The premiere of Shaq's new show was last night and had him going up against Big Ben. It was a silly reality show but I admit it had its entertaining moments. Check it out below, including cameos by Coach Tomlin, Charlie Batch, Kiesel and Trai Essex.

Went up to Latrobe for practice this afternoon, here are a few things I saw.

Recievers: I think this is going to be less of a competition than we thought before camp started. Sweed looked fine, Wallace was getting open alot but also seemed to run the wrong route on at least one play causing Ben to throw to an empty spot. Ben wasn't too happy about that one. McDonald made a fantastic TD grab when Dennis Dixon was running the two minute drill but he had another couple passes that he seemed to bobble before he gained control. One guy to watch out for is Martin Nance who is finally healthy and practicing. All three QBs seemed to find him frequently on Sunday. He runs solid routes and has the height to go up and make plays that no other recievers except Sweed can make. He seemed to be getting open alot today although he did have some issues catching balls in traffic. The other nice thing about Nance is he can play any of the WR spots.

Issac Redman : They ran I believe 7 snaps in the goal line drill, all with Redman at tailback. He looked really good at picking the right hole and getting through it. He also bounced a couple outside and went in untouched. I'm not really sure what the significance of him getting all the carries is but I was suprised no one else even got a touch. Maybe we aren't going to see Frank the Tank on the goal line after all. Although he was lead blocking on some of those TD runs by Redman.

Dennis Dixon : The guy just throws darts. Sure he needs some work and polish to become an NFL pocket passer, but he's going to be a solid player in a year or two.  I really like what he brings to the table, maybe in a few years we can trade him for some picks a la Matt Schaub.  He has too much talent to be a career backup.

A few other things I noticed were  Jason Cappizi destroyed Kirschke (i think) in one on one drills. Just flat out knocked him down with one shot.  Also as far as punt returners go, Mike Wallace took a few and looked pretty good doing it. Stefan Logan muffed one, I don't think that experiment is going to pan out.

St. Vincent is a great place to go watch a practice, I'd highly recommend going down there if you get the chance.

We just resigned Trai Essex. 2 years $2 million with $500k signing bonus. Not too sexy of a signing but it certainly gives us a little depth since Essex has played both tackle and guard.

hat tip to Ed at the Post-Gazette

According to ESPN Peppers wants out of Carolina but will only approve of a trade to 4 teams.

a person close to the player said Wednesday that the impending free agent wants to play for the Dallas Cowboys or three other unnamed teams, two of them in the NFC.

so there's one AFC team on the list if I'm reading that correctly. The AFC team is going to have a leg up in trade talks since the Panthers will want Peppers out of their conference.

They go on to say that

Interested in playing in a 3-4 scheme instead of Carolina's 4-3 defense, Peppers wouldn't say last week if he would hold out of if the Panthers place the franchise tag on him and then don't trade him.

So if we assume that the AFC team is a 3-4 team, and likely a contender, there is a good chance it is either the Steelers, the Pats, or possibly the Ravens.  I'm probably stringing too many "maybes" together, but it is an interesting possibility. The Cowboys don't have a first rounder this year so they would be at a big disadvantage in trying to make a trade for Peppers.

For reference, in a similar situation last year, Jared Allen was traded for a 1st and two 3rd round picks.

What would you give for Peppers, if anything, assuming we could sign him to a halfway reasonable contract.

This is really cool 20 minute video by NFL Films with lots of on field audio from the game. If you had any doubt why Coach Tomlin is special just watch this clip. Its a good taste for whats to come with the dvd.

As per Dale Lolley via Tomlin's press conference

Injury update:

Here's what Mike Tomlin has to say about injuries Tuesday:

"Hines Ward has a right knee sprain. We’re going to do everything in our power to make sure he gets the medical attention he needs. In his mind, he’s playing. So chances are, he is. It’s not going to be comfortable between now and game day in terms of making that happen. But it’s not about comfort, particularly for Hines. This guy, this morning, was down there aggressively getting after his rehabilitation and putting himself in position to help this football team. We’re definitely not going to count him out. We’re going to save a seat on the bus for 86."

