Steelers/NFL
MONDAY BUZZ COLUMN
Did I mention that the Steelers are lucky?
They faced six backup quarterbacks in a row if you don’t count Andy Dalton’s one –series appearance in the December 13th game in Cincinnati.
They lose to a guy who had been with the Ravens for about an hour and a half and was cut by his previous team for over sleeping.
They finished the regular season in Cleveland against a third stringer and get into the playoffs only because the Buffalo Bills beat the New York Jets on the last day of the season.
Then they get Pacman Jones and Vontaze Burfict.
That may have been the biggest stroke of luck of them all.
If the Bengals are smart, and there may not be a bigger if on Earth, by the time you read this, they will already have cut both of those losers.
And that’s what they are –losers.
Burfict and Jones were a minute and a half away from having played a major role in ending the Bengals’ role as a perennial loser in the playoffs and they just couldn’t handle it.
Burfict saw a Steelers wide receiver in a defenseless position after a ball had sailed 10 feet over his head and he couldn’t help himself.
Taking the cheap shot was more important to him than winning the game.
Jones is a slightly different story. He’s a moron. That’s been well established and the Bengals deserve everything they get for having him on their team, but it was ridiculous for him to be penalized 15 yards for his part in the ridiculous skirmish that included Joey Porter.
The rule book clearly states that assistant coaches are not allowed on the field. That doesn’t give Jones the right to put his hands on Porter, but Porter should have been penalized for being there.
It should have been offsetting penalties.
It was ridiculous for the Steelers to be rewarded with a chip shot field goal because the officials lost control of the game.
Despite all of that, the Bengals deserve everything that happened to them Saturday night, including the extra 15 yards given to Jones, for having those two idiots on their roster.
There is plenty of video out there to prove that Burfict’s presence on the field is a concussion waiting to happen.
If the league is really serious about player safety, the Bengals, who know better than anybody what kind of player Burfict is, wouldn’t have him on their team.
And when they cut him, which I would have done before midnight on Saturday, nobody would pick him up.
But Burfict is a really good player and he would show up on somebody’s roster in a hurry. Maybe in time to play in another playoff game.
Ben Roethlisberger emerged from the game a hero because of his toughness and rightly so, but he didn’t play well enough to avoid going five years without a post season win.
The play that changed the game was a poorly thrown incomplete pass.
Give Roethlisberger credit for playing through the pain and giving it a shot but he had nothing to do with the spectacular comeback.
That was a gift from Pacman and Vontaze.
The Steelers were lucky to have them in Cincinnati.
STEELERS HAVE TO THINK LONG AND HARD ABOUT DRAFTING A LONG-TERM QB IN 2016
-Whatever happened to Mike Vick? Remember when the Steelers signed him in August after backup Bruce Gradkowski broke a finger?
I have no use for Vick as a human being, but I thought it was a great signing and was looking forward to seeing what he could do with all the weapons on the Steelers’ offense.
Vick was signed for exactly what happened in Cincinnati Saturday night. As insurance against having to put the game on Landry Jones.
The Steelers made it clear by signing Vick late in the preseason that they had no confidence in Jones.
Vick was supposed to be a guy who could give them a legitimate chance to win if Roethlisberger went down for an extended period or if he had to fill in for him late in a close game.
As it turned out, bringing Tommy Maddox out of retirement again would have been a better move.
We probably won’t know until later in the week what kind of shape Roethlisberger will be in for the Broncos game, but if he is capable of throwing a football the length of your back yard, he’s a better choice than either Jones or Vick and that’s a case of bad management.
Vick had sat for almost the entire preseason before he was given a job by his friend from Virginia, Mike Tomlin. He failed his friend miserably.
If he couldn’t beat out Landry Jones, he doesn’t belong in the NFL.
Roethlisberger will be almost 35 at this time next year and, after not missing a snap for two years, seems to have become injury prone.
Between now and July the Steelers need to make finding an experienced, dependable backup quarterback a major priority.
It might also be a good time to think about using a draft pick on the guy who will eventually replace Roethlisberger permanently.
