Oh. My. Goodness. Could that game have been any more painful to watch? The Pittsburgh Steelers avoided setting the record for the first NFL game to go into overtime scoreless by kicking a field goal with seconds left to beat the still winless Miami Dolphins 3-0. The score came on the first drive of the game to make it inside of the red zone (the Dolphins made it to the 20 yd line once, only to take a delay of game penalty on their field goal attempt).
Granted, you can't really blame the awfulness of this game on either team. The heavy rains and a layer of new sod (put in place after Friday's four WPIAL high school championship games and a Pitt football game on Saturday) coupled to create laughable field conditions. And Heinz Field isn't exactly known for its great field. Most of the paint came off with the tarp, so players probably just didn't know exactly where that red zone was anyway. Mud and divots covered the field, and the grounds crew apparently used what Joey Porter (back in Pittsburgh in a Dolphins uniform) described as "cat litter" to attempt to absorb some of the moisture.
I think my favorite part of the game was when a ball, punted by the Dolphins in the thrid quarter, plopped down into the mud and went no where. Kind of like the game.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
football: Late Field Goal Earns Steelers a "Thrilling" Victory
Saturday, November 24, 2007
hockey: Penguins dominate the Thrashers for an important win
Wow. I'm out of town right now, so I could only listen to tonight's game over the Internet, but it certainly sounded like the Pittsburgh Penguins played 60 minutes of solid hockey to beat the Thrashers 5-0 at Mellon Arena. The score matches the best margin of victory this year for the Penguins, who beat New Jersey 5-0 on Nov. 5.
This was a big win for the Penguins, who earned back-to-back wins for the first time in more than a month (they won three in a row Oct. 19-23), and did it against a team that won 11 of its last 15 games.
The Penguins came out strong and leaped to a 3-0 lead at the end of the first period. It looks like Jordan Staal and Colby Armstrong may finally break out of their slumps, as each scored a goal tonight (in both cases, their second of the season). Ryan Malone was the other first period scorer, and Sidney Crosby and Ryan Whitney added a goal each during the second and third periods to round out the scoring.
It didn't sound to me like Marc-Andre Fleury was challenged in net too much tonight, but still an important milestone for him, as he has, to put it mildly, struggled this season. Let's hope he can string together several solid performances in a row now.
With such an impressive performance, it's hard to believe that Evgeni Malkin didn't earn a goal or an assist tonight. His 15-game point streak came to end; although Mike Lange mentioned tonight that it was the longest point streak for a Russian player.
Of course, I think it's important that the Penguins learn to score when Crosby and Malkin aren't involved. . .or maybe even on the ice. In the last two games, they have finally started to do just that, and have earned wins for their troubles.
The Penguins don't play again until Friday, Nov. 30, against the Dallas Stars. That gives them five days off, which hopefully will be a good opportunity to build on what they did tonight and be prepared for the next 3/4 of the season.
If we had lost these last two games, it wouldn't have surprised me if the Penguins would have fired head coach Michel Therrien during the time off. But now that they enter this break with two consecutive victories, I don't see them pulling the trigger.
Box Score
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