Dave’s Football Blog

Today I drove all the way out to Raleigh for you, my dear blog readers…

Sammy’s is a Steelers-friendly pub in the Mission Valley shopping center, just behind NC State University. It’s also the preferred watering hole of the WRAL-TV 5 news staff. I’m facing five big screen TVs and seeing at least a dozen other screens in here, including a few small LCD screens in booths.

Everything is nice and neat in right now. That should change in about two hours. I should take before and after snapshots just for the hell of it…

Today is the first big test for the Pittsburgh Steelers this season. The New England Patriots are coming to town, and they’re coming off a loss. It’s been 35 weeks since the Pats lost two weeks in a row. Think they’ll be playing hard today?

Keep an eye on the running game for both teams today. The Steelers are tops in the league in rushing offense, while the Pats are 29th. New England must get Corey Dillon going today, or else all the pressure will be on Tom Brady, and against the 3rd-best passing defense in the NFL, that’s a lot of pressure.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is reporting that Steelers RB Duce Staley will suit up for today’s game. Other sources are suggesting Staley will start, but I think that would be a mistake. Willie Parker is tops in the AFC in rushing. Keep giving him the ball.

Meanwhile, the Carolina Panthers are down in Miami to take on the Dolphins. This has all the trappings of a letdown game. The Panthers made their statement last week against the Pats, and now they face a Dolphins team that was horrible last year, but is 1-1 right now and has an underrated defense. Carolina’s defense is a little banged up today. LB Will Witherspoon, who made a key interception last week, is doubtful for today’s game because of a knee injury, while CB Ken Lucas, who hurt his shoulder last week, will be a gametime decision.

Of course, stopping Gus Frerotte and rookie Ronnie Brown isn’t as tall an order as, say, Brady and Dillon, but that’s why this smells like a possible letdown game.

Miami’s defense is ranked 8th against the run and has given up only 140 yards on the ground in its first two games. That’s what Stephen Davis and DeShaun Foster face today. Plus, Jake Delhomme must improve his 56.6 passer rating, which would be dead last if not for the horror that is Joey Harrington. If Jake avoids the turnovers today, though, the Panthers should win this game.

Other questions today:

• After winning a Monday night game against the Eagles, the Atlanta Falcons flew out to the west coast and laid an egg. Will the same fate await the New York Giants in San Diego today?

• Can Chicago’s D stop the Bengals’ high-powered offense?
• Speaking of high-powered offenses, how many points will the Colts score at home against the Browns today?
• How well can the Jaguars’ D play today without Donovan Darius, lost for the season due to injury, in the secondary?
• Why should we care so much about Terrell Owens and Randy Moss playing in the same game?

Okay, enough rambling. Time to find me a pub…

I don’t talk about college football on this blog, in part because I live in the heart of ACC country, and I’m still in denial that they have morphed into a football conference. It’s still college basketball heaven right here where I am, and that’s good enough for me.

On the other hand, I flipped on ESPN late this morning to see whose mascot head Lee Corso would wear today, and I left the Minnesota-Purdue game on in the background.

Right now, the Vikings probably wish they had this Laurence Maroney kid wearing their uniform in the Metrodome. He’s a good strong back with a touch of speed and an eye for open spaces. What’s more, he’s getting good blocks from Gophers center Greg Eslinger, who’s apparently a pretty high NFL Draft prospect in his own right.

Meanwhile, the Vikings have no running game, and they are clearly missing C Matt Birk, who’s out for the season after yet another hip surgery. Birk offered to play the season on painkillers if the Vikings guaranteed his contract, but Zigi and the gang decided that wasn’t a worthwhile gamble, especially with the team about to pour $280 million into a new stadium. Whether the gamble would have paid off or not, Birk’s presence is clearly missed on the Vikings’ line.

This season may prove to be a huge disappointment for the Vikings, but if they can draft guys like Maroney and Eslinger, next season might be far more interesting, especially to local fans with ties to U of M. Good players with local ties help sell tickets. Just look at the number of people wearing Panthers’ #90 jerseys at the BOA.

Shameless self-promotion time:

For those of you who want to hear what I sound like when I’m talking football, check out this week’s mid-week edition of AOL Sports Bloggers Live, in which I shoot the breeze with Jamie Mottram & Co. about the balance of power in the AFC, the not-so-surprising rise of the Cincinnati Bengals, and the precipitous fall of the Baltimore Ravens.

