Steelers beat Broncos 28-10
The Broncos have been one of the darlings of the NFL this season after surprising everyone with a 6-0 start. Meanwhile, the Super Bowl champions have been all but ignored. After last night’s game, that will probably change.
The entire nation got to see the Pittsburgh Steelers dominate the AFC West leading Denver Broncos on Monday Night Football.
The game was truly a tale of two halves. In the first half, the Broncos completely dominated the Steelers. The Steelers seemed to be struggling on both offense and defense. The Steelers went into the locker room at halftime with a 7-3 lead. But the score was not indicative of what was happening on the field.
The Broncos kept the ball for 19:16 of the first half, and only allowed the Steelers to have the ball for 10:44. That’s almost twice the time of possession.
The Broncos were leading the Steelers in almost every statistical category at the half. Kyle Orton had thrown for 163 yards, while Ben Roethlisberger had only accumulated 49 passing yards while being sacked twice. The Broncos’ defense had held the Steelers running attack to a mere 23 yards on the ground. It was only an interception by Tyrone Carter that was returned for a touchdown that kept the Steelers from being shut out in the 1st half.
I don’t know what the coaches said at halftime, but when the Steelers came out in the second half, they looked like a completely different team.
In the second half, the Steelers dominated the time of possession even worse than the Broncos had done in the first half. The Steelers kept the ball for 22:19 in the second half, while only allowing the Broncos to have the ball for 7:41.
After doing almost nothing in the 1st half, the Steelers offense came alive in the 2nd half. Running back Rashard Mendenhall broke several very nice runs, and ended the game with 155 total rushing yards. He averaged a whopping 7 yards per carry.
RB Rashard Mendenhall
But the biggest offensive hero of the game was quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. After being ice cold in the 1st half, Big Ben caught fire in the 2nd half. He completed passes to 5 different receivers, and ended the game with 233 passing yards, 3 touchdowns, and a 116 passer rating.
Big Ben threw two touchdown passes to Hines Ward, and one to rookie receiver Mike Wallace.
The Steelers defense also got in on the fun. Brett Keisel got two sacks, Tyrone Carter got two interceptions, and Troy Polamalu added an interception of his own as the Steelers defense kept the Broncos from scoring a touchdown.
The Broncos were only able to generate a single field goal against the Steelers defense. Their other 7 points were actually scored by their defense.
Interception by Polamalu
Coming into the game, the Broncos’ defense was rated #1 in the NFL. But after seeing the two defenses side-by-side, it is clear that the Broncos’ defense is not in the same league as the Steelers’. The Steelers held the Broncos to 27 rushing yards. For the entire game. How is that for a statement?
Having beaten the undefeated Vikings in their last game, and the media darling Broncos this game, the Steelers have announced to the rest of the NFL that they cannot be counted out this season.
Next week, they have another important statement to make. The Steelers are tied with the Cincinnati Bengals for 1st place in the AFC North. The Bengals have swept their season series with the Baltimore Ravens, and have also beaten the Steelers in their first meeting of the season. But that was then, and this is now. The Bengals are going to find that this is a very different Steelers team from the one that they faced earlier in the year. And next Monday, I believe the Steelers will stand alone at the top of the AFC North.
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Donald,
Another good article.
My observations:
1. I’m not so sure it would be acurate to say the Broncos “held” our running attack. If you will go back and look you will notice Mendy was averaging over 5 yards/carry. He was just not given the opportunities in the first half. Playing calling was 66/33 in favor of the pass.
2.) Will somebody please tell me I have been right all along about Mendy vs. Parker!
(although he troubles me with his inability to hold on to the ball in redzone)
3.) Isn’t it about time for Troy to be MVP?
4.) Good to see Mitch on the other sidelines. LOL
5.) Kept Ben verticle (that means less than 4 sacks. LOL)
6.) Except for that one kickoff that traveled every bit of 35 yards, special teams did well.
7.)Is it me or when the Steelers turn the ball over it always cost us 6 points? (Either by losing a sure TD or by giving them an easy one)
8.) Game balls: Tyrone, Troy, Ben, Wallace, Mendy, O-line
1This is something like the 7th post-game review I’ve read and everyone’s making a big deal of how anemic the Steelers Offense looked in the first half. This one even makes the assumption that the difference in the 2nd half must have something to do with locker room talks.
