Performance Art, David Mamet and the AFC Championship Game

A long time ago, like back in the Neil O'Donnell era, I went to an evening of performance art at Mellon Park put together by this artsy guy who I kinda knew because he dated somebody I knew. I didn't much care for him. I thought he was pretentious and annoying because he was pretentious and annoying. Also, he wore purple. Lots and lots of purple all the time and I don't think I ever saw him when he wasn't wearing at least one article of purple clothing. He had a simply shocking propensity for purple. Not a dignified purple, like Northwestern or Minnesota Vikings purple, either. It was more like the shade of purple preferred by pre-pubescent little girls, the shade they would squeal with delight to find in a pen and then proceed to sign everything in purple and write on the fronts of their notebooks and stuff. That purple. He even wore purple socks. In the summer. With shorts and running shoes. (I am not making this up.)

But I started thinking about him, and this particular evening of performance art because the over-arching theme was time. It was made up of many different vignettes, some of which were more monologue and others more, em, performance artsy, if you know what I mean. And when one of them was finished, Mr. Purple would bang this little gong he was carrying around and call "Time!," only he did it in a really annoying way -- like, "TIIIMMMMMMMMEEE!" -- he really laid on that "M" and dragged it out. Then we'd all walk, like lemmings, to another spot in the park for another vignette.

I found myself thinking about Mr. Purple calling "TIIIMMMMMMMEEE" yesterday morning when I was reflecting on the Steelers-Jets game because it seems to me it was all about time, it was about the Steelers offense's ability to drain nearly all the time out of the first quarter and about the defenses's ability to make the Jets use more time than they wanted to down the stretch.

They opened the game with a 15 play, nine minute touchdown drive. Nine minutes is an insanely long time for the Steelers offense (any offense, really) to be on the field. The Jets offense must have felt helpless, just standing their on a freezing night, watching the slow, inexorable tour of destruction that was the Steelers offense at the start of the game. They were down by seven points, with one-sixth of the game gone before Mark Sanchez even touched the ball. It felt like that opening drive set the tone for the whole first half, that the Jets had been almost lulled into a coma by the first drive. In fact, the Jets held the ball for just 8:04 in the first half. TIIIMMMMMMEE!

After the Jets gamely fought back to make it a two score game, they took over near the end of the 3rd quarter on their own 13 yard line. Though they drove the length of Heinz Field, James Harrison et al. forced them to use 17 plays to do it, and chew up eight minutes of clock before Casey Hampton and Brett Keisel stoned LaDainian Tomlinson at the goal-line. This was a muther of a goal-line stand.

I realize that the Jets got a safety on the very next snap of the ball, and scored a touchdown on the ensuing drive. Of course. But think of it in terms of time. The Steelers forced them to use 12:38, almost a full quarter of the game, to score just nine points. TIIIMMMMMMEEE!

None of it works, mind you, if the Steelers offense cannot close them out.

In David Mamet's brilliant Glengarry Glen Ross, Blake tells the assembled sales team (selling what, I was never clear on) that they should:

"A-B-C. A-Always. B-Be. C-Closing. Always be closing. Always be closing."

QB rating be damned, Pig Ben is a closer. It may not be pretty and you may not be able to look at a stat sheet to see it, but he's got a killer instinct, an innate, uncanny ability to put a dagger in the other team's heart at just the right moment.

I've been critical of Bruce Arians from time to time (mostly, I just wish he'd take that little delayed handoff to Mewelde Moore and the reverse just out of his playbook. Out. Gone. Banished to the trash heap), but I have to applaud his play-calling at the end of the game, twice calling pass plays to pick up first downs when most other coaches would have just run the ball, punted and tried to pin the Jets deep. It doesn't look like much on the stats sheet:

2nd and 9 at PIT 42 B.Roethlisberger pass short right to H.Miller to NYJ 44 for 14 yards (A.Cromartie).

and

3rd and 6 at NYJ 40 (Shotgun) B.Roethlisberger pass short right to A.Brown pushed ob at NYJ 26 for 14 yards (E.Smith).

