Seattle beat Philly Monday night in the last minute of the game. Today, they beat the Titans in the last minute of the game, so they'll be high on two wins come Sunday. Browns beat the Texans, so that puts Texas back farther in the hunt, maybe even out of the hunt. Good to see the Steelers put something together and win, but a tough row to hoe comin' up.

Mitchell
Seattle beat Philly Monday night in the last minute of the game. Today, they beat the Titans in the last minute of the game, so they'll be high on two wins come Sunday. Browns beat the Texans, so that puts Texas back farther in the hunt, maybe even out of the hunt. Good to see the Steelers put something together and win, but a tough row to hoe comin' up.

Yep - good points. 

It's pretty simple to me at this point - who wants it more? I expect Rudolph to play his butt off. Dude may be looking at his last shot at an NFL job so, the better he plays the more he can ask for. He's on a 1 year, 1 mil deal essentially so. With how important Backup qbs have been, I expect him to play well. 

I think they have a decent path to the playoffs at this point. We'll see. 

Will Rudolph be able to keep up the magic? Often these sparks are short lived. O-line gave him a lot of time against the Bungles, just as they did for KP against the same Bungles. The two best looking games all season. Mason has never been known to play well under pressure, just as most don’t. Look at Brock Purdy under pressure. If the O-line can keep Mason upright, they have a chance. Defense did surprisingly well being held together by duct tape. With how short staffed they are at ILB and S, just can’t see them being able to keep repeating. If they can somehow sneak in the playoffs, they would need extreme luck to advance at all. But always nice getting in the playoffs, even knowing they would be by far, the worst team in the field. So, they rightfully don’t belong there.

Ravens playing Dolphins, if Ravens win, they lock up #1 seed. If they lose, Steelers final game gets a lot harder. It is playoff time, sort of want hard games. If you can’t win them, how can you win in the playoffs?

NCAA bowls get worse every year. I hope the updates to the playoffs help keep just about any draft worthy player from not playing. I don’t think it will with some kids skipping games from playoffs already. Add another round and likely to keep going. It used to be worthwhile taking vacation days between Christmas and New Years to watch games that these teams took somewhat pride in. Finish their college career with a bowl win used to mean something or at least felt that way. These are starting to feel like pre season. With transfer portal, it isn’t even that now.

NIL might help, but the NFL guys get that too. The whole “Brock Purdy is paid less than college players”. Sure, his rookie contract. I’d imagine he has endorsement deals and other “NIL” sources of income rolling his way.

I'm not gonna be as hard on the Niners as you, Pork. True, Purdy had a really bad night, but then, the whole team looked like only 50% of the true Niners. Pizz poor blocking, not a great running game though McCaffery faired pretty well, and defensively as a team had a new record for defensive penalties. I'm hopin' Rudolph don't get rattled, and if the O line can keep him safe for a few series', it'll be a big confidence builder, but that won't build accuracy. Look how many teams have had quarterback injuries this year. There's subs in place all over the league. Rudolph could get a shot at a decent contract in free agency and I really think he's better than a 3rd row seat warmer and he'll get his shot to prove it this week. Wish I could see the Browns tomorrow night, and I probably could subscribe to Prime on the one month free trial, but I'm not gonna go through the hassle.

It wasn’t Purdy really, he made a few bad passes while under duress, they ALL do, including Mahommes, Allen and Lamar. It all started when they lost their all pro tackle Trent Williams and didn’t have the backup to take on his duties. That and the Ravens and the 49ers are about the only teams with the defensive personnel to match up with the 49ers offensive scheme (with a healthy Williams). Effectively running the ball then play action with 80%+ passes over the middle where the ILBs are pushed up into the running lanes, putting the safeties in a situation to drop into that space or help the deep routes. Even the last pick in the draft can make those type of reads to wide open receivers. Ravens front was able to contain CMC enough to keep Queen and Roquan disrupting those middle dump off routes that the Steelers haven’t been unable to cover since Shazier and Polamalu made that a no throw zone. There aren’t many QBs in the NFL who would have done much better than Purdy the other night. It is all the scheme, it is extremely effective if you have the personnel, which they normally do. Williams stays healthy and a few of those deflections hit the ground instead of INTs and the game is basically a draw. But instead, “Purdy looked horrible”, just like our QBs do, when given that sort of time in most games, besides the Bungles. I have a feeling will be the case this weekend whoever the QB is.

Well, it ain't over 'til it's over. Where did that O line come from? They were able to run the ball at will, until they went totally conservative at the end of the game. Word of caution for the Ravens game. The Dolphins, supposedly the most effective offense in the NFL, suffered a drubbing at the hands of the Ravens. I think it could be an easy win for the Ravens against the Steelers. The Ravens  showed that passing down the right side provided long gains and easy TD opportunities. That's Joey Porter's domain. Even if a Ravens' receiver fails to catch the pass, they could get 3 or 4 PI calls for long gains on (Mister Handsy) Porter. I don't think he had one yesterday; one reason being he couldn't stay with Metcalf on the long routes. One more thing. Jackson is the second highest yardage runner on the Ravens club, and when he runs, (usually on well covered pass plays, and often by design, he NEVER slides. He always plows headlong into the linebackers or safeties. Defensive backs must be very careful about how they bring him down, 'cause even though in that case he's a running back not afforded the protection of the same rules as when/if he's defenseless in the pocket, I somehow think he'd get the PF penalty if hit anywhere above the waist. At any rate, after this coming Sunday's game is over, the anticipation will be over, unless the Steelers pull it out. Maybe we'll get lucky and Harbaugh won't play starters, but I think he'll want to end the regular season with the best record in the NFL. We'll know in a week.

No passing TD’s. He stinks, no? Yinzers only like him because he lives in the area and calls Pittsburgh home….

How did that creepy valley game go? Besides garbage time, they looked excellent…

Ravens 2nd and 3rd stringers will likely keep Stillers out of playoffs. Winning season accomplished. Tomlin has at least another year or five. O line probably shuts it down for the year. But good to see them completely dominate for much of the game. Not sure if they adjusted some schemes or just challenged them to give 100%? If they can do it again, going to give Omar something to think about for next year.

Typical Tomlin, backdoor into a winning season. Still wont win a playoff game this year, if somehow they luck into the #7 seed. All they had to do was beat AZ and NE, and week #18 wouldn't matter so much. I want to know if Omar pounded the table to resign Mitch or was it Tomlin. Its pretty clear the ONLY reason Mitch started was his salary. 
 
I hope Mason gets a win this week, and goes elsewhere for 2024 and signs a decent contract. Dude deserves better. 
 
 

Welp. that was a mess of a game. 

Miami should be ****ed vs Buffalo. 

I think Buff loses and Steelers somehow get in. I dislike Tomlin, and think he should move on, but whew. This team felt like 0-17 at times, to get them to 10-7 is nuts.