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11As we predicted in our gameday post, Jeff Fisher opts for the Titans to wear their away white jerseys, making the Steelers wear their home black jerseys in the 95-degree heat.
The Steelers take the opening kickoff and Mewelde Moore takes it and hands it off to Antonio Brown who takes it all the way down the sidelines TO THE HOUSE!!
On the ensuing kickoff, Stevenson Sylvester punches the ball out from the returner and Keyaron Fox falls on the ball to give the Steelers the ball back on the right side of the 50.
A fight breaks out after an incompletion on first down. No idea how Finnegan didn’t get kicked out for being the 2nd man in and throwing punches to Ward’s face. On 3rd down, the Steelers go empty set and Tennessee brings 1 more than they can block, forcing a fumble that Tennessee recovers.
The Titans come out and go right to the air, picking on Ike Taylor on come-back routes. Tennessee’s offense falls apart inside the red zone, taking a timeout on 3rd down then a delay of game.
On 3rd and long from the 25, Dixon takes the snap and takes off on a sprint with blockers in front, picking up 7 yards. In this situation, it was a great play call. We ensured there wasn’t a sack that forced us out of field goal range and didn’t make Dixon try to force the ball downfield. Reed tacks it on.
Homestead Charlie comes in to lead the offense and fumbles the first snap. Batch completes one to El Yeah on a quick-hitter then gets one batted away from Heath on 3rd down. Superman with a 45-yarder.
In the mean time, Dixon gets carted off the field, looking like he’s stretching his knee. The Steelers waste a challenge, challenging a completed pass to CJ. On 3rd down, LeBeau out-smarts VY, and Woodley drops right to where Young is throwing, making a leaping interception.
The Steelers are able to pick up one first down, but the drive stalls out around the 38. Tomlin opts to punt rather than try a 55-yarder. Willie Gay can’t keep it in at the goal line, touchback.
Chris Johnson breaks an 85-yarder to the house, but it gets brought back on a holding call. Whew. The biggest part of that play was CJ getting winded and being taken out. Javon Ringer comes in and the Steelers stack him up, forcing a punt.
The Steelers offense stalls out and can’t pick up yard on the next drive, wasting good field position once again.
Tennessee takes over with 1:45 to play, and tries to run it out, handing off to CJ, but he coughs it up, putting the ball on the turf and Harrison falls on it for a HUGE turnover to give the Steelers the ball back on the 23 with 1:36 left.
Mendenhall takes one up the gut to put the Steelers in positive down-and-distance then get called for a hold that brings back a touchdown pass to Wallace. Mendenhall gets brought down in the backfield on a draw play, moving the ball back to the 31. Batch steps up away from pressure on 3rd down and finds Wallace wide open. Wallace doesn’t pick up the first down, but gets to the ball back inside the 20, where Reed nails it.
CJ takes a hammer from B-Mac to start the 3rd. Harrison makes two great open-field tackles on VY scrambles, forcing a punt.
The Steelers come out with the motif offense. Randle El makes his 3rd drop of the year on a low-thrown but still catchable ball. Punt.
Vince Young gets JACKED on 3rd down by Harrison and Aerosmith who spike VY into the turf head-first for a sack. They’ll probably get fined this week, but it was worth it. LOVE the way the defense is playing right now.
The Steelers start grinding it out with Mendenhall, but a false start penalty on Essex stalls things out, then Batch gets sacked on 3rd and long. The backup tackles were getting owned by the Titans DEs all day.
The Titans offense gets in a bad situation with CJ trying to block James Harrison 1-on-1. CJ whiffs and Harrison chops the ball out of VY’s hand, and Steve McLendon, picked up this week for D-line depth, falls on the ball for the 5th Tennessee turnover of the game.
Raise Some comes out grindin’ as the Titans warm up Kerry Collins on the sideline. Red Zone Redman picks up a 3rd and 1 out of the power-I. The Steelers pick up a break on a personal foul on Courtland Finnegan, more concerned about being the NFL’s dirtiest player than situational football, moving the ball inside the 15. Offsides on Tennessee moves it inside the 10. Mendenhall gets stacked up twice, then Batch has to fire one out in a 5-wide set to avoid getting demolished.
Reed comes out on 4th and 5 and drills it, extending the lead to 13.
On 3rd and 10, Tennessee takes 2 false start penalties to move it back to 3rd and 20. To cap things off, as if it summarizes the whole game, Collins is pressured, dumps it off to CJ who gets hammered by Timmons right at the line of scrimmage.
- What a game by the defense. That might be the best defensive performance since the New England game in 2008.
- 7 turnovers (3 INT, 4 Fumble recoveries) AND 4 sacks. Wow.
- Woodley and Harrison are having beastly years.
- Polamalu is the heart and soul of this defense.
- What a job of stacking and wrapping on Chris Johnson. We held him to 34 yards on 16 carries.
- Mendenhall had double CJ’s rushing yards, with 69.
- The defense was playing prevent at the end, but they were still keying on CJ. Made someone else beat them.
- No complaining whatsoever about being 2-0.
- Everyone in the media who was giving Dixon shit this week for not scoring a touchdown (except in OT), guess what? Neither did Batch.
- Hope Dixon’s knee is okay. Assuming Leftwich clears waivers, he might start next week.
- Cincy beat Baltimore, meaning we’re alone atop the division at 2-0.
- DEFENSE DEFENSE DEFENSE DEFENSE WOW
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