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Wednesday, February 02, 2011

Wednesday news and notes

After filing my fifth story of the day, I headed out to see if I could sample the Fort Worth night life.

It wasn't until I was sitting, sipping on my first beer that I realized I had forgotten to blog today.

Sorry guys and gals.

This was a tough day here in North Texas. We had rolling blackouts this morning. A camera man for KDKA-TV got stuck in the elevator at our hotel for a half hour, while Bob Pompieani got caught in the shower when the electric went off.

The Steelers had a media session over at TCU at the school's basketball arena.

I was a little surprised how small the arena was.

I talked to Bryant McFadden at length today. He said he's feeling much better and that the muscle tear he has in his abdomen - he said it's not a sports hernia - is feeling better and he expects to start against the Packers.

McFadden tore the ab making a leaping, one-handed interception against the Browns. It was originally diagnosed as a hip pointer, but the team realized that he had a pulled muscle in his ab.

McFadden said it was very painful and it wasn't something he could take a shot for.

© Maurkice Pouncey was walking around without a boot on today, which was a surprise. I still doubt he plays Sunday, though.

© Heard some of the worst Karoke singing I've heard in a long time tonight at the Fox and Hound here in Fort Worth.

Can people who really can't sing be that tone deaf?

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for remembering us :)

How will the o-line defend against B.J. Raji? With or without Pouncey?

--V

Greg Mercer said...

does your newspaper allow you to provide links to your stories on your blog?

i occasionally read them, but would probably read every one if you gave a link.

Anonymous said...

The B-Mac INT was against Carolina.

vaflyer said...

To Anonymous...I think Raji is a great player as is C. Matthews and A. Rodgers and G. Jennings, but the question I have is, how come the question is always from the media about how are we gonna contain XYZ or stop player XYZ from going deep or spreading us out...I never hear, how in the world is GB gonna stop Hampton, or how do they stop Woodley with a rookie RT, or how they keep Wallace from getting deep.

As much as Ben isn't given credit for his accomplishments on the field as a QB by many, (even to have some people say that Rodgers with a win becomes elite, but Ben if he wins his 3rd won't be) the team as a whole has the same type of disrespect. We have 16 or 17 guys on our D who have SB experience...how is GB gonna keep us from killing Rodgers? Just once I would like to see that asked.

Going back to your question...I just want one of our local reporters to please inform Casey Hampton that he can't carry Raji's jock strap because he is SOOOO much better than Casey. Let Casey know he is the 2nd best NT playing on Sunday. Let's see what kind of monster we can create.

kelly said...

I agree with vaflyer; tell Big Snack about all the love Raji is getting and that nobody even knows he's playing in the game Sunday. Casey plays well angry, let's poke him a bit.

joe said...

it appears king interviewed rog the czar a while back over several days for a si piece. no problem with that.
rog talking about inside, confidential details of the ben, stallworth, and even pats investigation is a bunch of garbage.
enjoy yourself, has to be a fun week even if you have been there done that.

still don't like cooks article on jh one bit

Anonymous said...

Among the American Idol wannabe's was there a 6'5 white guy singing Piano Man?

Dale Lolley said...

They'll block Raji. Last time I checked, he's a defensive lineman.

I have a link to the Observer-Reporter web site on the blog. Takes you right to the Sports section, Greg.

You're right about the B-Mac interception. He told me Cleveland, but I looked it up today.

Anonymous said...

This team should be pissed about all their disrespect

Expect a few flags on our D cause they will be coming at rodgers. Hard!

Vaflyer said...

Come on Dale, make sure you poke at Casey a little will you? I mean if we can make him mad...he always plays better.

Anonymous said...

wait, do people really think Raji is better than Hampton?

haha, that's hilarious if true

Vaflyer said...

I don't know how they see it. Maybe they just are looking at numbers. 6.5 sacks vs. 1. I don't know how they see it, but I want Casey to know that he is the 2nd class citizen here. We don't ask Casey to get to the QB and he rarely is in during clear passing situations, so the numbers may mislead here. Casey has an opportunity to change the dialog.

Same thing could be said about Harrison and Woodley compared to Matthews.

I will post another post in a minute to show what I mean.

vaflyer said...

Look at what I am saying about us being undersold as a team. Look at some stats:

DLINE (5 deep - does not include Smith):

Packers 114 tackles, 15.5 sacks
Steelers 101 tackles, 8.5 sacks

LINEBACKER (7 Deep)

Packers 311 tackles, 20 sacks
Steelers 455 tackles, 32.5 sacks

Now I may be a homer Steeler fan, but how come all we hear talked about is Matthews. Yes, the guy had 13.5 sacks. That is a monster year for any OLB in the sack category, but he only had 60 tackles total, 9 more than last year and 3 more sacks total than last year.

Harrison had 100 tackles and 10.0 sacks, but I honestly don't think I have heard his name brought up in the last 2 weeks other than his comments about the pillows. He had almost as many tackles this year as Matthews has in his CAREER.

Timmons had almost as many solo tackles as their leader Hawk had TOTAL.

Look, my point is this. We had the #1 defense against the run and in sacks, yet you don't hear about our guys, you hear about Raji and Matthews. It is just driving me nuts.

Anonymous said...

our D also gave up less points than any other which is the most important stat imo

Anonymous said...

At this point in their careers I think Raji IS the better player. For a bigger DT he is quite agile. He did have a pick-6 although granted it was in the red zone. Hampton seems to be choosing when to be great while Raji is young and has a motor with less miles on it if you will.

The reason Raji worries me more than any other defensive player on the Packers is that if he dominates he will get to Ben faster than any other defensive player.

I'm confident Ben can shed Mathews and Woodson when they blitz from the edges but not so much with a moster like Raji.

--V

Anonymous said...

i expect a flee flicker at some point in this game. both defenses have agressive DB's against the run.

Anonymous said...

At a true NT Hampton is still better than most in the league. As an all around player, sure Raji is better. Getting to the QB especially, but no one commands double and triple teams like big snack

Anonymous said...

I forget what game it was, but Hampton got mad and literally threw the center into the running back, tackling the running back with the center's body. It was the single greatest act of raw power I have ever seen in a football game, hands down. If Tomlin could tap into whatever part of his brain that anger lies in, we would have the Incredible Hulk on our hands. Big Snack; what a beast!!


Mrs. Isaac Redman

Anonymous said...

Two comments. Was Prisuta singing again, and did you show them how it was done?