This Weekend

First, I'm clearly back. Two posts in a week.

Second, I've never loved Joe Paterno, but I'm sad to see him go out like this. It is most certainly unfair for such a great coach to get run out of town by the board of trustees at a school which has gained so much from him.

But, if I'm on the Board of Trustees at PSU, my thought is either (1) Paterno knew more than he's letting on or (2) he should have known more than he does. I really do think that it's answer #2, but either way, he's gotta go. I think that it's fair to say that the first qualification (if an unspoken one) of being a college football coach (with regular access, in a position of power, to thousands of young boys and men) is that you have to be able to keep pedophiles off your staff.

And that's all I have to say about that.

As for this weekend's football game, I think it's definitely possible the Bengals could win this game. You do have to respect a 6-2 team. Even though they lost to the Broncos while being -2 in the T/O column. I've really not seen anything from them. They've played a lot of bad teams, save the 49ers, and haven't really beaten any of them badly (accept the Seahawks, who a respected friend of mine called the worst team he has seen play in person in years - and he's had Notre Dame season tickets for a long time).

Cincy's been winning with defense all year. Their run defense is stout (top 3). Their pass defense isn't bad (10th). And I don't want to be the guy to say "oh, it's all their schedule", but I think it's worth looking at.

So, their schedule has been: Cleveland, Denver, San Fran, Buffalo, Jacksonville, Indianapolis, Seattle and Tennessee.

Those teams are ranked: 31st, 20th, 27th, 12th, 32nd, 21st, 30th and 28th, respectively, in yards per game.

In passing yards per game: 25th, 31st, 30th, 15th, 32nd, 28th, 23rd, 13th.

The Steelers are top 10 in both measures.

So, what I'm saying is that the Bengals are completely untested. The most dangerous passing combo they've seen is Ryan Fitzpatrick to Stevie Johnson. They've also managed to handle Colt McCoy, Kyle Orton, Alex Smith, Blaine Gabbert, Curtis Painter, Tavaris Jackson and Matt Hasselbeck. Tavaris Jackson threw for 330 yards.

So, the Bengals may win, but, I think, the deciding aspect of the game will be how the Bengals handle Mike Wallace, Antonio Brown and Heath Miller. And who am I kidding? I don't buy that they're up to task.

Steelers 27, Bengals 14.

That was a tough one...

I haven't posted in a while. I've written tons of half-posts that I never published. I've also written at least 6 intros commenting on how many half-posts I've written. But I think I'll finally finish this one.

We're halfway through the weirdest year of Steelers football I've seen in a while. Here's what I think.

I think that getting swept in the regular season by the Ravens doesn't bother me as much as it should. Now, the series has been relatively evenly split the past few seasons, but not in games where Ben actually played. Baltimore's effectiveness against us with Ben in the lineup has been unprecedented, but, in my case, not unexpected.

Now, I'm throwing out week 1. The Ravens won that fair and square, but that was an anomaly. The Ravens are most definitely not that good, and clearly, we are not that bad. Last night's performance (for both teams) was more representative of the state of this competition.

But let's look back at the Ben vs Flacco match-ups prior to this season (all of them won by Ben):

1/15/11: After one of the worst first halves of football I've ever seen, we're down 21-7 at halftime, before going up 24-21 early in the 4th. They tie it, and we get the ball back with 3 1/2 minutes left. On a 3rd and 19 from our 38, Ben hits Quick Money for 58 yards on a ball that Brown pins to the logo of his helmet. We punch it in with 1:33 to go, and end up winning 31-24 after Flacco is unable to connect on 4 straight dropbacks.

12/5/10: This is the Troy game. The Steelers, unable to sustain any real offense all game, get a strip-sack from Troy coming off the left end, and Woodley recovers around the Baltimore 9. We get nothing on the first two plays before Ben hits Isaac Redman in the flat, and Redman miraculously weaves through traffic into the end zone. Flacco drives the Ravens well downfield before getting stopped on a 4th and 2 at the Steeler 31.

12/27/09: A game the entered the 4th 20-20, with Ravens running all over us, we get a field goal with 5 1/2 minutes left. LaMarr forces a Flacco fumble with 2 1/2 minutes left at the Steeler 38, and that's that.

1/18/09: Up 16-7 going into the 4th, we give up a TD to the Ravens with about 9 1/2 mins left. On the drive, Baltimore went 58 yards on 6 plays in 3:09. Flacco goes 3-3 for 28 yards, and converts a first down from a 1st and 20 early in the drive.

The Ravens get the ball back with 6:50 left, and a chance to take the lead. On a 3rd and 13, Troy undercuts a Flacco pass and takes it in, and we go on to the Super Bowl.

12/14/08: Down 9-6, 3:36 left, at our own 8, we go 92 yards in 2:53, culminating in a 4 yard TD pass to Santonio at the goal line to win. Don't care what anyone says about Flacco's drive, that one was better.

9/29/08: After letting Baltimore tie it at 20 with 4 mins left, we stifle Flacco in his own end, and win on a Jeff Reed field goal 6 mins into OT.

Even last night, down 16-6 in the 4th quarter, Ben engineers an 11 play, 80 yard TD drive, and and a 6 play 58 yard TD drive on consecutive possessions to go up 20-16. We even get the ball back with a chance to run the clock out, but can't put it away. Flacco gets the ball on his own 8 with 2:17 to go and 1 timeout. Flacco then throws 13 passes in 2:09 (13!) to go the 92 yards for a TD. And the TD is a 28 yard pass on 3rd and 10. Ryan Clark (this is my impression) gets out of position, worried about another 11 yard route, rather than watching the deep ball, and misses defending that pass by about 2 feet. There were :15 left when that play started. An incompletion and Baltimore is in trouble, 4th and 10 at the 28. If they go for the first, they'll likely have one play from the 15 to win. If they go for the end zone, they might only have one shot.

I guess all I'm saying is that it's a tough loss to swallow, but one that was probably coming for quite some time. We've owned the Ravens (especially in the playoffs), and they know this. We have 2 Super Bowl rings in the last 6 years. They have the honor of having lots of road playoff wins, from losing the division and playing overmatched division winners in the first round. Harbaugh said himself that he figured they would win eventually. And that's fair. They have clearly worked very hard on being able to beat us at our own game. With that said, they came very close to falling short yet again. If we execute better next time (and play with a healthy Woodley and an available Emmanuel Sanders), I like our chances.

We're 6-3, with a relatively weak schedule coming up. The Bengals have been a surprise, but if this team wants to make the playoffs (and I think they do), I expect some inspired football next week, and a thrashing not unlike the one Tennessee got in Week 5. The Bengals have been winning by not turning the ball over, and since we can't force turnovers, that should play right into us. I expect to see a lot of looks from LeBeau next week. A lot of stunts, a lot of players moving around. I really liked what I saw regarding his use of James Harrison last night, and Harrison responded with 8 tackles, 3 sacks and a forced fumble. Those are 2008 numbers for Harrison, and I'm wondering if maybe the few weeks off were enough to get him back to feeling close to 100%.

So, a win next week puts us at 7-3 going into our bye, with games against the Chiefs, Bengals, Browns (2x) and Rams to go. Gotta figure that there are at least 4 wins in that bunch, and that 11-5 should get us damn close to the playoffs.