Steelers win ugly at Indianapolis

After a quarter, it looked like the Pittsburgh Steelers would steamroll the Indianapolis Colts just like everybody but expected. But, once again, turnovers by the Steelers and a long Indianapolis TD drive led by…Curtis Painter made this one a lot more interesting than the Steelers would have liked. A Shaun Suisham field goal with under 10 seconds left pushed the Steelers to a 23-20 victory. 

The Steelers offensive line was putrid once again and Ben Roethlisberger was under siege all night long. Roethlisberger fumbled twice, one of which was returned for a TD by Jamaal Anderson. The offensive line also failed to run block against a small and usually weak defensive front for Indianapolis. Rashard Mendenhall averaged 2.1 yards on 18 carries. Ugh. 

But that’s not all. The Steelers lost 3 more starting offensive lineman during this one. LT Jonathan Scott, who was abused all game by Dwight Freeney, left the game late in the 4th quarter with what looked like a serious lower leg injury. I would expect him to miss some significant time. Starting RT Marcus Gilbert also missed most of the 2nd half with an injury, but he returned for a couple of plays on the last drive after Scott’s injury. Doug Legursky also got banged up with an arm/shoulder injury, but it didn’t look too serious. 

After a long Mike Wallace TD catch in the first quarter, the Steelers failed to score a TD until James Harrison hit Curtis Painter forcing a fumble that Troy Polamalu returned for a TD. It was the first turnover that the Steelers have forced in 2011.

As Mike Tomlin says, style points don’t matter in the NFL and this one looks the same in the standings as last week’s blowout win against Seattle.

But it’s hard to not be discouraged after an effort like this against an Indianapolis team that isn’t very good. The Steelers are making too many mistakes on both sides of the ball and certainly don’t look like a Super Bowl contender at this point. 

Simply put, they’ve got to play better starting next week. The Steelers face a potent passing attack and a pass rusher even better than Dwight Freeney in Houston.