Pittsburgh Steelers defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau was named one of the two senior nominees for NFL Hall of Fame induction.  He was nice enough to share his thoughts on the matter with us here at NPC.

Coach Tomlin told us after practice that I’m a finalist for the Hall of Fame thanks to the senior committee.  Good kid, that Coach Tomlin.  Reminds me of Lem Barney.  As for the Hall of Fame, all I can say is about time.

The damn sports writers only had 51 years to elect me to the Hall.  Yep, I joined the NFL back in 1959 when I was drafted by the Cleveland Browns.  Believe it or not, they were good back then.  The Browns cut me in camp but I managed to hook on with the Detroit Lions, where I played for the next 14 years.  That’s when Detroit ruled the auto industry with manly cars that put out 400 horsepower while getting five miles a gallon.   I still drive a Ford.  Nancy Boys buy a ricer, son.

When my playing days were over, I finished seventh all-time in career interceptions.  That’s a lot harder than it sounds.  Today, you have these pansy offenses that sling the ball to the left and sling the ball to the right forty times a game.  In my day, teams threw the ball only when they absolutely had to.  If I had gimpy arm nincompoops like Chad Pennington chucking the pigskin my way two dozen times every game, my record would still stand.

I also set a record for cornerbacks by playing 171 consecutive games.  Nowadays, you have trainers, massage therapists, and a specialist for every damn part of the body.  We had dirt.  Sprain your ankle?  Rub dirt on it and take a lap.  Strain your balls?  Rub dirt on it and take a lap.  Dislocate your shoulder?  Rub dirt on it and take a lap.

After my playing days, I was lucky enough to move into coaching.  I bounced around as an assistant until I finally became a defensive coordinator in 1984.  Altogether, I’ve been a d-coordinator for 19 years and three different teams.  People say that I innovated defensive strategery by inventing such schemes as the Zone Blitz.  I just say I hate quarterbacks.

The big knock against me seems to be my lack of head coaching success.  I was only the top man once, a 3 year stint with the Cincinnati Bengals earlier this decade.  C’mon, it was the BENGALS.  Sure I didn’t accomplish much but there’s only so much one man can do when an organization is rotten to the core.   A coaching committee of Don Shula, Tom Landry, and Chuck Noll couldn’t fix those losers.

I owe everything to my players.  If they hadn’t spoken up for me, I’d probably still be waiting for that nomination.  I think the words of former Steeler Rod Woodson during his recent HOF induction speech finally opened some eyes.  Good kid, that Woodson.  Reminded me of Night Train Lane.

Everything I’ve done is because of my players.  All the top ranked defenses.  All the Super Bowl championships.  All because of their hard work and talent.  They call me Coach Dad, which means a lot to me although if I were their father, I’d tell Keisel to stop getting all those damn tattoos and Polamalu to cut his hair.  He looks like one of those damn dirty hippies we used as tackling dummies back in the 60′s.  Anyway, I owe it all to them but if I played some part in putting those boys in a position to succeed, I’ll gladly accept your nomination.  Now get off my lawn, I have a practice to run.

Christmas arrived early for members of Steeler Nation as they watched their team come from behind to pull out a thrilling last minute victory over the arch nemesis Baltimore Ravens, 13-9.  This win is truly the gift which keeps on giving as the Steelers have now clinched both an AFC North title and a guaranteed first round bye.  Also, thanks to Yuletide favors from the Houston Texans, next weekend’s tilt with the Titans is set to determine who has home field advantage throughout the playoffs.

I’m not one to say “I told ya so.”  Okay, I am.  But in this case, you have to trust me when I say I knew after Baltimore’s second offensive series the Steelers were going to win the game.  For all the praise heaped upon rookie QB Joe Flacco, much of it well-deserved, it was clear when the Ravens chose to run the ball on 3^rd and long that they had zero confidence in Flacco’s ability to do anything more than manage the game.  You can’t hide your quarterback in the NFL because sooner or later they all have to make plays.

Of course, Flacco didn’t exactly inspire confidence right out of the gate.  His third pass of the afternoon was batted skyward volleyball-style by Can’t See Me Ike Taylor where it was snatched out of the air by S Ryan Clark.  Flacco only completed 1 out of his first 8 passes and finished the game a miserable 11 for 28 for only 115 yards with no TDs.  Although Blitzburgh only had 2 sacks, he was clearly bothered by the pressure as he danced around the pocket while repeatedly rushing passes or overthrowing his targets.  He may be a good one for many years to come but now is not his time.

