Steelers @ Broncos

-- Steelers 17 @ Broncos 34: Who needs offense, defense or special teams when you have penalties? The Steelers committed 11 for a grand total of 93 yards, which is a better showing than any running back on either team put up. The Broncos tried, but could only muster 8 penalties for a mere 67 yards. The fact that most of these penalties were for 'Unnecessary Roughness' and 'Roughing the passer' (technically one and the same, to a degree) is not surprising in a league where any contact is gradually being frowned upon more and more. Roethlisberger and Orton both did ok in their brief outings, but in keeping with the earlier established theme I want to focus on the back up spots. Naturally I have to start by laughing at Brady Quinn, who came into replace Orton after he took a knock and promptly got himself sacked. Quinn finished with a stunning 1/2 for a whole 2 yards. Tebow then was poised to become the man of the hour. But it started a little rocky. Taking the ball from under center he looked uncomfortable, but that's natural given his history. At least he kept his poise and still got his passes off. Then, looking to his right he wound up and launched a bolt... to Steelers rookie Crezdon Butler. At least he chased him back down the field and 'forced' him out of bounds 5 yards shy of the goal line. Not to be deterred, he came back and led a 5 play, 74 yard drive, capping it with TD pass to Eric Decker. And to be honest, I can't see why scouts were moaning so much before the draft. Yes the wind up is begging to be stripped, but other than that he looks like a steal for the 25th overall pick. His feet were quick, he anticipated his receivers breaks well (ahem, for the most part) and his ball placement on the throws was very good. Given that he's a rookie and will get to sit behind Orton for the season, developing himself (and his center/QB exchange) the future looks bright for Mr. Tebow. Perhaps less so for Pittsburgh fans (all together now; hahahahaha. Good). Dennis Dixon went 9/16 for 94 yards and two interceptions (and two sacks). The first INT was right down the sideline into the end zone... and into the waiting arms of rookie corner Perrish Cox (see the rookie watch list from the other day). The second went to old hand Andre Goodman who took it back 77 yards for the score (note to corners; I think it was Dre Bly who last year demonstrated the dangers of doing your stupid little dance before you get into the end zone. Dixon nearly had him). Byron Leftwich was poised then to have the day to himself. Of course he probably would have done, had he not thrown 4 passes and connected on precisely zero percent of them. It was left to Charlie Batch to come on and restore some sort of dignity by going 3/4 for 44 yards and a TD. He however, decided that things were going a little too well and thus decided instead to play his part in "The Great, let's make Chris look like he knows what he's talking about conspiracy" by throwing a pass way short to his right which was promptly picked off and returned 48 yards for a TD by rookie Syd'Quan Thompson (see again, rookie watch list). Thompson added the 'coup de grace' by returning a punt on the next Steelers possession for 62 yards. On the ground we finally got a good look at rookie Steelers RB Jonathan Dwyer, who showed quick feet and good vision to finish the game with 89 yards and a TD from 13 carries. Dennis Dixon was the next best Steelers rusher, scrambling three times for 33 yards. The Broncos also looked pretty good on the ground. LenDale White went for 34 yards and a TD off 12 carries, while 2nd year back Lance Ball led the Broncos with 75 yards from 10 carries (biggest run was 43 yards). So there we have it. Pre-season week 3 done. One more week to go and it's time for those rookies and fringe guys to bust out some big efforts. And of course I'll be previewing all the action and eventually recapping it, right here. Till then, Have a great day everyone.

