Pittsburgh Sports, Opinion and Politics | Just Watch the Game Blog

Maybe the backups should be the starters.

This wasn’t supposed to happen (although I did pick the Steelers to win). The Steelers were missing starters on the defensive and offensive line, at linebacker and at running back.

Could it be that the guys who replaced the starters are the guys who should remain the starters?

Did they miss Casey Hampton or James Harrison? Aaron Smith?

How about Rashard Mendenhall?

Did Max Starks play better at left tackle than everybody else who has played there this season?  What does that say about the Steelers’ decision to give up on him?

Did Ben Roethlisberger’s sore foot make him a better quarterback by forcing him to make quicker decisions?

The Steelers found out a lot about some young players today. They may have found out just as much about some old ones.

Good thing Peyton Manning has a sore neck.

The Steelers (especially Ben Roethlisberger) did everything they could to give a game away in Indianapolis.

Roethlisberger made some spectacular throws –especially the bomb to Mike Wallace — but he was doing a really good Tommy Maddox impersonation for most of the night and if he had been turning the ball over to Peyton Manning instead of someone who used to be Kerry Collins, the Steelers would have been blown out.

The Steelers defense put a lot of pressure on both Indy quarterbacks but both of them spent a lot more time thinking about where to throw it than Manning would have.

There was a lot of “a win is a win is a win” talk after the game.

The Steelers know they got away with one.

They’ll have to play better next week in Houston or they’ll be looking at a blowout.

When Ben Roethlisberger is bad, he’s really bad. I guess you could say that about any quarterback but, because of his amazing ability to make something out of nothing and his willingness to try, when it’s not working for him, it means lots of ugly turnovers.

Joe Flacco should be feeling pretty good about himself tonight. You can be sure he heard all the talk about how he couldn’t beat Ben Roethlisberger.

He didn’t actually beat Roethlisberger on Sunday but he beat Dick LeBeau’s defense, which also looks really, really bad when it’s bad.

Going back to the Super Bowl, this is two games in a row that the Steelers defense has been smoked.

Troy Polamalu has a new, well deserved contract, but I keep getting the impression, based on the end of last season, the preseason and today in Baltimore, that he’s arriving about a half step too late.

It’s only the first game and it was on the road against one of the best teams in the conference, but, the Steelers’ defense looked old today and it was playing against an offensive line that was put together about a half an hour before game time.

Mike Tomlin said on Tuesday that he likes it when people talk about how old his defense is. He says it fuels them. Steelers fans had better hope that he’s still saying that a month from now.

The Steelers offense is going to be fun to watch this year.

It also may need to score a lot of points if they are going to go deep into the post season again.

Ike Taylor didn’t play tonight and he’ll make a difference when the regular season starts, but I have the same vision of the Steelers going into the regular season that I had going into the Super Bowl.

I keep seeing receivers running through their secondary.

I know it was only a preseason game, but Troy Polamalu still looks a little off to me.

If opposing offenses are smart enough to forget about trying to run against the Steelers, they look like they have the potential to give up a lot of yards.

Ben Roethlisberger has more weapons to work with on offense than he’s ever had.

There may not be a receiver on the team better than Santonio Holmes, but this is the best group that he’s had since he’s been here.

The offensive line may be an issue, but we thought that was going to be a problem last year and it was good enough to get them to the Super Bowl.

Atlanta is considered one of the top five teams in the league by just about everybody and when it was first team against first team, they didn’t look like they belonged in the same class with the Steelers.

This was the dress rehearsal for the regular season and, defensive questions aside, they look like they’re ready to win 11 or 12 games.

They had better keep Ben Roethlisberger healthy.

This is the time of year when the NFL lists come out.

Where should Ben Roethlisberger rank on the list of NFL quarterbacks?

Before last season I said that I wouldn’t trade him for any other QB in the NFL.

I’m wavering on that a little bit now, but I still think he’s in the Top 3.

Joe Starkey does a great job of summing up Roethlisberger without getting too hung up on the stats.

Of course, James Harrison is now saying he didn’t say what he obviously said about Ben Roethlisberger being overpaid and not being Peyton Manning, but that was to be expected.

According to some cold hard football facts, Roethlisberger isn’t overpaid and he doesn’t pale in comparison to Manning.