[gonelong]

Originally Posted by SteelSD

Hasn't had the opportunity yet. That's a very important distinction. At a younger age, Roethisberger has accomplished historic things, but I fail to see the need to try to play the placement game with two of the top five QB's in the NFL.

Agreed, as I stated.

And, again, the quality of the replacement is important. Kitna's not a replacement-level backup. Far from it.

No, but that doesn't make him a good quarterback either.

Yeah. I actually have. Kitna was the starting QB for my fantasy league team two years ago (and CJ was my #1 wideout). I got REALLY familiar with Kitna. Played really well. Didn't lose the job by any fault of his own. Probably be starting somewhere next season.

Kitna isn't horrible by any stretch, but what you get with Kitna, is time and time again, costly interceptions, too many sacks, and he simply drops the ball all too often. He probably will be starting somewhere next season, but that speaks to the lack of good QBs in the league at this point.

Then you haven't seen Maddox play enough recently. Go find a game tape of the Jax game. It's the difference between replacing a great starting QB (Palmer) with a QB who's a viable starter on any number of NFL teams (Kitna) versus a below-replacement level pud who's capable of literally handing games to opposing football teams (Maddox). You can't find a more severe dropoff than Ben to Maddox in football. At any position.

I've seen him play.

QB ratings the last 3 seasons.
Kitna 87.4, 75.9, 36.4
Maddox 75.3, 58.3, 51.7

Maddox had a better year than Kitna this year. That said, I would take Kitna over Maddox, no doubt. What I am saying is that you are replacing 20 tosses a game in PIT vs. 35+ a game in Cincy.

Yes, I know you'd like to take Pitt points off the board. I'm curious though- Pitt scored 31 points the last time WITH Palmer at the helm for Cinci so why again wouldn't Pitt score 31 on Sunday? You be doin' some fuzzy math there, my man. Hmn...Palmer in...Kitna out...minus 7...plus 7...carry the three...two point conversion...Bengals WIN!

Heck, I'll make it easy. If the Steelers have 2 or 3 less possesions in a game (any game), how many points less would you expect them to score?

The Bengals needed 17 points to win that game. Unless you figure that they had a great shot of not botching five more field goals in the second half. Or unless you reckon that Marv would have gone for a two-point conversion when down by one.

See above.

You'd also be assuming that Palmer didn't get sacked and wouldn't be picked. Again, I'm not even going to consider any argument that includes the concept that Palmer would have made no mistakes whatsoever. Yet, it consistently pops up post after post. Please make it stop.

I never made that assumption and posted to the effect. It'll stop, you aren't bothering to read what I have written anyway and the point is moot, the game is over.

GL