Minionhunter

I agree.

Exactly right.

I wish this weren't true, but sadly I think you are right.

Hat tip to you, this is exactly the attitude we all should have, we did show improvement in Dallas (loss was by 10 points). See Weddle's speech after the game.

Just when you thought Tomlin's rabbit's foot was rubbed down to just bones and dry flaking leather, this happens. Plus Baltimore fans must root for the colts to win on Thanksgiving night. Only thing I can say is "Go Colts!" Because the Steelers winning just isn't acceptable. At least they aren't the Patriots.

You all forget how bad Brady looked coming back from his ACL

I don't think Flacco's been right all year ... but there are games where we can put the blame squarely on him, but there are people who seem to want to put the full blame on him on every loss. To me, the offense hung in for the first half, but then come the second half, they only had one possession (that got destroyed by a terrible personal foul call) ... and that was the end of the 3rd quarter. The defense allowed the Cowboys to chew the clock to nothing. The offense didn't even have a chance to blow it. They didn't see the ball. To me, this game flipped at the half and it was all about the pass rush. The 1st half it was respectable and the 2nd it was non-existent. Even if Jimmy been available and had the game of his life and shut Dez down - it wouldn't matter. Dak could have gone through 12 progressions and hit any receiver who could manage to get open. Our edge rush shows glimmers of hope ... where we start thinking that maybe Siz can return to form and Smith and Judon can grow (why am I not saying Correa .. but I digress) but in the end ... a good O line and the pass rush can disappear. By the way my original argument about Flacco's ineffectiveness wasn't as a result of this game. It was as a result of cumulative posts by fans who always blames the Oline, the WRs, the defense, the OC, the coach - anyone but Flacco who is not only the weakest link but also whom elevated play could have the biggest impact. Yep, this tells us you are uninterested in anything but your points. You ignore the points in the post that you replied to, which was about Sunday's game specifically, and just pile on the hate and loathing. At least you admit it here. You are only interested in hating on Flacco, and making sweeping generalizations.

PFT quote "Just when you think Tomlin’s rabbit’s foot must be worn down to the skin…"

Heh. Ben gibbering like an idiot again trying to look like a tough guy. http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2016/11/22/ben-roethlisberger-has-no-doubt-andrew-luck-will-play/ Just announced that Luck is definitely out for the game.

These are interesting comments from a Browns player when juxtaposed to our own line. “They [Brown's quarterbacks] can’t keep getting hit like that, and if I want to voice my opinion, I’m going to voice my opinion now, because it’s going on too much,” Pryor said, per Cleveland.com. “I don’t care if you’ve got to hold these dudes. Hold them and take the damn penalty and stop getting our quarterbacks hit. I hate that.” [emphasis added] I wonder if our lines are similar in that both are struggling, but our line has a mandate, stated or unstated, to keep Joe from getting hit because of the injury.

Glad I'm not the only one who sees that. I've stopped going to a specific other site starting yesterday that blamed Sunday's loss on Flacco when he had a decent game (not perfect for sure, but good enough to win). I'm not giving them any more revenue with my clicks if they just want to spout nonsense. The main problem was stupid penalties (opposed to calculated risk penalties) killing drives. Either wiping out first downs or huge chunks of yards which would have made it "simple to run the ball" on the next down but the penalty forces another pass instead. These things are a double whammy, they add another pass (a harder one to complete) to the stat line and effectively remove a running play, so the pass appears to be over-emphasized. Been the same all year (or drops by a WR on passes that hit them in the hands buddy pass style). It's like no one is watching the game and thinking about it. They just seem to look at stats, and you can't tell what happened in the game just from the stats.

The crew was trying to save their own reputation. Still no excuse, but it is "one more man" playing for the other side you have to fight. Why do people think Harbs said in his press conference he didn't see Zuttah's hit, and fake acting surprised by it that he didn't even know that he was called for a penalty, and that reporters should tell him that and write about what they thought. He knew, they all knew, but I bet the team issued a mandate this year (and good for them) about not criticizing the refs, because they got into a really bad way doing that last year, even though they were right.

By my analysis they could have run it one more time after West's run for zero on the second series in the second half, but it is a traditional passing down (2nd and long, quick pass to get a chunk of yards to make 3rd down easier). McJacket is right on this. You could say that they don't appear overly committed to the run or they are not going against the standard play calling to push the running identity, or they are not imaginative in using the run, but they didn't abandon it until they very end when they had to.

make up game by refs to throw to Dallas http://www.espn.com/blog/dallas-cowboys/post/_/id/4755706/cowboys-havent-had-much-luck-with-john-parry-as-ref

Not sure if I should laugh or be riled by this one. I do know Brooks would have been in there and likely would have laid someone out.

LOL! Seriously, never underestimate the pure hate that team and ownership has for the Ravens.... Plus Gostkowski has been missing extra points this year and seems to have a mental thing since last season when he lost their playoff game by missing an extra point.

For everyone thinking that the New England game is going to be a loss for us, I can tell you that they are imploding on defense right now. Belicheat has caused a mini mutiny in trading away players on defense. They are more beatable than Dallas and we always play them tough. Only reason for concern is if they have a new cheating method they have been saving up.

I really wish they would try and talk Steve Smith into coming back next year. I bet if John and Ozzie both told him they really wanted and needed him and gave him a good one year contract he would come back.

Yes, and they didn't call his obvious pushoff on a facemask to rescue that drive they had to make the 1st down. Refs were obviously pro Dallas that day.

I'm just thinking, what is the world coming to? We have to root for the Luckless Colts on Thanksgiving.

When he noticed Luck is likely out with a concussion for the IND-PIT game, Ben said "Well, I've already been in the concussion protocol three times this week. And I'm not a drama queen." Stolen from PFT

I don't always agree with you but this is accurate. At the very least they should have gone no huddle the entire second half, as soon as it started. Morhenwig is the wrong guy. Just like Trestman he can't adapt, plus he can't install his offense either. I personally think MM was pissed at everyone suggesting he should go no huddle up tempo he wanted to prove that they didn't need to do it. Then when he recognized they had to use it (and it worked) it was already too late.

If Ray really was sorry, if he really didn't mean what he said, if he meant that he wanted to treat Joe like a man, a friend, then he would have called him to personally apologize, like a man. This was a bunch of lies trying to salvage a dying media career.

Disingenuous again Ray. You said Joe wasn't family or a friend. It was entirely a personal attack, it was entirely about Joe. This wasn't an apology, it was damage control.

Nope. His hit was fine and necessary. The Dallas player was illegally facemasking Dixon and Zuttah cleaned him off of Dixon. That is what you want to see. People are riled because his other two penalties cost us dearly killing drives, just like this one. However the holding call on him was bogus. The refs screwed us. Everyone talks about the no call when the guy tackled Aiken, but less so when Wallace was held and when Dez pushed off Young's facemask to convert the third down. It was a terribly called game.