Offseason Round File, Part II

Okey doke, this is Part II of the HSS Retrospective: "Taking a Look Back at the 2005 Season" (cue After School Special music). With that out of the way, on to the first quarter of the season:

Weeks 1-4
... This is where it all started: The first CPW post ever.

... Anybody remember Fred Gibson? You know, the next Plax? Well, I readily admit that I was just as psyched as most Steelers homers when Pittsburgh grabbed him in the 4th round last April. He lasted all of four months with the big team.

Well, this weekend the Steelers officially trimmed their roster to 53 players and probably the most surprising name to get cut was fourth-round pick, Fred Gibson. Gibson was certainly a sentimental favorite of mine, primarily because shortly after getting drafted I went out and bought a Fred Gibson t-shirt. I was hoping he could work through all the reports that alleged he couldn't get off the line of scrimmage, had trouble with the playbook, ran the wrong routes, and ran away from the ball.

[...]

Yeah, it's hard to argue that Lee Mays deserves a roster spot over ... well, anybody, but that just underscores how crappy Gibson's training camp must have been. It's not every player that can start a story with, "I was beat out for a roster spot by an ivy league special teams ace (Morey), a seventh sixth round pick with 11 career receptions (Mays) who at the time had a "severe" hamstring injury, and a rookie who played at Division II Tiffin University (Washington).

I could actually cut and past the entire article (it was that good; OK, not really), but instead, I will just point out the first ever CPW:

This story in Saturday's Post-Gazette is titled, "Between The Lines/The Breakdown: Position battles," which would leave most people to believe that the author, Ed Bouchette, would actually breakdown the position battles from an insider's perspective. Well, most people would be wrong because all I learned from this article is that the editor doesn't read it before slapping on a title. Not only that, but consider the lede:

"Post-Gazette writer Ed Bouchette takes a look beyond the stat sheet and analyzes the position battles in the wake of the Steelers' first loss of the preseason and with only one game still to play. A look at some of the players who helped their cause Thursday."

Uh, here's the thing. This article was dated September 3. You know, two days after the Steelers played their last preseason game. This means that they don't have "one game still to play." Not unless the Post-Gazette thinks that the Titans are so bad that the NFL is actually making the Week 1 regular season matchup a special case Week 5 preseason game. But it gets worse. Under the subtitle, "The Breakdown: Position battles" we get nuggets like this:

QB Ben Roethlisberger: He's throwing off balance and rarely on target, not leading his receivers. He just has not looked comfortable in the pocket this summer and his 32.8 passer rating reflects that.

First, I willingly admit that Roethlisberger has struggled this preseason, but this is the first I'm hearing that the quarterback position is a "position battle." Doesn't that imply that he's battling for a starting job? Bouchette offers nothing in the way of explanation when it comes to including Roethlisberger here, and his "analysis" certainly seems a lot more like "opinion." I'm not going to go through all the examples here, but it's definitely worth taking a look at, if for no other reason than this article is so bad, it's funny. For real insight into the Steelers inner workings, just take a look at the Willie Williams bullet and please tell me how that's not "analysis." (Me shaking my head in between uncontrollable fits of laughter.)

Oh, good times. And here's a comment from Patrick on Gibson, Mays, Kranchik and Rasby after cutdown day (notice that all comments have been restored, so feel free to knock yourself out reliving the past ... via the comments -- and yes, you're almost as pathetic as me if you do):

First off Lee Mays is worthless, we should have given Gibson a shot over Mays.

[...]

If i am Rasby and i find out i am getting cut but they are keeping a guy like Kranchik, AND Lee Mays I would be pretty upset.

Mr. Rasby, prepared to be upset. The funny thing is, Lee Mays is like a rash -- he just won't go away. After getting cut, I can only imagine he got really good at Madden because I don't think he even got a tryout anywhere. And then Quincy Morgan goes down in the playoffs, bada bing, bada boom, and Lee has a Super Bowl ring, which I suspect will end up on eBay sometime in the next 12 months.

... I think I talked about this the other day, but here's the first mention on this site as to why I think tall wideouts are overrated:

There is empirical statistical evidence that Wilson can provide for Ward what Burress did. Again referring to the book, and the same essay I mentioned above, after looking at all the No. 1 and No. 2 receivers in the league, there was no correlation between the difference in height between starting wideouts and their average DPAR. Or in English: wide receiver height is overrated -- even when you're talking about the effect big wideouts (Plax, for example) have on helping their teammates get more passes (Hello Hines Ward). The problem is that Randy Moss has ruined it for all the other big wideouts who could mature into good players. Guys like David Terrell or Rod Gardner (or how about a recent fourth-round draft pick just let go?) are perfect examples of big receivers who should dominate, but for some reason or other they don't. And not only do they not dominate, they don't even cause defensive coordinators to game plan against them enough to help their shorter, shiftier teammates get more receptions. So that's why I'm not worried about Ced.

