Jerry Micco: Sorry I'm late. Technical problems solved, so here we go.

theWellHungarian: Hi Jerry-- I think Pitt is going to be a much better team when Gilbert Brown returns. It seems we don't have anyone who can score from all parts on the offensive end. I like Ashton Gibbs a lot, but he's basically a 3 point shooter and not much else. Gil Brown can slash to the rim, but also poses the threat to pull-up and shoot. I think he's going to really improve the offense. Thoughts?

Jerry Micco: Not a good game for the Panthers last night. Indiana is going to be competitive, but should not be beat Pitt, especially the way they did it. That said, I too think Gilbert Brown will make them much better. but in the Big East, they are going to need to play better than they did last night, and over the past few games, if they want to be respectable.

Chooch79: Jerry, did I miss the PG article about the Steelers re-signing Harvey "Toast" Clayton and inserting him into their defensive backfield?

Jerry Micco: Wow, a rip on a defensive backfield that has already been blown to bits by the likes of Bruce Gradkowski. Yikes.

Chooch79: Can you give us any insight inyto what the PG has planned for their upcoming Olympic coverage?

Jerry Micco: We're sending Dejan Kovacevic to cover the Vancouver games. We have some broad plans, but nothing specific. We'll do more intense planning in January. But we'll do a lot on hockey for obvious reasons, but we'll look at many other stories, too. Between our Web site and print products, we'll have very complete coverage.

Chooch79: Wose play call: 2 pt conversion attempt from the 12 yard line or QB sneak the week after coming back from a head injury?

Jerry Micco: You have a 225-pound powerful running back and you sneak a guy who had a concussion the week before? Stunning.

theWellHungarian: Even though I am an alum, I am thinking about putting my "fanhood" up for sale. After the Pitt-Nova Elite 8 game and this last minute loss to Cincinnati, my heart can't take it any more. Save for Penn State, can you recommend another college sports program? I was thinking Texas

Jerry Micco: How about Florida? USC? You know, being a Pitt fan may feel like a huge disappointment, but many teams -- including Penn State -- were not in that position this past year. Pitt was a couple points from a Final Four and had a chokehold on the BE football title before they let it slip away. Don't get me wrong, they should have won both of those games, but at least they were in the hunt to the bitter end.

praveen: Are you like some of us fans who want to see Rupp get some time on the PP? Staal in place of Guerin didnt seem to work out.

Jerry Micco: I think the Penguins are using Rupp the right way and he's responding. I don't think he's a great hands guy, so I don't like him on the PP. While Stahl may not be the answer, he's got better hands and gives you 3 centers on the ice.

theWellHungarian: Who would your vote go to for the Heisman? Toby Gerhart would get mine.

Jerry Micco: Probably Colt McCoy. He plays in arguably the best conference in the country and they are undefeated. Gerhart would be in my top 3.

praveen: Is it true that there was an exodus of fans after Steelers took the lead against Oakland? Are the home fans so jaded that they can't force teams to go to a silent count when we need them the most?

Jerry Micco: I was not at Sunday's game, so I can't answer that one.

PSU_is_not_local: Jerry, what will it take for college football to get a playoff? How can Texas be judged to be more worthy than Cinci or TCU? They have identical records and Texas has played a weaker schedule (at least weaker than Cinci, probably TCU also).

Jerry Micco: But they did not play a weaker conference schedule than Cincy or TCU. The Big East is not the Big 12. And TCU had what, one tough game this year? I don't think there will be a playoff until there is some way they can involve the bowls. But when you think about it, why have one when it's a story every year that there isn't one. And you do get a 1-2 matchup that's hard to question. I don't like it. I like a playoff, but at least the separate title game gives you something to hang your hat on.

theWellHungarian: a few weeks ago, I said the worst teams in the NFL are Oakland & K.C. -- the Steelers lost to both. Can the Steelers beat the Browns?

Jerry Micco: I don't think that game will be easy for the Steelers at all. The Browns are worse than both of those teams, but the Steelers are playing like they are worse than the Browns.

theWellHungarian: If you could have anybody in the MLB suit up for the Pittsburgh Pirates who would it be & why? I've asked this to some who pick a stud SP or a stud field player. I say Manny Ramirez for these 2 reasons, the guy can flat-out rake & he keeps your team relevant even if it isn't.

Jerry Micco: Well, I'd take Albert Pujols or Roy Halladay. Pujols first because he plays every day and the way he hits at PNC Park, he might win a Triple Crown for you.

theWellHungarian: Bobby Crosby? Are you serious? Why? Unless there is some kind of Sidney Crosby/Bobby Crosby cross-promotion the Pirates are planning to do with the Penguins, I say save the money for an extra bobble head night.

