Steelers Today – A Pittsburgh Steelers blog

When the game was over, the scoreboard showed a win.  But just barely.

The Steelers defeated the Indianapolis Colts by a score of 23-20, in a game that wasn’t supposed to be that close.

The Colts were without their superstar quarterback Peyton Manning.  That alone, put them at a significant disadvantage coming into the game.  No other team relies on one player the way the Colts depend on Manning.  Without him, the Colts’ season was supposed to be a hopeless cause.

Not only was Manning out, but the Colts were without several other starters as well.  Moreover, the Colts were forced to bring in 90 year old quarterback Kerry Collins to replace Manning right before the start of the season.  Nobody expected Collins to even come close to being able to carry the team in Manning’s absence.

And then, to make a hopeless situation seem even more futile, Collins had to leave the game with a concussion, and somebody named  Curtis Painter (who?) had to play quarterback for the Colts.

Curtis Painter gets sacked.

Had this scenario been described to most fans prior to the game, they would have likely predicted a 54-0 win by the Steelers.  But that’s not what happened.

Despite being short-handed, the Colts hung with the Steelers to the very end.  In fact, they led the Steelers 13-10 at the beginning of the 4th quarter.

Somebody forgot to tell the Colts’ defense that they had no hope of winning the game.  They pressured Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger all night.  They sacked him, intercepted his passes, and forced him to fumble the ball.

More importantly, the Colts’ defensive line beat up the Steelers’ offensive line the way Ike Turner beat Tina Turner.  Dwight Freeney made Jonathan Scott look like an abuse victim.  He beat him more ways than I thought were possible.  At times, I thought Scott was wearing a pair of roller skates.  Freeney had him moving backwards so fast, Scott had to be on wheels.  In fact, Scott was moving backwards so fast at times that I’m certain it defied the laws of physics.

Rashard Mendenhall also got completely humbled in the game.  The futility that he experienced running the ball was probably partially due to the ineffectiveness of the offensive line.  Nevertheless, it would have been nice to see Mendenhall run for more than one yard on most of his carries.

Mewelde Moore seemed to be much more effective running the ball when he came into the game.  And he was running behind the same offensive line that Mendenhall did.  In fact, by the time they started using Moore, the O-line was already depleted.  So Mewelde’s performance seems even more impressive as compared to Mendenhall’s.

Despite their struggles, the Steelers were able to squeeze out a win.  Kicker Shaun Suisham booted a field goal with 8 seconds left in the game to give the Steelers a 3 point victory.

The Steelers are now 2-1.  On paper, that sounds good.  But anyone who watched that game knows that the Steelers just barely won, and things are far from good.

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The Seattle Seahawks flew to Pittsburgh to face the Pittsburgh Steelers, and they left with a 24-0 loss.  It was exactly what the Steelers needed to exorcise the bad taste from their mouths from the loss to the Baltimore Ravens the previous week.

Steeler Nation reveled in the victory, and all was good in the world.  However, the victory wasn’t the redemptive moment that it may have seemed.

Firstly, the victory came against the Seattle Seahawks.  The Seahawks are not likely to be confused with the New England Patriots, or the Green Bay Packers, or the Baltimore Ravens.  Nope, the Seahawks are more likely to be confused with the Oakland Raiders, or the Carolina Panthers.

But even against a weak opponent like the Seahawks, the Steelers still showed chinks in their armor.  For example, on their first drive of the game, the Steelers were stopped at their own one yard line.  They unsuccessfully attempted to score on 4th down, and the Seahawks took over on downs.

The Steelers’ offense left at least one touchdown on the field, and kicker Shaun Suisham missed a field goal that cost the team another 3 points.

On defense, the Steelers still showed room for improvement as well.  They failed to get pressure on Tavaris Jackson for most of the first 3 quarters, despite the fact that Seattle started 2 rookies on their offensive line.  It wasn’t until the 4th quarter, when the Steelers had a commanding lead, that Dick LeBeau really unleashed the dogs and started pressuring Jackson.  However, by that time, Seattle was so far behind that they had no option but to throw on every play.  I’m never particularly impressed when a team sacks a quarterback who has been forced to be one-dimensional.

Even the coaches didn’t have their best game.  For example, why did they leave Ben Roethlisberger in the game until the very end, despite the fact that he had been injured earlier in the game and the team had a commanding lead?  I know that Big Ben doesn’t like to come out of games, but this seemed like an unnecessary risk.

Big Ben winces after injury

But despite these shortcomings, the team did pull off an impressive win.

The defense kept the Seahawks off the scoreboard, and held them to only 31 net rushing yards.  They also sacked Tavaris Jackson 5 times, and held him to only 159 passing yards.  Anytime you hold an opponent to fewer than 200 yards of total offense, it’s something to cheer about.

