Monday night football. Two of the best teams in the NFL. How could it get any better than this? It can’t. Don’t ask stupid questions.
Before the game all they could talk about was how crappy the Steelers played again the NFC East. Good thing the Steelers had their ear muffs on before the game, because they were ready to play. And the Steeler faithful were there to cheer them on too. I remember one of the analysts say they saw “about 30,000″ Steeler fans at the game.
Also, just a sidenote but one of the ESPN analysts compared James Harrison to a fire hydrant. No kidding. I think it was supposed to be a complement, but I couldn’t tell.
Oh, now I see the resemblance.
Kickoff
The Steelers start the game off with a little trickery by going with the onside kick. Unfortunately, this plan backfired and just pumped the crowd up even more. This was perfect for sports “analysts” to breakdown at the end of the game: if the Steelers won then this “was just how the Steelers play, coming out aggressive and wanting to win” or if they lost then “this was just stupid to come out and give them great field position, it was a mistake they regretted.”
Worst. Analyst. Ever.
The Skins got the ball at the Steeler’s 36. But that didn’t matter, 3 plays later of trying to run against the best defense in the league, they had to kick a field goal. 0-3 Bad Guys
The Stees get their hands on the ball for the first time but give it right back. Ben gets his arm gets hit, and the ball goes up in the air. This is where you stand up and pray that it doesn’t land in Redskin hands. But since you didn’t pray hard enough and God doesn’t like you, it bounces around off some linemen, and a Redskin player comes up with it. They have great field position again. Awesome!
I would be SO embarrassed if any Steeler fan dressed like this.
This time the Redskins get the ball even closer to the endzone at about the 30. You have to suck NOT to score this close to the endzone. Not against the Black and Gold though, their D stepped up their game. Another 3 and field goal. 0-6 Bad Guys
Steelers get some momentum going with a few nice runs with Willie and a pass to Nate but it’s quickly stopped with a sack to Ben. Man, I hope he gets hurt later in this game and has to be replaced by Byron. Punt.
This became the theme to the rest of the quarter, an occasional first down but then punt. Both defenses were on their A game today, too bad for the Redskins that the Steelers A game is better.
SECOND QUARTER
The quarter starts out with more of the same. So Ben gets sick of dilly dallying around as he does at least once during a game and decides to bomb one. He puts extra lob on this one to get the Redskins cheerleaders all hot, but it also causes the ball to be pretty under thrown. Luckily the cornerback rapes Hines Ward in the process and gets a flag for it. This becomes the Steelers longest play of the half, which is 43 yards. A few short passes gets them pretty close to the red zone but it’s no dice. Jeff Money is called to action. 3-6 Bad Guys
You should pattern your life off of this man.
The Skins and Stees trade possessions for awhile and don’t really do anything important until about the last 2 minutes of the half. The Skins get stopped again by our D again and are forced to punt. But little did they know, the Steelers disagreed with getting the ball deep in their own territory. So Tomlin draws a play up in the ground with rocks and sticks and gives the team a speech. I imagine it went something like this…
My guess is that Anthony Smith would have been the one in the beginning to be like.. “Ah, screw this”
With the speech getting the pumped, the Steelers slam through the line and block the punt. Willie Gay picks it up and takes it to about the 10. Hooray! Less than 2 minutes left on the clock, and it’s 3rd and 12, Pittsburgh can’t just kick a field goal. Big Ben hits Hines at like the 1 yard like but somehow doesn’t get in. So the next play Ben just falls forward and get into the end zone. 10-6 Good Guys
HALFTIME
Chris Berman interviews the presidential candidates, which confuses me because I had no idea there was an election coming up. I didn’t see any posters, commercials, banners, ads, interviews, debates, solicitations, or people telling me to vote for it. Oh wait.
OMG STOP!
Oh yeah, and Ben supposedly got hurt sometime near the end of the half. How about that, my wish came true!