The Ravens defense lived up to their billing.  They are a hard-hitting bunch who make you scratch and claw for every inch of turf you gain.  They created two turnovers and did a good job stopping the run while preventing any big plays in the passing game.  The one surprising thing is despite blitzing at least 75% of the time, Baltimore managed only 3 sacks, one of which was due to the only dumb play QB Ben Roethlisberger made all game.  He ran around for way too long and by the time he decided to throw it away, Terrell Suggs was all up in his grill causing a sack-fumble.

In fact, the Steelers played a pretty sloppy game for the first three quarters.  They were losing the battle for field position (as is usually the case because of their horrid punters, although Mitch Berger did manage to break the magical 40 yard average and made a sweet tackle on a long return.).  WR Santonio Holmes fumbled to kill one drive.  Ben fumbled to end another.  Several of their best runs were called back on holding penalties.  The only thing keeping the game close was the beautiful violence of their defense repelling Baltimore at every turn, limiting them to three FGs despite excellent field position.

Today’s defensive standout was last year’s first round draft pick LB Lawrence Timmons.  He made the two most important plays of the game in the fourth quarter.  After the Roethlisberger fumble, Baltimore was on their 30 with a chance to drain valuable time off the clock.  Two runs went nowhere and then on third down Flacco hit Derrick Mason between the numbers.  Timmons obliterated him at roughly the same time causing the ball to go flying through the air where Deshea Townshend narrowly missed his second huge INT in two weeks.  Still, forcing a punt and the subsequent Steeler drive which netted 3 points was where the momentum of the game shifted.

Timmons second big play, and pretty much the play of the game, was his strip-sack of Flacco with four and a half minutes left.  Even though Baltimore recovered, the loss of yardage took them out of field goal range.  Had they gotten three, all they would’ve needed was another FG to pull out a win at the end.

Despite their understandable struggles against a really good defense, the Steeler offense actually looked decent this week.  I already mentioned the line, which afforded Big Ben ample protection considering he chucked 40 passes.  They put together one of their nicest drives of the season in the first half, mixing pass and run in a possession which chewed up six and a half minutes and resulted in a FG.  Bruce Arians clearly wanted to get the ball into Fast Willie Parker‘s hands as he called a number of runs and screens for him.  We all like Mewelde Moore and he may have saved our season by stepping up like he did but when you watch FWP make his darting cuts, turning 3 yard gains into 7, you realize what a major weapon he can be.  Although they fell away from running in the 2^nd half, Arians did show a bit more patience and desire to mix up the playcalling.

Speaking of mixing things up, one of the awesome things about our receiving corps is you never know who is going to have a big game.  Last week, Heath Miller and Santonio Holmes were the go-to guys.  This week, Hines Ward (8 for 107) and Tiffin Thunder Nate Washington (5 for 76) stepped up.  Of course, none of them would’ve done anything without Ben putting the ball right on the money.  He isn’t flashy and it’s not always pretty but the man is CLUTCH.  As I said earlier, in the NFL you need a QB to make the throws when you need them made and Big Ben does that.

Before I wrap this up, I have to mention two controversial plays which no-nothing sportscasters and whiny Baltimorons will no doubt cry about for weeks to come.  On the Steelers first FG drive, they converted a 3^rd and 1 which looked iffy.  Unfortunately, unless you’re standing on the field exactly parallel to the line of scrimmage, it’s hard to tell exactly where the markers are.  The Magic Yellow Line is not official and is oftentimes a good half yard off.  The second and most discussed call was Holmes’ game winning TD.  The refs blew it.  I’d like to justify their explanation but it seemed to be “his feet were in the end zone so it’s a TD” which I believe is wrong as you’re supposed to go by where the ball is.  However, Ray Lewis of all people made the most reasonable comments on the situation; the call may have cost them those last 7 yards but the allegedly super-awesome D giving up 90 yards prior to that is where the blame should lie.

Well, my fellow Black and Gold fans, it’s been a long road but we have accomplished what many thought was impossible.  Despite the toughest schedule in NFL history, we’ve amassed 11 wins, won our division, and earned a first round bye.  Best of all, this team seems to be peaking as we move into the final two games of the season.  I don’t want to sound greedy but I’m starting to believe the Steelers’ list of accomplishments isn’t finished yet.

Pop Quiz:   How are the Pittsburgh Steelers like a woman’s period?

Answer:  When it comes time to show up, it’s always better late than never.

