Dave’s Football Blog

AP is reporting that the current and former Carolina Panthers linked to the indicted Dr. James M. Shortt will be subject to as many as 24 random drug tests each year. That’s a lot of urine…

A CBS News report in March identified center Jeff Mitchell, tackle Todd Steussie and punter Todd Sauerbrun as having filled steroid prescriptions written by Shortt. Several other former Panthers were also named as Shortt’s patients in subsequent media reports.

Of the players identified in the initial CBS report, only Mitchell, the Panthers’ starting center, remains with the team. Steussie is with Tampa Bay and Sauerbrun was traded to Denver.

Wondering what’s going on with quarterbacks in San Diego? Don’t. I already know who the Chargers’ starting QB will be next year.

Here’s a hint: it won’t be Drew Brees.

The only way Brees returns to San Diego for the 2006-07 season is if he returns with the Lombardi Trophy and a ring, and there’s no way the Chargers emerge from the AFC ahead of the Patriots, Colts or Steelers. They still haven’t emerged from the AFC West yet, though that’s not really Brees’ fault.

Brees is still starting because… well, you don’t throw away the Comeback Player of the Year for no reason, right? If something happens to him this year, Philip Rivers will get the ball, and he won’t give it back.

Rivers is the better quarterback. In fact, Rivers made Brees a better QB, too. Word out of San Diego is that Rivers gave Brees pointers on studying film and reading defenses, something Drew didn’t do so well the previous year. I guess they don’t teach ‘em up so well at Purdue. Ha.*

So in the long term, the Chargers will want to stay with Rivers, because he will be the better QB in the long run — barring a rotator cuff injury, of course. And if the Chargers and Falcons get to the Super Bowl in the same year, the media will hammer the story of that 2001 Draft trade into our heads so deeply that we’ll need a lobotomy to get it out.

(* DISCLAIMER: I graduated from Indiana, so I have to rag on the Boilermakers every once in a while. Did I mention that Kyle Orton had a lot more turnovers than Antwaan Randle El last week?)

ESPN’s Len Pasquarelli takes a closer took at quarterbacks with rotator cuff injuries and discovers that no QB ever really recovers from them.

[Don] Majkowski, who led the Packers to a 10-6 record in 1989 with all manner of legendary derring-do and was second in the NFL MVP balloting that year before suffering a rotator cuff injury the following season, is one of them. Others include Hall of Fame quarterback Bob Griese, Jim McMahon, Gary Danielson, Greg Cook, Jim Miller and Tim Couch. And that’s just scratching the surface of the quarterbacks who discovered rotator cuff injures to be the bane of their professional existence.

Said Danielson, now a college football analyst, in describing the injury: “A rotator cuff [injury], to a throwing athlete, is like cancer.”

Sorry, Jets fans. Time to enter the Drew Brees stakes for 2006…

Jason Whitlock is a very large man. If he fell on me, I would probably suffer a fate worse than Mike Utley.

But blaming the offensive woes of the Buffalo Bills and Chicago Bears on Ben Roethlisberger’s rookie success — well, I hope it’s tongue-in-cheek, because if it’s not, it’s quite unfair.

The Bills thought J.P. Losman was a better option than the much older, much more immobile Drew Bledsoe, so they gave him the ball. The Bengals did the same thing last year with Carson Palmer and finished 8-8, but that move is paying dividends now, yes?

As for the Bears, Rex Grossman was supposed to be the guy, but he got hurt again, so Lovie Smith had to hold his nose and pick either rookie Kyle Orton and sucky Chad Hutchinson. They even brought in Tim Couch and sent him back to the wonderful world of life insurance. Orton was the best option in Chicago. That’s not to say he’s particularly good, but what other options do the Bears have, save for hoping they can get a good QB in the draft?

(This is the part where Jason Whitlock threatens to sit on me if I don’t say something about Jeff George, but Whitlock’s argument that Vinny Testaverde never won squat in the NFL sure seems to apply just as much to his golden-armed man crush…)

Despite what a thousand Pittsburgh girls in “Ben’s Future Girlfriend” T-shirts would have you believe, the world does not revolve around Ben Roethlisberger. Hell, neither does the Steelers’ offense most of the time. Problems in Buffalo and Chicago are just that. Leave Ben out of it, Whitlock.

Philadelphia Eagles QB Donovan McNabb says he will play through the pain of a sports hernia and avoid surgery for as long as possible.

That’s the difference between me and McNabb. If I had a hernia, I’d check to see how much it would cost, then go right in for surgery and tell my bosses I’d be on long-term disability for about four months. Hey, I’m not trying to win a Super Bowl…

The New York Jets are in a tailspin. Chad Pennington’s recurring rotator cuff injury may mean the end of his career. Jay Fiedler is hurt, too. Curtis Martin is hobbling and may be starting to show his age. Worst of all, one of the Jets’ offensive linemen is only seven inches tall.

It’s gotten so bad, Adrian Wojnarowski thinks the team should just give up on this season and chase after Matt Leinart.

