Blame Canada: Steelers Lose

Recap

The Steelers win the toss, making them 2-0 on coin tosses this year.

Harvey Dent says we got lucky.

After a decent return by Mewlede Moore, the Steelers come out with a play action pass to the tight end. Nice. The predictable Steelers offense runs for no gain on 2nd and 3. Ben hits Holmes on a huge out route for a first down to keep the drive alive. On second down, Ben avoids a sack to hit Hines by the sidelines on a great pass. Ben hits Hines again with a slip screen that gets a few. Parker gets 4 on second down to bring up third and short. Hartwig gets called for holding on third down, setting us back. Ben tries to hit Hines over the middle but the pass gets tipped and intercepted.

Let’s clear the air right now. Some interceptions are Ben’s fault. This one was not. It was a decent pass that got tipped, and once the ball is tipped up in the air, it’s not really the QB’s fault any more if it gets picked.

The Bills take the field and throw underneath our soft zone coverage. As much as Dick Lebeau has done for this team, he refuses to play press coverage on receivers. Trent Edwards was taking 3-step-drops and dumping the ball off underneath the zone coverage, enabling the Bills to move easily down the field. The D looked like it would stiffen at the goal line, but gave up a 3rd down touchdown pass over the middle.

7-0 Bills.

Parker busted a few nice runs on the next drive and the offense looked to be moving, but a false start penalty on 3rd and 5 set the offense back in a hole they couldn’t get out of. Ernster kicks a great punt that Nasty Nate Washington can’t keep out of the end zone. Touchback.

James Harrison comes out and wrecks havoc on Edwards with a 1st down sack.

Second Quarter

The Steelers limit the Bills to a 3rd and 13, then allow Edwards to scramble for 20 yards and a first down. Vomit. The Bills take Hit-and-Run Lynch out of the game, but it doesn’t make a huge difference. The Steelers were playing a lot of their 1-down lineman set, but it wasn’t able to pressure the quarterback and couldn’t stop the run either. Edwards carries the Bills down the field again on short passes and hits Royal for his second touchdown of the game. Foote got outrun in coverage. It really might be time to put Timmons in.

14-0 Toronto
I mean…Buffalo.

If there was a must-produce-some-offense drive in the preseason, it was here. Hines picks up a huge gain over the middle to get things started. Mendenhall replaced Parker and couldn’t get anything going. The problem here was they were trying to run him to the outside, which works okay when you block the defensive backs and outside linebackers. False start on Kemoeatu made for the 3rd penalty on 3rd down in 3 drives. Ouch. Ben hits Moore over the middle on a Verron Haynes-type route and he picks up the first down. Ben goes to the air on the next play and hits Santonio with a perfect pass right between the corner and the safety for the touchdown.

14-7

J.P. Losman comes in for Buffalo and the Bills go run-run-SACK as Aaron Smith comes up huge on 3rd down, forcing a punt. Moore has a terrible punt return and Leftwich comes in. Byron comes out firin’ (hey, that rhymed…I’m terrible) and hits Nasty Nate for a big gain. The drive stalls and Reed comes on for a field goal. Berger blows the hold and Reed misses.

Lawrence Timmons is all over the field on the next drive and comes up with a huge third down sack. Timmons looked great tonight. He needs to get more reps with the first team.

Byron fumbles on first down and we somehow get the ball back. Mendenhall runs out the clock.

3rd Quarter

The second team defense couldn’t make a tackle to save their life and the Bills drove down the field for a field goal.

17-7.
The game looked out of reach at this point.

The Steelers come out as they always do after the other team scores and go run-run-pass-punt. Argh. It’s only the preseason and we’re already doing this crap.

Buffalo responds by failing to do anything and punts it back. Typical preseason bore with the backups in here.

Byron fires one over Sweed’s head on the next drive and the Steelers punt. However, the ball takes a backwards bounce and hits a Bills player, making it a live ball. Steelers recover at the Bills 18 to put a spark of life back in this game. After that, it was all Rashard. 9 yard gain on first down. No gain on second and 1. Good power run on 3rd and 1 to pick up the first down. Another power run to get the ball to the 6. Then Rashard looks to be going for the guard-tackle crease, but the Bills snuff it out, so he bounces it to the outside where there is no one home and takes it to the house for 6.

17-14

Terrible kick coverage as Bills first round pick Leodis McKelvin runs it all the way back untouched. I know they’re only backups in there, but that’s not the way to make the team.

24-14

The coaches obviously wanted to see more of Byron’s arm because they came out throwing on the next drive. Russell ran once to pick up a first down on 3rd and short, but the drive stalled. Punt.

Fourth Quarter

The Bills try to emulate the Steelers and go run-run-pass-punt.

Dennis the Menace in at QB. DTM comes out gunning and hits Reid and Sweed for a few nice gains to pick up two first downs. Three incompletions later we punt again.

With about 10 minutes left in the game, the Bills are content to run the ball, even on 3rd and long. Punt. Snore.

Dixon hits Dallas Baker for 7 yards on first down. Running play goes nowhere. Illegal sub penalty. Argh. 4th offensive penalty on 3rd down this game. That’s really unacceptable. DTM scrambles for 7 yards to bring up a 4th and 1 just across midfield. And when all hope seemed lost, DTM took things into his own hands (and feet) and just tore down the field for a 47-yard touchdown run. Great block by Sweed to seal the deal on this play as well.

24-21

With 4:30 to go, we needed a big defensive stop here. Buffalo refuses to throw, but it doesn’t matter because they pick up two first downs on the ground and wind the clock down to 2 minutes. The Steelers use their timeouts on defense to get the ball back with 1:40 to go.

DTM comes out to run the 2-minute drill and carry us to a victory. And on the first play he gets sacked. Incomplete pass stops the clock on second down and things are looking grim. Dallas Baker comes up with a huge 25-yard catch to keep the drive alive. Three incompletions later and our backs were against the wall with a 4th and 10. DTM and Dallas come through again for another 25-yarder to get the ball across midfield. Sweeeeet. DTM spikes it to stop the clock with 6 seconds left. One last heave to the end zone by DTM. Rucker has it in his hands, but a Buffalo defender makes a good play to knock it out and end the game.

Players of the Game:
Lawrence Timmons. He was everywhere. He needs more playing time.
Santonio Holmes. Wow…he looks really really good.
Rashard Mendenhall. Got his first touchdown of his career, so I have to give him a shout-out. Besides that, the blocking wasn’t very good up front so he didn’t have a lot of room to run.

Mr. Yuck Sticker of the Game

First team defense: WTF?

All in all, we showed some things tonight. Byron looks to be a capable backup, but his lack of mobility showed a little. Our receiving corps looks solid, as long as we can avoid injury. Defensive depth is just terrible. Not necessarily in quantity but in quality. The first team did nothing and it seemed like no one besides Timmons could really tackle. Berger kicked more than Ernster, but Ernster is a much better holder. Reed’s field goal was totally Berger’s fault. We’ll see how things go in practice this week. Coach should be busting some skulls over this one.

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Blame Canada: Steelers Lose

Alan Draper

Alan Draper

Alan Draper