Steelers Win Sloppy Game At KC

Following the bye week the Steelers had to go into Arrowhead stadium and play in one of the more hostile environments in the league. Forget that the Chiefs were 4-6 for the season or that they were without their starting QB, RB and SS. This game had danger written all over it. That word couldn’t have been closer to the truth, the Steelers escaped the game with a narrow 13-9 margin of victory. 

Overall we expected the Steelers to come fresh and crips after having the prior week off and quite frankly they didn’t. The game featured 10 accepted penalties overall, 6 of those were on the Steelers. The offensive line, especially Max Starks were getting drilled on holding calls all night long.  They were just sloppy.  One man who wasn’t sloppy who you might have expected to be was Big Ben Roethlisberger. Playing with a fractured thumb on his throwing hand and having to wear a splint and a glove; all he did was go 21 of 31 for 193 yards and added a TD, he did have one pick too.  But the TD he had was a thing of beauty. He side stepped the defender, put a soft touch on the ball and perfectly placed it in the back of the end zone for Wesley Saunders to haul in. As it turns out that was the only TD of the game for either team.  The rest of the scoring was done by the kickers. 

Defensively the team stepped up holding the Chiefs to the aforementioned field goals only and causing four Tyler Palko turnovers. Turnovers have been hard to come by for the Steelers this year so it was nice to see them get their hands on the ball for a change.  Ryan Mundy led the team in tackles with 10 after Troy Polamalu had to come out after the opening series of the game due to a blow to the head. No word yet on how long he’ll be out but we suspect you’ll see him next week.  Lawrence Timmons was 2nd on the team with 7 tackles-the exact amount we projected he’d have in our Game Day section. Hey, we have to give ourselves some credit here, we’re the best in the business when it comes to knowing the Steelers and when we hit our projections on the nose, well, we toot our own horn. 

Now, back to the regularly scheduled article.

The linebackers were all over the field today as they totaled 22 tackles between the four of them. Jason Woirlds who was playing for Woodley had 6 of those and he showed up on a lot of plays. It’s great to see the backup guys step up when called upon. We even saw Cam Heyward make a few plays this year, which is nice to see, as he was this year’s first round pick as you know. 

Overall it was a sloppy, penalty filled game that had our hearts racing until the final snap but the results were right and it’s on to next week.

Time for this week’s Superlatives and notes:

Star of the Game-Ben Roethlisberger-This seems to be a weekly thing but he is and was the man, playing with a broken thumb he led the team to victory with impressive stats and easily the play of the game (read above)

Number 1 receiver-Antonio Brown-It looks like he may be the best WR on this team, just edging out our boy Wallace. Granted teams are doubling Wallace but Brown makes them pay, he’s a really good WR and very well may be the best the Steelers have right now.

Number 4 receiver-Hines Ward-There was a lot of talk this week that he was falling to 5th on the depth chart, from what we could tell tonight, he was 4th. We were happy to see him get 4 grabs to get him to within 15 of 1,000 for his hall of fame career. With 5 games left if he can average 3 catches a game he’ll get there. We hope he does because we suspect this is his final run with the black and gold.

8-3, up next: Vs. Cincinnati, 7-4 (Steel Nation Association Staff in attendance)

Steelers Topple Bengals 24-17 in Critical AFC North Matchup

At the beginning of the year if we told you the Steelers wouldn’t meet the Bengals until week 10, the Bengals would be starting a rookie QB, the Bengals wouldn’t have Ochocinco and the Bengals would be 6-2, you’d have laughed at us, we would have laughed too. But that’s exactly the scenario that the Steelers faced today and they came out victorious over a very tough, up and coming team from Cincinnati. 

The black and gold jumped out to a very quick 14-0 lead and it looked like the route was on. Big Ben was once again the catalyst completing 21 of 33 passes for 245 yards, 1 TD and 1 pick. In all reality, it should have been 2 TD’s and 0 picks but Heath Miller had a couple of unfortunate plays. Heath bobbled the ball twice and couldn’t pull it in and that resulted in an interception and eventually led to a Bengal Field Goal. He also caused a Ben to Cotchery TD pass to be called back on a questionable pass interference call.  Miller did add 3 receptions for 31 yards, but he’d probably say on a personal level this was a game to forget. Overall though, he’s a team player and I’m sure he’s happy his blunders didn’t cost the team the game and that they came out on top.  Ben hit 9 receivers in total but his top two targets were Mike Wallace, and Antonio Brown.  Wallace had 6 catches for 54 yards and Brown had 5 for 86. Brown is a great asset and it was noted in the room we were watching that some of his acrobatic catches are similar to that of Larry Fitzgerald. He’s not as big as Fitzgerald but he makes the plays almost as well. 

Rashard Mendenhall was given the ball 16 times, as we told you in the Game Day section he’d get it close to 20 times. His 16 carries only netted him 44 yards, but he had 2 TD’s and the TD on 3rd and short from the 9 yard line was a thing of beauty. 

