Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Republicans don’t trust women.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

… looking like a winsome Bee Gee who has stumbled into teaching geography

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Chutkan laughs. Lauro sits back down.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Glad to see john eastman going through some things.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

This country desperately needs a functioning Fourth Estate.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

T R E 4 5 O N

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Steelers/Bungles Open Thread

Steelers/Bungles Open Thread

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As a testament to how bad the AFC is this year, the Steelers are still eligible for the post-season at 5-8, which means that the outcome of tonight’s game will either prolong my misery for two weeks or be the swift blade of the guillotine hitting the collective necks of millions of Stillers fans, providing sweet relief from the last few months of torture.

Also, too:

This should come as no surprise to anyone who has been on social media during a Steelers meltdown (#FireEveryone), but new data has finally proven what we’ve long suspected: Steelers fans take losses harder than any other NFL fan base. Emory University professors Michael Lewis and Manish Tripathi collected millions of Twitter messages during the 2012 NFL season and analyzed the text for positive or negative emotions in the days following a game.

Guess which team topped the list for the league’s most negative fans?

After a loss, Steelers fans were positive about the team in a whopping 33 percent of tweets. The closest competition came from the perpetually miserable fans of the Detroit Lions, who tweeted positively about the team 37 percent of the time.

So, umm, Go Steelers!

Reader Interactions

78Comments

  1. 1.

    Dee Loralei

    I hope you’re DVRing tonight’s Psyche Musical! might take your mind off a Stillers loss, dude.

  3. 3.

    JCJ

    Hey Omnes and Andy K – have you calmed down yet?

    How much longer will Jason Garret be the coach in Dallas?

  9. 9.

    Baud

    To save on jet fuel and protect against unnecessary injuries, the Saints have announced they are just going to forfeit all away games.

  10. 10.

    themann1086

    As long as Antonio Brown and AJ Green get me 9+ fantasy points, I’ll be happy. I’m still gleeful that Dallas’ collapse saved the Eagles from any negative repercussions for their disaster this afternoon. Seriously, 48 points from an Adrian Peterson-less Vikings? Ugh.

    ETA: I got to see Notre Dame win the NCAA Men’s Soccer Div 1 Championship game against Maryland. It was a good game, and it gave my dad the chance to quip “well, ND finally has another football championship”.

  12. 12.

    JCJ

    @eric:
    Yeah, Green Bay scored five touchdowns in the second half and the last two possessions for Dallas ended in interceptions – the first one led to the Packer’s final drive. GB scored with about 1:30 to go, but Romo threw another pick to essentially end the game.

  14. 14.

    goblue72

    @RobertDSC-Power Mac G5 Dual: Pats-Fins today was brutal. Offense is Tom Brady-and-duct tape without Gronk. We started the season without starting TEs (courtesy of injury for Gronk, and PCP-fueled sociopathic homicide for Hernandez) and a bunch of nobodies at WR. Starting looking sorta OK with Gronk returned, but he’s proven that he’s never going to be able to play an entire season without getting injured at this point. Offensive line hasn’t been looking all that hot either.

    Defense is showing how thin it is with Wilfork and Mayo out.

    The Pats still make the playoffs, but they aren’t going very far in the post-season. Really frustrating year.

  16. 16.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    @JCJ:

    I don’t get all that excited during games any more, and I kept an even keel today- fuck, the Cowboys have been blowing leads like that for a while now, haven’t they?

    Yeah, it was a really nice comeback win, but even if we somehow win the division, I don’t see us getting far in the playoffs. Yeah, we were the second wildcard team the last time we won the Super Bowl, but our defense was MUCH better than it is this year (and we dodged the bullet with our name on it- New Orleans- when they lost in shitty weather to the 7-9 Seahawks in Seattle in that post-season, otherwise…).

  18. 18.

    kideni

    @JCJ: I’m not even a football fan, but I thought the game was pretty awesome. A friend of mine snarked that Tony Romo, as a Wisconsin native, was just keeping with the season of giving and doing the state proud.

  19. 19.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    @JCJ:

    …but Romo threw another pick to essentially end the game.

    I think you’ve got to give Romo a pass on that one. What Tramon Williams did to get to that ball was super-human. He had no business making that pick.

  21. 21.

    Yatsuno

    @MikeJ: Mourning football, however…

    I guess after this win we don’t play outside the Clink until we lose or the Meadowlands again.

  23. 23.

    KG

    @kideni: the line amongst my friends is that every time Tony Romo gets sacked, an angel gets its wings…

    I play a lot of cards, and I pay a bit too much attention to sports (its either that or politics, and after the last 15 years, sports seems better for my soul). People ask me why I don’t wager on sports, and I tell them the same thing over and over: there’s too much outside of my control. And really, if we’ve learned anything in sports over the last 5-8 years it’s that we don’t know shit.

