Led By Big Ben, Steelers Pound Raiders 35-3

It was a day for redemption. The Steelers were destroyed last week at home by New England and they wanted to make up for that debacle today.  They sure did, too. The black and gold came out and put a good old fashioned ass woopin on the Raiders with the final score being 35-3.  The Steelers started off a little slow but once they got going they never looked back.

The offense was on their game most of the day and a lot of that was thanks to their quarterback. Big Ben was 18 of 29 for 275 yards and 3 TD’s. On top of that he rushed 3 times for 55 yards and another TD. His TD run was a thing of beauty, scrambling to his left, acting like he was going to slide around the 7 yard line, cutting back in to his right and diving about 3 yards into the ends zone.  It was a fantastic game by Ben but a lot of that can also be credited to the offensive line, they actually protected Ben pretty well and he was only sacked twice. That’s new!  Not only did they protect him between the whistles, but they protected him post whistle too. When that jack ass Richard Seymour popped Ben in the neck after he threw a sweet TD to Sanders, Chris Kemoutu and the rest of the line jumped in the face of Seymor and a scrum ensued. That’s what you want to see out of your line, protect your 100 million dollar man at all times! 

While Ben had success today, it’s hard to say that Mendenhall did. At least by the numbers. He ran 23 times for a feeble 59 yards, though he did add a TD.  Even with those less than stellar numbers we felt like he looked pretty good and had some very nice runs.  We were also very pleased with the double reverse call that led to a Mike Wallace run of 17 yards.  We called for balance in our Game Day preview between the run and pass and we pretty much got it. The team ran the ball 33 times and threw it 29 times, you can’t ask for much more balance than that. It seems the coaches are reading our articles!

We also told you to keep your eyes on the linebackers this week after they were taken out of their game last week. We sure hope you listened to us because those boys showed up today didn’t they?  Farrior led the team with 8 tackles and the rest of the linebackers added another 16 tackles. They were flying to the ball today and the linebackers accounted for 5 of the teams’ 6 sackes.  Troy Polamalu added 6 tackles and really looked good getting into the backfield and playing all over the place, he added an interception to his day as well.  The Steelers totaled 2 interceptions, one amazing one handed one by Harrison but they actually had a 3rd interception that was returned for a TD by Ike Taylor, overturned on a roughing the passer call on Harrison.  That call was ridiculous and it does seem a little like the refs are really focusing on the Steelers style of play and specifically Harrison. If he gets fined again we all need to raise hell.

That penalty aside, the Steelers did have far too many penalties, nullifying big runs and big plays. They had 14 penalties for 163 yards.  To put that into perespective the Raiders only totaled 181 yards on offense.  Those supid mistakes need to be a one time thing because a better team than Oakland will make you pay. 

Other than the penalties the only real complaint we might have is we felt the coaching staff should have pulled Big Ben when the scores was 28-3 late in the fourth to ensure he didn’t get injured.  We suspect they were a little pissed at all the fights that took place, most instigated by the Oakland jackasses, and they wanted to stick it to them.

All in all, great game by the team and a fantastic way to bounce back after the disgraceful game last week. That shows they are mentally tough, and quite frankly, flat out better than the Raiders.

7-3, up next: Buffalo