Bassomatic

Matthew Stafford had a lot more help on offense last season than Joe Flacco did 10 seasons ago. In addition, Flacco didn't throw a single INT, and tied Joe Montana for most TD passes in a post-season without an INT (11). My vote goes to Joe Flacco.

Ben Roethlisberger did not have a wayyy better offensive line from 2007-2012. Those offensive lines were objectively bad. They were directly responsible for a safety in Super Bowl XLIII, another safety in the 2010 AFC Championship Game, and two of the Steelers' three turnovers in Super Bowl XLV. The Steelers also ranked in the bottom 10 in rushing yards and the bottom five in YPC in both 2008 and 2012, and had the most penalized offensive line in the NFL in 2010. As for the WRs, Seahawks WRs had more Pro Bowl invitations (four) and First-Team All-Pro selections (one) in Russell Wilson's first 10 seasons than Steelers WRs did (three, zero) in Ben Roethlisberger's first 10 seasons. In fact, Steelers WRs were not invited to the Pro Bowl from 2005-2010. Hines Ward was invited in 2004; no other Steelers WR was until Mike Wallace in 2011. For many years, it's seemed that people overrate the early Roethlisberger-era WRs in order to knock him down. After his rookie season, he did not have a stacked offense again until near the end of his prime. When it's all said and done, it wouldn't surprise me if Russell Wilson passes Ben Roethlisberger on the all-time QB list, but this will not knock Roethlisberger out of the top 25 all-time or keep him out of the Pro Football Hall of Fame either.

POP MUSIC TRIVIA: Which NFL team is the only one to inspire a hit song that reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100?

You're not the only one who's noticed. I've said for years that Steelers fans treat their QBs like ****, including the great ones. Terry Bradshaw stayed away from Pittsburgh for almost 20 years after he retired, and not because he was busy all the time either. Neil O'Donnell has never made any public appearances for the Steelers. Kordell Stewart had all kinds of rumors spread about him, to the point that he had to address the locker room about them. Even today, the jaded, block-numbered hardass contingency in the fan base proclaims that Ben Roethlisberger has had little or nothing to do with the team's success this century, and just want to throw him away. Quite frankly, too much of this fan base is too stupid to know who its heroes are. They wouldn't appreciate a great QB if he led a game-winning drive in the Super Bowl for them. There is no fan base in the NFL less deserving of great QBing than ours.

Ernie Holmes, way back in 1973. He had a mental breakdown on the Ohio Turnpike, and he was diagnosed with acute paranoid psychosis in the wake of the event.

None. Keep the NFL at 32 teams.

Newborn babies at the time of those incidents are in elementary school now. Criticism by dumb people who don't understand that RB is the most plug-and-play position on a football team. Are we really pretending that Antonio Brown has any moral authority here? Regardless of when first contact occurred relative to the ball being thrown, you shall not drag the QB to the ground that long after the ball is gone. Let him go. The Steelers never offered Jameis Winston a contract. Journalism that's even lazier than those who believe it proclaim that Ben Roethlisberger is. List of people who have denied in the last 24 hours that the Steelers put a bounty on a player: James Harrison, James Harrison's agent, Art Rooney II. End of discussion. What's going on is, it's 2020, but we'd much rather dwell on the past, apparently. The Steelers have already climbed out, and the process started all the way back in 2017, when they drafted a LB, WR and RB to replace a LB, WR and RB who were becoming problematic. What world do you live in? The Steelers have been one of the most hated teams in the NFL for decades. Success breeds contempt. By those whom, like you, would much rather dwell on the past. The last two off-seasons have been very quiet in Pittsburgh. All the noise about the team since March 9, 2019 has come from outside. If being a Steelers fan is such a chore, then why even bother?

Regarding John Harbaugh, I get mixed signals from him. On one hand, he coached the Ravens to the playoffs in each of his first five seasons, with nine playoff wins, two division championships, two AFC Championship Game appearances, an AFC championship and a Super Bowl championship. On the other hand, in the seven seasons since the Ravens won Super Bowl XLVII, he has three playoff appearances, two division championships, and only one playoff win. Even worse, he hasn't won a playoff game in five years now. Last season, the Ravens had no excuse for a one-and-done playoff appearance. He keeps his teams competitive, but they have to start showing more than they have in the last seven seasons.

