It's a good thing that it took me a while to get around to this, because I successfully cooled off and we heard some news about the injuries to Pouncey and Roethlisberger. That's the big good news. Both guys say that they're in pain, but they'll fight through it. Roethlisberger is wearing a boot, but is expected to start. Pouncey says he'll be out there, but he said that about the Super Bowl. I'll believe it when I see it, but I really hope that he doesn't push himself to go out there too early. The Steelers will need him in January.
It was an ugly, stressful, frustrating game for me. However, the good news behind all that is that the Steelers won and neither Roethlisberger nor Pouncey was placed on injured reserve. A win is a win, Antonio Brown is awesome, and the defense can be trusted to put the game away provided that they're playing the Browns or Bengals. I guess we'll see what happens should the game against the 49ers come down to the wire.
Other than that, this game raised some issues that, I think, were bigger than the game itself:
- I'll say that Ben Roethlisberger is a warrior and that he turned in a gutty performance on Thursday night. His determination was the difference in that game. Having said that, Roethliberger is an idiot for going out on the field in the condition he was in and Mike Tomlin is, at best, wildly irresponsible for allowing Roethlisberger to go back in. I know the Steelers have better doctors than me, but I find it hard to believe that they can wheel Roethlisberger to the locker room, get an x-ray, analyze the x-ray, make a decision based on that x-ray, tape up the ankle, and get him back out there in 20 minutes. My guess is that he came in, got the x-ray, starting getting it taped up, heard that it wasn't broken, and declared that he was playing in the second half. At that point, Tomlin should have told him no and close the issue, but he didn't. That could be chalked up to an error in judgement and trusting his player, but I think there's a larger issue.
- The larger issue is that Charlie Batch should not be on the roster. In the last four minutes of the first half, you could tell that the Steelers were just trying to get off the field, not turn the ball over, and wait for halftime so they could re-group. That's fine. The fact that a hobbled Roethlisberger took the field in the second half says that the Steelers would trust pretty much anyone behind center over Batch. If you take away Roethlisberger's mobility, his ability to step into throws (and throw deep), and his ability to move around in the pocket, then you have to strip down the offense. At that point, you essentially have Charlie Batch: Roethlisberger without the arm, mobility, and ability to extend the play. If you have the option of an injured Roethlisberger being about as effective as a healthy Batch, why put risk further injury to Roethlisberger? Sure, you could argue that only Roethlisberger could have made that fourth quarter touchdown throw to Brown, but you could also argue that Ben just threw the ball 15 yards and Brown took it the other 64. If you don't trust Batch, what about Dennis Dixon? The league changed the rules this year so that the third quarterback doesn't need to be inactive on game days. Dixon was inactive on Thursday, but I don't think we'll see that again on Monday night, just in case Roethlisberger suffers a setback.
- I wouldn't be mad if James Harrison got suspended for his hit on Colt McCoy. I understand the arguments for being in the heat of the moment and everything happening between the whistles, but he has a history for helmet-to-helmet hits. He's been fined. The only way to teach him to approach certain situations differently is to force him to miss a game or two. From what I've been able to ascertain -- again, never met the guy, just going off of what I've read and heard -- he's a better teammate than he is a person. This is a guy that broke this eye socket, took a play off, then went back in the game because he didn't want to let his team down. I've defended Harrison in the past, but I can't defend him here. Once he realizes that his reckless style of play hurts his team, he'll tone it down. If he doesn't tone it down, he's going to hurt someone, namely himself.
- Pat Schurmur has some explaining to do. I can actually understand pushing Roethlisberger out there for the second half on some level. If he desperately wanted to take the field, he can walk with a cane when he's 60. If he had a concussion... you only get one brain. Troy and Hines had concussion-like symptoms earlier this season and they were immediately taken out of the game and not allowed back in. They had tests after the game, but they weren't allowed back in. Once they cleared those post-game tests, they were re-assessed during the week leading up to the next game. McCoy says he doesn't remember the fourth quarter of Thursday's game, which might help to explain his performance. At this point, Schurmur lost the game, may lose McCoy for the season, and probably has a letter on his desk from the league office. Add that to a 4-9 record and that's not exactly what Schurmur had hoped for when the season began.
Ultimately, they won and so did the hated Ravens and that's all that matters. They kept pace and they need to continue to do that. We'll see what happens with the balance of the season.
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