Yeah, with the way El and Wilson played for most of the year, I didn't feel to good about my little theory, but the playoffs gave me renewed hope -- at least until minicamp.

In the same post, I got a comment from DH about some of the preseason chucklehead prognostications, and this one, from Norman Einstein, is downright scary:

I was happy at first to see [Theismann] pick the Steelers to win the SB, but then I had to temper my enthusiasm when I saw that he picked the REDSKINS to win the NFC. umm... What!?!? He also picked Heath Miller to be the offensive ROY.

I don't even know what to make of this.

Week 1: Tennessee Titans
Remember all that talk about Roethlisberger struggling during the preseason? And the sophomore slump whispers? And the comparisons to Kyle Boller? OK, nobody was that far out on the plank, but admit it, people were, shall we say, concerned. Well, apparently, Big Ben had everything under control:

" ... the fact that Roethlisberger threw 46% of his passes on the first drive is mind-boggling. And the fact that all of his passes -- even the two he missed -- were right on target should give some of his critics pause, at least for a week or so. I must admit, I was a little troubled by the poor play of the Steelers first team offense during the preseason -- especially Roethlisberger -- but he came out against the Titans just like it was Week 4 through 14 of his rookie season. Not one overthrow. Not one ill-conceived throw after being hurried in the pocket. Not one blatant interception that had no chance of being caught by a Steelers player.

Looking back, the Steelers basically had a six-week preseason, except the NFL counted the last two games. The Titans were bad and the Texans were dreadful (and things were so bad for Houston that they fired their offensive coordinator after the Week 2 game).

Honestly, I really thought the Titans would play better. Whenever you have Jeff Fisher (mullet/mustache combo aside) teamed up with Steve McNair, you expect a close game. Of course I gave no consideration to the fact that Tennessee's defense didn't cover tackling during training camp and that probably had a lot to do with the outcome. Either way, the Steelers are 1-0 and heading down to Houston. The last time they played the Texans the Steelers gave up something like 40 yards to their offense and proceeded to lose the game as Tommy Maddox played like, well, Tommy Maddox. The consequence of that loss meant that Pittsburgh didn't get home field advantage during the 2002 playoffs, and they had to go on the road to -- you guessed it -- Tennessee, where they eventually would lose on a field goal during overtime (thanks DeWayne Washington). But hey, no reason to live in the past.

... Even more CPW madness:

Just when you think reporting can't get any dopier, somebody goes and asks Roethlisberger this question following the Titan's game Sunday:

Q: Talk about being 9 of 11 on the anniversary of 9/11/05

A: I didn’t know that. You go out and you play for a lot of things. With the catastrophes going on down in New Orleans, it makes you really think that we’re all playing a game. Hopefully we lift some spirits for a couple of hours. But now it’s back to the reality of what’s going on down there. It’s tough, but we go out there and play for all those people who need the inspiration of watching us play.

Geez. If Roethlisberger had instead decided to punch this guy in the stomach instead of answering the question, I would've been OK with that. Look, it's certainly appropriate to ask about September 11, given that it's the four-year anniversary, but why in the hell would you try to draw parallels to the fact that Roethlisberger also completed 9 of 11 passes?

What happens if Roethlisberger goes 1 for 28 on January 28th, does somebody get to ask Roethlisberger how it feels to complete only one pass in 28 attempts on the anniversary of the Space Shuttle disaster back in 1986?

Or what's this numbnut going to ask Roethlisberger if he goes 9 for 18 next week? Here, I'll give him a little help:

On September 18, 1895, Booker T. Washington delivered his famous "Atlanta Compromise" speech ...

I'll be looking forward to Roethlisberger's response.

Back on earth, I give Big Ben a lot of props for answering the question as eloquently as he did, all things considered. But he also would've been well within his rights to donkey punch the reporter.

This might be one of my favorite Q&A's off all time. The 9/11 question is something you save for media day at the Super Bowl. It's that good.

