Ben Roethlisberger will start, but who will be on the bench behind him? And really,does it matter?
View full sizeBen Roethlisberger will be the Steelers' starting quarterback for the first time this season. But who is there if he falters, or the rust shows through?Backing up McCoy will be Brett Ratliff, signed off the New England practice squad. Ratliff, as every Browns fan knows, made it through training camp in Berea and was let go in the last round of cuts.
But nobody knows who will be backing up Ben Roethlisberger. Charlie Batch has played well, leading Pittsburgh to a 3-1 record, trailing the 4-1 Ravens by percentage points. The other option, Byron Leftwich. Here's how the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette tells it today:
Unless coach Mike Tomlin reveals his decision at his weekly news conference today, or decides to tell one of his backups later in the week, the selection will remain a mystery for at least a couple more days. And maybe until game day.
Here's why:
Unlike the routine under Bill Cowher, who always had the No. 2 quarterback take some snaps with the first-team offense at the end of a Friday practice, Tomlin does not let his backup quarterback work with the starters at all, not even for a series.
So Batch and Leftwich will split time as the scout-team quarterback this week and nothing else. They won't know who the top backup is until Tomlin tells them.
Seems sort of silly to Starting Blocks for the backup not to take a few snaps or practice a few series with the first-string. Then again, Mike Tomlin has won a Super Bowl and we haven't.
Rival revival
The Army doesn't like the Navy. The Cubs can't stand the Cardinals. Republicans dislike Democrats. Vegans despise carnivores. Maryrose, who blogs for Behind the Steel Curtain, is an unabashed Steelers fan, but she really "gets" the whole rivalry thing.
I get pumped up to play the Ravens because they are good and they hit hard. I get pumped up to play the Browns because they are Cleveland. There's a difference, a deep difference. If the Ravens or Bengals get to the Super Bowl, I would root for the AFC North. If the Russians came into Cleveland to play the Browns, I would buy one of those winter hats with the ear-flaps, put on my red underwear, crack open a bottle of Stolichnaya, throw some Chicken Kiev on the grill and root like hell for the road team.
You can't blame Mike Tomlin for stating a couple weeks ago that the Steelers-Ravens rivalry is the best in the NFL. After all, he came into the area four years ago and found the two teams to be quite similar -- high caliber and very hard hitting. Tomlin may not even be aware that a turnpike exists, once proudly adorned by steel mills and blue collar America, that connects two cites like no other rivalry in football. The Steelers and Ravens are certainly the "rivalry du jour," similar to the Steelers and Raiders of the 1970s. The road to the title goes through each other. To that end, the Steelers-Ravens rivalry is indeed high octane for that reason alone. However, 20 years from now there is a good chance that this rivalry, similar to the Raiders, will slip into memory. Pittsburgh and Baltimore, as cities, have nothing in common other than playing in the same division.
While rivalries du jour make great theater, they cannot compare to deeper, more rooted rivalries that do not rely on two teams being good at the same moment. The Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns make up one such rivalry, and in my opinion, the best in the NFL. I'm not sure that Steeler Nation and even the team itself realized such when the team moseyed into Cleveland last year to play a 1-11 football team. To the Browns, that game was the Super Bowl. Cleveland fans begged their players that if they won that game, all would be forgiven. Perhaps without understanding the depth of the hatred that Cleveland has for Pittsburgh, the Steelers got slapped right out of the playoffs. Cleveland fans danced in the streets while the Browns used that springboard to win the rest of their games.
Tough as it is, ya gotta give props to her, even if she does root for the wrong team.
Back to the future
Now starting for the Cleveland Browns, quarterback Jeff Garcia. On the one hand, the report by Brian DiTullio on bleacherreport.com is fairly ridiculous, given the circumstances under which the Browns and Garcia parted company. Just to refresh your memories, that would be then-new coach Romeo Crennel calling Garcia at home in February 2005 to tell Butch Davis' hand-picked QB that he'd be released as soon as NFL waiver rules permitted it.
Starting Blocks isn't usually prone to betting, since betting the way we do is more a case of "Here, I'm tired of having money in my wallet; you take it." But in this case, we'd bet the farm against Garcia returning to Cleveland.One remark by head coach Eric Mangini may lead the Browns down a road nobody thought this front office would travel. Mangini said during his Monday press conference General Manager Tom Heckert is looking to bring in another quarterback.
That quarterback could end up being Jeff Garcia. Heckert brought in Garcia while he was in Philadelphia, so it's not a stretch to believe he might try it again.
The Browns did re-sign Brett Ratliff off of the New England Patriots practice squad, but it's unknown right now if that's the only move the Browns make, or if that's just the first move to add some kind of depth while the team looks elsewhere for a veteran like Garcia.
Not only could Garcia end up on the roster, but it's a good chance as we sit here this early in the process that Garcia could end up starting. Maybe not this week, but if Jake Delhomme and Seneca Wallace are out for an extended period, chances are the Browns are going to go with a veteran behind center before a rookie, unless McCoy is so impressive the Browns have no other choice but to keep McCoy in the game.
... Garcia did a very good job for Heckert and head coach Andy Reid in Philadelphia, but now he's a quarterback in the UFL. Now 40 years old, the questions about how effective he could be at his age will have to be balanced against McCoy's ability to be effective as a rookie.
From The Plain Dealer
Beat writer Mary Kay Cabot quotes coach Eric Mangini as saying this could be McCoy's chance to carpe diem (for any Steelers fans out there who are having this read to them, that means "seize the day").
In her Browns Insider column, Mary Kay noted that Peyton Hillis' strained quad, which he injured in practice Thursday and aggravated on Sunday, has the big back hobbled. Just how hobbled, no one is saying. Especially not Mangini.
"There were a lot of guys that either came into the game with things that limited them or had it during the game. We'll see where they are on Wednesday; I'm not going to get into the specifics of any of their injuries. We'll see how it goes throughout the course of the week."
And finally, columnist Terry Pluto tackles the quarterback situation, the decision to replace an injured Seneca Wallace with an injured Jake Delhomme and the non-productivity of Jerome Harrison thus far this season.