Steelers beat Browns (again)
In an impressive display by both the offense and the defense, the Steelers defeated the Cleveland Browns for the 12th consecutive time. A home crowd at Heinz Field saw the Steelers defeat their longtime rivals by a score of 27-14
The big news of the game was the return of Steelers safety Troy Polamalu. Polamalu has been out since suffering a knee injury during the first game of the season.
Polamalu made his presence known almost immediately when he intercepted a pass from Browns’ quarterback Derek Anderson. Unfortunately, he came down hard on his knee when making the interception, and came up limping. This gave Steelers fans a scare, but Polamalu stayed in the game.
Polamalu wasn’t the only member of the defense that had a good game. Linebacker Lawrence Timmons recorded 2 sacks during the game.
The entire Steelers defense played well as they held the Browns to only 197 net yards for the game. The defense was accountable for only 7 of the 14 points scored by the Browns. The other 7 points came on a 98 yard kickoff return by Joshua Cribbs.
While the Steelers defense turned in an excellent performance, the real heroes of the game were quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers offense.
Steelers TE Heath Miller
The offense accumulated 543 net yards of offense. Nope, you didn’t read that wrong. I did say 543 yards of offense. That is a not a very Steeler-like output, but these are not your father’s Steelers. As Big Ben is so fond of telling reporters, this Steelers offense is primarily a passing attack.
As if to prove the point, Roethlisberger passed for 417 yards and 2 touchdowns. Even more unbelievably, Roethlisberger finds himself leading the NFL in passing yards. Roethlisberger is ahead of such prolific passers as Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, Philip Rivers, Kurt Warner, Tom Brady, and Brett Favre.
Big Ben has also completed more passes of 20+ yards than any quarterback in the NFL this season. This is a testament to the incredible receiving weapons that the Steelers have armed Roethlisberger with. Both Hines Ward and Santonio Holmes had over 100 receiving yards for the game. Tight end Heath Miller also contributed 80 receiving yards, and rookie Mike Wallace had 50 yards. Nope, these are definitely not your father’s Steelers.
To cap off an already great day, the Steelers got further help from each of their division rivals. While the Browns were losing to the Steelers, the Baltimore Ravens lost to the Minnesota Vikings and the Cincinnati Bengals lost to the Houston Texans. This leaves the Steelers tied with the Bengals for 1st place in the AFC North.
So the Steelers beat the Browns and are in first place in the AFC North. Sounds pretty typical to me. Wouldn’t you agree?
Donald,(I’m assuming you wrote this too),
If you consider 3 turnovers, allowing a kickoff return for 98 yds by a man that should have never seen a kick his way, and neearly 550 yds of offense that could only produce 27 points at home against the pitiful Browns, impressive then I guess you have made your point.
And we are going to give props to the Defense? It was the Browns! The Bills D held them to half the points we did.
Probably the worst run defense in the game (at least close, would have to check to make sure) pretty much held us in check in the running dept. We had to pass for 400 yds to get the job done. (although, ben, that was nice). And let’s not be silly and count a reverse as run yards okay?
And Parker? Please! It only took him 7 touches to cough up the ball. Yes, Mendy did as well but it at least took 3 games. Mendy goes for over a 125yds easy if left to work all day on the pitiful Browns D. The splitting of time will not produce good numbers for either. How do you get in the groove? Just plain silly. But what do you do? We had one sick in the stomach, one sick in the toe, and one sick in the head (Arians).
Boy this feels good to be honest and yet be a real fan.
If we can all stop spinning things like politicians for a while let’s look at the facts. We are 4-2. 3 of our wins are against the Lions, Browns, and Titans! And we only beat these teams by a combined 24 points.
Next up: The Vikings
We might wish the bye week was this week.
P.S. I hope I get to eat these words next Monday! I really do love the Steelers! No really! Have you ever heard the expression, “I’m my own worst critic”? Why am I so hard on these guys? I AM the Steelers. They are part of me. I’m passionate for their success. I own every Steeler item available.
So don’t be hard on me for this post fellas. Just keeping it real here.
GO STEELERS!
1Donald,
We were starting to agree too much. I had to make it interesting again.
2What I think:
The Steelers are still making too many errors and letting inferior teams hang aroung. If they eliminate the turnovers while remembering that there is indeed a 4th quater, they would be borderline unstoppable.
Parker is done. The RBs need to be primarily Mendenhall and Moore. About the passing: though we should not forget about the run, Big Ben is one of the league’s top 5 QBs. You put the ball in his hands to win the game. It’s just common sense. I’d say a 50/50 balance would be ideal.
That being said, it was the Browns. The back-ups could have played and still would have won.
Go Steelers!
3Polamalu’s pick was off Josh Cribbs when they were running the wildcat
4Tony,
I don’t deny that the Steelers’ wins have come against bad team. But those are the teams that have been placed in from of us. We are coming to a more difficult part of our schedule, so we will see how we fare against tougher competition.
The Vikings are currently undefeated. Do you agree that a win against them will be meaningful?
After the Vikings, we have some other tough tests as well. The Broncos are still undefeated, we have two games remaining against the Ravens, and we have another game against the Bengals. There is still plenty of season left. We will find out who the Steelers really are.
BTW, you’re being a bit hard on them, aren’t you?
5Dan,
Valid points. The Steelers could (and probably should) be undefeated this season. If not for 2 terrible 4th quarters, they would be.
I disagree with you about Willie Parker. Willie is a proven commodity. Rashard is still proving himself. I’d suggest waiting to see what he can do over a longer stretch of time before anointing him as the savior.
BTW, I do agree that we need to mix the pass and the run. However, I don’t think 50/50 is ideal. Frankly, our passing weapons are stronger than our running weapons. So I’d use them more. But I wouldn’t completely abandon the run the way Bruce Arians seems to do sometimes.
6Donald,
yes I am being hard. I just believe we need to be honest about some things. yes, ben has done well but he has been passing against the worst pass D’s in the league.
our 4 wins are against losing teams and our loses are against winning teams. so yes, we have been given a schedule that has put winners in front of us and we lost.
I agree, what we do against minn and den will tell us where we are. Look forward to it and hope we pass the test!
GO STEELERS!
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