Loose Slag from The Still Mill

Some slag to chew on before the Thursday prime time tilt at Philly�.

- Hopefully Key Vincent's play versus the Texans erased some angst among Stiller fans.� Vincent is more than capable enough to step into the void, and is a much better option at RG than Fat Oliver Ross.� Frankly, Vincent must succeed, or he represents yet another vindication of Billy Cowher's pitiful player evaluation and player development process.� Vinnie is now in his 4th year in the NFL; all 4 years of which are with the Stillers, the team that freely chose to retain him as an undrafted rookie and then freely chose to retain him each year thereafter.� A team might keep an old veteran around for "leadership" purposes or tutorial purposes.� But if you're an intelligent team, you don't retain a rookie, and then keep him into his 4th NFL season, if he's not worth a tinker's damn.� The Stillers, of course, have long been fond of retaining worthless youngsters for 3 and 4 years at a crack, such as Kendick Clancy, Will Jackwell, and Hank Poteat.�

- The starting O-line needs to be Smitty, Fan, Hartings, Vincent, and Rosscoe.�� Period.� Set the lineup now, in stone, and then start working on cohesiveness and chemistry, rather than the fiddle-faddle, musical chair routines of 1998 and 2003.� Okobi serves as Harting's backup, which is a concern if/when Hartings' knees act up midway thru the season.�

- Here's a big surprise -- another season, another year of zero productivity from the TE spot.�

- Speaking of the TE spot, the Stillers will probably waste 3 roster spots on TEs.� For a team that ignores the TE in the passing game, this is preposterous.� Instead of the 3rd TE, the Stillers could, and should, consider using that roster spot on kicker Rob Bironas.�� My esteemed colleague, Steel Trivia, and I discussed this idea this past weekend.� Bironas would give the Stiller defense a weapon by booting kickoffs deep.� He'd also be an option on longer FGs late in the half or late in a game.� Finally, he'd give the team a good insurance policy in case of injury to Reed, thereby precluding the Matt George fiasco of 1998 and the near fiasco in 2002 when Todd Petersen struggled and then went on IR.� I'd much rather develop a kicker who can help on kickoffs and possibly putting points on the board with a long FG, than a stonehanded, bootfooted 3rd TE who will catch 2 passes (for 12 yards) all season long.���

- Said Billy Cowher, "Troy (Polamalu) is a classic case of a second-year player in a system who's starting to feel very comfortable in that system.� When they start doing that, they're playing, they're reacting, they're not thinking as much, and they're a little more outward in their mannerisms. He's a classic case of that."� Actually, Pola is a classic case of Billy Cowshit foolishly & needlessly overloading a rookie by asking him to learn the entire playbook in Mandarin Chinese, Swahili, and Bulgarian, all the while learning trigonometric equations and quantum physics as it relates to the gridiron.�

- Replied Pola to Billy quote above, "I imagine by my 20th year in the league I should be really, really comfortable out there."�� Yep, Stillers.com couldn't make up this kind of classic sarcasm.�

- Come to think of it, once Pola is in his 20th season, he will hailed by Coach Billy Cowher -- who will be in the midst of lifetime employment, of course -- as "being like a coach back there�he's able to get everyone lined up correctly before the snap, and everyone looks up to him."�

- Olympic musing:� Why does an athlete train for, at a minimum, the past 4 years, but typically much longer, and then, near the end of a short, simple 100 meter run, ease up?� I have no idea, but it might be worth asking quasi-Pittsburgh native Lauryn Williams, who settled for the silver.�

- As my esteemed colleague, Steel Phantom, has noted, Doughboy Bettis should be cut in order to retain promising youngsters like Dante Brown or Willie Parker.� This would be particularly useful and helpful on special teams, where quick RBs can be key ingredients for coverage and blocking.� But, as Phantom also noted, hell will boil over before the mule stubborn Bilbo Cowher will have the guts to make that decision.�

- Speaking of Doughboy Bettis, Pete King has this blather to write about The Tubby Tailback: "I think Jerome Bettis, not Duce Staley, should be the Steelers' No. 1 back for as long as he can stay healthy. Might be for two weeks, but I don't care. He's the best combination of outside and inside runner on the roster."�� Riiiiight.�� Fat Jerome Bettis, "outside runner".�� What a farce.� Remember, though:� King is the same idiot who proclaimed in June, "Jason Gildon is the #1 FA available".

- Another Olympic musing: Seeing swimmer Jenny Thompson blow one lead after another in Olympic relays, you'd have to surmise that she's blown more leads in the clutch than Billy Cowher�

- Be sure to watch the Philly tilt on Thursday nite.� After all, the preseason finale on Sep. 2nd is nothing more than an exercise in injury avoidance, meaning the starters will walk through a couple of series before donning the baseball caps.��

�(Still Mill and Stillers.com -- the only nationally read coverage on the Pittsburgh Stillers that has accurately predicted the how's and the why's of the past 3 Stiller playoff losses�.)