Thanksgiving Leftovers

Here's hoping that all readers out there had a terrific, fun, and safe Thanksgiving holiday and weekend. Ours was a great one and doings over the long weekend kept me away from the keyboard for several days, so let's serve up a helping or two of leftovers from the long weekend.

Leftover Turkey

"Turkey" sure is an appropriate term to describe the much ballyhooed Backyard Brawl between Pitt and West Virginia. I heard a great line from Ron Cook on The Fan this morning. He was saying how when you see a great game between two good teams the thought occurs to you that "it's a shame one of these teams has to lose." In watching Pitt-WVU on Friday, his thought was that it was shame that one of these teams had to win. My own thought was that when WVU muffed two punts giving Pitt the ball deep in WV territory, and all that Pitt came away with was two field goals, well, you just had a feeling that that was going to come back to haunt them, and did it ever.

As you all know by now, if you care about this, is that the brunt of all things wrong with Pitt lies with QB Tino Sunseri. I prefer to hold college players to a different standard than their professional counterparts, and I don't like to go overboard in criticizing college athletes. That said, Sunseri did not play well at all in that game on Friday, and this has been pretty much the case all season. In two years as the starting QB, it does not seem that he has improved in his play, and you could probably make a case that he has regressed. Is that his fault? His coaches? I don't know, but it is pretty clear that Pitt is going to need improved play at quarterback in 2012 to improve upon what has been a very disappointing season.

Still, I hate hearing people dump on a college kid, who is, nominally, at least, an amateur, the same way they would, to use examples from recent history, Kordell Stewart or Neil O'Donnell, pros who were paid big bucks to perform, just kind of goes against the grain with me.

As for first year coach Todd Graham, I have plenty of thoughts on him, but I'll save those until after the regular season ends this weekend against Syracuse.

Leftover Stuffing

Let's stick with football for the moment and talk about that Steelers game in KC last night. They won't be showcasing that one in the film rooms at Canton, will they? The Chiefs did everything in their power to give that game to the Steelers, and they still had a chance to win it in the end. Any kind of performance other than what Tyler Palko gave the Chiefs last night and that win would have probably been a loss for the Steelers.

Well, no one says that wins have to be pretty, and a win is a win, and you are what your record says you are and blah blah blah. A tough one with the Bengals next week. I'm figuring that the Steelers are going to almost have to win all of their remaining five games to hold on to the Wild Card spot in which they currently sit.

Also, will people please stop saying that the Steelers need to run the ball more. Were you watching last night? They CAN'T run the ball. The game has changed and neither Franco Harris nor John Henry Johnson is suiting up for them any time soon. They are a PASSING team, and when the receivers have a lackluster game like they did last night, combined with the non-running game, you get the near-unthinkable almost-loss you saw last night.

Final note on last night's game. A law should be passed that requires that Chris Collinsworth be the analyst on EVERY telecast of a football game. He's the best guy out there.

Leftover Pumpkin Pie

I did not see any of the Pittsburgh Thanksgiving Day parade on Saturday, but I did note that the big celebrity (not sure if he was called "Grand Marshall" or not) was Mitch Ryder. Mitch Ryder! The Detroit Wheels, sad to say, were not with him. I am guessing that 80% of the people who were watching the parade had absolutely no idea who he was. I mean, I don't even think the Pirates would line up Mitch Ryder to do a post-game SkyBlast concert. Is that the best that Macy's could come up with for the City's parade? Not even Luke Cravenstahl would show up for a photo op with Mitch Ryder! Who are they getting next year? How about Danny Bonaduce?

And on the other side of the coin, how do you think Mitch felt when his agent called and said that he had a great gig for him - riding in a Thanksgiving parade in Pittsburgh.

The Dishes Are Done

The Thanksgiving and Fall decorations have been packed away, and the Christmas decorations, with the exception of the Christmas Tree, are in place in our house. We look forward to a busy few weeks between now and Christmas Day with family and friends. We started the season off today by taking in the new, highly touted George Clooney movie, "The Descendants." I will write more on that in a separate posting later in the week, but will tell you now that it is a very good movie.