The NFL Network shows one NFL Replay a week. I have no idea why they don't replay games year-round, but that's another topic.

This week was Pittsburgh vs. Cincinatti. I watched every Bengals snap. I am by no means a scout but I was impressed by Nate Livings. He doesn't look like an all-pro or anything, but he looked like a definite improvement on what we had last year. He was very strong against the run. Several times he drove Brett Keisel ten yards down the field. I didn't see him get beat in pass protection either.

I remember reading that he had trouble pulling, but he seemed more agile than I was expecting. He also seemed really good at getting through trash at the line when pulling. The downside was that he seemed to have trouble finding a linebacker to block after he got there.

At one point I saw him clobber James Farrior at the end of a play, which made me really happy. I also saw one time where James Harrison came up the middle on some kind of stunt blitz, and Livings knocked him backwards with his hands. He looked strong and mean to me.

One of the most impressive things however was before the game, he was the guy on the sideline psyching up his teammates. He said something like "all the talking's done. It's time to put some pads on these m******f*****s. Let's do it like we've done it all year. Together. Bring it in. Together on three. 1,2,3 TOGETHER."

Sidenote: one of the things that no one ever talks about with professional athletes is that they have to constantly do really stupid things like saying anything "on 3". I remember being 14, my second year of playing football in junior high and getting really sick of it. How do these guys stay enthusiastic for it for 20 years?

Anyway, after watching it I was kinda excited. He seems like a good pickup. Next week on Sunday the game they're replaying is Panthers/Lions. I don't know how much Connor or Bernadeau played in that game, but I'll watch it anyway and see.