Steelers MMQB: NFL Week 9 Wrap Up

What We Learned in Week 9 In the NFL:

• You can’t spell “Elite” without “E-L-I”
• Philip Rivers continues to decline while the Packers remain unbeaten
• Tebow comes through for the Broncos
• The Dolphins can’t even “Suck for Luck” right
• The Steelers get swept by the Ravens in a late night heartbreaker

I must start this post with a disclaimer that there’s a good chance it’s going to be full of piss and vinegar.  I’m beyond bitter about that loss last night and I’m taking it out on anyone who crosses my path so be forewarned.  92 Friggin yards?!  How do you let that happen?!?!  Ok, I’ll get to that later.  First up, here’s what happened in games on Sunday that didn’t give Steeler Nation any chest pains.

If there’s anything good that happened on Sunday it was watching Brady and the Pats go down to the mighty Eli Manning and the Giants.  Brady made some killer mistakes, Ochocinco was nonexistent again, and Eli out “elited” Brady for a major road win for the Giants.  The Patriots look awful beatable and their weaknesses of their crappy defense as well as the fact that if you plan man coverage against them, they’re done on offense are exposed more than ever now.  Personally I’m taking great pleasure in seeing this.  Belichick has been heralded for years as a coaching mastermind and a defensive genius going back to his days in Cleveland and now he just got out coaches two weeks in a row.  Good stuff.

Before the season started a wrote a post on how it frustrates me to constantly hear Philip Rivers described as an “elite” quarterback while Roethlisberger is always lower on that list.  Apparently I was dead-on with that.  Rivers leads the league in interceptions so far and seems to throw just as many touchdown passes to the opposition as he does to his own team.  As slow starting as San Diego has been as a team in recent years, they’ve never been this bad because of mistakes caused by Rivers.  Last year they lead the league in points scored, yards gained, and lead the league on defense but were constantly killed by special teams and could never put together enough winning drives to take the AFC West (which is looking an awful lot like the NFC West of last year).  Now it’s all Rivers that’s giving games away.  The Packers are allowing a tremendous amount of yards and points for an undefeated team, but Rivers clearly gave any chances of a comeback for the Chargers away with that last interception.

Tim Tebow continues to be a highly debated topic in the league since it’s apparently so offensive to some NFL “experts” the fact that Tebow has fans even though he’s not the greatest quarterback ever.  I’m not going to lie, I live in Florida and I love me some Tebow.  I don’t care if he’s praying to the god of cookies every time he kneels down, he was exciting to watch at Florida and if he had an offense built around him to his talents instead of being put into bad team with the kinds of expectations that have been put on him now, he’d be exciting to watch in the NFL.  Granted, he’s not a Ben Roethlisberger or even Cam Newton and can step into a team and be successful immediately.  He needs some work, he needs some support, and he needs some time.  He doesn’t have a whole lot of that going on right now in Denver and the two wins he’s started have been the most exciting games for Denver all season so far.  So that says something.  For me, it almost got to the point where all the NFL “experts” were wanting to say, “Tebow is an awful quarterback so don’t root for him.”  I know the World Wide Leader would like to control every aspect of the NFL and be able to tell us who is good and who isn’t, but you can’t always control what the fans like and what the fans want.

Speaking of the fans, I’m not sure if Dolphins fans are happy or disappointed with their team after earning their first win and probably sealing their fate of losing the Andrew Luck Sweepstakes.  The Dolphins blew out Kansas City on the road and completed the game without a single turnover and for the first time this season, got a lead and held onto it.  Whether or not Dolphin fans are disappointed at missing out on the opportunity to get Luck, they should be happy with this win and not ending a season winless like the Colts just might.  The Colts are an awful team, just horrible on every aspect; Dolphins fans didn’t really want their team to be as bad as those guys did they?