19
16Touchback on the opening kickoff. Arians tries to come out with a typical run-run-pass. However, newly announced starter Justin Hartwig snaps the ball over Ben’s head on 3rd down and the ball rolls back inside the 5. Ben falls on it just in time to avoid a turnover. Berger punts it back to around the 50.
John Fox decides his starters don’t need to play, so he sends out his second string. LaBrandon Toefield gets 10 yards on 2 carries before Carolina goes to the air. Incomplete pass on first down. Matt Moore hits Travis Taylor for a big gain on second down to get the ball down to the Pittsburgh 22. Toefield carries 2 more times to get the ball to the 20. Carolina pulls a Steelers strategy and plays for 3, throwing a 5-yard pass on 3rd and 8. John Kasay hits a field goal.
With a short field, Tomlin decided to bring in Byron. Mendenhall for 3. The Steelers come out again in their QB-Wide formation with Leftwich split out and running in motion. Mendenhall takes the snap and runs for 8 up the middle. Inside the 30, Leftwich connects on short passes to Davis and Dallas Baker, but can’t hook up with Willie Reid on 3rd and 3. Field goal time.
Mendenhall gets nowhere on first down, prompting Arians to go back to the QB-wide set, where Mendenhall runs for 4. Leftwich dumps one off to Moore who has some wide open field in front of him, runs through a weak arm tackle and finally gets taken out of bounds after a gain of 26. Mendenhall gets caught in the backfield and loses yards on first down. Leftwich takes a shot down the middle, but Dezmond is not his constant this time. On 3rd and long, Byron hooks up with Dallas Baker for a big gain of 33. Former Steeler Ricardo Colclough makes the tackle. Leftwich goes for the home run on the next play and Sweed makes a fantastic catch in the corner of the end zone and gets 1.99999 feet down, but apparently his butt hit out of bounds before his second foot landed in bounds. At least, that’s what they said after review. Leftwich got smacked on the play, but he bounced up and continued playing. Mendenhall went nowhere on 2nd down and Leftwich couldn’t hook up with Moore on 3rd down, bringing in Jeff Reed for a long kick.
13-3.
Mendenhall for 2. Mendenhall bounces one to the outside, but gets caught (again) carrying the ball too far away from his body and it gets knocked out. Colclough falls on the fumble.
Carolina didn’t seem too intent on taking advantage of the turnover, getting themselves into a 3rd and long. They came up just short with a 9-yard pass and elected to go for it on 4th and 1. Hoke and 3rd round pick Bruce Davis combine to make the HUUUUGE stop.
The Steelers go back to Mendenhall twice, but he gets essentially nowhere. Leftwich hits his constant on 3rd down, but Dezmond is well short of the sticks. Ernster makes a terrible kick that goes only 22 yards and out of bounds, giving Carolina good field position.
With 2:10 left on the clock and a short field, Carolina came out firing. Moore tried to go deep but there was no one there. A short run on second down took the clock to the 2 minute warning. On third down, Moore hit Jarrett for 9 and a first down. Moore fumbled the snap on first down, but it got kicked back into the backfield where Moore was able to safely fall on it. On second down, Anthony Smith gets called for illegal hands to the face, giving Carolina an automatic first down. Moore carves up the Steelers defense with passes of 9, 12 and 12 to get down to the Steelers 20. If we ran a Panthers blog, we’d tell you who made the catches. But we don’t, so it doesn’t matter.
After an incompletion on first down, Moore hit Jarrett for a short gain to bring up 3rd and 5. Moore tried a fade route to the corner of the end zone, but the receiver never had control of the ball (plus his second foot was out of bounds), and replay confirmed the incompletion. Kasay came on to add a field goal.
The next drive was the Rashard Mendenhall show. Mendenhall carried 9 consecutive times for 4 first downs and 42 yards. He got helped out by a defensive offsides call along the way, but regardless, the coaches had seen enough and let him rest. Gary Russell came in and did nothing. Leftwich couldn’t hook up with Sweed on 3rd down and Reed came in for another field goal.
