10/4/16-Redemption Sunday A Success
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By: Mike Pelaia As the dust settled in the aftermath of the Philadelphia debacle a week ago; Mike Tomlin made it clear to his team, the upcoming Sunday Night Game against the Kansas City Chiefs was going to be deemed “Redemption Sunday”. There would be no tolerance of the lackluster, penalty filled, mistake prone play that was the theme of the theme of the day against the Eagles. The offense would be asked to perform the way they are capable of, moving the football and putting up points. The Chiefs defense is in fact a solid one so this would be considered a taller task than it proved to be. The defense would be asked to pressure Alex Smith and penetrate the line, something that has eluded the team the first three weeks of the season. The asks from Coach Tomlin and quite frankly the fan base alike, were legitimate. The response by the team was immaculate. |
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Three of those sacks were provided by Cam Heyward and perhaps more impressively, Vince Williams, starting at inside linebacker in place of the very talented yet oft injured Ryan Shazier added 16 tackles to lead the team. If this team is able to consistently apply pressure the way they did against the Chiefs, the secondary weakness can be overcome as the ball won’t be in play downfield often enough to burn them. In the meantime, it was nice to see first round pick Artie Burns make a few big plays and continue his development into what many expect to be a long career as the Steelers number one corner. The team now must keep their heads on their shoulders and utilize this fuel to continue their run but they must not ever forget the debacle in Philadelphia. That job falls on Mike Tomlin and as he did after the loss in Philadelphia, he must continue to apply “Redemption Sunday” because this team has serious talent and serious potential to reach epic heights but they need to remain focused and ready to play on a week in and week out basis.
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longarm on Tue, 4th Oct 2016 10:08 pm
The Black and Yellow sure look good this past Sunday and Big Ben and the rest of the team deserve a big pat on the back. That being said as much as I have blasted Tomlin in the past I have to give it to him. He really had the team ready to play.