Tom Flores and Don Coryell. Tom Flores has a meager .527 winning percentage, only five playoff appearances in 12 seasons, and only one playoff win outside of his two Super Bowl championship runs. In spite of all that, many people insist that he belongs in the Hall of Fame. As for Don Coryell, name me one Hall-of-Fame head coach who has never coached in a Super Bowl, or a pre-Super Bowl NFL or AFL Championship Game. The only other head coaches among the 50 winningest who haven't are Marty Schottenheimer, Chuck Knox, Marvin Lewis, Jim Mora, Dennis Green and Jack Del Rio.

Yes, and it was a double screw-up, in fact. One thing that anybody who actually watches Ben Roethlisberger play beyond just the bloopers will know is that he likes to throw to the rear corners of the end zone. On that specific play, Roethlisberger saw Santonio Holmes break loose in the end zone and run to the left, so he threw the ball to the left-rear pylon. However, Holmes inexplicably stopped running, after which he realized where the ball was going and jumped for it, only to have it pass through his hands incomplete. Had Holmes kept running to the left-rear pylon, then he could have caught the pass and tapped his toes in the corner of the end zone for the TD. Alas, he had to make a more difficult catch on the next play.

For years, I've seen people do all of the following in order to try to qualify Ben Roethlisberger's performance in Super Bowl XLIII: 1. Proclaim that the Steelers defense won the Super Bowl with James Harrison's pick-six, as if a) nothing the Steelers offense did in the second half even mattered, and b) the Steelers defense didn't allow a 64-yard TD late in the fourth quarter that put the weight of the entire game and season directly on Roethlisberger's shoulders in the first place. 2. Proclaim that Santonio Holmes did all the work on the game-winning drive, as if a) the ball threw itself, and/or b) Holmes' 40-yard catch-and-run that put the Steelers in goal-to-go had nothing to do with a Roethlisberger pump fake that moved multiple defenders out of position and gave Holmes a gaping chasm to run through, and/or c) Holmes didn't drop a pass in the end zone on the play before the game-winning TD. 3. Vastly overrate the offensive support Roethlisberger had in that game, even though a) the entire starting interior offensive line was involuntarily out of the NFL by the start of the 2012 league year, b) the running game provided a whopping 58 rushing yards and 2.2 YPC in the game, and c) Hines Ward was a non-factor after spraining his knee in practice just a few days before the game. The Steelers basically had a three-man offense in that game. I've long said that if it was Peyton Manning in Super Bowl XLIII, then he would have won the MVP over Santonio Holmes, and if it was Ben Roethlisberger in Super Bowl XLI, then Dominic Rhodes would have won the MVP over him.

Ben Roethlisberger will do like he's done before and make a star out of him.

He's neither as good as he played in 2018, nor as bad as he played in 2019. His best days are behind him, but he's not trash.

So did the Steelers. We all saw how that turned out. They're still recovering from it. And before anybody tries to make this about Ben Roethlisberger, it should be noted that Aaron Rodgers has received much of the same criticism as him. Both have had their leadership questioned, and both have reputations for being difficult to work with. Basically, if Antonio Brown destabilized the Steelers, then he can destabilize the Packers as well.

Why not? Not every worthwhile QB makes an instant impact. Kurt Warner tried out for the Packers but was cut in favor of Ty Detmer, and had to play arena football and NFL Europe before the Rams gave him another opportunity. Drew Brees threw more INTs than TDs in the first three seasons of his career, and was so underwhelming that the Chargers drafted Eli Manning and traded for Philip Rivers to replace him. Tony Romo didn't start a game until the fourth season of his career, and would have been cut by the Cowboys after one season if Quincy Carter didn't fail a drug test. Alex Smith was considered an all-time bust after the first six seasons of his career, before Jim Harbaugh salvaged him. Bottom line, the Steelers and I both need more than 10 games to determine if Mason Rudolph has what it takes, especially given the carnage the Steelers dealt with at RB and WR last season. By mid-November, they were rummaging through other teams' practice squads just to find enough healthy bodies to field an offense. Players with names like Tony Brooks-James, Kerrith Whyte Jr. and Tevin Jones took meaningful snaps for the Steelers on offense last season. Everything that could have gone wrong for the Steelers offense, did, so I really don't see how anybody can make an accurate judgment of a young, inexperienced QB from it.