Blackout: Steelers win

6
10

Recap

The Steelers tell Harvey Dent to suck it by winning the coin toss then deferring to the second half.

With the help of the wind, Jeff Reed boots it out of the end zone.

With the wind in their face, the Browns try to run the ball. Troy blows up the play. Anderson hits Winslow on a short pass on 2nd down then can’t hook up with him on 3rd down, forcing a punt.

Mewelde Moore makes the smart play of letting the whirling winds take the ball where it may and not try a return. With the wind at their back, the Steelers come out throwing. Ben to Holmes for 5. Ward on a slip-screen for 1. Ben hits Santonio on a great out-route down the sidelines for 16 and a first down. Parker bangs out some yards to get to 3rd and short, but Ben is sacked to force a punt. Potential player of the game Keyaron Fox comes up with the huge special teams tackle on Cribbs.

Did anyone notice when the defense did their introductions, Ike Taylor said he was from the university of “Swagger”? Awesome.

Flogging Molly is loving it.

Anderson goes for Edwards twice on the next drive and Edwards drops them both. Not going to win your bet with Phelps that way Braylon. Punt.

Ben hits Hines on a deep pass for 19, then Willie comes back for 3. On 2nd down, Ben goes play action and opts not to throw it to a wide open Santonio Holmes over the middle to try to stick it in to Willie streaking down the sidelines towards the end zone. Willie gets his hands on it, but the safety comes in and lays a pounding, breaking up the pass. Ben can’t find Hines on 3rd down and the punt team is out again.

Jailbird Lewis pounds for 5, but Cleveland steps back on a false start on 2nd down. DA hits Edwards for a 10-yard pickup for their first first down of the game. Foote stops Lewis in his tracks. Anderson throws one out in the flat to his full back for a nice gain, but it gets called back for being a pick play on Harrison. After two incompletions, it’s punt time again for the Brownies. The Diesel was injured on 3rd down, no news yet on the extent of his injury.

As the first quarter wound down, it was clear the Steelers wanted to establish the running game as the passing game was about to get much harder. Willie carved up 12 yards on 2 carries to end the first quarter.

Second Quarter

Parker picks up 9 yards on 2 carries to set up a 3rd and 1. Ben rushes to the line and tries to catch Cleveland off-guard with a QB-sneak but it doesn’t work, forcing a punt.

With the wind at their back, DA tries going deep. Someone seems to have forgotten to tell DA that you still have to throw the ball, even with the wind. B-Mac is there to intercept a terribly underthrown ball.

Parker for 5. Parker stopped in the backfield. Ben goes to Holmes again for the conversion. Ben takes a sack on the next play, but he got dragged down by his facemask, so we get 15 yards out of it. Parker for 2 across midfield. Carey Davis comes in and pounds out 2 yards. Pressure comes right up the middle in the form of Shaun Rodgers and Ben has to get rid of it quick, but big boy was offsides, moving us forward again, giving us a 3rd and 1. And then it happened.

Blackout city.

According to the Post-Gazette, there are still about 100,000 people in the Pittsburgh area without power. I was lucky enough to get mine back around 1am last night.

From here on out, the recap of the game is based soley on what I read from the game recaps on Steelers.com, from the Post-Gazette and from CBSSportsline. If you want to really know what happened, I suggest reading those.

We didn’t convert on 3rd down, but Willie took it around the corner for a 12-yard gain on 4th down, keeping the drive alive. Ben hooked up with Holmes to get the ball down to the 12. Hines dropped a pass in the end zone on 2nd down, but Ben showed the poise of a veteran with faith in his recievers and went right back to Hines for the score.

7-0

Cleveland came back with a little over 6 minutes left in the half and put together a solid drive to move the ball down the field. They used their last timeout with the ball on the Steelers 11 with 8 seconds left to have a shot at tying the game before the half. But, being as this is the Browns, they crap all over themselves and Anderson throws a pass short of the endzone that is intercepted by Polamalu. Even if his reciever had caught it, they wouldn’t have been able to stop the clock before halftime. But the interception (apparently) energized the Steelers defense going into the half.