Yesterday’s 38-10 dismantling of the Cincinnati Bengals wasn’t as easy as the score might indicate.  If you watched the first quarter, then decided to:

- Watch 45 minutes of “Contact”
- Burn a mix CD for a “friend”
- Go on a Starbucks run
- Watch a quarter of woman’s volleyball on ESPNU
- Play Metal Gear Solid

And came back just in time to see the Human Victory Cigar, QB Byron Leftwich, throw a final TD pass in the 4th quarter, you’d probably think, “Easy win.”

But you’d be wrong.  Very very wrong.   For you see, something happened between the beginning and end of the game.  Somewhere in there the Steelers decided to make things interesting by playing down to the level of their opponents.  And that’s why what should have been a merciless smashing at halftime turned into a meager 10-7 advantage.

I couldn’t believe what was unfolding before my eyes.  The Steelers went up by 10 in the first quarter while limiting the inept Bungles to 20 yards of total offense.  Evidently defensive coordinator Dick Lebeau decided this was an insurmountable lead and put our D into prevent.

Maybe it wasn’t actually prevent but it sure looked like it.   All our DBs started playing 10-15 yards off the wide receivers, allowing QB Ryan Fitzpatrick to complete passes at will.  The LBs weren’t helping matters either as the most fearsome pass rush in the NFL failed to get anywhere near the Bengal signal caller.  On the flip side, QB Ben Roethlisberger and the offense went from moving the ball at will to a complete standstill.  I blame Bruce Arians for no other reason than he’s Bruce Arians.

Luckily, the Steelers woke up and realized they were the Steelers by the start of the fourth and the route was on.  A three TD avalanche in the final frame accompanied by some stifling defense restored the universe to proper order.  The final stats are pretty impressive if you just look at the game on paper.  But to Cincy’s credit, they found a way to (once again) hang around much longer than their meager talent had any right letting them.

RB Mewelde Moore has clearly established himself as an absolute gem of a free agent pick-up.  He rushed for 120 yards and scored 3 TDs in relief of Pothole Willie Parker.  Whatever they’re paying this guy, it’s a steal.  Speaking of stealing money, $7 million dollar benchwarmer OT Max Starks got his first action of the season and did a decent job as the line managed to keep Big Ben from getting sacked for the first time this year.  Of course, this is more a function of Cincy’s terrible defense than awesome pass blocking but we’ll take what we can get.  I did notice RG Darnell Stapleton made several crushing blocks to spring Moore on running plays so the Steelers might have found something there.

When the defense looked good, man did it look good.  Blitzburgh finished with 7 sacks, all by our linebackers.   James Harrison and LaMarr Woodley had 2 apiece and Lawrence Timmons (starting for the first time this year) chipped in 2 more.  I never thought I’d see a better group than the Kevin Greene, Greg Lloyd, Chad Brown, Levon Kirkland foursome back in the early 90’s but these guys might be it.   The only bad play was by our CBs but that seemed to be more a result of being told to give the Cincy WRs too much respect.  Bryant McFadden was getting dissected by Fitzy on their lone TD.  He later left the game with an injury so that might explain how our best CB went down the tubes so quickly.   And S Troy Polamalu, doing his part to keep the NFL from becoming a pansy game, left after getting concussed on a devastating helmet-popping collision in the third quarter.

Didn’t matter, however, as by the end of the game the Steelers went into full mop up mode.  The hapless Cleveland Browns went down in flames again to the Wash Redfaces (who’ll we will be seeing in a couple weeks) so their one week resurgence lasted exactly one week.  Pesky Baltimore defeated the Miami Dolphins Wildcats to hang around in the division but after playing them, does anybody consider them a threat?   The next three games see us play the Giants, Colts, and Skins so I guess we’ll get a chance to see exactly how good we are in the coming weeks.  So far the Steelers have been flying comfortably under the radar but a few big wins and that’ll all change really fast as the NFL media looks for the Next Big Story.

There’s an old saying that you should “believe none of what you hear and only half of what you see” and that old adage applies very well to the National Football League. The Baltimore Ravens typified that saying in 2007 as it appeared that they finally had developed an efficient offense by finally finding a quality starting quarterback in Steve McNair.  They wound up giving head coach Brian Billick a four year extension and, despite losing to the Colts in the playoffs, felt they were a team on the rise after going 13-3.  But the reality was the Ravens were a team that was once again being carried by their defense and McNair more or less managed the game. By 2008 there were issues on the defense, particularly the loss of LB Adalius Thomas, trouble at cornerback, and other injuries mostly related to the advancing age of their core players. This meant that the defense was downright mediocre at times. McNair also got hurt, which meant Kyle Boller and Troy Smith time as the season spiraled down the drain.  They finished 5-11 and Billick wound up getting fired.