Other injuries are:
Mewelde Moore right ankle sprain.
Darnell Stapleton ankle sprain.
Patrick Bailey hamstring strain.
Justin Hartwig knee
Max Starks knee sprain

The biggest concern of course is Ward. I expect he will be ready to go but I'm sure the Steelers will have an extra wideout active. The logical choice is Martin Nance from the practice squad. Nance, like Mewelde Moore, played for the Vikings when Tomlin was coaching there. However, Nance was also Ben's #1 reciever at Miami University. He was considered a firsty day talent until blowing out his knee in his Senior year. So Ben and he definitely have a comfort level (I even saw them hanging out together a few weeks ago at the Pitt-Miami bball game). The other option would be signing someone. The other logical choice here would be former Steeler Dallas Baker although it seems Baker would have Nance's spot on the practice squad if they felt he was the better option.

And after the past two weeks you have to wonder if either of these guys has a shot to leapfrog Limas Sweed on the depth chart.

They must have just released some tickets for the game, i pulled a pair in 520 on ticketmaster a minute ago. Just a heads up for any BTSCers out there trying to find tickets

All we know at the moment is that Ben was taken to the hospital with a concussion. He was speaking and moving his arms and legs as he was taken off the field. Apparently Terry Bradshaw say it was a "slight" concussion for what its worth. Post in here if you find any updates (with link if possible). Let's all hope for the best!

That was really a pretty impressive game from the Steelers. Of course, it is overshadowed by Ben Roethlisberger being carted off the field with an apparent concussion. Use this thread to discuss the game and the rest of todays games.

I'm going to post a separate fanpost for updates on Ben's condition, since I'm guessing people will be looking for quick updates on that.

Hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season and a great new year!

Boy that felt good! Use this thread to discuss who is the best defensive player in the NFL. James Harrison? Troy P? How about the way the coaches used Parker, Moore, and Russell? This is a completely different offensive system than what we were running at the beginning of the year.

Let's hear your thoughts Steeler Nation

thread away....

Use this thread to comment on the early games. It would be really nice for the Giants to beat (and beat up) the Ravens for us. What games are you guys watching?

I couldn't help thinking last night's game was reminiscent of Ben's rookie year when again he led this team from behind to a victory over Jacksonville on Sunday night. Of course now we are used to seeing Big Ben lead us down the field with the game on the line, but this was one of, if not the first game where he displayed his poise and skill with the game on the line in front of a national audience. And thanks to the NFL's awesome online video archive you can actually watch the highlights from both games.

2004 Game

Last Night

Use this thread to discuss today's games.

According to Dale Lolley's blog Punter Daniel Sepulveda is out for the season with a torn ACL. The Steelers picked up Paul Ernster of waivers to replace him. They didn't even have a second punter in camp to compete with him. Bummer.

According to Dale Lolley's always informative blog , receiver Cedric Wilson was arrested for a fight with his ex-girlfriend in a Pittsburgh restaurant. You may remember this same girlfriend had a standoff with police at Wilson's home a few months back.

Dale thinks, and I agree, that after this he is done as a Steeler. I think many of us thought he was likely done before this anyways because of his age, salary, and diminished role on the team.

Hey guys,

I'm going to have the opportunity to see Charlie Batch speak on Monday. He is talking about his experiences in football as well as some of his charitable work in the community. There is going to be a question and answer session.

So what should I ask him? I'm not sure how formal/informal this is going to be or whether he will be taking real serious questions about the Steelers (probably not) but I thought some of you may have ideas or questions you want answered.

A few thoughts on the game, especially for those that might've missed it.

• Charlie Batch was less than impressive for most of the game. He made really poor throws on multiple deep balls. The first one to Washington was way underthrown but we got lucky with the PI call. He did make a really nice throw to Santonio on the last drive but followed it up with a terrible throw when Washington streaked wide open deep over the middle. Instead of leading him to the sideline and away from the defense, Batch lobbed one high over the middle where the defense had time to get there.  The final INT was just a really bad decision, especially since he probably could've picked up 15 or 20 yards on the ground and gotten out of bounds.