THIRD QUARTER
The Good Guys start the half off with the ball with Byron behind at the helm. He gets his arm loose by handing the ball off 3 straight times. The next play was a screen pass for Byron but he only has one arm speed, and that’s Randy Johnson speed, so he ends up throwing it 50 yards downfield to, coincidentaly, the person that only catches passes over 50 yards: Nate “the Great” Washington. This puts the Steelers right around the Skins’ 10 yard line. Byron pitches the ball to Melwelde over the middle to get a nice gain and Willie cleans it up with a 1 yard TD run. 17-6 Good Guys Jeff Reed misses an extra point? He must have been thinking about his after party bar crawl a little too soon. 16-6 Good Guys
Welcome back
The D plays out of their mind again and force a 3 and out. Unfortunately, The Redskins return the favor.
The Indian’s try to get back on track with their run game but they obviously haven’t learned from all of the other teams that play the Steelers, you can’t run the ball against them. Seeing that this doesn’t work, Jason Campbell hits Clinton Portis for about a 20 yard gain. But tide looks like it’s going to start turning the other way, Jason Campbell forgets what team he plays for, and hits Mr. D. Townsend for 7 yard interception pass. It’s such an obvious interception, but they challenge it anyways. I actually like Ron Jaworski but I wanted to kick him in the dick so hard because he kept saying that he didn’t have possession, even though he clearly did. Thankfully Jaws isn’t a ref and the call stands.
Byron gets the ball and moves it right along, but not before the end of the quarter.
FOURTH QUARTER
Where were we? Oh right, Byron was moving it right along. That is an accurate statement. The first play of the 4th is a nice dump over the middle to Mewelde which the Redskins must think has cooties cause there is no one even close to him. He runs for 25 yards before he attempts to make a spin move but really just turns as he runs forward into the defender. This gain pushes the Stees to about the redzone. Byron hit Hines for a nice gain and follows it up with a quick pass to San Antonio who supermans his ho into the endzone. 23-6 Good Guys
Supaman dat hooooooo!
The Redskins get the ball back and move down the field with some key passes. They get past midfield but find themselves faced with 4th and 9. Jason misses his target and it looks like the Stees will get the ball, but there’s a flag. Showing the replay, it shows Farrior barely getting his helmet against Jason Campbell’s. It was totally B.S. but I’m sure he’ll get fined for it. Maybe put in jail too. The Skins continue to move the ball down the field, but also waste about 5 minutes from the clock too. Somehow the defense feels bad for them and lets them get inside the redzone. On 3rd and 6, Jason Campbell scrambles for the endzone and clearly comes up short, but the refs still try to help them out and give them a touchdown. So Tomlin grabs the heart out of the nearest player and throws it on the field in protest. Wait, never mind, he threw his challenge flag.
“Ohhh yeah, that’s how I like it baby.“
The refs look at the play and see how stupid the other ref is that made the call and make fun of him. They also over turn the call. This gives them a 4th and 1. Not wanting to score, the decide to go for it. Also, since they have the league’s leading rusher, you would think they would use him. Nope. Let’s play action fake, that’ll get ‘em! It didn’t fool anyone, and they turnover on downs.
With their backs to the endzone, the Stees get no breathing room and punt the ball away.
The Redskins get the ball in great field position again, and move it to inside the redzone, again. And, again, they are dealt with 4th down and don’t take the points. On 4th and 8, Jason gets sacked for -60 yards by our good boy Timmons.
Stees run the ball to take the clock down even more. The Skins play with themselves, and that’s it.
Game.
Steelers – 26
Redskins – 6
Game Notes
+ 26 unanswered by the Black and Gold.
+The Steeler D was unstoppable, the Skins started with the ball 4 times on the Steeler’s end and only got 6 points out of it.
+ Of the 14 possessions the Redskins had, the Stee’s D held them to UNDER 10 net yards in the possesion in 10 of them. Of the 9 posessions in the first half, 8 of them were under 10 net yards.
+ Byron stepped up his game big time. This is why you have a good backup QB. I’m looking at you Bengals, Pats, and Cowboys.
+ I wonder how many people will want Byron as the starter now.
+ Even as a backup, Mewelde is still producing.
+ Is Santonio ever going to live up to his hype this year?
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