RANDOM OBSERVATIONS : DOLPHINS @ STEELERS, FIRST HALF EDITION

by Davey, Blown Coverage

I'm going to be honest here. The Sean Taylor incident has me pretty down and I don't even feel like watching a game right now. That said, bad weather has delayed the start of the game by 25 minutes meaning that I'll have even more trouble waking up for work tomorrow. Getting fired on my 2nd day is not something I want to happen but the odds have increased dramatically right here.

As for the game, I had been saying for a while now that the Steelers could be the team that would spoil New England's party but then they went out and lost to the Jets. That means that they'll be ready to donkey punch my Dolphins tonight. Awesome.

Either way, Pittsburgh is missing a few starters, the field is horrible and the fact that Miami manages to keep their games pretty close before blowing them in the last few minutes makes me think that this could be a close game after all. Ricky Williams is back, Joey Porter is back in Heinz Field and Kornheiser's comb over is in mid-season form. Time to get things going...

• Joey Porter introduces Miami's defense and those 20 seconds were probably the most he's contributed this entire season. I'm glad that he didn't assault anyone while filming this.

• And as I type this, Porter intercepts Large Benjamin. Porter just dropped back in coverage and Big Benjamin threw it right into his hands. Maybe Ben needs to be reminded that J-Peezy isn't a member of the Steelers anymore.

• Miami's run game is looking as good as the field right now. I'll be happy if they manage a field goal tonight...

• Will Allen forces a Large Benjamin fumble but Ben manages to recover the football. One of my fantasy teams has a 23 point lead in the match-up right now with my opponent starting Benjamin tonight. You can imagine that his shaky start has me giggling like a 4-year old.

• Ricky Williams' first carry brings a Miami first down. The man may be a pothead that quit on his team, but he does know how to carry a football. On a related note, Kornheiser just wet himself...

• A 22-yard punt for Miami punter Brandon Fields. That's not going to help his average much. On the other hand, it's the best play that Pittsburgh's offense has run all night.

• Steelers go for it on 4th and 1 but Najeh Davenport gets stuffed by Vonnie Holliday. Poor Jason Allen celebrated as if he won the lottery and when you're on a 0-10 team, you're allowed to celebrate little things like this.

• The Steeler linebackers are doing this kicking celebration every time they make a tackle for a loss and it's becoming pretty repetitive. I'm hoping that they stop it. Besides, I don't think that you want to be making kicking motions on this horrible field. Not unless you want to destroy your groin.

• Ah, and Ricky Williams fumbles. Williams got hammered and fumbles the ball while ironically two Dolphins are called for holding. Lawrence Timmons recovers the ball but not before he stomped on Ricky's shoulder. That's not very nice of Lawrence if you ask me.

• Another possession, another Steelers punt. If you love offense, I suggest you turn on your X-Box. These two teams might finish with a 0-0 draw tonight and I'm being dead serious right now.

• Ricky is headed to the locker room and I guess that his shoulder must be banged up. This game is as entertaining as watching grass grow.

• Nice to see Cameron Worrell mastering the art of not tackling the guy who's carrying the football. If you want to teach someone how not to tackle, show them tape of Cameron Worrell. It should do the trick.

• More punts, more dropped passes and we're finally at the half. Holy crap, what an ugly game. If the second half is going to be like this, we might as well shut it down now and call it a night.