CBS is sending Bill Macatee and Steve Beuerlein to call the Ravens-Browns game. I'm waiting for Gus Johnson -- he makes everything seem more exciting.

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CBS passed along the thoughts of Bill Cowher and Phil Simms on Sunday's Eagles-Steelers game.

COWHER:

It’s going to be very important for Pittsburgh to get off to a quick start on the road against Philadelphia.  The one thing they don’t want to do is get in a situation where they have to throw the ball to catch up because (defensive coordinator) Jim Johnson will bring exotic blitzes.  When you take Willie Parker out of the game because of the score, you’re taking away one of your strengths. (On Philadelphia:) A big key for Philadelphia is going to be first and second downs.  Pittsburgh does a very good job on third down by confusing and bringing different pressures.  Third down and long is what they feast off. (On Ben Roethlisberger:) Ben Roethlisberger and Donovan McNabb are two of the top five quarterbacks in the league the way they are playing right now.  After these first two weeks, the conditions he played in last week, and having a sore shoulder, Ben is a tremendous competitor and will be there on Sunday afternoon.  He has played very, very strong these past two weeks… (On McNabb:): Donovan McNabb looks like the Donovan McNabb of a few years ago.  His body looks strong.  He’s breaking tackles.  He’s a very hard guy to bring down.  That is the Donovan McNabb of old.  He looks like he has a little bit of a smirk on his face.  He is running around and looks like he is having fun playing football.  I was very impressed with the whole Philadelphia Eagles football team on Monday night.

SIMMS

I want to see how the Steelers block the Philadelphia Eagles defense. The Steelers have looked good the first two weeks.  Of course, I’m not disparaging either team. but it was the Houston Texans and the Cleveland Browns, who are not noted to really pressure the quarterback at a high level. I also want to see Philadelphia coming off Monday night’s emotional and tremendous effort against the Cowboys. Can they match that this week? It’s always a tough thing for teams to do, but teams that do it are usually the elite top five or six in the NFL.  I, along with the people of Philadelphia, and the people that cover the NFL, have second-guessed Donovan McNabb. He’s healthy and he has a decent supporting cast.  We can see there is greatness in him.  But we are all too quick to judge. It is the "moving on to the next quarterback syndrome" -- just because he’s been here too long and we need the next guy.  It happens in every NFL city.   Well, you know ,let’s just sit back, wait and re-evaluate this and really make sure what we’re doing is the right thing.  I don’t care who the Eagles draft and what they do. They could have the next star. I’m not saying they don’t. But I know this – he physically won’t be as capable as Donovan McNabb.

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It has been a couple of weeks, but here's a Friday pickup basketball report:

Minnesota Matt has returned to the court, swatting away many a shot. Thus far, however, he is opting to go without the accompanying, Mutombo-esque finger wag. His teammates, the two Stevies and Dead Man Walking, fed him in the post, but DMW took enough ill-advised shots to torpedo his team. The Scranton Flash did his usual slashing, B-Hop hit his usual turnarounds, Pesky Andy cut his usual back-door paths and Maryland Matt left his old man his usual flat-footed self on defense.

Besides hitting one game-winning shot, Stevie B's appearance was notable for a couple of other things. It was one of his final Fridays, because he soon is leaving for California. And though he has yet to move to Los Angeles, Stevie B already has taken to referring to the freeways with the El Lay vernacular that puts "the" in front of the number. As in, "I'll just take the 405 or maybe the 101 ..."