Here's where you can put all your praise/complaints for today's game against the Browns.
It's a beautiful day at Heinz Field. The crowd is amped up.
Great day for football.
© There was a huge ovation for Ben Roethlisberger, who was announced next-to-last on the offense, right before Hines Ward.
Way to go 33!! Get those first downs like Chuck Norris got the ladies back in the 80's. I know I am sweet on "Redzone". With that name it is somewhat ironic that the Steelers use him mostly between the 20's. Mendy did pretty well too. It opens up the running game now that Ben is back. Look out, I think we are the class of the NFL.
ReplyDeleteMrs. Isaac Redman
I think the team looked like it lacked urgency today. I could be wrong, but they looked to me like a team which "expected" to win. There didn't seem to be an intense focus. I guess it is possible that there just wasn't the playoff intensity that the Baltimore game had.
ReplyDeleteWe needed that win today, the next 4 weeks will be tough.
nice to see a more balanced attack on offense. also nice to see them stick with the run more than last year with #7 in the game.
ReplyDeletehowever, it was a 7-3 game with 3:30 left in the 3rd quarter. that's pretty poor. the final score was not indicative of the overall game, in my opinion.
i agree with vaflyer, they expected to win and played like it.
I have to give Arians props for the call to go deep to Mike Wallace when backed up after the Browns punt. After running in that situation the first two times, the deep ball really seemed to catch the Browns off guard, and that play really seemed to ignite the offense.
ReplyDeleteReally? I thought they were playing hard, up until the defense did their obligatory folding job in the last five minutes.
ReplyDeleteThe reason they didn't put more points on the board is that Ben was pretty erratic. It easily could have been at least 42-7.
I agree Ben was a little rusty and had the occasional misfire but another factor that I thought got very little recognition was the Cleveland punter. He really set the Steelers up in very poor field position.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't the dominant game I had hoped for but the Steelers defense got several turnovers and sacks. Mendenhall played well and Ben did quite well for his first game back.
The next 3 weeks will be a better barometer of where we are as far as Supebowl contender status is concerned.
What Steve said.
ReplyDeleteIf not for Cleveland's punter being their MVP on the day, and Ben missing on two throws where receivers had the Browns beat deep, the Steelers probably score at least 10 more points, if not 14.
Was it complete dominance? No. It wasn't, but the Browns never looked like they were a threat to score after the Steelers took the lead, until they did their typical "LeBeau Prevent" gimmick when they got up by 20+.
McCoy can't throw deep and the Steelers knew it. They apparently had figured out his cadence/snap count too, because they had guys into the backfield off the snap at least half a dozen times.
They didn't blitz anywhere near as much as I figured they would, as it appeared that they only rushed 4 and dropped 7 on almost every third down, likely in an effort to confuse the rookies reads, which I guess worked given the outcome(couple picks and holding them to 10 points). They gave him the underneath stuff all day, which to his credit he took, but they knew he wasn't beating them deep. He doesn't have the arm.
And they certainly weren't going to beat them running Peyton Hillis straight into Casey Hamtpon 20 times. Browns did what they could, given circumstances, but there was never really a lot of doubt in this one after the Steelers bounced back from the early Ben INT.