... One of the pitfalls to "taking a look back," is that you realize you write a lot of stupid stuff. But unlike most people, I don't try to hide from it, I embrace it. And with that, yet another self-imposed CPW:

Speaking of Big Ben, he's been downgraded to questionable because of a bone bruise in his knee that has been slow to heal. Which means that there's some chance Tommy Maddox might play against the Texans Sunday. My first reaction to reading this was, "OK. Not really a big deal." Of course I'm discounting Maddox's last performance against Houston when he threw two picks that went the other way, the Steelers amassed something like 400 yards while allowing only 40 and went on to lose 24-7 24-6 and lose home field advantage in the playoffs.

But seriously, I don't think having Maddox step in for Ben is a problem. First of all, everyone knows the Steelers are going to pound the ball as long as the game is close. (And if Pittsburgh goes up, they'll run it even more.) And while Maddox sometimes likes to force throws into coverage, he's also pretty accurate on the short and medium passes. All this got me to thinking who the Pats would prefer to face in two weeks: Roethlisberger or Maddox. Personally, I want Ben to play, but just from a game-planning perspective, New England knows how to rattle Ben, but they've seen a lot less of Maddox. Another option would be for Cowher to rotate the position between Randle El, Hines and Cedrick Wilson -- all former QBs -- and run the single wing. Or just start Roethlisberger. Either way.

Yeah, any credibility I may have once had is now obliterated. I offer my resignation in disgrace.

Week 2: Houston Texans
Here's my question: How did Houston score a touchdown?

And man, I admit that I haven't caught a lot of Texans games the last few seasons, but David Carr stinks. For all the bad press Joey Harrington gets, he can't hold a candle to Carr being so consistently bad. Of course, there's a really good chance that this guy is perpetually punch drunk due to the fact that he's been sacked more times in his four-year career than Heather Graham in "Boogie Nights."

[...]

And as long as I'm talking about the Texans, how's that trade for Phillip Buchanan working out? God, that guy's overrated. Unless, of course, getting turned around on every obvious passing down, and subsequently giving up big plays, is all part of his master plan. Otherwise, the Raiders got the better end of that trade. On the upside, former Steeler, Kris Brown, did have a touchback on a kickoff. So there's your silver lining in Monday's film session.

My Buchanan remark led to this comment from Steve:

"Otherwise, the Raiders got the better end of that trade."

Otherwise, Mrs. Lincoln had a lovely evening at the theatre.

Fair enough.

... Even more CPW silliness:

And by the way, even though Joe Bendel didn't write this latest masterpiece, I still have him dead last among all Pittsburgh writers in my informal rankings for his uncanny ability to not only be extremely boring, but also uninformative while managing to misspell two or three words a story. I'll informally update the rankings as the season progresses.

[...]

And one more thing. The Ravens have signed a new quarterback to their practice squad and -- I'm not even kidding -- he might be the best QB on the team. Yikes.

And yes, that was when they picked up Brian St. Pierre.

Random Comments left by my Buddy Desmond the Redskins Fan
-Des accurately predicting a Steelers home loss to the Patriots.
- Des's really creepy made-up Redskins song.

Week 3: New England Patriots
Oh, the memories. Actually, as I re-read a lot of the stuff concerning Week 3, I'm amazed I wasn't more upset. Basically the game came down to an inexplicable Randle El fumble, and Tom Brady being Tom Brady in the end. The Steelers could've won, but given how things turned out, I'll let it slide:

If there's such a thing as a good loss, maybe this is an example. Yes, losing sucks, but so does the prospect that your team has absolutely no chance of making the playoffs. And don't forget, last Halloween, the Pats came into Heinz Field, got smoked, and went on to win 14 regular season games, the AFC Championship, as well as a little something called the Super Bowl. Everybody take a deep breath and relax because there's a long way to go. And don't forget about the Steelers' secret weapon: Chad Scott.

Alex leaves this comment about the Pats chances after making a few off-the-street signings:

"Pats signed Amos Zereoue to the active roster. Along with chad scott, doesnt that statistically eliminate them from the playoffs?"

The answer is: Yes. But Tom Brady is so beloved, so respected, so ... dreamy, that he single-handedly willed this team into the playoffs.

And thankfully, Randle El did realize the blunder of his ways.

... Well, that wraps up Part II of the stroll down the 2005 Season with the Pittsburgh Steelers. (Or as I like to call it, "an easy way for a really lazy guy to post something without actually having to write anything.")

Next week should be a little more interesting since the Combine will have wrapped up, and teams will have to start making some moves in anticipation of the March 3 free agency start date. And perhaps most importantly, March 3 also means Part III in this riveting season.