The Steelers have come to count on Jeff Reed’s leg over the years to come through in the clutch, and even in the preseason he showed why again he’s one of the better clutch kickers in the league. Reed’s fourth field goal, this one from 47 yards out with just 4 seconds left, was the clincher in a rather lackluster preseason affair as the Steelers outlasted the Vikings 12-10.
The Vikings scored the only TD of the night, but other than the one Adrian Peterson diving score, the defenses were the story. The Steelers unit did a nice job bending but not breaking, allowing just 163 yards and 12 first downs to the Vikings. They also allowed the Vikings run game just 32 yards on the ground, with Peterson gaining just 21 yards on 12 carries (1.8 yards per carry).
Minnesota’s D forced Big Ben into going just 10-for-17 for 65 yards. He was also sacked twice and never seemed to get his team into much of a rhythm as Pittsburgh’s offense has some work to do. Willie Parker was stuffed for the most part, putting up just 18 yards on 10 carries. Starting WR’s Hines Ward and Santonio Holmes combined for just one catch.
Minnesota was without quarterback Tarvaris Jackson (knee) and receivers Bernard Berrian (toe) and Sidney Rice (illness). Gus Frerotte got the start, and went 13-for-19 for 133 yards and was sacked three times for negative 15 yards and threw a pick to Ike Taylor. The Vikings went up 7-0 just :18 into the second quarter on Peterson’s 1-yard leap on third-and-goal.
The Steelers game back with a Reed 35-yard field goal in the second quarter to make it 7-3 at the half. With Byron Leftwich playing the entire second half, the Steelers outscored the Vikings 9-0, as Reed kicked field goals of 43, 37 and then the 47-yard game winner to move them to 2-1 on the preseason.
Pittsburgh will close out the preseason at home vs the Panthers on Thursday.
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Jay Sabo
August 23, 2008 at 9:24 pm
yeah, I’ll comment. The last thing I want to do is end up sounding like a negative nelly (as my wife would say)-so, some positives…We now have six 1st round draft choices on offense (Simmons, Ben, Heath, Holmes, Mendenhall, Leftwich) and four on D (Farrior, Hampton, Timmons and Troy). I like having that many 1st rounders—makes a fan feel good. Also, Leftwich looked good. Defense looked awesome against the run, good against the pass which is fine by me. Mendenhall looked good running but, now for my complaints—2 fumbles, are you kidding me?!? And the only other complaint is if I were Tomlin during the post game press conference I would let it be known that asking about the offensive line would be a mistake as my response would be, “They’re a joke! next question.” I would in fact, have that be my verbalized running theme all year when asked about them, “They’re a joke!” Nothing fancy or overly verbose. I might throw a twist in once in awhile and say, “We ain’t got nobody who can play the offensive line and are currently requisitioning obese cab drivers in western pa.” But I wouldn’t say more than that because it might be rude. Having a premiere QB like Ben without protection to showcase his talents is like having a hot chic who’s allergic to sunlight. You can’t take her outside to show her off so, what’s the flippin’ point of having her then? Like when Louis Lipps played here with Brister as the qb…that’s a different story altogether.
Kurt Emmert
August 24, 2008 at 6:59 am
Mendenhall is a BUM!
He will have the rest of the regular season to still prove me wrong but I said on draft day he was not a good pick and there were good reasons that other teams over looked him. He was a one hit wonder at the U of I.
Jay Sabo
August 24, 2008 at 8:07 am
I don’t know if I agree with you Kurt. You can tell when a running back has talent simply by watching them. I don’t care if it’s versus opposing teams’ first D or tenth D or any D inbetween. mendenhall can run. You can see that, or should be able to see it; I can. He has better moves than Parker and better vision–these are all noticeable and observable attributes that can be seen. Parker typically runs straight ahead and hits holes running (occasionally making a move and rarely breaking tackles—although he did break one or two last night). Mendenhall can start and stop and accelerate and juke and spin and break tackles and stiff arm and has great speed and seemingly better vision than Parker does already. IF ball security becomes problematic, then I will concede to your assessment but it is hard to gauge these things because I thought he didn’t really fumble in college so, that being said, how can you tell if he will or won’t in the NFL. I thought our biggest weakness on offense last year was the inability to run the ball inside the redzone and our lack of depth at RB meant Ben was running for his life because opposing defenses pinned their proverbial ears back and simply went after him. Yes the O-line had a big part in that too. With Moore as a safety valve and some good skill players our offense SHOULD be okay. The operative word is should. The Vikings dared us last night to beat them deep as they continually stuffed the box. I don’t know why Arians didn’t take advantage of that except to say that he’s saving it for the regular season. He (arians) is someone I have huge questions about because if I’m blessed to be in his position with those skill players and I see 8 men in the box, I’m calling on Santonio or Hines or Heath or Spaeth or (when he develops more adequately) Sweed.