Defensively, it was a stubborn failure to adapt as Steelers star receiver Antonio Brown repeatedly torched Redskins cornerback Bashaud Breeland.
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DeAngelo Williams certainly helped propel the Steelers to victory, racking up 143 yards and two touchdowns on the ground.
“I had the ball in my hand and he took it out of my hand as we both got hit so it just jarred loose”, Breeland said.
Brown caught eight passes for 126 yards and two touchdowns for Pittsburgh (1-0).
“It’s always pretty good to dial his number”, Tomlin said.
However, leading the receivers in numbers and an overall leadership aspect was Antonio Brown.
The Steelers subsequently drove down the field with a professional, methodical 13-play, 73-yard touchdown drive that took 7:13 off the clock.
But it doesn’t matter if the trigger man isn’t firing and Kirk Cousins, the million dollar man, wasn’t firing. It’s an old theme, but without consistent pressure, it’ll be hard for the Pittsburgh pass defense (which will get a ton of work this season) to be effective, especially against the elite quarterbacks the team will ultimately have to beat in order to win in the playoffs. He never got close enough to do so. Redskins coach Jay Gruden and two members of his staff worked with Steelers coach Mike Tomlin for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers under Jon Gruden.
The Steelers are 44-24 on Monday night, No. 3 behind Seattle (23-6) and San Francisco (47-25).
The Redskins have lost 15 of their past 16 Monday Night home games.
Washington kicker Dustin Hopkins made all three of his field-goal attempts, connecting from 31, 40 and 34 yards.
A few plays later, Rogers caught his first career TD pass in spectacular fashion. Often Eli Rogers and Sammie Coates played two of the receiver positions and Jesse James was the tight end in such situations. Five of Brown’s receptions went for 16 yards or more.
Ryan Shazier said he doesn’t think his knee injury is serious and that he expects to play next weekend against the Bengals.
“That’s kind of been our M.O.”, Tomlin said.
Then, later, on fourth-and-6 at the Pittsburgh 38, he chose to go for it – and Cousins completed a pass to running back Chris Thompson short of the first-down marker.
Washington struggled to stop the run on Monday night – a problem that plagued it all of last season when it finished 29th in yards per rushing play. Instead, Norman got into a first-quarter scuffle on the Washington sidelines with teammate and fellow defensive back David Bruton Jr.
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Cousins was at his best in the second half, when the Redskins went to an up-tempo offense and cut the Steelers lead to 8 points. And, look, Brown was likely to do damage no matter who he was matched up against; he’s been held to fewer than five catches just twice since 2012, and past year he even embarrassed Denver’s Chris Harris Jr.
