Weekend Recap

Even with a fair amount of rain, Heinz Field was in much better shape last night and the Steelers picked up a win over the Bengals behind three Ben TD's(one by land, two by air). Big props to Hines Ward, who's two receiving TD's tied and then broke John Stallworth's Steelers franchise record for TD receptions. The defense looked outstanding, and after giving up an opening drive touchdown, they locked down and kept the Bungles offense looking pretty inept. It's a good thing too, because although the offensive line was much better this week, the offense made alot of mistakes. Ben floated alot of passes high(actually both QB's did, the wet ball probably wasn't helping), but luckily his receivers pulled most of them down and probably saved him from having more than the two picks he threw anyway. A bigger concern was Willie Parker almost throwing the game away by fumbling everytime he touched the ball. Willies 4 fumbles could have very easily cost them the game, but luckily two of them were overturned upon review(the first was Mike Tomlin's first ever challenge win as a head coach), including one that was returned for a touchdown. Willie has shown a tendency to fumble in key situations the last couple years and he needs to do something about it. Soon. The Bengals 8th loss of the year guaranteed that they will not finish above .500 yet again. The Bengals only finished with a winning record once since 1990. Tell me again why everybody keeps talking about these guys among the elite teams every offseason?

The win, combined with a Browns loss, gave the Steelers a two game lead in the AFC North. The Browns loss was bittersweet though, as I had it as one of the money picks and got screwed by a shitty call on that Kellen Winslow TD with time expiring. We managed a 2-2 overall in the money picks, with AJ Feeley's inability to complete a pass to anyone but Lofa Tatupu costing us another loss.

Eli Manning played 3.5 quarters of typical Eli ball, before somehow managing to stage 4th quarter comeback as the Giants snuck out a win over the Bears. When I first saw that Eli had led the Giants to a late season comeback win, my first thought was that I should probably stock up on bottled water and batteries, because something is seriously wrong in the universe. But then 8 more men accused Larry Craig of having gay sex, and I realized everything was still right in the world and we were going to be fine.

In the battle to remain defeated, the Dolphins heroically managed to pull out a loss against the Jets to move to 0-12. They are now just 2 games away from tying the 1976 Buccaneers 0-14 record. The Dolphins 4 remaining games are Buffalo, Baltimore, New England, and Cincinnati. The Jets were by far the scariest team they had left, and they should be able to avoid any wins from here on out. The only team that I could accept them beating would be New England(especially if the Patsies are still undefeated), because that would just be funny.

On a quick BCS note, as I suspected, the national title game will be OSU vs LSU. Ohio State is like the Vladimir Putin of the BCS. They win no matter what. Damn, that's two current political references in one post. I promise to try and do better with the irrelevant dribble you've come to expect from me from here on out. Virginia Tech, Oklahoma, and Georgia round out the top 5. Here are the major bowl matchups:

Sugar Bowl: #10 Hawai'i vs #5 Georgia - This will be a touch matchup for Hawai'i, but if they can pull a Boise State like upset over Georgia, it will be a fitting end to a fucked up year in the BCS.
Fiesta Bowl: #4 Oklahoma vs #9 West Virginia - West Virginia has the most wins of any college that has never won a national title. What a devastating loss to Pittsburgh.
Orange Bowl: #3 Virginia Tech vs #8 Kansas - Virginia Tech is playing about the best football of anybody right now. This could a great game.
BCS Title Game: #1 Ohio State vs #2 LSU - When this game is over, there will be alot of angry people at Virginia Tech, Oklahoma, and Georgia. And don't be surprised if we Les Miles still somehow ends up at Michigan.