schadenfreude

great call!

I agree. I was sitting there Saturday night (sad, I know) thinking Bush is going to fall to the Steelers and he's going to be the next Jerome Bettis. Then they take a freaking tight end! Absolutely ruined the whole draft for me.

With all due respect, to say that a team coming off consecutive SB wins and accomplished what Pittsburgh did in 1976 does not deserve to be mentioned with the all-time best is moronic.

Thanks for the write-up. One thing I will never forget about that game is the look on Aikman's face as he left the field with 4 minutes to go and Dallas up only 20-17. He looked like a beaten man, sure his team could not stop Bam Morris. But then came Larry Brown--again. The other thing I will always remember about thqat SB is that Jerry Jones likely lost a ton of money betting on the Cowboys!

With all due respect, the Pats don't belong in the conversation with the all-time greats. Although they've won 3 SBs this decade, they were hardly "dominant" in any of the 3. In their first SB year, they scored one offensive TD in each post-season game, got a break on the tuck rule, got another break on the Steelers re-punt in the AFC championship game when the officials misplaced the spot, and got one of the all-time (and rarely discussed) breaks in the SB against the Rams. As you'll recall, the Rams led 3-0 and were in the Patriots' territory when Law made the pick and ran for a TD. If you ever see the replay (it was on NFL Network recently), you'll see that Vrabel's fist hit Warner's helmet above the face opening just after the ball was released. Roughing the passer in any era. Had that penalty been called, the Rams would have had a first down at the Pats' 30, and the game would most likely have turned out differently. I'm sure you'lll agree that the Patriots' opponents in their last 2 SBs, Carolina and Philadephia, could easily have won. In neither game did New England beat the spread, so they can hardly be called "dominant" concerning those wins.

Greatest team of all time, hands down, is the 1976 Pittsburgh Steelers, who didn't get to the SB. Coming off consecutive SB wins, they started 1-4 on a 14 game schedule. Won their last nine games to win the division by one game over Kenny Anderson's Bengals, giving up a total of 29 points in those 9 games. If they had lost any of those games, they would not have made the playoffs! Beat the daylights out of Bert Jones' Colts at Baltimore in their first playoff game, but lost both Harris and Bleier to injury (each had rushed for over 1,000 yards). As an aside, shortly after the stadium had been emptied, a small plane crashed into the stands. Pittsburgh, playing without Harris and Bleier, lost the AFC championship at Oakland. Still, the best team ever.

My favorite Urlacher play is when The Bus ran right over him for a TD in last year's Steelers-Bears game. My second favorite Urlacher moment is when speedy Tom Brady juked him this past season. I'm afraid he's not in the same league as the others mentioned in this thread.

Did you know that of the teams you listed, only one, Oregon State, the team that handed USC its first loss this year, has had the gumption to play Louisville in the last two years. In case you missed it, the final score of that game was LOUISVILLE 63, OSU 23. Kinda makes you wonder what UofL would do to USC, doesn't it?

You probably missed it when Rutgers destroyed Kansas State, 31-10, in the Texas Bowl just a few weeks after K State beat Texas, the defending national champ and one-time NO 2 in the country this year. Oh, by the way, Louisville, with its back-up QB, beat K St 24-6 in Manhattan in October. Did you know that Rutgers beat Illinois, a team that lost by 7 to Ohio State, 30-0?

Have you considered these scores in arguing that the SEC is the best? Louisville 24, Wake Forest 13 (neutral site) Wake Forest 30, Florida State 0 (at Florida State) Florida 21, Florida State 14 (at Florida State) Did you know that Louisville beat Kentucky by 31 points (in a game that wasn't that close), while Florida beat UK by 19 (and led by only 7 late in the second quarter)?

For those who don't think Louisville can play with the best, consider this: Louisville 24 Wake Forest 13 Wake Forest 30 Florida State 0 Florida State 44 UCLA 27 UCLA 13 USC 9 Seems to me that Louisville would pummel the Trojans!

Are you alluding to the fact that Landry was employed by the Chargers as director of scouting when they drafted Leaf second overall?

I must say that I was really ticked when Ben threw the pick with the Steelers up 7-0 with first and goal at the 4, and I was even angrier when he threw the second pick on the deep pass down the middle (on a pass Favre would throw). That being said, with Ward playing hurt, outside of Miller, the Steelers' receivers have not done Ben any favors. Steeler fan you are, you no doubt noticed the three drops in the first half of the Jacksonville game (one by Wilson, one by Ward and one by Haynes), all of which were third down throws that would have resulted in first downs to keep drives alive. Look what happened in the second half last Sunday. The first two times Pittsburgh had the ball in the second half, Ben helped lead them to ten points. On Pittsburgh's third and fourth possessions, his receivers dropped perfectly thrown third down passes (first Wilson, then Washington). That's a big deal when the team on the other side is the Bengals' offense! (which by the way was held in check by the D on their first five second half possessions) My point is simply this: Ben has not played well, to be sure, but his receivers have been a much greater disappointment. P.S. For what it's worth, before the season, I didn't think they'd miss Randle El all that much. But those guys they have returning punts are PITIFUL.

In the first half, Ben was 9 of 14. One of the incompletions was the deep ball to Ward that was about a yard from being a 50-yard TD pass (if you look at the replay, you'll see that Ward got knocked off stride slightly at the very end of the play); the other was a poorly thrown ball that glanced off Heath Miller's shoulder over the middle. Three of the incompletions were right on the money and could have been caught: 1. to Cedrick Wilson on the left sideline, on the play that Cowher threw the challenge flag on and then picked up; 2. to Ward along the left sideline (although Ward got hit pretty good, he'd already let the pass go right through his hands); and 3. to Haynes along the left sideline late in the first half (he was wide open for a nice gain and simply dropped the ball). All three of these drops were third down plays that if made by the receivers would have resulted in first downs and kept drives alive. In the second half, I think Ben got fatigued from a lack of conditioning and the heavy pass rush, and simply couldn't get it done. In the second half, he was only 8 of 18, and a couple of the incompletions were thrown as Jaguars were drapped around his legs.