• The defense was once again very shaky although give some credit to Ross, he looked really good and made some nice plays. Still unacceptable though. As was previously mentioned Woodley and Timmons looked pretty good. I would like to see Woodley get in there in pass rush situations more often.

• Najeh didn't look awful but he also doesn't inspire alot of hope for us having a good ground game in the playoffs. I was impressed with Gary Russel in the limited time he got in there. He hits the holes hard, falls forward, and doesn't go down so easily. I doubt he will get much work in the playoffs but I think he will be a part of our long term plans. Verron looked solid in his limited action, I would almost prefer him to Cary Davis at fullback.

• Great Tomlin coaching decision: The surprise onside kick. That play really shifted momentum and had we won that game it would've been a nice wave of momentum heading into the playoffs

• Horrible Tomlin coaching decision: Why oh why is Santonio playing?! We have zero chance of doing anything in the playoffs if he is hurt. He got dinged in the 3rd quarter and then Tomlin put him back in! It looked like he was fine but it was an unnecessary risk. Santonio's long touchdown was almost an exact replay of the Touchdown he had last year in overtime to beat the Bengals. I wouldn't mind seeing that play again next week.

• Really disappointed in Willie Reid who fumbled two kick returns (he was ruled down by contact after Tomlin challenged on the second). He had a chance to make an impression and didn't help himself. I would've liked to see him get some reps at WR. He was in there a few times but didn't get any balls thrown his way. No reason why he shouldn't have been getting looks while Santonio was resting. In other WR news Cedric made a great diving TD catch, nice to see him show up every now and then.

• The O-line was still shaky. Batch got rid of the ball quickly but still was stepping out of sacks on a few occasions. Again most of the pressure seemed to come up the middle while Starks  seemed to have another pretty good game. They even pulled him towards the end in favor of Essex.

I think that covers most of it, feel free to add your thoughts, questions and commments. Hope everyone has a fantastic new year. Don't forget to watch the Penguins on NBC tomorrow at 1 in the Winter Classic!

Pop in with your comments on the Steelers-Ravens game. We'll also be keeping an eye on the Chargers games to see if we can get some help from the Raiders.

As expected, the Steelers placed Willie Parker on Injured Reserve after breaking his leg on Thursday in St. Louis. As some on this site predicted, the Steelers have filled that roster spot with familiar face Verron Haynes.

While Najeh "Dookie" Davenport will clearly be taking most of the carries it is unclear where Haynes will fit in alongside Gary Russel and Cary Davis. Davis got some carries against St. Louis where he was the only other back on the squad who dressed. However Davis is also the fullback so I don't expect him to get alot of carries. Gary Russel is an intriguing option who many of us were high on going into this season. However he has seen very little action this year although a possibly meaningless game against Baltimore would be a good place to get him some carries. Verron Haynes has never been a feature type back that you want to get alot of carries. However he was a standout 3rd down back. With Davenport getting most of the 1st and 2nd down carries I wouldn't be suprised if Coach Tomlin looks to Haynes as the guy to help keep blitzers off of Ben on 3rd Down.  I'm not sure if Russel is ready to take over those duties. It also remains to be seen if both Haynes and Russel will be active on game days. What do you guys think?

Also I wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a great new year! Its been fun watching this blog grow over the year and I'm glad all of you are a part of it. And of course good luck to SteelerinChicago and SteelerArk competing for the 2007 BTSC Fantasy Football Championship tonight!

This was mentioned below in the comments but I figured it deserved its own post on the front page.  Tonight's game will be broadcast on KDKA for cable folks in Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Forest, Greene, Indiana, Lawrence, Venango, Washington and Westmoreland counties, along with Monongalia and Preston counties in West Virginia and Garrett County in Maryland. For more details on whether you'll get the game or not check the Post Gazette. Nationally it will be on NFL Network.  

If neither of those is an option you can watch the game online here .  I have no idea what the quality is like, but its certainly better than nothing.

Another option which Ed Bouchette actually brought up was to order NFL Network and then cancel it tomorrow. The cable companies should charge you a pro-rated charge which would only amount to a few dollars. I don't know how well that will work so don't yell at me if you ended up getting charged too much. Enjoy!

