Baltimore 15, Pittsburgh 34
Posted September 7th, 2003 @ 09:12pm by Erik J. Barzeski
Given that I'm not home on Sundays, I've got to TiVo my Steelers all year and watch them in the evening. No sweat - I don't have to put up with commercials like the rest of you saps! 🙂
Unfortunately, as the Steelers are an AFC team, I do have to put up with the morons named Ian Eagle and Solomon Wilcots. I grimace every time Ian's name is pronounced. It's not "Eee-an" but "Eye-an." The announcing in the NFL, particularly on CBS, is horrendous. Fox does the job admirably, and ABC's Monday Night Football team do a great job, but CBS just plain sucks. They're not knowledgeable about the game, they aren't funny, and they add nothing but noise. I've chosen to watch most NFL games on CBS in a certain mode on my surround sound receiver that minimizes the chatter and maximizes the hitting and crowd noise.
That having been said, let me give a delayed shout out to those Pittsburgh "Stillers." They romped, and the Ravens only scored on two silly plays - one a let-down by the Steelers when the game was being put away, and the second after a fumble by Verron Haynes on about the two yard line (the short one).
I remain concerned with Pittsburgh's secondary. They switched up to the Tampa Bay style defense, but lack the speed necessary to stay up with some of the faster receivers on the deep routes. Pittsburgh's running game was only "okay" today as well - 100 or so yards. Maddox? Flawless! 21 of 29 (72.4%), 260 yards, 3 TDs, 0 INTs, and the same touch, timing, and precision he showed last year. Burress had six catches for 116 yards and Ward had nine for 91 yards.
The turf, another story from last year, seemed to hold up better than any football stadium turf I've ever seen! Pitt (the college team) played a game there yesterday, and the grass was superb! I love that the Steelers don't paint logos on their football field (the end zones in particular). I love that the Steelers don't have cheerleaders. It's about the football, dammit!! Pittsburgh is football.
One other note: Ward moved into third place on the Steelers' career receiving list with 337 catches, one more than Hall of Famer Lynn Swann. Congrats to Hines!
Cleveland lost. Cincinnati lost. Baltimore lost. Pittsburgh won. The standings are pretty easy to figure out after week one, so… there you go.
Donate Life
Posted 07 Sep 2003 at 10:59pm #
Don't worry about our Steelers not getting 100 yards rushing today. Few teams ever run for 100 against the Ravens. The secondary I believe will steadily improve, especially when they get Troy Polamalu in the lineup for good. He is fast as hell and get hit with the best of them. Their offense is gonna be ridiculous this year, even more so with the fact that Amos is starting. He can catch balls out of the back field just like Faulk or Holmes, that is a dangerous asset. Not starting will keep Bettis fresh for the second half of the season, this way they can build thier big leads and still pound the ball with him to eat the clock late. I like your site, you always have something new to say. Peace
Go Steelers
Posted 07 Sep 2003 at 11:05pm #
If you think Ian Eagle and company is bad, you obviously didn't watch the 49ers game today on Fox. The two announcing the game kept contradicting each other, bickering, and just plain getting on my nerves so bad that it took away from the game.
Posted 14 Sep 2003 at 8:35pm #
Well, I can easily say that I'm glad they had this game early in the season. After last week's "not as close as the score...