The offense also had quite a few highlights.  For example, Big Ben played much better than he did last week against Baltimore.  He threw for 298 yards and no interceptions, and ended the game with a QB rating of 115.7.

The wide receivers also did a nice job.  Mike Wallace returned to the form that we’ve come to expect from him.  He led the Steelers in receiving with 8 catches for 126 yards.  More importantly, he had one of the long receptions that have become his trademark.  Wallace had a 53 yard reception that he unfortunately couldn’t take all the way to the end zone.

In addition to Wallace’s performance, Antonio Brown also had a good game receiving the ball.  Brown was the Steelers’ star receiver during the preseason, and he caught 4 passes for 67 yards against the Seahawks.

Isaac Redman also had a notable game.  Redman ran for 49 yards and a touchdown backing up Rashard Mendenhall.

Isaac Redman scores.

So while the Steelers left the game with a victory, they’re clearly not where they ultimately need to be.  They still have areas that they need to improve in, and next week’s game against the Peyton Manning-less Indianapolis Colts may  be just what the doctor ordered.

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Crushed.  Spanked.  Stomped.  Beat.  Annihilated.  Destroyed.  Arses kicked.  You pick the best description for what happened to the Steelers today.  No matter how you describe it, it wasn’t pretty.

The Steelers lost to the Baltimore Ravens 35-7.  But it felt more like 135-7.

The Ravens seemed to be much hungrier, and much better prepared, than the Steelers.  As a result, they dominated the Steelers in every phase of the game.

On defense, the Ravens seemed to spend the entire game in the Steelers’ backfield.  It was so bad that I started to wonder if Terrell Suggs was actually a running back for the Steelers.  Suggs accumulated 3 sacks on Ben Roethlisberger, and seemed to be chasing him anytime he wasn’t sacking him.

Terrell Suggs pressures Ben

Meanwhile, the Steelers’ defense didn’t seem to want to tackle anybody.  They certainly didn’t try to tackle Ray Rice.    Rice had over 100 yards of total offense by halftime, and ended the game with 107 rushing yards, and 149 total yards.

Not only did the Steelers’ defense let Rice run amok, but they also got almost no pressure on Ravens’ quarterback Joe Flacco.  Flacco seemed to have an eternity to complete pass after pass.

The Steelers’ defensive backs didn’t provide much help either.  They appeared to be more than willing to allow Flacco to complete as many TD passes as he desired (Flacco only threw 3 TD passes, but it certainly seemed like more than that).

Bryant McFadden gets beat.

But the defense can’t take all of the blame for the loss.  The offense certainly deserves their fair share of the blame too.

It’s generally understood that in the NFL, the team that turns over the ball most often tends to lose the game.  And the Steelers turned over the ball early and often.

The Steelers ended the game with 7 turnovers.  That’s right, 7!  They had as many turnovers as points scored.  That’s not a good thing.

I hate to say it, but I felt like the Steelers were back in Super Bowl XLV.  When Big Ben wasn’t throwing interceptions (he threw 3 of them), the running backs were fumbling the ball.  Isn’t that essentially how they lost the Super Bowl?

Not only did Roethlisberger throw 3 interceptions, but he was also sacked 4 times.  He ended the game with a QB rating of only 52.9.  With statistics like that, somebody might think that the Steelers started JaMarcus Russell at quarterback rather than Ben Roethlisberger.

The Steelers’ offense was so impotent that kicker Shaun Suisham didn’t even get to attempt a field goal.  That’s right, he was 0/0.  The Steelers couldn’t even generate enough offense to allow Suisham to try to put 3 points on the board.  That’s almost unheard of.

Part of the problem was that the Steelers played without any offensive linemen.  Well, technically they did have offensive linemen.  They just didn’t try to block any of the guys in purple.

I do have to give Willie Colon credit.  He tried to hold the Ravens’ defenders at every possible opportunity (and drew the flags to prove it).  But believe it or not, that was actually better than what Jonathan Scott and Doug Legursky did.  They both repeatedly let defenders run by them while barely getting a hand on them.

Fortunately, this was only the first game of the season.  The Steelers still have 15 more games to turn things around.  But hopefully, this game will serve as a wake-up call.

The other 31 NFL teams are not going to surrender just because the Steelers were in the Super Bowl last year.  So the Steelers have to enter every game with intensity and solid preparation.  If not, they can lose 35-7.

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There’s a line in the movie “White Men Can’t Jump” that says “Sometimes when you win, you really lose”.  Well, that’s what happened to the Steelers last night.  They won the preseason game against the Atlanta Falcons by a score of 34-16, but they lost backup quarterback Byron Leftwich for the season.