Just two relatively routine pass plays, but what those two plays really are is: "You see pal, that's who I am, and you're nothing. Nice guy? I don't give a shit. Good father? Fuck you! Go home and play with your kids. You wanna work here - close!"

I love the calls. Of course, I love the calls because they worked. But lets face it, only a handful of coaches would do it, have the ability to to do it, because there aren't that many closers out there. Pig Ben has never thrown for a bigger 28 yards in his life.

It is a synergy of a quarterback who can make those kinds of plays and a coaching staff that trusts him to do just that. Always Be Closing. That was a closing.

"Fuck you. That's my name. You know why, mister? 'Cause you drove a Hyundai to get here tonight, I drove an eighty thousand dollar BMW. *That's* my name."

Play big or go home. Once again, the Steelers are going to the Super Bowl. And they're not going in a Hyundai.

Polamalu Sets Tone, Ziggy Delivers and the Steelers Cruise to No. 2 Playoff Seed

See what happens when the best defensive player in the league is on the field? The guy is magic. Of course, Sarah Silverman says Jesus is magic.

So if Troy is magic.

And Jesus is magic.

Then Troy is Jesus. (In cleats, instead of sandals, naturally.)

As to the rest of the team, they seemed to remember that despite last year's Horror Show by the Lake (Browns 13, Steelers 6), they are, in fact, the Pittsburgh Steelers and that they were playing the Cleveland Browns, a team which finished the last two seasons at 5-11 and last posted a winning recording 2007 (10-6), although somehow, it feels more distant, the notion of a winning Browns team.

Pig Ben looked as sharp as I've seen him look all year, putting the ball in perfect spots, finding open receivers, getting rid of the ball with alacrity and running from time to time. He was the beneficiary of the best performance by his offensive line all season and though I have been critical of Bruce Arians in the past, he called a great game, but really only needed to do so for two quarters with his team leading 31-3 at the half.

A word about Evander Ziggy Hood. The original draft report on Hood at CBS Sports, contains the following tidbits of information:

Positives: More than the sum of his parts. … Legitimate NFL size. … Plays with a passionate, physical style. … Locates the ball quickly and pursues well down the line. ...

Negatives: Lacks the elite explosiveness or strength usually associated with highly rated defensive tackles. … Only moderate initial quickness. … Flashes the lateral quickness to elude and collapse the pocket, but is too inconsistent in that area. … Often plays too high and loses leverage, negating his own strength and size.

I often think scouting is crazy bananas; guys flame out as often as they deliver and how a guy looks standing around in his underpants at the scouting combine bears little relation to how he will actually perform at the highest level of competition, but this report is dead on for Ziggy. He does pursue well down the line and he plays contain very well. The coaches love his passion and dedication. Still, until very recently, he didn't get much of a push and lacked explosiveness at the point of attack. I've been bumming about that. Actually, I've been kinda carping about it.

Did I expect too much? Probably. I often do that with first round picks. Solid is just not good enough for a first round pick in my mind.

I'm sure I unwittingly expected Ziggy to contribute immediately in the mold of Heath Miller and Pig Ben, but I should try to be more mindful of the Lesson of Troy Polamalu. There were times during Troy's rookie year that he looked completely and utterly lost out there, leading many of us to question Bill Cowher and Kevin Colbert's decision to move up in the draft to get him. Silly. He has turned out to be nothing less than the best defensive player in the league and one of the greatest Steelers of all time. Heady company.

In yesterday's 41-9 romp over the Browns, Ziggy was credited with two tackles for losses, one sack, four solo tackles, and one other QB hit, none of which begins to accurately describe his overall performance. Perhaps the loss of the great Aaron Smith is what Ziggy needed. Maybe he needed to get on the field more, get in the mix more; maybe he learns best by doing. However it happened, clearly Ziggy has turned a corner. Will he turn into the next Mean Joe? Or L.C.? Probably not, but he is really coming on down the stretch which is a very good sign for the Steelers defense heading into the post-season.

