Nobody's job is safe: Tony Lai's crowded receiver room puts up 131, and the Tide are next

For a week I carried this column around half-written in my head. Germie Bernard, the rookie who caught 11 balls off the bench in the win over Injury Prone, was running with the first group at practice last Tuesday while Rome Odunze worked with the second. My take was simple: start the kid at the Strikers and make Odunze earn the spot back.

Tony Lai had a different idea. He went and got George Pickens.

"I went and got George Pickens to play, so he started, and he goes Monday night," Lai told me Sunday night, on the record. "Germie went to the bench, and that was a hard call after the week he had, but I'd make it again."

So both of my guys sat. Bernard scored 4.2 on the bench. Odunze scored 8.9 on the bench. And the Wild Cards rolled up 131.44 on the road anyway, against 66.52 for the Strikers, according to the league scoreboard. The Strikers have nobody left to play, so this one is decided, and the Wild Cards go to 5-2. Pickens still has Monday night in Philadelphia, which means the only thing left to change is how big the number gets.

"How do I feel tonight?" Lai said. "We put up 131 on the road, so pretty good."

Hard to argue with him. Drake Maye, Zay Flowers and Trey McBride did the heavy lifting, and nobody in the receiver debate I spent the week on had to do a thing.

I took a correction last week from Trevor Banks over a margin I rounded down, and I'll take this one the same way: as information. Here is what I got wrong. I wrote a two-man argument, and the owner turned it into a three-man room. Bernard against Odunze was never the question Tony was answering. His question was whether he could find a better receiver than either of them, and he decided he could.

Here is what I still believe. Bernard is not a bench story anymore, even sitting on one. A rookie who goes from a few snaps in September to 94 percent of them by Week 6 has a real role in Pittsburgh, and one quiet Sunday doesn't erase that. Tony said much the same thing, in his own words, when he got back to me on the questions I'd sent last week: "When a rookie plays 94 percent of the snaps he's not a project anymore, he's a starter, and whoever closes gets the next customer." He also said Rome's spot was "his to win back," and then added the update: "I went out and got George Pickens, so the room got crowded in a good way."

And Odunze deserves his fair line, the same as I gave him last week. He outscored Bernard on Sunday, from the same bench. Nobody should be writing him off, least of all me.

Now the part East County actually cares about. The Crimson Tide took care of Injury Prone on Sunday and they are 5-2, too, and they come to our place next week. Two teams, one record, one game.

Jon Rudolph, who owns the Tide, isn't handing out anything for the bulletin board. "They've been playing well, no argument," he told me. "I don't get worked up about standings in October. I took care of Injury Prone first, and now I'll look at the Wild Cards." Who on our side worries him most, he said, he'll keep in his own head.

Joey McVey, whose Injury Prone club has now lost to both of these teams in back-to-back weeks, had a little more edge. "Two points. It stung, and they got lucky off their bench. That's football," he said of the Wild Cards win last week. I'd call it a deep bench rather than a lucky one, and Sunday's 131 with two good receivers sitting is my exhibit. But I understand why it stung.

Tony's view of the Tide game came back to the room I've been staring at all week. "A crowded receiver room is a nice problem," he said, "and nobody's job is safe, which is how I like it."

So here's my Week 8 take, and it's mine, not his. Pickens and Flowers are the two I'd start against the Tide. Behind them, if it comes down to Bernard or Odunze, I still lean Bernard on the role he's carved out, and I'll admit Sunday handed Odunze the better argument for the moment. That's what a crowded room is supposed to do: make everybody earn it every week.

The owner's last word was for the people who'll fill the place next Sunday. "Enjoy tonight," Lai said. "Pickens is dessert on Monday, and the Tide are coming to our place. Bring your voice."