Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin makes no bones about the fact the Steelers have to get better, but Sunday at home against their “rivals” from Cleveland, the team that hoisted the Lombardi trophy a season ago sure looked like they were making strides, stopping Cleveland 27-14. The win was cemented by the Steelers offense, which went wild for 543 yards, led by 417 yards passing by quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.
Big Ben was 23-for-35 for the 417 yards and two touchdowns. The Steelers had two players (Hines Ward and Santonio Holmes) with each over 100+ yards receiving, and tight end Heath Miller had 80 yards. They also had 140 yards on the ground, this despite the Browns desire first to stop the ground game.
The Steelers though had their moments of looking sloppy though, as in the third quarter they two fumbles and an interception sandwiched between two Browns turnovers as they could have put the final nail in Cleveland’s coffin. They were able to get things under control in the fourth quarter, as they added a field goal to their 24-14 lead to make it 27-24, then Ryan Clark picked off a Derek Anderson pass to end the final Cleveland threat.
Anderson was better than his 2-for-17 outing a week ago against the Bills, but did have to put up with some heavy pressure against the Steelers, and didn’t complete his first pass till about five minutes had passed in the first half. He was 9-for-24 for 122 yards with a pick and a touchdown. Josh Cribbs played quite a bit for Cleveland in the “wildcat” and also threw a pick in going 0-for-2 with an interception.
“A lot of things were done at a high level,” Tomlin said. “But of course we continue to fall short of perfection. We got some critical stops, we’ll take the win and move forward.”
The Steelers went up 14-0 on TD passes from Roethlisberger to Miller and Ward, but gave 7 right back when Cribbs returned a kick 98 yards to make it 14-7. They were able to convert a field goal before half to make it 17-7. The Browns took the kickoff to start the third quarter and went 66 yards in six plays and wrapped it up with a one-yard pass from Anderson to fullback Lawrence Vickers to make it 17-14.
Pittsburgh though came right back, as Roethlisberger led his team on a six-play drive that covered 79 yards, and wrapped up with RB Rashard Mendenhall going over from two yards out to make it 24-14. “I don’t even think we know how good we can be,” Roethlisberger said about the offense. “Truth be told, I think we have to keep striving for excellence.
The Steelers have a tough test next week, as they take on the undefeated Minnesota Vikings at Heinz Field at 1pm Sunday.
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DrGeorge
October 18, 2009 at 6:02 pm
It wasn’t pretty, but a win is always good. Of the four keys to the game I mentioned on Saturday (see respone to pre-game article below), the Steelers improved in two areas (rushing and 4th Qtr pass defense) and in the area of DE play absent A. Smith, the backups did OK. But the Special Teams play was awful again. The offense could be legendary behind Ben at QB if he simply stays healthy; he didn’t play as well as he can, despite the 417 yards passing, and the results were still spectacular. Next week against Minnesota we will discover just how much the defense has improved against the pass.
mark
October 18, 2009 at 6:24 pm
Turnovers certainly kept the Browns in the game. As for the special teams, well they are not so special. Why kick to Cribbs? Cribbs was the ONLY thing the Browns had ALL DAY! Also, why the short pooch-kick when your up by 2 scores? Knowing you have a problem in the 4th closing out games why let your opponent have half a field? They wont get away with that strategy against the better teams, that’s for sure. Now the running game; NOT ENOUGH of it. I think Mendy could have had 75 yards or more today. Parker was just not good. 1 decent run, 1 pass that would have been a TD if he didn’t slip and fall for no reason and 1 awful fumble. That is not how you make your way back as a starter. Ben was very good, all the receivers were very good. The line was average but did pretty well in pass protection. Troy was a welcome sight and hopefully he stays healthy because the game against Favre and A.P is important before the bye week.