Special Teams Return to 2009 Form and Drag Rest of Team Down with Them

I am a believer in the church of the special teams. Yea verily, just as surely as many evangelicals believe in the certainty of the rapture, I believe that special teams touchdowns will come back to bit you in the ass. Hard. I believe that special teams are as important to a team's success as having a franchise quarterback, winning the turnover battle, and controlling the line of scrimmage. In some mystical karmic way, special teams points seem to carry more weight, more cache and special teams touchdowns are to regular touchdowns as dog years are to people years.

Exhibit A: San Diego Chargers. The Chargers are fighting for their playoff lives in no small part because of two early season losses: to the Chiefs by 21-14 - a game in which they gave up a punt return for a TD; and to the Seahawks by 27-20 - a game in which they gave up TWO kickoff returns for TDs. As things stand today, the Chargers are on the outside looking into the playoff picture.

Exhibit B: New York Giants. Who lost yesterday's thriller to the Eagles when they allowed DeSean Jackson to return a punt for a TD on the last play of the game. Brutal. The Giants still are hanging on to the last spot in the playoffs, but I have to wonder if they can get past the kick to the stomach that yesterday's loss was to win out in the last two weeks?

Exhibit C: Pittsburgh Steelers. The team won in Tennessee after Antonio Brown took the opening kickoff to the house. It was the only touchdown they scored all day. Then yesterday, they lost to the Jets after allowing Brad Smith to take the opening kickoff to the house. Coincidence? I don't think so.

You put your team behind the eight-ball when you allow a special teams touchdown. NFL teams are a combined 10-16 when giving up a special teams touchdown and, for some unknown reason, kick returns seem to do more damage that punt returns. In the 20 games with a kickoff returned for a touchdown in the NFL this year, the team with the KO TD has won 13 of those times, and lost just 7 times. Those are pretty much 2 to 1 odds that you'll win if you take a touchdown to the house.

Maybe it's just the letdown factor for the defense. If you're kicking off, either its the start of the game, the start of the half or you've just scored. So let's say your offense fights and claws and puts together a 80-something yard drive. It takes a lot of plays of 11 players doing their jobs, maybe a spectacular catch or two, or maybe a few tackle breaking runs. And all that work is negated on the ensuing kick. The hard work of that offensive touchdown is erased in about 3 seconds.

It's disheartening.

And it's no way to open a game. Particularly against a team like the Jets.

The Jets average just about 21 points per game and I'm not sure if the folks at Stats, Inc. adjust that for other scores - the Jets had another special teams TD and a TD on an interception return coming into this game. Regardless, the Jets are hardly the Patriots prolific offense, so you can't help a team score, particularly one that had been shut out earlier this year by the Packers and had scored just nine points in the last two weeks. Sure, they were fighting for their playoff lives, but still, this Jets team was there for the taking.

Even with the special teams miscue, and even with a defense that cannot make any big plays without Troy on the field (talk about disheartening - just one sack, just one tackle for a loss and only two QB hits), the Steelers were down by just 3 points and had the ball. (For more on the defense being just pedestrian without Troy, check out Gene Collier's great column.)

Why on earth was Mewelde Moore on the field on 1st and 10 from the Steelers 3? Moore is the best blitz protection back, so if you're gonna pass, I can see him being on the field. But at their own 3 yard line, I don't think the Steelers are going to pass there. And the Jets didn't think so either.

Every coach, every player has a chink in the armor, an achilles heel, not like Troy's injured achilles, but one in the Greek mythology sense. And I think that Bruce Arians' biggest flaw as a play caller is that he tries too hard to outsmart teams.

"It would be so stupid of me to run the ball around the corner with Mewelde Moore in this situation that nobody would expect it. Perfect! .... Oh. Crap."