Hat tip to Kirk B in the comments section.

USA Today has a great read about a week in the life of Ben Roethlisberger.  They walk you through his preparation each day of the week.  Very interesting stuff. I'd love see more articles like this that really delve into the inner workings of a football team.  For example, did you know regardless of home or away games the Steelers all stay at a hotel on Saturday night before a Sunday game?

I think alot of reporters never tell these kind of stories because they're around the Steelers facility all day and so its pretty mundane for them.  But I think the average fan would love to hear about this kind of stuff. As sports blogging becomes more generally accepted I think we will start to see this kind of thing.  Its starting to happen already in the NHL with bloggers getting media credentials and access to players.  Maybe someday soon the NFL will allow this as well.  Or maybe I'll just have to find a way to get into a Steelers game some other way.

This Sunday's game is getting the NFL Replay treatment Tuesday night at 8PM ET. I'm sure it will be repeating throughout the week as well. These are always fun to watch, they cut out all the time in between plays and squeeze the whole game into an hour and a half.  There is also usually some interesting commentary spliced in from post-game press conferences and NFL Films footage.  I don't know if they'll have some of the sideline chatter during the game but I would be really interested to hear what was going on, and just what Tomlin's demeanor is on the sideline.

Lee Jenkins has a great new story up about Big Ben and his coach at Miami, Terry Hoeppner, who tragically passed away recently. There was alot of interesting info in there about how the two helped each other in dealing with and trying to recover from injury and illness.

There's also some interesting tidbits comparing Ben's relation to his college coach to his relationships with the different Steelers coaches and how Arians has given Ben more of a say in the offense and game plan. I think Bettis says it best,

I'm excited to see if Ben continues his stellar play throughout the year and how that will carry over when the Steelers likely try to extend his contract this offseason. For comparison here's the details of Tony Romo's extension. Hopefully we can lock Ben up and keep him in Black and Gold for the rest of his career.

According to Dale Lolley's excellent blog Aaron Smith and Ryan Clark will not play Sunday in Cincinnati. Bryant McFadden is also not expected to play. On the other side of the ball Rudi Johnson is not supposed to play and Kenny Watson will start instead (see below for more on Watson)

Smith will be a big loss both in the run defense and getting pressure on Palmer. Nick Eason will start at DE in Smith's absence.  Interestingly, LaMarr Woodley played DE in college so it will be worth watching if LeBeau gets him in there at some point. Ryan Clark is out with a mysterious spleen condition. According to Lolley, Clark could have died if the Steelers training staff hadn't been on top of things.  Anthony Smith will start in place of Clark. I do not expect a bit of drop off with Smith in there every down. In fact many of us here thought Smith should've been starting since the beginning of the season. With BMac likely out we'll get another look at impressive rookie William Gay. Although Gay has looked good he's certainly got a way to go before his jersey sales are going to take off.

What do you guys expect out of the replacements?

Football Outsiders has a really nice breakdown of Sunday's game here.  I agree with almost all of their points not just about the game but about what lies ahead for the Steelers.  The only gripe is I think he's dead wrong about Faneca. Seemed to me Faneca was just as bad if not worse on Sunday then some of the other guys on the line.  They also touch on Willie's feast of famine style which Blitz talked about earlier in the week.  Hopefully we learn some things from this loss.

Use this thread for comments on the game and any other action around the NFL.  Here's the inactive list for today's game. No big surprises, as expected Spaeth isn't playing due to a bruised thigh so no 3 TE sets today.

STEELERS

15 Willie Reid WR
21 Ricardo Colclough CB
33 Gary Russell RB
54 Andre Frazier LB
72 Darnell Stapleton C/G
79 Trai Essex OT
89 Matt Spaeth TE
2 Brian St. Pierre 3rd QB

49ERS

30 Donald Strickland, S
38 Dashon Goldson, S
69 Tony Wraggle, G
77 Kwame Harris, OT
78 Atiyyah Ellison, DE/DT
89 Jason Hill, WR
91 Ray McDonald, DE
13 Shaun Hill, 3rd QB