Steelers Lab

Yinzers,

Oh, to be a fly on the wall in the Steelers' locker room this week. The above picture is actually a drosophila, a.k.a. fruit fly, that I took a scanning electron microscope shot of in lab today (I finally got her to sit still this afternoon so we could take some glamour shots). But that is off topic. I bet if I were indeed a drosophila on the wall in the locker room, I would have heard one of the greatest reemings on record. The Steelers nearly pissed away a 27-7 lead against the Cincinnati Bungles. This week was probably spent on defending the 2:00 drill and keeping composure. On to this week's contest.

The New England Patriots
There are a couple reasons most Steelers fans dislike the Patriots:
1. they are named after a region
2. the media LOVES them almost as much as they love the Dallas Cowboys
3. the Tom Brady tuck rule...well, just Tom Brady
The Patriots come into this game at 6-2, one of six teams with the same record, the best in the NFL so far. That second loss was last week at the hands of the Cleveland Browns. They will be looking to rebound off of that huge, embarrassing failure. The way they operate on offense is pretty much typical New England fashion under Tom Brady. They throw a lot of short- to intermediate-routes to a lot of different players and work of a "running back by committee." Aaron Hernandez and Wes Welker get the bulk of the yards, mostly after the catch. The ground game is split between upwards of four running backs, with BenJarvus Green-Ellis (wtf?) and Danny Woodhead (all-time leader in yards in NCAA Div. I-AA) doing most of the work. Ben Green/Jarvus Ellis does have 6 scores to his name. On defense, the Patriots are struggling. They are 27th overall, including 21st against the run and 29th against the pass. If the Pats want to rebound off that Cleve Brownie beat-down, they will need to find some defense. God knows they can score points.

Your Pittsburgh Steelers
Do I have to say what needs improved on this week? Keep the hunger and anger through the entire game, fellas. This week on offense, I hope to see Bruce Ariens open up play a little bit. He started out down the field in the first quarter of the Bungle game, but never returned to it. Keep going down the field if it is working. The Patriots do not have the secondary to match the speed of Mike Wallace nor Emanuel Sanders. The cornerstone to victory, however, will be good old fashioned Rashard Mendenhall. Peyton Hillis put up 187 on the ground against New England last week, and he's a white guy. Give the ball to 'Shard early and often and let those nimble feet go to work. On defense...close out the ball game. Most of the offense of the Patriots will be coming within 7 yards of the line of scrimmage. The linebackers will be the most important part of the defense this week. As long as they keep their heads, Pittsburgh should keep Tom Brady in check. Also, if they get to Brady, swipe that ball. They didn't name the rule after him for nothing.

The Steelers have a few notables on the injury report this week. Will Allen (concussion), Chris Kemoeatu (knee+ankle), Heath Miller (knee) and Brett Keisel (hamstring) did not practice through today. I would imagine that most of these guys will be game-day decisions. On the good side, Miwelde Moore and Isaac Redman participated fully both yesterday and today. This should greatly help the Steelers on third down.

Game time is 8:20 pm on Sunday Night Football from Heinz Field in beautiful, dahntahn Pittsburgh.

Here we go,
B Brog

Bungals

Yinzers,

Don't know what happened to the Fuse Box Monday? Sorry B- Congrats to Joe PA 400,



Enjoy!
Here We Go!
Wade

Fuse Box Monday

Yinzers,

Last year, the Penguins showed just exactly how the west was won. Not so much this year. The Western Conference has proven to be a 180 so far this year. If you do not know what I mean, read on.



Wednesday November 3: Penguins v. Stars
Wednesday was a loss filled with poor play and four fights down in Dallas. The Penguins rarely play poorly when facing a Western Conference opponent, but this was a game to forget. Dallas came out on top 5-2 and the Penguins frustration was very apparent throughout the game. Stephane Robidas opened up the scoring at 3:57 in the first period and the Stars kept the lead ever since. Later in the first period, Brad Richards added his fourth of the season to give the Stars a 2-0 lead. The fisticuffs started at the end of the first with the opening round pitting Jamie Benn against Tyler Kennedy. Kennedy scored after coming out of the box in the second period to bring the score to 2-1, but Steve Ott answered for the Stars, followed by a Loui Eriksson goal on a penalty shot. Round two came up with Kris Letang fighting Brendan Morrow, which had stemmed from a few altercations from earlier in the game. Also in round two, Sidney Crosby dropped the gloves with Matt Niskanen. Crosby was quoted saying he picked the fight to stick up for Kris Letang. Round three then followed later in the second when Jamie Benn fought Chris Kunitz. The Stars led 4-1 after two complete. The third period was comparatively less exciting with Loui Eriksson adding his second of the night to make it 5-1 and Matt Cooke adding a goal late to make it 5-2. Brent Johnson had an uncharacteristic night, turning away 19 of 24 and the Penguins could only muster up 23 shots of their own. You can't expect to win hockey games like that.