The Ravens surprised a lot of people by hiring one of the best special teams coaches in the league, John Harbaugh.  With limited coaching experience, Harbaugh is a very unknown commodity.  But the same could be said of a local guy by the name of Mike Ditka, who came to the Chicago Bears as a special teams coach with Dallas.  While the Bears had a great defense, they didn’t reach the pinnacle of their success until the offense became more than simply manageable.   The hope is Harbaugh can make the same improvements in Baltimore.

STEELER DEFENSE VS. RAVENS OFFENSE

There’s another old saying that “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”  The Ravens sacrificed their 1st round pick next year to move up and draft QB Joe Flacco.  Flacco was a redshirt at Pitt who transferred to greener pastures when he couldn’t beat out the mighty Tyler Palko for the starting job.  Then again, talent evaluation and optimal player usage aren’t exactly hallmarks of Wannastache’s tenure with the Panthers.  Flacco is every bit a clone of Ben Roethlisberger given his size and his ability to move a little and throw on the move.  I’d say Big Ben is more athletic and effective throwing while on the run (he’s had enough practice) but Flacco definitely has a bigger arm.

Flacco has made rookie mistakes but he’s shown a remarkable learning curve and while it’d be unrealistic to think he’d replicate Ben’s 15-1 rookie season, he definitely gives the Ravens their best chance at winning right now.   Still, he’s young and Steeler defensive coordinator Dick Lebeau loves young quarterbacks.   Not in the Michael Jackson sort of way.   He just loves to throw a wide array of looks, stunts, and assorted trickery at the noobs because at that point in their careers, they aren’t equipped to read the defenses and make adjustments.  Unless Flacco turns out to be a prodigy, he’s going to have a long night trying to figure out who’s coming, how many, and from where.

Cam Cameron is the offense coordinator and while I’m not a big Cameron fan, his scheme and philosophies will probably be a breath of fresh air for the Ravens. Gone is the slant happy, dink and dunk West Coast Offense and in comes a more explosive deep pass pattern offense. Expect Todd Heap to play a bigger role in the passing game as they will try to get him to attack the deep middle.

Long time left tackle and future Hall of Famer, Jonathan Ogden has retired. Ogden was built like the perfect left tackle as he was 345 pounds but not the least bit overweight as he stood 6’9” tall. He had great feet, quality technique, and good power to be an excellent drive blocker.  Their money is on second year man Jared Gaither to take over for Ogden. He was a supplemental draft pick for the team and did pretty well in limited time as a rookie.  Ben Grubbs was very good at guard in his rookie season and will likely only get better and perhaps become a top 5 guard in due time. Marshal Yanda is average at best as he beat out Adam Terry at right tackle, which isn’t something to brag about.

If he can stay healthy, WR Demeterius Williams is a player to watch out for. This guy has tremendous athletic ability and can catch the ball.  Derrick Mason and Mark Clayton are pretty solid players provided the QB gets them the ball. Mason had 103 receptions last year, but only at 10.3 yards a catch which means he wasn’t very explosive.  Steeler CBs have shown solid coverage skills this season and there’s no reason to think they’ll have a hard time with this group, especially with injured starter Deshea Townshend healthy enough to at least play in the nickel.

RB Willis McGahee is a beast and given all of the injuries the Ravens had on the O-Line last year, his 1,207 rushing yards on 4.1 yards per carry is better than it looks. He’ll be backed up by rookie Ray Rice, who hasn’t shown much of anything so far this year.  I always thought Rice would be best suited to being a Mike Alstott-style fullback and his demonstrated lack of speed and elusiveness seems to have proven me correct.

The Steeler defense will be playing with a decimated defensive line as everybody’s favorite Fatass, Casey Hampton, is experiencing crotch pain, the kind antibiotics don’t help.  We all knew they were an aging group and with age comes increased injury problems.  That’s why it was so smart of Director of Player Personnel Kevin Colbert to draft a couple young DL in last year’s…

Oh yeah.  Never mind.

DE Brett Keisel will be out for at least another week which to be fair didn’t hurt the Steelers too much against Philadelphia.  DE Travis Kirschke played capably in relief of Keisel while NT Chris Hoke had a solid game when he came in for Hampton.  Hopefully they’ll be able to fill their roles as space eaters and allow our tremendously athletic linebackers to run around making plays all over the field.  The Ravens would no doubt love to establish a physical presence and a running attack early on and it’ll be up to the big boys up front to stop that from happening.

