Steelers (Barely) Beat Colts
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 Colts’ defensive line beat up the Steelers’ offensive line”
Wait !?!?
The Steelers HAD an offensive line last night????
I didn’t notice.
1Ugly, ugly, ugly, but just enough to win.
2John,
3Perhaps you’re right. That WOULD explain how Indy’s defense did what they did.
Jim,
4You’re being very kind by calling it “ugly”. I can think of many more words to describe the game. But most of them wouldn’t be as nice as the one you chose to use.
The offensive line play was egregious. Scott is definitely a week link, shockingly, considering how well he played as a BACKUP in BUFFALO. Freeney has made a lot of LT’s look bad, but playing injured he barely used his trademark spin move. As you pointed out, he consistently bullrushed Scott with great effect, which shows bigger problems than that Scott got scorched by an elite rush end. Scott supposedly got all bulky and powered up this past off season, but he still got bulldozed over and over by an injured 260lb rusher. So he’s not fast OR strong. Great.
I think you also have to acknowledge the O-line as responsible for Mendenhall’s difficulties. Sure, he didn’t break many tackles, but it was rare that he even found himself one-on-one with a defender. Moore did better on the two carries he had, but that’s such a small sample size it’s impossible to attribute his success to a more effective running style rather than the particular game situation or just the fact that the defense wasn’t expecting run because Mendy wasn’t in. I would argue, however, that the carries should’ve been distributed more evenly between Mendy and Redzone at least. First of all, just to try to see if a different look would help rather than to continue trying the same failing formula. Secondly, you soften a defense with brute force, not explosiveness. Especially, when you’ve got small guys who are playing big, like the Colts D. They don’t play so big after they’ve had to hit Redman in the hole a half-dozen times.
Finally, you forgot to mention that our D line got abused also. The Colts ran on us almost at will. Bad news.
5Ben is playing like he did in 2006 (turning the ball over constantly), Mendenhall is dancing at the line of scrimmage and falling down, the OL is in shambles (again), Aaron Smith is looking old (he was getting pushed around way more than he used to), the pass rush isn’t where it needs to be, and the CB play is poor. Really, Polamalu and the receivers are the only things looking good right now. The season is far from over, but this team needs a wake up call.
6Matthew,
7You’re absolutely right. I did forget to mention the fact that the D-line got almost no pressure. How could I forget that? Thanks for reminding me.
Matthew & Dan,
8As much as I’d like to disagree with both of you, I can’t. Your assessments are accurate. The Steelers have a lot of things that they need to work on. Fortunately, we have a relatively easy schedule. That may prove to be very fortunate for them.