Pittsburgh - The Inside Scoop, Part II

[duus]

Nightly Sports Call tv show:

Various quotes from local sports writers John Steigerwald, Paul Alexander, Ron Cook

"If they lose Sunday they are not going to make the playoffs. I'm not going to jump off a bridge, but they sure don't look like a Super Bowl contender."

"They are too predictable. Without Plax, they don't stretch the field anymore."

"It's time to get a hat on a hat to save this once promising season."

"Ben makes his biggest plays out of the pocket. 90% of the great plays he makes come off the broken plays. I think they are on to him."

"He just doesn't make good throws from the pocket. He does not like it in the pocket."

"I don't think they do enough to have him roll out of the pocket. I don't care if I ever see him throw another pass from the pocket."

(Honestly, I think the league may finally be discovering what the Jets and Pats proved in the playoffs last year ... stack the line against the run, keep Ben in the pocket, forcing them to either run against a stacked 8 in the box, or Ben thows from a collapsing pocket. The key here is to control the middle AND the ends. Don't allow Ben to scramble and throw on the run. That is probably the biggest thing that the Colts did last night. He did nothing, and threw 2 picks as well. Why all teams don't do this I will never know.)

[duus]

Fedko TV Show

(btw ... this is the same guy who predicted that the Steelers would "run the table" after the Jags loss. Might be interesting to see if he says it again after this loss. Hey, the closer the season gets to being over, the more likely he is to be correct!)

"I thought LeBeau's defensive strategy was superb."

Caller --> "Bettis is heavier than guys on the defensive line."

Caller --> "It seems like Cowher just cannot make adjustments during the game."

"There is cause for concern with the runningback by committee rotation."

** Still little to no talk about the Bengal game. Understandably, the talk is all about the bad offense and the offensive line play ... mixed with a little discussion about the Penguins. Hoping for more focused Bengal talk by Thursday or so.

[Stripes]

* Still little to no talk about the Bengal game. Understandably, the talk is all about the bad offense and the offensive line play ... mixed with a little discussion about the Penguins. Hoping for more focused Bengal talk by Thursday or so.

They'd rather talk about their below .500 hockey team than the most important game of the season for their Steelers? I hope the Steeler players listen to your radio station!

[Spain]

I hope the players and the coaches are doing the same thing. that town in general just has no respect for the Bengals. On their boards they told me Palmer was going to make his typical rookie mistakes against their D, Boy do they have a suprise coming!

[duus]

It's Wednesday, and now only less than 99 hours before kickoff!!!

Morning sports talk radio show:

Guy Junker and Eddie Crow

Opened by making fun of whether or not Marvin will "lock up" the players again this week. They joked about him having them "in cages", and commented that "that really worked great last time."

audio clip from Rottenburger, "I told you before, I am not concerned yet."

After almost an hour, nearly 100% Penguins talk. The talk I do hear about the Sunday game is minmal and goes something like (paraphrasing) 'this is do or die for the Steelers, but it's the Bengals.' With that thought, on to the Penguins talk they go.

(I still wish someone out there could find the video clip of Porter dis'ing the Bengals during warmups before the last game. It was part of the national broadcast feed, so it must be out there somewhere. Locally, they have been pretty hard on Porter for his mouth-iness, etc., and to get that video out there would really stir things up a bit)

[duus]

more Penguins talk, more calls/email concerning Penguins, blah, blah, blah ...

Finally ... 90 minutes into the show ...

Guy Junker / Eddie Crow interview with Bengals beat writer for the Enquirer, Mark Curnutte:

GJ/EC - "Do you expect Chad will work up some type of Nativity scene celebration?"

MC - "As a beat-writer, it's kind of a pain in a butt to cover that stuff. He's a good player and he's worked extremely hard, unlike some of the other guys like Terrell Owens. He does work hard and that's why he and Marvin Lewis have a good relationship."

GJ/EC - "Has the media been barred yet?"

MC - "I think Marvin realizes that he may have a had a miscalculation last time. That pretty much backfired. He's now trying to set the tone that this is just another week. He's trying to go the other way this week."

GJ/EC - "I think the Steelers best performance of the year was their trip to Cincinnati. Do the Bengals deep down inside think they are as good as 8-3?"

MC - "They do need a significant win. Even though they believe it, there is enough of us that keep reminding them that the teams they've beaten are a combined 20 games under .500 or something like that. The dividing line between the Steelers and Bengals is still the defense. The Bengals can't let them get healthy in the run game again."

GJ/EC - "Are the Bengals fairly healthy?"

MC - "The run defense is the biggest problem. Robinson has been in a protective boot. More than likely he will be out. They are real healthy offensively. I think they will want to get into a track meet."

[duus]

Cowher gave all his players the morning off (Wednesday). Hmmm.

