ROME

I'm going to pile on and agree w/ everyone, we beat ourselves today. And while I didn't think the refs had a bad game it just felt like every close call and challenge went New England's way. I still don't think Faulk made the catch Harbaugh challenged late in the game. With that said, if Clayton makes the catch on 4th down I think we're talking about being 4-0 right now.

I love Rex and he will be missed, but he is a little arrogant IMO. He continues to blitz in games when we aren't getting to the QB, and when we don't have the CBs to play man. Sorta like Billick, "no matter what I call or who I have out there, it will work". I felt he blitzed too much tonight when we would have been better off sitting back in a zone and forcing Ben to fit passes into it.

Credit the Steelers "D". They were dropping 6 and 7 back in coverage and the windows to make a throw were extremely tight. The only thing available was the deep pass over the zone, that's why we saw so many long routes. We didn't run as much as we should have, and Cam was taking too long to get the plays into Flacco. I think he's to blame for the poor clock management. Bottom line, we lost to a better team.

I'd like to see that broken down by team. We've been sending more than 5 for years and been able to get away w/ it b/c we had corners that could play man. Jim Johnson has been doing it up in Philly too and had success. ESPN kept track of Kerry Collins' stats when we sent 4 or less and 5 or more. I wish this was available for all our games. http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/recap?gameId=290110010

The Lions finally did something right.

I watched the replay of our 1st game against the Steelers and noticed we didn't really blitz Ben as usual. We were only rushing 4 or 5 most of the game, but still got to Ben to disrupt their offense. If Rolle is out I think we'll be doing the same so we can pretty much eliminate any big plays. The old bend but don't break like last week. Ed Reed will be playing "center field" and whenever Holmes or Washington goes long he'll be there to give the CB help.

I don't think we'll have as much trouble running against Pitt. as we did Tenn. McClain averaged just under 4 ypc against Pitt. in both games this season. Against them in a game where rushing yards will be at a premium I'll take that. We do need to open it up more w/ Flacco, and allow him to make more plays downfield. Just not get away from McClain and you get that feeling from watching McGahee the last few weeks he's waiting to bust out.