Terrell Owens said the news media tried to goal him into a controversy after his catch-less performance on Sunday. The Bills receiver’s streak of 185 consecutive games with a catch ended, and after the game he repeatedly refused to criticize his coaches or teammates and Owens maintained that he was “just going with the plays that are called.” Over the years I’ve always kind of spoken openly about whatever is being asked with my answers, so the last four or five years I’ve kind of noticed that and tried taking some steps to prevent some of those things from happening. “But (Sunday) as you saw, it was obviously … (reporters) took some more than initiative to try to get me to kind of go down the wrong path. I know the last two teams that I’ve been on, I felt like I left those teams prematurely due to media interviews that I’ve done and things kind of taken out of context and they created sort of a media whirlwind in the locker room and things kind of went downhill from there. I’m just trying to do the best job I can do as far as answering the questions and trying to be a better teammate and not try to throw people under the bus.”
Eighty-four million bucks just doesn’t go very far these days, that’s how much guaranteed money the Raiders invested in their last three top draft picks. Sunday that investment reaped these dividends: Three points and several thousand heartfelt boos rained down mostly on quarterback JaMarcus Russell. Near the end of Sunday’s 23-3 loss to the Broncos in the Coliseum, a.k.a. the Blacked-Out Hole, Russell trotted onto the field and the boos were louder than they had been all afternoon, even though most of the fans had fled the premises.
Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger sitting out Wednesday afternoon’s practice was by design, according to coach Mike Tomlin, who “wanted to give him a rest.” Tomlin also wanted to give Charlie Batch, Dennis Dixon and Mike Reilly more reps.
“It’s not about the guys that you pull out of drills,” Tomlin said. “It’s the guys you put in place of them. When you take (No.) 7 out of the huddle, I was very interested in seeing how the offense operated.” According to Tomlin, the offense met with mixed results without Roethlisberger. “The jury’s still out,” Tomlin said. “I’ll reserve judgment until I look at the tape. It wasn’t a bunch of highlight-reel kind of plays out there, but sometimes it’s those kind of days. Sometimes it’s going to require 14, 15 snaps for us to put the ball in the end zone, and we’ve got to be able to do it when those things occur.”
Hines Wardalso sat of practice on Wednesday. He’s not hurt. He’s been using his time to help those behind him on the depth chart. Both second-year receiver Limas Sweed and rookie receiver Mike Wallace say they’ve received help from some of the veteran receivers who act like coaches on the roster.
“Everyday they teach me different things – every single day, every practice,” Wallace said. “Every time I come back from a route, blocking, Hines is always on me about what I did – if I did a good job he’ll tell me I did a good job. If I didn’t do it right he’ll tell me what to do to get it right for the next time.” “That’s just Hines. Hines understands the obligations of being the kind of veteran player he is and I say obligation – it’s an obligation that he welcomes,” Head Coach Mike Tomlin said. “He’s interested in us winning so he’s going to help in the growth and development of young guys.”
Offensive lineman Darnell Stapletoncontinues to watch practices and coach Mike Tomlin continues to shed little light about what is wrong with his second-year starter. Stapleton has a left knee injury that has kept him from practicing since Sunday. He had at least one MRI (Monday), but Tomlin remains mum about what might be wrong with him. “No new news with Stapleton,” Tomlin said, and, when asked about him a second time, said, “Again, when I’m ready to talk, we’ll talk about it.”
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