NFL coaching fraternity is to just
kick the extra point and go to overtime.
The Broncos held on to win 39-38. Good for Shanahan.
Now, Steelers
time!
7:41 pm | link
One hour 'til kickoff
I could turn to NBC and start getting hyped up for the Steelers game, but I'm choosing to watch the end of the Chargers-Broncos
game, which looks like a classic.
Patriots won 19-10. Matt Cassel went 16 of 23 for 165 yards, no touchdowns but
no interceptions either.
About five minutes ago, I touched my lips to alcohol for the first time today. I'm
so proud of mysel that I lasted until after 7. Now that six-pack of Bud has to last me the whole game, because I can't
leave the house to get more. I took a AAA defensive driving class yesterday. They basically said that if you have one
beer on a Friday night, you can't drive until the following Wednesday.
Chargers lead 38-31 but Broncos are
driving. I smell OT. Hope this game doesn't come too close to Steelers-Browns kickoff.
7:20 pm | link
Cleaning up
I just reduced the number of posts showing on the home page from 20 to five. It was a mess with posts from last December.
When the game starts, I'll go back to 20 posts on the home page. You might not care about all this technical shit. I've
never blogged live before so I'm learning on the fly.
The Jets did score to make it 16-10. But it looks like
the Patriots are going to answer.
6:42 pm | link
Two hours 'til kickoff
Good evening and welcome! The Steelers and Browns will be kicking off in a little less than two hours, and I will share my
observations with you LIVE throughout the game. Until then, enjoy my entries from the NFL draft. I haven't updated the
blog part of my site since the draft because I couldn't figure out how to get it on my home page until now. Pretty stupid,
huh?
Around the NFL, the Colts might have barely saved their season by coming back from a 15-0 deficit to beat
the Vikings 18-15. The Patriots are beating the Jets 16-3 in the fourth quarter. What did I tell you? The Patriots are going
to be good, even without Tom Brady. Quarterback wasn't the team's only strength.
To read a preview of today's
Steelers-Browns game, scroll down past all the old blog entries. Hopefully those will get knocked off the page as I update
the blog tonight. I'll check back in a little while. By the way, looks like the Jets are about to score!
6:26 pm | link
