The Retroactive Mojo Boogie & Recap – Game 6

I hate doing these so far after the fact, but I hate omitting them even more.

When we last left our hero, he was getting drunk in the lounge of the Neville Island Fairfield Inn.

I got up Sunday morning all happy because I knew there was free breakfast downstairs. Nothing fancy, but I got me a couple of bacon, egg and cheese muffins to take back to the room, along with some pastries for Pinky.

Is it me, or would “Pastries for Pinky” be a good name for a pop band? It puts me in mind of Josie and the Pussycats. (The cartoon only, I don’t acknowledge the live-action movie that came 30 years later.) When I was little, I totally wanted to “do” Melody, the drummer. Not that I knew what “doing” was… I just know I wanted it. There’s something about girls with cat-ears. (See: Catwoman, Favorite Villains post from March.) Mrowr!

I was to go to my Aunt’s house for the game, so I had only some very simple mojo, my “popcorn” knit Steelers polo:
This is my “go-to” mojo when watching the game in non-standard or “one-off” venues.

There was a real full house for the game and it was fun to watch with my family. I could only watch until into the 4th quarter because then I had to go back to the hotel and change for the wedding. One of the bonuses of being back in the Burgh was that I could tune in the Steelers radio call with Bill Hillgrove and Tunch Ilkin. I like them a great deal, but man, I miss Myron Cope. The guy made every game interesting because you never knew what he was going to come up with. There will never be another one like Myron, I tell you. One day in the future, I’m going to have to do a Myron post.

On to the (very brief) game notes:
* Here we are again, playing around with an inferior team. We should have done to the Browns and the Lions what the Patriots were doing to the Titans that weekend… beating them 59-0. Or at least come close to that before choking out the clock. That’s what championship teams should be doing. The Steelers seem to do juuuuust enough to win, against good teams or bad.

OK, on second thought, we haven’t even beaten any good teams. We thought the Titans were good, but it turned out that were not. The Bengals and Bears are kind of good and we lost to them, although we were in position to win both if not for 2 missed field goals and a dropped TD pass.

The Steelers will need to bring their “A” game if they’re going to beat the Vikings this weekend. And just about the whole country will be watching this one. It’s going to be tough to stop Adrian Peterson without Aaron Smith in the lineup. Brett Favre is also going strong right now, although the Steelers have had his number in the past.

* I’ve said it before but Heath Miller and Hines Ward are having career years. Both are totally money when the ball is coming their way. Heath was just a monster against the Browns. Hines had a great game and would have had an even better one if the refs didn’t make a hinky overturn on one of his TDs.

This is why I love Hines Ward: “You can’t catch me, I’m the Gingerbread Man!”

That shot from the Post Gazette says everything you need to know about Hines… Everything he does, he looks like a guy enjoying a day at the beach. I was commenting from the couch during the game that you can see him smiling as he’s running with the ball. I wish I had that much joy about everything in MY life…

* I can’t believe we gave up another kick return TD to Joshua Cribbs. Dude just scorches the Steelers. Why the heck were we even kicking it to him? And even more importantly, why the heck can’t Jeff Reed put a kickoff into the end zone? With the size of his thighs, he should be able to put the ball into the stands!

I don’t have much to say about Skippy’s post game run-in with The Law. From the news reports, I gather that he was coming to the aid of Matt Spaeth, who was being busted for peeing in public. Matt Spaeth is 6’7” and 270 pounds. Does a gorilla like that really need any help from the likes of Jeff Reed? I can just see the cops going, “Hey, who ordered a Foul Dwarf?”

Anyone that squares off against the cops is just asking for the old “wood shampoo.” Skippy is lucky they didn’t knock his ass onto the disabled list. They had all those punks to practice on during the G20, after all.

* Yes, I mentioned that the refs boned the call on Hines’ TD, but I have to say, they messed things up for both teams pretty badly. The Steelers did what they often do in such situations… they overcame it.

In all the fuss about the measurement that looked short but was called a first down, the announcers seemed to be leaving off one very salient point. Unless the camera is shooting straight down the line at the first down marker, you can’t really tell if it’s a first down when it’s that close. In this case, the camera looked to be off-line. Suffice it to say, no one has a better angle then the ref, so I have to defer to him. Of course if it was the Browns getting the same call, I’m sure I’d be all pissed off about it.

Mojo Recap: The polo came through, albeit weakly. One never knows if the polo turned a loss into a close win, OR held the Steelers back from a larger margin of victory. Perhaps if I had worn a jersey, they might have given the Brownies a good wallop!

Hence, the never-ending study of mojo.