Typical Steelers win. A little stressful, a little sloppy, a little gutsy.
As has become standard now, us Steelers fans have to wake up to people bitching about the refs. Give me a break. If anyone got shafted by the refs this time, it was the good guys. The passing interference no-call on Ced Wilson? That would have handed the game to the Steelers early on. And I don't even want to hear about the Heath Miller play. No one to blame there but Nick Saban. I've never seen someone pump fake with the challenge flag. When you need to get ahold of a ref, you do it. You don't pussyfoot around.
It should look something like this:
Or when it's flag tossing time, you do it like this. Put a little back into it:
Anyways, back to the game. All in all, I was pleased. Willie showed that there's no question he can be a tough, every down kind of back. The only question is his durability. Can he run like that for a full 16 game season? Can he do it year after year after year? I sure as hell hope so, cause if he can, he's going to be one of the best backs in the NFL for years.
Speaking of undrafted stars, Nate Washington's going to be a beast. His TD catch was a beaut.
I loved the Joey Porter kiss. Ridiculous? Yes. Fuel for the phoney Fins fans fire? Sure. Are we going to have to hear about it from immature Bungles fans for the next decade? Most certaintly. STEELERS ARE GAY! JOEY PORTER'S GAY! BILL COWHER'S GAY! I can hear it already. Whatever, screw 'em all. Like Joey said, he loves the guy and he'll go to war for him. Good stuff...funny as hell. You can get a nice screenshot of it over at Deadspin.
Other stuff:
- The Bettis entrance was cool as hell. I'm pretty sure he got off the bus scratching his crotch though. Not sure about that, gonna have to go back and check the replay on that one.
- Hines, man. What else can you say. Hines is just Hines. When you need a first down, when you need a touchdown, every Steeler fan is thinking one thing. It's sort of like in Temple of Doom when Indy's trapped on the rope bridge and the camera zooms on him and he just says "oh shit." It's perfect, 'cause what else can you say there. Everyone at home is looking at Indy thinking the exact same thing, "oh shit." Same thing with Hines. When you need a big play every Steeler fan in the country is sitting on the edge of their chair thinking one thing: "Hines. Go to Hines."
- Polamolu and Porter are absolutely terrific. And their personalites couldn't be more opposite. Polamalu, the cerebral safety. Porter, the Goddamn monster truck. It's too great. I'm going to have to write more about that later.
- Duce Staley is the biggest, ugliest, most expensive cheerleader in professional sports.
- Ike Taylor is the most frustrating guy ever. He shuts dudes down, plain and simple. I love it. BUT HE CAN'T CATCH! AT ALL! It's ridiculous. Has to be mental now. If he learns how to catch, which I suspect he will, he'll be one of the 3 or 4 best corners in the league. My prediction: week 5 or 6 he intercepts two balls and never looks back.
Anyway, it was a good game, good win.
Bottom line, we're going to be good this year. Very good.