Third Quarter

The Steelers get the ball as Harvey Dent continues sneering at them for deferring to start the game.

Parker runs for some solid gains, but a holding penalty and a sack ultimately put an end to the drive and the Steelers punt. Keyaron Fox comes up with the special teams tackle again.

The Browns go 3-and-out.

Ben comes finds Holmes taking the 71C. For those of you that don’t know the PAT busses, that’s one of many that goes Downtown. The 48-yard gain sets up a Jeff Reed field goal to extend the lead.

10-0.

Cleveland puts together another long drive aided by a roughing the passer penalty on Woodley and a taunting penalty on Farrior. The Browns get the ball to the Steelers 5, but James “Some Kind of Monster” Harrison stops Jailbird in the backfield for a loss of 3. Winslow takes a false start penalty, moving them back to the 13 and Anderson throws an incompletion to set up a field goal.

10-3.

Mendenhall muffs the kickoff and Cleveland has a few chances to fall on it, but it bounces out of bounds at the 2. Not to fear, Ben hits Hines on 2nd down for a HUGE 31-yard gain to get us out of the shadow of the goalposts as the 3rd quarter expires.

Fourth Quarter

The Steelers move the ball into Cleveland territory, but a holding penalty on Hartwig sets us back forcing a punt.

Cleveland gets the ball with about 10 minutes to go, looking to tie the game. They put together another long drive, converting 3 3rd downs between 5 and 7 yards. But on 3rd and 7 from the 20, DA and Edwards can’t hook up, forcing a decision from the Browns coaches. With about 3 and a half minutes left, and needing a touchdown to tie, the Browns elect to….kick a field goal.

10-6.

This was where the Steelers struggled last year: closing out games when they needed first downs on the ground to win the game. But if Arians learned anything from last year’s Jacksonville game, it’s that the best defense is a good offense. Ben hits Heath on 2nd and 10 for 19 yards and a gigantic first down. After that, it was the Willie Parker show. Parker for 4 to get the ball to midfield. Parker for 19. Parker runs again to wind the clock down to the 2-minute warning. Parker again for 4 yards to set up a 3rd and 6 as the clock ticks. Parker picks up 2 on 3rd down, leaving the coaches with a decision.

Rather than risk having a field goal blocked, the coaches (smartly) elect to go for it with the ball on the Cleveland 23, figuring to leave Cleveland with a 75+ yard field to navigate with no timeouts and under 30 seconds if they want to win. Parker doesn’t convert and the Browns get the ball.

If this was New England or Dallas you might be scared. But it’s Cleveland, and you know what they’re going to do.

Anderson can’t hook up with Edwards on first down. Then Aaron “Aero” Smith comes up with a huge sack on second down to seal the deal.

Anderson throws another incompletion as the clock hits zeros. Game.

Players of the Game:
Offensive Game Ball: Willie Parker. He picked up some great first downs when we needed it and got his second 100+ yard game of the season.
Defensive Game Ball: Troy Polamalu. Gotta give credit where credit is due. He has 2 interceptions so far this year and looks like he’s back to his old self being involved in the run defense and being a beast in pass defense.

Honorable Mentions:
Keyaron Fox: the Special Teams has been downright awesome this year and Fox is a large part of the reason why. He’s been a great addition to the coverage teams and always seems to find the ball.
Aaron Smith: 4 tackles, 2 sacks on Cleveland’s last 2 drives.
Hines Ward: Another touchdown, which was huge after he dropped one the play before.
The Offensive Line: From what I’ve read, they did a great job shutting down Cleveland’s defense, particularly Marvel Smith on Wimbley.

Mr. Yuck Sticker of the Game:
Hurricane Ike, for knocking out power across Western PA and being the only thing that could slow our offense down.

After tonight’s game between Dallas and Philly, there will be 10 undefeated teams left in the league. Nothing like getting an early jump in the division, especially with Cleveland now being 0-2 and Cincy looking downright awful. A solid division win on the road goes a long way, and unlike in college football, style points don’t count in the NFL. A win’s a win.