Defensively they got the job done with a couple of interceptions by Gay and Timmons but Andy Dalton was pretty impressive, throwing for 170 yards and 2 TD passes. He and AJ Green are going to be a couple of guys we’re going to have to deal with for the next several years. In fact they make people in Cincy forget all about Carson Palmer and Chad Ochocinco.  The Steelers were not able to sack Dalton once today and the Bengals did a good job of containing the Steelers blitzing linebackers.  While Ryan Clark led the team with 8 tackles, and Polamalu seemed to be in the backfield making plays a lot today, overall nobody was a real standout on defense.

The team came back after that devastating loss last week and picked up the pieces. They went into a hostile environment, got the win, improved to 7-3 and now have a bye week to get healthy. Aside from the 2 Baltimore losses, it’s been a great start to the season.

This week’s superlatives and comments:

Stars of the Game:  Big Ben: He completed 21 of 33 passes for 245 yards and a TD. He constantly made plays and proved once again that he’s the MVP of this team.

Antonio Brown-He had another big day with 5 catches and 86 yards.

Bench: Hines Ward: It’s just time. He was thrown to 1 time and did catch the ball, but he was never seen again.

Move to Starter:  Antonio Brown:  He’s the 2nd best receiver now, it’s time he starts. Sure, he’s not a possesion receiver, but at this time we think he should start.

Poor coaching move of the game:  With 44 seconds to go in the first half the Bengals had a 3rd and 7 in their own territory, the Steelers had 2 timeouts, Tomlin chose not to take one. The Bengals ran the ball and the clock down to 7 seconds on 4th down and then Tomlin took a timeout. It made no sense. You HAVE to take the timeout with 44 seconds to go. Then again after the 3rd down play. 

7-3, up next: Bye Week

Steelers Lose Late, Get Swept By Ravens

In one final drive the Steelers went from the drivers seat in the AFC North and an inside track at the AFC #1 seed to falling into 3rd place in the AFC North and hoping to score a wild card spot.  This was the game that was supposed to be revenge. The last time these teams faced off the Ravens beat the Steelers down 35-7. You knew that wouldn’t happen again but none of us would have anticipated the way the game finished.  After the Steelers came back from a 10 point, 16-6 4th quarter deficit the Steelers vaunted defense blew the game with just a little over two minutes to play. Joe Flacco led a 92 yard drive that culminated in a touchdown pass with 8 seconds left to put the stake in the heart of the Steelers.  It may have also ended their shot at a division title a bye week and a home game in the playoffs.  Being swept by the Ravens is a horrible, horrible feeling and now the team must rebound and get things straight next week.  The biggest problem today was the  defense, not only on the final drive but on third down throughout the entire game.  They gave up 12 conversions on third down tonight, you don’t win too many games when you can’t get off the field on thrid down. Specifically third and long.  The rush defense wasn’t the issue as they held the Ravens to 52 yards but the passing defense gave up 314 yards passing to Joe Flacco. This is the 2nd time this season that Flacco had his way with the Steelers defense.  If these teams face off for a third time this year then the Steelers better watch the film and figure out what’s going on there.

The great news on defense was James Harrison. He played like a man on a mission after missing the last 4 games due to an eye injury. He had 5 tackles, including 3 sackes and a forced fumble. He looked fresh, fast and able. That was great to see. Other than that, there were certainly hard hits and big plays but it’s hard to laude them after giving up the game losing drive the way they did. 

On offense Big Ben was great again, with 346 passing yards and 2 TD. He did have 1 INT and that was deep in Raven territory, that certainly didn’t help the outcome.  Antonio Brown was great again with 5 more catches for 109 yards.  He’s a rising star and and a big playmaker.  He’s going to be a factor downt he stretch and he can be a difference maker. 

Tonight wasn’t as well coached a game as last week, that’s for sure. They were great last week, but a little iffy this week. In particular the lack of decision making by Tomlin with about 3 minutes to play and a 4 point lead. He was unsure if he wanted to kick the field goal from 47 yards away or go for it. His lackluster decision making caused a delay of game, by his own admission, made his decision for him, they had to punt and ended up being beat by a TD where had he kicked the FG, assuming it was made, the TD would have done nothing more than tie. 

The game was certainly more Steelers/Ravens like than week 1 but the outcome was not nearly what we were looking for. As badly as the Steelers lost in week 1, this was a tougher pill to swollow. Losing in gut wrenching fashion at the end of the game is always tough and it takes a head strong resilient team to come back from that. This team is just that and they will need to turn things around quickly as they will go on the road next week to face an up start, surprising Bengal team.

Weekly Commentary:

Stars of the Game-James Harrison, he was everywhere. He had 5 tackles, 3 sacks and a forced fumble. In a game where the Steelers were missing Farrior and Woodley, he stepped up and did his part.

Antonio Brown-He did his part with 5 catches and 109 yards against a tough secondary.

Bench-David Johnson, he adds nothing from the FB or the TE position.

Cut-Daniel Sepulveda, he’s on IR again, time to say goobye.

Best Hands of the game:  Jerricho Cotchery, he caught two tipped ball and turned them into big first downs.

Double Standard of the game:  Ray Lewis hit Hines in the head and no foul was called. Ryan Clark does the same thing to the Ravens, less severe by the way, and he gets a personal foul.  Garbage.

6-3, up next: at Cincinnati, 6-2