Yes, you heard me.  They’re 6-2 and looking every bit like a playoff-caliber team.  Could they win the division?  They control their own destiny with four games remaining against rivals Pittsburgh and Baltimore.

Andy “The Ginger QB” Dalton looks like a worthy second round pick this last draft.  As does his favorite target, A.J. Green, their first round pick in ’10.  Green is pulling down 5 receptions per game for an average of 15 yards.  Dalton’s efficiency belies his inexperience  with 12 TDs to only 7 INTs.  His top four targets are wide receivers and the talented tight end, Jermaine Gresham.  These four are pulling down 75% of Dalton’s completions so we’re not talking about dump offs to the running back.

They’re also pounding it on the ground with Cedric Benson running at a 1200 yard pace.

Their defense has been stingy and at 17.5 points allowed, they’re a half point better than the Steelers.

I had no idea.  How did this happen?

The Steelers travel to Cincinnati for week 10.  They better bring their “A” game if they want to get back home in possession of a Wild Card slot.  Yes, it’s time to consider that perhaps they’ll be subletting the Division Title this year.  And it might be to these Cincinnati Bengals.

Still, hope springs eternal and the Steelers were a few muffed plays and bad decisions from victory last week.  I believe they can get it done for the first time this season against a winning team on the road.

Give me the Steelers, 20-19.

At least I hope you do, New England Patriots.

I understood when the Patriots gave Oakland a late round pick for Randy Moss a few years ago.  It made perfect sense, he was all the team was really missing at that point.  They had possession, short route receivers and 57 varieties of tight ends.  Yet they lacked that dominant down-field threat to strike fear into opposing secondaries.  Moss gave them that.  It was a no-risk proposition and it mostly worked.  19-0 18-1 anyone?

But now the Patriots have traded for the loud-mouthed, passive aggressive Ocho Cinco or Chad Eight Five, however you say it.  Eight Five posted some nice numbers over the years, but was never part of consistent, winning team.  Of course, one can’t blame the Cincinnati Bengals’ failures on a single wide out but I’d be hard pressed to say that Eight Five was ever the solution.

Mix in perennially dissatisfied Albert Haynesworth and you have a volatile “solution” in the Kraft works.  No doubt about it, Hayesworth is a monster of a defensive tackle.  When he chooses to be.  But will he choose to play for Bill Belichick? Could he be a disruptive force on the defense? (See what I did there?)

Both Eight Five and Haynesworth were aquired on the cheap so the experiment is low risk in the end – just cut them if they don’t pan.

We’ll see what happens.  Can’t wait for that mid-November game when Eight Five has finally had enough of not getting enough. Will he simply go through the motions and be relegated to 3rd down, 5 WR sets?  Could he ever accept such a slight?  And what about the first time Haynesworth waives at a running back on the goal line?

Bring it on!

Mike Brown wasted no time taking the high road when he announced that the Bengals would not be trading Carson Palmer.

“Carson signed a contract, he made a commitment, he gave his word. We relied on his word. We relied on his commitment. We expected him to perform here. If he’s going to walk away from his commitment, we aren’t going to reward him for doing it.”

Yeah, and you could have traded him without letting this mess become public. Palmer would have brought at minimum a 2nd rounder, probably considerably more. You think Minnesota wouldn’t have jumped on that? Miami? There must be at least 10 team out there who could immediately upgrade with ol’ Rosie.

But no, Mike Brown has to posture and talk about commitment. Commitment! Coming from Brown the word is laughable.

What a douche.

And while Michael Vick should certainly be considered as part of the world, he bears singling out.  You know the rumors of Brett Favre “not saying anything” about going to Philadelphia as a backup have to be at least irksome and at most downright disturbing.

Can you imagine the outcry from Philly fans the first time Vick limps back to the sideline after tossing an interception?  For the rest of the NFL (read as:  the civilized fans) it would almost be worth it.  But no.  It’s not.

One hopes Brett Favre has finally retired for good.  I mean it.  The act is beyond old, beyond tired.  Stay down, Brett.  Stay down there in your backwoods Mississippi paradise, driving your tractor in your Wranglers.

Please?

Negotiations continue and the end is near.  If you believe the NFL, the only sticking point is the rookie salary structure.  CBS Sportsline says the same thing but one figures their information also flows down from the league office.

