3:22 PM: Rough start for the good guys. Our old buddy Jarrett Bush is back. 7-0 Steelers. Now a penalty on the kick return. This is going to be a long day I fear.
3:27 PM: Why throw deep on third-and-one when your quarterback isn’t even sure what stadium he is in after a helmet-to-helmet shot. What a deep hole the Packers are in already.
3:31 PM: Packers stop the Steelers after one first down. Do you think they might try to run the ball a little now? Rodgers is getting killed.
3:36 PM: Holy cow! 83-yard touchdown pass to Jennings! I thought for sure he would drop it. We are tied at seven and now the Steelers know we can score on them. Come on defense now. Somebody make a play. I forgot to mention our shitty special teams. Better not allow a long kick return now.
3:46 PM: Steelers look like a team trying to break a 5-game losing streak. The Packers look like a team that wants to get back on the plane. It’s OK. We’ll be in an angry mood when Seattle comes to town next week. With Dallas winning last night 10 might not be enough.
3:59 PM: Big Play Clay makes another one! Packers ball pending review. It should go our way, but stranger things have happened.
4:03 PM: The Packers totally got fucked there. The officiating in the NFL this year has never been worse. I don’ t even care anymore about this game. You can’t beat a fixed game. After what happened in the NBA it is hard argue the NFL games aren’t fixed too.
4:06 PM: The Packers’ offense is a joke. The worst play-calling of the year.
4:11 PM: Worst play-calling of the year!!!!!!
4:12 PM: The Packers now damn well that Crosby can’t hit from the right hash mark so what do they do on third down? Run to the right hash mark. McCarthy better not get to comfortable in his seat. This is is by the worst game of McCarthy’s career. The Packers have no chance to win this game unless Joe Philbin takes over the play calling. McCarthy is too emotional in his home town. Not thinking straight.
4:22 PM: All of a sudden Donald Driver can’t catch. WTF?
4;25 PM: The Packers are clearly a year away from being a contender. It would be nice to make the playoffs this year to get some experience, but until there is a complete makeover of the special teams from the coach to the kickers the Packers won’t be championship caliber. Lets focus on the Seahawks next week and go from there.
4:38 PM: Rodgers won’t be denied. Amazing how he can pick himself off the turf like that, deal with his receivers inability to catch, and run one in for a TD. I have 4-4 so I’m sorry, but we know the Steelers will score before halftime. No way I get that lucky.
4:45 PM: What did I tell you? Right down the field on us. No resistance at all. 21-14 Steelers.
5:30 PM: Pretty much what we expected today. We all had this as a loss when the schedule came out. No biggy. Regroup, beat Seattle and Arizona and let the chips fall where they may. I’m cool.
5:59 PM: The Steelers have definitely figured out the Packers’ defense. I hope it isn’t a blueprint for the Seahawks and Cardinals.
6:00 PM: Capers is being too cute tonight. It ain’t working.
6:16 PM: Bush again! He must be cut this week! Packers put up a good fight. I am actually encouraged by the second half performance. We may lose the game, but we didn’t lose momentum I don’t think.
6:19 PM: Nobody missed against us.
6:31 PM: Can the defense make the play? One time baby!
6:48 PM: Oh well. We gave it a great effort. The defense choked. Jenkins makes the sack and the game is over. 9-5 is not bad. Better get to 11-5.
Sammy, I’m not sure I’d take too much stock in what the pros are saying. They have expectations, as do many of us, but the coaches set up schemes based on what they’ve seen on tape. I think they were trying to create match-up problems in some of those formations and for the most part it worked. We scored 36 points so I wouldn’t say the coaching from an offensive perspective was bad. I think the defensive scheme was created the way it was to confuse BR a bit but he’s probably seen it all from a 3-4 perspective so it didn’t confuse him as much as we might have liked. Not sure I’d say it was bad game planning because much of the adjustments worked in the second half, we got the lead. There were some drops and some blown coverages on D but I think the penalties (being TOO aggressive) on D and special teams killed us again. Those things get cleaned up and we win games like yesterday. Does it necessarily mean we weren’t prepared? I think we were prepared but our players were a little over aggressive and our kicker needs to go back to what was working for him last year and get his head back in the game IMHO.
I saw some things I really liked as well… Finley is a beast, Matthews is a beast, we were able to make some big plays on a really good defense (ranked just below us). Rodgers is just a year shy of being an elite QB I think and our weakest links are improving each game regardless of one or two plays here or there. I personally like what I’m seeing and I think the scheme might have been even more effective if our players HAD that experience. This loss will give them that experience AND give them something to chew on going into the next game.
Larry Tex your POV Pollyana Optimist Viewpoint is very appropriate for this time of year may you and yours have a happy and safe holiday season. I was calling for Julius Peppers long before he dominated the vikes. Take Kampmans money and pay Peppers.
