Sunday, December 28, 2008

liveblog: Steelers v. Browns

for this, the final game of the season and the only game i've seen in pittsburgh, i've decided to liveblog. my liveblogging experience includes 2 Pens games and one afternoon of Austrian music television (see below and the raleigh street blog).

so far, not much has happened. in fact until about three minutes ago, this game was super boring. it seemed like at least 17 points had been scored but were not recorded on the scoreboard. i guess they were disallowed (or maybe it's broken?!).

bruce gradkowski is pitching for the Browns, which makes him i think the 4th person to quarterback the team this season? i have a soft spot for bruce, mostly because he's from pittsburgh (seton la salle) and because his name is super fun to say with a pittsburgh accent.

lots of exciting things keep almost happening. stallworth was literally flipped over by a steelers tackle, yet attempted to stand up after he landed and continued acquiring YAC. he ran pretty far before anyone thought to mention that his elbow had downed him.

this might sound stupid, but something i have struggled with my entire football watching career is the difference between an incomplete pass and a complete pass that is then fumbled. i'm not convinced that there is any discernable difference to anyone; whichever referee is in charge just guesses, then the rest of them agree because they have no clue either. the steelers picked up a "fumble" that turned out to be merely an incomplete pass. he ran it nearly to the endzone, but the whistles were blowing. disappointing. the thing is, i'm pretty sure everyone viewing with the naked eye thought the pass was complete then fumbled, including the announcer. i would love to ask a panel of referees about this.

i just remembered that in order to be a complete pass, the pass has to be caught legally and then the player has to execute a "football move" which is my FAVORITE term in professional sports commentary. IT DOESN'T EVEN MAKE SENSE. which further proves that the incomplete v. complete+fumble is an impossible call to make.

big ben has managed to throw a few passes this quarter to the players on his own team.

1:48 in the 2nd. roethlisberger is down, but don't worry because after willie parker scored a few minutes ago, and then threw the ball nearly to the second level of seating in celebration. remember that commercial where john elway threw that nerf football the entire length of the field? it was just like that.

ben does not appear to even be thinking about getting up off the field.

well, here comes byron leftwich. at least we're keeping with the theme of former MAC conference quarterbacks. (bruce - toledo, ben - miami of oh., byron - marshall*.) also all their names start with the letter B! fuuuuuck yeah.

"is he still...? he is dead." - my mom on the fact that ben hasn't stood up yet.

with no hope of securing the top seed in the AFC, there was really no reason for mike tomlin to play ben. now let's hope byron can get us through the playoffs.

what do you think about this? should teams bench their first stringers at the end of the season if a win is not necessary?

they're DRILLING his helmet to take it off!!!!! we're being assured that they do this in "any number of scenarios" but i think maybe to avoid inciting a panic they could have saved this for the locker room.

they're taking him out on a stretcher.
"it'd be funny if they dropped him." -mom

ben just gave a thumbs up to the crowd as the little motorized cart carried his stretcher down the sideline. WHAT A RELIEF.

"i hope leftwich throws about 5 touchdowns." -mom. you know, it HAS been quite a while since we've had a good quarterback controversy.

there's talk of Cleveland looking to sign Bill Cowher as head coach next year. am i the only one who sees this as completely implausible? you can't coach the steelers for 15 years then coach the Browns. Or the Cowboys, the Bengals, the Ravens, or the Eagles. The other 27 teams? have at it.

Leftwich just "scrambled" his eggs 8 yards for a touchdown. pack your bags, ben.

it's the 2nd half now. i got kinda bored of liveblogging.

winter is great. in the colder markets they put up those space-heater type things near the benches so the players can stay warm between plays. they have signs that say "caution: very hot. stay back 4 feet." EVERY GAME without fail, there is some sort of joke made using these signs. today, it was "the steelers defense is on fire!" as the camera caught townsend and the rest of them unknowingly standing in the vicinity of the heater. HILARIOUS.

okay this has gone on long enough. the score is 17-0 with 4:53 left in the 3rd quarter. i'm probably going to take a nap. PEACE.


*now in conference USA i guess, but recently. when leftwich played there, they were still MAC.

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