Steelers MMQB: NFL Week 6 Wrap Up
By Kim Myers
What We Learned in Week 6 in the NFL
- A tie is like kissing Andy Dalton
- Aaron Rodgers channels Dan Marino to beat Dolphins in final seconds
- The 12th Man is quieted by the Cowboys
- Steelers get pounded by the Browns
After six weeks of football raise your hand if you had the San Diego Chargers, Dallas Cowboys, and Philadelphia Eagles all tied for the best record. Put your hands down you friggin liars. The NFL season is nothing if not unpredictable. It’s one of the oldest clichés out there but on any given Sunday, anything can happen.
Even a tie can still happen apparently, with the new overtime rules in place and everything. The Carolina Panthers and Cincinnati Bengals battled out to an exciting finish only to see the game end in a 37-37 tie after Bengals kicker Mike Nugent missed a 36-yarder as time expired in overtime. The game was the highest-scoring tie game in NFL history. So there’s that. Tell me again how the Bengals are legitimate Super Bowl contenders again with games like these?
The Miami Dolphins defense did a remarkable job for the majority of the game containing Aaron Rodgers and the Packers offense. Unfortunately, they were not expecting Rodgers to pull a Dan Marino in the final seconds and fake spike the ball to complete it to Davante Adams with just seconds left on the clock. Everyone and their mother was expecting a spike on that play as the Packers were rolling down the field with no timeouts in their hurry-up offense. Rodgers completion to Adams set the Packers up on the 4-yard line with still enough time on the clock connect with Andrew Quarless for the game-winning and Miami soul-crushing touchdown.
What’s a good way to quiet the 12th Man of Seattle and make the seemingly unstoppable defending Super Bowl Champion Seahawks look ordinary and beatable? Send in Tony Romo and the Cowboys of course. Of course, the Cowboys are literally riding their success on DeMarco Murray’s back, who is on pace for eleventy billion carries and a gagillion yards this season. I’m sure he’ll hold up in December with no problem. The Cowboys completely rattled the Seahawks with time of possession, their third down efficiency and this surprising Cowboys defense. Kind of hilarious that Jason Garrett seems to be coaching himself into keeping his job this offseason huh?
There’s no way to sugar coat the Steelers loss to Cleveland on Sunday. They got their asses handed to them. Ben Roethlisberger rolled into Cleveland with a career 18-1 record against the Browns and proceeded to reverse roles almost with every Browns quarterback he’s ever faced before. Since the Steelers jumped out to that 27-3 lead in the first half of Week 1 against Cleveland, the Browns have outscored them 55-13. We were prepared going into this season for the defense to be the weakness of the team, I’m not sure we were all that prepared for the offense to be allergic to the friggin end zone six weeks in. For all the talk about the Steelers needing leadership and discipline, it sure would be good for their franchise quarterback to be the leader he needs to be and lead this offense to their full capabilities. I’m more than willing to load the appropriate blame on the coaching staff from top to bottom but at the same time these players, particularly these players like Roethlisberger, need to be held accountable for their poor execution on the field. I fully believe that Ben is capable of leading this team to plenty of victories in spite of how many big plays the defense keeps giving up but he’s yet to show that so far this season.
On to the Texans!
Here we go Steelers! Here we go!