What an awful football weekend.

• I'm not gonna comment too much on the Penn State debacle, since everyone else already touched on it. I will say this though: Morelli was incredibly awful in the 4th quarter, but let's not be putting the blame entirely. If our highly regarded defense (and special teams) would have shown up to play in the first half, there wouldn't have been a need to throw 3 int's late in the game. Plus, given the defense's inexcusable 1st half performance, it was thanks to Morelli that we weren't blown out at halftime. That said, the kid performs under pressure like a Ford Taurus. But it's not all on him. This is just a team that doesn't appear to be able to put a complete game together on both sides of the ball. This is scary, but they remind me a lot of the 2003-2004 teams that combined for 7 wins - just finding different ways to lose each week. With Iowa coming into town, seniors here will be having horrible flashbacks to the 6-4 game in 04. With both teams at 0-2 in the Big Ten, this game could be just as ugly.

Just remember Penn State fans, it could be worse, you could be Pitt fans.

• So I was hoping that on Sunday, much like last weekend after the Michigan loss, that the Steelers could ease the pain a bit, with a good ass whoopin. Well, that wasn't happening either. Just an awfully ugly second half against the Cardinals turned a 7-0 halftime lead into a 21-14 loss. Everything that could go wrong seemed to go wrong. Willie Parker was contained all day. Polamalu left with an injury, and with Hines already out, that meant the leaders on both offense and defense were out. Ben played well for the most part, but a pick in the red zone proved very costly. Santonio Holmes had the game of his life filling in for Hines, scoring both touchdowns, but none of the other receivers showed up. Steve Breaston of all people returned a punt for a touchdown (Michigan sucks). And at the end, we got beat by a team that couldn't even pick a QB and stick with it, as they went back and forth between Leinart and Kurt Warner the whole game.

So yeah, the Steelers game was not very pleasant, but I think it's more of a throw away game than anything else. I dont like to make predictions, especially this early in the season, but when I saw this game on the schedule it immediately jumped out as a trap game, for the following reasons:

• It was at that weird new stadium in Glendale, where a bunch of crazy stuff has happened in just its first year (think Devin Hester, Boise State, and Gators/Buckeyes)
• The obvious storyline of Ken Whisenhunt and assistant, dicked over by the Steelers coaching vacancy, so you know they would have their team ready. Plus they were probably very familiar with our personnel and various signals, especially on defense.
• A number of Pittsburgh connections on the Cardinals, including Larry Fitzgerald who messed up the Heinz Field playing surface for Pitt, and Breaston who grew up in the Pittsburgh area. You know they were jacked to play the Steelers, and both had big games.
• Add to that not having Hines Ward, and later losing Polamalu, and we had a lot going against us.

If we can beat the Seahawks in a Super Bowl rematch at home next week, we'll go into the bye at 4-1. After the bye we have a lot of games that are winnable until we play the Patriots on the road in December. So the season is certainly not lost, and the division is still under our control (see below). See, this is why being an NFL fan is so much less stressful than college!

And yes Steeler fans, you should also be happy that you're not Eagles fans.

Elsewhere around sports on this very busy Sunday...

• Germany wins the women's World Cup, U.S. finishes third with the much less attractive goalie.
• Cowboys, Packers, Colts all remain undefeated; Patriots try tomorrow against Bengals (meaning they will remain undefeated as well). I don't care about Favre.
• The Browns have been Man's (aka Steeler fans) best friend this year, beating the Ravens at home today. If keeping score at home, that's a win at Cleveland for the Steelers, and losses at Cleveland for both the Ravens and Bengals. And what is up with the NFL scheduling all of the Browns' home division games in September? If I was a fan I'd be pissed. That's way too many crucial games early in the season. But theyre 2-1 in those games so I guess it worked out.
• Joey Mays Hays may be celebrating tonight, but I seem to remember a post earlier this summer, on the originial SFH site, in which he definitively assured us that the Phillies would NOT make the post-season. I would link, but I'm lazy.
• Lost in the Mets' collapse was the Padres blowing the last two games at demoralized Milwaukee, and the Rockies took the last two from the D-backs to force the one game playoff at Coors. If the Rockies win, they will be my official bandwagon team of the playoffs. The pitching matchup is not favorable for the Rocks though: Jake Peavy vs. Josh Fogg. OUCH. The saving grace for the Rockies may be that the game is in the rarified air of Denver. Note to the Coors' Field staff: Shut the humidor off. It may be your team's best chance to make the playoffs. If the Padres win the wildcard, then I will be cheering for The Angels Angels of Anaheim.
• Pirates lose their final game of the season, 6-5 to the Cardinals. 68-94 final record, as I mentioned a few days ago, it's improvement!
• As an avid Pirates fan, I've seen a lot of Craig Biggio over the years, both in person and on TV. I've always rooted against him, but now that he's retiring I tip my hat to what should be a Hall of Fame career, 20 years all spent with the Houston Astros.
• The national networks have yet to figure out that the NFC East is a terrible division, outside of the Cowboys this year. This after a horribly ugly Sunday night game where the Giants beat the Eagles 16-3. Philly fans likely don't care tonight, but their team looked very awful, with the Giants looking just slightly less awful. McNabb got sacked an NFL record 12 times. Seriously though, I'm tired of TV networks picking primetime games solely on big market teams rather than actual talent on the field. I'd rather watch the Patriots at this point.