Saints Home Games Determined

The New Orleans Saints now have one less issue to worry about as it was announced yesterday that they will play four (Miami, Chicago, Carolina, Tampa Bay) of their seven remaining home games at Tigers Stadium in Baton Rouge and the other three games(Buffalo, Atlanta, Detroit) will be played in the Alamodome in San Antonio. I was personally happy to see the Saints pull out the victory against Carolina on Sunday and I'm sure that the people of the Gulf Coast felt that they had something to celebrate about for a change. It would have made entirely no sense not to have any of their home games in San Antonio, seeing that the city has become their de-facto headquarters since the Saints left New Orleans before the arrival of Hurricane Katrina some three weeks ago. The NFL was initially opposed to having any of their home games being played in San Antonio, but decided in the best interests of all parties involved that it wouldn't hurt to have to Saints play roughly half of their home schedule in the Alamo City. I'm not exactly a big fan of San Antonio and don't exactly see them as a pro football town, but this would be a golden opportunity for the city of San Antonio to show that they can draw the kind of crowds that would be consistent with a pro football city, even with Dallas and Houston both being a couple hours away and having NFL franchises, and therefore could be a possible future home for an existing franchise looking to relocate (like the Saints were investigating about a month before Katrina hit) or even hosting an expansion franchise (very unlikely). At the very least, it'll be an interesting experiment and I look forward to see how it unfolds.

Steelers Win! Steelers Win! Steelers Win!

What can I say, I guess my concerns about the first team offense were answered pretty quickly yesterday (during the Steelers first drive, to be exact) and they continued to improve throughout the course of the game. The Black-n-Gold scored on their first six possessions and the defense held the Titans to just 97 yards on the ground, while forcing four turnovers. Unlike most Steelers games, the passing game actually opened things up for the running game. This was also supposed to signal the start of Big Ben's "Sophomore Jinx" season, but nothing could have been further from the truth, as he completed 9 of 11 passes for 218 yards and two touchdowns, throwing scoring strikes to rookie TE Heath Miller and WR Antwaan Randle El, and achieving a perfect QB rating of 158.3 (the first QB to do so since Trent Green did it on opening day two years ago). Former fourth-string running back Willie Parker, who got the start due to injuries to both Jerome Bettis and Duce Staley, had a career day as he racked up 209 total yards, including 161 on the ground and a touchdown, and may get the nod again as the Steelers travel to Houston to face the Texans this coming weekend.


Obviously, the Steelers passing game was solid yesterday and the running game, which was slow to get going, eventually took off. The offensive line did a commendable job of run and pass blocking and did not give up any sacks, even with injuries to Max Starks (who returned) and Marvel Smith (who did not). The defense, with the exception of the opening drive, was solid as well. The run defense (again, with the exception of the opening drive) was extremely punishing as they forced two fumbles and held Chris Brown and Travis Henry under 100 rushing yards. The amount of big plays let up in the pass defense was held to a minimum, but this area is still one of concern as the secondary has been something of an Achilles heel for the Steelers over the course of the last couple of seasons and something that the Steelers will need to address throughout the season. Bettis should be available this coming weekend and would most likely be used to spell Willie Parker.

All in all, I was very pleased by the Steelers performance and think they'll be able to build on it. I look forward to this coming weekend to see how they fare in Houston.

Are You Ready for Some Football ( I know I am!)

The day is finally upon us once again. What am I referring to, you may ask? The title of this post says it all. That's right, in less than 36 hours, the sport that I consider to be America's pasttime, will be back in full swing, when the Patriots host the Oakland Raiders. It will be exciting for me on many levels. To start, it's the official start of the 2005 football season. I haven't been a baseball guy for quite a while (about 10-15 years to be exact), have never really been into pro basketball and I'm very skeptical as to whether the NHL will recover from the damage caused by the season-long strike. Secondly, it should signal the end of the Patriots dynasty. Not to say that they have a good shot of losing to the Raiders, but I don't believe they'll make their way back to the Super Bowl. Finally, I'm looking forward to seeing the Pittsburgh Steelers in action after their almost fairy tale-like season which saw them compile a 15-1 record, only to fall one game short of the Super Bowl. I'll be able to watch the games in the comfort of my humble abode thanks to my "offseason acquisition" of DIRECTV and the subsequent purchase of their NFL Sunday Ticket package, which is especially comforting since I don't live in the Pittsburgh area. Well, as the Black Eyed Peas said on Super Bowl Sunday, "Everyone have a Happy Football!"