It's a low percentage call in a situation where you cannot afford to lose yards, so what's the logic in handing the ball off to the smallest, weakest back on the roster and running something to the edges?

Why not hand the ball off to the guy who has 100 yards on the day and is averaging nearly 6 yards per carry? I've said it before and I'll say it again -- they drafted Rashard Mendenhall to be the man. They should give him the opportunity to be the man.

The kick off return for a touchdown, the safety -- those are the kinds of plays the Steelers have manufactured to win this season. With special teams reverting to last year's execrable form, and without the team MVP on the field, they couldn't get any of those plays, but rather watched helplessly while the Jets made a couple of big 'splash' plays in Tomlin-speak.

On the upside, the Steelers haven't lost a game to a bad team this year, unlike last season's five game skid that included losses to the bad stinky Chiefs, stinkier Raiders, and the stench that killed an entire region, a/k/a the Brady Quinn led Browns. So, they got that going for them. Yesterday's loss was not one of those terrible, embarrassing losses, but still, it's a game that was there for the taking.

To Run Or Not To Run? The Question that Plagues the Steelers

More than the missed field goal, more than some strange coaching decisions, more than the crowd noise, and more than the Heath Miller fumble, one series from Sunday's night's game has been flashing in my head, Alfred Hitchcock like, with the accompanying strident string score.

After a brilliant return by rook Emmanuel Sanders, runs by Rashard Mendenhall of 4, 6 and 7 yards, a 6 yard screen pass to Mendenhall, and a nice seam route pass to Antwan Randal-El, the Steelers were stifled at the 1/2 yard line.

Wha..????!

Can't be. Because, didn't Art Rooney the Lesser issue a dictum that the team should work on running better in 2010 than it had in 2008 and 2009? Didn't Mike Tomlin promise, not that the team would run more, but that the team would run more effectively? Didn't Bruce Arians say that they would be better at running, even if they were still a predominantly throwing team?

And yet ... three shots to go one yard. Three chances for a touchdown mid-way through the 2nd quarter of a scoreless game against the defending Super Bowl champs changes the complexion of the game. Who knows? Maybe after that Drew Brees goes all Drew Brees on the Steelers and rains long bombs down on them all night? But maybe, just maybe, the satisfaction of scoring a touchdown there, gives both the defense and the offense a lift? Or maybe not. But I like 7-0 a lot better than 3-0.

When fans in Pittsburgh scream to run the ball, this is what they're talking about. They're not screaming to run the ball 39 times a game; nobody's calling for a return to "Hey diddle, diddle, Rogel up the middle" days of coach Walt Keisling. Heaven forfend. But I'm not sure that you can just run when you want to. Offensive lines get good at run blocking through practice and through the doing of it. An NFL team, any NFL team with playoff hopes (dare I say it, Super Bowl hopes), should be able to punch the ball in from the one yard line.

Wasn't this precisely the problem last year?

Three problems defined that 2009 five game house of horrors losing streak: (1) defensive letdowns, (2) special teams shit (sorry, there's no other word for the kick coverage units) and (3) a non-existent short-yardage running game.

Of that terrible stretch, I pin the loss to the Chiefs on the special teams, the loss to the Raiders on the defense, and the loss to the Ravens on, well, on the Ravens. That was a close one and it's tough to beat the Ravens in Baltimore with your back-up, back-up quarterback.

But, the losses to the Bengals and the Browns? The defense and the special teams didn't help much, but the Steelers terrible redzone offense contributed mightily to those losses. Yea, mightily, my friends.

Four times the Steelers drove inside the Bengals 20 and came away with four field goals. Shameful.

Even worse, several weeks later, at 6-6 and fighting for their post-season lives, from their performance, you would never have known that the Steelers offense got the memo that it was, gee, kinda important to win the game against the lowly Browns. A Browns team led by Brady Quinn at quarterback, for crying out loud. Putting up a total of six points against the Browns? Well, there just are no words for a performance like that.

