Everyone is raving about Hyde’s week one performance and deservedly so, but the Steelers don’t care.
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“They were giving us a lot of different looks, bringing their safeties down, and we thought, ‘Let’s not over-think ourselves, ‘” Roethlisberger said. “We weren’t flawless . We gave up some big plays, particularly in the second half, but we’ll take the win”.
Roethlisberger connected deep with ex-Raiders wideout Darrius Heyward-Bey, with wide receiver Markus Wheaton and especially with favorite target Antonio Brown, who caught nine of the 11 passes thrown in his direction for 195 yards and a touchdown.
Hayne’s game statistics were tame with just one punt return for seven yards and two carries at running back for three yards.
Williams (Wynne) rushed 20 times for 77 yards and ran for 3 touchdowns, to tie a franchise record.
“When we get all our pieces back to this puzzle, it’s going to be a attractive puzzle man”, Williams said. “We showed that today”. And just to make sure, on each of the Steelers’ two fourth-quarter possessions that followed 49ers touchdowns, Roethlisberger drove the Steelers to answering touchdowns that maintained the margin of their comfortable lead.
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback relishes in calling the offensive plays, which he did in Sunday’s 43-18 blowout victory against the 49ers. Sure, he finished with 335 yards passing, but 274 came in the second half, including a 75-yard TD to Torrey Smith, after the Steelers built a 29-3 lead.
The longest of Pittsburgh’s six touchdown drives took all of eight plays. Frustrated by an inability to finish drives with touchdowns against the Patriots, the Steelers decided to end them with exclamation points while ruining San Francisco coach Jim Tomsula’s homecoming. “When (defenses) want to double me, those guys get a one-on-one matchup and they have to be there to win”. “And we’ve got to continue to get it done…”
“I wish that everybody could catch for 100 yards, which is hard to do but you try to include everybody”, Roethlisberger said.
“We put so much time and effort into those plays and if you’re going to be successful doing them, why not do it?” “It’s very critical”. Brown also continued his streak of consecutive games with five receptions and 50 yards, eclipsing the 34 game mark.
The new-look 49ers defensive, following the retirements of linebackers Patrick Willis and Chris Borland, and the release of end Aldon Smith, seemed overwhelmed. Hayne has ran sparingly so far this season, releagted mostly to sepcial teams duties. “How we respond is going to be the great challenge for us”.
-RB DeAngelo Williams is showing that he will warrant some carries when Pro Bowl RB Le’Veon Bell returns next Sunday against the Rams at St. Louis following his two-game suspension for violating NFL’s conduct policy. Pittsburgh scored 40 or more points for the third time since the start of last season and is averaging more than 400 yards per game through two weeks this season.
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Then in the first quarter Hyde went down with a leg injury, but continued to play. 49ers RB Reggie Bush (calf) and WR Bruce Ellington (ankle) were inactive along with Steelers CB Cortez Allen (knee) and QB Landry Jones (concussion).