  26. 26.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    @Tommy:

    I got more excited for the Lions when they made their comeback against the ‘Pokes this year. It just seems old (ten gallon) hat now.

  29. 29.

    Tommy

    @KG: LOL. The guy that taught me how to play poker in college had a phrase he used:

    There is a reason they build billion dollar casinos. It is good to be the house.

    Just saying ….

  31. 31.

    MikeJ

    @Yatsuno:

    I guess after this win we don’t play outside the Clink until we lose or the Meadowlands again.

    If they lose the next two games, they’re still in the playoffs but have away games. With one win, it’s all home games.

  32. 32.

    Keith P

    Steelers fans take losses harder than any other NFL fan base

    And yet it’s nothing compared to how Alabama fans take the Crimson Tide losing. I’ve got a cousin who bawls her eyes out when they lose, and then you’ve got fans poisoning Auburn’s trees after a loss, murdering family members for not being sad enough after a loss, and others rooting for Auburn to lose against FSU instead of pulling for the state to take another title.

  33. 33.

    Amir Khalid

    The God of Football hath shewed me His benevolence and mercy this weekend. For Liverpool FC was without Stevie Gerrard and Daniel Sturridge. Yet they thumped Tottenham Hotspur 0 – 5. And after 16 of this season’s 38 matches, Luis Suarez alone has outscored half the clubs in the English Premier League. If he stays out of trouble and in a red shirt, Liverpool can go places with this guy.

  36. 36.

    Tommy

    @Keith P: The SEC is amazing. I went to LSU. Dad went to LSU. Pretty hardcore fan, but it is just a game. I go to some alumni associations things here in St. Louis, and I am stunned how hardcore folks are. That winning or losing is like life or death.

  37. 37.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Botsplainer:

    No loss. His movies were so didactic as to qualify for “Christian” filmmaking without the fundy crap being rammed down your throat.

  38. 38.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Tommy:

    You heard about the woman who killed a friend who wasn’t sufficiently distressed that Alabama lost to Auburn?

  39. 39.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    @JCJ:

    Tramon was covering another receiver, but came up to help (he had safety help behind him). Romo threw to a spot where you’d think that if the receiver didn’t make the catch, the defender couldn’t. Tramon really stretched to out, caught the ball, then started rolling over in mid-air so that there would be no question that he didn’t trap the ball. If I’m Romo, I’m thinking, “I do everything right and it still goes wrong!”

    Yeah, horrible play-calling by Garrett. Johnny Jolly is out, A.J. Hawk runs away from the ball on half of the rushing plays…

  41. 41.

    Yatsuno

    @MikeJ: Next game in the Clink. We haven’t lost in the Clink in forever and a day. Is this what cautious optimism smells like?

  43. 43.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Earlier in the year, yes. From the Bears game through Thanksgiving Day in Detroit, he was horrible.

  44. 44.

    Tommy

    @Villago Delenda Est: No I missed that story. Glad I did to be honest cause that sounds terrible. I have this client, who is a total geek. I am a geek/nerd. He mentioned I needed to go see LSU play and he was like “so you are one of those sports fan?” I was like not sure what you mean by that, but if you think I am a person that doesn’t understand it is game, then no. Do I want my team to win. Sure.

    But I am a Redskins and Wizards fan (lucky I got my Cardinals and LSU). If I was to cause physical harm when my team lost that would be all I do :).

  46. 46.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Keith P: is there THAT little to do with oneself in Alabama? In a _bad_ year they lose like 3 times. How miserable could one loss make you if there are that few all year? I don’t get the degree of passion.

  47. 47.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    @Another Botsplainer:

    Why would they be calling a run on second down from their own 29, with just over a minute to go and one time-out? Jebus.

    I think it was a good play to run there and then. It’s one of those balls that just shouldn’t get picked. It should have fallen (fell?) incomplete.

  49. 49.

    eric

    @Another Botsplainer: but lets be honest, there are maybe five guys in the league i would take over romo…i would take him over eli in a heartbeat. guy gets a bad rap because the coaching and management are subpar.

  51. 51.

    Gravenstone

    Someone put Jerry Jones on suicide watch (as in, we will televise it when he does what is far, far overdue).

  55. 55.

    Tommy

    @efgoldman: Agreed. I am a Redskins guy and our owner gets slammed 24×7, as he should. But Jones doesn’t seem to get slammed that much. Well maybe a little, but that he is just “accountable” and “cares.” I mean we have a team, the Steelers, where I’d love the Rooney’s to own my team. Seem like a class act.