Jerry Micco: Read Gene Collier's column tomorrow. He'll look at this situation. Bobby Crosby was good five years ago. He hasn't been since. Can he catch lightning in a bottle? I guess. But think of this: You're paying a guy a million-plus to "push" another guy who you are paying that kind of money to play shortstop. If you have to do that, what does it say about the starter?

Chunkles: Jerry, I have compiled the First Annual Chuck Knoll "Get On With Your Lifes Work List" #5 Tyrone Carter [Couldnt hold Troy's Gatorade] #4 James Farrior [The Fire is out] #3 Jeff Reed [Out of Paper Towels and tackes and kick-offs in the end zone and public bathrooms] #2 Deshea Townsend [Maybe Dwayne Woodruff is hiring] #1 Limas "Not So" Sweed [He will never "Catch On". He actually could have caught Ben's Hail Mary and, you guessed it, dropped it] All hail the Emperor!

Jerry Micco: I think if Sweed had caught that ball, it would have been a great catch. Those are not easy balls to come down with and there were what, 7 or 8 guys there? That said, I won't argue with your list, except maybe Farrior, who still plays the game hard, but he's miscast as the guy in the nickel and dime defenses to cover backs out of the backfield.

praveen: I hope the Steelers haven't given up hope. As tough as it is going to be in the playoffs this year with a better slate of teams, all they need to do is bide time until Troy Polamalu comes back.

Jerry Micco: Playoffs? Playoffs? They need to get a win, never mind the playoffs.

praveen: Any word on how Granato is liking it in Pittsburgh?

Jerry Micco: No word yet, but he seems to have fit in very nicely with the team. And he's in charge of the PK, which is maybe the best unit they have these days. He has a great pedigree as a player and coach, and I think it was a terrific hire by Ray Shero.

praveen: Kudos to Mendenhall for taking the punishment in the most constructive way possible. Since then, he has been the one guy who has showed up on almost every snap including blocking better than our other veteran RBs and maxing out whatever lanes the OL is giving him.

Jerry Micco: He's playing up to his reputation that he gained through his time at Illinois. He was a steal, I thought, that late in round 1. It took a bit of time for him to grow up and learn, but now that he's done both, he's showing what he can do. And he's still under-utilized. All you need to know about him is when he chased down Studebaker in the KC game after the 93-yard pick return. He never quit.

Jacque_Strap: Can you believe the Tiger Woods mess? I was a big fan. He'll recover his image someday, I think, but wow...can you think of anyone whose image was seemingly so perfect, who has fallen this fast?

Jerry Micco: Nope, and the fact that there's a daily trickle of problems just adds to it. I'm not a Tiger fan, I'm not a Tiger hater. I'm a huge Phil Mickelson fan, which many of you regulars know, so I always pull for him over Tiger. But I couldn't wish this on my worst enemy. And it is going to damage his reputation with sponsors, the Tour and fans. But in his favor is the fact that golf desperately needs him, flawed or not. That said, we tend to forget he's human and like all of us has some issues. His seems to be a deep one that he's going to need help to resolve.

King_Moonracer: Will the play of the defense this year affect Dick Lebeau's chances on getting into the Hall of Fame?

Jerry Micco: I hope not, because the body of his work goes beyond 4 games of poor defensive play.

kathy: Do you think there are more issues in the Steeler locker room than we know about? The team just does not appear to be as upbeat as last year.

Jerry Micco: I don't think it's a chummy locker room, from what I've heard, but you can say that about any pro locker room. You're talking about a bunch of millionaires who all have outside interests who don't hang together all that much except at work. All they need to do is win a couple games and the locker room resolves itself. I don't think there's anything more or less problematic in that locker room that a win won't cure.

Jacque_Strap: I don't know why, but even when Pitt was up 31-10, I didn't have a good feeling about it. You just knew Pike and Co would come around and make it a close game. I think the offense relaxed too much at the beginning of the second half.

Jerry Micco: I was pretty confident when they went up 31-10. But my mind changed the moment Mardy Gilyard got that kickoff and started to streak away. Once they'd scored, I thought they could come back and win that game. But I agree, Pitt should have just kept pounding them into the third quarter. Cincinnati is all offense and if you let them hang close, they can kill you. That said, Pitt was one point shy. Yikes, what a tough one to lose.

praveen: That City of Champions cereal ad with Hines Ward and Talbot was quite painful and amusing to watch. Have you seen it? I was expecting more fun ads from Talbot after his first two. His agent needs to get to work to find better ads.

