Sunday, January 05, 2003

AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! Take that as frustration or release, it fits.

If there's anything about this game worth remembering, it's this, the Steelers got extremely lucky. Joe and I spent most of the first 3 quarters arguing whether this game more resembled the Tennessee game, or the Houston game. Turns out it was neither, it was merely the other halves of the two games that made up the tie the Steelers had against Atlanta. Both games completely changed with about 10-12 minutes to go in the 4th, one for the better, one for the worse. Given we spent most of quarters 2 and 3, trying to plot a draft strategy, it was rather pleasant to suddenly see them put it all together for a while. It was frustrating, because the first quarter looked like typical "How do the Steelers lose? Answer: turnovers, and getting burned deep." Second and third, more of the same. Then, I don't know, it wasn't as if the Browns were complacent, or we suddenly began executing much better, it was just the Steelers slowly putting all the pieces together. I don't know if I'll ever be completely used to the idea of the Steelers basically running a passing offense with a 3-wideout base, but it seems to be working. We like the Hines, we like the Plex, we like the Randle El. But the one I'm amazed at was the Tuman. He is our pass catching TE, but I think he got more catches today than all season.

As for next week, we'll see. If Kendrell Bell's out again, oh boy. But the Titans can't really go 4-wide as well as Cleveland, and we thank them for it. We were down 2 DB's to start this game, and it looks like we'll be down a third. I suddenly wonder if the defense pattern from the final play will hold into next week, as our fifth DB back there was Plex. I don't know if they can do that all day.

About 4 minutes to go, I realized it was one of those games where, while it would hurt the Steelers to lose the game, it was rapidly becoming one of those games that if Cleveland won, they'd be emotionally scarred for years. We can but hope.

The Labatt's bear ads are just cracking me up, mostly in the latest one where the bear converts the bookshelf kit into a beer vending machine. If I could figure a way to keep the beer from sudsing incredibly after its travels, I'd make one of those.

No comments: