Loose Slag from The Still Mill

Loose Slag from The Still Mill

 

Some loose slag to chew on from the Sup Bowl��

 

- Ken Cheezenhunt is probably still lying awake at night, wondering and moaning, �If only I�d not been so damn overly conservative and insisting on plunging the ball for the better part of 3 quarters.�� Hell, I gave the guy the exact recipe on how to beat the Stiller defense, and he eschewed it until the 4th quarter.� He finally did precisely what I clearly stated would work -- with the spread offense and passing the ball in a form of ball control and easy pitch n� catch -- and voila, he got 13 points in about 4 minutes of labor.�

 

����������� What�s worse, Cheezen actually stumbled upon success midway thru the 2Q.� He caught the Stillers in their base defense on 2d & 7, and better, the Stillers rushed only 3 men.� The result?�� A 45-yard gain by Boldin down to the Stiller 1-yard line.� This should have been the wake-up call for Cheezen, but he ignored it until the 4th quarter.� If he stretches and gets limber, he�ll be able to kick himself quite ably for the next 6 months...��

 

- After Timmons almost blocked the punt, a 27-yard duck by Ben "You probably should have put me on IR and brought Tom Tupa back for this game" Graham�.First down, Stiller ball, their own 43, 13:49 remaining, 13-point lead. �I ask you � how did we almost lose this game?�� Answer: Bruce Arians.� Here�s the sequence:��

 

1-10-PIT 43	(13:41) 7-B.Roethlisberger pass incomplete short middle to 86-H.Ward (26-R.Hood) [24-A.Wilson]. PENALTY on ARI-26-R.Hood, Defensive Holding, 5 yards, enforced at PIT 43 - No Play.
1-10-PIT 48	(13:34) 39-W.Parker left end to ARI 46 for 6 yards (58-K.Dansby).
2-4-ARI 46	(12:53) 39-W.Parker left guard to 50 for -4 yards (90-D.Dockett).
3-8-	(12:07) (Shotgun) 7-B.Roethlisberger sacked at PIT 38 for -12 yards (90-D.Dockett).

 

After the 1st down run gained 6, we�re sitting pretty with 2nd & 4.� Pop pass to Miller?�� Nowhere to be found.�� Screen pass against jailhouse rush?�� Nope.�� Quick out to Ward?�� Naw.�� Flare pass to Moore?�� No, because Willie Parker is healthy, and Moore isn�t permitted to participate whenever Parker dresses.�

 

- That counter play from their own END ZONE, which had the LG pulling and allowed a gap the size of Texas for a defender to shoot through and nearly safety Parker�..that, uh, was a genius scheme by Arians as well.� You have to wonder exactly what goes through this man�s mind when he call for such asininity�.

 

- How did they win the game?�� Answer: individual playmaking and sheer athletic greatness by Ben and Tonio.�� Just like every other comeback this season, Bruce Arians was minimally influencing what was going on with the offense.� With Arians, the less involvement, the better.�

 

- Not to belittle the winning TD catch, but in terms of difficulty, the catch Blunt Holmes made on 3rd & 10 from our own 1 was at least as good a catch and quite possibly better.� Cromar had his hand right there, and the ball was on top of Holmes as soon as he broke out of his cut, giving him about 1/1000th of a second to actually see the ball as it arrived.� I re-watched this play 15 times and I still can�t fathom how Holmes was able to haul in this low laser.��

 

- Lost amidst the excitement of Harrison�s 100-yard INT return was the fact that Larry Fitz, who made the tackle, actually ran out of bounds the final 37-some yards before finally coming back in bounds to tackle Harrison.� There is a rule on punt coverage and KO coverage about a defender freely running OOB and then coming back in bounds (he can�t be the first guy to hit the ballcarrier).� Not sure what rule applies in this INT situation, but amidst the 28 replays NBC showed, this was never mentioned or discussed.� Was this a penalty?�� Had Harrison been ruled down at the 1-inch line, would the penalty have given us a referee-appointed TD (since Fitz was the tackler who made the �stop�), or would it have been a crack at Tomlin�s ever-popular 18-yard FG, since the half cannot end on a penalty?� �Just food for thought.�

 