Steelers @ Broncos

-- We begin today with some news and as teams start making roster cuts (they have to narrow their roster to 75 by the end of the month), the Bengals have finally ended the speculation and let go of WR Antonio Bryant. Bryant has struggled all through camp trying to recover from a knee injury and having already been paid something in the region of $7 million, the Bengals appear to be cutting their losses and running. The Bengals will now fall back on Terrell Owens and their excellent crop of rookie and reserve receivers to supplement Chad Ochocinco. Bryant will hit the market as an unrestricted free agent and interest could be quite high as teams look back on the pre-season and reflect on the state of their receiving corps. Now, game time. -- Steelers @ Broncos: The Battle of the Back Ups comes to Mile High stadium. Big Ben Roethlisberger will start for the Steelers. Kyle Orton will start for the Broncos. Of this much we can be pretty certain. Everything else is a little up in the air. The expectation is that Dennis Dixon will get a shot with the offensive starters after Roethlisberger has been pulled and that Brady Quinn will likely fill in for Kyle Orton, as Tebow still nurses his sore ribs. But there is still a game within the game to be played. Or rather two games within the game. Dixon vs. Leftwich. Tebow vs. Orton. Now as well as sounding like a WWE show, it should prove to be a promising football clash. Dixon has already piled the pressure on Leftwich with some good showings, in particular the use of his mobility and how this effects the defenses mentality. The question still remains though as to how Dixon will cope under pressure. When facing Baltimore in the regular season last year I thought Dixon did really well, but then Leftwich has been no slouch himself. Overall Leftwich is a slightly better pocket passer, which may not be a good thing in the Steelers offense, that seems tuned to to the skills of Big Ben (e.g. everyone fan out and wait for Ben to evade some pressure and make the play). As for Tebow/Orton, we may not even get a look at the player who has caused a huge amount of squabbles, arguments and controversy without even taking a regular season snap (no, I mean Tebow). Although the Broncos are playing it coy over his injury, you just get the feeling that both Head Coach and player want to see him out there at some point. Brady Quinn will hope not, but hoping is never a good substitute for going out there and winning the job yourself. The trouble with Quinn has always been the lack of any real big plays. He can do a lot of the dink and dunk stuff, but he rarely seems to be able to find those down field bombs that make the "Madden" crew at EA Sports salivate so much. On defense, the Steelers are the Steelers. Nothing less than hard hitting, run stuffing, pass deflecting brilliance will suffice, at least not in the eyes of Steeler fans. I'll accept the slightly less demanding goal of just not being terrible in the back end when Troy Polamalu isn't on the field. The Broncos D do need to step up though. With Dumervil out for the long haul there is talk of him going on injured reserve, which means the rest of that defense will have to discover their inner pass rusher pronto. So, it's all set. One more game and then pre-season week 3 is done. I'll be back later to recap and share my thoughts on the game. Then that leaves just one more week of "exhibition" games to go, in which the fringe players will be going all out to live the dream and win those last coveted roster spots on an NFL team. Then we'll finally be there, within touching distance of week one of the 2010 regular season. Have a great day everyone.

Derek Anderson. It's not his fault!!!