Image from WorldNewsInn.com

This all sounds about right, I mean, something had to be the final sticking point.  But don’t be fooled by the timing – we should have seen this coming all along.  It’s no coincidence that negotiations are wrapping up just in time to ensure that no preseason games are missed.  That reads as, before any real money is lost.  Right?  Yeah.

Assuming things wrap up within the next couple of weeks I’m forced to admit that the NFL Lockout has been a big, fat non-issue.  It affected my life not at all save for the time wasted on a few blog entries.  Sigh.  One nice side-effect though:  a welcome break from constant NFL coverage.  It has been so enjoyably quiet that I vow a football blackout following future NFL seasons – with the exception of draft week.  That’s right, I’ll waste no time obsessively following off-season NFL news.  Eh, it’s more of a promise to myself.

So get ready folks, they’re about to blow the dam.

Is a full season in the offing after all?  A cadre of owners, players and NFL and union officials met secretly from Tuesday evening to Thursday afternoon so perhaps there is yet hope.

Official meetings resume today.

But there’s no end in sight of the lockout for the NFL players by the owners.  Nothing is likely to happen prior to the hearing scheduled for June 3rd in St. Louis.

So there you go.  No news about draftees in mini-camps.  No news of promising UDFAs since there are none.  No discussion of training camp plans.  Nothing.  Steelers message boards languish as members engage in small talk. Beat writers twiddle their thumbs and occasional bloggers bang out the occasional post.

Maybe a series of book and movie reviews is in order!  Stay tuned.

From the World Wide Leader:

This rule stinks of compromise. I bet there were some owners who wanted no change and some who wanted something as drastic as a switch to the college rules. And they ended up with this debacle.

If I recall, the whole idea was to give each team a chance – to remove “chance” from the equation. But was that necessary considering that the coin-toss winner is 13-15 in the playoffs? It seems like the best team finds a way to win, no matter what.

They wanted to ensure that both teams had a chance to touch the ball, but if the coin-toss winner scores a TD then the game is over and the loser is the loser.

I hope the Steelers make it to the AFCC game in Foxborough, win the coin-toss in OT and run the kickoff back for a TD. Game over. Goodell would be horrified and talking heads would clutter the airwaves with talk of a new OT rule change this off season.

Randy Moss, Uber Loser

Did the Patriots’ offense get better when they traded Randy Moss?  You bet it did.  It was never more evident than in their game Sunday against their trade partner, the Minnesota Vikings.  On a typical passing play, Moss went deep, angling to the left side of the field towards the end zone.  A Patriots DB clearly interfered with Moss who, rather than play through the grab, immediately quit on the play, turned to the ref and made the “throw a flag” motion after putting his hands up as if to say, “WTF, didn’t you see that?”

As expected, the ref tossed a flag which hit the ground about the same time as the pass from Brett Favre.  But guess what?  All Moss had to do was turn around and hold his arms out to catch the ball.  He practically tripped over it as it bounced at his feet near the goal line.  It was a sure TD reception had Moss bothered to look for the ball.  But no, he had to whine and call for a flag as if THAT was his primary responsibility, to run down field and draw flags.

As it turns out, the Vikings got their first-and-goal and eventually scored a touchdown.  But Favre took a vicious helmet shot to the chin and left the game to Tarvaris Jackson.

Nice job Randy.  Your whining in New England got you traded to a loser.  Meanwhile, your old team is taking off with an extra 2011 third round pick in their back pocket.  I don’t think they miss you.

Update Nov 2, 2010

The Minnesota Vikings announced that Randy Moss will be released.

The addition of Terrell Eldorado Owens to the Bengals of Cincinnati officially makes it a contest between two teams. Which two, you ask? HA! The Steelers and the Ravens, of course

Can you even begin to imagine the cancerous locker room situation in Bengalville? How will the mega egos of Ocho Cinco and TO ever manage to co-exist? Will there ever be enough footballs to go around? How can Carson Palmer hope to appease those two?

But wait, there’s more:   The Bengals have already signed Antonio Bryant!  I couldn’t have fabricated a more disastrous scenario for a division rival had I worked all night on it.  OK, that’s a lie.  Still, this is nearly perfection.

Steelers fans everywhere are rubbing their hands together, waiting for the implosion to begin.  Oh, November 8 can’t get here soon enough!