The Steelers opened their season in style Monday night.
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The fourth-year pro is in his first season with Cleveland after playing his first three with Washington.
The Redskins recorded just one sack in the 38-16 loss to the Steelers and allowed running back DeAngelo Williams to rush for 143 yards and two touchdowns.
The defense hung in with the Steelers up until the end, but they are going to have to step it up as they move on to more the hard matchups waiting for them this season. They kept them out of the end zone all but once.
That came on the other side of the ball. After forcing a three-and-out, it followed with a 77-yard drive that Chris Thompson capped off with a one-yard touchdown to help his team cut the deficit to 24-16.
Roethlisberger ran the no-huddle offense nearly exclusively the entire game. We’ve got to get our running game going to take some pressure off the quarterback.
However, Roethlisberger directed a 13-play, 73-yard touchdown drive that took 7:13 off the clock. “We have a lot of respect for those guys, especially Josh, but it’s on them to either move guys around or do what they have to do”.
Midway through the third quarter, Brown caught a 26-yard touchdown pass to give Pittsburgh a 24-6 lead.
Ben Roethlisberger threw three touchdown passes, including two to star wide receiver Antonio Brown, to lead the Pittsburgh Steelers to a 38-16 win over Washington’s National Football League team on September 12 at FedEx Field near Washington D.C.
The opener did nothing to alleviate questions about Washington’s running game. A second Cousins interception sealed the win for the Steelers. As long as they have Roethlisberger and Brown, they’ll be just fine.
Washington kicker Dustin Hopkins made all three of his field-goal attempts, connecting from 31, 40 and 34 yards. Then Roethlisberger was at it again, taking the Steelers 77 yards as Williams put the game away with a 15-yard touchdown run to break the 30-point mark.
Defensive end Cam Heyward continued to impress, and so did linebacker Ryan Shazier (who left the game early with a right knee injury). Turns out there was a third choice – go for it all.
The Washington Redskins must have saw enough from their defensive line in Week One to start making roster changes. It was not a coincidence, according to Steelers safety Mike Mitchell.
Monday night was just a continuation of the Steelers’ utter domination of the Redskins for the last 20 years. Unfortunately, they needed 14 for a first down and punted.
On that second series, Rogers ran a hook on the left and Roethlisberger’s pass was a tad wide. Wide receiver Antonio Brown had 126 receiving yards for his 26th career 100-yard receiving game.
As their offense struggled initially, the Steelers limited Washington to two field goals in the first quarter to maintain a one-possession deficit.
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A lot of the poor offensive performance from Washington was due to a strong performance from the Steelers’ defense. Rookie Javon Hargrave also got in at nose tackle. It had a tight end in Jordan Reed who made the Pro Bowl last season after catching 87 passes. “That kind of defined us a year ago (and) hopefully it’s still a strength of ours in terms of being able to stand up when the field is short”.