Can someone take into consideration that the game was played at an elevation of 1 mile above sea level?
I wasn’t surprised by the difference in halves as much as I was that Denver fell of so much late in the game. I mean, they play there 10 times a year, if you count preseason. You’d think they’d have acclimation down to a science by now.
2Leonard,
Yes, the altitude may have played a role. But if it did, it was the opposite effect that it should have had.
Everyone assumed that the Steelers would be gasping for air in the 2nd half. Instead, it was the Broncos who seemed to be suffering from the altitude.
Based on the fact that they live and play at that altitude all the time, I’d argue that the Steelers simply outplayed them, and the altitude had nothing to do with it.
3Tony,
Glad you liked the article.
It was heartwarming to see Mitch Berger booting 25 yard punts for the OTHER TEAM. Yay!!! Since Mitch played for the Steelers, I have truly learned to appreciate Dan Sepulveda.
It’s a bit sad that fans like you think that fewer than 4 sacks per game on Big Ben constitutes “keeping him vertical”. But since Ben likes to hold the ball for 5 seconds or more, perhaps you are right.
4Thanks for the response, but I heard on-field interviews of the Steelers during pre-game that suggested otherwise. The players said that the toughest part is the beginning, getting the body acclimated to strenuous activity in the thin air. They anticipated high use of the oxygen masks in the first half, but being better fit later in the game. What I saw reflected those claims. And as I said before, I was surprised to see Denver, especially their secondary, play so well in the first half but then look like scrubs at the end. Ty Law might have a good excuse, but Champ Bailey?
5Tony,
Yes, Troy is a legitimate MVP candidate (just as Harrison was last year) but we have to be realistic. The MVP is really the MVOP (Most Valuable Offensive Player) or even the MVOPwgffs (Most Valuable Offensive Player with great fantasy football stats). In the history of the award only 2 defensive players have won it. The last was LT back in 1986.
One of the big reasons for this is that the QB and RB positions are very easily defined statisticaly. For defensive players…well, how does one quantify the impact of an individual player on team run defense?
Defensive players do have some splash plays which are captured by statistics (sacks, interceptions, forced fumbles), but an individual’s overall impact on the team’s defense is hard to quantify. That is why Offensive positions like QB and RB always beat out defensive players for MVP type awards.
It is also the reason why defensive specialists make the pro bowl far easier than top overall players. For example, Dwight Freeny is a great pass rusher but a lousy run defender while Aaron Smith is a good pass rusher and a great run defender. Freeny regularly goes to the Pro Bowl while Smith has only gone once.
6This was a very impressive win from pretty much every part of the team: offense looked great, defense was dominate and the special teams held things in check. One thing that I would like to point out is that lack of holding penalties that were actually called on James Harrison. Am I the only one that sees him in the cross-faced chicken wing every time he tries to come around the corner on the o-line man? It’s sad to think how many sacks he would have if his opponents were actually playing by the rules. And what really burns me up is when commentators say that there can be holding on every play, which may be true but that doesn’t make it fair. What is everyone else’s take?
7In regards to halftime adjustments I chalked half of the Steelers explosion to the team getting acclimated to the high altitude. And the other half I chalk up to Mike Tomlin sticking to the game plan from the first half in the second half. I really give the second one more weight than the first one because he has actually said before that he doesn’t believe in making changes to something that took 1 to 2 weeks to prepare which if you think about makes a ton of sense. What does everyone else think?
8Leonard,
9Perhaps you’re right. If they said that the effect would be primarily in the 1st half, then I’ll take your word for it. I just assumed that lack of oxygen would have a cumulative effect that would worsen as the game went on.
John,
Great points.
To further prove your point about how difficult it is to quantify a defensive player’s impact, just look at Troy Polamalu. When he was out, the Steelers defense suffered far more then just losing the interceptions that he would have made. Every aspect of the defense seemed to decline without him.
10Benny,
11I have given up on hoping that the refs will call holding on the offensive linemen who play James Harrison. I have just accepted the fact that he is not going to get that call and that he’ll just have to be even more dominant to compensate for it.