Leftwich had been scheduled to be the #2 quarterback on the Steelers’ roster this year.  He was having a good preseason, and the only question the Steelers had at quarterback was whether Dennis Dixon or Charlie Batch would win the #3 quarterback position.  But that question became moot when Leftwich broke his arm when he fell awkwardly on it last night.

Byron Leftwich injures arm.

Despite the loss of Leftwich, the Steelers turned in a very good performance last night.

The sign outside of Heinz Field didn’t say “Welcome to the Antonio Brown Show”, but it probably should have.  Brown, a second year receiver, probably solidified his position as the Steelers’ #3 wide receiver with another solid preseason performance.  He caught 4 passes for 137 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Last season, fellow rookie receiver Emmanuel Sanders outperformed Brown, and secured the #3 receiver position, while Brown was relegated to being the #4 receiver.   But Sanders has been out of action this preseason nursing a foot injury, and Brown has taken full advantage of Sander’s injury.

Several other Steelers turned in solid performances in last night’s game as well.  Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger had another outstanding performance.  He completed 11 of 16 passes for 214 yards and 2 touchdowns.  He also finished with a QB rating of 151.0.

Cornerback Crezdon Butler also had a solid game.  He came into the game after Keenan Lewis left with a knee injury.  Butler took advantage of the opportunity when he intercepted a Falcons pass and returned it 95 yards for a touchdown.  Butler also had 2 passes defensed, and was the Steelers’ leading tackler in the game with 9 tackles.

Linebacker Lawrence Timmons showed why the Steelers signed him to a new contract.  He intercepted a pass and returned it 44 yards.  He almost scored on the play, but he was caught from behind just short of the goal line.

Despite the win, the Steelers still have a few areas of concern.  The Falcons attempted to take advantage of the Steelers’ cornerbacks, just like teams did last season.  Matt Ryan attempted 42 passes, and passed for 220 yards and 1 touchdown in just 2 quarters of play.  He would have had a second TD, but one of his receivers dropped a pass in the endzone.  Starting cornerbacks William Gay and Keenan Lewis didn’t look particularly impressive as Ryan picked them apart.

The Steelers’ offensive line also has room for improvement.  They allowed Big Ben to be sacked twice, and they didn’t dominate the line of scrimmage.

But overall, the Steelers have to be happy with their performance.  They came away with a win over a very good Falcons team that had a 13-3 record last season.

Despite the loss of Leftwich, the Steelers look good heading into their final preseason game.

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During the off-season, the Philadelphia Eagles made some high profile free agent signings.  Nnamabamdi Asomuga (or however you spell the all-world cornerback’s name), Vince Young, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, and Jason Babin were added to an Eagles team that had already won the NFC East a year ago.  This prompted Vince Young to label them as a “Dream Team”.

Unfortunately, the dream turned into a nightmare when the Eagles rode into Heinz Field last night.

The Steelers defeated the Eagles 24-14 in a game that wasn’t nearly as close as the final score would indicate.  The Steelers led the Eagles 24-0 before the Eagles scored two late touchdowns on the Steelers’ 5th string players who have absolutely no chance of actually making the roster.

Steelers starting quarterback Ben Roethlisberger looked sharp as he passed for 125 yards and two touchdowns during limited action.

When Roethlisberger went to the bench, Byron Leftwich came in and threw for another touchdown, hitting the newly acquired Jericho Cotchery for a touchdown.

Not wanting to be left out of the fun, Dennis Dixon came into the game and threw for another 90 yards, but was unable to get the ball into the endzone.

The 3 Steelers quarterbacks made the Eagles’ backfield look like a bunch of high school players.  Asante Samuel, Nnababmi Ashugmo (you know who I mean), and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie were supposed to be the best cornerback combo in the NFL, but I guess the Steelers destroyed that fantasy.

Not only did the Steelers pass all over the Eagles’ defense, but they also ran right through them.  The Steelers rushed for 144 yards, led by overweight and out-of-shape running back Jonathan Dwyer, who ran (rolled?) for 44 yards.

Despite the impressive offensive output, it was the Steelers’ defense that was the real star of the game.  The Steelers held the Eagles to under 100 rushing yards while intercepting the Eagles’ passers 4 times.

Ryan Clark, Troy Polamalu, Larry Foote, and Keenan Lewis (yeah, I can’t believe it either) all intercepted passes in the Steelers victory.

It’s too early to get excited about what we’re seeing from the Steelers.  However, it was great to see a good outing by the team following the terrible showing they had against the Washington Redskins.

As for the Eagles, well they still need a bit more work before they can live up to their “Dream Team” billing.  If you don’t believe me, just ask Nnabdi Ashkomghmo.