Loose Slag From The Still Mill (Aug. 8th)

• As yunz should have seen by now, Jeremy Faat was booted from practice by Coach Bill on Monday, for cheap-shotting rookie center Hank Fraley.

You heard it hear first --- the reason why Staat was cheap-shotting Fraley, was likely because he was getting his ass kicked by the greenhorn from Robert Morris.

I say again, for the 47^th time --- Staat is NOT a NOSE TACKLE. He never played NT in college. He was drafted to be a DE. He was pitiful at nose tackle last season. As Joel Steed says, YA GOTTA BE LOW. Staat is 6-5", and inherently cannot get low.

Just another example of Little Billy Cowher pounding a square peg into a round hole.

• Shar Pourdanesh has been moved from the RT derby, to be a backup LT. In the meantime, LEFTHANDED ROOKIE Marvel Smith has been moved to RT, a spot he�d NEVER played until the Miami game 3 nites ago.

The acceptable and smart thing to do, would be to platoon Shar and Smith, and then gradually wean Smith into a full-time starter by about week 5.

We OPEN the season versus Baltimore, 1 of the BEST defenses in all of the NFL. It's sheer asininity to have a rookie offensive TACKLE start against a defense that good.

But Bill Cowhead --- 6-15 in his past 21 games and owner of one of the worst offenses in PRO FOOTBALL the past TWO seasons, has this allll figured out.....

• Speaking of RT, I mentioned REPEATEDLY here in on this site all Winter, spring, and summer --- WHY not try Mark Breuner at RT ??? He supposedly is God's gift to blocking. He makes a hefty salary. GAINING weight is waay easier than LOSING weight. (Just ask Levon and Bettis.) With today's carbo powders and assorted LEGAL pills at GNC, it is not difficult for a 6-foot-4 man who weighs 270, to add a mere 30 pounds.

It appears this team is going to go thru ANOTHER season-long charade at RT --- for the THIRD year in a row. Breuner has been thrown exactly ZERO passes in preseason, and Jerame Tuman is considered the team's "pass receiving tight end". Exactly WHAT HARM would have occurred if the team tried this move of Breuner to RT, beginning in mini-camp back in May ??

• My new slogan, which somehow popped into my head during a run �. SIMPLIFY THE COMPLEX. This, of course, applies to Gilbride�s offense, which after 2 mini-camps, 1 � training camps, 6 preseason games, and 16 regular season games, is still totally incomprehensible and inoperable by the 11 offensive players on the field at any given time.