U mad, bro? Readers sound off on Steelers QBs, NFL refs; Browns fans can’t let it go
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I know why you are mad.
You are mad because I skipped “U mad, bro?” on Thursday when I took a personal day.
That’s fair. You should be.
You need it. You love it. You missed it.
Let me fix this and make you whole again. Here’s a special Friday edition of “U mad, bro?” with angst from readers over Duck, Mason Rudolph, Diontae Johnson, NFL officials and more.
After the Steelers win over the Browns Sunday, I made fun of the “Pittsburgh started it” T-shirts Cleveland fans printed in the wake of the Mason Rudolph-Myles Garrett incident.
This guy won’t let it go.
Mason Rudolph did start it.. and was a punk for getting upset over one of the weakest “hits” I’ve ever seen.
— Shorty Close To Forty (@Almost40Shorty) December 5, 2019
The “Mason started it crowd” cracks me up. They are the kind of people who raise rotten children who bite other kids at recess, then come up with excuses why their little brat shouldn’t be disciplined.
Like me, Steve is mad about all the referee conferences during games.
“Why do they need so many conferences when they all have headsets with microphones? Are they taking food orders for extra money? Or is New York telling them what they see?”
First of all, Steve, I would love to see that. I would love to see people throw their own red challenge flags on NFL referee food orders.
“Upon further review, Sally did not order onions on her turkey sandwich. The sandwich will be reconstructed and redistributed with mayo and an extra side of chips.
First down!”
Secondly, I asked former NFL official Gene Steratore that same question about New York talking to the zebras while they were conferencing. He insists that doesn’t happen.
I want to believe that. But then again, if New York is talking to these guys, and they still screw things up as much as they do, what does that say?
Tom wasn’t happy with Diontae Johnson’s performance against Cleveland.
“He had a bad day. On the (Devlin) Hodges interception, he stopped running well before the ball flew over. That action indicates someone (who?) didn’t know the play. He also didn’t recover to tackle the ball carrier. He took stupid penalties and ran out of bounds late when he did catch a ball. I realize Hodges killed the clock too, but Diontae’s day was a hot mess.”
Not much to disagree with here, Tom. He wasn’t good Sunday. He did pick up 17 yards on a reverse. And he did have a clutch first-down reception on a third-down conversion late in the game.
But that was his only catch on five targets. And he hasn’t topped 30 yards receiving since the win over the Los Angeles Rams.
He needs to get back on track. Fast.
Jason wanted to mock me for dismissing Devlin Hodges as an important topic of discussion at the end of the preseason.
@TimBenzPGH Your preseason article about the Duckster. https://t.co/NkrgtzaE85
— Jason Kerrick (@jkerrick2977) December 3, 2019
Hey, guilty as charged. I didn’t think much of “the Duck” as a discussion point back in August.
You know, when there were three quarterbacks in front of him on the depth chart.
However, to my point in the article, Hodges was so irrelevant they were able to cut him and bring him back. Even Mike Tomlin reminded us of that before the win over the Cleveland Browns last week.
Also, the team was able to re-sign Duck after parlaying Josh Dobbs for a pick that became a backup tight end (Nick Vannett), which I suggested could happen in the piece.
So while castigating my stupidity for not having the foresight to envision an undrafted quarterback from Samford becoming a winning starting quarterback, let’s praise my brilliant fortune-telling capabilities, as well.
This was an unsigned MMS that made its way into my inbox. I’m going to describe this as a “minority opinion” in Pittsburgh these days.
“Mason (Rudolph) needs to come back. He has been punished enough. We are past the Browns now and it is time to get a real QB back. The Duck is just a little boy who belongs in Arena football at best. Oh, Arena is bankrupt. He does not even deserve to be on a scout team.”
I’m not quite sure how a guy who has won two starts, led a comeback victory and nearly pulled a second out of the fire “doesn’t deserve to be on a scout team.”
But, OK.
Also, Rudolph isn’t being “punished.” He’s being benched. “Punished” suggests you are losing something because you misbehaved. Rudolph didn’t misbehave. He just stunk for six straight quarters.
However, let’s say you’re right. Let’s say, eventually, Rudolph will be a better option.
At that point, OK. I would have no problem with Rudolph coming back as the starter. For now, though, Hodges has to prove he’s worse at this very moment.
And there has been no evidence of that.