I'm sure a lot of you have seen the same thing I have. Personally, the last two weeks I've ventured over to our oppositions fan board after the game was over and read a lot of their comments about the game. I've seen two things consistently.

One being that the Atlanta Falcons and Tennessee Titans should fire their coaches. Both of these teams were coming into this season with a lot of hype so obviously the fans had high expectations. This doesn't need to be said, since it's heard over and over but I'm sure they felt that these games were almost guaranteed victories. Ridiculous, I know.

Secondly, and the one thing that I just take great appreciation for is that fans have commented on it being one of the worst outings that their offense has every put on or one that has been seen.

Today's game was one of the most dominating performances I've ever seen from the Steelers defense. Sure you can point to how well someone did individually but over all it was just a great team effort. Every time Chris Johnson touched the ball he was swarmed by three or four defenders at a time. I watched some of the pre-game analysts this morning and almost all of them were talking about how CJ was going to hit the century mark. Too bad, so sad CJ.

Anyone else impressed by Polamalu jumping over the line towards the end? My nephew plays football and he is a middle linebacker who often does that same type of tackle. We like to refer to it as the "super fly."

Any who, I just find it gratifying how the Steelers defense can make an opposing team/fans seem like the worst in the NFL. They are doing their job.

Sometimes reading the board I get a sense that there's a love/hate relationship for Rashard Mendenhall. Personally, I have nothing but love for the guy. I remember watching him carve defenses up in Illinois and was probably the only bright spot of the Rose Bowl for the team that year considering how good USC's defense was. So, I was more than surprised and excited when the Steelers drafted him.

His rookie season was forgetable for sure, but I also believe that was just a freak incident the injury. I'm sure if 10 other RB's took the same hit they wouldn't escape without some sort of injury. Last season, getting benched in the Bengals game was a bad mistake on his part. He should have been more prepared and focused for the game. I believe with him in the game we would have won easily even if the defense broke down towards the end like they did.  For the rest of the season he excelled, maybe a bit streaky but our OL wasn't the best either. Plus Bruce Arians is a pass happy hog. His spinning could have been a bit of an annoyance to some people but it works for him and I don't see a lot of other backs in the league willing to try it.

People want to point to his tendeny to fumble as a knock on him but looking at some of the top backs in the league last year Mendenhall was about average with them. Maurice Jones-Drew, Ryan Grant, and Pierre Thomas all had 1 lost fumble. Cedric Benson didn't have any. Mendenhall, Ray Rice, Chris Johnson, and DeAngelo Williams all had 3 lost fumbles. Did they come at bad times? Probably. The fact is they get magified because of Mendenhall having to carry a ball around during pre-season and having players try to knock it out. They want to label him as someone with soft hands when he's a really good ball carrier not to mention with more opportunities can become a great reciever from the backfield.  I think you will see a lot of screens in the first 4 weeks.

Anyways, last season he broke out and had some great games. It just seems like a lot of fans don't have trust in him still. He's almost expected to go down with injury or some how Redman out plays him when he gets his shot on short yardage or the goal line.

So, am I right? Is there a love/hate relationship with Mendenhall? Or am I just crazy from the lack of sleep right now?

This guy is only 23 years old with so much more upside it's ridiculous.

This will be my first post on BTSC, although I've been following the site for the past year or so.

I was just looking at the Steelers roster last night and I checked out Randle El's career stats. As a Steeler he never caught more than 47 passes nor topped over 650 yards recieving. Though he was a phenominal returner so his recieving stats aren't as important because he was still very productive for us. He's older now, and even though he returned punts for the Redskins he's never quite captured what he produced in the black and gold.

So what are the expectations for ARE this year?

I love him as a player and he is one of the most experienced recievers we have but we have the young recievers Brown and Sanders who are more than capable of return duties and maybe late in the year(or sooner depending on how high you are on them) of them producing as a viable recieving threat. I would rank Sanders as the one who would get he most reps at reciever late in the year. I do realize, however, that in most circumstances you wouldn't want a second year reciever(Wallace) and then a rookie reciever as your main starters behind Ward so I understand ARE as a veteran figure. Just some thoughts.