The Steelers are 5-2, which is a good thing, so I'm not complaining. They've played themselves into a really good position for the second half of the season and that's a pleasant place to be.

Still, you'll excuse me, but my post-traumatic stress disorder from the 2009 season is really itching and burning. Last year, after seven games, they were also 5-2. With almost identical losses - one to a divisional opponent and one to a non-conference opponent. Hey, they were in great shape! We're going to the Super Bowl again!

I'll believe it when they actual nail down at least 10 wins.

On a sad note, NBA great Maurice Lucas died on Monday after a battle with cancer. Lucas, a product of Pittsburgh's Hill District, is featured in the amazing David Halberstam book, "The Breaks of the Game," which I count as one of the 10 best sports books of all time. (See list, Part 1 and Part 2.) For more on Lucas, check out David Steele's terrific story at AOL's Fanhouse.

That Was Unpleasant, Saints 20 - Steelers 10

In the words of the great, the one of a kind, the one and only Bugs Bunny, "Ain't I a stinker?"

Yup. It was that kind of night. A stinker.

You just knew Drew Brees was not going to play another error filled game after being humiliated by the Browns last week. You just knew Gregg Williams wanted out LeBeau Dick LeBeau's defense. And yet, that was very unpleasant, wasn't it? The Saints played great. I expect that was exactly the game they wanted to play. Even so, there's plenty of blame to go around on the other black and gold squad.

Through a turgid first half and third quarter, Bruce Arians was completely befuddled by the Saints defense; despite the fact that they were sending all out blitzes on just about every play, he didn't adjust his calls until the 4th quarter. There's slow, there's obtuse, and then there's Bruce Arians.

The offense's inability to get in with a 1st and goal at the 1 yard line. Kudos to the Saints defense for a great stand there, but when you leave four points on the field like that, nine times out of ten, it's going to come back to bite you in the ass. [Of course, the Steelers D basically got those 4 points back when they put on their own amazing goal line stand denying the Saints with a 1st and goal at the 1 yard line, too.]

Pig Ben looked like ass through much of the first half; his throws were into the turf and/or way off target. He seemed to shake that off as the game went on, but he and Hines Ward have been playing together long enough that you'd think they'd have some hot reads down pat when defenses bring that kind of pressure; they didn't and that was perhaps the most discouraging element of last night's loss.

Coach Tomlin made a couple of strange decisions, the strangest of which was sending that moronic hayseed of a kicker in to attempt a 51 yard field goal late in the 2nd quarter. I knew Skippy was going to pull that kick, you knew Skippy was going to pull that kick, all 70,011 costume wearing, besotted spectators at the Superdome knew Skippy was going to pull that kick, so why didn't Tomlin? [Now seems like an appropriate time to mention that I have gone off the reservation in my loathing of Jeff Reed. His inability to hit anything but the chippiest of chip shots, combined with his short kick offs and palpable apathy on coverage units -- I can't even look at the guy anymore. Can they please start auditioning kickers today? Please?!] The end result was that the Saints got the ball at their own 41 and moved easily to get a field goal to close out the first half.

Emmanuel Sanders essentially broke up a perfect pass to Hines Ward which would have given the Steelers a huge 1st down. And it came on what seemed like one of the few perfect hot reads the Steelers made all night. Ouch. C'mon Rook. Get your head in the game.

There's lots of blame to go around, but even with all of the above and more that I haven't mentioned (like Brees playing Polamalu like a fiddle on one occasion), the game really comes down to the Heath Miller fumble.Everything was going the Steelers way. Rashard (no longer Suspect) Mendenhall, had ripped off a huge touchdown run to close the gap to 3 points. B-Mac caused a fumble on a corner blitz and the Steelers were driving for the go-ahead score. Then Miller coughed it up and the game was over because the Saints did what good teams do -- turned a great break into a touchdown. That was some kind of catch by Lance Moore. That he went up for it and held onto it with Troy and B-Mac crunching him (legally, mind you, in the torso area), was a spectacular play. You make plays like that, you deserve to win, as far as I'm concerned.

