Morning Links (and Daily Thread)…

Posted on November 23, 2010 by ryan

A quick daily look at what’s happening around Steelers Nation. And consider this your open thread for discussing the days events and, well, anything else that comes to mind about the Black and Gold.

– Make haste, torch and pitchfork crowd because the NFL fined Richard Seymour a measly $25,000 for pimp-slapping Big Ben. (On a serious note: I couldn’t have been less surprised by the news. Arbitrariness rules the day … again!) [Post-Gazette]

– In other, less shocking news: Heinz Field surface draws criticism. Whatever: I still vote no on replacing the grass with artificial green stuff. [Tribune-Review]

– The Week 11 game ball goes to … James Harrison. [Behind the Steel Curtain]

And here’s your random YouTube fun (!): the second half of the Bills-Steelers from 1980.

Related posts:

  1. Morning Links (and Daily Thread)…
  2. Morning Links (and Daily Thread)…
  3. Morning Links (and Daily Thread)…
  4. Morning Links (and Daily Thread)…
  5. Morning Links (and Daily Thread)…
This entry was posted in 2010 steelers. Bookmark the permalink.
  • David

    BTW, this from Mike Pereira:

    Maximum fine for a fight is $25,000 and second, the fact that Seymour was ejected from the game is considered part of the punishment.

    I have always said that being ejected from a game is WORSE than being suspended, because your team has to actually play one man short. A suspension allows a team to activate another player and to plan for the suspended player’s absence.

    • John S.

      Since when has Goodell considered himself bound by the actual written rules and fines existing at the time of the offending incident. He seems to prefer to make it up as he goes along.

    • DC in ATL

      Seymour’s “punishment” suggests getting a 3rd string defender on the field when playing against a Brady, Manning or other elite QB…and have him cold-cock that QB in the throat in the hope that takes him out of the game. The fine is no more than $25K and suspension (unless its a first time offense? Seymour was fined $10K last year for an after the play event) while you may take out the difference maker on the other teams offense. Of course if it had been Brady or Manning, I’m sure the penalty would have been higher.

      I’m not advocating this approach…but it seems like the NFL is opening its self up to NHL goon-like tactics.

  • HoosierSteeler

    I know he was a troublemaker, but I miss Holmes. The really good blog Fifth Down has a great article about how helpful he has been for the JETS since coming back from his suspension:

    http://fifthdown.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/24/week-12-n-f-l-game-probabilities-and-the-santonio-effect/

    I can’t stop thinking how amazing the Steelers O might be with Holmes-Ward-Wallace-Miller-Mendy as the weapons.

    • countertorque

      Wallace is providing the same production as we would have expected from Holmes. If Holmes were on the roster, either Sanders or Brown would not be and they both look really good.

  • EasyLikeSundayMorning

    I think the issue with Santonio is that we miss his quickness, which both produces big plays from quick throws and forces defenses to account for him. If both he and Wallace were on the field, defenses would have to pick between a safety staying over the top or doubling Santonio (or doing both and letting Mendy gash them). Manny or Antonio may be able to provide that at some point, but not yet.

    As an example, we still run the bubble screen a lot, but it is much less effective with Hines as the receiver and Wallace or whoever as the blocker than Santonio as the receiver and Hines as the blocker.

    • RoB D

      Easy..right on with this comment. It’s asking a lot of Sanders/Brown to fulfill that role this early in their career. It’s very frustrating to subtract Santonio from this team as its presently composed..but then again, Holmes did it to us. And himself. We should have got more than a measly 5th rounder for him, but the Rooney’s have a bottom line and he had plenty of chances. I can live with that, as painful as it is to watch Holmes help the Jets win games in “Cardiac Kids” type fashion.

      Sanders is already our 3rd receiver though and he’s a quick learner. We may look a lot better in the big play dept, by the end of this year. Here’s hoping..

  • SteelerBill

    Gentlemen….Happy Thanksgiving

  • RoB D

    NE’s O looks unstoppable. But they have a weak secondary and D overall.

    The Saints look, to me, like the most complete team in the NFL right now.

  • EasyLikeSundayMorning

    After Sunday, the next 3 weeks have a lot of great games for the teams most likely to be fighting for the 1 and 2 seeds in the AFC:

    Week 13: Steelers at Ravens, Jets at Pats
    Week 14: Pats at Bears, Bengals at Steelers, Dolphins at Jets, Ravens at Texans
    Week 15: Saints at Ravens, Jets at Steelers, Packers at Pats

    That’s 9 of 12 opponents with records currently above .500. Actually, all 9 are 7-3 or better right now.

    By contrast, in weeks 12, 16 and 17, these teams have played / will play 12 opponents and only 2 (Tampa at Baltimore this week and the Jets at Bears in week 16) are against teams that are currently above .500.

    So, most of our scoreboard watching will be pretty concentrated. Hopefully the Jets will beat the Pats so we can control our destiny.