STEELER OFFENSE VS. RAVENS DEFENSE

The Ravens use a 3-4 scheme, but it’s a 1 gap scheme instead of the standard 2 gap. The Cowboys use this as well as Wade Phillips pretty much invented it while coaching under father, Bum. In many ways, it’s kind of like a modernized version of the old 46 defense. They will play some 4-3 scheme and just move Terrell Suggs to defensive end as defensive coordinator Rex Ryan definitely follows in his father’s footsteps by loving to bring the blitz.

The down linemen are about as good as it gets, starting with the incredibly underrated Kelly Gregg. He’s not that big of a guy for a nose guard (300 pounds) but he’s got a great motor and good technique. In the 1 gap scheme size is less important and he’s an even more tenacious defender. Haloti Ngata is a behemoth who wreaked havoc at defensive end last year. They’ll move him to nose tackle or defensive tackle in the 4-3 from time to time. Trevor Pryce got injured last year, but he’s always been a quality player who registered 13 sacks back in 2006.

The linebackers are still pretty good in Baltimore. Terrell Suggs has always been a quality pass rusher at the outside linebacker spot. Bart Scott is quite the beast at inside linebacker, even if he does chuck a referee’s flag. And Ray Lewis is still an above average inside linebacker, no matter how many homicides he commits. Where they saw problems last season was at the strongside outside linebacker spot as the level of production dipped greatly from Adalius Thomas, who left for New England, to Jarrett Johnson.

The Ravens are going to be stout against the run.  They have the size and speed to plug the gaps and prevent a running back from getting to that second level.  Fast Willie Parker sprained his knee late in the debacle in Philly and won’t play.   It’s time for rookie RB Rashard Mendenhall to put on his big boy pants and show us what he can do.

The good news is, his power style running might be better suited to this sort of game.  The bad news is, if Rex Ryan looked at tapes from last week, he’s going to be keen on selling out to stop the run.  At least until the Steelers offensive line can prove they can keep Ben Roethlisberger vertical long enough to complete a pass.

This is the key to the game because the Ravens cornerback play was miserable last year, although they’re leading the league in total defense so far this season. Chris McAllister, whom I swear has been around since the first Bush administration, got hurt last year and the Ravens couldn’t come anywhere near replacing him. Samari Rolle is hurt and will be replaced by Corey Ivy who is a good nickel back, but when placed in the starter’s role has not done well.  The Ravens do have an excellent safety with Ed Reed being….well, Ed Reed. When Reed is on, he’s easily the best safety in the league.   But when Reed is off his game, well, that’s when he becomes Hines Ward’s bitch.

If Ben isn’t busy running for his life, our receivers could enjoy a very productive night against that Baltimore secondary.   However, they harassed and disrupted Cleveland last week to the point they only surrendered 10 points and watching that gaping black hole that is our O-line last week, I’m not confident we won’t suffer a similar fate.

With a win, the Ravens will take a commanding two game lead in the AFC North division.  Yes, you read that right.   Before the season began, I thought there was a small chance they could be a Fab Four team.   Fab Four teams refer to the fact every season for the past ten years, four teams that missed the playoffs the previous year were in them the next.  The Ravens have a solid defense, solid running game, and a solid corps of receivers.  If their young quarterback can manage the game and make the throws when he needs to make them, I can see this team in the playoffs.  In fact, when I made my preseason Power Ranks for FSB, I thought they were a better pick than those trendy Cleveland Browns.  I guess we’ll see how much they’ve improved this Monday night.

The Philadelphia Eagles defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 15-6 in a game which redefined the term “ugly.”   Nothing about this contest was pleasant to look at.  The offense was ugly.  The injuries were ugly.  The food they showed was ugly.  The city skyline was ugly.  Even the cheerleaders looked like a bunch of skanks.

Where to even begin with this one?   I don’t mind having my blog overrun by mouth-breathing Philly fans, although I admit I’m surprised that so many know how to read and write (however poorly).   Beside the final score, I have no idea what they feel compelled to brag about.   Their team scored a whopping one touchdown.  If this is the kind of victory you are proud of, well, no wonder why your team has never won anything.

