Two more weeks without Le’Veon Bell doesn’t sound so bad for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
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He became the first player in National Football League history to complete at least 500 passes to 3 different teammates when he hit Antonio Brown for a 26-yard touchdown for Brown’s second score of the night.
Roethlisberger finished the night 27-of-37 for 300 yards and 3 TD’s.
Why not have star cornerback Josh Norman follow Antonio Brown around instead of letting the Steelers match him up on Bashaud Breeland?
The Redskins are not holding practice Tuesday, but coach Jay Gruden is scheduled to speak with the media this afternoon. “He’s a good corner and he got beat by a great player today and some great passes that I don’t know what corner can defend”, Gruden said. “Is that doable on skates?”
Steelers’ fans seemed to have some nerves going into the game. Running back DeAngelo Williams rushed for 143 yards for his fifth 100-yard rushing game as a member of the Steelers and the 23rd of his career. He did the same thing last season when Bell was suspended and then injured.
Washington’s key role players came up short in the season opener, with running back Matt Jones finishing with only 24 yards, while tight end Jordan Reed was a non-factor after the opening drive.
“We play to win”, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said. “But we’ve come to expect that from him”.
But how about what James did?
On Brown’s first touchdown reception of the night, a second quarter 26-yard score on 4-and-1, Breeland was stride for stride with Brown. He played every offensive snap. I really don’t have much to say much more than that. “I know we were missing some pieces tonight, but we had “7.’ And when you got ‘7″ you got the chance to put together performances like that”. This week they need to work on communication and eliminating early season errors before daring to step up to the Dallas Cowboys.
For the most part, though, the Steelers liked the Breeland-Brown matchup and kept exploiting it.
And how about Coates? Rogers caught six passes from Roethlisberger, accumulating 59 yards.
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While Brown did not record a catch on his two targets against Norman, he was able to get the better end of Breeland eight times including a pair of impressive touchdown catches despite relatively good coverage from the young Redskins cornerback. “He was like, “I’m gonna make the play” and he made the play”. Coates dropped an early pass and Rogers didn’t run the right pattern on Roethlisberger’s only interception. We probably wouldn’t be very good at it. Everyone on both sides standing as far I could tell. I think you go for it there. “The Ravens have won Super Bowls, we’ve won Super Bowls”, Heyward said. “And so there’s a balance there of you don’t want to take a lot of sacks – that’ll kill drives just like penalties and turnovers – but at the same time, you take no sacks, maybe there’s an extreme there where you’re not extending plays, not trying to create a little bit”.
