Woooooo-hooooooo! The Steelers are AFC Champs!
Everybody sing:
And… the icing on the cake:
Woooo-hooooo!
I’ve always said that God won’t let the Baltimore Ravens win a playoff game at Heinz Field. And although He seemed to be toying with me Saturday night, He came through in the end with a miraculous victory!
I had hoped to write a well thought-out piece, something worthy of posting on ESPN.com. But that’s just not going to happen. Instead, this post will just say things like “HELL YEAH!” and “Wooo-hoooo!!”.
Yes, the Ravens jumped out a big lead thanks to two Steeler turnovers (and, by the way, WHY did 11 Steelers and 10 Ravens just stand around after Suggs knocked the ball out of Ben’s hand? Whatever happened to playing to the whistle?) But, in true Baltimore fashion, the Ravens self-destructed in the second half, having only 94 yards of total offense through three quarters. Most painful for them was the (lack of) performance from the big-time receivers the Ravens (apparently) paid far too much for. Anquan Boldin dropped a sure touchdown pass from Flacco on the Ravens’ next to last possession, and ended up with 1 catch for -2 yards. TJ Houshmandzadeh fared better coming up with 3 catches for 38 yards, but dropped an easy one on 4th and 18 to end the game for Baltimore. See what happens when you disrespect the Terrible Towel, Housh?
The Terrible Curse lives! The game marked Roethlisberger’s seventh consecutive win against Baltimore, and (as I mentioned on Twitter earlier in the week) the Ravens have never beaten the Steelers when both Big Ben and Troy play. And so it was on Saturday. I just can’t say enough about the Steeler defense… it was truly an amazing performance, and one for the ages.
* * *
The Steelers also caught a huge break on Sunday, as the Jets defeated the hated New England Patriots by a score of 28-21. But the game was never as close as the score would suggest, and nearly everyone in Steeler Nation gave a big sigh of relief as the game ended. The Steelers never play well against the Patriots (as this year’s 39-26 loss would indicate). The Steelers lost to the Jets, too, but in a much closer game (22-17). And, more importantly, the Steelers get to play the Jets at home. I’m excited about the game, and can’t wait until next Sunday!
Here we go Steelers, here we go!
Pittsburgh Steelers: Unstoppable
I normally don’t post fan videos, but this one is well done. And with the battle against the hated Bawlmerr Ravens soon to be upon us, this gets me hyped up somethin’ awful:
Let’s go Steelers!
“Cutthroat Steelers”
If you a Steelers fan or statistics junkie (or both), head on your to this post at One For The Other Thumb. Although the article looks at both sides of the football, the numbers for the Steelers 2010-11 defense are pretty amazing:
– The Steelers D gave up 276.8 yards per game, second in the league.
– They also gave up a league-low 14.9 points per game.
– They also gave up only 1,004 rushing yards ALL SEASON, which is the least in Steelers history… all the more amazing when you consider that the former record holders played four fewer games than this team!
– And, not to leave the offense out in the cold, my main man Mike Wallace “only” came in 5th in the league with 1,257 receiving yards… but all the folks above him had 76 or more catches. Wallace had only 60. He has the most receptions of 40+ yards in the league, and tied Steelers legend John Stallworth for most 100+ yard games in a season… and this is only Wallace’s second season!
Check out the article for some good stats about the Steelers!
Friday’s Unrelated News Roundup
Here’s a bunch of random, unrelated stuff I’ve been meaning to post over the past couple of days:
– Move over, Bhut Jolokia! Gerald Fowler, a British pub owner and pepper enthusiast, has cross-bred three types of peppers to create the Naga Viper, a pepper that beats the Bhut Jolokia – the former “world’s hottest pepper” – by 300,000 Scoville units. The new pepper comes in at 1,359,000 on the Scoville scale, or around 270 times hotter than an average jalapeño, which ranks at a relatively wimpy 2,500 to 5,000 on the Scoville scale.
