Steelers 19, Titans 11
Man, it is nice to have the Steelers' defense back. Nothing like watching them utterly demolish a high-performing offense. So much for Vince Young coming of age, I guess. And here's your line on Chris Johnson, of the dozen consecutive 100-yard rushing games: 34 yards rushing, 19 yards receiving, 1 fumble lost. (He did break out a would-be 70-yard touchdown run, negated by a holding penalty.) Boom! Implosion.
So, uh, not sure what to make of the quarterback crisis. How did it get so that Batch is the only one who's not injured, again?
Anyway, if they can win in Tennessee, they can win in Tampa next week. Maybe Leftwich is back by then. I hope so.
Stu and I were going to watch the game at the Steelers bar in Fairfield, Skybox Cafe. But apparently it closed over the summer and was replaced with a jujitsu studio. D'oh. So we ended up being the only two Steeler fans at a more generic sports bar down the street from ex-Skybox.
Some enjoyable notes:
--When Mewelde Moore lined up to take the opening kickoff, I thought, Man, how conservative do they think they can play this game? So the sneaky handoff to Antonio Brown fooled me as much as it fooled the Titans. (I want to know which other NFL players have scored 89-yard touchdowns the first time they step on the field for a game, incidentally.)
--Troy with the endzone interception. Of course. Also great to see McFadden snagging an errant throw, and Woodley coming up with a pick too. Seriously, Titans, 7 turnovers?
--Lawrence Timmons continues to mug people at will. He's the one who forced that Johnson fumble, just lowering his shoulders into the guy. He stopped a couple other plays cold the same way. Fun to watch.
--Vince Young's last snap resulted in him being thrown to the ground for a sack by Brett Keisel, Aaron Smith, and James Harrison, all at the same time. That ought to give him something to think about for the next while.
--The last 4 minutes maybe got a little too interesting, even if it was going to be a huge long shot for Kerry Collins to engineer anything out of a 19–3 deficit. Fine, fine. The D can keep doing its thing; meanwhile we all can try to forget all the fourth quarters of yesteryear and just enjoy the ride again.
So, uh, not sure what to make of the quarterback crisis. How did it get so that Batch is the only one who's not injured, again?
Anyway, if they can win in Tennessee, they can win in Tampa next week. Maybe Leftwich is back by then. I hope so.
Stu and I were going to watch the game at the Steelers bar in Fairfield, Skybox Cafe. But apparently it closed over the summer and was replaced with a jujitsu studio. D'oh. So we ended up being the only two Steeler fans at a more generic sports bar down the street from ex-Skybox.
Some enjoyable notes:
--When Mewelde Moore lined up to take the opening kickoff, I thought, Man, how conservative do they think they can play this game? So the sneaky handoff to Antonio Brown fooled me as much as it fooled the Titans. (I want to know which other NFL players have scored 89-yard touchdowns the first time they step on the field for a game, incidentally.)
--Troy with the endzone interception. Of course. Also great to see McFadden snagging an errant throw, and Woodley coming up with a pick too. Seriously, Titans, 7 turnovers?
--Lawrence Timmons continues to mug people at will. He's the one who forced that Johnson fumble, just lowering his shoulders into the guy. He stopped a couple other plays cold the same way. Fun to watch.
--Vince Young's last snap resulted in him being thrown to the ground for a sack by Brett Keisel, Aaron Smith, and James Harrison, all at the same time. That ought to give him something to think about for the next while.
--The last 4 minutes maybe got a little too interesting, even if it was going to be a huge long shot for Kerry Collins to engineer anything out of a 19–3 deficit. Fine, fine. The D can keep doing its thing; meanwhile we all can try to forget all the fourth quarters of yesteryear and just enjoy the ride again.
3 Comments:
Don't forget Troy leaping over the line to sack the quarterback - while I think he was onsides at the snap, he was definitely already airborne.
I'm sort of sorry I missed seeing this one (yoga and brunch in McMinnville instead) but I'm looking forward to watching a more comprehensive set of highlights. Let's hope that defense stays healthier than the offense.
I would guess that Troy Polamalu has jumped over more lines of scrimmage than any other defensive player in the NFL but I have no idea how you would research that question.
Yes, happy memories of the '08 AFC championship game.
What's great about Troy's dive yesterday is that it forced Tennessee to burn their second timeout on the Steelers' 2-yard line. Way to play heads up and keep them from sneaking in a quick score. Right after that, the D bottled up Johnson for no gain, burning the Titans' last timeout. Titans score the TD and the 2-point conversion right after that, and they recover the onside kick, but without any timeouts they have no real shot at getting down the field. I don't think you can call that a "stand" by the D since the TD was scored, but that's still a difference-making couple of plays.
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