Football isn’t supposed to look as easy as the Steelers made it look over the final two-plus quarters of a 45-10 drumming. Lucky for him, the defense would bail him out with an interception of a Matt Hasselback pass, not to mention QB Ben Roethlisberger lighting up the Colts all game in a blowout victory.
Advertisement
They did that on third-and-5 in the first quarter Sunday night against the Indianapolis Colts when Roethlisberger threw incomplete to Darius Heyward-Bey in the end zone from the 30. Roethlisberger did what he does best tonight, and that was to stand or move around in the pocket and use his rocket arm to pick apart defenses. Williams who carried 26 times for 134 yards and no scores, was part of the reason why the Steelers dominated time of possession. The offensive line helped put the game away by rushing for 125 yards in the second half. Antonio Brown and Martavis Bryant combined for three touchdowns and 232 yards on 12 receptions. “I think just being in the hunt to make the playoffs… just being in position to make it where we are now, we’re happy with that (and) I think we’re anxious to get back on the field after that win”.
In a Twitter post last week, team owner Jim Irsay indicated the target date for Luck’s return was December 20 when Houston visits Lucas Oil Stadium in a matchup between the AFC South’s co-leaders.
As a starter, Hasselbeck has had two solid games and now three bad ones.
The Steelers defense had five sacks in the game, two on Matt Hasselbeck and three more on backup Charlie Whitehurst.
Brown crossed the goal line and what happened next took everyone by surprise.
“Andrew is still week-to-week although he was throwing the ball around last week, he’s taking it slow”. Jones fumbled the first play of the game and then fumbled on his next return, which might actually be the last time he’s on the field for the Steelers. Chris Boswell was 3 for 4 on field goal attempts. With 3:15 left in the first quarter the Steelers had a 6-3 advantage. Indianapolis never got into a rhythm and didn’t do a very good job against the Steelers pass rush and blitz packages. Wide receiver Markus Wheaton also caught a touchdown pass. Enough said.
Special Teams- The one knock on the Steelers performance was once again the special teams. Roethlisberger completed six straight passes on an 80-yard drive that ended with a 7-yard dart to Brown that pushed the Steelers ahead. Veteran cornerback William Gay was the only cornerback to remain on the field all game. Punter Pat McAfee averaged 27.4 yards net and 42.2 yards overall on five punts.
Antonio Brown crossed the goal line with the exclamation-point touchdown & decided it was time to turn the goal post in to his personal jungle fitness center. With around four minutes left in the game the Steelers lead went to 45-10.
Advertisement
This year, when a 56-yard score against the Browns was punctuated by a front flip, Tomlin replied: “Awesome play”.
