Steelers MMQB: NFL Week 3 Wrap Up

What We Learned in Week 3 in the NFL:

Roger Goodell thinks we’re all idiots; Ravens front office are idiots
Ray Lewis disappointed in how Ravens can’t cover things up anymore
Old Browns beat the new Browns
Bruce Arians has his Cardinals 3-0
Seattle outlasts Denver in OT in Super Bowl rematch
Le’Veon Bell has until Nov. 1^st to resolve DUI to avoid mandatory suspension
Steelers get back to business in a statement win over Carolina

Rogeez took to the podium on Friday afternoon emerging from whatever hole he’s been in while the PR for the NFL has taken a giant crap to say that he got it wrong. He still got it wrong. I can only hope by the clueless answers he gave in regards to whether or not he’s considered stepping down or why the league botched the Ray Rice situation so epically that the owners (or the owners with half of a brain still functional) only threw his pompous ass out there just to see if everyone still hated him before they make their decision to fire him. Goodell is standing by the absurd notion that the league didn’t get this video of inside the elevator and Ray Rice was “ambiguous” as to how his fiancé got to be unconscious as he dragged her out of the elevator and that the league hiring some chicks to be their own Law & Order SVU unit makes up for the fact that they’ve never really took the time to realize it’s probably a good idea to apply some consistent punishment since he’s all about handing out punishment and acting like the NFL is supposed to be America’s moral compass for some reason. Goodell thinks we’re idiots because he expects us just to lap this all up and ask for more. The games were still watched this weekend with the typical through-the-roof ratings and the owners are still making money hand over foot. Here’s the thing though, the NFL owners need to realize that right now Goodell is toxic for the league. Sponsors are dropping out left and right. He’s lost all credibility and can no longer be any kind of ambassador for the game whatsoever. They need to be smart enough to know that at this point a potato could hold the title of NFL Commissioner and they’d still be making money hand over fist. They’re the idiots if they think he’s the ticket to keeping this league printing its own money.

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Speaking of idiots, ESPN OTL released a pretty scathing report on just how grimey and disgusting the Baltimore Ravens front office is. According to their report the Ravens front office including team owner Steve Bisciotti, president Dick Cass and GM Ozzie Newson had knowledge in the form of a cell phone video of the entire sequence of events at the casino between Rice and his wife within hours of the incident. They spent months trying to make sure the elevator surveillance videos never saw the light of day as well as making sure Rice got involved in that pretrial intervention program that kept him from any serious legal consequences as well as campaigned on Rice’s behalf with the NFL to ensure his suspension was small. Apparently John Harbaugh had one doucheless moment in his life and wanted Rice immediately released from the team but was overruled. He went back to being douchey when he backed up his slimey bosses in his post-game press conference on Sunday by saying that he stood by the decision not to release Rice in February. Oh and Rice is appealing his suspension from the league arguing that the TMZ video was edited. As if somehow there is a longer cut version that doesn’t end with him knocking his fiancé unconscious. So that’s awesome. This isn’t going away anytime soon if you were wondering.

Also, if you’re wondering what Ray Lewis thinks about all this you’re in luck because ESPN keeps thinking it’s a good idea to let him chime in on it every now and then in spite of the enormous amount irony involved. I guess Lewis can offer the perspective of an NFL player being involved in a heinous crime only to receive little-to-no legal or NFL punishment for it but that’s why he should keep his damn mouth shut. Instead, if you were watching ESPN’s NFL Sunday Countdown show you were treated to this beauty of a monologue.

In actual football news games were played on Sunday and the old Cleveland Browns traveled to Cleveland to take on the new Cleveland Browns. The Ravens got the win with a last second 32-yard field goal by

Justin Tucker

because the Browns are still the Browns. There was a trick play where the Browns had

Johnny Manziel

on the field pretending to have a conversation with the OC Kyle Shanahan and then ended up catching a pass from Brian Hoyer, but the play was called back on a penalty because it was stupid and useless and still the internet crapped itself over it anyway. The Ravens probably lost TE

Dennis Pitta

again to another hip injury as he was carted off of the field.

This early in the season there are bound to be a few teams who start undefeated and everyone gets all prematurely excited over the team, putting unreasonably high expectations on them. The Arizona Cardinals have started the season at 3-0, and it’s not all that surprising from them, given that they finished last season 10-6 and were shut out of the playoffs due to the competitive division they play in. They made a better case for themselves this week by taking out the San Francisco 49ers 23-14 at home. I giggle at the comments at how impressive it is for Bruce Arians that he’s got his team to 3-0 with the backup quarterback, Drew Stanton playing for an injured Carson Palmer. That, to me, means that somehow it’s impressive that another quarterback is playing better than Carson Palmer. That’s silly.

In a Super Bowl rematch that just seemed way too soon we were at least treated to a more watchable game as the Seahawks looked like they were going to put the Broncos away early but you can’t ever count Peyton Manning truly out of a game. Unless, of course, he’s playing Seattle. Manning led an improbable game-tying touchdown drive with 41 seconds left and no timeouts after damned hear giving the game away on the Broncos’ previous possession by throwing an interception to Kam Chancellor. Seattle won the toss in OT and never let the Broncos get the ball with an 80-yard touchdown drive capped by a 6-yard touchdown run by Marshawn Lynch.

While the implementation of the new drug policy this week was beneficial for players like Wes Welker and Josh Gordon, who had their suspensions reduced, it puts some pressure on Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell. Initially, his preseason arrest for marijuana possession and DUI was not going to be punished by the league until the start of next season, if at all considering that it was his first offense. But, now that the new drug policy involves a mandatory 2-game suspension, Bell has the opportunity to resolve his DUI charges by Nov. 1^st to avoid that suspension. The Steelers chose an in-house punishment for both Bell and LeGarrette Blount, who was also arrested for marijuana possession, but did not disclose the nature of the punishment.

The Steelers had begun the 2014 season with a fantastic first half against the Cleveland Browns. Then, things went not so good after that. They nearly allowed the Browns to come back from a 27-3 lead. Then they traveled to Baltimore last week with the crap storm that franchise is currently under and got waxed 26-6 without getting a single trip to the endzone. Things were not looking positive as they entered a primetime matchup against the Carolina Panthers but the Steelers came out and were able to overcome penalties, bad calls, and injuries to get a nice road win. The Steelers lost Ryan Shazier to a knee injury and Ike Taylor to a nasty looking arm injury. Could be that Taylor might have played his last game as a Steeler if he’s not able to come back from that. The Steelers rushed for over 250 yards with the tandem of Bell and Blount and more importantly the Steelers held onto the football and the defense actually caused turnovers. It was a good win and even better when you look at the schedule and see the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are up next.

Here we go Steelers! Here we go!

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