Jerry Micco: I thought it was a parody, but it's so bad I thought it was good. Talbot is such a likeable guy, which is why he does all the commercials. If Malkin's English was better, he'd be great, too. He may be the funniest guy on the team, from what I'm told. Has anyone tried the cereal?

Jacque_Strap: His stats are awful, but why would Bobby Crosby want to sign with the Pirates in the first place, let alone to be a backup?

Jerry Micco: When you don't have work, you are happy to have work.

praveen: Well Chris Johnson would disagree that Mendenhall was a "steal" considering he was taken one spot later. ButI get your point. It is nice the pick panned out contrary to some of our early fears.

Jerry Micco: Well, Johnson was beyond a steal, but he was projected as a late-first round pick, while Mendenhall was picked as probably the second back to go (behind Oregon's Jonathan Stewart) and be gone by picks 13-15. To get him at 22 is a steal. And while he's not Chris Johnson, he's on pace to get about 1100 yards this year. Not too bad.

Jacque_Strap: On its face, I guess there's no harm in discussing a trade for Doumit. But you just signed the guy to an extension, and his trade value at this point couldn't be much lower.

Jerry Micco: His health holds him back besides the fact that he's not a great defensive catcher. But you wonder if he's healthy if he can't be a 20-80 guy as a hitter. He shows all the flashes, but when you are always hurt and lose big chunks of the season, it's hard to be very confident in you. I think other than McCutchen and maybe Ohlendorf, you listen to any trade talks if you're the Pirates.

praveen: I understand the tabloid curiosity of the Woods affairs and have no problem with the gossip magazines talking about it. But the news networks have definitely gone overboard. Though Woods set himself up for the fall a bit with a way too carefully managed santiized image of himself.

Jerry Micco: When you are one of the most recognizable people, not athlete, people, in the world, you get that type of coverage when all hell's breaking loose in your personal life. Now that stuff is out there that he may have had a woman setting up escorts for him, holy cow, what's next?

theWellHungarian: I love the BCS and the way college football is set-up. I know I'm in the minority, but I love everything about it. I love the debate and everything that comes along with it. I know it's not perfect, but what system is? If you had a play-off, would the end of the year rivalry games, such as Ohio State-Michigan, FSU-Florida, Texas-A&M, etc, mean as much as they do? Week 1 in college football is equally as important as the last weekend... I'm sorry but I don't want a play-off.

Jerry Micco: I'll agree with you on the debate part. No question it sets up nice debates. But I'd argue that what is now championship weekend for the conferences with title games, which this year had a de facto Big East title game, is much better than rivalry weeks. To me, that's like a playoff weekend. And look at the games. Aside from the Florida stomping by Bama, you had three really good games. Imagine if that's round 1 of a playoff? Imagine later rounds? This year, and really the last 3 years, OSU-Michigan has meant nothing. Texas-A&M is a huge mismatch these days, even if A&M plays them tough, they can't beat them. Florida-FSU has turned into a joke.

ch3: Jerry, do you think the Steelers' offense could score a few extra points a game? Ten points in three quarters against the lowly Raiders is pretty bad. Not excusing the defense's failure, but it would be nice to put a team away early. Three redzone trips and only three points out of them is a joke.

Jerry Micco: The offense owns that part of the game, where you get deep into the zone and come away with nothing or just 3 against a team like the Raiders. You need to get them down by 14 or 17 points early and make them one dimentional. And then you have to attack that one dimention. Unfortunately for the Steelers on Sunday, they did neither.

praveen: Ward made a mistake in what he said about Ben to NBC. But Ben needs to get over those comments fast. He is making 100M, he has his coordinator of choice. He can afford to sacrifice his feelings for the good of the team.

Jerry Micco: I don't know, Ben and Hines seemed fine together on the field Sunday, which is really all people should really care about. I don't care whether they are buddy-buddy off the field (my understanding is they are not) but they need to play together on game day and work together to prepare. But I'd not be happy if a guy essentially said I was faking and injury and not taking one for the team. Especially when you see the physical shots Ben has taken over the years. What I wonder is how much that is slowing Ben down.

PhillyMarty: Tomlin "December Hell" comment from last week very atypical for a STEELERS' coach. Really not that much different from A. Smith comments from a few years ago. Obviously it helps you sell papers and we all appreciate that Tomlin says more in a season than BC said in 15 years. And though he at least is not Rex Ryan like, can we find a middle ground?

