Instant Thoughts - Steelers vs. Eagles

Here's this week's e-mail exchange of our thoughts following the Steelers' 3rd preseason game, a 27-13 win over Philadelphia.

From David to Mario:

Let me just start off by saying I will not watch Sunday Night Football unless the Steelers are on and then I will turn down the volume and try and find a radio feed. Madden is absolutely awful- unwatchable awful. I don't know if you had sound on but at one point he claimed Donovan McNabb's percentage was over 100%. I imagine you can see the problem with that statement. He meant to say QB rating I assume, but I'm not really sure.

Also, I really could only handle the first half due to fatigue caused by Drunken Bachelor Party Weekend but here were my quick notes:

Ben really needs to stop the stupid mistakes but on that one floater that got picked by the Defensive Lineman, he did a great job escaping, Willie was wide open, and it looked like his arm got hit at the line. Of course, our announcing team noticed none of that because of how fun it is when a Lineman intercepts a ball.

I'm still a big fan of Mike Tomlin, when Andrea Kramer asked him stupid questions he gave her great dirty looks and half answers.

I was shocked to see how few yards Philly had the half. I guess field position makes a huge difference.

Do you think Sepulvda was actively trying to channel Jim Miller?

I'm going to need a full breakdown of watching a Steelers game against the Eagles in a Philly bar. Any turnout? And there had to be at least on drunk Eagles fan being an ass right.

From Mario to David:

Why would you ever listen to network announcers anyways? Unless of
course its Gus Johnson in the final two minutes of a tie game.

Ben wasn't really that impressive, in my opinion. A lot of his yards
came on screen passes which Bruce Arians kept calling because the
offensive line was getting pushed around up front so he caught the
Eagles overpursuing. And on his interception, I still think he should
have taken the sack. Even if he made a nice play to try to get it to
Willie, I still see disaster happening about 40 percent of the time in
the future in a similar situation.

And as for watching the Steelers beat the Eagles in a bar in Center
City Philadelphia, well, it was a blast. There were probably 75
percent Steeler fans, 20 percent Eagles fans and 5 percent random
people there for the college welcome back night that was happening
from 11 p.m. til 2 a.m. Its definitely going to be my new regular
season Steeler bar. There was only one drunk Eagles fan being an ass,
and that's mostly because in the fourth quarter, he was still getting
into the game like a spot in the playoffs was riding on it.

Here's what I want to focus on - the punt return game is still awful.
Willie Reid fielded a punt inside the six yard line! That's the first
rule of returning - just let that ball go! And then he dropped one.
Mike Tomlin even resorted to putting Ricardo Colclough back there in
the third quarter to catch a punt.

My favorite play of the game was Fast Willie's touchdown, mainly
because of the blocking on the play. The lead block was by Dan
Kreider, who fighting to make the team because of the de-emphasis of
the fullback position, though he showed on that play why he's still
one of the best pure blockers in the league. The next block was by Max
Starks, who may or may not have lost his starting spot to Willie Colon
(but did he gain it back with that block?). And the final way was
paved by Santonio Holmes (quickly becoming my favorite offensive
player on the team), who sealed off two Eagles toward the end of the
run.

From David to Mario:

I can't help but listen to the announcers, they are talking. Boy, I do hate Madden though.

Did you see Skippy shaved his head? To me that is 100% more interesting than Gaydy Quinn doing it. Those were some hardcore locks.

I'm with you on punt return. I have no real issue with Cedric taking them except for the fact that he called a fair catch with 30 yards in front of him. I was thrilled to see him do that though, rather than drop the ball. Football Outsiders made the same point roughly:

If I am Mike Tomlin, I scan the waiver wire for any Michael Lewis or Eddie Drummond or Terrance Wilkins and I overpay for any punt returner who can cleanly field a punt. Maybe I even trade a fourth round pick for a guy, James Thrash or somebody, who can return punts but isn't doing it right now. I don't risk my season on all of these guys who just can't seem to cleanly field a punt.

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/2007/08/27/ramblings/audibles/5396/