Mid-Season Report

Team MVP: When I think of the "most valuable" player, I try to imagine taking away that player and picturing how much the team would crumble without that person's presence. For this reason, I think the MVP is safety Troy Polamalu.

Runner-up: Ben Roethlisberger, for the same reason.

Second Runner-up: Troy Polamalu's hair.

Biggest Surprise: CB Ike Taylor. He finally got a chance to move into the starting lineup, beating out fellow youngsters Ricardo Colclough and Bryant McFadden as well as veteran Willie Williams. He has made the most of his chance too. His best game came in the week 7 blowout in Cincinnati. Outspoken Bengals WR Chad Johnson was quoted after the game as saying that Ike was definitely "in a class of his own".

Runner-up: RB Fast Willy Parker (aka FWP). He wasn't even a starter in college, but he is the Steelers leading rusher so far this year.

Biggest Disappointment: LB Joey Porter. He had an off-year last season, but at least he had a few big games. This year he had been virtually non-existent. It may be time to let go of Joey and make the underrated James Harrison a permanent starter.

Rookie of the Year: TE Heath Miller. He has 6 touchdowns already, which is about 6 more touchdowns than all the Steelers tight ends from 1995-2004 had as a group.

Best Personnel Move: The Steelers finally parted ways with 2003 second round draft pick Alonzo Jackson. Zo was by far the Steelers worst draft pick of this decade.

Runner-up: The acquisition of Quincy Morgan, who has been huge on kick returns this season while also turning in some quality catches as the 4th wide receiver.

The Jamain Stephens Award: This annual award for stupidity goes to Antwaan Randle El, for his ill-conceived lateral at the end of a long pass in week 3. The Steelers were up on the almighty Patriots and were about to have a 1st down in the red zone when El decided to get cute. The play resulted in a turnover and a complete loss of momentum.

Runner-up: All the yinzer fans who wanted Big Ben to get benched after he had a shoddy pre-season. You know who you are, although I'm sure you'll never admit it.

Best Game: Week 4 against San Diego. Two great teams battled it out until the Steelers pulled out the win in the final seconds.

Worst Game: Week 5 against Jacksonville. The Steelers had the game all wrapped up and then handed it over to the Jaguars.

Best Play: Ben Roethlisberger's 63 yard TD bomb to Antwaan Randle El against Tennessee in week 1. It was a beautiful pass, but more importantly, it shut up all those people who were panicking over the offense's poor performance meaningless pre-season games.

Worst Play: The Steelers were one play away from kicking the game-winning field goal in overtime of week 6 when Tommy Maddox fumbled without even being hit. To make matters worse, Maddox then threw the game-losing interception later in overtime.

Brilliant Quote of the Year: The Steelers destroyed the Bengals in week 7 and held Carson Palmer to his worst QB rating of the year. Palmer's response after the game? "Right now, I think we're the better team." What fantasy land are you living in, Carson?

Runner-up: After doing absolutely nothing all year, Joey Porter had the nerve to criticize the fans before the week 8 Monday night game. "The last game, they waited all the way until the game got close [to make noise]. We need them from the beginning," Porter said. Even if that were true, at least we did something useful when the game was on the line. What did you do, Joey?

Best Image of the Year: Seeing the Steeler Nation turn out in droves at all the away games this year, even in surprising places like Lambeau Field.

Runner-up: Myron Cope waving his terrible towel one last time while being honored at halftime of the week 8 Monday night game.

Best All-Time Sports Ranking Without Allowing Any Time Whatsoever for Historical Perspective: I turned to the two guys who sit next to me at Heinz Field and started a heated debate over whether the Randle El lateral was the dumbest play in Steelers history about two minutes after it happened.

Most Encouraging Trend: Ben Roethlisberger, who happens to wear John Elway's number, has looked a lot like Elway in leading three late 4th quarter comebacks (week 3 vs. New England, week 5 vs. San Diego, and week 8 vs. Baltimore).

Most Discouraging Trend: The Steelers are 2-2 at home and nearly lost to a bad Baltimore team in week 8.

Runner-up: The defense's inability to get off the field on 3rd downs.

Most Annoying Trend: The "blame Bill Cowher for everything" contingent that is growing amongst Steelers fans. The team has lost four games in the last two years - FOUR GAMES - but every time they drop one, there is a flurry of "Cowher needs to go / Cowher can't win the big games / Cowher always gets outsmarted by other coaches" comments from ignorant fans. Cowher isn't perfect, but you have to give him credit for being one of the best coaches out there. Also, just for the record, Cowher didn't call the "Tommy Maddox fumbles the ball without being hit" play or the "Antwaan Randle El makes a stupid lateral" play that were instrumental in our two losses. I know this may come as a shock, but sometimes PLAYERS lose games too.

Scariest Moment of the Year: Seeing Ben go down at the end of the week 5 game. Fortunately, he was OK, but it looked really bad at the time.

Dumbest Technicality of the Year: Punter Chris Gardocki has a 15-year streak of never having a punt blocked. In week 6, Jacksonville blocked one of his punts, but since it went forward and netted 9 yards, it doesn't count as a block. Whatever - that streak no longer impresses me. I wonder how many other "non-blocks" he has had in the past 15 seasons.

Worst Move by an Opponent: The Bengals did a horrible job of preparing for their week 7 game against the Steelers. It was Cincinnati's biggest game in the past 15 years, and the Bengals felt the pressure. Marvin Lewis barred his players from talking to the media, endorsing the concept that they should treat this game differently for some reason.

Runner-up: The Houston Texans, for never getting anyone to protect their trophy QB, for giving up in the 3rd quarter of the week 2 game against the Steelers, for opening their roof and making all their fans suffer in awful heat in a vain attempt to exploit the fact that the Steelers wear black jerseys, and for even taking the field that day. What a bad, bad football team.

Shocker of the Year: The Steelers are currently chasing the Cincinnati Bengals for first place.

Sarcastic Shocker of the Year: The media made excuses for Brett Favre after his lousy performance against the Steelers in week 9.

Something Different: Cincinnati rivalry, not losing to Tennessee, throwing to the tight end, having one of the league's best quarterbacks

Same Old Crap: Losing to New England, Tommy Turnover lives up to his nickname