Marvel Smith has been ruled out for the game. Trai 'Jumpy' Essex will be taking his place on Sunday. Something tells me Benji won't be rolling to his left much on Sunday. If it's me, I'm putting an extra guy on the right side, thus keeping Ben in the pocket. Stack the line, and watch him throw picks. I see 4 sacks and 2 picks ... minimal.

They are considering other changes in the o-line as well.

Batch and Bettis did not practice today. Rottenburger was limited in practice (ankle and thumb ... yeah, thumb ... apparently he hurt his thumb somehow).

[duus]

Nightly Sports Call TV show with John Steigerwald, Bob Smizik, and Paul Alexander

JS - "The Steelers have an edge on them, psychologically if nothing else."

JS - "What are the chances that the Bengals are a better team than they were 5 weeks ago?"

BS - "I think there's a good chance of that."

PA - "The season of high expectations could end prematurely."

[NYBengalfan]

Sounds like they should check their undies !!!!!!!!!!!!

They might find a "Cleveland Brownie"

Who-Dey

[duus]

The whisper in town tonight is the 'mystery' behind Ben's thumb injury. Surprisingly, he is listed as 'probable' on the injury report not due to the knee or ankle, but due to the thumb on his right (throwing) hand. He apparently refused comment on it today, but did say he will talk to the media about it tomorrow. I did see several video clips of him performing in the afternoon practice, and he appeared to move and throw fine.

Oh yeah, I saw another clip where they asked Hines about the lack of production by the offense. With an uncharacteristically non-grinning mug, he almost humbly pointed directly to the lack of running game. Boy, how I long to see a repeat image of those tears rolling down his cheek.

[duus]

Local nightly 11 pm news ended with airing the Chad video clip of him wearing the ripped terrible towel as a 'bib' (or 'crumb-getter'? ... too funny). They take those towels so seriously around here. You should have seen the faces of the newscasters when they ended the clip and went back to them. There was this sort of uneasy pause. Then they quietly commented on how the towel was torn. You would have thought someone had torn the pages out of their Holy Scripture or something. And then the show ended on this sort of 'somber note'. I feel like I should cry or something.

[cincyhokie]

This is some good stuff. This may be the only thread 2 pages long that I have read every sentence from every post. Thanks, man. Keep it up.

We CAN beat the Steelers and there are a few reasons in my mind that we will....

We learned last time that we can move the ball on them when not making mistakes

We learned last time that we must CONTROL the ends of the line of scrimmage, no overpursuing

The Colts may have given us a good defensive game plan against the running game

Our offense is playing it's most confident ball of the season

We're using the no-huddle this week, we didn't last time in October, and I think that it will make a difference

[duus]

Fedko TV Show

(quotes from host John Fedko)

"Chad Johnson guaranteed the Steelers would not stop him. Ike Taylor shut him down last time."

Caller --> "I won't be surprised if we lose to Cincinnati. They are another complete team like the Colts." (could this town actually have someone who understands football?)

"I think Cincinnati is not a complete team. I think they are a very good football team. They have a quarterback who is statistically better than Ben Roethlisberger, and MAY be better than Ben. But the Steelers will pound the ball against them. They dominated them in the first game. I wouldn't bet against the Steelers in this game."

"I think even if the Steelers lose this game, they will win out after that." (he continues to kill me EVERY NIGHT with this 'win-out' stuff!)

"I think they (Steelers) will win this Sunday, and a win this Sunday gives them the division."

"The Bengals are going to lose this Sunday. That gives them 4 losses. They then play the Browns and the Lions. Those are gimmees. They then play the Bills. I'll give that to them only because it's a home game. They might just win that last game in KC. That makes them 12-4."

Caller --> "That Indianapolis game might have been a blessing in disguise. Indy didn't get to feel Ben Roethlisberger at full speed. And I think it is a wake-up call for the rest of the year."

"It was a brilliant gameplan by Dick LeBeau. They were confusing Peyton Manning. I do think it will help the Steelers if they play them again. I think it will be a much closer game. Something like a 3 point win. If anybody in the National Football League can beat the Colts it's the Steelers."

"The Steelers GOT TO WIN this Sunday."

[HoosierCat]

Local nightly 11 pm news ended with airing the Chad video clip of him wearing the ripped terrible towel as a 'bib' (or 'crumb-getter'? ... too funny). They take those towels so seriously around here. You should have seen the faces of the newscasters when they ended the clip and went back to them. There was this sort of uneasy pause. Then they quietly commented on how the towel was torn. You would have thought someone had torn the pages out of their Holy Scripture or something. And then the show ended on this sort of 'somber note'. I feel like I should cry or something.

They're scared. Time to pounce.

[walshfan]

great reading here....

