Dave’s Football Blog

Duce Staley was a gametime scratch because of continuing hamstring troubles. No problem. Jerome Bettis came in and had his fourth consecutive 100-yard game — which I would not have expected, and that’s why I’m just a blogger. Roethlisberger’s numbers (9-for-20, 131 yards) indicated he struggled against the blitz today, but so did Washington QB Patrick Ramsey, and the Steeler defense stuffed the Redskins’ running game.

Carolina RB Nick Goings rushed for 106 yards, and QB Jake Delhomme hooked up with rookie WR Keary Colbert on a 40-yard TD pass with 20 seconds left to break a 14-14 tie and knock off archrival Tampa Bay. Stat of note: kickers Jeff Chandler and Martin Gramatica were a combined 0-5 on field goal attempts today. Maybe Carolina’s gravy-guzzling punter could have done better than Chandler after all. John Kasay, get well soon.

One other score of note…

According to CBS, this was the highest-scoring game in the league since the AFL-NFL merger. (And really, there’s no reason to pay attention to this game otherwise.) Cincinnati RB Rudy Johnson rushed for 202 yards on 26 carries. Cleveland QB Kelly Holcomb threw 5 TD passes. Both teams gained a combined 966 yards. Yikes! I’ve seen Arena League scores lower than this…