Nation, check out the link below.  Received an email of this trailer today made by Benstonium.  It’s pretty awesome in general and even better if you are a Saw or horror film junkie.  Just in time for Halloween.  Enjoy!

Steeler vs. Patriots Trailer

At least my fantasy team won…

A week after getting manhandled by the friggin’ Browns, the New England Patriots marched in to Heinz Field and humiliated the Pittsburgh Steelers 39-26.  If the Saints game on Halloween was the low point of the season, this is the Grand Canyon.  Thirty-nine points are the most the once feared Blitzburgh defense has ever surrendered in a regular season home game.   The win also raises Tom Brady‘s career ownage of the Steelers to six wins against only one loss.

Where do I start?  The Black and Gold came out flat and predictable.  I swear run-run-DEEP BALL is all Bruce Arians has in his playbook.  Meanwhile, the Patriots had fire in their eyes.  Tom Brady was throwing hissy fits left and right.  Maybe it’s his time of the month.

Tommy Bieber marched his boys right down the field on their opening drive, throwing on our inept secondary at will.  The first of three touchdowns to Woodland Hills alum Rob Gronkowski was really the only “excusable” score of the night as William Gay had perfect coverage and was just beaten by a great throw and catch.  Don’t worry, Gay had plenty of bad plays left in him.

Bill Belichick is a genius, alright.  His brilliant strategy of “Find the guy Gay is covering and throw it to him for an automatic first down/touchdown.” is something only his keen analytical mind could concoct.  Gay couldn’t cover a fat girl in a sleeping bag.  Bryant McFadden was nice enough to lay out comfy 6 yard cushions for our guests.  In fact, I can’t think of anybody in the secondary, Troy Polamalu included, who played decently.  We’re ten weeks into the season and it’s clear this five DB nickel package they use against passing formations is NOT WORKING.

The Steelers offense didn’t fare much better.  Hines Ward was concussed on the final play of the first quarter on a helmet-to-helmet hit by James Sanders, snapping his streak of 186 consecutive games with a reception.  Actually, Hines was credited with a reception but the call was overturned on review.  Gotta admire the balls Belichick has for not only getting away with an illegal hit but challenging the play on which it occurred.  By the way, you watch, I GUARANTEE Sanders won’t be so much as fined for that flagrantly dirty hit.

James Harrison, you see, is the only player who pays for hitting people hard.

Speaking of James, did he play last night?  Did LaMarr Woodley?   James Farrior?  I must’ve missed them as the linebackers didn’t so much as harm a hair among Brady’s luxuriously flowing locks.  Much of it has to do with our revamped front three, who were pushed all over the field.  When the defense doesn’t get to the QB, we’re doomed because the secondary depends on hurried/bad throws to make up for their inadequacy.  Lawrence Timmons played but was hurt late in the game.  Losing him for any significant period of time will be an utter catastrophe.

The Steelers had only a little over 100 yards of total offense at halftime.   While Peyton Hillis gashed the Pats for 184 yards last week, Rashard Mendenhall never got on track.  Some of it is Arians clear lack of commitment to the run.  And some is the new O-line not getting much of a push.  Mendy had a couple nice runs toward the end of the half but the running game was completely abandoned when the Steelers fell twenty points behind in the third quarter.

While my fantasy team appreciates his epic garbage time performance, Ben Roethlisberger‘s gaudy numbers were piled up once the game was out of hand.  The revamped offensive line wasn’t great but wasn’t nearly as bad as some had feared.  They surrendered five sacks with at least three of them due to Ben holding the ball too damn long.   At this point it’s too late to teach the big doofus three steps-THROW! but this is why chucking the ball 35+ times a game is a losing proposition.  He simply doesn’t make decisions quickly enough or throw accurately enough for it to pay off.  For how badly the team played, the game wasn’t completely out of reach until Big Ben’s poorly thrown pick-six in the fourth quarter.

Not that his receivers are blameless.  Emmanuel Sanders is certainly no Mike Wallace.  He played like a rookie, dropping a number of catchable balls and running the wrong route on a pivotal play in the end zone.   Antwaan Randle El also got in on the act.  As much as I like ARE, he’s no Hines Ward when it comes to being a sure-handed safety valve.  We can survive losing Santonio but subtract both from the mix and this is a very mediocre group of wide outs.

As if terrible defense and a sputtering offense weren’t enough, our special teams also had their fair share of suck.  Jeff Reed missed a FG, actually a gloried extra point, as his Farewell Tour continues.  There’s a paper towel dispenser in for a rough night.

I apologize for the scattershot rambling nature of this recap but so many things went wrong last night, I have no idea where to focus my disgust.  The entire game was a complete disaster.  No running game, pitiful passing game, horrific secondary, zero pressure from the linebackers, Skippy being Skippy…  It’s a sad state of affairs when the Browns dominate teams (Saints, Pats) that blow out the Steelers.

The Pittsburgh Steelers continued their dominance over the hapless Cleveland Browns on Sunday, handing them a 27-14 defeat. The ever-generous Steelers tried to hand the Browns a lot more than a loss, committing four turnovers and playing awful special teams. Our Black and Gold have developed a nasty habit of playing to the level of their opposition. These brief fits of stupidity hurt what was otherwise an outstanding effort on both sides of the ball.

Let’s start with the record-setting day by Ben Roethlisberger. Big Ben passed for 417 yards, only the fourth time in Steelers history a QB has surpassed four bills through the air.  He already had one of the other 400 yard games so he’s the first to do it twice.  Ben finished the day with two TD passes, which should’ve been three if Hines Ward hadn’t dropped a ball while doing a Stop-Drop-and-Roll demonstration in the end zone.  I wonder if the fan in the #86 jersey he gave the ball to gets an IOU since their souvenir is kinda worthless.

