Any doubts of the injury lingering were erased Sunday.
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Sunday night at Heinz Field the Pittsburgh Steelers “broke in” or “smoked the Indianapolis Colts 45-10. Ben was Ben tonight and those guys did a nice job of getting open and making plays for him”.
Antonio Brown caught eight passes for 118 yards and two touchdowns on Sunday.
Pagano cautioned it’s still early and there remains a chance Hasselbeck will not play.
“We’re capable of doing that”, coach Mike Tomlin said. “Are we going to fold it up or are we going to dig down deep and go out there and do what we need to do in order to get into the playoffs?” He also returned a punt 71 yards for a touchdown after he replaced Jacoby Jones, who fumbled twice in the first half, on special teams. On Sunday night, Roethlisberger completed 24-of-39 passes for 364 yards, had four touchdown passes and a 126.4 passer rating. “And we know how he works, so for him to go out and have a game like that, he continues to show he still has it”. The Jaguars offense is averaging 22.9 points and 350.3 yards per game and they have a minus five turnover ratio.
We saw Matt Hasselbeck hit the wall, and thankfully quiet all of the people saying he should remain the starter.
“I’ll tell you what, we could have easily been down 14-0 to start that game but our defense really stepped up when their backs were against the wall”.
“What was it about the Steelers’ blocking schemes that they didn’t allow you to get any pass rush?” he was asked.
After the game, Hasselbeck admitted he was in “a little bit of pain”. “I would hope that I could (play)”. Against a pass defense that had yielded almost 1,000 yards in its last three games and was shredded by Johnny Manziel, the Colts wide receivers were invisible.
That was Jones’ first interception of his two-year career, but that theft ended up going for naught.
Thirteen weekends into this 2015 National Football League regular season, it’s an accepted fact that the Pittsburgh Steelers are driven by their offense, which is triggered by Ben Roethlisberger.
Pittsburgh placekicker Chris Boswell added to his team’s lead, when he took care of a 51 yard field goal later in the first quarter. Hasselbeck was 16 of 26 for 169 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. The Steelers rushed for 158 yards overall with even Ben Roethlisberger getting into the act with a vintage 13-yard scramble. On 3rd and 3 from the IND 32, Roethlisberger took the snap and then let go of a pass that Bryant caught along the sideline and in front of Colts cornerback Greg Toler.
Andrew Luck is expected to miss at least one more game while recovering from a lacerated kidney and torn abdominal muscle.
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Frank Gore led the Colts in rushing (45) and receiving yards (49), which was nice for him but not so much for the offense.