I think what's frustrating is that we know the Steelers are capable of playing better than that. Still, all hail the Saints, who played the game they needed to play, when they needed it most.

Ravens 17, Steelers 14, Post-Mortem

Five photos that sum up the loss yesterday.

The Ravens O Line played great and despite the defense's efforts to get to Flacco, they always seemed to be a split second late. Flacco himself got rid of the ball quickly and efficiently. He has come under some heat in Baltimore, but yesterday should shut up those critics. At least for a while. On the last drive of the game, he was perfect and his touchdown pass to TJ Whoseyourmama is the kind that great quarterbacks build careers on.

Bruce Arians' insistence on calling slow developing, deep pass plays when a dink and dunk approach might have worked better, kept the Steelers defense off the field and, you know, picked up first downs.

11 penalties for 88 yards. Ed Hochuli and his crew had awfully quick trigger fingers with the yellow hankies, and I personally believe that Hochuli loves getting face time and showing off his amazing pythons on national tee vee. That said, 11 penalties are going to kill you. Every time.

These penalties deserve their own category. After an amazing defensive stop by the Steelers, just an awesome goal-line stand, Matt "a Draft Pick is a Terrible Thing to Waste" Spaeth and Chris Kemoeatu each jumped on the following series. Who knows? The Steelers may not have been able to pick up a victory ensuring first down there, but those penalties made sure they didn't. And why the hell was Spaeth even out there blocking? He's a terrible blocker. Well, he's pretty much terrible at everything, come to think of it. Off-sides? On home turf? In the waning moments of the game? Be serious.

Of course, dipshit pulled one kick right and then the second one left.


The guy has one job to do. Just one. Were this a new phenomena -- Skippy missing make-able kicks in tight games -- I might just chalk it up to a bad day. Everybody has bad days. I can live with that. But Reed started to deteriorate last year in Chicago and in Cincinnati. This year, he's back to that 2009 form, missing an easy game winner against the Falcons and then yesterday's execrable performance.
Does anybody remember how Reed got the job? Anybody? Bueller? Bueller?

Todd Peterson blew some very make-able kicks and Bill Cowher finally got fed up, brought in a bunch of kickers on rainy day and tried them all out. By the end of that week, Peterson was out of a job and Steelers fans had a new kicker. Food for thought, coach Tomlin, food for thought.

Jeff Reed Chokes and Blows a Winnable Game for the Steelers

Perhaps, like me, you're the kind of person who turns Steelers losses over and over in your head, unable to shake the malaise that sets in after after the pain of losing, particularly in such dramatic fashion as was seen Sunday at Heinz Field. Perhaps, you too will lay in bed late this Sunday night, flashing on every missed opportunity, every miscue, every momentum shifting mistake leading to the disappointing loss.

Tonight, I will find no refuge in sleep.

Intrusive will be the thoughts of Charlie not seeing a wide open Hines Ward over the middle and instead going incomplete to Heath Miller.

I may never find the answer to the question of what on earth could have been going through Bruce Arians' mind with 0:45 left in the 3rd quarter when he called a deep pass to Mike Wallace on 3rd and 4 from the Baltimore 27. Why not run the ball there? Or at least throw a short pass to Hines over the middle and try to just pick up the 1st down instead of going for the deep ball? The guy calls his offense like a 13 year old boy playing Madden 2010.

Certainly, 11 penalties for 88 yards will ruin a good night's sleep and even the best teams aren't going to win many with that much laundry on the field.

Ike Taylor actually caught and interception and William Gay has grown up before our eyes. He played another great game. Both wasted. As were all the times that Charlie pulled the Ravens off-sides on a hard count. Well done, Chaz, but that wily veteran effort was wasted, too.

