I love the fact that Ben Roethlisberger goes out of his way to call out Mike Prisuta to the national media. The thing is, I'm not even sure Prisuta is wrong to accuse the Broncos a being of bunch of stiffs (no way did I read his column, just going on Big Ben's comments). When in doubt, though, erring on the side of pointing out potential Prisuta missteps is always the right thing to do. Anyway...
Consider this an early-game thread while we twiddle our thumbs waiting for Sunday night (I'll throw up a Steelers thread around 5pm EST or so). In looking at today's schedule ... well, jeebus these are some awful games. I actually thought to myself: "I wonder who the Browns are playing -- I wouldn't mind watching them." The Browns are on their bye.
Luckily, through the wonders of DirecTV, I'm sure I'll just park myself in front of the teevee and watch the Red Zone channel all day. No matter how crappy the games, though, I'll still be praying for a Bills/Dolphins/Jets miracle.
About that Sunday night game, I know everybody is slurping the Steelers this week (except Adam Schefter, by the way ... not sure if working in Denver for a decade has anything to do with that), and usually that would concern me greatly. But I just can't get too worked up about it. The Broncos defense is garbage, and not only that, but they have a sideline full of injured guys.
Javon Walker's out (Ike Taylor does a mental high-five), center Tom Nalen is out, Champ Bailey is a game-time decision (but it sounds like he'll be out), and Travis Henry is sure to be late to the stadium because of a baking-makin' appointment he just can't break. (By the way, did anybody else forget that the Broncos signed Simeon Rice this off-season? Well, he's not playing either.)
On top of the Broncos' woes, the Steelers should be at full strength, save Bryant McFadden and Jerame Tuman. Obviously, the Steelers could get blown out -- I was feeling pretty good about the Cards game too -- but this ain't 2006. You know, when everything went wrong. Plus, this year, we got Juan Timmons and ROBO-PUNTER. That should count for something.
I've shied away from CPW in recent months because, well, it's kind of become too cliche to rip the mainstream media. Everybody does it, but very few "bloggers" offer up anything better. They just point out the obvious: a lot of reporters/columnists suck. Yeah, we know. Not only that, HSS ombudsman Randy Steele generally disapproves of such talk.
Whatever, I'm suspending the unintended moratorium to point out this steaming pile from the Tribune-Review's John Harris. For some lame-brained reason, Harris thought there was a need for a "Why the Steelers would NEVER trade a second-round pick for Chris Chambers" column. Because that was my first thought when I heard the Chargers shot their wad to get Chambers: Why didn't the Steelers try to get hosed on a trade-deadline deal?
And the third and fourth paragraphs (it's actually the first paragraph, as far as I'm concerned -- the first two grafs are a sentence each ... one of my pet peeves.) pretty much lose me:
On paper, Chambers, the fleet wide receiver traded this week from the Miami Dolphins to the San Diego Chargers, is almost a perfect fit for the Steelers.Well, if by "perfect fit" Harris means "Chambers would be to the receiver corps what Alonzo Jackson was to the linebackers", and by "providing another able target for ... Roethlisberger" he means "would add absolutely nothing to the pass offense", then I'm in full agreement.
A veteran pass catcher capable of stretching secondaries and providing another able target for quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.
Otherwise, Harris should be drug-tested. Oh, and these are easily the two worst sentences I've read recently (my own writing excluded, of course): "The Steelers don't go by the book. They play by their own rules." Doesn't get more unoriginal and cliched than that.
Back to Chambers: even a casual perusal of the Football Outsiders wide receivers page makes it painfully clear that Chambers isn't a good fit anywhere. Yeah, he had some chumps throwing him passes in Miami, but his numbers were also crappy compared to teammates Marty Booker and Wes Welker.
So, yeah, the Steelers didn't trade for Chambers because "they play by their own rules." The Steelers didn't trade for Chambers because it's an idiotic notion, I don't care if they got him for a seventh-round pick and a box full of Trent Green neck rolls.
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