Oh F*%k!!

Steelers 41, Rams 24

Fast Willie is out for the season. More on that in a bit. It was a huge night of Steel City showdowns last night. We had the Steelers, Pitt, and the Penguins all playing big games. We'll start with the Steelers. They got the win, which means they now only need a Tennessee loss to clinch a playoff spot, and/or a Cleveland loss to clinch the division. Unfortunately, it came at a huge cost, as Willie Parker, the NFL's leading rusher, went down for the season with a broken leg on the second play of the game. In his stead, Najeh "Dumptruck" Davenport filled in admirably, putting up a Parker-like line of 123 yards on 24 carries and a TD, and also added a receiving TD. The loss of Parker is huge, but I think Davenport will be able to pick up most of the slack. He's no Parker, he lacks the agility, outside speed, and acceleration of Willie, but he's much more of a bruiser and breaks more tackles than Willie. He won't bust out any 60+ yard runs, but he's much better at running inside, and he's not exactly a slouch in the speed department either. With the way the offensive line has been playing(they gave up another 4 sacks last night), it might work out to have a back that can run over a few linebackers(I'm trying to stay positive here). Ben played extremely well, posting a perfect quarterback rating of 158.3(who's fucking idea was it to have a perfect rating be 158.3? You couldn't round that off to a more even number) for the second time this year and the third time in his career. That ties Peyton Manning for the NFL record. The offensive line looked a little better, but still gave up 4 sacks and Ben was under pressure alot. The defense was up and down. They gave up over 300 yards and 24 points to the Rams, but were able to keep Steven Jackson in check most of the time. He did bust one loose for 36 yards, but they still held him to only 85 yards on the day. The Steelers finally managed to get a sack, their first since the December 2 game against the Bengals, and did get some pressure on Bulger and Frerotte. They are still missing way too many tackles though. They have some time off now before traveling to Baltimore for the season finale, and it's safe to say they need to make some major improvements on both lines and in the secondary if they want to make any noise in the playoffs.

#9 Pitt 65, #7 Duke 64, OT

Duke had won 36 straight games in December, but was unable to overcome the loss of Dick Vitale, who is out until February with a vocal cord injury. After Pitt went into halftime down by 12, they came out hot in the second half and Levance Fields eventually hit a three-ball with 4.7 seconds left in overtime to keep Pitt undefeated. Pitt also had a big injury, as senior Mike Cook went down with a serious knee injury in the second half.

Penguins 5, Bruins 4, SO

Another overtime game. The Penguins took an early 4-0 lead, and Sid "the Kid" Crosby broke out of a bit of a slump to get 3 points(2 G, 1 A) in the first period, but the Penguins still needed a shootout to get the win after they gave up 4 unanswered goals to the Bruins. Even though Sidney is arguably the best player in the NHL right now, there is one thing he had never done in his 194 career games: get in a fight. Well he finally got that milestone Thursday night with a Gordie Howe Hat Trick(goal, assist, and fight) when he dropped the gloves and went toe-to-toe with Boston tough guy Andrew Ference and left Ference battered and bleeding.

Blazers Note

Even though it isn't a Steel City team, one quick note on the Blazers game tonight. It won't be for the Division lead since the Nuggets won last night and currently has a 1.5 game lead over the Blazers, but Portland should have the advantage as Denver needed 2 OT's to get their win and now have to travel to the Rose Garden on tired legs to face the Blazers. There will likely be a soldout crowd(including yours truly) as the Portland fans come out to get their Sergio Rodriguez bobblehead and hopefully watch the Blazers stretch their win streak to 10 straight games.