But nothing more than this one single thought will keep me up through the night.Thanks a lot, Skippy. I can almost forgive the first miss, but the second one? That sound you heard was your contract demands going up in flames. Your contract with the actual business operation that is the Pittsburgh Steelers may not expire until the end of the season, but consider your relationship with SteelersNation terminated as of now. You might want to spend less time f*cken' with your hair, f*cken' with your beard and taking pictures of your junk and more time practicing kicking.

Now get out of my face, ya drunk hayseed.

At least UConn Fan brought cupcakes from Vanilla and my roasted tomato salsa was slammin.

Regarding Bruce Arians

Despite his role in bringing home Lombardi Trophy #6, Steelers loyalists run hot and cold and mostly leery of offensive coordinator Bruce Arians. I'm trying to figure out where perception meets reality, where Arians is legitimately questionable, and in what instances the fans have pierogies for brains.

Good Bruce Arians is now a Super Bowl winning coordinator. It's really hard to argue with that.

Bad Bruce Arians might could be the coordinator equivalent of Barry Switzer in that regard. Yup. Switzer won a Super Bowl. No denying it. But nobody in her right mind thinks Switzer was the better coach on the field that day. Is Arians another lucky interloper?

Good Bruce Arians a/k/a BA, works so well with Pig Ben that Roethlisberger finished the 2009 season with a quarterback rating of 100.8 and was second in the league in yards per pass attempt (8.55 yards). Yes, Pig Ben is one of the five best QB's in the league, but you have to credit Arians with at least some of that success.

There is not a scintilla of interest in Bad Bruce Arians for any NFL head coaching openings. When a team wins a Super Bowl, generally that team's coordinators are at the top of the head coaching wish lists. Yet BA wasn't on anybody's short list or long list or any kind of list, except maybe some fan sh*tlists.

Good Bruce Arians was in no way responsible for the defensive collapse or special teams entropy of 2009.

Bad Bruce Arians has been the Steelers OC for three years and only once in that time did the Steelers offense crack the top 10 in terms of points scored per game (2009 average of 23.0 points - 12th; 2008 average of 21.7 - 20th; and 2007 average of 24.6 - 9th). Hardly Don Coryell-type stats.

Good Bruce Arians Started his Steelers tenure as the wide outs coach under Bill Cowher. In that time, he took a very unfocused Plaxico Burress and got him to focus, so much so that Plax got a big free agent payday with the Giants, won a SuperBowl and promptly shot himself. But I don't think we can hold old BA responsible for Plax carrying a handgun around in his sweatpants. BA also had his hand in: making Hines Ward one of the premiere wide outs in the league; transforming Antwan Randal El from a middle of the pack guy to Super Bowl superstar and overpaid free agent; taking wide out Santonio Holmes from draft pick to burner to Super Bowl superstar (he does not, however, provide 'Tone with his doobage); and utilizing the freaky speed of Mike Wallace.

Bad Bruce Arians stinks in the red zone. His play calling is pedestrian and predictable. The Steelers scored just 27 touchdowns in 56 trips to the redzone -- only 48.2 percent. Bah.

Good Bruce Arians knows that this is a pass-first league. The Indy Colts made it to the Super Bowl throwing the ball 601 times and running it just 366 times. The Saints passed 544 times versus 468 rushes.

Bad Bruce Arians doesn't run the ball enough. The Saints and Colts may have made it to the Super Bowl by throwing more than they ran, but the Jets made it the whole way to the AFC Championship game by running the ball 607 times and throwing only 393 times. The once pass-whacky Cincy Bungles threw the ball just 477 times (running it 505) and they won the AFC North.

I'd say there are strong arguments to be made on either side of the Arians debate, but this one is the tipping point for me:

Good Bruce Arians knows that he has one of the five best quarterbacks in the league and a mad fumbler, Rashard Suspect Mendenhall, for a premiere running back. If you were Arians, would you hand the ball to Suspect? Or give it to Pig Ben?