Yeah I think its time to feed the Cats some Steeler meat..

I agree about 8 in the box and covering the ends.. good plan.

[Stripes]

Good work once again Duus, this is all good stuff. Now that they've all started to actually look at this Sunday's game on paper, they realize they might have reason to worry. As every day passes, I get more confident about how this game will unfold.

[Columbusbengal]

<We learned last time that we can move the ball on them when not making mistakes>

Even when we made mistakes, we still ran the ball. Most of us were surprised that we seemed to go away from it.

<We learned last time that we must CONTROL the ends of the line of scrimmage, no overpursuing>

Here is a perfect case where having a team overly hyped up can be a problem.

<The Colts may have given us a good defensive game plan against the running game>

We can use the same one we used against the Colts. The difference is that (hopefully) Big Ben won't adjust the way Peyton did and throw three or four TD passes in the first half.

<Our offense is playing it's most confident ball of the season>

I am not sure they will remain confident facing the nemesis Steelers though.

<We're using the no-huddle this week, we didn't last time in October, and I think that it will make a difference>

Wasn't TJ out for that October game, too? I can't remember for sure.

[skyline]

Wasn't TJ out for that October game, too? I can't remember for sure.

No, it was his first game back, I believe.

[Spain]

Ive read in several places that Odell nade alot of rookie mistakes in that game. The coaches seem to think he was the reason that we got ran all over.

[NYBengalfan]

Ive read in several places that Odell nade alot of rookie mistakes in that game. The coaches seem to think he was the reason that we got ran all over.

He was out of position on Willie Parker's TD run.

[duus]

On the local ESPN Radio station, two things were repeated often during my morning drive:

1) "With the Steelers coming off a 2 game losing streak, the Bengals coming to town is just what the doctor ordered."

2) In keeping with long-standing Steeler tradition of having never truly lost a game, they are complaining that they believe the Colts piped in extra crowd noise to cause them to have false starts, etc. Even players (i.e. Fanaca) have agreed that they believe this is the case.

Again, I think I need to go cry somewhere.

[NYBengalfan]

On the local ESPN Radio station, two things were repeated often during my morning drive:

1) "With the Steelers coming off a 2 game losing streak, the Bengals coming to town is just what the doctor ordered."

2) In keeping with long-standing Steeler tradition of having never truly lost a game, they are complaining that they believe the Colts piped in extra crowd noise to cause them to have false starts, etc. Even players (i.e. Fanaca) have agreed that they believe this is the case.

Again, I think I need to go cry somewhere.

How about that Steeler pride!!!!!!!! ..right duus.

I know you want to get out of Pittsburgh, but this is the type of s**t that we need. What would we do without you.

I cant listen to dilusional steeler bitches. Hell I cant even watch FSN Pittsburgh's Tunch Illkin and Craig Wolfey.........They are a**h***s

[duus]

It's Thursday, and now only less than 75 hours before kickoff!!!

Morning sports talk radio show:

Guy Junker and Eddie Crow

Opens with audio of Chad ... which has been repeated early and often this morning. After briefly making fun of "not being able to understand him", they seemed to be o.k. with his entertainment, calling it 'good natured'. BUT ... they said that once you bring in props from the other team it may be "crossing the line". They suggested that if he uses the Terrible Towel in his celebration, it will probably cross the line.

Email --> "Ike vs. Chad is the matchup of the day. If Chad gets his revenge this could be the end of the Steelers this year."

[NYBengalfan]

They are so *** damn obsessed with that *** damn towel. They wave it in our faces so much Chad should use it.

To them it is crossing the line, to us it would be worth years of payback. You think that the Terrible towel is a bible the way they reguard it.

[duus]

Not only will Steelers rookie Trai Essex start for injured left tackle Marvel Smith against Cincinnati on Sunday, but fellow rookie Chris Kemoeatu could see playing time at right guard, Essex said Wednesday.

"Chris got a few reps today with the one's (the first team)," Essex said after practice. "He could dress; he's ready. And he's something special. When he finally gets to play, Chris is going to shock the world."

Could 2 rookies actually start on the line this Sunday for the Steelers? Nice.

I just heard a replay of an Ed Bouchette conversation with Chad Johnson. It went way too quickly for me to get it typed down, but it was quite good. I hope to hear it again. It was just more of the local sports guys complaining to Chad about him using the Terrible Towel. The funniest exchange was EB saying to Chad,

"That takes alot of balls to do something like that here."

Chad replied with something like 'yeah'. Too funny.

I hope to get the complete text later. Good stuff. Makes me want to go get a towel myself, rip it in half, and use it as a bib at the local restaurants. Hmmm ... the more I think of that, the more I like it! I think I'll do this, and get a picture and post it. Man, this is getting fun!