Steelers-Dolphins: Game Analysis

Sadly, Ricky Williams' return to the football field came and went in a heartbeat as he suffered a torn pectoral muscle that will sideline him for the rest of the season. It will take four months of recovery and rehab before Ricky is completely healed. This development severely hampers the Dolphins ability to trade Ricky in the offseason since he can't be showcased. While that is certainly unfortunate, I've made the case before that it can still be beneficial for the team to hold onto Ricky going into next season. We don't know how far along Ronnie Brown will be in his recovery when next season begins and Jesse Chatman could potentially leave via free agency. Keeping Ricky around during the beginning of next season would give Miami another chance to showcase him before trying to trade him before the Week 6 trade deadline.

Hopefully, Samkon Gado didn't stray very far after Miami released him to make room for Ricky.

As for the game itself (which I am dubbing the "Bog Bowl"), Steve Young said it best when he declared that nothing can be concluded from this game. Pittsburgh should be ashamed of that field and the condition it was in. There is no excuse for why Heinz Field does not have Field Turf.

Because the field conditions negate any substantive review of individual performances, let me keep this very brief:

• John Beck played very well despite the weather. He showed a lot of poise in the pocket and made some tremendous decisions with the football.
• Joey Porter looks like he is finally rounding into shape after his latest knee surgery. He was around the ball all night.
• Will Allen continues his strong play, and he showed a nice ability to rush the QB on CB blitzes. I've always thought that Will Allen was a positive asset for this team and that he could help this team in the future, and finally other people seem to be coming around to that opinion as well.
• I know it was soaking out there, but these receivers continue to drop the ball. They have to got to step up and give Beck some help.
• The entire team showed some character by putting in maximum effort during a game which they could have taken easily and not exerted themselves for. This team isn't giving up, and I think that Cam Cameron deserves some amount of credit for keeping this team united despite being winless this far into the season.
  

Take those for what they are worth.

I'm really looking forward to this week's game against the Jets. It's the only game left on Miami's schedule which I think they have an above average chance of winning.