Steelers 25 Patriots 17

Now that was a signature win!  The Steelers finally figured out a way to beat an old nemesis, the Patriots.  The black and gold did exactly what they needed to do and executed a near perfect game plan on offense to beat the Patriots by 8 in a game that really wasn’t as close as the score indicates.  The Steelers controlled the game from the outset, scoring on their opening drive for a 4th straight game and chewing up nearly 6 minutes in the process.  Overall the Steelers held the ball for nearly two thirds of the game with the final time of possesion number being 39 minutes and 22 seconds. That’s absolutely perfect. If you want to beat the Pats, you keep Tom Brady off the field! With that time of possesion accumulation you’d assume it was the running game doing the job, but it wasn’t, it was an efficient, short to moderate passing game led by Big Ben.  The Steelers took advantage of the Patriots biggest weakness, pass defense. All told the Steelers had Big Ben throw the ball 50 times and he delivered, completing 36 of those for 365 yards and 2 TD’s. He did toss an interception in a situation we blame Bruce Arians for.  The Steelers were backed up near their own endzone late in the first half facing a 3rd and 17 leading 10-0.  We felt the obvious call was to run a draw and punt. Instead Arians called for a pass and it was picked off, leading to a Patriots TD. 

That said, that was pobably the only coaching mistake today. They game plan was flawless, throw, throw, throw. And when they did run, Rashard got it done.  We said in pre game when Rashard did carry the ball, which we felt shouldnt’ be too often today, he needed to average 4.0 yards a carry. He bested that, carrying the ball 13 times for 70 yards which is a 5.4 yards per carry average. That’s a great game. The team had a total of 98 yards rushing on the day. Offensively it’s hard to have a better game.  The receivers were great, Heath Miller set the tone on the opening drive, when he had 5 cathches and finished the day with 7.  Wallace also had 7 and his long today was 17 rather than having the usual big play, but that was all part of the plan. Antonio Brown led the team with 9 receptions, he’s a true weapon with that speed and he proved it multiple times over, including his TD reception. He does need to drop the dance act, that’s not the Steeler way.  9 receivers caught at least 1 ball today and Hines Ward wasn’t one of them. He missed the game with an ankle injury.

Defensively the team was clearly up to play. They held the mighty Tom Brady to 198 yards passing.  That’s a really good day!  Ryan Clark and Larry Foote led the team in tackles with 8 and LaMarr Woodley was a beast again with 2 more sacks giving him 9 on the season. He’s pacing for 18, which would be a team single season record. Troy Polamalu wasn’t called often but he made some great plays and was a factor as usual, especially on the game clinching safety at the end of the game when he batted the ball towards the end zone. Technically that’s illegal but it’s still very heads up and it wasn’t called so it was legal in our eyes! 

The game plan was great, the team executed on both sides of the ball and most importantly they picked up a big win for the first time this year and a big win against the Patriots for the fist time in 7 years. Well done Steelers, well done.

Our Weekly Awards:

Stars of the Game:  Big Ben-Another huge day, throwing for 365 and 2 TD’s. He is the true leader of this squad.

LaMarr Woodley, 2 more sacks against a good O line, can’t ask for more than that!

Move to Starter: Antonio Brown-another big day with 9 more catches.

Move to Bench:  Hines Ward-He didn’t play today and the team showed they don’t technically need him. He still has a role on this team, but he’s not a starter anymore.

Marcus Gilbert-He’ll be a starter one day, but he’s constantly getting penalties or getting hurt, try someone else at RT.

Cut-Shuan Suisham-he keeps missing field goals and he missed on that could have really hurt the team late in the game. To top that off he kicked the ball off when the Steelers went up 7-0; out of bounds. Giving Brady a short field at any point is bad news. Enough is enough with this guy.

Aaron Smith-This is for no other reason than he’s on the IR for the 3rd time in 5 years. He was a great Steeler but his run is over. 

Next Week:  Steelers 6-2 vs. Ravens 5-2, first place on the line and revenge at stake too!

Comments

One Comment on "Steelers 25 Patriots 17"

  1. longarm on Tue, 1st Nov 2011 12:27 pm 

    I think this was the best game of the year for the boy’s in Black & Gold. The O line was outstanding even if Ben was sacked 5 times. Some of the sacks are on Ben for holding the ball as long as he does, but that is ok at times he makes big plays doing so.

    I’am worried about all of our injuries that we have now, they couldn’t have come at a worst time with the Crows flying into the Burg. If the Steelerr’s play like they did againts the Pat’s we should be ok.