Jags-Steelers Quasi Live Blog, First Half

1) Opening drive for the Steelers features a lot of misdirection, Hines Ward, and the Jags' defense over compensating with late hits and bad penalties. A near fumble at the goal line stays with the home team, and Actually Better Than The Starting RB Najeh Davenport groans it in from the one. (Najeh, honestly, could run for 2,000 yards next year and still be getting Poop Jokes. Now and forever, really.)

2) Mo-Jo, who I call that just to save a lot of typing and because if he's good he deserves a nickname and if he's bad he gets Flo-Jo allusions, takes the following kickoff to the Steeler 1 yard line, ending any hope from the home crowd that this one's going to be easy for them. It's actually a great play to not get the touchdown there, as it gives your defense a little more rest and by the numbers, teams lose more often than they win when they run one back for a touchdown. But still, if you're a fan, you probably want the touchdown. Taylor gets it in from the one, and the huge number of people who've been burned by Fred Taylor getting vultured at the goal line in fantasy leagues all smile ruefully. Tie game.

3) The game then settles down for the rest of the first quarter, with the teams having some mild success moving the ball, but bogging down at midfield. This is a lot more of what we were expecting, but I'm still not liking my under bet right now.

4) On a 3rd and 10, Ward gathers in a deflection for a huge play and a first down. This is why you are insane for betting this game. This game will totally turn on a play like that... and then Rasheed Mathis flips it entirely with an INT return for a TD. Flag on the play adds insult to injury by letting the Jags kick from the 50. This is looking like the dream scenario for the Jags, in that they should be playing from ahead.

5) Pick Number Two of Big Ben comes with a video review where Al Michaels is ready to sell Rasheed Mathis's dreadlocks down the river for the loss of a 20-yard return. Then, the refs call him down by phantom contact, and the dreads are off the hook. That sound you heard while this was happening was all of the young and black people watching the game telling Michaels to go die of old age, already.

6) On the subsequent possession, Garrard hits Mo-Jo, who shifts into Turbo Mode to go the distance. The Jags are up by two touchdowns, and threatening to turn this game into Garbage Time. My under pick is toast, but the Jags pick is looking a lot less worrisome than expected.

7) A lot of booing from the home team as the Steelers offense is looking very, um, finesse. Four sacks in the first 23 minutes will do that to you. The piece de resistance is a 3rd and 15 where Ben has to abort a screen. When you can't even run a screen on 3rd and 15... you are getting punched in the mouth. Repeatedly.

8) The Jags are running the ball straight up the middle with success, and their OL is getting in those fun just before the whistle extra hits. Along with Rich Kotite on your sideline and vultures circling the locker room, these are Not Good Signs, assuming you're a Steelers Fan.

9) I think John Madden is cultivating his next great crush... and it's MoJo. Brett Favre may leave us one day, and John has to have a fallback.

10) Pittsburgh is getting no push from its pass rush, but Josh Scobee misses from 46, and we still have a game. (I do have to thank the Jags and Steelers for showing the world how quickly a football game can be played, though. The first half of Seahawks-Redskins, I think I saw more Diet Pepsi ads than football.)

11) Madden makes a George The Animal Steele reference, showing he reads BDD over at Deadspin. Davenpoop then busts a screen to get the Steelers into field goal range. We're a play away from a game where the Jags have dominated physically being up by all of one play -- just like a month ago.

12) That play, however, really wasn't Ben's third pick of the night on an ugly middle screen where the Jags DT, looking more than a little like George The Animal Steele, stops the drive. The Jags run out the clock and go into the half up 21-7 to a chorus of Zinzer boos. (It's OK, though -- the game isn't in Philadelphia, so no one has to pule over how booing hurts the home team's efforts, and people really just should not do it.) Back in a bit.