Ryan Howard -- Pirates 1B

On ESPN this morning, they reported that the Bucs could have had Ryan Howard a couple of years ago when they were shopping Kris Benson around. But they prized Wiggington more and made the deal with the Mets. Do the Bucs know how to rate prospects? A lot like the stories on the Giles deal where the Bucs wanted Nady more than Bay...

Pitt Game 2

Pitt @ Cincy Thoughts

- Why are they playing college games on Friday? Not exactly my favorite idea.
- Offense: Big plays are nice. Lack of any sort of sustained drive though is going to be a problem when they play a team that won't give up the big play.
- Defense: Quite impressive, but again need to see them against a real team.

- Verdict: 2-0 is nice and they likely are guaranteed a bowl game after this start. Now to see if they are for real or not.

- Next up: Michigan State @ Heinz Field. A very good test. Win this and they could be 9-0 headed to the WVU/Louisville games at the end of the year (although the Rutgers game could also be very interesting).

Steelers Game 1: The Fins

Very interesting 1st game for our Steelers. Things we liked:
- Batch played well. Except for the fumble at the goal, he didn't make any mistakes and threw for an almost unheard of 3 TDs.
- Play calling. Keep handing the ball to Willie. Not once during the game did I say: "Why did they call that" like I often did when they ran Jerome outside. About the only sequence I didn't like was 3 straight pass plays with no runs.
- Virtually no penalties. Just one on harrison that negated the long kick return. But still that is pretty good.
- The defense. One TD was the special teams fault so really only 10 points. Gave Miami basically no rushing game and then the two interceptions at the end to seal the deal.

What I didn't like:
- The special teams was dreadful in all facets of the game. The punt return team had adventures. The punt coverage team couldn't stop Welker. And Reed had the worst shank I have ever seen from him on his FG attempt.

Next game:
- Monday night @ Jax. Site of some memorable Steeler-Jaguar games. My most memorable is the game where the steelers went to kick the game winning FG, had it blocked and returned for a TD, and it looked like Cowher was ready to run out on the field and punch someone. Will see if Ben is back. But even if not, keep handing the ball to Willie and good things will happen.