- More food for thought.� If Fitz could do it all over again, would he consider running OOB (or downing himself) at the 1-inch line rather than scoring the TD with 2:37 remaining?� If it�d been a 3-point game, then for sure this would be a heady play, because worst-case, you have the tying FG in your hip pocket.� In this situation, a 4-point game, this move would be dicier, in that you have to score a TD on 1 of the 4 attempts from the 1-inch line.� On the plus side, you�re gonna chew some clock and force the Stillers to burn perhaps 1 or 2 of their TOs.� This is all merely interesting post-game speculation, of course, because no player is gonna eschew scoring the go-ahead TD in that situation.�

 

- I still maintain the holding call on Hartwig in the EZ was a bullshit call.� Further, at 4:30 1Q, the false start against Hartwig was a phantom call.  No Stillers linemen false-started on this play.� Simply put, not one player even flinched.  Antonio Smith cajoled the refs into making a call.  Pathetic that professionals would fall for that.

 

- One final tidbit on Harrison�s historic INT return.� Didya notice that Townsend, not once but twice, actually craned his body in an effort to get Harrison to hand the ball off to him ?��� Harrison would have none of that, and to his credit, Town finally read the fact that Harrison wasn�t going to give the ball up even if held at gunpoint, and Town astutely dashed ahead and sealed off Warner.�

 

- For those Cards fans bellyaching about the refs, there was a HUGE facemask grab by a Cardinal against Hines while he was blocking on the Holmes pass to the left that gained good yardage.  The guy GRABS Hines� mask and twists it -- goes on for a long time.  No call.� Then there was the blatant shove by Dockett, well after the whistle, after Ben�s ill-fated QB draw on 3rd & goal in the 3Q.� Dockett shoved Hartwig near the stack in front of 2 refs, and could have easily been assessed a flag.�

 

- After the 31st time, I lost track how many times NBC showed Warner�s wife.� I fondly recall the days of my youth, watching Super Bowl games and never seeing shots during the game of anyone�s wife, kid, uncle, mother, plumber, or pastor.�

 

- Anybody heard from Lord Billy Cowher lately ?� Remember him?�� He was, uh, the coach who could never, ever be replaced, because, after all, �Who could we possibly hire to replace a legend like Cowher and win like he did?��

 

- One of the oddest stat lines in Sup Bowl history, I reckon --�� Gary Russell, 2 carries, minus-3 yards, one TD.��

 

- I�m still perplexed by the Harrison �unnecessary roughness� penalty in the 4Q.� You're SUPPOSED to maul the opposing player, who is SUPPOSED to get downfield and maul YOUR punt returner. There never was a PUNCH thrown. There was a THRUST of the hand and a forearm shiver, which is how EVERY BLOCKER in the league blocks in today�s brand of football.� It�s a PUNT RETURN, and Harrison is supposed to be BLOCKING, is he not?��� And at the end of that skirmish, it was a 2-handed SHOVE -- ie, a BLOCK -- while the play was still LIVE. I hadn't realized that blocking in the CHEST of a defender on a punt return was now illegal in the NFL. �This was the classic case of a squeamish ref crew getting concerned about �the game getting out of hand� and throwing a penalty on what they THOUGHT might have occurred, rather than what actually did occur.� Fuk Fat Madden, Ron Cook, and any other dumbass who thought this was a penalty and that Jamie shoulda been thrown outa the game...

 

- Perhaps the best aspect in the aftermath of this Super Bowl is that we are no longer being fed any articles, whatsoever, about what a brilliant genius Dick �Gilligan� LeBeau supposedly is.� After spending the season �shutting down� the various NFL equivalents of Mario Mendoza, Dick faced a competent, experienced, talented offense and got shredded like provolone cheese at a pizza parlor. After leaving his safeties out on an island a full 22 yards off the LOS for the late touchdown, the avalanche of stories about Gilligan Lebeau have trickled down to, well, nothing.�� Amazing what a 13-point choke-away in the 4th quarter can do for a guy�s reputation.�

 

- The Coca Cola ad with Troy Pola was one of the biggest piles of manure I�ve ever seen�.right up there with an Arians game plan.� It was total rubbish.� Along with Arians, the advertising exec who came up with that one ought to be fired by the end of the week.�

 

- Upcoming to-do�s on my part�.the Sup Bowl Hard Hat; the overall 2008-09 Hard Hat; and the player/coaches grades.� Tomlin is correct��the players get some time off, but for the rest of us, much work remains to be done�.!

 

Still Mill and Stillers.com -- �When it comes to the analysis of the Pittsburgh Stillers, no one else comes close�.