Jets fans should be privately rooting that this team doesn’t save the season, but rather the future of the franchise. There is Leinart, and everyone else in the 2006 class of quarterbacks. Had Leinart left college after winning his second straight national championship and the Heisman Trophy a year ago, the big, strapping left-hander would’ve easily been San Francisco’s No. 1 pick over Alex Smith.

It goes against every football instinct of surviving a season, but the best-case scenario isn’t sneaking into the AFC playoffs at 9-7, but telling Fireman Eddie to sit down, shut up and let the bottom drop out.

Somewhere in the background, Jets head coach Herman Edwards was heard repeating, “YOU PLAY TO WIN THE GAME!!!”

Brooks Bollinger will start for the Jets this weekend and will be backed up by newly-signed septuagenarian Vinny Testaverde. The Jets take on the Baltimore Ravens, who start Anthony Wright at QB and will have Kordell Stewart as the backup. Which begs the question: will anyone actually score in that game?

Darin Gantt of the Rock Hill Herald has seen all three Carolina Panthers games this year, and after their disappointing 1-2 start, he appears to be jumping off the bandwagon.

No sane person would suggest Julius Peppers won’t have a single sack this year, or Keary Colbert’s going to finish with 11 receptions for 59 yards, or Jake Delhomme’s going to throw 21 interceptions — even though that’s they’re current pace.

It would be as unfair as suggesting the Panthers were going to go 7-9 this year because that’s what they’ve done five times in 10 years.

But the way they’re playing, they’re much closer to one than the other.

Right now, the Panthers simply aren’t a special team. They could be, but they aren’t.

Meanwhile, guard Mike Wahle told the Charlotte Observer that the Panthers’ O-line having some trouble with blitzes.

“When they knew we were going to pass, and we went into empty sets and things like that, they were bringing more guys than we had up more often than not. And there are going to be people in his face. If we have five to block and they bring six, do the math.”

If that’s the case, how many more guys are going to send six after Jake Delhomme, making the struggling QB struggle even more? The Panthers need a game plan for the blitz that doesn’t result in sacks and fumbles.

Good idea: Giving the ball to LaDainian Tomlinson in as many different ways as possible. Tomlinson had a career day — 21 carries for 192 yards and 3 rushing TDs, as well as 6 carries for 28 yards and even a 25-yard TD flip to Keenan McCardell — as his San Diego Chargers blew out the New York Giants last night.

Bad idea: Giving the ball to Willie Parker and directing him to run only between the tackles. Parker has the speed to get to the outside and make plays, but the Steelers brain trust couldn’t run him outside and didn’t set up any screen passes to get him in the open field. As a result, Parker gained only 55 yards on 17 carries, and the Steelers lost at home to the Patriots.

Cam Cameron might have been a lousy head coach at my alma mater, but the Chargers’ offensive coordinator could do a hell of a lot more with the Steelers’ offense than anyone in Pittsburgh right about now. I don’t think the Pats’ win yesterday was all Bill Belichek genius. The Steelers did some very stupid things yesterday, and not just the players. (Hey, Antwaan, no more freaking laterals!) Good thing they have two weeks to figure out what they did wrong…

So let me get this straight.

You’re down 7 with 1:42 left. You’ve got first and goal from inside the 10. You know that your defense is a little tired from being on the field for more than 34 minutes, and your opponent’s QB has a reputation for last-minute comebacks.

So what do you do? Run the play action pass and score the touchdown on the very first play, giving your opponent a lot of time on the clock to make something happen.

Which, of course, they did. Following a good kickoff return, Tom Brady lead his team down a short field and set up Adam Vinatieri for yet another clutch game-winning field goal.

On their way out the door, several Steelers fans here at Sammy’s just shook their heads and muttered about Vinatieri under their breath.

So give credit where it’s due. Brady put on an excellent performance today, completing 31 of 41 for 372 yards and completing 20 passes for first downs. The Pats’ D also put on a great show, pressuring Roethlisberger all day and keeping Willie Parker from breaking a big play — all of this AFTER Rodney Harrison went down with a knee injury.

On the down side, though, the Steelers’ play-calling today was frustrating to watch. They kept trying to hammer the ball through the tackles, despite an apparent lack of success, and they didn’t do enough to get the ball to their weapons in the open field. This is an offense that should have a lot more versatility than it does.

So the Steelers and Pats are both 2-1, and the Pats have a potential tiebreaker down the road. What’s worse, though, is that the Steelers have quickly fallen a game behind the Cincinnati Bengals, who beat the Bears in Chicago to go to 3-0 on the season. The Colts are also 3-0 after beating the Browns today.

This was such a good day when I got to Sammy’s, but it ended poorly all around. At least the pizza was good and the wait staff was hot…

The Steelers have a bye next week, while the Panthers will attempt to recover from today’s fiasco with a Monday night matchup against the Green Bay Packers, who have fallen to 0-3 after a one-point home loss to Tampa Bay today. As bad as the Packers look right now, there’s always a certain shiver you get when you have to face Brett Favre on a Monday night. I need to find a really good spot for that game…

Ben Roethlisberger is 0-for-6 on pass attempts on 3rd down.

There is dread in this watering hole…