Friday November 5: Penguins v. Ducks
The Western Conference frustration continued for the Penguins when they traveled to Anaheim to take on the [Mighty] Ducks. Pittsburgh native George Parros shaved his iconic mustache and is growing a new one over the next 30 days to raise awareness for prostate cancer research. A good cause for a good kid from Washington, PA. He then went on to fight Deryk Engelland at 1:42 in the first period of Friday night's game. Scoring did not open up until the second period when Bobby Ryan ripped a wrist shot past Marc-Andre Fleury. Ryan Getzlaf and Saku Koivu also added goals in the second before the Penguins answered to the tone of a Sidney Crosby power play goal late in the second. Sidney Crosby scored again early in the third to bring the score to 3-2, but that is the closest the Penguins would get. Marc-Andre Fleury turned away 14 of 17 in the loss, but the Penguins did put 32 shots on Jonas Hiller.

Saturday November 6: Penguins v. Coyotes
The Penguins finished up this Western Conference road trip in Phoenix, on a pseudo-high note. The Pens got a win against the Coyotes, but it took overtime to get it. This was Zbynek Michalek's first game back to his old team since the Penguins picked him up this summer. Phoenix jumped out to a 2-0 lead after 6 minutes in the first period, scoring 2 goals on 5 shots leading to the pulling of Marc-Andre Fleury. Eric Belanger and Radim Vrbata had said goals. The Penguins answered back with two goals early in the second period from Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, to tie the score at 2. Fisticuffs flew again in this game when former Penguin Paul Bissonette squared off against current Penguin Deryk Engelland. Wojtek Wolski (pronounced Voyteck Valllski) put the Coyotes up 3-2 before Chris Kunitz added a power play goal late to tie the game at 3 after 2 periods. No scoring in the third and overtime periods led to a shoot out. After no goals in the first two rounds of the shoot out, the man who leads all rookies in points brought home the victory for the Penguins: Mark Letestu. The Penguins finish 1-2 on this road trip to the West, bringing their overall against the West to 2-3 this season.

The Penguins' games this week are as follows:
Wednesday, "It's a hockey night in Pittsburgh" against the Boston Bruins at 7:00
Friday, another hockey night in Pittsburgh against the Tampa Bay Lignting at 7:00
Saturday is "A great day for hockey" in Atlanta against the Thrashers at 7:00

Let's go Pens,
B Brog

Let's Go Pens

Hola Yinz!

It's a beautiful SoCal Day! I don't mean to complain, but it has been in the upper 90's- TOO HOTT TO HANDLE!

Brett, Me, Joy, & Josh

(Joy and Josh are not really fans, but I made them dress for success if they wanted to sit with me :))

I got to see my Pens play last night! We drove to Anaheim to see the Pens take on the Ducks. It's so exciting to be around fellow fans! The crowd was about 50/50 Pens fans, and we defiantly out yelled the Ducks fans. LET'S GO PENS! Unfortunately, you already know the outcome, but that did not change the fact that the Pittsburghers took over the bar across the street after the game.

Oh, by the way.... I think I might be cursed. I've never seen the Pens win live... and I have been to quite a few games. Any ideas on how to get rid of it?

Overall, It was an awesome Pittsburgh moment this week.

Ready for Monday Night...Bungles!
Labuda on the Left Coast

Penn State Phryday

Yinzers,

Hopefully, a milestone will be reached tomorrow. I apologize for the use of the passive voice, but it seemed like the most appropriate grammatical structure to capture the spirit of the thing as Dicky Dunn in Slapshot would have done. For any of the readers out there who did not know, Joe Paterno is going for his 400th win this weekend when the Wildcats of Northwestern come to Happy Valley. This is an amazing feat within itself, considering most coaches do not coach in 400 games in their careers. So, here we go.

Northwestern Wildcats
The Wildcats come into this game with a record of 6-2 (2-2 in the Big Ten). Northwestern's two losses came at the hands of then undefeated Michigan State and Purdue and all six of their wins have been games in which they should have won. Simply stated, they have beaten the bad teams and lost to the good teams. Generally speaking, Northwestern has been sticking to their same game plan for the last four years, their quarterback. Dan Persa is the quarterback this year, and they have thrown 234 times in 8 games. Persa is also the leading rusher for the Wildcats with 360 yards on 121 attempts. The "balance" in the Northwestern offense simply means that they drop Persa back and give him the decision to run or pass. Persa's favorite target is wide receiver Jeremy Ebert, who leads the team with 7 touchdowns. If Northwestern is to be successful on offense, they will have to take advantage of the depleted Penn State secondary and use high percentage passing routes. The key to victory on defense for Northwestern will be to get to the quarterback...if they can. Northwestern's defense is ranked 63rd overall, so they need to step it up if they want to be successful.

