Disclosure: I am participating in the Verizon Fans Voices program and have been provided with a wireless device and six months of service in exchange for my honest opinions about the product.
Okay, so I've mentioned here and there that I'd be in Chicago for the past weekend. I wasn't sure what details were to be made public, but now that that's all done with, here's the deal. You see that button and disclaimer up there? That pretty much explains it. Verizon Wireless got in touch with a handful of sports bloggers and gave us new smartphones in exchange for us posting our honest opinions on the technology. In the interest of full disclosure (the FTC cares about this stuff), I am not actively being paid by Verizon. They provided me with a phone and service and covered several expenses for all of us in Chicago. All I have to do is tell you how I'm feeling about the phone/service.
Oh yeah, football. That happened on Monday night. The Cincinnati Bengals defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers by a score of 20-10. Much has been said about the Bengals' coming-of-age as a football team, and many people (some of whom I spoke with in Chicago) picked the Steelers to finish last in the AFC North. Yes, even behind Cleveland. Before the season, that notion was laughable. Now, sitting at 0-2 and with little to reflect positively on, people are getting scared.
Now, I was on a train on Monday night, from 6:40PM central time to 5:45AM eastern time. I did not expect to see the Steeler game beyond catching up on Tweets on my new phone. The good news: I did see the game. Verizon was nice enough to include NFL Mobile on the phones they gave us, I ended up watching Monday Night Football via stream on my phone in my seat on the train. I saw the entirety of the first half without a hitch, which is 1) awesome, because I got to watch the game and 2) not awesome, because of the performance I had to watch.
Let's be real about where the Steelers are right now. They're not good. Specifically, the offense is not good. The defense is adequate, and there's not reason this team shouldn't be 2-0. Tennessee isn't a good team. Cincinnati is, and should be a competitive matchup, but the Pittsburgh Steelers are supposed to ultimately be better. And they aren't. The first half showcased the Steelers' utter lack of a running game, underscored by how determined Todd Haley was to force something that wasn't there. Ben was inaccurate on a few throws, and phenomenally let down by his receivers on the rest of them. Routes weren't being properly run, which is understandable for a guy like Markus Wheaton, but inexcusable for Antonio Brown, Emmanuel Sanders, and Jerricho Cotchery, the latter of whom seemed to be target a dozen times only to watch the football sail past him.
The bright spot came when Ben went no-huddle and immediately drove the team down for a score, hitting receivers all over the field and even finding Derek Moye for his first career reception in the end zone.
How good did this feel to see?
Of course, Ben tried to go no-huddle and run a quick play to cover up a [frankly embarrassing] fumble by David Paulson. Either Todd Haley or Mike Tomlin demanded a personnel change, and the resulting confusion gave the Bengals enough time to challenge the play. There's a clear disconnect between the coaching staff and the offense (which is to say, the coaching staff and Ben Roethlisberger).
I couldn't tell you what happened in the second half, as I got sidetracked by a gentleman playing Pokemon Red on his laptop. Plus my train was going through rural Ohio, which is not necessarily conducive to livestreaming a football game. I wasn't that broken up about it, as the team did enough to show me that they weren't going to get it together that night. Luckily Andy Dalton was just as shaky as Ben, otherwise the game would have really been out of hand.
With a struggling offense, baffling coaching, and a bizarre refusal to leave Jarvis Jones on the field for every defensive play, this Steeler team is trending down in a hurry. With Chicago in town next week, they'll be pitted against noted Steeler-killer Jay Cutler. The Bears are coming in hot, the Steelers are coming in cold, and it will take a hell of a reversal of fortunes to put the Steelers back in the conversation on Sunday night.
