Led By Polamalu, Steelers Defense Dominates Bengals

It didn’t start off well as the Cincinnati Bengals took their opening drive down the field for a 7-0 lead but after that, it was an all world day for the Steelers defense.  Troy Polamalu was the spark plug that led the charge today as he had two interceptions, one in his own endzone when the game was decided and one, more importantly, withe the Steelers down 7-0 with about 5 minutes to play in the 2nd quarter. That interception Troy returned 45 yards, the last 2 of those yards in mid air, for a TD to tie the game and shift the momentum the Steelers way.  Troy was everywhere today, but he wasn’t the only one, LaMarr Woodley had 5 tackles, 2 sacks and a pick returned for a TD as well! The defense was clearly too much for Carson Palmer as they forced him into those three interceptions, sacked him three times and only allowed him to throw for 178 yards and a feeble 48.7 QB rating.  To top that off the Steelers only allowed 34 total yards on the ground as Casey “Big Snack” Hampton plugged the middle and the linebackers led by Woodley, Timmons (5 tackles) and James Farrior (10 tackles) didn’t allow any type of penetration.  The secondary was pretty decent today too as they held T.O. and Ochocinco to a total of 7 catches, only one of which went to Owens.  If you read our Game Day section you know we said that stopping Owens was important, mission accomplished.  Overall, defensviely, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! Well done boys.

Offensvively, the Steelers were moderately effective. Moderately because they moved the ball but didn’t score a TD. Ben was on target most of the day as he went 21/33 for 258 yards, no TD’s but no INT’s either.  His favorite target today was Hines Ward who he hit 8 times for 115 yards. Ward showed he still has the ability to get behind the defense and come up with a big catch when needed. We were very impressed with the Steelers on third downs today as they converted 7 of their third downs.  One of them, a 3rd and 1 was set up by a 2nd and 30 that saw Ben hit Hines (who made a great over the head catch) for 29 yards.  That catch was great but Randle El made a catch in the first half that will be a top 10 catch on the season in the NFL. Ben overthrew him and Randle El leaped up several feet, reached his right hand out and brought the ball in with one hand only, spectacular. If you missed it, see the highlights.

Overall a very pleasing game by the Steelers, they can improve the offense as far as scoring more points, especially in the red zone. They’ll need to down the stretch and against a defense like the Jets next week but we’ll take the outcome of course. Now, as far as penalties, we’ve been hitting on this as a key to the Steelers for weeks now but they had another 9 penalties for 89 yards. We’ll admit, some of those calls, especially the Pass Interference call on Taylor, were complete garbage, but, the team needs to be far more diciplined than they are. They had too many holding calls and mistakes. That goes on to coaching, Tomlin needs to lace into these guys and make them accountable for these egregious errors. We are sick of saying this but one day those types of penalties will cost the Steelers big. They must fix this now.

That all said, let’s enjoy the rainy day win, over a division rival. The Steelers are one step closer to the AFC North title and a possible first round bye. Keep it up boys!

10-3, next up: NY Jets