Pittsburgh Steelers LaMarr Woodley spent most of this week, sitting on his hands while remaining completely quiet and in the background. And by quiet and in the background, we actually mean talking, talking and even more talking. He questions the NFL's Top 100 Voting because he wonders if most of the players that voted just didn't like the Steelers. He also said that the Ravens will never go to the Super Bowl with Joe Flacco as the quarterback in this lifetime. I wonder if we could find a single Bengals fan that would agree.
Then he was asked about Carson Palmer.
"Honestly, when they play against us, it really don’t matter if (Palmer) is there or not," Woodley told NFL Network. "But as far as when they play against other teams, I think that missing him is a big piece of their team. Terrell Owens isn’t going to be there anymore, and Chad (Ochocinco) is going to be there. Then you look at running back, they’re missing a lot of guys on that offense. It’s going to be like starting over from scratch again if Carson doesn’t come back."
Good god. I mean, he's right. Absolutely right. We've been saying that this team is in rebuilding mode since we arrived at the realization that Carson Palmer won't be back -- even if he could single-handedly save 100 puppies in a burning church with the ultimate consequence being that he remains in Cincinnati, Palmer won't just avoid the church, he'll avoid the state entirely to avoid confusion. We're not exactly sure if it's even possible for such a scenario to even exist, but it really is a nice way of saying, "damn him."
As for Woodley's comment that it doesn't matter who the quarterback is against the Steelers, that's mostly true when we're talking about records; which we assume is one those important statistics. As a starting quarterback, Palmer is 4-9 against Pittsburgh -- 1-6 when facing the Steelers in Cincinnati. Yet, Palmer has thrown more touchdowns than interceptions while nearly averaging 200 yards passing per game.
| Rating | Comp | Att | Pct. | Yards | Avg. | TDs | INTs | |
| Total | 77.8 | 235 | 409 | 57.5% | 2,468 | 6.0 | 17 | 11 |
| Home | 83.5 | 120 | 204 | 58.8% | 1,345 | 6.6 | 8 | 4 |
| Away | 72.1 | 115 | 205 | 56.1% | 1,123 | 5.5 | 9 | 7 |
Game by game look at Palmer against the Steelers.
| Date | Loc. | Result | Comp | Att | Yards | TDs | INTs |
| 12.12.10 | Away | L, 7-23 | 20 | 32 | 178 | 1 | 3 |
| 11.8.10 | Home | L, 21-27 | 22 | 36 | 248 | 2 | 1 |
| 11.15.09 | Away | W, 18-12 | 18 | 30 | 178 | 0 | 0 |
| 9.27.09 | Home | W, 23-20 | 20 | 37 | 183 | 1 | 0 |
| 12.02.07 | Away | L, 10-24 | 17 | 44 | 183 | 0 | 0 |
| 10.28.07 | Home | L, 13-24 | 23 | 31 | 205 | 1 | 0 |
| 12.31.06 | Home | L, 17-23 | 20 | 38 | 251 | 2 | 0 |
| 9.24.06 | Away | W, 28-20 | 18 | 26 | 193 | 4 | 2 |
| 1.8.06 | Home | L, 17-31 | 1 | 1 | 66 | 0 | 0 |
| 12.4.05 | Away | W, 38-31 | 22 | 38 | 227 | 3 | 0 |
| 10.23.05 | Home | L, 13-27 | 21 | 36 | 227 | 0 | 2 |
| 11.21.04 | Home | L, 14-19 | 13 | 25 | 165 | 2 | 1 |
| 10.3.04 | Away | L, 17-28 | 20 | 37 | 164 | 1 | 2 |