By scoring four receiving touchdowns, the Steelers handed the Colts a 45-10 loss in front of their home crowd and silenced critics when Ben Roethlisberger target seven different receivers and got the offense rolling in the right direction.
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The Steelers defense had given up 300+ passing yards for three consecutive games and Sunday night that streak was stopped when the defense only allowed 186 passing yards by Matt Hasselbeck. “I think everybody did, that’s why we had a lot of fun”. Seahawks running back Shaun Alexander beat out Steelers running back “Fast” Willie Parker 236-225 with eventual Hall-of-Famer Jerome “The Bus” Bettis coming in 4th among post season running backs gaining180 yards after completing his final regular season as a player.
And the offense never got anything going after their early woes, despite a short field on two Steelers fumbles in the 1st quarter.
Hasselbeck does have better statistics than Luck this season, but Luck brings out the full potential of the Colts’ offense. He remained noncommittal about his chances to play next week against Jacksonville, though Pagano said he believed Hasselbeck would be OK. Chuck Pagano feels his team needs to improve “We have to respond”.
“I did get X-rays, and I’m in a little bit of pain”, Hasselbeck said Sunday, via the team’s website. Antonio Brown had two touchdown catches and Martavis Bryant and Markus Wheaton added one apiece.
While Brown is clearly Roethlisberger’s favorite target, the Steelers have proven they are far deeper than their acrobatic leader.
Brown finished the Colts with two more scores, a 5-yard reception 49 seconds into the fourth quarter before adding the fourth punt return touchdown of his career even if the celebration didn’t go as planned. ‘I tried to stick it at the goalpost, and it just didn’t work out’. He also returned a punt 71 yards for a touchdown after he replaced Jacoby Jones, who fumbled twice in the first half, on special teams.
“When you have the record that we have, if there’s not tension in the building, there’s a problem”, Pettine said. The 40-year-old began the night unbeaten while subbing for Andrew Luck by avoiding mistakes and playing with the energy of someone at the onset of his career instead of fighting off the twilight.
“We control our own destiny and in December, that’s what you want, ” cornerback Darius Butler said. “I felt good”, Adams said. “There are going to be games where you have to make stops”.
For weeks, this team has been held together by duct tape and Krazy Glue, a fragile organism that’s been hanging on to its season by a thread.
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Hasselbeck also lost a fumble and a fourth-quarter play that knocked him out of the game with a shoulder and neck injury. “They played well in all three phases”. They have four games to decide what kind of team they are. We already have a sense of where he is from a football standpoint, that he’s done some good things and he showed progress from a year ago.