– This is the saddest thing I’ve read in ages: the Holy Thorn Tree, an ancient tree in Glastonbury, England was cut down by vandals this week. According to legend, the tree was created by Joseph of Arimathea, who had come to England after Jesus had been crucified. He stopped on Wearyall Hill, stuck his walking cane (which allegedly belonged to Jesus) into the ground and went to sleep; when he awoke, the cane had sprouted into a tree. The original tree was cut down during Oliver Cromwell’s time, but residents had saved some cuttings, which were used to create new trees around Glastonbury. The current tree was planted in 1951. The tree is (or rather, was) something of a genuine mystery, because the species, Crategus Monogyna Bi Flora, really did originate in the Middle East, and the tree was ancient when Cromwell’s folks cut the original one down. Every year, cuttings from this (or one of the “daughter trees”) are taken and sent to the Queen, were they sit on her dinner table at Christmas time.
– Strangely, Microsoft hasn’t said much about this, but the Xbox 360 has been the best selling game console in the United States for six months in a row! And I can remember when the original Xbox was just a rumor on message boards… who knew it would one day kick Sony’s ass?
– The latest AccuScore projections are out, and they give the Pittsburgh Steelers a 99.3% chance of making the playoffs and a 78.6% chance of winning their division (the hated Ravens are given an 87.8% chance at the playoffs and a 21.4% chance of taking the division from Pittsburgh). And, on this page, Doug Farrar discusses the fastest receivers in the NFL; Brandon Lloyd gets the top slot, barely inching out my main man Mike Wallace.
– A&E canceled their new reality show The Hasslehoffs after just one episode. That seems pretty harsh, given David Hasslehoff’s popularity and the fact that it’s basic cable.
– ACS: Law is a British law firm that’s trying to make copyright infringement a business. They’ve sent out tens of thousands of letters demanding that file sharers pay them $1,500… or legal action will follow. The theory being, of course, that people would willingly cough up the relatively small $1,500 fee instead of risking far more money taking it to court. After months of threats, the firm finally filed its first cases in the UK this week, and it was a complete disaster… for ACS:Law!
– The site verysmallarray.com created this map of the United States by entering each state’s name into Google and posting the first entry from the search giant’s autocomplete feature. I’m especially fond of the result from the state of Georgia! 🙂
The HATE Post
Just wanted to pop in to say…
HAHAHAHAHA! The Ratbirds went down!! Granted, the Steeler offense didn’t look that great, but let’s keep things in perspective: ever since the Ratbirds beat the Steelers earlier this season (when Reed missed two FGs and Charlie Batch was the QB, mind you), the Ratbirds have defeated five teams with a collective record of 19-36 (the Broncos, Bills, Dolphins and Panthers), and lost to the Pats and Falcons, who are 18-4. And you can make that 27-7 with the loss to Pittsburgh.
Old School NFL
For those folks who were Falcons fans in the late 1970s:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0a9ErSXS-s
GRITS BLITZ, BABY! 🙂
Gosh, I love those old 70s uniforms!
FRIDAY FUN: Favre gets it
I hate Brett Favre, and I love seeing guys get hit in the nuts… so what could be better than an animated GIF of Brett Favre getting hit in the nuts during practice? Not a whole lot, let me tell you!
The Ecstasy
As a Steelers fan, I should be concerned with what goes on in the AFC North. And actually, I am. Every time the Ratbirds and Bungles lose I smile, and there’s a deep joy in my heart every time the Steelers beat the Brownies… which is often.
But as an AFC North fan, I get awfully tired of the national sports media slobbering all over the NFC Least. I couldn’t care less about the New York Giants, or the Philadelphia Eagles, or the Deadskins… but I do have a special hate for the Dallas Cowboys. This hate, born in the 70s, used to get deeper and deeper every year… but it’s more like pity. Now that the Cowboys have Tony Romo, I laugh like Vincent Price every time he bungles a snap or throws a pick at the worst possible time… which is, like the Steelers beating the Browns, quite often.
Imagine my joy when I saw this on Sunday:
heh. No, I’m not laughing because Tony Romo is hurt. He’ll get better, and as I understand it, he won’t even need surgery. I laugh because it just makes me happy to see the SS Jerry Jones going down like the friggin’ Titanic with Wade Phillips at the helm. And the amazing thing is that Dallas has talent. To ape Winston Churchill, never was so little done by so many with so much talent. It almost makes me wish that someone would take highlights from Dallas’ season, speed them up, and put the whole thing to the theme song from The Benny Hill Show. Oh wait:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=airOuFuZVr8