Hines did have a great game, amassing 159 yards, including a fantastic 52 yard deep catch and run for a TD. Not to be outdone, Santonio Holmes chipped in with 104 yards on only 5 catches. His day was highlighted by a 41 yard play where he caught a deep pass down near the sideline, then cut all the way across the field, leaving a pile of white jerseys in his wake. The offense ended up with an astounding 540 yards of output yesterday, the majority of which came from Bruce Arians‘ Flying Circus.

The running game, however, had some issues. Rashard Mendenhall got the majority of carries, finishing with 76 yards and a TD. Fast Willie Parker returned to action and it may have been a little too soon. FWP looked awful, running tentatively and having a lot of problems making his cuts. The announcers seemed to think his spiffy new Titanium Reinforced Twinkle Toe Shoes might be too cumbersome for him. I’ve seen Buster Browns cause some tragic wipe outs in the church parking lot so there may be something to that. However, the image of Parker bumbling and stumbling to the ground after catching a screen pass in the flat with nothing but 15 yards of green grass ahead of him is going to be hard to forget.

Equally hard to forget will be the miscues by our offense. Ben Roethlisberger, despite his virtuoso passing performance, had some turnover issues. He mishandled a snap, leading to a turnover. He also threw a terrible interception into TRIPLE coverage. But his sins were nothing compared to those committed by our Dynamic Duo. Late in the third quarter, Arians tried to kill the clock with some running plays. Give the man credit for learning from past mistakes. Unfortunately, his faith was rewarded with Willie Parker fumbling the ball away like it was coated with AstroGlide. On the next possession, they handed the rock to Mendy, who proceeded to carry it looser than a sorority girl after a Jager bomb, leading to another fumble.

This lead to the humorous situation at the end of the game when the Steelers took the ball on their 1 yard line following a Ryan Clark pick. Who did Mike Tomlin call on to close the game out?  Who had the unwavering faith of our Super Bowl winning coach?  Was it FWP, our highly paid superstar? Was it Mendenhall, our highly paid first round draft pick?

Of course not! It was third down back Mewelde Moore!

Speaking of turnovers, the Steelers D also caused a smorgasbord of miscues by Browns. Troy Polamalu got a “Welcome Back” pick thrown right to him. Troy’s return shored up the secondary a bit, although he seemed to be noticeably slower than usual. The Steelers linebackers, lead by Lawrence Timmons, harassed poor Anderson all day. Timmons, it should be noted, had a dominant performance, recording 2 sacks and causing 2 fumbles. When QB Derek Anderson did manage to get a pass off, it didn’t matter since the entire Browns receiving corps seemed to be infected with Sweeditis.

There was much debate in the comments section over what to do about replacing injured DE Aaron Smith. The Steelers answer appears to be a heavy dose of Travis Kirschke with a sprinkle of Nick Eason. Those of you pining for some Ziggy Hood will be disappointed to know his crust hasn’t risen or something because he didn’t take the field at all. The plan seems to be Kirschke plays in the base defense while Eason comes in on obvious passing downs. They looked decent enough although next week will be the real test.

The defense limited the Browns to a little less than 200 yards of total offense. Two turnovers, two sacks, and numerous pressures all amounted to a pretty good effort on that side of the ball. They only gave up 7 points so it’s nice to see the stinginess coming back to Blitzburgh. If not for Joshua Cribbs‘ 98 yard kickoff return TD, this game would’ve been the blowout we all hoped for.  Speaking of which, it was sad to see the Steelers run up the White Flag on special teams after that fiasco, squib kicking the rest of the game.

So what did we learn this week? Not much, I’m afraid. The Browns are a wretched awful team that would be lucky to win the Arena Bowl.  Next week, we face Brett Favre and his undefeated Fighting Wranglers Minnesota Vikings. If you wanted a measuring stick to gauge exactly where this team is at this year, that will be it. If they can find a way to clean up this week’s sloppiness while managing to keep the explosiveness on both sides of the ball, the sun may be coming out in Steeler Nation.

Finally, proof of intelligent life in Boston.

Could there be any two franchises more diametrically opposite than the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Boston Red Sox?

The Steelers have a history of excellence. They’ve won more championships than any other team in the NFL.  And the Red Sox?  They’ve managed to buy win two titles this decade but prior to 2004 their last World Series victory was NINETY YEARS ago.  Talk about droughts.

Dan Rooney is the most respected owner in all of sports. His Rooney Rule is a landmark achievement in the advancement of minorities in professional sports. Meanwhile, the Red Sox were owned for several decades by a bigot named Tom Yawkey. His racism was so profound that the White Red Sox didn’t field their first African American player until 13 years after Jackie Robinson made his debut.

The Steelers have always had Lady Luck on their side. Starting in 1972 when Franco Harris miraculously plucked a deflected football off his shoe tops to unofficially kick start what would become a Steel Dynasty. Meanwhile, the Red Sox have a history littered with bad bounces, bonehead plays, and unfortunate circumstances best exemplified by the 1986 World Series where they were one STRIKE from victory only to lose when a ball rolled between Bill Buckner‘s gimpy wickets.

When the Sox finally broke their Curse in the fall of 2004, one of the heroes was starting pitcher Curt Shilling. Curt pitched several key games on a bad ankle which had been operated on mere days before the start of the playoffs. Pitching crucial innings with fresh stitches bleeding through his sock, Shilling showed the guts and intestinal fortitude worthy of a Steeler. So it should come as no surprise that when WEEI in Boston asked him to defend his favorite football team, Shilling proudly proclaimed himself a member of Steeler Nation.

You can check out the full transcript of his “debate” with a Boston sports personality by clicking here.

Six rings. No cheating.  ‘Nuff said.