With Vick at the helm, Pittsburgh was unable to get anything going offensively, having only six points at the beginning of the third quarter. Bryant caught six passes for 137 yards in his first action of the season.
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Before we get to GM Steve Keim on this Monday morning, this one is going to hurt.
We move on to discuss the surprising play Sunday of Landry Jones, who replaced an injured Vick in the third quarter.
The home side hit another field goal soon after but the Cardinals replied with three points of their own at the start of the fourth quarter. He had a passing game role and got the big, long play for us.
In his National Football League debut, Jones looked more like a seasoned veteran than a starry-eyed newcomer throwing a pair of touchdowns as the Steelers improved to 4-2 to stay in touch with unbeaten Cincinnati Bengals who top the AFC North with mark of 6-0. “I still can’t believe I got in the game and got to play”.
Sure, if you were looking at the game on paper, one would think the Pack would have a rather easy time of it. As everyone knows, however, games are not played or won for that matter on paper. He’s not completely ruling out being available this Sunday when they take on the Kansas City Chiefs, but there seems to be a good shot that he’ll be sitting out for at least one week to heal. When the second half began that’s when things started to take a turn for the better for the Black and Gold, and that curiously happened when Michael Vick was escorted to the sideline as a part of the “concussion protocol” that was an ultimate misdiagnosis by the officials because it was announced a bit later that Mike Vick was forced to leave the game because he had a few “dirt in his eye”. Nine penalties on the Cardinals for 111 yards also did not help their case. It would be the only score of the first quarter. Yet while they gave up plenty of big plays, the Steelers kept the Cardinals out of the end zone.
The next four drives saw nothing special; a Cardinals punt, a Steelers field goal, a Cardinals field goal, and anther Steelers field goal. My one knock is that the decision to go for two, instead of kicking the extra point to put yourself up by a field goal, could have proven costly. Chris Johnson carried the ball 14 times for just 40 yards.
If Ben Roethlisberger is cleared to return, he will obviously assume his position in the starting lineup.
Jones hit Bryant for an eight-yard score to give the Steelers the lead.
Running Backs- Le’Veon Bell had a hard time getting going, but still ended up with 88 yards on the ground.
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-PASS DEFENSE: C. Arizona QB Carson Palmer threw for 421 yards, the fifth-most ever against a Steelers defense, but Lawrence Timmons and Mike Mitchell each had interceptions. Beachum will nearly certainly miss the rest of the season and may have played his last snap in a Steelers uniform, as he’s set to become a free agent. The Cardinals defense did an excellent job of stopping the run early, but as the game went on the Steelers run game began to pick-up.
