A Cold, Hard Day's Night

 

The 2009 NFL season kicked off with a classic rocker last night, Pittsburgh's hard-hitting but mistake-filled 13-10 overtime victory against Tennessee in a battle of AFC heavyweights.

 

Maybe we spent too much time this week playing air guitar with The Beatles: Rock Band (part of our new exercise regimen), but as we watched last night's game a constant string of Fab Four classics kept rolling through our heads.

 

You might remember that Cold, Hard Football Facts ombudsdouche Mark Wald wrote a pretty compelling piece a few weeks ago that listed the handful of "Mad Bombers" in history: quarterbacks who could "carry a team" when called upon to pass frequently. Quarterbacks historically succeed in just 30 percent of these games.

 

Ben Roethlisberger, to the surprise of one and all, is one of the most successful quarterbacks in history when asked to pass 40-plus times a game.

 

Wald was quick to send us a message last night from his douchePod to point out that last night's game was yet another "carry the team" victory for Big Ben.

 

He's now 5-5 in his career when he attempts 40 or more passes – the .500 record puts him on a very short list of just 12 quarterbacks in history (see below) who have won at least half their games when called upon to "carry that weight."

 

On a night in which his team's ground attack was so pathetic so it offered to wash our windshield at an intersection (23 attempts, 36 yards, 0 TD), Big Ben shouldered the load and ultimately lifted his team to victory.

It was not a spectacular effort (it would have been without the two picks). But, as usual, it was a winning effort. Big Ben, as usual, made the big plays when needed.

 

He threw a gorgeous 34-yard TD pass to Santonio Holmes in the second quarter for Pittsburgh's only touchdown. And on the only drive by either team in overtime, completed 5 of 7 for 60 yards, and set up the game-winning field goal with a 22-yard strike to Mike Wallace that put the ball on Tennessee's 15. He produces in crunch-time, folks.

 

Between last night's game and his legend-maker in Super Bowl XLIII (the third best drive in Super Bowl history), Big Ben is 10 of 14 (71.4%) for 144 yards, 10.3 YPA, 1 TD and a 128.3 rating on game-ending drives.

 

Those numbers seem pretty good to us. But what do we know? We just work here.

 

Here are the 12 quarterbacks in NFL history who won at least half their games when asked to "carry the weight."

 

(min. 10 games; includes postseason)

	Quarterback	W	L	T	Pct.
1	Daryle Lamonica	25	10	2	.703
2	Tom Brady	17	8	0	.680
3	Bart Starr	7	4	1	.625
4	Bill Nelsen	7	4	1	.625
5	Billy Wade	11	7	2	.600
6	Johnny Unitas	37	27	3	.575
7	Y.A. Tittle	9	7	0	.563
8	Steve Young	11	9	0	.550
9	Donovan McNabb	17	14	1	.547
10	Danny White	7	6	0	.538
11	George Blanda	28	28	0	.500
12	Big Ben	5	5	0	.500

* "Carry a team" is defined as 30 or more passes in games through 1977, and 40 or more passes in games since 1978.

 

Tennessee kicker Rob Bironas is known as one of the game's big-legged kickers. In 2007 he led the NFL with 35 field goals on 39 attempts – including a perfect eight of eight in a 38-36 win over Houston (his mark of 8 FGs has been surpassed just once in NFL history).

 

Last year he converted 29 of 33. That's 64 of 72 field goals (88.9%) over the past two years. That's spectacular.

 

But Bironas has played a pivotal role in Tennessee's last two games – both losses to major AFC rivals.

 

In last year's playoff game against Baltimore, Bironas missed a 51-yard field goal. The Titans lost, 13-10. A 51-yarder is no gimme by any means, and the Titans made plenty of mistakes that day. But you don't need to be Vince Lombardi to realize that three points in a three-point loss are critical.

 

Then last night, Bironas missed a 37-yarder midway through the first quarter. And in the second quarter, his 31-yard effort was blocked.

 

It's the first time in his career that Bironas has failed to connect on two field goals in the same game.

 

He's now 2 of 5 in Tennessee's last two games – both critical three-point losses.

 

Not only did the Steelers win when they had zero in the way of a ground game, they also offered Big Ben little to no protection.

 

He was sacked four times, pressured constantly, and whacked more times than Shawne Merriman's girlfriends.

 

The Steelers struggled mightily on the offensive line last year (No. 28 on our Offensive Hog Index) and the results at the 1/16th pole here in 2009 indicate that they've improved little since then. Of course, Tennessee is one of the best  defenses in the league, so there is hope for better days ahead.

 

But Pittsburgh got a little lucky last year, overcoming such a dreadful performance from their front five, thanks to Tom Brady's injury, Indy's annual postseason swoon and Tennessee's mistake-filled effort in the divisional playoffs. It's hard to envision everything breaking Pittsburgh's way again, and hard to envision a Super Bowl repeat, if we don't see vast improvement over last night's effort.

 

 

For years, the great hole in the prehistoric Steelers attack was the lack of a speedy game-breaker.

 

It's finally safe to say that they Santonio Holmes fills that hole. Holmes, of course, was the MVP of Super Bowl XLIII, thanks to his 9 catches for 131 yards and his amazing game-winning touchdown catch at the end of the final drive.

 

He opened his fourth NFL season in style. In fact, he matched the same exact stat-line he produced in the Super Bowl: 9 catches, 131 yards, 1 TD.

 

Last night's TD was a beauty: he easily split the middle of the tough Tennessee defense, making any easy target for Big Ben and scoring Pittsburgh's only touchdown.

 

Hines Ward is the workmanlike folk here among Pittsburgh receivers, but Holmes provides the flash at the position largely missing since the Lynn Swann days. Look for him to top 1,000 yards for the first time in his career, especially if the ground game continues to struggle.

 

 

O.K., the song's actually called "Why Don't We Do It in the Road." But cut us some slack here.

 

The schedule's no easier for the champs. Pittsburgh makes the short trip west next Sunday for a star-packed AFC-NFC showdown with the Bears at Soldier Field. It may be the most attractive inter-conference game of the year.

Thanks to about 16 tasty Budweisers, we passed out about three minutes after Jeff Reed's field goal. It was a great night, in other words!