Pittsburgh did the Pack a huge favor yesterday. They have exposed Bush so he cannot appear on the field for any long stretch. MM has gotten too fat and happy along the winning streak. These Packers seem to only learn after a loss. Kill Seattle next week and this game is a minor footnote. Also the Packers learned to play offense yesterday.
TT & MM have hitched their wagon to Mason Crosby, there is not another viable option at this point. Next year though if Crosby should not be allowed back in training camp.
Larry – I had a very similar experience in Cleveland in the early 1990′s; took my wife, mo-in-law and very young bro-in-law to a Packer / Browns game at old Cleveland Stadium. The Browns defeated the Packers handily behind a nice game by Mike Tomczak yet I almost had to fight my way out of the parking lot because I was wearing a Packer jacket. Before this sounds like a Cleveland rip, I lived in NE Ohio for four years and actually liked the city. Browns fans were very intense; I’ve heard that Steeler fans were even more rascally. I’ve never experienced anything approaching that in NFC North rival venues…
I like the Kampman/Peppers $ angle but where do you play Peppers. Seems to me it would be the same senario as Kampy only on the other side. If you stand him up on the right side, what do you do with Matthews? Are you suggesting we go back to 4-3?
Iccy, you know Crosby as well as anyone on the blog. Whats happened? For 2 yrs he is an 80% kicker with 20/31 over 40 and 6/11 over 50. Dead on under 40 and puts them in the end zone on the KO. Even kicked a 53 and game winning 42 yarder in his first pro game. He had a 58 yarder last year and missed a 69 yarder short by a yard.
Seems like he is not (or at least was not) just a practice kicker. He doesn’t even put them all in the EZ on KOs anymore. Are we blaming the wrong guy?
You line Peppers on the Strong sided of the Offense. But you can rotate according to down and distance. We are experiencing the growing pains of a new defense. Pittsburgh was desperate for a win so they Basically abandoned all pretense of running the ball. Bush is not any better than Ahmad Carroll, Carroll was a 1st round draft choice. Plenty of DBack Talent in this Draft. I am thankful we didnt draft Malcolm Jenkins he is horrid. Get a fire and brimstone pass rush and it really wont matter that much.
For reference…I was surprised that Crosby kickoffs made the goal line when he kicked deep at heintz field; even toward the open end of the stadium which is the side he missed his FG kick from. That side has unusual winds (for every kicker) and although it was not windy at all (thankfully) any wind would have come from there. The Steeler FG’s were from the closed end I believe…at least the second for sure. I thought Crosby kicked strong in 20 degree temps when he wasn’t squibbing it.
I’m not sure why MM when winning the toss didn’t defer. I was surprised he didn’t want to test the turf with the D initially. Although GB getting the ball in Q3 is a curse also.
Heintz field was pretty beat up..5 inches of snow the previous day (alot for Pittsburgh believe it or not) and a high school game played on the field on Friday…Pitt also plays their home games at Heintz. It seems that venue gets plenty of use.
This is just one of those classic games we came up short. But for the Steelers to hand us the ball with great field position after a idiotic onside call? What was that all about? Without that screwup we don’t pull ahead. Gotta give props to Big Ben, he had a lites out game. But, no need to hang our heads, we’ll get those last two! I can’t convert ifs and buts to candy and nuts…but here’s wishing everyone a Merry Christmas!
Why did ex-Pirate pitcher Steve Blass lose his control in the 1970′s? Same for Rick Ankiel with the Cardinals? Why did all-star second basemen Chuck Knoblach and Steve Sax lose the ability to throw from second to first? Why does Sergio Garcia develop the yips when putting in majors? I have no idea what afflicts these proven and successful athletes but sometimes they just “lose it” and never get it back. I hope that’s not the case with Mason Crosby, who’s leg is the strongest in the NFL this side of Sebastian Janikowski. I will opine that I sincerely hope it’s not “technical” as Slocum has offered; anybody who’s ever played sports knows the last thing you want to do is “think” while performing.
As for yesterday’s miss, they did show slo-mo video of Crosby’s plant foot slipping on the approach…
Point of interest…if Steelers kick it deep and we score with little tome left we win…Tomlin said he onside kicked because the D couldn’t stop GB.
That was my exact thought when I heard the call on the radio, Larry. They aren’t stopping us anyway. If the kick works, wonderful for Pittsburgh; they have the ball. If it doesn’t, they probably get another shot on offense.
It still took a lot of gumption, and BR pulled it out with two very clutch plays. Have to tip your hat to the guy – he seriously nailed it down. We got beat by one of the best performances of one of the best QBs around, and while losing sucks no matter what the circumstances, I can’t hang my head over this game.