Sometimes, a team puts its second cornerback on their opponent’s best wide receiver, though that usually means it will also bring help from somewhere else – usually the safety. So concerned with star wide receiver Antonio Brown that they went “light in the box”, as linebacker Will Compton said. “We have to get after the quarterback more, particularly when we’re ahead”.
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“The call came from the sideline”.
“A little bit”, Gruden said when asked if he’d given consideration to putting Norman on Brown.
“They gave us a man look”, Roethlisberger said.
He trusted his guys to make plays in big moments, no matter who they might be. Washington contributed a 0-2 ratio. “I know he wanted to play against me one-on-one the whole game if it was up to him”. Brown, in case you haven’t spoken to that annoying person with the first pick in your fantasy draft yet today, caught eight passes for 126 yards and two touchdowns. Rothelisberger also threw 300 passing yards and 1 interception.
“We’ll deploy a certain, different number of players on him, but they counter-balance that just by moving him around”, [defensive coordinator Joe] Barry said.
“That’s the approach we took for this week”, he said. Washington failed to stretch the field offensively, with DeSean Jackson’s 33-yard reception the Redskins’ only play of more than 20 yards all evening. The lone bright spot in Washington’s run game came on a 1-yard Chris Thompson touchdown to cut it to 24-16, but Pittsburgh would answer rapidly on the ensuing drive. They drove 73 yards on 13 plays.
Roethlisberger threw touchdown passes of 29 yards to Brown and three yards to Rogers – and not in typical fashion. “We went to Andrews Air Force Base the other day and everybody that was there stayed after, signed some autographs”, Gruden said, notes 247 Sports. Receiver Eli Rogers caught six passes for 59 yards and a touchdown in his National Football League debut.
So much for Pittsburgh being hampered early in the season while waiting for running back Le’Veon Bell to return from a three-game suspension and tight end Ladarius Green nursing a lingering ankle injury. And, like the Packers did two years ago in the opening game of the season, the Steelers opted not to challenge him on a regular basis with the best receiving threat they have. “They had been playing well the entire game, but we pulled it together at the end”.
Yes, Jay Gruden’s team was tantalizing close at times to making it a game.
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The second quarter became a tale of fourth-down success and failure that ended with Pittsburgh ahead 14-6. If you’re scoring at home that’s a combined 2-10 touchdown-to-interception ratio for Redskins QBs in their last six games against the Steelers, with the highest passer rating belonging to RGIII. Later, Roethlisberger was stripped of the ball, but a Washington player tried to run with it instead of just jumping on it, and he fumbled it back. Included was a 19-yard completion to Eli Rogers on fourth-and-1 from the Washington 34. Roethlisberger’s pass from the 3-yard line hit receiver Sammie Coates and then Rogers’ facemask before he finished the grab.