  56. 56.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    @Another Botsplainer:

    That’s a little better. I’m with those who think that Romo’s being used as a speed bump here, though. I just watched the play a few times, and the receiver didn’t do much to make a play on the ball- and Williams still made one hell of a play to make the pick.

  58. 58.

    Another Botsplainer

    @efgoldman: As an ex-Redskins fan I agree. Jones is just as bad, but he does have the good ole boy schtick down, maybe that helps with the sports pundits. The Redskins have been so bad for so long I just can’t care anymore.

  59. 59.

    Eric U.

    @efgoldman: I would never slam Jones because if he got a clue the Cowboys might start winning. Nowadays, the only team I’m rooting for on a given weekend is whoever is playing the ‘boys

  60. 60.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    @Tommy:

    I used to abhor Jones. Then he started giving shots to guys with mental health issues- Demetrius Underwood comes to mind, as does T.O. (though his problems probably aren’t necessarily categorized as “mental health” as much as…I dunno…Ego), and I softened. But if Jones hadn’t done that, I’d still give him a bit more respect than I give Snyder- Jones, as a college student, was actually part of a good D-I football team.

  61. 61.

    Fluke bucket

    This game is just an old fashioned ball stomping. The Cincy punter learned a valuable lesson. Kick the ball and get off the damn field.

  62. 62.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    @Tommy:

    Meh. There aren’t many of those guys I’ve trusted to give snap judgments. The list of guys who’ve earned my deference in situations like this is limited to John Madden.

  63. 63.

    Tommy

    @Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again): Don’t get me started on Snyder. Now I get Jones actually played at Arkansas. So he knows the game I’d think. I just don’t have much patience for a billionaire that never played thinking they can run said business. I mean I know what I know, and just cause I watch football on TV doesn’t make me think I can run a football team. I’d like to think I would hire smart people, give them the resources they need, and get out of the way.

  64. 64.

    Keith P

    @FlipYrWhig: There’s plenty to do in Alabama (“hunting and shit”), but there’s something about Bama fans. I think it has something to do with their superiority complex, since Auburn fans are, for the most part, more supportive of Alabama in general if they lose the Iron Bowl. I don’t get the logic, but it’s part of the religion, apparently.

  66. 66.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    @Tommy:

    Shifting gears…The one thing I miss since I gave up Sirius is listening to Adolph and The Eagle Scout on Washington’s radio broadcasts. Those guys are fun.

    ETA: Two things- I miss listening to Man Utd. games, too.

  68. 68.

    Suffern ACE

    @Gravenstone: not to defend Romo – picking on Romo is always fun- but who was in charge of the team at half time? Did Romo decide that the defense should start allowing more points? Was it his strategy to stop scoring points in the second half?

  70. 70.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    @efgoldman:

    Years ago at democratic Underground thare was a ‘bama fan who wrote this great piece that described, amongst other things about them, how the scent of corn dogs followed LSU fans wherever they went. So there’s that- I mean, that someone from there can write…And write something really damned funny.

  72. 72.

    p.a.

    @Another Botsplainer: JJ gets a pass ’cause he’s a job creator! He can’t be a bad GM; he’s got money leaking out of every pore, and everyone knows the super rich are good at everything. Just ask them.

    PS if you think JJ actually gets a pass down there, go read the comments on the DMH Cowboy articles.

  73. 73.

    Keith P

    @efgoldman: It has beautiful wooded areas. The beach is really nice (completely blows Galveston away, which doesn’t say much, but it’s still really nice). Other than that, not much. Better than Mississippi, at least.

  74. 74.

    Sophist

    As a petty and vindictive Seaturkeys fan, your pain is a balm unto my soul, like burying my face in the fur of a freshly laundered kitten.

  76. 76.

    fourmorewars

    Actually, compared to the NBA and NHL, the football conferences aren’t too far apart. NFC is up 7 games. That, plus a bit of a gap between the best and the rest in the AFC explains why 5-and-8 teams are still in the conversation. But the conference isn’t doing so bad.

  78. 78.

    PG

    I’m a Steeler fan that DOESN’T take the losses “badly.” Because I’m a Steeler fan that 1) is grateful for all the success they’ve had recently and 2) I knew this was a 5-11 or 6-10 year going in. It’s all about the roster, and theirs is not Super Bowl ready, let alone playoff ready. Mature Steeler fans can look back to ’98-99 or even 2003 as a guide. Sure, we sucked then, like now (actually we’re playing just below average now). The difference between us and the Jags or the Lions (for 20 years) is that we got better after it.

    Besides, any day that the Raiders and Cowboys lose is a good day. Esp. when they do it at home. And esp. when Dallas blows a huge lead.

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