Steelers Hold On To Beat Jags 17-13

The game started out the way it was supposed to and ended with the right result but the Steelers ended up having to hang on to beat Jacksonville today, 17-13. The black and gold gave up another long opening drive to start the game however this time they held the opposition scoreless. From there they came out rolling jumping to a 7-0, 14-0 and 17-0 lead. That’s what should have happened, they were by far the superior team and were favored by nearly two touchdowns to win the game. They were facing a rookie QB in Blaine Gabbert and despite being sacked five times by the Steelers, he hung in there and brough the Jags back to 17-3 at the half and led the team to a 10-0 second have outcome. Despite that, the Steelers hung on and won the game. Gabbert showed he was a rookie in some regards, only completing 12 of 26 passes for 109 yards and TD but he was mistake free as the Steelers coudln’t force a turnover. Overall we’d have to say we were pretty pleased with the pass defense and it actually started up front. As stated, the team recored 5 sacks, Woodley landed two, Keisel two and James Farrior had 1 to go along with his team leading 11 sacks. Of some concern was the fact that the Steelers allowed Maurice Jones-Drew to run for 96 yards on 22 carries.  He’s a great back, no question, but that’s something that could really hurt the Steelers if they played a team with a good QB.  In the end, it worked out and the Steelers D should be credited with this win, the offense sputtered after starting fast.

Big Ben was a big part of that fast start as he completed 8 of his first 9 passes including a nice 28 yard TD to Mike Wallace.  Wallace who only netted 2 catches still put up 76 yards on those catches. He’s a fantatic deep threat and a real asset to this football team.  They team had chances at 4 or 5 other deep bombs but Roethlisberger put too much arm into all of those throws and missed Sanders and Brown a few times.  He was able to involve old reliables Hines Ward and Heath Miller in the short passing game giving Ward 3 balls for 47 yards and Miller 4 for 27.  This is exactly what the team needs to do on offense as they can involve the short yardage possesion receivers to move the ball quickly with a mediocre offensive line. Notice we upgraded them to mediocre? That’s because they only allowed 3 sacks today and one fumble by Ben (which was recovered by the Steelers) and more importantly allowed Rashard Mendenhall to rush for 146 yards on 23 carries and a TD. Mendenhall ran like a man who’s job was on the line. You all know we’ve been calling for his benching for a while now and to play Redman and Dwyer more. Last week Mendenhall sat back while that combo went over 150 yards combined. Today, with his hamstring healed he showed he can still do it.  It was nice to see and if it’s a sign of things to come then he truly should be the guy. 

Overall the team won the game and that’s the most important thing, now they have to continue to shore up the defense against the run, keep working on the offensive line and really learn to finish the game. They had the Jags on the ropes and just pulled off the gas pedal. That’s not something that can be done if you want to win against the good teams. They’ll work on it and prepare for next week.

In our continued segment of comments we have some new categories this week:

Stars of the Game-Rashard Mendenhall-23 carries, 146 yards and a TD. Hard to beat that. Keep it up Rashard!

James Farrior-11 tackles to lead the team and a sack.  He’s telling all of us he’s not too old just yet!

Keep as a starter-Hines Ward-We’ve been screaming for him to be benched and move to the 3 spot but we’re changing our mind, he’s important as a possesion guy and should stay as the 2 guy.

Rashard Mendenhall-Same thing, if he’s going to play like that, he should stay as the starter.

Move to Bench-Nobody to move out this week.

Cut-Shuan Suisham. You may say “what are you talking about?” Well, he’s missing kicks this year and do you fully trust him? Answer truthfully. We don’t and we have a bad feeling he may cost this team big downt he line.

Concern-Troy. He came out of the game with a possible concussion. He may miss next week, we’ll have to monitor that.

4-2, next week: at Arizona 1-4.