Thursday night football is done, which means it's time to look at my pick: Bears 6 @ 49'ers 10 : Ugly game of football. As predicted, the 49'ers pulled it off and, as predicted, Gore went over 100 yds (though the 150 possibility now looks extremely optimistic). Jay Cutler threw 5 picks, which pretty much was all that divided the two teams. In fact without those you'd be forgiven for thinking that the Bears would have dominated this game. The 49'ers produced just 216 yards of net total offense. That's poor. 53 offensive plays produced an average of just 4.1 yards per play. The strength is definitely in the defence, but that offense is pretty bad. What's more, the 16 completions (of 23 pass plays) produced just 118 yds. I still don't get it. You've got Frank Gore. Singletary said he likes to run the ball. So run it! The Bears meanwhile hate running. They elected for 52 passes out of 73 offensive snaps. It produced 307 yards..... and 5 turnovers. Two unexciting teams had an unexciting duel and one just barely managed to scrape it's head over the parapet. 'Grats to my 49'ers. May we hope to one day score a few more points. And having dished out some late extra credit to Jay Ratliff for his performance against the Eagles, I'm gonna give some to Greg Cosell, film analyst for NFL.com's "Anatomy of a play". Some of you may remember I bashed Greg and his crew a few weeks ago for heaping praise on Tony Romo, Miles Austin & the Cowboys coaches after what was essentially just a mistake by the Falcons D. Well, they had another Romo to Austin "anatomy" this week (the late TD from Sunday night), and surprisingly they pretty much hit the nail on the head. The Eagles D just executed their assignments poorly and were punished. But I'm still gonna nit pick. They mentioned Romos excellent pump fake and how it fooled the defenders etc. The dude just twisted his shoulders a little...... Cleveland Browns!!!! Bet you're excited now aren't you? Well, as promised, I'm going to try and convince you that Derek Anderson is not a bad QB. Because he's not. Ok, stop laughing. Yes, very funny. But I'm serious. Derek Anderson is not that bad and replacing him with Brady Quinn will not solve the Browns offensive woes. It's simple. Their receivers cannot catch. And I don't just mean the odd moment of butter fingered silliness, I mean a chronic lack of receiving ability. The Browns rank 31st for total team receptions, only superior to the miserably bad Oakland Raiders. When you look at their completion percentage, it's dead last. 48.1% Blurgh!!! (We (who's we?) interrupt this blog post to point out that the bottom 10 teams in completion percentage this season are, from worst to best (haha) : Browns, Raiders, Buccaneers, Jets, Lions, Titans, Rams, Chiefs, Bills, Panthers. They combine for a win-loss record of 19-61. The top 10 teams are from best to worst: Steelers, Colts, Saints, Vikings, Texans, Patriots, Cardinals, Ravens, Redskins, Broncos. That includes the only two undefeated teams in the league, and they combine for a joint record of 57-24, with 14 of those losses (over half) divided among just three teams. Not a bad stat for looking for winners. Though like all stats, not perfect either.) The reality is that if your wideouts can't catch the ball, your QB will look like an idiot and your team will suffer. Now contrast this if you will to 2007. In addition to Anderson, four names repeatedly crop up: Jamal Lewis, Braylon Edwards, Joe Jurevicius and Kellen Winslow II. Jurevicius caught 50 balls for 614 yards and 3 TD's. Edwards caught 80 balls for 1,289 yards and 16 TD's. Winslow caught 82 balls for 1,106 yards and 5 TD's. Lewis had 298 carries for 1,304 yards and 9 TD's and contributed another 3 TD's as a receiver. Edwards is now with the Jets. Jurevicius is lingering in free agency. Winslow was shipped out to Tampa. Lewis is retiring at the end of the year. All of Clevelands decent pass assets are gone and Lewis can't carry this team at his age. The Browns leading receiver this year is Mohamed Massaquoi. The rookie has caught 19 balls in 8 games. Derek Anderson is not the problem. Brady Quinn is not the problem. It is now apparent that the Browns simply lack the skills at the receiver position to catch balls. Brett Favre or Peyton Manning could walk onto this team right now and fail just as miserably. Good luck for the rest of the season Browns...... And as always, if you like the blog, spread the word. Ta.

Bears @ 49'ers

It's week 10 now of the NFL season, which signals the return of Thursday night football. And hosting the first of those Thursday night games? My very own 49'ers!!! And with the team sliding badly and in need of a win, I couldn't be more than happy that our visitors this week are the Chicago Bears. Here's my Thursday night game pick: Bears @ 49'ers: Last week the Bears gave up over 180 yds total rushing to the Arizona Cardinals. That on it's own should tell you every thing you need to know about this match up. The 49'ers run attack will be spearheaded as usual by Frank Gore. Expect Gore to get over 100 yds rushing, I think he might even go for 150. It all depends on the play calling. Which is what worries me the most. Now I like Alex Smith (I wanted him to start at the beginning of the season) and I like the way he's finding Vernon Davis (I'm a fan of TE's in general). I like the new receiver Crabtree and I like the way Gore is getting used in the pass game. But Mike Singletary wanted a strong rushing attack to complement his Defense. Frank Gore gives you that. But for some reason, the 9'ers just aren't using it. They routinely lean on the arm of the QB to win games, and as a result, I think they routinely sell themselves short. The trouble seems to be that after going three and out once with maybe just a few yards rushing, they then abandon the run. You've got to stick with it and actually give it a chance to work. Unless you're the current Chicago Bears, in which case your offensive line is more likely to get jointly elected to Congress than it is to hold it's blocks long enough for Matt Forte to get any production. Cutler is good, but he can't do it all alone. The Bears throw too much and the result is usually a host of picks. I can't look beyond the 49'ers for this one. 49'ers win. In other news, Brady Quinn has been announced as the starting QB for the Cleveland Browns (again) this week. The Browns will be appearing on Monday Night Football as they entertain the visiting Baltimore Ravens (Complete the title: Texas Chainsaw ________ ). And so in recognition of this prestigious event, tomorrow night I'm gonna attempt do the impossible. I'm gonna convince you that Browns QB Derek Anderson isn't all that bad. Wish me luck.