You should subscribe to the SBL podcast. The SBL gang puts on a quality show twice a week, and their caliber of guests has grown in the last few months. I actually followed Dan Marino on this show. You try following Dan Marino. Not easy. (Queue Jay Fiedler looking up from his newspaper and saying, “Tell me about it…”)

Meanwhile, the New England secondry is starting to look as broken down as your grandpa’s ‘87 Oldsmobile. Five cornerbacks are listed as questionable for Sunday’s game in Pittsburgh.

Former Steeler Chad Scott says he’ll play. Bill Cowher knows all about Chad Scott. How much do you think he and Ken Whisenhunt will be calling plays to test Scott’s weaknesses at corner? Few people ever liked Scott in Pittsburgh, in no small part because he had to fill some very big shoes. People in Miami never liked Jay Fiedler either for the same reason, although I’m sure a few of them wish they had Fiedler right now…

I know it’s early in the season, and I know a lot injury reports can overstate just how bad some injuries are.

Still, seeing a story like this about the Panthers’ injury troubles, especially on the defensive side of the ball, just makes me wonder if this team has been hit with some strange voodoo hex or something. They’re in the same division as the New Orleans Saints, after all. Perhaps a few witch doctors were put to work before Katrina came along and ruined it for everyone. (Rita, you filthy bitch, go away!)

Then again, maybe it’s been the New England Patriots’ strategy all along to beat people up during the regular season, then run over a depleted opponent playoff time. It seemed to work last season. The fact that Stephen Davis is on the injury report with a neck problem days after Rodney Harrison yanked Davis’ helmet off his head during a tackle should tell you something about the Pats’ M.O.

From this AP report:

A doctor who was accused in a television report of writing illegal steroid prescriptions for three former Carolina Panthers players has been indicted on federal charges.

James M. Shortt was charged with 29 counts of distributing steroids and human growth hormones as well as a conspiracy charge, U.S. Attorney Johnny Gasser said Wednesday. The indictment did not specify who received the drugs.

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 have also been named as Shortt’s patients in subsequent media reports.

You will recall that Sauerbrun, who was dealt to the Denver Broncos during the offseason, was asked about Shortt and said, “I like the guy very much.” Then, ten minutes later, he called that reporter back and said, “Dude, we got our communications confused…. I don’t know this guy.”

Right. I guess all that meat loaf affects your hearing, too. After all, how confusing is a question like, “Do you know a Dr. James Shortt?” Was there static on his Bluetooth headset? And if so, why not ask them to repeat the question?

“*fuzz*garble*know a Doct*garble*pop*fuzz*ort?”

“Oh, yeah, I know him. I like the guy very much.”

So it’s all Motorola’s fault that Sauerbrun got so confused. Right. It must explain why he has this new policy of not talking to the media. Mark Twain said it best: “It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.” What a shame Sauerbrun didn’t follow that advice last year…

Does anyone else out there think that Brian Billick is trying to see just how far he can go before the Baltimore Ravens fire him?

Clearly Billick too proud to resign as head coach, but he must not want this job anymore, because everything he’s doing seems geared to sabotage his position — starting with his declaration that Kyle Boller will return as starting quarterback after he recovers from his toe injury. Said Billick:

Anthony Wright is the starter for an undetermined period right now due to injury. Kyle Boller is our starting quarterback. If I left it open to interpretation, if I left that in a way that led to speculation that we did not have the faith in Kyle, that our faith is wavering, that was not my intent.

Why Billick continues to put lipstick on this pig is beyond me. Perhaps it’s to cover up the fact that Billick’s offense has no passing attack with or without Boller, and it makes it that much easier for teams to put eight in the box to stop RB Jamal Lewis, who’s still nursing a sore ankle and has only 57 yards on 26 carries in two games.

Lewis gained 9 yards on 10 carries against the Tennessee Titans last Sunday. Let that sink in for a minute. Nine yards on 10 carries. By comparison, the Steelers’ Willie Parker gained 161 yards on 22 carries against the same Titans’ D. At what point between 9/11 and 9/18 did the Titans become world beaters?

That doesn’t even begin to address the fact that the Ravens are now running the 46 defense, which hasn’t worked for anyone since Buddy Ryan was run out of Philadelphia in the early 90s. There’s a reason you don’t see the 46 anymore. Peyton Manning needed about 36 minutes of football to solve it, and Norm Chow appeared to have it figured out well before the opening kickoff.

Yet Billick insists he’s going to keep doing things the way he’s doing them until this team turns it around. Huh?

I am accountable for everything that goes on with this football team. I take that very personally. The buck stops here. I am accountable and am going to be the one that has to put us on a course to correct it.

Billick must want out of Baltimore without it looking like he’s running away. Either that, or he’s trying to figure out just how much good will a Super Bowl ring buys him. I have a feeling that question will be answered come New Year’s Day.