Big Lead Sports Bar

8/15/2010

16 Belated Points on Steelers-Lions

If you missed the Steelers-Lions game on Saturday night, avoided all television, radio, newspaper, and internet, and talked to nobody about the game since then, here's what you missed:


1. It rained a lot, causing a 73-minute delay in the second quarter. The result of this was Edmund Nelson and Bob Pompeani reaching career-highs in face-time. Everybody's a winner!

2. Big Ben did not play, probably a good idea considering the state of the offensive line as an unfinished product.

3. Byron Leftwich was hung out to dry by said line and did not look his best. Nonetheless, I'm still fully behind his cause to be the starter in Week One. It's a passer's league, and he's way, waaaay more polished than Dennis Dixon in that department.

4. Rashard Mendenhall still doesn't know how to hold onto the football, fumbling in the first half. It was a bad night for the running back, who had two yards on five carries.

5. Rookie WR Antonio Brown is very, very fast, showing off his wheels on a 68-yard run-and-catch touchdown from Dennis Dixon.

6. Dixon was scrambling in his new #10 Steelers jersey, trying to make plays with his legs and not his arm, and eerily looking like another player who wore that same number a decade ago. While Dixon moved the ball better than Leftwich, it was against the backups of a bad Lions team. Forgive me if I don't get too excited.

7. WR Arnaz Battle made a spectacular play on a 51-yard pass play but might have an uphill climb making the team. Suddenly, he's at a very crowded position that looks like it might have five locks (Hines Ward, Mike Wallace, Antwaan Randle-El, Emmanuel Sanders, Antonio Brown). That's also bad news for return man Stefan Logan.

8. OT Flozell Adams is still a work in progress and should not be given up on yet.

9. Pompeani compared Steelers free agent WR Tyler Grisham favorably to Wes  "346 catches the last 3 seasons" Welker, which is laughable on about a billion different levels.

10. Isaac Redman looked very good and made some moves that looked like they came right off the video game screen, looking like he may be ready to make the jump to the 53-man roster this season.

11. Gerry Dulac nicely recapped this embarrassing moment for the league near the end of the first half:

After Dennis Dixon's 5-yard touchdown run was overturned by an officials review because there were less than two minutes remaining, the Steelers scored on the next play on a 1-yard run by Isaac Redman.

After Jeff Reed kicked the extra point, the unidentified official was irked that the replay official in the booth stopped the game in a driving rainstorm. If he does that again, the official said, "I'll kick his [expletive] [expletive]."

Then he added, "He's trying to get to the Super Bowl already."

The profanity-laced comment could be heard by the fans in attendance at Heinz Field.

12.  Teen flavor of the week Taylor Lautner watched the game from the sideline, as did actor Ving Rhames.

13. Maybe it's just me, but it looks like Mike Tomlin has found himself a little gut in the offseason. Nope, it's not just me.

14. Lions LB Jordan Dizon suffered a serious knee injury and might be out for the season. Ahh, the risks of preseason football.

15. Dick LeBeau got a very nice and well-deserved reception from the Pittsburgh crowd prior to the game. The Steeler defense was introduced, prolonging that eventual Roethlisberger introduction that everyone's so looking forward to.

16. Next week, the Black and Gold take to the road, with a Saturday night game at the New York Giants. The Giants continue their recent catfight with the New York Jets on Monday night.
Mondesi's House: The Director's Cut (more links, commentary, etc: twitter.com/mondesishouse

Email:mondesishouse@gmail.com

7 comments:

peytonloveskenny said...

Can't imagine why he would compare Grisham to Welker. They must have something in common...

BurressWithButterflywings said...

I also balked at Pomp's comparison of Grisham to Welker, but I am 100% certain I know why he said it. The same reason you'd hear people compare Ed McCafrey to Steve Largent.......

On a side note, both Pompeani and Nelson were in preseason form beacuse they were absolutely TERRIBLE.

78Deville said...

Can we please get the media in this town to take Dixon's performance and put it in perspective? Detroit is 9-39 over the last three seasons. So Dixon lighting up guys who can't start for Detroit should be taken with a grain of salt (or seven). But of course we're finding ourselves with an old fashion quarterback controversy. Do we have so little to talk about that we have to manufacture a QB controversy that's only going to last 4 games?

Chip said...

Did you watch the game Deville? Yes, Dixon didn't play against elite competition. But what did Leftwich show you exactly that inspires confidence?

Unless he has a perfect pocket, he rushes the throw or turtles up because he can't move. And our line doesn't look like it's going to provide too many perfect pockets.

BurressWithButterflywings said...

Yeah, Leftwich's lack of mobility is going to kill us.

I know Dixon is not as polished, but we are going to need someone who can run for their life instead of being a tomato can back there.

Our offensive line looked horrible and certainly were not helped by the predictable play calls. BUT it is only game 1 of preseason ball and far too early to say whether that is going to be the MO for the rest of the season.

I am just edgy because my biggest beef with BA has been his predictability.

rovinrosie said...

Just hope that Big Snack had a few words with Coach about his off-season conditioning program.

78Deville said...

Here's my point - BA is about as predictable as they get. If they have to limit the playbook even more for Dixon, how is that going to be any better?

Besides, if the runningbacks can't hold on to the ball, it really doesn't matter who lines up under center.