My original idea was to use this recap to illustrate why Steelers RB Willie Parker is superior to overrated Eagles scatback Brian Westbrook.  So much for the best laid plans…   Westbrook went down early in the game with some sort of sprained ankle and never returned.  These sort of soft and gutless players are another reason Philthydelphia is doomed to never win a championship.  Fast Willie did nothing to help my case, however, rushing for 20 yards on 13 carries.   Ouch.

The Steelers D played extremely well yet again.  They had some problems in the first half as even without Westbrook, the Eagles executed their inane dink-and-dunk strategy to perfection.  I said in my preview that Steeler LBs were going to struggle covering their RBs.  I gave our backers too much credit.   They didn’t struggle, they completely failed.  Only a fumble recovery and an interception off a terrible throw by QB Donovan McNabb prevented 14 points being put on the board.  CB Bryant McFadden was the man responsible for both those acquisitions as he had an excellent game in his 2nd career start.  S Troy Polamalu had an incredible pick (his third in three games) later on, thus pretty much establishing he’s back to his old Tasmanian Devil self.  D-coordinator Dick Lebeau made his usual intelligent halftime adjustments causing the Philly offense to sputter in the second half.

Unfortunately, the other Steeler coaches left their brains back in Pittsburgh.  QB Ben Roethlisberger at one point was sacked SIX TIMES on eight consecutive pass attempts.  He went down 8 times in total and was harassed, chased, and/or knocked down at least two dozen more.  Memo to Mike Tomlin:  When your QB is on his back more often than one of the Philly Cheerleaders, that would be the time to make some ADJUSTMENTS.

Perhaps we could’ve tried running the ball.  Parker’s scant 13 carries were spread out randomly over the entire game.  No concentrated effort was made to establish a ground attack.   Worse yet, rookie RB Rashard Mendenhall once again didn’t get any carries.  Why did we draft him if we’re just going to use him on kickoffs?  Nice pick, Tomlin.   Beyond that, we’re carrying three TEs on the roster.   If the Eagles are blitzing every other play (which they seemingly did), bring them out and go into a max protect formation.  The Steelers didn’t do this until late in the 3rd quarter, by which time Ben was beat up and out of synch.  Offensive Coordinator Bruce Arians must’ve watched the Monday Night tape and forgot he coaches the Steelers and not the Cowboys because he kept sending our receivers (specifically Nate Washington, who actually contributed a little something today) on deep patterns, even after it became clear Ben wasn’t getting the time to look down the field.  Instead of cutting off the patterns or going to a three step drop, he just kept dialing up the same idiotic plays leading to the same Wile E. Coyote-esque results.

Needless to say, the play of our offensive linemen was atrocious, surrendering 9 sacks, terrible run blocking, non-existent pass-blocking, and a general lack of competence in every area.  RT Willie Colon allowed so much penetration he should change his name to Colonoscopy.  C Justin Hartwig blew a number of assignments and was treated like a human traffic cone all day.  I gave him a pass last week because Shaun Rodgers is a massive human being but if he needs double-team help every week, he’s useless to us.  RB Mewelde Moore and FB Carey Davis were no help at picking up blitzers, either.   The NFL is a copycat league and if word gets around about that, Ben better get used to waking up Monday morning with grass stains on his ass.

Speaking of Big Ben, the shitty offensive line doesn’t let him completely off the hook.  He was back to his old tricks of holding on to the ball for way too long in a vain and misguided attempt to make something out of nothing.   There is no dishonor in throwing the ball away so as not to get beheaded by an onrushing DT.  Several times he sidestepped the pressure or moved out of the pocket only to look downfield, then take another look, then one more look for good measure, then…get dumped to the turf for a sack.  Somehow, he’s never learned you only get 2-4 seconds to step up and let the ball go before somebody is on top of you.  His magical Flutie-esque escapes often lead to big plays but the opposite result, which we saw yesterday, leads to big losses, fumbles, and eventually a serious injury.

As bad as it is to lose to the Iggles, and believe me, having to read a week’s worth of comments by their mutant fans was painful enough, I’m more upset by the general direction of this team.  Everything clicked against the Texans but, c’mon, they’re the Texans.  Last week, we defeated the hapless 0-3 Browns but there were ominous warning signs such as the pressure Ben was under or the fact we only put up one TD.  This week we played one of the top Defensive Coordinators in the league and everything fell apart.   We’re in an extraordinarily bad division so we don’t have to abandon playoff hopes or anything like that.  However, unless this teams starts coming up with some answers for the questions we knew they were going to have about the offensive line, we’re going to be doomed to ultimate failure.   Ask any Philly sports fan how that feels, they know what it’s like.