Jerry Micco: I think Tomlin is trying to do that. He's been nothing but successful since he's been here and now he's dealing with a freefall that no one saw coming. That can rattle a guy and he seems a bit rattled to me. Using management-like catch phrases and such much more than he usually does. Truth is, his team has stunk for three of the last four weeks (they did play well at Baltimore). Tomlin is a good coach and he'll find that middle ground. But he needs to experience something like this so he can learn how to handle it. And he's a smart guy, he'll figure it out.

praveen: One of the problems with our PP seems to be that goalie doesnt have to worry about the left side. A lot of times passes to left side are being wasted as players on that side are unable to one time them. The best PP guys Sid, Malkin, and Gonchar are all on one side.

Jerry Micco: I think they all want to work that side of the ice, but what you need is for Letang to be a bit better now that's he's back because he as the shot from the point that can be lethal. And yes, a good winger on the offside has some opportunities depending on who's on the halfboard on the other side. Problem is finding that off winger.

PhillyMarty: I have a big problem with guys like Tiger and their holier than thou personna. The advertising bucks make him yet contrary to Phil M, you never see Tiger mixing with the gallery. I say he is getting what he deserved and he is lucky as it seems the DA protected him from a drug/alcohol inquiry.

Jerry Micco: Tiger has been image-conscious from very early in his career and his handlers made sure it stayed that way as he turned professional. He's a special talent, the likes we've never seen, really. But with that comes a lot of sheltering and preserving a public image. One reason I like Phil is he seems like a guy you could have a beer with and he'd talk about stuff with you. But then you hear some guys on the Tour say that's phony, too. I don't know. I think you see a guy enough times act a certain way and you get the feeling he's really that way. I think Tiger has a fun side too, but he can't -- or won't -- let us see it very often.

tonytocca: is 43 done for year? Espn is reporting that he is.

Jerry Micco: We're looking into that, all we know for sure is he's not playing tomorrow. But we'll keep checking into the situation.

Jacque_Strap: I hate the search process when a college football team needs a new head coach. All candidates are almost required to lie about how much they love their current team and don't want to leave, even when everyone knows the new job is a step up. I also don't like it when they leave before their bowl game, it just doesn't feel right. Having said all of that, I don't know if there's a good solution. There's so much stinkin' time between the end of the regular season and the bowl games, the team wants to get the new coach in there.

Jerry Micco: And recruiting has something to do with that. You have to have a guy in place in time to tell recruits that you have your guy. And then he has to hire a staff, etc. So bowls are always going to be affected by this. I think Cincinnati is going through that right now.

theWellHungarian: I would say shut 43 down for the year... Lose the rest of the games, secure a top pick, draft Tebow, and let's get ready for 2010

Jerry Micco: Tebow is an H-back in the pros. He can't play QB at that level, I don't think. But you have to ask is Polamalu should be shut down so he can heal. You're going to need him beyond this year, so maybe he gets himself right and goes from there. But you also have to be concerned at his age and how banged up he always seems to be. He's a terrific player, but maybe he plays too hard for his body, if that makes sense.

PhillyMarty: The Pens are good at cycling and outworking other teams for even strength goals. Why do they try so hard for picture play goals while on the PP. Get a point man free for a shot, set the screen and blast away, batter in the rebounds. Good things have to happen.

Jerry Micco: I think sometimes you're right, they try to get too pretty on the PP. They do have 2 good point players (3 when Goligoski is healthy) who can shoot. Get a guy in front and then hammer away. I'm always a big fan of that type of PP. But they sometimes do get in their own way. In the playoffs and down the stretch, they will need the PP to score as much as possible because that's how you win -- with special teams.

PhillyMarty: With the 18th pick in the 2010 NFL draft the STEELERS will draft a kid that plays what position? Forget Noll's "best athlete available," it has become all about need!

Jerry Micco: Safety, linebacker or corner. Need talent at the first. Depth at the second and both at the third. Unfortunately, there are few first-round type safeties out there. Great corners are gone by the 15th pick (Darrelle Revis was picked 14 by the Jets, one ahead of the Steelers, who took Timmons) and sometimes you can wait longer in the draft and still get good linebackers. Tough spot to pick for what they really need.

Jerry Micco: Folks I need to run. Thanks for taking the time to be here this week and for all the good questions. Sorry about the technical difficulties. Next Wednesday at noon, we hope to be up on a new server called coveritlive. It's a new chat look that can include interactive polls and breaking news. I look forward to doing it and hopefully I can figure out how it works. But if you come into the chat, we'll still be here talking about all the stuff going on. See you next week!

Looking for more from the Post-Gazette? Join PG+, our members-only web site. You'll get exclusive sports content, opinion, financial information, discounts from retailers and restaurants, and more. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.