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Does Ron Cook read Stillers.com?

September 22, 2010 by Palmer Sucks

Does Ron Cook read Stillers.com ?

Does Ron Cook read Stillers.com?

�Sucks Says

Random Rants by PalmerSucks

September 21, 2010

 

A few weeks ago, I wrote a piece about the bizarre and hypocritical behavior of Terry Bradshaw in publicly trashing Ben Roethlisberger. One of the reasons I did was because I couldn�t find a single sports-media type who had taken Bradshaw to task for this garbage. I didn�t want to make a big deal out of it, so I included my piece as a bonus addition to my post-game remarks put up on the site last week.

 

So imagine my surprise when I saw last Sunday�s Post-Gazette which featured � of all things � Ron Cook�s piece �Jealousy likely trigger for Bradshaw�s anti-Ben rant.� It wasn�t so much that he�d written it � it was the timing of the article. After all, it had been a full week since Bradshaw�s rant, on the FOX pre-game show before the Stillers took on the Atlanta Falcons. If there was a time for calling out, early last week would�ve been it. Instead, I heard nothing as the week rolled by. The article left me wondering: why wait a whole week, and then comment � on Sunday game day, no less?

 

Anyway, you can review my commentary here:

 

http://www.stillers.com/articles/2530.aspx

 

And compare it with Cook�s, which can be found here:

 

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10262/1088739-87.stm

 

I�ll leave you to decide if there was any �inspiration� taking place here. If so, well, congrats to Mr. Cook for showing such good taste. Really, I�m flattered. And if he did just think of this independently, then kudos to Ron for being the first mainstream sportswriter I know of who called out Bradshaw for his nonsense. It�s long overdue.

 

 

It�s official: Chris Johnson is the Stillers� bitch.

 

Three times, I believe, the Stillers have faced Johnson. Twice before, they shut him down. This time, however, they beat him down.

 

Quite simply, the Stillers took Johnson�s heart. By halftime, he was sitting on the bench, muttering to himself. By the third quarter, he was standing head down in the huddle, looking ready to heave, McNabb style. By the end of the game, he was limping off the field, no doubt ready to hit his favorite massage parlor for a not-so-happy ending.

 

The Stiller D took turns roughing him up, from Farrior to McFadden to Timmons. One play stands out in my mind, on the Titans last TD drive. Johnson took a handoff, bolted left and had acres of room to run. With his all-world speed, that should�ve been an easy score. But something was missing -- and down went Johnson, courtesy of Timmons�s knife-in tackle. I believe by then Johnson simply wanted no further part of things, and took his game down a notch. Now that�s domination for you.

 

Recall I said last week that the key to the Stillers season was Lawrence Timmons. Now, I know most would say Troy Pola, but remember � a healthy Troy and Aaron Smith put the Stillers D back to the form it had at the end of the �08 season. An emerging Timmons to go with them makes it BETTER.

 

Troy made the splash plays, but Timmons did the sinking. I don�t know which hit most hurt Johnson, but Timmons�s textbook-perfect blast through CJ early on the in the game is as fine a candidate as any.

 

A few years ago, I coveted a player by the name of Patrick Willis. Willis, I thought, would make an ideal ILB on the Stillers� D. Up until this year, I had wished the Stillers could�ve nabbed Willis with their first-round pick back in �07. Now, I don�t feel that way. Timmons has convinced me he�s the player the Stillers were hoping for when they drafted him.

 

Anyway, like I said before, the Stiller D will have to carry the team til Ben comes back. Besides being unproductive, the Stillers� O is simply painful to watch. But unlike last week, I can�t blame the QB or even Bruce Arians for this failure. Poor Dennis Dixon � with the musical chairs going on with the O-line, he�s lucky not to have been knocked out of the game even earlier. And poor Charlie Batch -- who looked like he was throwing Crisco footballs to his receivers, so many passes did they drop.

 

But hey, why complain when you�re sitting at 2-0 on top of the division? Are you surprised? I�m not. Of course, the same can�t be said for the dumb sports media, who basically handed the Ravens the division before the season started.

 

I can�t stress this enough: never bet the house on a team led by �Average Joe� Flacco. Sunday Joe was well below average, tossing a hatload of picks en route to a crushing loss to the Cincy Bungals. The fact is, Flacco did nothing week one either, and the Ravens should be 0-2 right now.

 

But hey, unlike that bad boy Ben, Flacco still sleeps on his mother�s couch and drinks a glass of warm milk before bed. You still want to make that joke, Ravens fans? How�s couch boy making you feel now? I bet deep down you�d take the bad boy right now.

 

Much has been made of Baltimore�s FA signings: did the Ravens miscalculate here? For all the hype given to Anquan Boldin, he�s not what the Ravens need most: a legit downfield threat. In Arizona he was a stud, but as a possession receiver, with Larry Fitzgerald running most of the deep routes. The signing of TJ Houshmandzadeh, likewise, is nothing but a Xerox copy: they�re the same receiver.

 

But even if they brought Lynn Swann and Jerry Rice out of retirement, it might not matter. Not when you�ve got Average Joe to lead you to mediocrity. Just pray the Ravens don�t wake up one day and remember they�ve got Marc Bulger on the roster.

 

As for the other competition, once again it�s Cleveland falling flat on its face, and Cincy squeaking out the win despite Carson Palmer�s own quarterbacking impotence. Like I said, if the Stiller D is for real, this team will be a nightmare to face once Roethlisberger returns.

 

Now on to Tampa, a team I know so little about, I hate even to comment � almost. I know they�ve lost most of their former stars, and offhand I can�t even name their quarterback. You�d think this would be an easy win, but now we�re hearing talk about �trap games.� Imagine that � before the season we were all hoping for a 2-2 start at best. Now, we�re talking trap games. Unbelievable.

 

Somehow, I think the D will carry the team to another win.

 

(The views of PalmerSucks are pretty much those of Stillers.com � and should be.)

 

 

 

 

 

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