What do I know? Heading into Week 13 Dec 4, 2009 | More

Mental Ward

Hines Ward essentially called out Ben Roethlisberger after their loss to the Ravens last week by saying that the locker room was split 50-50 on whether he should have played. I understand Ward's frustration in how the announcement to the team was handled. Tomlin said that, given a do-over, he would have explained the situation to his players more clearly . In Ward's defense, he wasn't aware a team doctor had advised the quarterback not to play due to post-concussion headaches that followed each of the team's three practices last week . Knowing how big of a game it was and realizing the Steelers stood a much better chance of winning with Ben was a big factor in Ward's ill-timed comments. However, any implication of Big Ben not being tough enough is misguided at best and selfish at worst. Hell, even Ward claims to have played when he wasn't feeling 100% due to a concussion but that's not tough, that's dumb. Life is bigger than football, regardless of the gravity of a particular game. Ward knows that. At least he was man enough to own up to his mistake and apologized to both Ben and his teammates saying "In hindsight, we're never going to jeopardize a man's health issues to play a game, a lot of people forget, Ben came from a motorcycle incident [in 2006] and still had a lot of head trauma, so we don't want to push him to play a game. I wasn't trying to really not be concerned about his head injury. We were just frustrated we didn't have our starting quarterback." He added that he " would never question a man's toughness playing in a Steeler uniform. I didn't mean to cause such a stir. My frustration was based on the fact that this was a big game for us to stay in the playoff picture and having Ben out there gave us our best opportunity to win. I was frustrated because there was no indication of Ben not being able to play because he practiced a normal routine ." Something tells me the team will not only rally behind Ben this week but also behind their captain Ward.   That will make it a long Sunday for the Raiders.

Stretch Runner

As fantasy leagues wind up the regular season and prepare for the playoffs across the land, the hunt continues for running backs that will fortify playoff bound teams. One guy worth trading for (assuming you still can) is Justin Forsett of the Seahawks. Coach Mora claims Julius Jones is still his starting tailback when healthy but that's a smoke screen. Seattle is not going to make a run for a playoff spot which assures that Forsett will see his fair share of playing time. That is, if Mora has any intentions of sticking around as coach of the Seahawks. His teammates are quick to sing his praises. “It’s good that he’s little and strong.” “He’s so quick,” said tackle Sean Locklear. “His stop and go is probably one of the best in the league. He’ll get in the hole, stop and freeze you, and then he’ll be back up to speed in two or three steps. A lot of the time, everything can be blocked right, but there’s still somebody unblocked. He can make that guy miss; he sometimes makes two or three of them miss.” Running backs coach Kasey Dunn added “He’s done a great job, he’s good in (pass) protection and he’s been great in our passing game, too, so we’re happy with what he’s done in the absence of Julius.” In his starting debut, he rushed for 123 yards and a touchdown. Last week against the Rams he ran for 130 yards and 2 touchdowns. He possesses that Barry Sanders-like quality of being hidden behind the line one minute and then bursting through it for a big gain the next. He also figures prominently into the passing game. A couple of games ago against a stout Vikings rushing defense he tallied only 9 rushing yards but he scored and contributed 80 yards on 8 receptions. Chances are the Forsett owner in your fantasy league won't give him up easily but this is a player who will pay dividends during the fantasy playoffs. His rushing matchups in Week 14 (Hou-22nd) and 15 (TB-30th) are especially forgiving. Week 16 will be a tougher test against the 4th ranked Packer rushing defense.    

Accuracy Counts