Wow

Congratulations to frequent commenter gmack and the Steelers. I was meeting someone for lunch and had to leave after halftime, but decided to record the rest just in case it remained close, and it was an amazing finish. I don’t have a detailed enough sense of history to know where this ranks among the upsets in NFL history, but is has to be high on the list.

While I used to think that they got a bad rap, you do have to seriously question Manning and Dungy. That’s a brutal loss, and Cowher’s a fine coach but he ain’t Bellechick (although this game has to ratchet up his reputation enormously.) The other thing to note is that there is some discussion in New York about whether Roethlisberger or Eli Manning (who the Giants traded up to draft instead) is better, as if it’s some sort of real debate. It’s like arguing about who’s more conservative, Clarence Thomas or William Brennan. As you can see, despite playing several games with a bad thumb Roethlisberger (and the other genuinely outstanding young QB, Palmer) ranks with guys like Peyton and Hasselbeck–at the top of the league, in other words, although Palmer is better–while Eli ranks amongst Trent Dilfer and Josh McCown. And it’s not like Manning is in a weak offense–he has a tremendous running back, fine receivers and an outstanding tight end to work with. He’s just not very good at this point. Eli will get better than that, of course, and he has talent–some guys with his arm become excellent QBs, some don’t, and whether he will is an open question. But as of now, there’s no debate; Roethlisberger is in a whole other league, and his performance today on the road (compared with Eli’s dismal performance at home) just underlines that.