HavePityPlease

This, folks, is "the tilt". They pick up the flag on an obvious call to force a heavy momentum turn in favour of the Stealers, then make a chincy call against the Bengals to keep it going. Classic.

Jeezus H fucking christ that was the most obvious hold in the history of the NFL and they pick up the flag? I guess "the gambling" needed some TLC...

This is it right here folks, this is why the game isn't worth watching anymore, much like other sports: "The next question is whether the NFL will do anything about it. Given the current extent to which gambling and gambling money have become intertwined with football, the league definitely should." That's right everyone, the important decisions should be made around how much it affects the gambling. Oh well, it was a good run.

The question I have is, under what rule did the refs just "check it"? It wasn't a change of possession, it wasn't a score, and I didn't see anybody throw a red flag/challenge.... ?

Good observations, I agree that Chido has been hot and cold this season and Scott is a failure. Ossai never really did a whole lot before so I wasn't expecting much but agreed he's just invisible. The second-level tackling has been a problem all year, if teams manage to block (or hold) our DL in the run game they will get decent if not obscene yards. This is what losing our two starting safeties has bought us. Tee I'd give a bit of a pass because he got hurt early but he has played somewhat soft anyway (I suspect he's trying to preserve himself in case he's a free agent). I think the OL unit suffers from Volson being a liability and Cappa I suspect hasn't completely recovered from his more recent injuries (he loses his footing a lot). Karras I'm very happy about, we've had too many sorry C's for me to ignore what he's brought to the unit. Overall they need improvement here, but somehow it's still the best line Joe has had.

Aren't you the guy who keeps saying we should trade Higgins for a first and draft his replacement? I mean, correct me if I'm wrong. I disagree with that in no small part because a draft pick is a complete unknown, but when do they even have a window for that? He made the catch with three guys around him and Joe throwing back into traffic that kept the one drive going in the 4th. He blocked his ASS OFF all day long, I was surprised more people haven't said anything about it, I guess most wouldn't pay attention. Turner saved the game and gave Joe a chance to win it in the final drive. He has been spectacular in coverage for a second round rookie, the only other people I've heard echoing what you're saying above are announcers who, when seeing Turner either allowing a catch or making a nice defensive play, have begun always making the claim that "teams keep testing him". If that is the case he's passing with flying colours, and he will always get passed on like everyone else. Chido got burned the most yesterday, and FWIW Turner's PI call was nonsense - it could have arguably been called offensive PI (which is what I thought it would be when they threw it). We are seeing typical ill preparation that has plagued the Taylor era and granted was also a prominent attribute of the Marvin era. Most teams have some issues with players they haven't faced or prepped for before (e.g. rookie QBs, the Mike Whites of the world) but the best coaches adapt on the fly, and we don't have much of that. Lou has been pretty good with it but his zone schemes have openings just like all do. The Bengals issue often is lack of pressure which allows those openings to be exploited. Their OTs yesterday owned our rushers and their interior guys just held all day and our interior guys are too slow to recover. Both of our lines need improvement, that's where we'll be able to maintain effectiveness.

Seems like a dumb challenge. Why wasn't the LT called for grabbing Trey by the shoulder pads and throwing him? lol

The replay they showed didn't look like a false start at all, looked like normal movement. Bills sold it.

There was a moment on a punt or kick coverage situation where I saw Anderson go down after he was (from my perspective) dirtied by someone. I wonder if that was when it happened?

Well in the most simplistic case we'd go with the automatic "Irvin 'Perv' Smith Jr.". His actual nickname is apparently the variants "Swervin Irvin" and "Irv 'Swerve' Smith Jr." So following naturally from that you could go with: 1. Skid 2. Skid Mark 3. Flaming Car Wreck

Jeezus who was that Bengal that just got crack-back blocked on the screen? Head hit pretty hard on the ground...

Perfect form tackle - ROUGHING lol

? Irv Smith just kinda blew that

That was a fantastic route

By any modern measure that's not a catch at all, not even close. We'll see if they decide to tilt it.

For those (like me) who like to track how deeply into "rigged" the NFL might be getting, you might enjoy (hate to enjoy?) this:

These are fantastic, and no pulled punches. I laughed way too hard at "Forklift Certified", but can anyone say the McVay line is not 100% perfect? That's EXACTLY what he looks like lol...

I very much agree here and picking an offensive lineman outside of the top handful (which history has proven is FAR from an exact science in its own right) is very much a "pluck and pray" situation. Loads of not overly impressive physically, yet clearly capable OL are taken in later rounds only because they couldn't show what they can do as part of a competent *unit*. Put them in that environment and they just thrive - they either stop having to try and be a hero OR stop having a bunch of schlubs failing all around them - and they just have to do their job, making the GM look like a genius. I would imagine it should similarly make Alabama/OSU/etc linemen easier to scout because they already benefit from being surrounded by capable linemen.

All defense - they win us another game, like they can. I sure hope they explain how pathetic the offense was for the entire second half, it wasn't just play calling because Joe couldn't throw for shit. I agree with some who have said the obvious, the thing we've all been saying forrrr... pretty much Taylor's entire tenure? RUN. THE. BALL.

If Pratt is going to continue the patty-cakes self-preservation bullshit they better get him out of there. Turner not far behind, if you're too hurt to play, sit down.

I don't know about any other dudes on this site, but when Joe made his first hard move out of the pocket in the last game, there was definite "puckering". When he later ran like "old Joe" for a first down and confidently signaled the first down and dropped the ball, I'm pretty sure "it" moved. 😁

I know it's not important but I figured I'd go grab some screenshots of the missed audible on 3rd and 1 that got Joe raging at Williams. FWIW Sanchez made a good point - it probably shouldn't have to have been an audible at all, at that point in the game they arguably should have been running it anyway. Joe tries to hand it off to Willaims: Oopsies, Williams is oblivious 😑 Another angle of the attempted handoff: Joe helpfully explaining what the can-can call and sign means to Williams:

It wasn't just that, Williams was supposed to take a handoff, Joe "can-can'ed" the original call to audible to the run. Williams just turned the other way to block as Joe tried in vain to hand it to him. What Joe was screaming and pantomiming in his direction after having to take the sack was "CAN CAN!!!!!".

He put in Kwame Lassiter II in garbage time and called a WR screen for him to get his first NFL reception. Arizona is where his (late) father played for most (all?) of his career (and thus is obviously where Kwamie II is from).