2007 Monday Night Football on ESPN HD - Week 12 - Dolphins @ Steelers!

So, since the Dolphins always get so worked up with the thought of any other team going undefeated, should the rest of the league root for them to go an entire season without a win?

i dunno if the rest of the league should, but i certainly am... it really couldn't get much better than the pats going undefeated and the dolphins going defeated...

wonder how long the game will be delayed by the lightning? the field is a MESS...

pq nice. good and sharp. color good. no pixelation or noise. i would say "no swimming grass", but that wouldn't be appropriate tonight... so we'll say, good mud.

aq the normal. my usual gripe, might as well be 3.1.

comcast south jersey.

it's REALLY strange to watch a game with the yard markers and hash marks gone... almost looks like they are playing on a soccer field.

A mess doesn't describe it. I heard on one of the afternoon shows that they laid new sod on top of the old mud and it hadn't taken root yet. Now this mess, that field won't be right until spring.

The exact opposite of watching England games at Wembley after the NFL game over there. Was very weird watching the highest level of football played with NFL markings.

Because I have been so irritated over the years by Bob Griese et al lighting their cigars and popping champagne when teams lose I am rooting for the Pats to go undefeated while the phins go winless.

It is indeed strange. The audio quality on MNF is so all over the place. The Hank Williams Open sounded AWFUL tonight. Hanks vocals were buried, sounded like a weird phasing thing, but the rest of the broadcast sounds fine. The picture quality I think tonight is exceptional although the stadium looks kinda dark for some reason, and the reverse booth cams look like they need a bump of chroma. I'm dissapointed they started using commercial music over the billboards (I knew this would come), the cool quirky jazzy stuff they'd been playing was kinda cool.

I love seeing Neanderthal football on prime time HD, as long as it's not my team playing and I'm not sitting in the crowd.
I was really hoping it would end in a 0-0 tie after OT. Then the soccer people would be laughing.

The Dolphins will see this as one that got away, just like the Eagles will about last night's game.

I think the Dolphins are good enough to beat the Jets after seeing them tonight.

Heinz Field needs to investigate installing field turf, because they obviously could really use it.

That would be an improvement from the stereo they actually create.

Natural surface is always the best thing to play on. This was a situation of very bad timing. As stated during the broadcast, on Friday there were at least 4 High School games played there, followed by a college game on Saturday. Right after the Pitt game, they started laying the new sod and it just never took root. It was right over the old surface that had been destroyed and when you add in over 2" of rain in a single day, they had no chance.

It sounds like the Rooney family is sticking their head in the sand about the poor quality of the Heinz Field playing surface.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07034/759130-66.stm

Maybe being embarrassed on national TV will make them change.

In fairness, this happens every single year at Heinz Field. For lack of a better term, the field is over-subscribed. Too many people play on the field in too short of a time. But, that was the price of getting public money for the stadium.

Understand, a stadium in downtown Pittsburgh presents issues no matter what. Three Rivers used to have icing issues, although those weren't nearly as prevalent as the dirt/slop issues with Heinz Field.

Whatever you choose, it will present problems because downtown Pittsburgh is a less than ideal place for a stadium.

Jacksonville Municipal Stadium is in a poor location.

Back before we got the Jags, the Fla/Ga game was flooded under almost 2 feet of water. This area is right off of the St Johns River and maybe 4 feet above sea level. (If a Category 5 hurricane hit Jax directly, Jacksonville Municipal Stadium would be under 20+ feet of water)

Yet despite this bad location, and the water table being just 12 inches below ground, the stadium can drain tons of water. (day of a preseason game in 1995, over 8 inches of rain fell, yet come kickoff, the field was dry and painted in time)

No excuses for the Rooneys, get a better drainage setup.


BTW, the mud looked really good in HD, you could almost make out the dirt granules.

I agree that planted punt was hilarious.

I think it's safe to say that Heinz Field will have a new (artificial) turf next season.

It was like hitting a wedge into a nice soft green

I was at the gym when that happened. Almost everyone doing cardio in front the TVs (including myself) were laughing. One dude thought it was so funny he had to get off the treadmill and collect himself.

As much as I agree that the game should be played on grass, it's just not realistic for Heinz Field, given the activity on that field in October and November and the unpredictable weather this time of year.

well... if they really thought it was going to take root in late november in pittsburgh, they need to re-think that once more...

unfortunately, grass simply doesn't grow in the northern tier of the country after mid-october....

that punt looked like one of those wedge shots freddy couples used to hit, that just plopped down softly out of the sky...

I don't care where you are, sod will not root in 36 hours. They used large rolls that had a good dirt backing so they wouldn't move. The main issue last night was that the grounds crew didn't get the water off the tarp sections before they unrolled it and all of the water went onto the field as it was unrolled.

Every year the field is awful after the WPIAL playoffs. I'm sick of it. The players are sick of it. And it's an embarrassment. I truly hope last night will be the catalyst to get field turf.

You've never seen what happens to pipes in western PA during the winter, have you?

It sounds like a supremely evil joke, but even a better drainage system presents problems, thanks to freezing issues. Every year Pittsburgh sees a rash of pipes busting once the temps go below fifteen degrees or lower (the Burgh itself might see one below zero night a year; outlying area more). And, because we see ice flows from January through March, the ever awesome flooding/freezing double whammy has to be accounted for. Combined with warm fronts from the south regularly pushing through, this gets a bit absurd in a bad year.

KDKA (local CBS affiliate) reported today that the Rooneys sent people down to the University of West Virginia to talk to them about their artificial turf and how it has held up over the years.

So, we'll see.