Thursday Night Football

Bah!!! I've been denied so far in my nefarious scheme to upload images in an attempt to share a thought or two with you; the readers. Thus I've decided to do the Thursday Night Recap first and then I'll return to my scheming later. Carolina Panthers 3 @ Pittsburgh Steelers 27: Lucky then that this recap should pose few problems, which ironically enough is exactly what the Panthers did to the Steelers (chortle, chortle). It was bad. Very bad. When the Panthers defense wasn't getting carved into small slices by Ben Roethlisberger, it was left to Jimmy Clausen to carry the flag of mediocrity, at one point stepping up blindly into an obvious sack. James Farrior must have thought it was Christmas come a little early. Clausen ended the game 10/23 for 72 yards and an interception. That truly is woeful. Carolina fans must be hanging their heads in disgust at their teams complete ineptitude. Well, almost. One thing the Panthers do seem to have the swing of is generating the odd sack. They had three (albeit to the Steelers 4), with two alone going to defensive end Charles Johnson. But the Steelers not only topped the Panthers for sacks, they aced them on offense as well. Ben Roethlisberger finished 22/32 for 320 yards and a touchdown. He sneaked another home himself and Rashard Mendenhall blasted in another. I should also draw your attention to the excellent second year receiver Mike Wallace who finished the game with 4 catches for 104 yards and a touchdown. This also means I start the week 1-0 in picks, but that was never really in doubt. Now before I disappear back to a feverish session with MS Paint, two things I want to tell you. -- My Christmas present has arrived, courtesy of Amazon. The present in question is Parcells - A Biography by Bill Gutman. Earlier today I polished off the Prologue, Introduction and Chapter One, and so far the book strikes me as being very matter of fact, to the point, and well written. As an (ex)coach I really enjoyed reading about the early insight into the mind of Parcells and how his experiences at school in various sports had a big impact on shaping his coaching philosophy in the future. This is looking like a quality buy and I'm tentatively recommending it already. I'll give you an update at some future point on whether it's a definite buy or not. -- I'm sure two questions you routinely ask yourself are "Who was the Duke of Wellington?" and "What is the sense of humour like in the British Army?". This handy post from ARRSE (ARmy Rumour SErvice) should answer both questions.