If anyone cares, this was the score of the Steelers first Super Bowl victory in Super Bowl IX against Minnesota.
Dennis the Menace came in and converted a 3rd and 8 through the air to get us into field goal range. Mendenhall went nowhere on 2 tries, then Sweed came up empty again, forcing another field goal attempt. Reed’s leg craps on itself. Florida State and Miami alum have flashbacks. Wide Right.
The Steelers defense responds to the challenge. Woods sacks Moore on first down. Moore can’t connect with Jarrett on second down. About this point, I wondered why Fox still had Matt Moore, his 2nd string quarterback, in the game. Right on cue, Anthony Smith blitzes from the safety spot and cracks Moore in the side. Moore walks off the field after laying on his back and getting his leg examined. Punt.
The Steelers are content to run out the 3rd quarter. Russell for nothing. Russell for 7. Russell comes up a yard short on 3rd down.
With Moore out, 3rd string QB Brett Basanez comes in to handle a short field. After an incomplete pass and a short run, Carolina gets called for a false start, putting them in a 3rd and long and giving us a chance to get out of the jam. But the defense gives up an 18-yard pass play and the drive stays alive. Not to outdo themselves, Carolina commits two penalties on the next third down to put themselves in 3rd and 19. A 12-yard completion doesn’t save them, but it puts them in field goal range. Kasay is good.
Carolina comes back with a 20-yard running play followed by a 13-yard pass. At this point in the game, with around 9 minutes to play, you don’t mind them taking a shot at a comeback. However, those 2 first downs would be all they could muster on this drive and go run-run-pass-punt to close it out.
The Gary Russell show is on as he goes for 4, 23 on a great run, 3, and 6 to set up a 3rd and 1 with 5:15 left on the clock. This is the situation in a normal game where you should run it up the middle. Maybe even a QB sneak. Arians decides to call a pitch to the weak side. Russell gets rocked for a loss of 5. Terrible, terrible play call. Punt.
Basanez comes out firing and hooks up for 2 17-yard gains to move the ball down inside the Steelers 30. As the clock nears 2 minutes, Basanez goes for the home run on 2nd and 6 and connects for the touchdown. Tunch and Wolf were livid about this series of events, and for good reason. In all honesty John Fox, your team has made it’s way through 3.96 preseason games, and you’re going for the home run ball to tie the game with 2 minutes left to play? And to cap it all off, rather than going for 2, as is custom in preseason as not to send the game to overtime, Fox kicks the extra point, tying the game and possibly extending the game.
Lucky for us, Dennis the Menace wasn’t having any of the old man’s crap. DTM hits Eddie Drummond twice for 5 yards each, moving the chains and keeping the drive alive. With the ball on the 38, DTM takes matters into his own feet and scrambles for 11 and gets out of bounds to stop the clock. Huge. Great play. 1:03 to go, ball on the 49. DTM hits Rucker on the next play for 10 more yards to move to the Carolina 41. DTM hits Allen, our foriegn exchange student from Europe for 12 yards to move the chains once again and more importantly get us into field goal range. Russell comes in to play some power ball and gets 2 carries to get the ball to the 25. Reed comes on and does his Michael Phelps impression. Pure gold.
Players of the Game:
Keyaron Fox (4 tackles, 4 assists, 1 INT)- I love the way this guy is playing, he has been doing good work with special teams too.
Jeff Reed (4/5 FG)- might be assuming the title of #1 clutch kicker in the league.
DTM- 4/4 on the last drive to lead the Steelers to victory.
Anthony Smith- did I just say that? Yes, I did. He’s been playing a lot more composed lately and made some big hits to knock some balls loose and made an impact in run defense.
Not only did Fox go for the home run pass with 2 minutes to go, he risked extending the game even longer by not trying a 2-point conversion.
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