Penn State Nittany Lions
The Nitany Lions are coming off a big victory in the Big Ten as they beat Michigan and Denard Robinson 41-31 last week, under the lights in Beaver Stadium. Sophomore Matt McGloin got the start and threw for 250 yards and a touchdown while Evan Royster put up 150 yards on the ground with 2 scores of his own. The score was a little bit misleading, considering Denard Robinson ran for 190 and passed for 190. All that matters is they got the win. The Northwestern Wildcats and Dan Persa are not nearly as dangerous on offense as Denard Robinson is. Penn State's balance was there, which kept the opponent's defense off-balance. If they want to be successful and get JoePa his 400th win this weekend, they will need to do the same. Feed the ball to Evan Royster and take advantage of mismatches down the field. On defense, keep Persa contained and get him on the ground early and often. These are the basic keys to success in the Big Ten.

Game time is 3:30 pm on either ABC or ESPN2, depending on your region.

For the Glory,
B Brog

Steeler's Lab

Yinzers,

This week in the NFL is the first Monday Night Football game of the 2010 campaign for the Pittsburgh Steelers. The lights will be on in Paul Brown Stadium when the Steelers travel to southern Ohio to take on the Cinci Bungles.

The Bengals are coming off of a 22-14 loss to the Miami Dolphins last week. This year's Bungle team was supposed to be the team to beat in the AFC North, according to many "experts." Thus far in the year, that does not look like a viable prediction as they sit in last place in the AFC North at 2-5. With the addition of Terrell Owens to Chad Johnson (I will not call him "Ochocinco"), this was supposed to be the receiving corps to lead all receiving corps this year. Granted the two have put up respectable numbers as a tandem, but the Bungles have done absolutely nothing otherwise. The Cincinnati defense ranks 22nd against the run and 20th against the pass. Was the addition of Adam (Pacman) Jones not enough to solve the defensive problems? The Bungles have not been getting pressure on the quarterback nearly as much as they have in the past. If they want to be successful against the Steelers this week, they will have to keep balanced on offense and get to Ben Roethlisberger.

As for the Steelers, coming off a loss to the defending Superbowl champion Saints, take some shots down the field. Bruce Ariens' "iso-iso-screen" is really frustrating the lab techs here at the MSM. You have arguably the fastest receiver in the NFL at your disposal, use him to your advantage. In addition to that, stop running the iso play to a side that keeps getting beat off the ball. If there is a deficiency in the line, don't run there (last week it was the Bronco Legursky side). The defense is continuing to play solid. Just like last week, however, the Steel Curtain will be going up against a pass-heavy offense. We at the lab would like to see a little more exotic blitzing from Dick Lebeau. Not to say that there was not enough last week, but Carson Palmer holds onto the ball a lot longer than does Drew Brees. If the Steelers are to be successful, they will have to establish the run and use that play-action-bomb to Mike Wallace.

Game time is 8:30 on ESPN. Unfortunately we will have to listen to Chris Collensworth. Pay close attention. He sounds like a drunken elderly man both in speech and in reasoning.

In other scientific news, did you know some funny stuff can be done to mice by knocking out/swapping their genes? When I say funny stuff, I mean you can make genetically altered mice that are OCD, Schizophrenic, alcoholic, bisexual and supermice all from messing around with their homeobox genes. Normally, these genes control where stuff gets put, making sure your ribs go on the right vertebrae, fingers on the ends of your hands, etc. But if you take some of these out or swap them for others, you can create mice with ailments listed above. Interesting stuff...

Here we go,
B Brog

Truck Tuesday

Hey Yinz,

The best month of the year is now over, but it did end on a good note for the Igloo club (but not so much for the steeler nation..) Unfortuately we did have a loss on Sunday night vs the Saints - but we still have a great record for the season and it was Halloween, so how can you get too upset?

The Igloo Club had its second big party of the season, which was fantastic because we got to have a Pittsburgh Halloween Party. Most people just wore jerseys which wasn't exactly a Halloween costume, but you could always argue that we have a lot of people who dressed as yinzers!

We did have a few local pittsburgh celebrities drop by, like Big Ben with his glove, gut & unshaven face. We also had Troy (who doubled as the youtube infamous "hide ya kids, hide yo wife" guy) who was drinking out of his head and shoulders bottle..now we know the secret.

Wade was Steeley McBeam and we got to pleasure of hearing him talk like steeley for most of the game. His Custome was definitely the most well thought out and put together costume that we had there. Yours Truely was a Heinz Ketchup bottle. We also had a Penguins Puck Bunny. And now that I think about it, I think those were the only costumes that showed up to the party, which is kinda lame considering we had over 20 people show up! Oh well, some people just don't know how to get into the spirit!

Hope you all had a great Halloween!

Truck