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1. What did we learn? I wish I could be as optimistic as some of you, so I’m going to hope and then hope some more but I think we’re in for a bumpy ride with more ups and downs than usual. I’m willing to be patient but the impatient among us are going to stew in anger, then boil over. Maybe they should replace Renegade with Gloria Gaynor’s “I will survive” at Heinz Field. From the team to those fans. I’d love to see Deebo singing and pointing at the exits.

AB is better than we thought, so too DeAngelo. A lot of dumb mistakes seem fixable. Disappointing to see drives that ended in no points. I watched the game with a Seahawks and Lord of the Rings fan who said–with admiration–that Ben moves like an Ent. And by comparison, Wilson is “elfen.” I’ll think of that all season.

2. I spent the last 2 seasons afraid we’d see Troy carted off the field, so that’s a relief. Dupree had a sack. That’s progress. I’m going to trust Ivan and others on this one.

3. Talk to Bell. He has the right attitude. Ask Santonio if he has regrets. Google Bam Morris like I just did. (Nice reminder of Steeler history, by the way. I remembered only the name as someone my dad liked and then got upset about. What a tragedy. At least Worley turned his life around.I googled him too. )

And Ivan’s response seemed spot on to me, smart and generous. I think we tend to forget that there are a lot of smart and talented people in the world. The ones who keep pushing themselves to greatness sometimes have crippling self-doubt and fears, then make bad choices for the same reasons they’re great.

4. Tomlin looked furious and that’s most of what I need to know. And Rebecca nailed it. No one believes the Patriots any more. The matter was dropped because…what’s the point? It would be wonderful to settle this in the playoffs if you optimists are right.

5. One thing? I’m blank. The whole NFC West scares me. The Niners seemed like they might be the weakest of the division but despite the comedy of errors in the first half of MNF, they looked tireless. Bowman’s back on defense and Kaep’s like one of those clumsy dogs who keeps trying and trying and finally catches a few tennis balls. How about the secondary gets its act together and hogs all the tennis balls? No Vick jokes, please. But I would like to see him on the field, if only so someone other than Ben gets sacked.

As for the smoldering/smouldering controversy (isn’t everything one these days?), I was surprised to see it without the U. Apparently, I read too many British novels.

Now I’m going to go dig out my Terrible Towel from wherever I hid it at the end of last season. Maybe last week was my fault. I wasn’t prepared to do my part.

Earthling

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2) No. This is a different Patriots offensive unit in a different year. Can’t truly consider them the same, especially since they fielded TWO rookies on the O line with little deleterious impact. The Steelers’s defense clearly lost the game due to being ill prepared and poor execution.

3) it’s time to put away childish things. Grow up.

4). Yes, but not because the NFL was right, but because to pursue it would have been too great of a distraction.

5) There is no one thing to change that will fix what ails us…but how about tearing out the trick plays from Haley’s playbook.

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2. The defense as a whole has improved, but there hasn’t been much progress in the secondary. Cortez didn’t show anything to say he was going to rebound. I don’t believe that Will Allen is a starting quality safety in this league, but no one on our roster has been able to supplant him. Mike Mitchell did look better, maybe he really is the player we all hoped he was last year, and this is the only improvement I saw in the secondary. Blake looked about the same. He’s getting a lot of flak but TB to Julien Edelman is a tough assignment and he was on it all night. Will Allen was his usual self, which is to say very good.

3. I would tell him that despite what he hears or reads, pot can be very addictive for some people. I would tell him that he is one of these people, an addict, and the he needs to seek help to overcome this. He could be like AB earning 10s of millions of dollars to help himself and his family, or he could be Josh Gordon and be an entire city’s disappointment.

4. This is simple. Read the NFLs statement closer. They’re responsible for the headsets themselves. They clearly state that there was an issue with the stadium’s infrastructure, which obviously is the responsibility of the Patriots. Once the NFL found this and fixed it, the headsets were fine. The problem was clearly in the Patriots domain of responsibility. Given what I have read about the interference fading out while league officials approached the Patriots sideline to remove their headsets under the rules of fair play, and then returning soon as they left, there is no doubt in my mind that this “infrastructure problem” is something that was designed and controlled by the Patriots to introduce interference into the Steelers radio frequencies. It is very interesting that the exact nature of this problem has not been talked about or released. Mike Tomlin’s anger about this after the game was very uncharacteristic and points to something more unusual than the typical glitches teams encounter.

5. I would cover the other team’s #1 red zone threat. I wouldn’t leave 15yards of unguarded grass between him and the endzone. Under no circumastances would my 5th string linebacker ever end up guarding him man to man.

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