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| Sorry Charlie By The Wise Guy At the end of the first half of last Sunday night’s game against the Cleveland Browns, Steelers back-up quarterback Charlie Batch made what was probably the most intelligent play the team has made all season. Just to refresh your Iron City clouded memories: The Steelers were leading only by a field goal at the time, 10-7. Charlie had just completed a bullet to Hines Ward on the goal line, but alas, Hines failed by the width of his smile to get into the end zone. The team was out of time outs, and the clock was ticking down, much in the way clocks always do. Fortunately, Charlie eschewed (as Howard Cosell or Myron Cope might have said) the spike and called his own number, a quarterback sneak. He scored, and it was a tremendous boost for the team going into halftime, and an equally tremendous kick in the pants for the Browns, who up until that point had given the Steelers about as much as they could handle. However, when Charlie headed for the locker room a few seconds before the half ended, you knew something was wrong. He had broken the pinkie finger on his throwing hand on one of the Brown’s helmets. Now we have learned that this injury will keep him out of next Sunday’s game with the Baltimore Ravens, and maybe longer. What a shame. After playing poorly against the Packers the week before, Charlie got his groove back against the Browns. He’d completed 13 of 19 passes in the first half for 150 or so yards. His injury could hurt the team in at least two scenarios. If Big Ben Roethlisberger can’t play, Tommy Maddox will start. The Ravens must be licking their beaks at the opportunity to grab a few errant Tommy tosses. Or, if Steelers coach Bill Cowher decides to keep Tommy on a very short leash—the headset is a one idea—it means that he thinks Big Ben is ready to come back. I’m not a doctor (and I don’t even play one on television), but it seems to me that Big Ben could use all the healing time he can get. It would be ideal to save him for the Indianapolis Monday night game two weeks from now, if he’s ready. Ben’s future is too big to risk it playing a crummy team on a gimpy knee. That said, we’re back to Tommy, right? Well, maybe not. Here’s my vote for Antwaan Randle El. Frankly, despite the occasional nice catch, I am not convinced he will become a great receiver any time soon, if ever. However, he can do a lot of things to win a football game, and one of them is throw the ball. He threw the best pass of the night last Sunday, a 50-yard spiral on the run and right on the money to Hines Ward. Plus we all know he can run. I could see him as sort of a single-wing tailback type, capable of holding the fort until Bens’s return. Or Charlie’s. |