The Good:
- Yet another win and yet another come-from-behind victory for the Steelers. Once again, it was one of those situations where someone had to step up and make a play and one of those situations where Ben Roethlisberger had to put a crappy few quarters behind him and win the game.
- He was able to do that -- by the way, he now holds the record for most games won by a quarterback in his first five seasons, which is a list that includes Dan Marino and Tom Brady -- because the defense kept us in the game yet again.
- What a performance by the defense. Five turnovers, they scored a touchdown, and they kept the offense on the Cowboys side of the field for most of the game. They won the game and the fact that they were the far superior defense was the reason we pulled it out. Someone real smart must've predicted that.
- Nate Washington really came through in crunch time, with three catches on that last drive. Heath Miller came through in the red zone with the touchdown that tied the game.
- Terrell Owens only had three catches for 32 yards and Roy E. Williams had two catches for 16 yards. So, I guess some dumb ass was worried for nothing. And Romo averaged only 5.4 yards per attempt.
- Roethlisberger averaged only 5.1 yards per attempt. The big difference between him and Romo was that Romo lost a fumbled and threw three interceptions, whereas Ben didn't turn the ball over. And that's why he won. Still a bad game by Roethlisberger, though. For about 3 1/2 quarters.
- Where was Hines Ward? One catch for two yards, that's where Hines was. I understand that he's having a bigger year than Santonio Holmes and that defenses should focus on taking him away, but I didn't think they needed to focus on him that much. And, even when defenses have focused on him in the past, he's still gotten something decent. At least more than one friggin' catch for two lousy yards.
- According to the stat line, the offensive line played a bad game. I think that it was a combination of them sucking and Dallas coming into the game prepared and playing well, but you don't let up five sacks if you've played a good game.
- Speaking of bad, how about 26 carries for 70 yards and a 2.7 yards per carry average? How about the fact that the Cowboys and rookie Tashard Choice ran for 95 yards on 26 carries (3.7 yards per carry) against our vaunted run defense. We usually don't win when we get outrushed. Or outgained.
- Yep, we got outgained 289-238.
- We forced five turnovers and held them under 300 yards. We started one drive on their 25 and another on their 22. And we still needed a defensive touchdown to score 20 points.
- Bitch Merger averaged 32.8 yards per punt. Sure, it was windy, but their guy -- and I'll have you know that their starting punter, Matt McBriar was placed on IR earlier this season, so they have us many excuses as we do -- averaged 40 yards per punt.
- We also punted six times with five three-and-outs.
- A team that has Heath Miller, Matt Spaeth, Hines Ward, and a quarterback who's almost six and a half feet tall, throws a pass short of the goal line on third and goal from the one. And, for those of you that care, throwing a flare pass like that where the receiver actually isn't in the end zone is a mistake. Either they called the wrong play or Carey Davis cut his route short. In that situation, when you're that close, you never, ever, ever, ever leave it up to chance that you'll make it in the end zone. You should already be in the end zone, so that when you catch it, it's instantly a touchdown and you don't have to do any work to make it a touchdown. I watched the replay a couple of times and realized that Davis may have cut the route short because the linebacker on the play successfully read it and probably would've intercepted the pass had Davis been in the end zone. However, one would hope that Ben would've tucked the ball and taken the sack. At that point, it would've been fourth and goal from the five and we would've done the smart thing and kicked the field goal.
- Even though he went for it on fourth and one when he shouldn't have and even though everyone in the stadium knew that they were going to run Gary Russell to the left to try to get that yard, I still like Tomlin a lot. I think it was the wrong call and, since they threw the ball on third down, no one would fall for play action... but, still. I still like him. I have a feeling that he's always going to challenge the players to go out and win the game instead of trying not to lose it. That instills the players with confidence -- sure, it can be a crushing blow when they fail -- but it makes them think that coach trusts them and that coach has the confidence in them to get into that same situation while the game is still on the line to try again if that attempt fails. Like I said, I would've kicked it, but I like Tomlin's moxie and I'm looking forward to the next ten years of second-guessing him.
- We're no longer a power running team. We don't have the mentality and we aren't physical enough. We're also not talented enough, nor bold enough, to be a passing team. So... we're kinda screwed on offense.
- I'm going to (hopefully) defend this statement at a later date -- when I have more time and more data -- but I seriously believe this is the best Steelers defense I have seen in person. I'm not challenging the Steel Curtain teams of the '70s, I'm talking about the 90s teams and even a couple of the teams from this decade. This is the best Steelers defense I have seen with my own two eyes, being fully aware of what a good defense looks like.
- This defense may actually be good enough to take us all the way. The Ravens did it in 2000 with Trent Dilfer. The Bucs did it in 2002 with Brad Johnson. In those years, there wasn't a dominant team that everyone was gunning for. Just a whole lot of really good teams. The Steelers are in the mix with all the really good teams in the league in 2008 and have beaten a few of them.
- I would also take Ben Roethlisberger over Brad Johnson or Trent Dilfer.
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